Jesus // The Ultimate Freedom

When I first became a Christian, I thought that my life was going to be sunny skies and plain sailing until I met with Jesus in Heaven.

Man, how wrong I was.

Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that Jesus decides that you will walk a completely blissful life without ridicule or persecution. On the contrary, He said quite the opposite. In John 15:18 Jesus says

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

Jesus openly says that because He has chosen you to do his work of Heaven on Earth that people are going to hate you! In Acts we see the apostles put in prison for preaching, Stephen stoned and Paul and Silas nearly beaten to death. Jesus himself was killed because he was the Son of God!

There's also a lot of sacrifice in following Jesus. You tend not to see distractions in your own life, but look at a Christian friends life. How many things do they do before reading the Bible? Who do they consult before consulting Christ? How many things are distracting them from God? After looking at your friends life, look at your own. Books, films, TV - distractions are literally everywhere. And if it distracts you from God, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

With all this, you're probably asking yourself 'Why would anyone want to follow Jesus?!'

Because Jesus is so much more than any book, or film, TV show. He's so much more that persecution or ridicule. When Jesus went to the cross, He took all of your sin with him. And I mean ALL your sin. Sins you've done, you will do, sins your doing now. Every single one of them died with him on the cross. You are forgiven for every sin you've ever done or will do in your whole life - how amazing is that?!

In Galatians 5 Paul speaks about freedom through Jesus. He says

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." 

Life with Jesus is truly amazing. When you have a full life with Jesus, when you put your full trust in Jesus - you have nothing to fear. Because if God is for us, who can be against us? 

Without fear, without shame, without worry - with Jesus, we are free. 

Galatians 5:13
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free."

Relationships // The Spirit

So how many times have you been in Church and seen someone doing this?

For those who don't go to church, this happens a lot. Recently at my youth groups church, I over heard a few people asking why there were people with their hands in the air. I also heard one person say that they did it because they were 'really religious'. 

No. 

I'm not even going to get into the faith > religion argument today (but here is a Jeff Bethke poem that will...) 

When we're in church worshipping, sometimes people experience Jesus calling them to meet with him through the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit can have all kinds of impacts on people. In Acts 2:1-4 we see the Spirit allowing people to speak in tongues (which means other languages). But the Spirit can do a lot more than allow people to speak in other languages. Sometimes people can receive emotional healing, people can cry, people can scream, fall over, sing. 

The Spirit is nothing to fear. Often when someone experiences the Spirit for the first time, it's easy to be afraid. It's something new, it's unknown. But nothing bad can come from the Spirit. Through the Spirit we can receive healing for problems that we never knew existed, and having a relationship with the Spirit enables you to draw closer to Jesus, creating a stronger relationship with Father, Son and Spirit. 

Relationships // You've Got a Friend in Yahweh

What is a friend?
Someone you trust, someone you can go to when in need?
According to my phone, a friend is a person who is not an enemy or opponent and they are someone on equal standing with you. This basically means that the friend is no better or no worse than you are.

John 15: 15 - 17:

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learnt from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last - and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."

Those of you familiar with the Gospel of John will know that this is Jesus talking. How great is this.

Jesus chose you.

He could have chosen someone taller, someone better looking, someone smarter but he didn't. He chose you! (And I don't know about you but I'd rather be a friend of Jesus than a few inches taller or a few grades smarter...)

He chose you, so that...

• You may 'bear fruit'.
• Whatever you ask for in the name of the Father he will give to you.

To 'bear fruit' is a strange phrase (bear fruit) but what does it really mean?

Basically it means to gain or to increase. And since we're talking about the bible and being Holy, Christ - like people this probably doesn't mean financial gain or financial increase (although, this in turn doesn't mean we all have to be poor and live of cold tin beans from Lidl). 

In regards to this verse to bear fruit could mean a wide range of things but it will most probably include spiritual gain or spiritual increase. (Which is better than money both in the long and short term anyway).

Whatever you ask for in the name of the Father he will give to you is a tricky one to try and explain. If you ask God for a bike or an iPad, you probably wont find yourself looking at Apple's latest product floating down from the sky right in front of your eyes. 

However having said that, God will provide all the things necessary for you to live, be happy and of course tell others about God. Another important thing to mention is that God lives in an eternal state, there is no 'present' for God - He is everywhere at every time (crazy, right). So if God has put you in a situation that you don't think is maybe fair or right for you remember: God could see the outcome of whatever it is your going through before it even started.

Going back to the verse we started with, where Jesus says 'I no longer call you servants', that word servant originally was slaves. That's a BIG jump. We've gone from slave to friend. Why? Well, it's not because of anything we've done. As Jesus describes in these verses it's because Jesus has made known to us (slaves) everything he learnt from God. And Jesus says because a slave doesn't know his master's business, we are now friends of Jesus. 

That's all that Christianity is, a friendship.
And that's flipping awesome.

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Relationships // The One

When I say "relationship" what do you think of?

A husband or wife? Boyfriend or girlfriend? The relationship you can have with objects like books? Your friends?

But what's the most important relationship you can have?

God literally created relationship. He created Adam, the first human in existence, so that he could have a relationship with God, then have a relationship with the animals and the plants and the whole earth. Then he created Eve so that she could have a relationship with God then go on to have a realtionship with Adam and then a relationship with the animals and the plants and the whole earth.

God even sacrificed his only son to die for our sins so that we could understand His love and have a perfect relationship with him!

God wants our relationship! He wants to get to know us and to help us through our problems. Having a relationship with God is like having a relationship with your parents, your favourite teacher and your best-friend!

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says "Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you." He's talking about your relationship with God. Its like trying to put rocks and sand into a jar. If you put the sand in first, then the rocks, they aren't going to fit. But if you put the big rocks in first, the most important things in your life, then put the sand in, the less important things, the sand will fit through the cracks and gaps in the rocks so everything will fit.

By seeking a relationship with God, everything else will gravitate and fit around that relationship because God is The One relationship you need to make everything in your life make sense.