Obedience // Moses

Moses is probably my favourite character in the Bible. He's such a cool guy!! Whenever I read his story I seem to get more and more little nuggets of information from it. And while reading it this week, I realised something;

Moses was obedient. 

But only to God. 

Moses was raised an Egyptian under Pharaoh's care, but turned away from his life of luxury when he realised that the Israelites, Gods chosen people, were being treated badly by the Egyptians. He turned away from all her knew to go and serve God.

Moses obeyed God when it was difficult, like when God asked him to asked him to go back to Egypt and speak to Pharaoh. He obeyed God when he had doubts about himself, like he had when God told him he was going to lead the Israelites. And most importantly, he obeyed God when the task ahead seemed impossible, like crossing the Red Sea. 

Every time Moses obeyed God, it had a positive effect on him, his faith, and his relationship with God. 

I pray that we can all have the strength and courage to stand up for God, to obey Jesus and follow the plan He has for us, even when it seems like the impossible thing to-do. 

Faith // How do we know God is real?

There's a guy in the Old Testament called Moses.

Now Moses was a pretty cool guy. He was born at a time where Pharaoh had decided there were too many Hebrew men, so wanted to kill the young Hebrew boys. Moses' mother hid him for as long as she could, but when he got too big she put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile (Crazy, right?)
He's then found by none other than Pharaoh's daughter(!!) and was raised as an Egyptian by a Hebrew woman who was his mother! When he's older, Moses decides to renounce being an Egyptian and suffer as the rest of the fellow Israelites do under the Egyptians hands. He gets married and it's all sorts of happy and fantastic.

Then when he's older, God speaks to Moses through a burning bush. He says

'And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. ' (Exodus 3:9-10)

But Moses really doesn't want to do this. He starts by saying 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' and God says 'I will be with you.' (Exod 3:11-12)

Then Moses says: Who am I supposed to say sent me? and God says: 'I am who I am.' (Exod 3:13-14)

Then Moses says: What if they don't believe me? So God gives him 3 signs to preform if the Israelites didn't believe him. (4:1-9)

Then Moses, who's starting to feel a bit desperate, says: But I've never been a good speaker. And God, who I imagine is a bit fed up by now, says: Moses I made your mouth. I can give you the words to speak. (4:10-11)

And then Moses gives up on excuses, gives up on trying to worm his way out of going to Egypt to set the Israelites free turns to God and says: Lord, please send someone else. At which God looses it and is like: Moses I'm doing the flipping work! I just want you to go to Egypt and throw your stick on the floor!! (4:13-17)

God gave Moses 3 signs AND the words to say to Pharaoh but he still felt like he wasn't enough.

But Moses trusted in God.

Trust is a difficult word. It's hard to trust someone you can't see - harder than trusting someone you can. But trust is a verb, its a doing word. Trusting God is an active decision. You've got to chose to do it. And you have to keep choosing to do it. And that's how we know God is real.

We trust He's there, because we trust in Him.

Encouragement // Encouraging Others

Welcome back to Christian Union guys! Been a little bit of a long gap but at least we're back now, eh?

This month, our topic is Encouragement! (Yay!) 

So, What is encouragement? 

Encouragement is; 

• The action of giving someone support, confidence or hope.

In Romans 1:11 Paul says 

"I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

The reason Paul wanted to go to Rome was to be encouraged! He saw the importance of being in each others company and that the act of being together with people could be encouraging. He even says that the small act of encouraging others could strengthen the Romans and himself. 

And that's how we should view our lives. When we come together with others, in a Christian Union, a church, a youth group or even school - we should always aim to encourage. We should gather with others to not only learn about the Bible but to learn about each other, and to learn from each other. 

So think back this past week, when did you say something nice to someone? When did you stop yourself from saying something hurtful? When did you encourage someone and mean it? 

Lets not sit back in a negative world and let darkness and cynical attitudes win. Lets strive to encourage. 

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.

God // The Image of Awesome

My main text for this post is Genisis 1:26-31. Check it out in your bible or click the link!

What's the earliest reference in The Bible of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Verse 26.

"Let us make make mankind in our image, in our likeness."

Either God was talking in the third person to himself or, more likely, this was the first ever conversation ever recorded and it's between God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit, and that's pretty cool.

So, we were made in the image of God! This is extreme! 

When God made the animals he didn't give them any responsibilities. They just had to live. But when it comes to humans God gave them all the responsibilities for his creation - in this respect God really did save the best till last. This is why we are made in the image of God.

Have you ever thought about that? 

When your having a bad day, your being bullied, having to work late or just feeling down - God made you in his image!

What does that mean?

Well, so far on page 1 of The Bible God has created every single thing in the entire universe.

• Those trees outside? He created them.
• The sun in the sky? He created that.
• The birds that wake you up way too early in the morning? He created them.
• Every animal you've ever seen? He created them.
• All the billions of stars and galaxies that we can't even see, some that we don't even know about? He created them.

This means, in the words of Todd White,

God is awesome and you are made in the image of awesome.

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Faith // Bible 101

Lets be honest - the Bible can be one intimidating book. All those names and places you can't pronounce, the first half of Isaiah, Leviticus, the predictions in Revelation - it's a mental block we've put on it all.

Are you someone with a mental block on the Bible because you can't possibly understand it?!
Never fear (literally, Psalm 27:1!) we've put together a 101 on the Bible, just to get you started.

Basic Bible Facts 

• The Bible is, obviously, the oldest book written
• It was originally a collection of separate books then brought together. I don't know why but lets face it - it's super convenient. 
• It's a collection of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament
• It was written by over 40 different people from all different backgrounds - Kings, peasants, disciples, literate, illiterate...
• The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew 
• The New Testament was originally written in Greek (which is also called Aramaic)
• There are over 115* versions of the Bible available in all different languages (I stopped counting at 115!)

Something I find that complicates the Bible more is the time line. Because I flick from book to book from Old Testament to New, I often confuse myself. The Bible took place (events, writing) between 0 until about 100 A.D.

I also found this beauty of a time line to illustrate when books were written.

Don't freak out! (Side note: The faces of the kids in CU were absolutely priceless when this came up) The first time line is the time line of the Bible. A massive chunk of the Old Testament was written in the first section where the dates are unknown. This time line leads right up to the last book in the Bible, Revelation.

The time line at the bottom of the picture is that of the Israelites, which is basically the narrative of the Old Testament.

Another question we always get is how should we read our Bibles? Should we only read them on Sunday? Should we read them when we're happy?

We should read the Bible like our favourite book.
My favourite books are the Harry Potter series. Whatever time of day or month or year it is I am guaranteed to have one of the books on hand. I read it whenever, wherever and however I'm feeling. That's how we should read the Bible.
Sad? Bible.
Angry? Bible.
Lonely? Bible.
Happy? Bible.

To finish, I'd like to link you all to a video by a guy called Jefferson Bethke. If you haven't already listened to his spoken word 'Jesus>Religion' go and do it now! It's worth it.

In this video Jeff really touches on how we should look at the Bible, and I really like how he does it.

I really hope this was helpful for you and if you have any questions at all you can contact us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com

*information was counted at biblegateway.com

The Bread of Life // You Are What You Eat (Part 1)

John 6:25-59 is the main text for this blog post - I know it's a long passage, but it's a good one!

The passage starts with Jesus arriving on shore at Capernaum just after he has walked on water to find a group of people waiting for him. - The same group of people who at the start of John chapter 6 Jesus fed with 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread!
Jesus greets this crowd of people by saying 'Very truly I tell you' - There's a lot of 'Very truly I tell yous' in this passage from Jesus, it just means that the next thing he's going to say is (guess what) very true.

"Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill."

Jesus greets these people by basically saying 'You only came to find me becuase I gave you food, not because you were amazed at my miracle.' Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely.

Then, straight after Jesus says this, in his next breath he goes on to teach them about Heaven and eternal life. He says; 

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."

Jesus tells these people not to work for food that spoils. Whats food that spoils? Every food. Bread gets mouldy, potatoes grow white bits, leftover Chinese gives you food poisoning and milk turns green. But then Jesus talks about working for food that 'endures to eternal life'. What Jesus meant here was don't work for stuff that will spoil, stuff that will rust, stuff that could get stolen from you. But work for God. Live out a life worthy enough for the plan God has created for you. - This will endure to eternal life. 

The crowd of people understand this and then want to know what they need to do to fulfil the work God requires them to do. Jesus answers with 

"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Wow, pretty easy right? All I have to do to fulfil the work God requires me to do is believe in Jesus? That might sound pretty easy, but it's actually very hard. As the crowd of people demonstrate in the next few verses. The crowd of people ask for a sign from Jesus so that they will believe him. They even quote some of the Old Testament, they talked about the Israelites and how God gave them manna  from Heaven to eat. 

Jesus goes on to say that this bread - the bread of life - is not from Moses, but directly from God. Then he says 

"For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world."

The crowd get excited by this statement - who wouldn't? And ask Jesus to always give them this bread. 

Then Jesus drops a bombshell. 

"Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

After this Jesus says in the very next verse that there will be people who would have seen Jesus but still wouldn't believe Jesus. Then Jesus says it again at verse 44;

"I am the bread of life."

Lots of the people - especially the Jews - got very angry at this and didn't believe him. Jesus then goes on to say; "unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
We now know this to be communion, but back then it's no wonder the people had some doubt (I know I would have).

This is the end of part one of 'The Bread of Life // You Are What You Eat. - Part two coming soon!

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He Lives // My Favourite Verse

In the last chapter of John verses 1-14 (John 21:1-14 ) we read about Jesus' last encounter with humans before he ascended to Heaven.
In these few verses we see that these seven men decide to go out to fish one night. They spend the whole night out in the boat fishing and catch absolutely nothing.
Then, early the next morning Jesus was standing on the shore next to a small fire he built for the breakfast and asked the men "Friends, haven't you any fish?"

Now, I'm no Bible expert, but I think that Jesus, the son of God would have known that these men hadn't caught any fish. Jesus must have been there for quite some time anyway to have had enough time to build a small fire and get some bread and fish to cook on it. So my best guess is that Jesus knew that these men hadn't caught any fish - the reason why he asked them is clear in the next few verses.

The men reply with a simple no, then Jesus tells them to throw their nets over the right side of the boat.
Some of these men were disciples, some were fishermen, all of them were rubbish. These seven men spent all night in a boat trying to catch some fish and can't even catch one. Also, notice that none of them recognise Jesus straight away - it takes a miracle for them to realise it's Jesus talking to them.

The men throw their nets over the right side of the boat, with no questions asked and immediately their net is filled with 153 fish. It's full of so much fish in fact that the seven men on the boat don't have enough strength to pull the boat ashore.

The men row the boat back to shore to meet Jesus (who they finally recognise) and arrive to see that Jesus is standing there with a fire cooking some bread and fish. As soon as Jesus sees them he says "come and have breakfast."
These seven men spent all night not being able to catch any fish, then Jesus turns up, shows them the right way to fish. They catch 153 fish and Jesus brings his own fish just in case 153 wasn't enough!

This is one of my favourite passages of the Gospels.
These seven men had been fishing all night, then in the early hours of the morning Jesus performs his last miracle and gives them enough food to feed an army (or a small youth group).
Then, just as the sun was rising over the sea they all ate breakfast that Jesus cooked them, on the beach!
The Bible doesn't say what they talked about but I'm pretty sure whatever they talked about would have been amazing. When I was reading these verses three main things stuck out to me.
1) The men on the boat - like everyone else who's ever been alive - were rubbish.
2) Jesus was awesome.
3) I would have loved to have been on this beach eating breakfast and talking with Jesus just before the ascension.

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Jesus // His Power

In Acts 3:6-10, we see Peter heal a disabled man so that he's able to walk and praise The Lord.

When you first read this story, it's all a bit overwhelming. A completely lame man, who's probably been disabled from birth, able to walk and talk and praise God in the space of a few minutes! Pretty cool right?

But Peter didn't heal that man.

Peter was just human. He was a man who walked with Jesus, but still just a man. He doesn't have the superhuman power to heal people. Peter heals the man "in the name of Jesus".

Acts 3:16 says that "By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see"

Jesus' was so powerful and awesome (literally!) that even his name could heal!

These few verses really reminded me that we can do anything. We can pass exams, climb the highest mountains, conquer fears - all in Jesus' name. All we have to do is ask!

Matthew 7:7

'Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.'

He is alive!

So we've learnt about His life, we've learnt about the ultimate sacrifice He made because He loves us.

Now, we're going to learn about his Resurrection.

After he died, Jesus was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb, with a huge stone rolled across to seal it. In Matthew, we're told that Pilate had guards placed in front of the tomb too - it was a super secure tomb.

So at this point, Jesus had been dead for 3 days. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb fully expecting to find Jesus - and didn't! She ran straight to Simon Peter and he went to the tomb and saw the linen that Jesus was wrapped in, but no Jesus.

Can you imagine how freaked out they would've been?! What would you have done in that situation?

In John 20:11-18 we see what Mary did.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying?' 

  'They have taken my Lord away' she said, 'and I don't know where they have put him.' At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. 

  He asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.' 

  Jesus said to her, 'Mary'. 

She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic,'Rabboni!' (which means 'Teacher'). 

  Jesus said, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my  brothers and tell them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."'

  Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: 'I have seen the Lord!' and she told them that he had said these things to her. 

To Jesus, death was just a nap! Now there's something I want to draw your attention to here (apart from the obvious Resurrection!); 

The disciples forgot what Jesus had told them in scripture (John 20:9). Jesus had already told them that in three days he would rise again. 

Here's what I'm trying to say: Jesus is alive, and he's alive for us. We should never forget his teachings. 

If you guys have got any questions about ANYTHING you can contact us at: christianunion.blog@gmail.com

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'Good' Friday?

What is 'Good Friday' and why is it good?

Matthew 27:45 is the first time we see Jesus' death. 

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[c] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs.

Normally death is something that is sad, something we mourn. 

But here's the thing - we shouldn't cry for Jesus! The only thing we should be asking ourselves about Jesus' death is WHY he died. 

Jesus' death was a very intricate and thought out plan by God. All through the Old Testament there are signs of Jesus' life and death. An example of this would be the story of Abraham and Isacc (Genesis 22)

God sent Jesus in order to give the greatest sacrifice for the thing He loved the most. US. 

I leave you with this quote from John 3:16 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

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More than Conquerors

My main text for this post is Romans 8:31-39.

I've found that recently too much time Christians spend with each other in Church is spent dwelling on negative things. I.e. 'You shouldn't do this', 'Look at all the bad in the world, and even on our door steps'.
So, I've decided to write a talk that is (hopefully) uplifting.
As Christians I feel it's important we encourage and energise each other and where best to look for inspiration than Romans.

This will be in no way an in depth Bible study, just a collection of some thoughts I had that will hopefully strengthen and excite you.

Verse 32.

The first verse is pretty self explanatory so lets jump in at verse 32. 

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all." 

God didn't just give his Son - Jesus to us while he was on Earth. This verse says he literally gave him up forever so that Jesus could be our link to God by dying for us and that through him we can have eternal life in Heaven with God. God gave Jesus up not for just the good people, the people who give to the poor or who sing Hillsong songs in the shower. God gave Jesus up for us all. 

Verse 35 and 36.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

"For your sake we face death all day long."

Paul, the author of Romans isn't saying in these verses that 'if your a Christian and if you love God everything will be fine and dandy'. The Bible makes it very clear in these verses that Christians aren't exempt from hardship or troubles. Paul goes as far as to say that as Christians we face death all day long. This obviously doesn't mean people want to literally kill us (although this isn't the case for the whole World) but it means every day we wake up and live lives surrounded by evil and corruption, in school or work we could be around people who are totally against God. And that is a dangerous place to be. The difference is that even though Christians still go through all this, Paul makes a very definite point of emphasising the fact that no person can separate God from us. He is ours and he helps us get through these troubles.

Verse 37.

"We are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

The definition of conquerors is: 

"To overcome by physical, mental or force."

As Christians we are more than conquerors. We have more than overcome sin and death. We are living lives for so much more than sin and death, and that is amazing. What is more amazing is that we haven't more than overcome death and sin on our own. If we tried on our own there's no doubt that we would fail miserably. The verse says that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. It's by what God has done for us.

Verse 38.

"Nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the Love of the Lord God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Paul lists a lot of things that can't separate us from God. These aren't little things either. He says that no angel, no daemon, nothing in the past, nothing in the future and he even says that nothing in the whole of creation can separate us from God. People can take away things we own, our houses can burn down. We can get to a state in our lives where we have literally nothing left in the whole world, but we will always have God. God is the only thing in our lives that a constant source of hope, love and guidance. 

If you have any questions please feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com.

The Earth revolves around the Son

In the early 1500's, Nicholas Copernicus, (basically a mega maths nerd) put forward a theory that said the Earth and all the planets in the Solar System revolve around the sun. without the sun the plantes would just float away.

What’s at the centre of your life? 

It could be money. Not so much for us as students who live off Pot Noodle, but for lots of people money can be a real problem to get. It’s not just a problem for those who don’t have money. People who have lots of money con get addicted to getting more and more and this results in loss of friends, family and ultimately God.

Family and friends can be at the centre of our lives. Sometimes we can’t help it, like when a family member or friend gets ill or is in need of help. Its other times when we’d rather spend time going out with our friends instead of going to church. (I suppose you could always take them to church...)

People often feel the way they look is the most important thing in their lives. Whether its hours in the gym, or hours in front of the mirror (and in some cases with Botox sessions) as a generation we are obsessed with how we look. (Worldwide we spend around £254 billion on beauty products alone!) But even in this consumer driven society we live in God doesn’t care how many times we’ve been to the gym, or how long we spent on our hair that morning.

Lastly, the things you own could be at the centre of your life. This could be anything material from your phone to your collection of Hunger Games books. It’s a bad place to be when you start thinking “I will get back into the whole ‘God’ thing, straight after I listen to this new CD I’ve wanted to listen to for ages and after I finish watching all the episodes of Sherlock back to back.

There’s a very well-known verse in the Bible, in John 3:16 that says;

For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son. So that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I won’t go into much detail about this verse as it’s used so much but what I think is important for this message is that God sent his only Son, he should be the only Sun that is at the centre of all our lives, because without him we would just float away. Just like everything revolves around the sun, we should revolve around the Son – Jesus.

Feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com. 

Man with a plan!

Let me tell you a story.

Imagine an 11 year old Hannah full of excitement and dreams of going to Swansea University. From the ages of about 10-17 I wanted to go to Swansea University. You can imagine how excited I was then when I got two offers to study English there, right?

Nope!

Since we'd started the UCAS process, I felt that I was missing something. Something that was important. Every decision I made, although the people around me told me that I was doing the right thing just felt wrong. The day I got my offers, I declined them, with only three minutes consideration.

This decision was not only the biggest choice of my life but the quickest decision of my life, and as someone who likes to take time to consider things, I should be freaking out. But I'm not, because I know that Jesus helped me make the right decision. The decision that was best for me.

There's a verse in the Bible from the book Jeremiah 29 and I think it's one people should always remember.

"For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

It's really important to remember that God has a plan for each and every one of us. A personalised down-to-the-last-detail plan. We may have plans and ambitions for our future, but if the Lord is telling us to go a different route, we should listen because it's for the best.

If you have any questions about this talk or any other issues please email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com

Forgiveness

How many times have you been upset or angered by someone's actions?

A few weeks ago, my favourite TV show Sherlock was on the TV. It was the season finale but I had to watch it on IPlayer, meaning that I was watching an hour later than all of my friends who were watching the same show. I made sure to text all my friends with strict instructions NOT to text me. And, you guessed it, somebody did.

I was so angry. I spent 10 minutes storming around my bedroom muttering to myself about how my friends couldn't listen to me and how I would never ever forgive them for ruining the plot twist. However after a few minutes, I realised how much I'd overreacted. I mean, in the grand scale of things, a TV show spoiler isn't important.

But what if it was something important? What if someone had stolen from me or said something nasty behind my back?

Jesus was killed by humanity. As people, we killed Him because we were worried about material objects and temples collapsing.

Even as Jesus was nailed to the cross, He forgave us by saying "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34, NIV)

As Christians, we should live by Jesus' example and live by this parable;

^"44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:44, NIV)

If you've got any questions about this talk or anything else, feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com

God so loved who now?

If someone asked you to think or name of a bible verse then chances are the first verse that would come to your head would be John 3:16.

This verse goes; For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

This verse is told over and over all over the world. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, posters, phone cases. You name it, if you can wear it or hang it up then it's probably had this verse on it. But what does this verse actually mean? What do you think is the most important part of what is proably the most repeated verse in the world?
God so loved the world?
Will not perish?
Have eternal life?

'Whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life'. This part of the verse really stuck out for me. God didn't come to save just the good, he didn't come to save just the people who go to church every Sunday. He came to save whoever.
Murderes? saved.
White people? Saved.
Black people? Saved.
Hated by everyone? Saved.
Never been to church? Saved.

You only have to take the 'leap' of faith to God and he will come. It dosen't matter who you are, God still made you in his image and Jesus still loves you.

If you have any questions please feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com.

Do you believe in God?

If I asked you 'Do you believe in God?' hopefully a lot of you would say yes. However, if I asked you 'Do you believe in God?' I'm guessing less of you would answer yes, and this isn't bad. We can often talk of God and Jesus and all the amazing things that they have done or can do for people, but when it comes to doing things for us, sometimes we're unsure about his ability to help.

There's a film called the miracle maker. It's all about Jesus and it's awesome!! The film follows Jesus through his life, but also follows a young girl. In Mark 5 21-43 we meet the girl and her father Jairus. 

Now Jairus' daughter really wants to listen to Jesus, and wants to follow him round Israel while he preaches, but she's really ill. Jairus and his wife are really worried about her so they don't let her go to see him. She tries to explain that Jesus is the Son of God but because Jairus is a synagogue leader, he just thinks that Jesus is some random man claiming to be God's son. 

One day Jairus goes home and sees his daughter, and knows that she's going to die. He's taken her to see every doctor in Israel and nothing has got better, so he's at his last resort. He runs to Jesus and says 23"My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live". So Jesus goes with him. As he leaves, there are hundreds and hundreds of people around him, and in this crowd there's an old woman. She's had internal bleeding for 12 years, which is a long time to be in so much pain!! She had spent all her money on treatments but every time she just got worse. She'd heard about Jesus so she pushed through the crowd and said 28"If I just touch his clothes, I will get healed." She reached out and touched his cloak and instantly, her bleeding stopped. As soon as she touches him, Jesus stops and asks "Who touched me?" Now I can imagine the disciples saying that Jesus is being silly. There are hundreds and hundreds of people around him and I'm pretty sure one of them has brushed past him, just as this woman has. But Jesus asks again and says that he felt the power leave him. Then the woman comes forward trembling with fear and tells Jesus what happened to her. And Jesus said 34'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'

While Jesus is talking to the woman, someone that has come from Jairus' house tells Jairus that his daughter has died. Jairus doesn't see the point in Jesus going to the house to heal her anymore but Jesus overhears the men talking and says 36'Don't be afraid; just believe.' He carried on walking to Jairus' house and when he got there, he found that everyone was crying. And Jesus couldn't understand why they were crying and said to them 39'Why all this commotion? The child is not dead but asleep.' 

And the people laughed.

You know when you say something, and you know that you're right, but no one believes you so you want to prove them wrong? I can imagine Jesus feeling like that. He goes into the house, takes the girls hand and says 41'Talitha Koum!' which means 'Little girl I say to you get up!'

Immediately, the girl stands up and starts walking, like nothing had ever happened.

Now the point of this was to show you guys that faith is important. It's all well and good to say that we believe in God, but to actually believe that He can raise people from the dead, or can heal people's suffering is soooooooo important. The old woman in the story didn't even need Jesus to acknowledge her existence. She would've been find if Jesus kept walking to Jairus' house, and when he does turn around he says that it was her faith that healed her. He doesn't say that He's this amazing man who can do all sorts of awesome things,  he tells her that her faith saved her. And your faith can heal you to. If you have a problem or a worry - pray about it. And sometimes it just feels like we're talking to ourselves, but like the woman in the story, if we have faith, we will be healed.


~catsandpizza