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. 

Obedience // Abraham and Isaac

Our new topic for the next few weeks is obedience. Throughout this topic we will look at people in the bible, if they were obedient to God or not and what the consequences of their actions were.

So to start lets look at what obedience actually means.

First of all obedience is not negative, as you might think it is.
It doesn't mean to be passive, to just sit back, do nothing and let anything happen.
Obedience is a noun, it's a doing word.
It's something we are completely active in, it's one of the biggest life choices every one makes. And it's a choice everyone makes daily.
Most importantly, to be obedient is to love and to trust someone.

On to the first example of obedience we're going to look at in the bible:
Abraham and Isaac.

Found here in Genesis chapter 22, our story starts with a dialogue between Abraham and God. God calls Abraham and asks him to take his son - his only son - and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.
Now, in our bibles before we read this there is a little heading that says

'Abraham tested'

or words to that effect. So before we get to the bit about God wanting Abraham to kill his son we know in the end it's all probably going to be okay. Abraham didn't have this little heading for reassurance, he just had a command - that he followed.

As we read on we see that the next morning Abraham set out to the place God told him to go and after three days of travelling he leaves his servants and takes Isaac up to the place where God wants him to sacrifice his son.

In verse 6 we read that Abraham carried the fire(?!) and the knife while Isaac carried the wood on his back - this is very important.

Now, it's about at this point Isaac starts to get a bit suspicious of his dad. 

He says, 'Father? We have the wood, the fire and the knife for the burnt offering.... but where is the lamb?' 

Abraham answers with one of my favourite quotes 'God will provide a lamb for the offering'. 

Once they got to the top Abraham (somehow) tied up Isaac and laid him on the altar ready to sacrifice him. 

Abraham took out the knife, he got ready to kill his only son for God when suddenly,

'Abraham, Abraham'

A voice from heaven called out. 

'Don't hurt the boy. Now I know you fear God because you have not withheld me from your son, your only son.'

Then Abraham looked up and saw that God provided a lamb for Abraham so that he didn't have to sacrifice his son. 

Abraham was obedient to God, and because Abraham was obedient God helped Abraham and saved Isaac. He even provided a lamb that would be killed in Isaac's place! 

God even further blesses Abraham when later on in the same chapter he says that he will make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore, and that his descendants would be prosperous. 

It's great to see how Abraham's obedience paid off, but could you be this obedient if God asked you to?

Like Disney's Frozen, we're everywhere!

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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 yourself

Throughout this months theme of encouragement, we're going to look at encouraging others and encouraging other Christians, but what about encouraging yourself?

In Ephesians 6:10 Paul speaks about the armour of God.

'Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put of the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'

But, what does this have to do with encouraging yourself?

Well, this armour is what we need to be solid in Christ and to be ready to face the world outside of Christianity.
There's the -

• Belt of truth 
• Breastplate of righteousness 
• Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace 
• Shield of faith
• Helmet of salvation 
• Sword of the spirit 

So how do we get all this awesome sounding armour?! 

Read your Bible 

Pray 

Focus on others 

That's right! 3 steps. 

By reading our Bibles, we get to know God, his love and his life. We also begin to ingest scripture to take with us, giving us our sword of the spirit, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, belt of truth and our feet will be set with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

By praying, we build on our relationship with God and we learn to lean on him and not our own understanding. 

Focusing on Jesus and helping others (being selfless) fulfils the commandments that Jesus left with us; To love and help others and to make disciples of others. 

Being selfless also gives us the breastplate of righteousness. 

So that's it! Read your Bible, Pray and focus on others - the key to encouraging yourself closer to Jesus. 

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. 

Repentace // Jonah's BIG problem

Repentance isn't a word we use much on a day to day basis. As Christians, repentance is when someone turns from the bad they are doing to try and live a life worthy of Christ.

If you aren't familliar with the story of Jonah it can be sumed up like this:

1) Jonah has a word from God telling him to go to Nineveh to save the people there.

2) Jonah disobeys God and gets on a ship that heads in a completely different direction to Tarshish.

3) Not long after boarding a boat to Tarshish God sends a big storm, which causes the men on the boat to throw Jonah overboard, only for a big fish to find him and swallow him.

4) Three days and three nights later Jonah repents and God commands the fish to spit Jonah back up.

5) Jonah gets another word from God to go to Nineveh and this time he actually goes.

6) When he gets there Nineveh repents and Jonah is quite upset about this.

And if thats not detailed enough for you feel free to read the book of Jonah here (It's only 4 chapters so it wont take long).

For now we'll concentrate on chapter 2 of Jonah.

This chapter is where we read Jonah's repentance to God. Instead of puting in a link for you to read it here it is:

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called to help, 

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,

and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me.

Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, 

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around me head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought me up form the pit.

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good. 

I will say, 'Salvation come from the Lord.'"

You might think thats a long prayer, but Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights. This was the last thing Jonah did when he was inside the fish (as in the next verse God commands the fish to vomit Jonah up) and it takes about 30 secends to read!

So one thing we can be absolutely sure of about Jonah's repentance is that it came slow.

The bible doesn't say what else Jonah got up to in the fish but I'm pretty sure he would have been trying to get out without God's help. But that isn't what saved him, prayer and repentance is what saved Jonah.

Jonah's repentance prayer, I've found, is split into three parts:

Part one is Jonah's recognition. This is where Jonah realises what he's done is wrong. This is verses 2-7:

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called to help, 

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,

and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me.

Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, 

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around me head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought me up form the pit.

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple.

Next came Jonah's actual repentance in verses 8 - 9:

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good. 

I will say, 'Salvation come from the Lord.'"

And finally came Jonah's redemption in verse 10:

"And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomitied Jonah onto dry land."

Recognition, Repentance and Redemption.

After reading the book of Jonah I've come to realise that Jonah was never actually in any real danger. Not when he was on a boat heading to be shipwrecked, not when he was thrown into the stormy sea, not even when he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish! This is because Jonah was protected by God, and as shown in the book of Jonah, God didn't let Jonah come to any harm.

The only time that Jonah was in any real danger was when Jonah thought he could do things better his own way.
And that is still the same today, for all of us.

Proverbs 3:5 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

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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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Faith // What is a 'Christian'?

What does the word Christian mean to you? What makes a Christian?

Maybe a Christian is someone who;

• Reads their Bible 
• Owns a Bible 
• Believes in God 
• Goes to Church
• Knows all the songs in Church 
• Always reads and quotes the Bible 

Actually, these things don't make you a Christian. 

Being a Christian is a lot more courageous than people think. There's this Christian preacher called Francis Chan who once described what he felt being a Christian was. He said, 

"If I had a small balloon and a BB gun, how many of you would be confident that I could shoot the balloon from 3 feet away?" When he said this, nearly everyone there raised their hand and believed that he could. 

Then he said "If I asked you to come here and hold the balloon at arms length while I shoot it, how many of you would do it?" Less people raised their hands. 

Then he asked "If I asked you to come here and hold the balloon between your teeth while I shoot it, how many of you would have faith I could do it?" Two people raised their hands. 

Those two people who raised their hands and believed that he could shoot the balloon were like Christians. If you speak the word of God to a group of people, everyone listens. Everyone has the ability to believe in God. Less people are willing to believe when they have something to loose, and even less people are willing to completely devote their lives to Jesus instead of doing things on their own.

In Luke 8:4-8 Jesus tells the parable of the farmer and the sower.

"While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 'A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.

And in Luke 8:11-15 Jesus explains what the parable meant.

"This is the meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for awhile, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce crop.

Now if you're reading this and you're thinking "Oh my goodness that's me! I'm one of the seeds that have heard God's word but don't listen to it anymore!"

Maybe you've gone through trouble, lost a loved one, or just grown away from God. There are things we can do to re-affirm our faith. We can;

• Pray about it - Prayer is 100% effective. Jesus prayed all the time - and he lived an utterly sinless life and is the Son of God. Think how much we, as silly humans, need to pray! 
• Pray with others - Grab a friend and ask them to pray with you. Pray for each other. Grab some more friends and have a prayer meeting. Go to your Church's prayer meeting - Prayer is good. 
• Ask Jesus for help - I think some people still think that prayer is only for the times that you feel good. You Pray when you're angry, pray when you're upset, pray when you feel like you can't go on - as well as when you feel good. Jesus wants to get to know you - good and bad parts. In Mark 2:17 Jesus said that 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'

I end today with Proverbs 3:5-6 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths straight."

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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.'

Jesus // The Boy in The Temple

The book of Luke is the only place in the Gospels where we get a little glimpse of what the early years of Jesus' life were like. Everywhere else we don't see what Jesus gets up to for the first 30 years of his life.
In Luke 2:41-52 Mary, Joseph and a twelve year old Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover feast and then, when it finishes, Mary and Joseph leave without Jesus - because they think he is with them - and they take three whole days to find him again.

I assume that anyone who reads this will have been 12 years old, is twelve years old, or will be twelve years old very soon. What were you doing at the age of 12?
Playing computer games?
Watching TV?
Playing with your friends?
Waiting to finally become a teenager?

I think I can safely say probably no other twelve year old has spent 3 whole days straight at their nearest temple or chapel listening and asking questions about God.

Something that really struck me when I read this the first time was that Jesus had to learn. These verses don't say that Jesus was teaching the other people, he was being taught. He even asked them questions!

When Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus sitting in the temple learning his mother says "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." To this Jesus replies "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my Fathers House?"

Notice that Jesus is quick to make a comparison between his earthly and Heavenly Father. Mary says "Your Father and I have been searching for you" and Jesus says "Didn't you know I'd be in my Fathers house?"
From an early age Jesus realised, just like we should realise, he had an earthly and Heavenly Father.

Another thing that struck me was that these are the first words of Jesus ever recorded in the Gospels.

"Why were you searching for me?"

Why are you here? Why are you reading this blog post? Why are you searching for Jesus?

Are you searching for Jesus? 

The last thing I'll mention, and it's something that when I worked out I just sat back in awe. Everything in the Bible points in some way to Jesus and the cross and Resurrection. 

It took Mary and Joseph 3 days to find Jesus. Jesus, as a twelve year old boy was lost for 3 days. 33 years later Jesus died and 3 days after that he came back to life!

Jesus saw the importance of asking questions about God and his faith from the very young age of 12, if you have any questions you would like to ask us please feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com. 

Also, we aren't just on Blogger anymore! 

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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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Idolatry // What do you Worship?

Exodus 32:1-7.

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. 

Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they had handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are yor gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in font of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." 

So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry."

During this part of Exodus Moses is leading some people called the Isralites from Egypt (where they were slaves) to land that God had promised for them. Moses had left the Isralites for quite a long time - the verses even open with "When the people saw that Moses was so long  in coming down from the mountain." Moses was talking to God up on the mountain while the Isralites had this conversation that we read of in these verses.

They decided that Moses was taking too long so they build for themselves a statue of a calf to worship. The Isralited 18 chapters earlier crossed the Red Sea with Moses. These people literally saw miracles, they experianced the awesome power of God. And here they are, worshiping a statue they made instead of God who made them. 

Don't you think the Isralites were a little stupid to make this calf their God and worship it - Would you worship a statue of a calf? 

I hope your answer was no.

It's easy to look back at the Isralites worshiping a calf and laugh but we do the same in 2014.

It just looks a bit different.

Everyone has a god weather or not it's the God of the gospel.

God is defined as whatever we make supreme. 

This dosen't mean that if we dont worship God then he's not God. God is God weather we worship him or not, however we can make things in our lives supreme - these are our 'gods', or what we worship. 

If you don't know what your idol is in your life, if you don't know what you worship in your life then it's probably the first thing you think of when you read the next sentance;

An idol is when you look at something and say 'if I have that, my life will have meaning'.

What did you think of? 

A huge TV?

A bigger house? 

A relationship with someone?

An iPhone?

Better grades in school?

A better job? 

To have something that isn't God as your idol is a very dangerous thing because if you worship something and you can't give it up then you don't own it, it owns you. 

If we skip forwards a few chapters in the Bible to Exodus chapter 20:3 we see God giving Moses the 10 commandments. Verse 3 starts with the first commandment, they are in no particular order but the very first commandment God gives to Moses is; 

"You shall have no other gods before (or besides) me."

And then we read on and the seccond commandment God gives Moses in verse 4 is; 

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in Heaven or on Earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them."

The very first two commandments are God basically saying 'Don't make idols. No seriously.'

Puting this in the context of our modern lives, we put our idols in place of God. Whatever it is that we can't live without we try to make them fit a God shaped hole in our lives.

What idol took nails to it's wrists and died a long and painful death on the cross so that every single thing you do wrong dosen't matter anymore? 

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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.