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 // 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. 

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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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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. 

What does a Christian look like?

Today in our Christian Union, I asked the kids to draw me a Christian. The responses we got were interesting to say the least… 

In the Bible, no one is excluded by Jesus. Jesus goes to see lepers (Matthew 8 and Luke 17:11) who were excluded by society. Jesus spoke to them and healed them because he didn’t care about disease or any social barrier. 

Throughout the bible, people who were used by God had several problems too! I mean

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses has a stuttering problem
Samson has long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David has an affair and was a murderer
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Peter denied Christ 
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Lazarus was dead!

The most used verse from the Bible is John 3:16 

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

It’s important to remember that this verse says whoever, not only those with white or black skin, or only those of a certain sexual orientation. 

  In John 7:24 Jesus says “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” 

As Christians, we should aim to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Following these teachings are a way to start.

If you have any questions feel free to message/ask us anything! Alternatively you can 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

Who are we? (Part 2)

Hey guys! A few weeks ago Andrew posted his testimony and mentioned that I'll be doing mine soon - so here I am! If you haven't read Andrew's yet but you'd like to, you can find it here.

So, Hello! My name's Hannah. I'm seventeen and this is my story.

I was raised by a non-Christian family. This meant that the only information that I got about God was the prayers I did in assembly and from my Grandfather. When I was about four, I went to my first Church. Even though my Mother had been baptised, she'd lost faith and had never encouraged me to go to Church. I loved every minute of it. I loved singing songs about "some guy" called Jesus, and sitting on massive comfy sofas in Sunday school to hear stories about Jesus. I wanted to go back, so I did. I went to Church for about a year when my family received some devastating news. 

My Nanny had primary liver cancer and secondary bowel cancer. She wasn't going to get through it.

Through the time of her having cancer, she started coming to Church. She became a Christian and even started to read me stories from the Bible. On January 19th 2002, I was rushed down to my Grandparents house and waited upstairs while the grownups mourned. That night I prayed my first prayer to myself; Please, don't let her die.

I think it was after I'd learned what had happened, and after I realised that my prayer didn't 'come true', I started to blame God for things. Something wrong? Gods fault. Friends not talking to me? Gods fault. I did this all through primary school and most of secondary. Not a great start, eh?

When I was 13, I got into a pretty rubbish relationship and was stuck in it for just over a year. That year was one of the hardest years of my entire life, and my partner just didn't understand what I was going through and why. After a year we said enough was enough and broke up. I thought that this was God sending me a sign, that things were going to get better, but they didn't.

Skip forward six months - I'm sitting in school hating everyone and everything. My parents have just got a divorce. Dad's moved in with his new girlfriend. I have more homework than there are hours in the day and everywhere I turn, people are coping with stuff I'm not.

It's fair to say that life at this point was pretty rubbish. However, it was at this point I met my lovely boyfriend  & best friend Andrew. Andrew and I used to hang out all the time and talk about everything. For once in my life, I felt like I was being myself with someone I could trust. One day, Andrew invited me to his baptism.

"I've been to one of those things before. It's (and I quote) the thing where they hold you under the water and bring you up really fast!"

*face palm* I know, I was an idiot. anyway, Andrew got baptised and he was stupidly happy. And I mean like, over the top sunshine and rainbows, all the time. So naturally I asked him why he was so happy, and he started telling me about God.

At first I was all "great I've managed to get mixed in with a mentalist Christian like you see in films". However, what he was saying made sense. It was like something in my brain was plugged back in and finally I could see what I needed. I needed God! And so one day after school, Andrew came down to the cricket field with me, and I became a Christian.

However, after two weeks I started to feel like I'd been cheated. I wasn't happy, I still had problems and things definitely weren't getting any easier. I'd been to Andrew's youth group, cried, run out and hadn't gone again. Being Christian was not as easy as people made it out to be. I looked at other Christians and was jealous of their relationship with God. Why didn't I have that? I prayed about it for a year. Then something happened.

In the December of 2012, Andrew asked me to go to this festival called Soul Survivor. "Why not?" I told myself, and so I found myself going to that same Youth I had cried in and going away to spend a week with them on a field. I'll be honest with you, I'd painted a picture of me standing in a field, in the rain, crying, surrounded my thousands of insane people.

Instead, I found myself standing in a MASSIVE tent, listening to songs about the same guy I'd heard stories about as a kid, laughing until my ribs hurt and meeting with God and the Spirit - and it was freaking awesome!!!!!

I'd never experienced anything like it in my whole life. I cried and laughed, and laughed with crying in between. I'd met people and made awesome friends and had THE BEST MILKSHAKE ON THE PLANET. And that was just day 1.

On day 1, all my prayers from over a year were answered. The speaker Mike Pilavachi asked those who weren't Christian to get up and be saved. I watched hundreds of people get up and feel God's grace. Then Mike said something that changed my life forever. "If you're unsure, confused, feel you have no relationship with God - get up". Before I could even finish my blink, I had grabbed Andrew, blubbed something about being saved and dragged him to the front.

I was saved in front of TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE.

Having social anxiety and just general anxiety, THAT WAS THE WORST THING I COULD HAVE EVER DONE EVER IN MY LIFE.

But it wasn't the worst - it was THE BEST!! I felt like I was happy. For once in my life i was being taught that it's not just the awesome good people who get Jesus - its the depressed and the hurt. It was damaged beyond repair people who get him too! And I'm one of them!!

I spent the rest of the week getting healed by Gods presence, and realising that I was never on my own. It was an amazing experience, and if you ever get the chance to go to Soul Survivor - GO.

After Soul Survivor, I started taking Christian Union seriously. This was about teaching young people that God is for everyone not just the people who are raised in the Church.

I absolutely love running Christian union, and I hope you guys enjoy coming.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! If you've got any questions for us - you can reach us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com

Speak soon! : D

~ Cats and pizza (Hannah)

Who are we? (Part 1)

You guys may be unaware that Christ and You Christian Union is run by two people. In this blog post I'll be talking about how I became a Christian and what my life was like before I came to know God. When a Christian does this, it's called a testimony.

Testimony time!


I am very blessed to have Christian parents who are heavily involved in the work that goes on the Church. The first time I ever went to Church was when I was 8 days old. Ever since then I have gone to church every Sunday (once in the morning, then sunday school in the afternoon and once again in the evening). Even though I was brought up in the Church every day when I went to school I was surrounded by people who were not Christians and some who literally resented the idea of God for one reason or another.
Looking back I can see that my peers were probably the biggest reason for me putting off becoming a Christian.
When I think back to the time I spent in Church growing up it's filled not with listening to amazing sermons, powerful worship and dynamic fellowship. Instead it's filled with trying to get to the next level on the super Mario game I was playing on my game boy advance. I literally spent the first 13 maybe 14 years of my life playing on my game boy rather than actually listening to the preacher. *facepalm*
When I think about it I don't know what's worse, going to church and considering yourself a Christian but all the time your there you just play video games or not going to church at all. I suppose my
upbringing in the Church did help a lot with me becoming a Christian, but it upsets me that I missed 14 years of two sermons a week and I'll never get a chance to learn from them again.

Anyway, when I was in year 10 of school (aged 14 years old) a friend of mine started up a Christian Union in my school. I went along, not because I wanted to learn more about Jesus, but because I wanted to be a good friend (and I had nothing else to do on a Wednesday lunchtime). One of the only talks I remember her doing was a talk on the rapture. We we're shown a video of a cartoon version of the rapture happening and one person who thought they were a Christian got left behind on earth. This literally scared me. I didn't want to be like the person in the video who thought they were Christian and was left behind because they were living a lie.
Skip forward a few months and nothing had changed, it's not like I was a bad person, I just didn't want to be a Christian.
In the same year all this was happening I got invited to go to a local night of worship for the youth of
the local area. Reluctantly I went.
I can't remember what the talk was that night, nor can I remember what songs we sang for worship.
But I can remember in that little Church I became a Christian, and my life hasn't been the same since.
About 2 years ago I started leading worship on the piano in the Church I've gone to since I was 8 days old and as of earlier this year I play the piano, guitar and sing every sunday in Church. I love leading worship and I hope to do it until I get to old to stand up on my own.
Last year I got baptized in water and it was the most surreal experience of my life, made even better by getting to invite people to church who wouldn't have gone to church other wise.

As of last year my friend Hannah and I started Christian Union in our school and since then we have 9-10 regulars and 4 people have become Christians (which is awesome!!!!).
I know I speak for Hannah and I when I say we love doing Christian Union and we both want to continue to do Christian Union once we've left school.

That's it! (So far anyway).

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

Andrew :)