Something to think about

When you see the word "Addict" what do you picture?

Because our human brains like to see the extreme I think often people picture addicts as homeless people, unemployed, living in poverty etc. 

"Addicts" are (often) looked at with sympathy, sometimes accompanied by a hidden sense of "I'm better than them" self pride, and there is sometimes that nervousness that shows on peoples faces when they clearly don't know what to say or how to act when they find out that the person they have met is an addict, as if they have some sort of leprosy or something.

If you don't know already, I may as well admit it now, I am an addict, I have a problem with an addictive personality which has led me to form an addiction to something which became my escape route when stressed, angry, lonely, or any other emotional situation. It doesn't matter right now what I am addicted to, some of you know, some of you don't, but it really doesn't matter to this blog as that's not the point I'm hoping to make.

I will blog some time in the future about the different ways I have been supported and encouraged by so many people - who have amazed me with the way they have not judged - even when they hear the ugly stories that come with addiction. But before I continue, without naming names I just want to say thank you to those of you who have shown me a true glimpse of the miracle of Gods love by the way you have unconditionally supported me.

Its that support that has got me thinking and blogging tonight, as I look back at my journey and I am forced to ask the questions as to how did I get into this mess?

I have always been in churches and Christian youth groups, I have had my own personal faith since I was about 16, I have been involved in active church ministry for about 12-13 years, but somehow my secret addiction remained secret and, just like the cancer that it is, it grew and grew into something so big that its hard to escape from.

Of course I am partly responsible, and it is clear that I was betraying my faith, or as the Bible puts it, attempting to serve 2 Gods, BUT what I want to explore here is the questions........

How can/does/should the church help young people/young adults/adults to avoid the pitfalls of addictions?

How can/does/should the church help young people/young adults/adults to ask for help when/if they have an addiction?

How can/does/should the church support someone taking the journey of recovery from an addiction?

I know there are 12 step support groups such as AA, and they are extremely good at what they do, BUT what they do (in my opinion) is what the church should be doing - and if the church is to be truely a place for the broken, it needs to be a place where people are prepared to admit they are broken (if that makes sense).

Anyways I would be interested in your thoughts and experiences. 

I may (or may not) blog more on my journey but I really want to ask these questions whilst I remember them.

God bless.

10 years of youth work

10 years ago I graduated!

That is very very very scary, especially as it means I've been a full time youth worker (type of person) for 10 years now, and that scares me even more as in 24 days i become 31 and I'm currently going through "the change".

which change i hear you ask....

well (whispering it quietly) I'm ready not to be a youth worker any more.

I've loved every minute of my 10 years - even the bits which i didn't like at the time, and the young people I've had the honour to work with (and there are many) have been an important part of my life - i still pray for every one of them regualry, still check up on them on facebook to make sure im still a little updated, and well lets just say I miss everyone of them regualry from those from the church on the Hill in Sanderstead (my first full time job), the the Cube gang in Market Harborough, and the youth of Temple of Praise and Liverpool Lighthouse past and present.

when I moved to Liverpool I always saw myself as a youth worker - it was my definition - my identity - my career. Slowly since then my skills and abilities in other areas have been developed by God and I have fought him every step of the way.

The time I was told I was not going to be doing the church youth anymore I fought against it, only to see myself having other doors open to me.

The time I was told I was being promoted to a managers post and would not be doing any face to face youth work - I fought and pointed out I was a youth worker not a manager, and then ended up managing and enjoying it and becoming qualified in level 6 management and leadership at the same time.

The time I was told I was splitting my time between youth work and fundraising I fought against it as I was a manager and a youth worker not a fundraiser - etc etc

well now I'm finally realising what I've been told many times before.

I'm not a youth worker!

I'm not a manager!

I'm not a fundraiser!

I am a man with huge God given potential! That potential will be achieved - and the journey starts here!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not quitting my job - I will still be working at Liverpool Lighthouse and unless God has other plans I will still be doing youth work - HOWEVER, I will not be defining myself as a youth worker.

as for the future, I'm not sure what but I know God has great things in store for me.

I believe that I will (within the next year) have my own business - having developed some of the ideas that I am currently developing. (probably part time - evening and weekend type of thing)

I believe that I will be progressing and growing personally, spiritually and financially.

I believe God is leading me into a new ministry, and now is the time he is getting me ready for whatever the call is.

Every time I've been called to something I've fought against it - God this is me saying I'm ready and willing for the next call - and I'm waiting for your time.

anyways for now, thanks for reading - pray for me if you are a prayer

BUT

don't just think about me, think about yourselves - what are you called to be? what is your potential? and do you need to lose a label?

Tragedy - wheres God in this? RIP Lee

Yesterday a very dramatic incident happened at my church and the place that I work which resulted in the death of one of our members who was also a volunteer.

I cant pretend I was very close to Lee, nor can I pretend that he was a big part of my life, but he was a member of my church family, and more than that he was an inspirational one, and his death has led to many asking the question where is God in this?

As I lay here in bed (yes its 9:30am Im lazy) I just cant stop thinking about this question. and this blog is my attempt to get an answer which makes sense to me.

For those who didnt know Lee his story is almost as dramatic as his death. He had turned his life around from one of addictions to one of God. Only in the last two weeks was he stodd up in church saying how much God had transformed his life, broken his addictions, given his life meaning, and how he was so happy for the first time in years. God was definitly in his life, so why now?

Clearly there is no answer to this, Ive used the phrase "we just have to believe" a lot since yesterday afternoon. For some this is enough, for others it sounds like im trying to convince myself and to be honest its a bit in the middle.

I know Lee knew God and I know that hes up in heaven now with a big smile on his face partying it with the angels and the big man himself, probably waving a few flags, dancing a few jigs and generally worship God in a way we he left behind can only dream of.

but the timing and the way he died just seems wrong. He had so much potential, God was using his transformation to help transform others, he had people who loved him, he was a member of a family, why now?

Again i dont know if it was Gods timing or whether he was robbed from us but I do know God will use his passing in a way that ensures his life wasnt wasted.

This sad day has the potential to change a lot of peoples lives and anyone reading this I urge to pray, not just for Lees family buty also for the family of ToP as they grieve, for those who were witnessess and are dealing with the aftermath as they investigate and find a way to move foward, for all the staff at LL many of whom heard the incident and whom still have that sound going through their heads, finally please pray for the future - this kind of incident get investigated and investigations (even when they dont find anything wrong oher than a tragic accident, which will be in this case) change things and so please pray that God uses this as a springboard to the future rather than something that holds his plans back.

As i said at the start I wasnt best mates, I spoke to him regulary but thats about it but his death is like a death in the family. But i have to believe God will do something good out of this situation. I have to stop trying to understand and just accept that some things I will never understand. and finally I have to see how much of his potential he had already got - the bible calls us to become Gods ambassedors and ine the last few weeks he was probably more christlike than most. Hes with God now, and God will use his death the way he used his life.

please pray.

thanks.

A Fresh start

I have two of the world’s most valuable possessions. They aren’t rare, you can get them in many shops but they are definitely extremely important and valuable to us. Anyone guess what is under here?

Well you’ll have to wait and see if any of you were right

How many of you have built a bed? I have, more than once, and I have to admit I am awful at it. The first time I ever built one was when I was 20, I had graduated from uni, got my first full time job, moved into my first home on my own, and had brought this really modern wooden bed for my new room. I couldn’t wait to get it up and sleep on it. So heres how It went….

Day 1 – the bed arrives…. I unpack every part of it downstairs look at it all and think great where do I start….. realise I should start by actually putting it together in the right room, so I put everything back into the box and manage to get it into the bedroom, totally exhausted I decide that’s enough for the first day so I sleep on the sofa and continue my building project the next day.

Day 2 – Once again I empty the box, put everything in an ordered fashion on the floor of the room, so that infront of me I have a bed, well lots of pieces of wood which could be anything. I start putting the wood together and half way through realise that my bed is looking less like a bed and more like a wardrobe as I go on, so for the first time I check the instructions (I am a man afterall) and realise I may have gone a little wrong, so I decide to sleep on the sofa again and start again in the morning.

Days 3, 4, 5 and 6 – I go through the daily challenge of banging wood together, tightening and un tightening screws, trying to understand why when the instructions say it should be straight on the floor it always seems to end up at an angle, and ends up with me sleeping on the sofa to start again the next day.

Eventually I realised (im a slow learner) that I couldn’t do that bed on my own, and was lucky to have a friend visiting me for a few days and when he arrived (probably about day 9 in this story) we worked together and this simple task which had taken me days on my own took less than an hour with the two of us working together. A pair of fresh eyes looking at the instructions and a helping pair of hands made all the difference and this impossible task became possible.

You may not be as bad as me at DIY but many of us go through this same routine every day of our lives. We wake up every morning feeling like life is a chore that we just cant get right, we try to sort it out ourselves in different ways. We work hard to distract ourselves only to feel worse when we finish work for the day, we fill the times when we aernt working with distractions like TV, cars, football to stop us thinking only to find when we have a rare moment without those distractions the things we need to think about are still there. We use alcohol, drugs, tobacco, sex, pornography to fool our bodies and our minds into thinking theres nothing wrong, but the effect of these things runs out and we find ourselves needing more and more of these things to make us feel ok.
Then one day a friend turns up with a fresh pair of eyes and he works with us to use the instructions we were given and a helping pair of hands and the impossible task of life becomes possible.

That is what Christianity is about

Christianity is about a fresh pair of eyes in our lives – Gods eyes.

Christianity is about God working with us through the Bible to help us understand the instructions of life a little easier.

Christianity is about God giving us the holy spirit as a helping hand to make living life achievable again.

Or to put it simply, Christianity is about having a fresh start which leads to us achieving a God centred life.

So who is entitled to this second chance? This fresh start I’m talking about? I mean some of us are sat here feeling lonely, feeling like theres no one in this room despite sitting next to someone, feeling like they don’t have a friend to help them.

Well 2 Corinthians 5 verses 14 and 15 tell us “Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.”

It says it two times in order to ensure no one misses it

“Christ died for all”
“He died for everyone”

It doesn’t say “everyone who doesn’t drink, smoke, take drugs” it doesn’t say “everyone with 5 friends or more” it says “everyone” and that everyone includes you even if you don’t feel like it does.

One of the hardest things for some to accept is a gift for no reason, or a random act of kindness. It seems to be that we associate such things as charity, and, certainly in British culture accepting charity seems to feel like weakness. This is one of the reasons its so hard for us to accept and understand the basis of our faith, even those of us who have given our lives to God, and have been in his church for years.

Christ came down and died for you and for me as the ultimate random act of kindness, because he knew we needed help and because he wanted to help. He died so “that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, the will live for Christ”

Again it may help to hear what it doesn’t say

It doesn’t say he died so that you can have a crutch to help you struggle through, it doesn’t say he died so that you will have to go to church and be part of a religion, it says he died so that you:

Receive his new life

Four important words to hear.

Receive – to receive something is to accept it, to open it and to use it for the purpose it is given to you.

At Christmas if you get a brand new kettle and you leave it in the box and never use it you haven’t really received a kettle, you’ve just received a box. You only receive the kettle if you take it out the box and start making tea with it.

Even if you come to church every Sunday without fail, even if you are always listening to worship songs, if you don’t receive the gift God is offering and use it then you’re missing out on the real reason Christ died.

The next word

His – there’s no room for doubt here, its not yours, its not mine, its his.

This means it’s even more valuable. When someone lends you their car, you take care of it because you don’t want to let them down. The gift God offers us is more valuable than any car, and because it belongs to God we need to take care of it.

Taking care of something isn’t about not using it, and not having fun with it though. Its about ensuring the right fuel goes into it, making sure things that damage it doesn’t get too close to it, and making sure it is used enough so it doesn’t get stiff.

New – not recycled, not second hand but new!

Life – the opposite of death

So put these four words together and its true meaning comes out: -

Receive His new life

We need to receive the gift of life, a new life, a life which belongs to God and then we need to fully use that gift of life to achieve its purpose.

This is where Corinthians continues by telling us what this new life means

2 Corinthians 5 verse 16 says “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.”

This new life means we are different, it means we have a different way of looking at things than other people. We no longer evaluate from a humans point of view – now we evaluate from Gods point of view.

Our new life means we look at the world through Gods eyes, the things that make God happy make us happy, the things that make God sad make us sad. Its important to remember that it doesn’t say we should be judging people, the Bible clearly says do not judge as only God has the right to do this. What this means is that if we see that something clearly makes God sad or angry then we should do our best to avoid it, and to help other people avoid it when guided by God.

To be able to do this we need to know God, and to know God we need to spend time with him, and so this verse of Corinthians is the reason why we must spend time with God in prayer and Bible study.

How can we say we now evaluate others by Gods standards if we don’t ever speak to him or allow him to speak to us? We can’t.

This also goes back to the point made earlier about taking care of something. We have to take care of the gift God gave us, but this isn’t about not doing things, its not about not having fun, its not about not making mistakes, its about making sure we live life with the right fuel, following the right directions, and with the right target being headed for.

Our fuel is time with God, we must spend as much time with God as we can, and definitely more than we do on things like TV and internet (as hard as that is)
If (as I have been sad enough to be doing recently) we spend an one or two hours on face book ploughing pretend farms and only spend half an hour with God what is actually fuelling you?

Our direction is the Bible, or to reuse the over used phrase “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. We need to know and understand what God says about things if we are to think like Him.

Our target is, according to 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, to be Christ’s ambassadors so that others can see God through us and so that they may want to find out more and receive Gods gift as well.

Its not easy, but that’s why we are reminded that Jesus did this exact same thing for us first and now he is appealing to others through us.

All of this is fine, except life isn’t easy, life isn’t perfect, people hurt people, people suffer. There may be people in this church now sitting there feeling no connection to God at all, and they are probably thinking to themselves “yes yes God loves me, yes yes he have his life for me but im still depressed, still in debt, still addicted etc etc wheres God in this situation”.

And to those who may be thinking that I want you to know that God wants today to be the day you wake up, the day you let a friend in to help, the day of your fresh start.

I spoke earlier about how we don’t truly receive a gift unless we use it, and many Christians haven’t truly received Gods gift because we don’t use him the way he wants to be used.
Remember we heard how the new life is His not ours.

Well this means the stresses, the worries, the addictions, the debts, the bullys are his to. He wants you to give him total control over them so that he can take you in the direction he wants to take you.

This is even harder than becoming a Christian because some of us feel like the things we go through are too small to give to God, he gave his life for me, I couldn’t trouble him with such a small thing like this. And others feel the opposite feeling like God has done so much for them on the cross that they cant give him another problem to sort out especially one so big.

God wants you to give him every part of life.

Things you love, things you hate, the good and the bad.

He wants to heal you emotionally and physically.

He wants to take away and deal with everything that stresses you and deal with them his way.

He wants all of this so that you have truly received the gift of His new life.

Under the sheet I mentioned earlier, the valuable items.

Tipex and a rubber.

Two tools which enable us to have fresh starts, but there is a big difference between the two.
Tipex just covers up your mistakes and lets you write on top of them, only when we use a rubber do we really get a fresh start.

We all make mistakes and have things go wrong and sometimes, even as Christians we try to deal with it ourselves and tipex over it ignoring the scars etc that remain underneath the “fresh start”.

What God wants us to do today is let him be the rubber that gives us a real New life,

one where he has control,

where he carries the baggage,

where he takes the stress

where he removes the worrying

where we are free to be his ambassadors

where we are free to live a new life
where we are free

Accept that freedom today.

We are giving you a chance to physically respond to what God has been saying. The band are going to lead us in the song Purify my heart and as it plays if you want to accept and receive God’s gift of a fresh start today we have two prayer stations for you to come to.

At the prayer station we encourage you to spend time with God, just giving him your whole life, the good and the bad, and then wash your hands as a physical sign of a fresh new start with God in control.

Whether you’ve been a Christian for a long time or whether you want to give your life to God for the first time, God wants you to give him control, take that fresh start today.

God knows what this is about!

Working for christian agencies/churches has always been an interesting challenging experience for many reasons but recently I have been forced to ask the question about how it effects your faith.

before I continue I should say some things: -

• I believe God gives us all we need
• I believe God doesnt put us in situations we will drown in as he knows what we can cope with and will help us in all situations
• I believe God can perform miracles

that being said it is obvious to me that the more work you do for God the more the devil will attack, which can make the work seem harder, which can make your faith stronger - but also can shake your faith to the core.

The Devil can use anything to attack when things are going well, family, friends, sickness, managers, ministers, colleagues, funders, health, addictions, you name it he can use it. This is often ignored or forgotten by people because we know that God can do and use anything, and God is more powerful than Satan.

However it is dangerous not to remember the way the devil attacks, and be prepared for them, especially when in the midst of actively working for God. The Bible says to cover yourself with the armour of God at all times. The Bible says we are given the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us. this doesnt make it easy tho does it?

Thankfuly we know that God hasnt promised us an easy life, he just promised a life in all its fullness, and a life in all its fullness can only be achieved with the low points and the high points.

The Bible has the low points in them, Joseph being sold as a slave, Daniel being thrown into the Lions den, Disciples being thrown into prison, Jesus being Crucified, and these parts of the stories can leave us feeling like saying "oh great so follow God and all you get is pain and suffering". Then you read the rest of the stories and you realise that the things they went through were used by God to ensure that his plans for the people involved succeded and that the people themselves were ready for what he had in store.

Ecclesiastes says "there is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven" and sometimes the seasons are bad and sometimes they are good, but with God we can guarentee that when you put all the seasons together his plan for our lives will be achieved - on one condition, and that condition is that we keep our eyes on him and follow his directions, even when times get tough.

one of my favourite parts of the Bible is Peter walking on water, and I use it a lot when preaching, its not my favourite because he performed a miracle, its my favourite because Peter sank and Jesus went over picked him up and walked with him. I reckon Peter remembered that moment for the rest of his life for 4 reasons,

1. he walked on water
2. he feared for his own life
3. acknowledged his fear and Jesus helped him overcome it
4. His faith and trust in Jesus grew

For me this one scene is a step by step guide to how our lives can be when working for God

1. we make a step of faith - start work, make sacrifices etc etc
2. things start getting hard, we fear we made the wrong choice, wondering if we are in the right place etc etc
3. give our fears to God and ask him to help us overcome it
4. become more secure in our faith and trust in God more

Im about half way between point 2 and 3 at the moment, having so many doubts and worries running through my mind that every little thing has a chance to be used by the devil, and my own shortcomings, addictions, issues seem to be popping up more. But, as I write this, I realise something, and that something is that because of these things I am growing closer to God, and whilst Im along way from being the perfect holy spirit filled, tongue speaking, Gospel spouting Christian God is moulding me into what he wants me to be.

Only God knows how long I will be in my current situations

Only God knows what will happen next

Only God knows how long I will be on this earth

But those statements give me so much more assurances, because I know God knows, and God knows best so I can concentrate on enjoying my life, whatever the season, so that when me and God sit down for a pint on a cloud in Heaven I can say "thanks for the good time you gave me", and he can respond, "thanks for enjoying the journey"

so does working for a christian agency effect your faith, yes, but so does everything you do.

Lifes a journey, go with it, enjoy it, coz with God as your Guide it wont be boring!

What is the meaning of life?

We all spend our lives trying to work out which way to go, and as a man it’s even harder, because we men hate to ask for directions. We would rather spend two hours driving in circles than stop the car and ask someone how to get somewhere. My dad used to say “we are not lost – I just don’t know where we are!”

What does this have to do with anything? Well I want to tell you something, and that’s that some of us in this room are lost, and some of us don’t even know where we want to go, let alone how to get there. But I have good news for you, and that’s that not only can I tell you where you should want to go I can even tell you how to get there.

But before I tell you anything I thought Id tell you a bad joke.

A vicar was arriving at a small village church once and he had an important letter to post, he saw this young lad and asked where the nearest post office was. The boy told him the directions and so the vicar thanked him and said, "If you come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to Heaven." "I don't think I'll be there," the boy said. "You don't even know your way to the post office."

So lets start at the beginning… where are we going? Or put in the way that is used a lot more – what is the meaning of life?

This question is a question asked by everyone at some point in their lives, and many people say there is no answer to this. Well I have to tell you that those people are wrong, and you don’t even have to look very far to find the answer.

God created us in his image, and he created us to look after the world he created and to be best friends with God. When the earth was created everything was perfect, he was an artist who had put every little detail in place so that the earth was the exact way he wanted, every tree, every stream, every animal. He could have kept all of this too himself, his own private universe, but he wanted to share it, he created men and women, and he created them in his image and then he said “Fill the earth and Govern it!”

From the moment man and women were created God gave life meaning. That meaning can be summed up by one simple word. Love.

We were given the task to love the earth he created and to look after every part of it.
We were given the task to love each other and to look after each other.
And we were given these tasks because God loved us and wanted to share with us the perfect world he created.

So what happened, why is the world not still the perfect place he created?
Why is there more hate in the world than love?
Why is it that there is so much hurt in the world, with people beating people up and in some cases killing people for fun?

The answer to these questions, and the many others I could ask is amazingly simple, we forgot, ignored, and lost contact with the very thing that gave our lives meaning.

We all know the story of what happened. God gave one small rule, and even told what would happen if that rule was broken “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

No tricks here, No room for misunderstandings – a nice clear “if you do this you will die!” if only the story ended here, but it doesn’t does it!

Before I move on let me remind you what we had.
We had a relationship with God where we could walk and talk to him about anything
We had Gods trust and had been given the responsibility of looking after his perfect creation
We had a life with meaning – with love at its centre.

So the devil got involved and whispered
“That piece of fruit you’ve been told not to eat looks really tasty doesn’t it!”
“That piece of fruit looks so much nicer than the others!”
“Gods messing with you, hes keeping the best to himself!”
“Go on eat the fruit – you know you want to!”
“If you eat the fruit you won’t die!”
“If you eat the fruit you will be like God and know good and evil!”

Let’s face it, when something is whispered it’s so much louder and much more convincing and tempting, and yes the fruit was eaten. God was disobeyed and the result was death.
We lost the relationship with our, still perfect creator
We lost Gods trust
His creation was no longer perfect and so looking after it would be much harder

(smash glass)

Life’s meaning was shattered and we were doomed.

This time we have to be glad the story doesn’t end here.

Even though we disobeyed God and lost the very reason he had created us, which meant we were living life with no meaning, he still loved us and wanted the close relationship back.

He gave us some simple and clear laws to show us how far we were from him and to show us what we had to do and promised that if they were followed some of that meaning, that loving relationship, would be back, but we all know what happens when us stupid humans are told not to do something, we do the opposite and keep messing up.

Why did we keep messing up? Because we were searching for the meaning of life and ignoring God when he tried to point out what the real meaning was.

This left God with one option, that of punishment.

Before I continue lets have a quick recap, in-case I’ve lost you.

The meaning of Life is Love
Love of each other
Love of the world
Love of God

We messed up and life lost meaning

God wanted to give our lives meaning again but we ignored him.

Nice and simple, and it does help us to understand the world that we live in.

Over 70% of children and young people say they don’t fill loved.

People search for love wherever they can get it, with many doing whatever they can to make sure they don’t lose it when they think they have it.

The top reason for people drinking alcohol, smoking, taking drugs, having sex for the first time is often “I was scared they wouldn’t like me or love me if I didn’t!”

We were created to love and be loved, but because we have forgotten this and have lost this we have a hole in our lives. Most people know it is there, we try to fill it with so many things.

We try drugs and alcohol in order to forget that something’s missing, or to give our lives meaning, but these things destroy our lives even more and the hole get bigger and we need more to fill it, and the hole gets bigger so we take more, and then eventually all we have is the drugs and alcohol – every part of our lives becomes about getting a hit or a drink. We wake up, take a drink or a smoke, get dressed, take a drink or a smoke, eat lunch, take a drink or a smoke etc. It is no longer about filling a hole and making life easier it is about not being able to live without it and is infact the reason we live.

Its not just drugs or alcohol, it could be sex, work, money, football. I’m sure there are hundreds of things that people use in order to add meaning to their lives, but I want to tell you it simply and bluntly – we don’t need these things because they will never satisfy us!

The only thing that will satisfy us and make our lives the way they are meant to be is love – love of God, each other and the world!

You may be feeling lonely at school, work or at home – with God you always have someone and he will never leave you.

Your family may sometimes hurt you and you may not feel loved by them – with God you are always part of his family, and he will always love you.

Your friends may only seem to like you when you do things you don’t thing you should do – God will always be there for you and will never ask you to do anything that will harm you!

You may be jumping from one addiction to another trying to block out how you feel by using drugs, alcohol, sex, work, whatever – God is the only thing which will truly make things better.

The meaning of life is love

And the place we should want to go is back to God.

Earlier I said I was going to give you directions to how to get there, but before I do here’s another bad joke.

Two nuns were travelling through Europe in their car. They got to Transylvania and were stopped at a traffic light. Suddenly Dracula jumps onto the hood of their car and scratches the windshield!
"Quick, quick!" shouts the first nun, "What shall I do?"
"Turn on the wipers, that will get rid of this abomination," shouts the second.
The nun switches them on, knocking Dracula about, but he clings on and hisses at them loudly!
"What shall I do now?" shouts the first nun.
"Switch on the windshield washer, I filled it with Holy Water when we stopped in the Vatican!" says the second.
Dracula steams as the water burns his skin, but somehow manages to hang on. He hisses at the nuns even louder now!
"Now what?" screams the first nun.
"Show him your cross!" replies the second.
So the first nun rolls down the window and shouts: "GET OFF MY HOOD YOU STUPID IDIOT!!!!"

God knew we deserve to be punished for the way we were living. He had given us simple and effective rules to guide us back to him, we ignored them, we had turned his perfect creation into a world falling apart at its seams. But God still loved us.

The bible says it simply like this “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”

God loves us so much, and wants us to live our God given lives so much that he gave up his own son’s life so that we can live!

Its hard for us to understand why God does this, because we live in a world where love is something we can easily throw away, parents choose to leave their children, husbands choose to leave their wives, love doesn’t matter other than when something is wanted.

With God, and the love that gives our lives meaning, it’s different. This is a love which will always be there.

God looked at the world he created, the people he made and loves it, even though he doesn’t like what we do. Because of this love he wants us to experience life the way he meant it.

We needed to be punished but he wanted to give us one last chance, because he loves us so much. His solution – to send Jesus to be punished for each one of us! He was sent and died for you!
Even if you were the only person that existed he still would have sent Jesus – because he loves you!

He wants to have a relationship with you!

He wants to give your life meaning!

He wants to replace the addiction you have with love!

He wants to hold you when you cry!

He wants to share your problems!

He wants carry you when you get tired!

He didn’t do this in order to create a religion, to get you to come to church on Sunday. He did this because he wants to give your life a meaning and he wants a relationship with you the way it was originally – where we walk and talk to him, and where we look after the world he created.

Gods done his part – he’s taken the punishment so we don’t have to BUT there’s one thing we need to do, we need to accept the sacrifice and offer him back our life in return.

If you go to hug someone and they just stand there it is not a hug.

If you go to kiss someone and they turn away the kiss doesn’t happen.

If you don’t accept the sacrifice made for you, say sorry for the things you have done wrong, ask for help to stop doing things wrong, and then (with Gods help) try to change the way you live then it’s a wasted sacrifice.

Today you have an amazing opportunity to change your life and to give your life a meaning.

You have an opportunity to fill the hole you have in your life with the very love that you were created for. Don’t pass up the opportunity, start living today.

The meaning of life is the opposite to death.

God wants a relationship with you today, accept it.

Let’s Pray

Lord thank you that you love us no matter what we do
Fill our lives with that love today so that our lives have meaning again
Speak to each of us and reveal you love to us personally.
Remove any addictions we have in our lives so that we can see you clearer
Take control of our lives whether the first, second or hundredth time

Amen

letting go

A strange thing happened to me this weekend.

Now to fully understand this I have to go into a long story and as its now 1:38am Im not going to go into a long story so you probably wont understand it but oh well, no one reads this anyways so it doesnt matter does it!

Basicaly in church for the last 3 Sundays they have been doing a series on blessings and curses. This isnt a subject I'm a huge fan off because some Christians blame every bad thing on curses and forget that some people just make bad choices. I remember when i was younger I spoke to someone and said "nothing good ever happens to me, everything touch goes wrong" or words to that effect. The answer was "maybe your cursed, shall I pray for you to be freed from it?" now i was about 14 - I will leave it up to you to decide what i thought of that suggestion.

Anyways back to the present....

This Sunday was the final Sunday of the series and the theme was how to break curses and ensure blessings (or words to that effect). now Im not one to spiritualise every little thing in my life, but my story starts on Saturday night.

I went to a party and left it early in order to get a goods night sleep before church, i didnt event drink much. I got home, went to bed and then had the worst night sleep since I moved to Liverpool. I heard noises outside my window which kept me awake, I randomly felt really ill, every time i fell asleep something woke me up, and if i said i had about 2 hours sleep id be exagerating.

Sunday morning I felt very rough. I was so close to not going to church but I had a job to do which meant I had to be there, but I felt shocking. I got to church and felt even worse, I was coughing, and at one point I was sure I was going to be sick.

The worship began and I just kept feeling like I should leave but something was telling me I had to stay. The opening worship took place and did my job and went back to my seat and more worship took place and then there was the sermon. Now I cant honestly say I can tell you much about what was said but basicaly during it memories of the last nine years kept popping into my head.

Depression
parent issues
Fear of love
Fear of being hurt
Fear of being me
etc etc

all these and more kept coming up and I felt God say "today you will be healed" Now again I must say this is weird for me because many of the above are things I dont think of as major issues but at the same time I know they are.

But the main thing came after I felt God say this I suddenly became really scared.

What if I let go of all of these things and am healed and freed from the binds of past curses etc? who will I become? Will I still be me? Will I still be a good youth worker? and more questions just flowed into my head.

I know it sounds silly but in reality Ive always believed that the things i have gone through have made me who i am and the fear I had was that letting go of my past will change my present and so mess up my future.

I struggled with all of these questions and listed all the things I believed God wanted to heal and the reasons why I didnt want to let them go (in my head) and cried a few times whilst hoping no one noticed. Then Pastor said we were going to have a time of prayer ministry and anyone who wanted to be freed from things should come forward etc etc.

I stood there and watched and ignored my instincts and just sang more worship songs as people went forward but eventually I went forward and joined the big crowd and was eventually prayed for.

Now I believe that God done something to me on Sunday and I believe I am free of my pasts burdens and curses etc and am healed of depression because of Jesus. I beleive Satan was throwing everything in his power to stop me gettign to church on Sunday to stop me being ministerd to by God, but he didnt stop there. Even after the service I felt even sicker in the evening and doubts started coming into my mind. But when I awoke the next morning I knew that I was a free person because of God and whilst the devil will try to fool me the person I will listen to is God.

So whats my point? Im not actually sure.

I guess Im saying Gods amazing and dont forget it!

I guess Im saying God heals, dont let the devil stop it happening!

I guess Im saying dont be scared to let go!

I still have the devil (even as I type) whispering "what if youve lost you ability as a youth worker with it" but I am not prepared to listen because Gods on my side.

Not every bad thing is down to curses
Not every sickness is down to curses

God promises us all blessings so to each of you I say "God Bless you!" and pray that he heals anything in your lives that need healing, I pray that any curses or binds which are in your life (including those you dont know off) are broken in Jesus name.
Amen

God is good - enjoy his freedom!