GOOAALL!!!

With all the footie on at the moment you can't fail to escape it (even if you are Scottish like me! - tough luck Scottish team - you only had to ask me!). I'm thinking about my life goal - to be used by God as he wills in turning others to Christ so thay we all aim for three Goals. They would be:

1. Love God
2. Love others
3. Follow Jesus

How cool would it be if we'd just do those three hardly simple things? For more about these goals I'd recommend you look at www.thesimpleway.org and www.purposedrivenlife.com. Also, check out Matthew 22 in the Bible (the greatest commandment).

Make God's goals your goals and you can't lose (even if it seems your luck's out part way though the game!).

All the Best

Stu

trees that kill?!!

Thought I'd write a bit of meaningless drivel - just waiting for stuff to print off cos I got a meeting in a wee while. Just thinking how much paper I get through in a week printing like this. Thing is I need to print the stuff. Imagine if trees could tell what we do to them (maybe they can!!) - but imagine they wanted to get their revenge. Makes you want to not walk in forests - might never get out!!

What if your heart was the printer? Huh!

Well imagine every thought you had was printed out the top of your head on that weird hole-ridden printer paper - how freaked would you be? I'd be dying!! Imagine everyone knowing exactly what you think...about them, the world and everything? We'd have no mates!

Thing is, God sees it all so clearly - he knows the deepest, most scummy thoughts we can have - and he still says "I love you guys cos I'm your father God. I'll always love you cos I know you fully".

It strikes me that God is not striking me (down dead for the state of my heart!) - must mean he really does love us.

Worth thinking about, don't you think?!

See you, Stu

what's it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? I'd like us to stop for a moment to think about our faith. How does our view of Christianity affect our faith? I came across the following paragraph recently, written by Josh McDowell. Read it slowly a number of times and let it sink in.

“Being a Christian is not about learning a system of correct performance or going through one programmatic course after another. It is about a personal spiritual revolution in which you experience Christ so intimately for who he really is and respond to him so completely in a love relationship that it continually transforms every aspect of your life”

How does this definition fit your view of Christianity? Read it again.

It strikes me that Josh is right, yet often we live our faith as if it was all about what we do rather than because we are unconditionally loved by God. The Church in the New Testament was not founded on rules and courses – They were a group of people that were totally devoted to Jesus - they loved him, and because they loved him they wanted to do the things he said. Their faith was about relating to Jesus. They lived to please him. They lived to love him. They lived to love each other because they loved him.

Josh is totally right - being a Christian is not about 'being good' or about 'being involved'. Being a Christian is all about experiencing Christ intimately. As we meet Christ and he begins to change our hearts our whole outlook on faith and life begins to change - it's like God births a spiritual revolution within us. As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17,

"If anyone is in Christ Jesus he is a new creation,
the old has gone, the new has come"

When our faith is based on relating to God through Christ Jesus something new happens within us. His Spirit begins to work at transforming from the inside out. Life takes on a whole new meaning.

I could not be a Church youth worker if I did not personally know God. To be honest it would drive me crazy!! It is only through God we have the character to do what we do and the strength in which to do it. In your work what do you depend on - leaders, are you depending on the youth programme, or the written materials you use? Young people, are you in a relationship with God that makes you want to live different? When we depend on programmes and systems we may find ourselves getting tired and weary, even to the point of rejecting faith. When we depend on God, looking to him to guide us and strengthen us, we can stay fresh and enjoy the work we do for him. Let’s remind ourselves of the definition we read earlier:

"Being a Christian is about a personal spiritual revolution in which you experience Christ so intimately for who he really is and respond to him so completely in a love relationship that it continually transforms every aspect of your life"

May we all experience Christ intimately for who he really is, and may we all respond to him in that love relationship that transforms every aspect of our lives.

all the best on the journey

Stu-Mack