Jesus understands, he's been through it himself - By Jack Lewis

Many times in life, while we are going through hard times, we think to ourselves, "No one understands what I am feeling like inside”; well, Jesus does, not only because he is "All knowing," but also because he experienced it first hand. He wanted to relate to us so much that he became one of us. When he was growing up he did the same things as any other human children; after all, he didn't spend his whole life teaching and doing miracles, in fact he started off as a carpenter working with his dad. So the day to day things that get us down, Jesus probably went through himself. He was probably bullied from time to time, he almost certainly went through illnesses, he probably had troubled thoughts and worries, he would have had arguments with his brothers, he would have had bumps and bruises from falling, and he wouldn't have been a spoilt child who had everything he wanted. And if that doesn't convince you that he understands your situations, then remember he could have used his "God powers," and given himself an easy and perfect life; but he decided instead to endure it all in the same way as us, so doesn't that make it obvious how much he loves you? He also went through death, and no peaceful death either; and before that he was flogged and made fun of, proof that he went through pain and times of people laughing at him.

One particular incident that I would like to look at is Jesus carrying his cross. It is recorded in all four gospels, (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19), and is proof of just how human Jesus chose to became. While carrying the cross up to Calvary, he fell twice under the weight of it, and a man named Simon had to carry his cross for him. There is nothing in this to suggest that he used his "God powers" to become the world's strongest man and carry the cross around with him as if it was made out of cardboard! Also note that this was during the time of Jesus’ miracles, it wasn't like he was still in the stages of preparing for his ministries, in fact only a few days before he had healed the Roman soldier’s ear. (Luke 22:51)

In summary, just remember in every situation "Jesus went through this too, so he understands how I feel and if I ask he will give me the strength to cope!"     

    

Jesus is our Shepherd by Nathan Jukes

Jesus is the good shepherd he will lead us through life. Through the ups and downs he will always to there for us. Even if we go astray, he will come and find us and take us back to the good green grass.  Some times like sheep we see what looks like nice green grass. That looks even better than the nice green grass that is in the shepherd’s field.  Then we look for a hole in the fence go through into the field that looks so good, full of the riches grass. We take a few bites of it a walks on down the field with not noticing that the grass is becoming shorter and starker. Then we come to a dark wood, but we don’t stop we go into it because we have seen some more nice looking grass. After we have eaten it we try to remember the way back. We are like sheep at the point, with no brains and keep walking even deeper down into the dark woods. It is getting dark we get scare, we can’t we the way out. We get count up in some brambles. It is then that we cry for help. Back at the field the shepherd counts the sheep, there is one missing so he leaves the rest to come and find it. When he is still a long way of he hears your cries for help, He runs to you picks you up out of the brambles cutting his hands as he does.  Then he puts you his shoulder and takes you back to the field with rich grass, back with the other sheep. You are home again, back with the shepherd.

Now when the sheep see the green grass that looks even greener then he already got. It’s a lot like temptation. The sheep just wants that grass so much that he goes after it. We sometimes like the sheep get tempted to do something wrong.

After we come through the hole in the fence the grass is nice for a bit, because Sin gives pleasure for a while.

After a while we get caught up in so much sin that we need someone to get us out of it. The sheep would need the shepherd , we would need Jesus to save us.  If we cry out to Jesus he will come and get us back as would the shepherd come you get the sheep. Then he will come and pick us up and take us back to him. 

Oops, misprint!! By Jack Lewis

Usually in this blog we write about slightly more serious subjects, but this week I thought I’d share with you a story I found in the newspaper, and thought it was rather amusing. Basically, it’s about Bible printers who have just slightly misprinted what they were planning to write…

•         “Printers have persecuted me without a cause.” (Should be “Princes have persecuted me without a cause.”) Psalm 119:161 
•         “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (Should be “Shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”) 1 Corinthians 6:9
•         “Thou shalt commit adultery.” (Should rather obviously be, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”) Exodus 20:14
•         “Blessed are the placemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” (Should be “peacemakers”) Matthew 5:9
•         “Go and sin on more.” (Should be “Go and sin no more.”) John 8:11

And finally my favourite…

        

• “Let the children be first killed.” (Should be “Let the children be first filled.”) Mark 7:27

Well there you have it, a collection of Bible bloopers! As for the last one, if the government wants to find a way to prevent overcrowding on this planet…

Making time for God 2 by Nathan Jukes

Several months back I wrote a post on making time for God. I want to come back it as I feel it’s is a really imported thing to do. How can you grow spirally if you don’t spend time with God every day? There is no better way to get to know God than reading his word.  I have found not reading my bible in the pass draws me away, it made me angry and more likely to hurt other people with my words and my actions. Keeping close to God makes it easily to become more like his son Jesus. As Christian goal should be to be like Jesus, I believe the more we read our bibles the more we should take in the closer we should become to God. If you feel after reading your bible for a long time and don’t ever fell close to God, then maybe you should rethink the way you do it. If you are doing it with a set time that you always have to it on that exactly time. You can it anytime a day God does not take naps or just can’t be bothered to spend time with you, it more the other way around I’ve had times when I hadn’t been bothered to read my bible and pray. I always do now because I want a relationship with God.  I enjoy reading my bible now, it took time to build up to everyday so don’t worry if the start with you can’t manage every day. If you wait and try your best you’ll be able to do it every day. Spending time with should not about being relish but wanting to get to know God better. You don’t even have to decide how long you are going to read it for, it will really dement on how much you want to read it. For me I just keep reading until I feel like I’m going to fall asleep, as I read my bible before I go to bed. I’ve heard the saying if you read your bible for 5 minutes a day you’re a ok Christian. 15 minutes and you’re doing pretty good, if you spend 30 minutes God you’re a super Christian. Don’t base your bible reading on this, not everyone will have 30 minutes a day to spend with God. A good reaction of what you are learning should come off in your daily life. If you’re a Christian and people can’t tell that you are, you’re doing it wrong. Also don’t act like it’s some great sacrifice to make time for God. God made the time so you act like you haven’t God enough time for God, it makes it seem like the other things in your life is more important.  Spending time with God should be less of an obligation and more of a privilege.  God made everything so what a privilege to spend time with him.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105

The EU headquaters, a symbol of today's world. By Jack Lewis

There are so many stories around in the media today that show how the world is going downhill, (from a Christian perspective) like the Bible said it would in the end times. There are all the headlines about the Syrian refugees who are having to flee their homelands and everything they own because Islamic State are bombing them, then they get here and we tell them to shove off. It’s just not right. We see these stories every day in the news, but here I am going to bring up an issue that you will not see about very often, and it’s to do with the EU headquarters in Brussels.

The European Union is the governing body over… everything (more or less) in Europe. They govern the whole of one of the most important continents in the world, so when it comes for the time for them to build a place for them to rule from, what do they base it on? The answer is the Tower of Babel. Out of all the things they could have chosen they decided to make their HQ like the tower of Babel!

    This sounds pretty bad on face value, but when you start digging deeper you can uncover more and more examples of evil. For starters, in the amphitheatre the 666 seat is left empty. It says in Revelation 13:18 that 666 is the number of man, and therefore the number of sin and evil (God’s number is 7, in case you’re wondering). Also they have cleverly placed three of their 60^th birthday plaques on the wall in such a way to spell 666. Secondly, the official EU poster is of the tower of Babel, and if you look carefully, you will notice that the stars at the top are upside down.

  
Now what that also means, is that the stars are reversed pentagrams. It is quite detailed, but basically, regular pentagrams (like normal stars) represent good ruling, and reversed pentagrams like in the poster represent evil ruling.

The third and final thing that represents why Europe’s leaders are Satan’s ally is that the EU’s chosen symbol is… a woman riding a beast.

Revelation 17:3 says: "...and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." They even used this as the picture on their 1984 postage stamp!

The reason, in my opinion, why the EU are doing all this, is because they think they are bigger than God. However on judgement day, their tower isn’t going to protect them from what is to come!  What all this really proves to me though, is that we are in the end times, because my country (England) are being indirectly governed by people who, put simply, identify themselves with evil. About 150 years ago, Queen Victoria’s was asked by an African ambassador what England’s secret to success was. She simply handed the man a Bible and told him that the book in his hands was the secret to England’s success. Was it a coincidence why her country was so successful?

Please tell us what you think of all this by commenting on the bottom of this page.

Worshiping God By Nathan Jukes

I know you all like music! We all love music; we may all have different ideas about which music is the best! God gave us music so we could Worshiped him. Some people may find that different music helps them connect with God. I like music from hymns to modern music, but mostly modern music with drums in it. I still enjoy some hymns because I think they have a nice sound, And both Worships God. I may be wrong but I think that the way we worship God has change, the songs have got faster, we now have the drums and guitars, but it’s still worships God, Whatever you like as long as it honors God worships him.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the lord with gladness: come before his presents with singing.  Psalm 100:1-2 (KJV)

David who wrote some of the psalms loved to make music on his harp to worshiped God said make a joyful noise to God.  So let’s get out the piano, the guitar, the flute, the drums and much more and make a joyful noise until God. Let’s not make a sad noise or mournful noise to God but ones of joyful praise.  The second part of the verse says serve the lord with gladness; come before his presents with singing. As Christians we need to serve God with gladness, when you are doing something for God, be glad and do it with your whole heart. Have you ever felt you are in God present when worshiping him? God’s presents is in worship he loves it when we worship him. Whatever music you like it doesn’t matter if you love the news one that’s fine, if you love the old hymns that fine, the thing that matters is that you worship him. And as Jack said I his blog post last week “So whatever kind of Worship Music you like, and whatever style of Worship Music makes you want to put in earplugs and walk out the door, it is all there to glorify God.” There is so many good songs and hymns to choose from, no one else will like exactly what you like.

Worshipping God through music by Jack Lewis

There are many different opinions about what sort of worship music pleases God. Some people believe that instruments like drums and guitars are instruments of the Devil, even though 1 Chronicles 13:7-8 would suggest otherwise; while many others (myself included) disagree. Different people find different kinds of music help them connect with God better; there are the types of people who like old hymns with an organ in the background, and there are the people who like the modern loud worship stuff that you find at places like Soul Survivor or Hillsong United. Any style of music you like though was all made with worshipping God in mind. So whatever kind of Worship Music you like, and whatever style of Worship Music makes you want to put in earplugs and walk out the door, it is all there to glorify God, so does that not make all worship music good in God’s eyes?

If you are the type of person, though, who finds it hard to use worship music as a way of getting closer to God, then that is also fine; and if you like worship songs but want to connect more with God through them, then here are a couple of tips that have helped me.

1. Get with a group of people who you find it easy to be around, sometimes there are people who you find it difficult to be around because you find them a bit judgemental of how you look during your Worshipping.

2. Try and forget who is around you and what your surroundings are as if you are concentrating on what the people around you are doing then you will find it very hard to focus on God. If you can then also get someone to pray with you.

These are just a couple of things that work for me but everyone will have different things that work for them, but I think the most important thing about worshipping God is simply to ask him to connect with you and he will. Try it.