James 1 grounds the rest of the book because people who hear the word should also act on it. We must not be simply hearers, but doers also. Not acting on what we read and hear is like looking in a mirror and forgetting what we look like (1.22-24) Daft, isn't it? God's word is a mirror in our lives, it shows us God's way for living and reveals the difference that knowing God should make to our lives. If we are properly and prayerfully studying God's word, our reaction should be the same as that after we have stood in front of the mirror.
Why do we look at ourselves in mirrors? Partly vanity, but also to check we look presentable and that we have not left toothpaste round our mouths (this is not a comment on your ability to clean your teeth). I think there are two applications from this: forgetting is stupid, pure and simple; revisiting the mirror because you can't remember whether you still had toothpaste round your mouth probably equates to goldfish memory, however we may see the toothpaste but choose to go to out regardless. We need to act on what we've seen, since that was why we looked in the first place. It is the same with faith. If you really want to take your faith seriously you need to be regularly getting stuck into the bible. But simply reading is not enough, we need to respond to what we read and hear explained to us - doing, not just hearing. For example, to read that we should not let any unclean talk be in our mouths (Eph 4.29) but to continue swearing and making rude jokes would be like leaving the house with toothpaste round our mouths even though we purposefully looked in the mirror to check our faces were clean.
The Christian life is about becoming more like Jesus. We urge you to take seriously what you read in the bible and what you hear at church and from other sources. Please do not be people who don't apply the bible's teaching to their lives; if you're not going to apply it, don't bother. If you don't want toothpaste on your face when you go to school, look in the mirror and wash it off. If you want to become more like Jesus, compare your life to how life is described in the bible and then make changes as the Holy Spirit convicts you.
Monday, 27 July 2009
It may be summer, but we're still here to inspire...
Sunday youth as we know it may have been put on hold for the next few weeks, but God still wants to speak to you, and, in fact, the lack of school in your lives gives you more time to spend with him. So we are going to blog regularly to keep you inspired and give you something to think about. We shall consider the practical wisdom contained in the book of James (you can find it after Hebrews, which comes after all the books beginning with 'T'.) Here's a brief intro, so you know what we're dealing with.
James was most probably written by Jesus' brother to the members of the churches which had scattered across the Roman Empire after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 11.19). From the themes James covers, we can tell that the church was struggling with keeping Jesus its number one priority; there was a love of money (chapters 2 and 5), hurtful words were being said (chapter 3) and backbiting and arguments were taking control (chapter 4). James wants to encourage the readers of his letter to live a life in which they become more mature and complete in Jesus (1.4).
We pray that as we take you through this book you would learn how to work out your faith. Do use the summer to get into God's word and seek to apply it to your life (more of this in the next blog). Let's use this blog as a way of keeping in touch over the summer and encouraging each other with what God is doing in our lives and how he is speaking to us. And then we can reconvene in September more mature and complete in Jesus.
James was most probably written by Jesus' brother to the members of the churches which had scattered across the Roman Empire after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 11.19). From the themes James covers, we can tell that the church was struggling with keeping Jesus its number one priority; there was a love of money (chapters 2 and 5), hurtful words were being said (chapter 3) and backbiting and arguments were taking control (chapter 4). James wants to encourage the readers of his letter to live a life in which they become more mature and complete in Jesus (1.4).
We pray that as we take you through this book you would learn how to work out your faith. Do use the summer to get into God's word and seek to apply it to your life (more of this in the next blog). Let's use this blog as a way of keeping in touch over the summer and encouraging each other with what God is doing in our lives and how he is speaking to us. And then we can reconvene in September more mature and complete in Jesus.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Jesus is my boyfriend?
Last week the Spring Harvest Live 2009 CD dropped through our door, and we've had a nice time listening to what passes for new worship music in church these days.
The bonus track on CD 2 is 'Jesus Is My Best Friend' by Vicky Beeching, which Jessica wittily mocks by singing "Jesus is my boyfriend" - now it is pretty cheesy - take verse 1: 'When the sun is shining and I go out to play, I'm so glad that Jesus walks with me all day'.
Now excuse me while I clean up my vomit.
That done, I think there's a more important message in here - for those of you who have been (un)lucky enough to have a boyfriend / girlfriend, you'll know that in the first few weeks of your relationship, you don't ever want to be apart from them, and that nothing else in the world matters - not even Geography coursework.
So you know where I'm going from here - having this view of Jesus would be utterly amazing, if we could sustain through the years. If we all wanted to spend as much time as possible with Jesus, and pored over every word he wrote for us, we would be true imitators of Christ - but how does this work out in real life?
Paul says, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, that we "have been taught by God to love each other". Does the love we profess for Jesus spill out of us for all to see, or do we keep it bottled up, rationing it for those we really like, or for that boy / girl you rather like...?
So here's the challenge - love Jesus, and his word, like you would a new boy/girlfriend, and see just how deep your relationship with him becomes.
The bonus track on CD 2 is 'Jesus Is My Best Friend' by Vicky Beeching, which Jessica wittily mocks by singing "Jesus is my boyfriend" - now it is pretty cheesy - take verse 1: 'When the sun is shining and I go out to play, I'm so glad that Jesus walks with me all day'.
Now excuse me while I clean up my vomit.
That done, I think there's a more important message in here - for those of you who have been (un)lucky enough to have a boyfriend / girlfriend, you'll know that in the first few weeks of your relationship, you don't ever want to be apart from them, and that nothing else in the world matters - not even Geography coursework.
So you know where I'm going from here - having this view of Jesus would be utterly amazing, if we could sustain through the years. If we all wanted to spend as much time as possible with Jesus, and pored over every word he wrote for us, we would be true imitators of Christ - but how does this work out in real life?
Paul says, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, that we "have been taught by God to love each other". Does the love we profess for Jesus spill out of us for all to see, or do we keep it bottled up, rationing it for those we really like, or for that boy / girl you rather like...?
So here's the challenge - love Jesus, and his word, like you would a new boy/girlfriend, and see just how deep your relationship with him becomes.
Friday, 10 July 2009
Psalm 78
A couple of weeks ago in lifegroup we looked at Psalm 78, the last in our series on the Psalms. We learnt how important it is to remember the faithfulness of God to previous generations and remember that he is exactly the same now as he was then. We looked at the Psalmist's model of disbodience (often) followed by discipline and then deliverance and we then took this model to come up with our own examples of what we would "tell the coming generation" about our amazing, forgiving God.
Here are some examples: Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit; God banished them from the Garden (discipline), but he also made garments for them (Gen 3:21) and did not leave them on their own (deliverance). Jonah disobeyed God's call to go to Ninevah and, as a result, ended up having a three day trip to the stomach of a large fish. On 'escaping' the fish, he went to Ninevah and as a result of his message 120,000 people turned to God. Amazing.
We also looked at some post-bible examples: John Newton, the reformed slave trader and author of Amazing Grace. Having traded slaves for a number of years, he was convicted that he was doing wrong and joined William Wilberforce in campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade. Through that campaigning the slave trade came to an end, bringing deliverance to Newton and thousands of slaves. And Hilter - controversial? - he committed many atrocities but he lost power, the war and his life. Delivery? As a result of his actions against minority groups, legislation for human rights has been established; the world was so disturbed by what had been able to happen in Germany, that they wanted to make sure it never happened again.
Remember this summary: Romans 3:23-25. This is the big picture of how this works. We've all sinned (3:23), but God enables forgiveness (verse 24), through Jesus taking the punishment that was rightly ours (verse 25). Praise God that if we are in Jesus we will not have to face the punishment for all the wrong we have ever done because he took it, and not just ours, he took Adam and Eve's disobedience, he took Jonah's disobedience, he took the punishment for John Newton's transportation of thousands of slaves, and he took the punishment for the murder of every single person who went the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps. That is grace, simply the best example of what it means to be delivered from disobedience. Have you experienced it?
Here are some examples: Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit; God banished them from the Garden (discipline), but he also made garments for them (Gen 3:21) and did not leave them on their own (deliverance). Jonah disobeyed God's call to go to Ninevah and, as a result, ended up having a three day trip to the stomach of a large fish. On 'escaping' the fish, he went to Ninevah and as a result of his message 120,000 people turned to God. Amazing.
We also looked at some post-bible examples: John Newton, the reformed slave trader and author of Amazing Grace. Having traded slaves for a number of years, he was convicted that he was doing wrong and joined William Wilberforce in campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade. Through that campaigning the slave trade came to an end, bringing deliverance to Newton and thousands of slaves. And Hilter - controversial? - he committed many atrocities but he lost power, the war and his life. Delivery? As a result of his actions against minority groups, legislation for human rights has been established; the world was so disturbed by what had been able to happen in Germany, that they wanted to make sure it never happened again.
Remember this summary: Romans 3:23-25. This is the big picture of how this works. We've all sinned (3:23), but God enables forgiveness (verse 24), through Jesus taking the punishment that was rightly ours (verse 25). Praise God that if we are in Jesus we will not have to face the punishment for all the wrong we have ever done because he took it, and not just ours, he took Adam and Eve's disobedience, he took Jonah's disobedience, he took the punishment for John Newton's transportation of thousands of slaves, and he took the punishment for the murder of every single person who went the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps. That is grace, simply the best example of what it means to be delivered from disobedience. Have you experienced it?
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