Change Reality

ask any teenager and its what they want. My reality is not right, it must be changed for me to be happy, have peace, joy, satisfaction, a good and full life. This change of reality doesn't have to be personal although many are, we want our present situation, or a part of it to change, yet we don't always know how to, and we look to other sources to guides us. But (and this is a separate post in itself) it really bothers me that certain tabloid papers (which will remain unnamed) and individuals seem to think our current generation are the first of the human race to have a selfish streak and that the main causes of our 'bad reality' are to do with young people. It so happens that many of the young people i know as well as wanting their own personal reality change want a more global reality change: make poverty history, help the homeless, stop global warming the list could go on. However the point I'm making is that we are not always satisfied with reality.


There must be more than what I have experienced, i look at it in the papers, in the magazines and even though these celebrities are falling apart, why is it i still want more. i used to watch this programme called 'changing rooms'. the idea was you let your neighbours or close friends into a room you wanted 'changed' and they would over a weekend change the room. But my question is: was it really changed? back then i loved it and i fell for it charm and sparkle and i remembered being horrified by some of the stories that came out after the series. Much of the work was done using MDF coverings which apparently in some houses werent lasting long. Its a bit like where Rebbecca Bloomwood in COAShopperholic tells us how store credit cards are like a knock-off cashmere sweater that is actually only 5% cashmere when you look at it more closely. Sometimes the changes we think will make our reality better, serve as a false reality.



So what are some of the 'reality changes' we look to. Well i think that many people would fall into at least one of these categories:

I want to be successful, if only i was more successful (powerful)

I want to be rich, then i would be happy

if only i was in a relationship, or if only they noticed me

If only i wasn't so stupid, or even if only i was not so intellectual

If only i was popular or noticed...by him, by her, by my parents, by them, by Simon cowell, by the world, if only...

But do these things really work? Do they actually change our reality, or are they just like a piece of MDF nailed up to disguise the real wall, the real happening in my life. id reality about the outside changing or about the inside of me being different, the real me being satisfied.

So what about global reality changers, Life would be better without war, poverty, abuse... can we change reality in this way or are we not enough as humans. i saw a sign today, a quote from Gandhi i think "Be the change you want to see in the world". i like, it sounds good, until you think what changes people might want to see, its like a magic stone being placed into the hand of powerful evil men. Can we as humans only go so far, and is our change selfish or selfless when we really think about it? If we could create a new reality, what would it look like? Would it serve you or others best? would you have to sacrifice anything to make it happen?


So the reason i write these... school. one reality many of you young people would like to change. Not everyday, maybe not even overall, but defiantly sometimes! Whether its homework, disputes with friends, teachers, exams bfs + gfs, parents.... you want the situation changed.

Jesus. Lets not pretend he makes things easier, he never promised us that one, but he did promise us he'd never leave us, even if we did feel like a sheep surrounded by wolves- lets not forget that!

Remembering. i think we forget much, we forget often, we forget truth. How is it, i can recite most of the words to lady gaga's poker face, but not remember the God of the Universe, is also Emmanuel, God with us. How can I forget the truths i know. I think we too often separate God as public at church but private in public. we talk often of evangelism and pray for it but we don't live it, or love it. I'm not sure that the early church worked that way! Yes yes i know, but THEY didn't have school to cope with, read the small print.... i think they had more than the worries we have at school. I'm rambling, Jesus lets go back to him, remember him, the one who 'changed reality' or at least changes our perspective of it. Maybe we should check our our situation with him and ask him for a new perspective.... (pt 2 to follow)

pleasing the father

I’ll put the link to the talk that inspired me for this up here when it goes live. "The Talk" click on sunday 1st feb.

I’ve just had an amazing revelation. I was chatting to a counsellor today and I suddenly felt God speak both through her and through his own internal voice saying “I don’t need to be pleased”. Why because he is already. The part about Jacob and Esau in this talk shows about how Jacob took Esau’s birthright (Genesis). To do this his mum hatched up a plan that made him smell and feel like Esau to a dying blind father. Jacob had to put on the skin of a dead goat to feel like his brother and make his father a good meal to please him. So what does that mean to me well?

1. Death gained Jacob his inheritance

It was the skin of a dead animal that made Jacob feels like Esau, he had to put on ‘New Clothes’ to gain the inheritance. For us, we have to put on the clothes of Christ, we become like Christ in his death and resurrection, and we are the aroma of Christ (we even smell like him!). And therefore we gain God’s blessing and Inheritance because he sees us as his son, perfect and without blemish.

2. Issac does not go back on his blessing

When he finds out Jacob is not Esau, he doesn’t change his mind and go back on the blessing and give it all to the elder son, no he does not change. Jacob gains the inheritance and blessing and keeps it, even though he didn’t deserve it. It’s the same with us

3. We don’t have to have mum hatch up a plan for us whereby we deceive God.

However, unlike Jacob. The Father, the one to give both the blessing and inheritance gave us the route to gain it. He gave us the new clothes and the dead animal (Christ) to cover us God is not deceived, he knows the plan exactly! He came up with it, and he will not suddenly catch us out and take away our inheritance. He is not deceived, dying or blind.

4. We don’t’ have to bring a meal to please God.

Jesus did that, He pleased the father, even before the cross. Before he did anything, when he was baptised the father spoke that he was pleased with him. And now we are in Christ, the father is pleased with us, before we did anything, whether we’ve stepped out in miracles, read the whole bible or not He is pleased with us. We do not need to bring anything to him, that’s been done, we will not be caught out, He is very much aware of who we are, but he sees us clothed in Christ and with us he is pleased.

Unexpected moments

In my work there are many unexpected moments, not always great(!) The day you turn up to the school and find they've forgotten your coming. The moments when you plan for a few and have a lot turn up. The moments where a year 7 suddenly turns to you and asks "whats a prostitute?" in front of everyone and you have to speak over muffled laughs from others with courtesy and coherence.

but those aren't the unexpected moments i would ask for prayer for...all of those happened in the last week, you have to just laugh at it as part of your coping! I've had 3 unexpected moments in the last 6 months. One was from a friend of a girl i vaguely knew, who wanted to talk to me about something, in the moment i thought nothing of it. What I heard her say,what she needed to say, was huge and it needed Jesus. the second UM was in a school, i was randomly pulled out of a meeting to talk to a 15 year old. Her story needed to be told, and it needed Jesus. And then just in the last two weeks i received a phone call, from what the girl was able to say i thought "God no, how can i cope with this?" but i don't have to cope...that's the point!! Its Jesus that 'copes' and much more!

Not to say that in all these Jesus was mentioned or even alluded to. He didn't need to be,think of his ministry, did He tell people who he was, hardly ever,instead people saw it, they worked it out (or rather it was revealed to them). I can be Jesus to them "Christ is in Me". Sometimes that means prayer and the gospel, but many times that means grieving with them, listening to their stories, holding them, cleaning them up,challenging them, presenting Christ, how Christ in his life presented himself.

Please pray this term is one of Unexpected moments

the other bit of John 4

John chapter 4 if often know as the passage with the women at the well, but as i discovered there is another part to it. this passage is well know, i just didn't know it was placed here! Its about the official son. Here an official here's Jesus (who he knows as the guy who turned water into wine) is back in town! His son is ill, to the point of death, the guy must be desperate, tearning his hair out, who does he turn to? well he finds Jesus and asks him to heal his son. Jesus tells him his son will live. this is healing words, not a prophecy, we know this cos when they guy gets home and finds his son recovering he asks the servents when did this happen. They tell him when he began to recover and it was the same time Jesus spoke these words.

Jesus has the power to speak life, of course, he was there in the begining speaking life, or infact he was the word (John 1). Now with the Holy Spirit in us "christ in us, the hope of glory" we have the ability to speak life, not just in physical terms (although this is true too), but speak life into all situations that require. Where do i need to speak life? Who do i know that needs life spoken into them. i mentor a girl in one of my schools that definatly needs life spoken into her existance! I pray Jesus will use me to speak life.

More so, where do i need to recieve Jesus' words, with fresh faith, and testify myself that they indeed give life?

I wanna be like Jesus

Jesus was to the people the coming messiah, yet his people didn’t receive or recognise him as God. Why well, they were expecting a man to be born, A king nonetheless who would help them defeat the countries that had oppressed them and give them new good lives. But what stood in front of them was a 30 year old son of a women who said she was a virgin when he was born, and had a carpenter as a father figure.He was from a town were like no one good comes from. He had no money as such, no beauty, hung out with down and outs, prostitutes and people that fish! But who gets the scriptures, and who obviously is not weak, because a weak person, you don’t conspire to kill!

this is the topic we are looking at in Abbey Schools lunchclub this term. I've never really thought about Jesus this way, i mean i know he was all this i just didn't think about it! Jesus had quite a lot to complain about or worry about, he could of had a million self esteem issue, low confidence...the list goes on!

How often do we (or I) go to God and ask him to remove these things, to help me with my self esteem etc... maybe i'm hitting at the wrong place. I want to be more like Jesus, how did He do it. Well it seems He just trusted in his Godly identity and gets on with it. These things are just facts about his life but not definers. If I wrote down who I am, I wonder what 'defining factor' i would put above the divine fact... i am saved and being transformed daily. Some of the definers fall away, but they never did for Jesus and nor did He ever ask them to be moved. Maybe thats why he can say Do no worry about tommorrow, or about anything... maybe one of the things people were scared off with him was that these things didn't define or limit him, maybe they were scared of the one thing that did define him...something led them to conspire to kill!

In Abbey this term i would love them to get that God is above their identity crisis. That he can heal it of course but that he want us more to lay ahold of the things of the kingdom...here's to 2009 and becomming more like Jesus

Gods promises

i was reading today about Gods promises, how they last and aer unchanging. i began to think about how as an intstantateous people we expect it to happen now, if not last minute. but often God does not work in that. often my character needs to be sorted first. on casualty this week (yep so no-one else probably watches it) one doctor went for a postition. She didn't get the job and asked why, as she had all the skills for it, yet she was told she did not have the character. As i thought about all this God spoke to me and asked me ""what do i have in my hands" not literally but what in this present time am i being given to work with? He spoke about concetrating on that and not looking too much to the future. i realsied that though i continue to ask God to speak to me, he has spoken to me already and i can cling on to those promises as much as i can rely on him speaking again. i don't just chuck them away becasue they haven't happened in my timespan. I need to get with some good people and pray and test these promises...waht promises has God given you?

Using culture

Some song lyrics you could use for discussion:

I'm out on my own again
Face down in the porcelain
Feeling so high but looking so low
Party favors on the floor
Group of girls banging on the doorS
o many new fair-weather friends ooo

Have you ever been so lost
Known the way and still so lost

Caught in the eye of a hurricane
Slowly waving goodbye like a pageant parade
So sick of this town pulling me down
My mother says I should come back home but
Can't find the way cause the way is gone
So if I pray am I just sending words into outer space
Another night waiting for someone to take me home
have you ever been so lost
Is there a light
Is there a light
At the end of the road
I'm pushing everyone away
'Cause I can't feel this anymore
Can't feel this anymore
~Katy Perry
do we ever feel this way?

Sometimes is never quite enough, If you're flawless, then you'll win my love Don't forget to win first place Don't forget to keep that smile on your face Be a good boy Try a little harder You've got to measure up And make me prouder How long before you screw it upHow many times do I have to tell you to hurry up With everything I do for you The least you can do is keep quietBe a good girl, You've gotta try a little harderT hat simply wasn't good enough To make us proud I'll live through you I'll make you what I never was If you're the best, then maybe so am I Compared to him compared to her I'm doing this for your own damn good You'll make up for what I blew What's the problem... why are you crying! Be a good boy Push a little farther now That wasn't fast enough To make us happy We'll love you just the way you are if you're perfect.

~alanis morrisette

is this how we feel about God

Light of the World?

i wrote this a few weeks back and forgot to upload it! :s
Matt 5 v 13-16

this passage has come up a few times in different CU's in the area this month, i thought i'd throw in my 2pence and end with some prayer points for you!

i would assume by the context of where this story is placed in the bible, Jesus is primarily teaching to Jewish people here. Light of the world is therefore not an uncommon phrase for them they are, "as the gd book says...", meant to be the light of the world (or the light to the gentiles). i'm not sure bt i wonder if Jesus is making humour here, but the kind of humour that makes you laugh until you think about it and realize its actually also a serious statement! ~ in every joke there is truth. Only Jesus isn't auditioning for the comedy store here, he means it seriously, he is saying it precisely to make you think!

The Jews had been hiding their light under a bowl, nations/gentiles did not look at them and see a reflection of God, they did not see what they did (their good works) and praise Yahweh.

we laugh, we look back and we think silly jews, how did they get something so clear so wrong. What were they doing putting their lamps under bowls? but let the serious hit your heart, how many times do we, in school or out at the weekend, do this too? If we know Christ, love him and put him first in our life then we are lights. We've just got to check what we are shining out sometimes. When i was a teenager this put a lot of pressure on me, i thought i had to do good works and be shiny and good and never mess up because had to be shining Jesus. I piled on condemnation and forgot about God's grace, and loving him and deepening that love, and most importantly the fact that i needed him to do it for me- to help me shine, because no i couldnt do it on my own!! We need first to seek the source of the light, daily preferably bfore we see another person....we rekindle the flame, saturate ourselves in grace, throw of legalism or religious acts and thoughts, and deepen our love. if not actually our good works don't give glory to God. The way they give glory is through us depending on him for these good works. when we admit we can't do it on our own then it is him who gets the glory. Finding it hard is ok, as long as we look to him rather than away from him.

Maybe that was where israel failed in their "lampness", they got obsessed with the good works bit and less obsessed with the good God of life, grace and mercy! Or maybe they were scared of what people might think of the light. For example Abe tells lies because he thinks that he might get killed if he doesn't (even though God has promised protection for him) another reason could be that they were unaware they even had light to show people, they didn't see its purpose for other surly it was an inner thing. Finally maybe busyness of life meant they just forgot to fill up on God. Sometimes thats when it becomes religion, when we are too busy God and try and fit in a bit of prayer or bible reading etc.

Do any of these resonate with us? Can we be too busy, or obsessed with good works and not God. Maybe we just need to find sometime to get before him, meditate on his character and learn to lean on it, even if its above our understanding.

In school we've got such an opportunity to shine, and let others give glory to God. When we draw from him for strength to shine for him then people will notice, maybe people we weren't expecting! Slow down, get before God daily, don't rush him, praise him, petition him and draw power from him!

ARE YOU READY TO RELIGHT YOUR FIRE??

Plz pray or these teens to do this, the school timetable is becoming so much tighter with more homework hours etc, please pray for time for them to get before God.

we don't do sex round here

Mid-to-late adolescence is characterized by a need to establish sexual identity through becoming comfortable with one's own body and sexual feelings. Through romantic friendships, dating, and experimentation, adolescents learn to express and receive intimate or sexual advances in a comfortable manner that is consistent with internalized values.Young people who do not have the opportunity for such experiences may demonstrate difficulty in establishing intimate relationships into adulthood.

I've been studying adolencence through the last couple of weeks and today, while looking at physical and beahvioural changes I stumbled upon this. ^^

While we must not be dictated to by the world but instead by the word of God, i also believe that we need to take seriously what the world says and hold it next to scripture to find out what to do.

Until the early 1900's the concept of teenager didn't really exist, which leaves us with a problem it seems as there is no theology of adolescence in the bible! But human nature is iin the bible and the way this comment above is written strikes me as its trying to say, this is how it is...end of.

This bothers me somewhat, i wonder what our reaction is:
1. Utter Rubbish, we can control it
2. Well teens will have to go trhough it then!
You aee i think on the one hand, because of respect for God (i'm talking about CHristian kids here btw) we want them to not 'experiment' (because we believe Gods way is the true way!) but on the other hand if "Young people who do not have the opportunity for such experiences may demonstrate difficulty in establishing intimate relationships into adulthood" we don't want that either.

i think we can so often just go down the NO SEX route with teenager. For many of the youth leaders i know part of this is because we have experienced something of it ourselves and have now made the choice not to go there, we want to 'save them' from making our mistakes!

MISTAKE #1 We are not saviours! - we must remember that is Jesus! So lets point them to The saviour in our advice!

Also though we often teach the knowledge without the love or the love without the knowledge. E.G Jesus loves you if you love him you'll choose not to do it v's Christians don't have sex because the bible says... What happens when they are provided with the opportunity for physical 'love'- if you love me then you will choose to do it. (I'm not saying this is every teens experience!). In a time of working out who they are and what they believe, maybe they will choose to do it, maybe they will choose not to! However if just given knowledge without love, it becomes a text book answer. lately i'v spoken to many christian teens who know they want to save themselves for marriage, but don't know why >>> that bothers me most!

i think we need to think about the following when begining to approach this subject
1. Teenagers rebellion: Many teenagers need to seperate from 'authority' in order to establish their identity. We may not be the role models they seek. In fact they often seek peers as role models (we are not there peers and we shouldn't aim to be). therefore with this in mind we need to seek ways to suppport, encourage and teach though being authority but not veing authority and not being a peer. we also need to take our hurts to God (cos the teens will hurt and disapoint us, its the nature of humanity) and not take it out on the teens.
2.Teens 'smell' hypocrisy: They just do! and so we need to be a people who love and persue God in the same way we want them too (which i hope is honestly, genuinely, righteously and passionately!) When we mess up, we need to 'fess up with God quickly, and i believe with those above us in authority, and we need to let Gods mercy and Grace cover us >> then move on!
3. Teens want to know why: Not just youth workers but as a people of God we must know why we believe certain things! And not just 'Because the Bible tells us so'. Added to this we must know the physical wordly side of things 'why do i feel this way', 'why does this happen' 'can i control this' 'why should i want to'
4. Be true: so many of us (incl me) treat the past in the wrong way, we either are scared of it or glory in it. I believe someone who has had multiple partners is just as able to answer these things as someone who is a virgin. Lets not glory in our past, nor be scared of it. When we are asked a question we answer truthfully (however gage the situation for appropriateness). Lets also be true to how it feels being a teenager, it does feel like your in love, or perhaps that your life is not worth living without him, remember!! Try not to laugh(!), LISTEN, give truthful wisdom and direct to Jesus
5. Establishing ID: so many questions!! i think the key to it is to listen to them, let them work out the answers for themselves but guide them into truth! They can form intimate relationships without experiemntation, how> by experiencing an intimate relationship with him. One of the teens i worked with once was bought up in the faith, but by 11 had her own personal and intimate relationship with God, its been a joy to watch her grow into adulthood, still persuing him. Yeah she's had issues and trouble but having had an intimate relationship with HIM, she has grown through it all. i do not for one minute believe she will have 'Issues' with intimacy when she meets her man!
5. They will want to experiment: I think its a given, lets respond appropriatly
6. Teach theology of sex at an early age! : Lets not be scared of teaching them about singleness, marrage and sex in an appropriate way! Schools start teaching it from year 3 at least.
7. Support Parents: especially if its there first child! Its a really hard time fkr them. Let us not drag the children from their parents and become 'youth leader parents' lets enocourage them as a family.
8. Gods grace is enough: For us if we mess up and for them. We must reflect this
9.PRAY: Should have been first on the list really! keep praying for them!

Are you listening

If i could grab my webcam and just broadcast ME to the world, what would i say? Probably nothing to be honest, well maybe some philosophical rubbish that would be better in a christmas cracker but really i prefer writing. I' not the kind of girl who likes her inmost thoughts and feelings and cries to be heard. Even tho i often like to talk, vulnerablity is not a virtue i seek, nor outwardly desire, yet, deep within me there is a cry, a real desperation that someone would listen, understand and then fight my battles for me.

i think i'd prefer a big brother diary room, only without the voice and the idea that anyone else would hear (mainly i like the big comfy chair). i need to relax if i'm gonna be vulnerable, am i sitting comfortably? then i'll begin...

only i wont, even there could i say it? could i voice that fear? that desire, that need that is so deep, i' not sure of the words, can i even pray, the tears start, i want to leave get out of here, i so want to be heard but i can't say what i need to say. But you keep me in and you wait. Its not like i'm forced to stay, i can get up and leave but you, you are here and i know you will wait as long as i need.

I've been back into the psalms a little this month, and i got stuck into ones like 18, 34, where God hears our cry and acts! Psalm 139, he knows what that small voice within me is trying to say. Then psalm 19, the heavens declare his glory...in all that is in my head, have i noticed he was always there, waiting...i listen so often to advice from others, why not him! He knows deeply what it is to not be listened too. So i hear him, his call, and i rest with him, and i begin...

...only i don't, i'm distracted, i must train myself because i know, his words, his voice when i hear the will deal with what i need to be heard. are you with me?

and so May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20


So what does that mean for us as Christs Amabassadors? We need to be people with great listening skills, who listen both to God and to Man. Listening to peoples stories, connecting, acting on their behalf, pointing them to the one who always hears?


i'm not sitting comfortably, i'm searching for stories, shall we begin?