BCGC Youth Group

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T18:06:00.002Z

Why do we celebrate Easter? What's so exciting about it since it's basically a lot to do with a gruesome execution of an innocent man?

We looked at the first part today, the Good Friday part and next week we'll be looking at what happened next... So today, we [only] read 127 verses from Luke's Gospel (chapters 22-23) - thanks again Andrew, for the very eloquent reading. We know who to ask, next time we stumble across 127 verses that need reading aloud... :)

We took a look at the different eye-witnesses around the "occurences" (good one Si) on Good Friday - the day Jesus was crucified. We looked at the stories those people could tell, and turned them into two news reports.. There were some inspired things in there, some great questions our budding reporters asked their witnesses, and some illuminating answers given. Well done group 1 for getting just that bit ahead, partly because group 2 slipped in a few random, irrelevant and not-quite-accurate details :P

So.. What did the eye-witnesses see? And how would you tell the events of Good Friday if someone asked you? How well do you know what happened, and what it all meant? What does Easter mean to you? Would you be a good witness, if someone asked you questions about what happened and how you know about Jesus? Would what you have to say make people want to keep listening, or would you make them want to switch off? Have another read of Luke 22-23 and get to grips with the story... BUT pray first, ask that God makes his words come alive to you, and open your heart to hear him speak to you!

And... next week, we look at what happened next... have a read through Luke 24 (let's say it doesn't quite have 127 verses, so you should be more than fine reading it...)

Have a good break too.. God bless you all.

Amazing Grace!

2008-03-20T18:24:00.004Z

Last week, we took a short break from the Book of Acts to look at a more "modern" witness - someone who finished the Christian race in the 19th Century! His name was John Newton - he was the guy that wrote the famous hymn "Amazing Grace". For those of you who have seen the film Amazing Grace, about the abolition of slavery in Britain, John Newton was also a mentor of William Wilberforce.

John Newton had a varied life, mostly centred around the sea for the first half of it - he eventually became a slave ship captain. One day, in his desperation during a very dangerous storm, this atheist cried out "Lord have mercy!" and he and his ship were delivered from the storm. John Newton was surprised at himself for having called out to God, but eventually he came to put his faith in God. It took him a while to realise that slavery was a bad thing though. He was to say later, that he didn't consider himself to be a true Christian until later, when he realised the true error of his ways.

John Newton eventually became a popular preacher of his time, urging people to turn away from just religion of traditions and really live out their faith in their lives. Letting God transform him, he eventually wrote about his old days of slave trading and supported the parliamentarian, Wilberforce, in his fight against slavery.

We were reminded from John Newton's life, that God sending Jesus to die for us was purely 'grace' - something we did not deserve and could never earn. We can never understand why God would have such mercy on us, but this grace should change the way we live altogether! Just like John Newton though, the work that God has to do in our hearts to make us more like Christ, will take a lifetime... let us all keep opening our hearts more and more to him, letting God change us.

Sometimes we think we know it all, and then we don't learn. Sometimes we soak in everything we are told and think it's all we need to know, but God wants our hearts! Believing in Jesus isn't about what we know, or how many songs we can sing, or how flowery our prayers are... it's about admitting that we are NOT good enough, haven't got a clue, and can do nothing to make us acceptable before God - we are totally at his mercy, and thankful that he is merciful...and we accept Jesus as the only person who can die for us, so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be accepted before God as his children...

Being a Christian isn't about getting the highest 'levels' in Bible knowledge, or about being able to remember how to pronounce "Stephen" properly in English.. :P It's all about grace. And this is the verse John Newton based the idea of Amazing Grace on:
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am
I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this
far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken
about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I
were the most exalted of men, O LORD God." [1 Chronicles
17:16-17]
Let us remember this as we approach Easter... Let's pray that God will renew our minds and our attitudes to make them us more and more like Jesus... and let's be thankful and celebrate the fact that, through Jesus, we have a way to be close to God :)

Food...or not?

2008-02-24T18:25:00.004Z

Today... we looked at Acts 6 this week in two sections.

In the first half of the chapter, we read about a dilemma facing the apostles and discovered that...
1. ...sometimes, Satan will try to distract us from what God has called us to do, with something that isn't necessarily bad. The apostles were called to pray and preach the gospel, but the distraction was that some of the needy widows weren't getting enough food. If we read the OT, we will see that God is very passionate about our duty to look after needy people, so this was a real good thing to sort out! Thankfully, they were alert, and realised that they needed to give the job to Christians who were also filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, to look after the needs of the widows. Otherwise they risked getting distracted from doing what they were called to do. As a result, in Acts 6:7, we see that the word of God spread and more people became Christians!
2. ...as Christians, if we serve God together, there isn't one task that is greater than another: serving the widows was as important to the spread of the gospel, as preaching the word of God and praying. It all had to be done, but different Christians were called to do different things. So, pressing buttons on the computer obviously helps our church services run more smoothly, but it isn't more important than looking after newcomers, setting up the chairs or helping to clean up or put things away...and in all of our different roles, we will have the opportunity to show people the way to salvation. Also, just because you think people can't see what you are doing, it doesn't mean that you should do it randomly, because you are serving God in everything you do (not just in church!) Look at it another way: just because you are not top of the science class, it doesn't mean that you should just copy someone's homework and not bother making your own effort!

In the first half of the chapter we were also introduced to Stephen. He was one of the 7 men chosen to help look after the widows. In the second half of the chapter, we saw that using God's gifts and his witnessing about Jesus was getting him into trouble with people who didn't want the gospel to be spread.
At first they tried to argue with him, but his wisdom was too irresistable and they didn't get very far. So...they started lies about him, which gave them a good (fake) reason to seize him and get him into big trouble...
The people accused Stephen of blaspheming against God, talking about destroying the temple (which represented the presence of God) and disrespecting God's law (which represented the will and heart of God).

Prepare chapter 7 for next week with this in mind, and we will look at it in more detail about what happens next. And for those of you who already know the story of Stephen, make sure you READ the passage very carefully, because next week's session will not just go like this: "Hi, today we are going to finish the story of Stephen, the guy that got stoned and became the first Christian martyr. Bye!"

Ta-da! Update finished for this week :)

Update on Acts!

2008-02-21T18:52:00.003Z

Hi guys...
Sorry it's been a while since the last post. Hope that you are still reading...
Do allow me to update you on what we have looked at so far in 2008:

We started off the New Year, looking at the command that Jesus left the disciples with at the end of Matthew 28:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
We looked at how we can obey this command confidently, because Jesus has said that he has ALL the authority.

We continued on this theme, looking at the passage in Hebrews 12:1-3. This was an introduction to the rest of the term: there are lots of witnesses who have gone before us, who have proven God to be faithful and stayed faithful to God. We have looked at some of these OT characters in the past year or two and so we have been moving on into the NT to look at the witnesses in the early church.

We began our journey through the book of Acts by focusing on Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8.
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
We looked at how the power of the Holy Spirit enables us as Christians to live lives that people often will not see as powerful, but will powerfully show people the truth of the gospel.

We then looked at our first witness of the term over three sessions: Peter.
We looked at how Peter was changed and came to rely on God and how the Holy Spirit enabled him to use his talents in a way that would give glory to God and not himself. Here’s a summary on what we discovered about Peter.

- Before denying Jesus: Peter was proud, fiery, passionate. (His pride/fire was based on himself and what he thought he was capable of)

- After denying Jesus: Peter was discouraged, ashamed, upset. (He meant well, but failed to be what he thought he was able to be)

- After receiving the Holy Spirit: Peter was bold, passionate, wiser. (Jesus showed Peter gentle forgiveness and gave him a job to do. Peter realised he couldn’t do it. The Holy Spirit taught Peter to understand why Jesus had to live and die on earth, opened his mind to the fact that God wanted EVERYONE to know this and gave Peter the power/strength to witness to what he discovered!)

Last week, we had a look at Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37, to see what we could learn from the early Christians. We will continue to learn from them in the next few weeks!

Well… that’s powerful stuff! If you haven’t read it for yourself, we’ve just got through the first 12 chapters of Acts. We’re going to back track a little bit to look at a couple of other characters before moving on…so you won’t be lost, if you catch up with your reading!

Let my people go, so that they may worship me!

2007-10-29T16:17:00.000Z

- God wanted the Israelites to leave Egypt so that they could worship him. So that the relationship between God and his people could be re-established. So.. God gave instructions for a temple called the Tabernacle to be built. (You can find out all about that in the rest of Exodus!) Here, God would focus his presence among his people. In this way, God would live among them.
- However, they could not just go and see him any time they wanted... otherwise they would DIE!!! This was because even God's people were full of sin, and they couldn't keep his commands right from the start. But God wanted to make a way for them to draw close to him. So he made up a plan where instead of them dying for their sin, animals could take the punishment in their place.

Even so, only one man could go near God... and only once a year at that! On the Day of Atonement. (The Hebrew name for this day is Yom Kippur יוֹם כִּפּוּר ) Briefly, this is what happened on that day:

the high priest had to wear special clean clothes after making sure he'd washed himself specially.
he had to make 3 different burnt offerings for the sins of himself and God's people's.
the sins of the people were confessed over the head of goat number 2, and it was sent away from the people in a solitary place in the desert. This symbolised them getting rid of the sin and this goat is called the "scapegoat".
there was a lot of blood and burning involved. Plus, the high priest also had to burn so much incense so that when he stood in God's presence he wouldn't actually be able to see God's glory.

If you haven't read it yet, have a look! So, that's where we left the Israelites for now. However, we did jump ahead and take a peek at the New Testament, where the writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 10:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Phew! We don't have to do all the sacrifice stuff anymore, because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. He was without sin, and paid for everything so we don't have to do the daily sacrifices, the yearly sacrifices and so on, just to get to see a shadow of God. We get to come right before God and pray directly to him, so let's not waste that opportunity!
Let's encourage each other to draw close to God this week.. I hope more of you will have done the prep by last week.. don't forget your Bibles! :)

THE STORY SO FAR…

2007-10-23T15:30:00.000Z

...some highlights from the last few weeks…

Genesis 1 It only took 6 days!
Genesis 3 Oops. BIG mistake.
Genesis 4 Caught red-handed
Genesis 6 Noah’s new hobby mocked
Genesis 11 Je ne comprends pas! Was hast du gesagt? Que pasa?!
Genesis 12 God talks to Big Daddy
Genesis 15 God’s Big Deal
Genesis 24 Love at first sight
Genesis 27 Jacob the trickster
Genesis 29 Head over heels - the tables turn…
Genesis 31 F u g i t i v e…
Genesis 34 Crime and PuNiShMeNt
Genesis 37 Colourcoated slave becomes prime minister

Exodus 1 God’s people enslaved
Exodus 2 Basket baby adopted by Pharoah’s daughter
Exodus 7 The 10 Horrors
Exodus 12 The P a s s o v e r
Exodus 14 Pharaoh’s army drowned in defeat
Exodus 19 Boom! G O D 'S ON THE MOUNTAIN!!
Exodus 20 The 10 CoMmAndMeNts

In the 19th chapter of Exodus, God promises to bless the people if they obey him fully. He reinforces his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the first 3 generations of God's people) that he will be with them wherever they go. In chapter 20, God gives them some of the most famous rules in the Bible, to show them how to live in the way that pleases him. The rest of Exodus goes into more detail about further rules that God gives his people.

If you want more rules, just read the next book... at first, it may seem like a lot, but have a look at the details.. some of them are pretty interesting or ...you might think, weird! We're going need to read chapter 16 of Leviticus before next week's sesh... see you then!

Basically yeah....

2007-10-16T18:03:00.001Z

This week we read TWO Bible passages... Genesis 17:1-8 and Galatians 3:6-14.

The whole theme for this week was PROMISE or COVENANT. God made an agreement, called a covenant with Abram. He promised that he would lead him to a new land, make his descendents into a great numerous nation and that all nations would be blessed through him. God chose Abram and said that he would be his God and Abram and his descendents would be God's people....

God was pleased with Abram's faith - if we use the words in Genesis 1, it was as if God saw Abram's faith and it was good. We looked at the book of Galatians where Paul was writing to the church there and telling them, look at Abraham (God gave Abram a new name remember?) God was please with him because he trusted God's promise. He trusted in God. He obeyed God because of his faith...

Some people in the church of Galatia were being told that they needed to follow the Jewish laws in order to be saved. Some people were preaching that believing in Jesus wasn't enough. Paul was telling them, hang on a minute... it's because we couldn't obey the law, because of our sin, that God sent Jesus to die for us in the first place. Trying to please God by our own actions isn't enough - it won't please God because we can never be perfect, we already messed up!! Paul was putting them straight - look at Abraham, God was pleased with him because he didn't try to do anything from his own strength, but he trusted God would keep his word, so he left his home country and followed God's leading...

So,... how about you? Do you believe that God can be trusted? Is God's word true? Will he change his mind and decide that actually sending Jesus was just a joke? When we die will he actually laugh in our face and say, haha, I tricked you? OR.... is God for real... maybe what he says is true and we can trust him... and if we don't... we can't do anything to save ourselves...?

You decide... God promised, and he kept his promise to Abraham... do you believe that he will keep his promise to you?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

...and the mess-up continues!

2007-10-08T15:43:00.000Z

This week, you told the stories.

Chapter 4: Cain & Abel - the story of the first murder. One brother got jealous and killed the other. He was sent away from his home and from God. Evidence of a breakdown in all relationships with people and God. Oh dear...

Chapters 6-9: The flood - it got so bad, that God had to destroy it all and give us a fresh start. Noah and his family were spared, so were loads of random animals... then, the rain stopped and the flood eventually dried up and God made a promise - not to destroy the earth by flood again. He set up the rainbow as a reminder of the promise.
Some of you got really excited there: Yeah, God isn't going to flood the earth again, he's going to send FIRE!! That was my reaction too - yep, it's that bad, that serious. Because after the flood, we got a new start but...hey we messed up again, BIG TIME!!! (Ring any bells?) But have you ever thought about this: isn't God really taking a loooooooooong time with this fire business??? We talked about God's love and his patience with us... he really is taking his time, so we have a chance to get back with him.
Simon, you asked a good question about this story that we didn't get round to answering: why did God tell Noah to build an ark?? I wonder if you guys read it again, thinking about how we talked about God wanting to give people chances...can you figure out some good reasons why God might have told Noah to build this massive floating zoo? Ideas below in backchat please!

Chapter 11:1-9: The Tower of Babel - people just don't learn do they? They go and make the same mistake again. This time, they even explain what they're trying to do. Let's build this huge tower to reach up to the heavens and make ourselves look really smart and powerful. Let's see if we ain't better than God is what they were basically saying.
So... God confused them with loads of different languages and they had to scatter - the tower was not finished because they couldn't understand each other. (God is so good - if he did something else to separate people, Deb would probably have no skills to speak of hahaha...)
Some of you wondered how people even managed to ever communicate with each other again? How do people learn each others' languages? People keep building skyscrapers now, why doesn't God just knock em all down? Some of you have ideas for the answers to these questions... we'd like to read them - chat back below!

So, you came up with some good stories... you also came up with a load of questions. We answered some of them in youth group. But not all... pray about them. The Bible doesn't give answers to everything - e.g. what colour were the chickens back in the day? Some things we just won't know, you'll have to keep them in mind to ask God hehe.. but bottom line is... God made a promise... can you trust him? Even if you don't know all the details and all the answers to your questions?

The way we messed up…BIG TIME!

2007-10-02T11:08:00.000Z

You came up with the following statements to summarise what we discovered last week about God's perfect plan for creation:
- God is INFINITE. He is ABOVE all. God is the CREATOR of the world.
- God was PLEASED with all that he had made.
- We were made in God’s IMAGE. God told us to RULE over what he had made.
- God RESTED on the 7th day.

Some words to describe the relationship between…
- God & human beings: love, protective, friend
- Man & woman: sexual partner, friend, marriage
- Humans & creation: looking after, rule

We focused on Genesis chapter 3 this week and learnt about how we messed up BIG TIME. We came up with the following points from the story of "the fall":

1. The serpent…
- Twisted God’s words. He made Eve doubt what God said.
- Satan lied about God’s intentions – it worked :(

2. Adam and Eve messed up because…
- They disobeyed God. They betrayed God's trust (This was a really nice answer from Winnie - betrayal is one of the most painful things we will ever experience - just think how God felt for a moment...)
- Gen 3:6 – they didn’t just break the ONLY rule that God made, the made up their own rules. They ignored God’s authority and broke away from a relationship with God.

Get this: God made ONE rule... and Adam and Eve managed to break it!!!!!!!

3. Adam and Eve’s sin affected their relationships immediately…
- They hid from God because they were afraid and ashamed – the perfect relationship was destroyed.
- The battle of the sexes started! Adam and Eve started squabbling, and blaming everyone else. They didn’t want to take responsibility for their own actions.

4. God’s punishment meant that…
- The woman would suffer pain in childbirth.
- The man would rule over the woman instead of leading and caring for her in a loving way.
- The woman would be driven by her sexual desire for her husband, and also a desire to control. They stop being a perfect team, working together.
- The man’s work becomes a struggle to control creation instead of the harmonious relationship with it intended by God.
- Death starts to affect human beings, physically and spiritually.

Think about this question then… How does sin affect your life?
Answer:.....?

Don't despair....there is hope, even in Genesis!
- We read v.15 – this already points to Jesus…
- We read 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 together. Just because us humans messed up, God wasn’t going to give up on us. In fact, his plan was to become a human and provide the perfect answer so that we could come back to him through Jesus Christ!

----

Thanks to everyone who read the passage beforehand and prepared their answers to the questions. Special thanks to Gary who couldn’t make it, and emailed his answers!
May I encourage you all to read the passages in advance at home. Pray before you read, ask God to help you understand and quieten yourself down.
Put away everything that might distract you… The stories may be familiar, but the Bible isn't a textbook with lots of questions and then the correct answers at the back. God’s word is ALIVE and if you read it for yourself first and focus, don’t be surprised if God shows you something new...

We are looking forward to hearing how God’s been speaking to you this week. Yep – there is youth group this coming Sunday – even though it’s the first Sunday of the month!

The way God made it!

2007-09-28T16:27:00.000Z

Last week, you impressed us with your extensive knowledge of some of the main events and stories recorded in the Bible. You already know a lot, and you managed to find the Bible passages (remember the bookmarks?) really quickly. You impressed us with your determination to get to grips with what's in the Bible, and we're off to a flying start - I wonder if you will all know the books of the Bible by the end of this series? How about that for a challenge? :)

This week we talked about the following themes in Genesis chapters 1 and 2:
1 - God himself:
§ God is eternal.
§ God is transcendent above all. Unlike some religions that believe everything is a part of God, the Bible teaches us that God is above and greater than everything. He is the creator of everything – God alone is worthy of worship: Rev 4:11
§ When we look at Genesis, we see that God was pleased with creation. God is the creator of our physical world, and he saw that it was good – he’s as interested in our bodies and the world we live in, as he is in our souls and our spiritual health.

2 - Made in God’s image:
§ When we read Genesis 1:27 we see that we may seem to be very similar to animals, but we are not just animals, we were made in God’s image.
§ In Gen 1:26 God sets us above the rest of creation – not to abuse it. As God’s image-bearers, we are called to rule in a loving way as he does. We have been put here to "take care of" creation.

3 - The climax of creation:
§ Gen 2:1-3: climax of creation is the 7th day (not end of ch1) – no end to 7th day!
§ God’s creation is perfect. He has been resting from his work of creation ever since. OK, he's working to keep it all running smoothly, but he's not giving the trees a little tweak here or the dogs a little tweak there etc.

4 - Perfect relationships:
We started to look at the relationship between God and people... check that you have worked to complete last week's prep - here are a few tips...
- God & human beings – God’s rules for the good of people (Gen 2:17)
- Man & woman – Gen 2:25 humans enjoys marital bliss, complete intimacy without fear/guilt
- Humans & creation – Gen 2:15 following God’s plan to take care of creation.

So... have you done prep 2? Have you unearthed your Bible? Have you read Genesis 3? What are your personal thoughts so far, about what you have read?
I hope you are thinking about all of this for yourselves, because the aim of this term's series, is to equip you for reading the Bible more for yourselves!

The Bible

2007-09-15T14:49:00.000Z

We are beginning a series on the Bible and what it’s all about. This past week we looked at the following five points:

The Bible is one book
Have any of you read the Bible all the way through – word for word? Not skipping details, not missing out a Psalm here or there, or a minor prophet, or maybe one of the gospels because they all seem about the same anyway?

How relevant is the Bible today? How is Daniel walking around in the fire relevant to today’s world? Do you remember what you read?

The Bible is a collection of different writings
We looked at how the contents of our Bibles can be divided up roughly into these types of writings – there are different ways people will do this, but let’s keep it simple for now:

Old Testament (OT for short)
History (Genesis to Esther)
Poetry (Job to Song of Songs)
Prophecy (Isaiah to Malachi)

New Testament (NT for short)
Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
Acts (Luke’s history of the spread of the gospel in the first century)
Epistles (Romans to Jude)
Revelation (John’s vision from God)

The Bible has one author
The Bible was written by human writers. Their personalities and cultural backgrounds even come through in the way they write. However, God’s Holy Spirit made sure that everything was exactly as he intended. Just as Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, so the Bible is both a human and divine book. Amazing!

The Bible has one subject
So the Bible has one Author, it also has one subject: Jesus Christ and the salvation offered through him - even way back in the OT.

For a reminder, have a read of Luke 24:27, 44 again. We see that God makes a promise in the OT about Jesus and fulfils it in the NT!

The Bible isn’t just a reference book or a collection of books
So, we wouldn’t just dip into the Bible at random and quote something out of it without knowing what that section is talking about.
We also wouldn’t just read certain books in the Bible and skip out others, and then assume we know what the Bible is all about.

Here are some questions about NT themes that cannot be answered if you don’t read the OT:
What does it mean that
· Jesus is the Christ?
· Jesus is the Passover Lamb?
· Jesus is the Son of Abraham and David?
· Jesus is the Good Shepherd?

Hopefully by the time we’ve finished this series, you’ll have a better idea of how the Bible is mapped out, so that when you land in any part of it, you’ll understand better where you’ve come from and where you’re going. Hopefully you’ll be able to see more clearly how each part points to Jesus Christ and the salvation plan he accomplished.

Memory verse: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

sky diving...!

2007-07-24T10:57:00.000Z

Ok, I'd like to focus your minds on adventure this month: this past Sunday, our focus was Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Firstly, see if you can't make that one of your mottos - really commit it to memory. It's one of the first Bible verses I ever learnt, and has given me a lot of good reminders over the years. It has a promise too - if I were to say in a nutshell what it meant to me, I'd say God says if I let him take charge of EVERYTHING, he'll take care of EVERYTHING. When I think of letting God take everything off my hands I have this really peaceful feeling as if he's carrying me - even when the straight path he's shown me really feels like an uphill climb. That's because, I know that he's able to carry me through (remember the action song He's Able?) because he's proven himself more times than I can remember.

I meant to quote you this verse on Sunday, from Jeremiah 29:11. It was something God said to the Israelites he allowed to be captured and taken into exile by the enemy:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God was making promises in a bleak time. The people had turned against him, but he was still working on bringing them back to him.

So, here's the challenge: decide this week, which path of faith you are going to choose

Are you going to choose to put your faith only in yourself - trust yourself and what you can do?
Are you going to decide to put your complete trust in God? With all your heart? Even if you don't know where he'll lead you or what he has in his plans for you? Will you commit all your abilities and limitations to him and let him use you?

Decide who's more trustworthy this week, and make a decision - and commit to stick by it. I hope you choose the second option. Pray about your decision and ask God to help you. You might feel like a wimp (I know I am one!), other people might think you're a failure, but God sees your heart and knows your potential - because he knows that HE can work through you!

Let me end with a few favourite encouraging verses. Hold onto them, when you pray you can use them, when you feel weak may the Holy Spirit remind you of God's words. The more Bible you learn, the more God can speak to you from it even when you're not reading - his word is ALIIIIIVE! :)

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Have a blessed week...you remain in our prayers!

P.S. Sorry Jacky (Jacky C/K?)... the topic after Ruth was controlling your anger. In your anger do not sin: we looked at how our anger can be good for motivating us to do good (for example, when we see people being taken advantage of or bullied, we might be motivated to do something to help; or when we get angry with ourselves for being lazy, we might be motivated to get off our backsides and do some work!) We looked at how we need to not hurt people and lose our tempers and let ourselves be controlled by our anger so that we do what we know that God doesn't want us to do though. One tip we took from the Bible was in that verse: "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27) Make sure we deal with our anger and don't take it to bed at night. Forgive or repent before God and whoever/whatever angered us - deal with it carefully before God at the earliest time, so that Satan cannot use it against us or to make us sin against God and others.

Ruth

2007-07-04T16:09:00.000Z

Right, this is going to be brief and to the point - yeah right, hahahaha!

We're back, and just a quick reminder of what we looked at last month: Marriage and decisions!!! Hehehe, yep - something to bear in mind even though you are all so young for a little while longer!

We started off by looking at the verse that's often read at weddings, from Genesis 2, that sets out God's "blueprint" for marriage: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. We saw how, God intends that if we are to get married, ourself and our spouse will be so joined together, it'd take some violent force to separate us. Of course, we know that we are full of sin, and we have already failed in God's high expectations of us all over the place. Following God in the area of relationships is not any easier than any of the others, although people around us and the media often want us to believe so. All the more reason to keep trusting in God and following his path for us, if we want to get anywhere near what blessings he has in store for us! We looked at lots of verses in Proverbs about choosing the right person, and how important it is, unless you want to live in the desert or in a corner of the attic! So, start praying, and asking God to help you be wise in this area of your life, if you haven't already... and ask God to keep your future spouse wise too, in the decisions they are making now...

We looked at the book of Ruth the next week. We saw the story of a woman who chose to follow God even though it meant that she would leave her home country, her old ways, her own people. We saw how she trusted God for everything and finally ended up marrying some dude called Boaz and having a child with him. This was no ordinary story, because God honoured her faith so much, that when we look at the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew we see her name there, as one of the earthly ancestors of Jesus himself!

Sometimes, the decisions we face in life are HUGE, but sometimes they seem insignificant. However, the way we make them can sometimes mean a world of difference in what happens next. Our key verse to remember from last month was:

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.”

For those of you who have forgotten the memory verses of the last few months, here they are again, typed out, so that you can revise them for this coming week!

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

PressureCooker.......

2007-05-21T14:03:00.000Z

Have a read through Psalm 86 again… some of you were saying how you felt David was saying nice things to God so that God would help him…I suppose that’s just where I need to be aware there’s something dodgy going on when those people in our group say something nice about me… what do you want?!?!
Think about it, do you only ever say nice things to your friends about them so that they will pay for your kebab/lend you their phone/hang out with you etc? You do? Think about the times when, say like this week, we talked about exam stress. Your friend is stressed out, but you know they can do the exam, they just need some encouragement. Because you care about them, you say nice things to them. Or they encourage you and you tell them how much you appreciate them…
Have you ever, like David, just said nice things about God (praised God) just because you appreciate who he is, and what he has done for you? Or do you just feel like you’re asking God for another favour, you feel bad about it all the time, so you’re going to butter him up first? As if! God doesn’t have a low self-esteem problem that we need to praise him, otherwise he’ll get depressed! Not like us! In fact, when we praise God, it even lifts our self-esteem, because we remember that he loves us, and that he’s there for us – even when we feel alone. Maybe we can learn to count our blessings more, and praise God more, and ask Him more for help – instead of getting hung up about asking God for things and not being in control or independent. Think about it – God is so HUGE, and we’re tiny… we’re really making life difficult for ourselves, if we try to fight all our battles our way instead of asking God to guide us!

Let’s ask ourselves question 12 from the Psalm 86 session again and pray for God to help us with whatever answer we come up with: In what areas of your life do you find it most difficult to admit that you need to rely on God?

So… that leads us to our “pressure session” this week – we focused on exam pressure, just because it’s something all of us can relate to in some way or another… we looked at Luke 2:41-52 and found that Jesus grew in a balanced way as a young man: Look at verse 52 again: 'Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and in favour with men.'
- In wisdom – intellectually;
- In stature – physically;
- In favour with God – spiritually;
- In favour with people -- socially.
We shared about our attitudes towards different aspects of our lives. I asked you to think about whether or not you have a balanced and healthy attitude to all four of these aspects. Even though it may feel like it, life isn’t just about passing exams… just as it isn’t just about anything else that you feel under a lot of pressure with right now. Those things might be very important, but they are not the “be-all and end-all” of your life. Most importantly, God sees and understands what you are going through – talk to him! You can also talk to us or email or ask us to pray for you too.

Now…let’s finish this yabber yabber with what I promised you I’d do: I’m going to put Psalm 23 up and you guys can add your comments under this blog about what you think about this Psalm. Read it through and think about what it says to you – add your "backchats" below to encourage one another as we go through the week…

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk
through the valley of
the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Bye bye April...it's May!

2007-05-03T15:51:00.000Z

OK, I'm trying to put a positive slant on the fact that I didn't blog in April... but I'm now here to make amends. Sorry guys - thanks for reading all the same!

Right, so in April, without giving all the answers away, we took some more advice from Proverbs.

On Easter Sunday, we were inspired by learning from Jesus' discipline. We saw how the hardest thing for him to accomplish, was to know what the deal was and stick with his decision to go through with it - even though his most trusted mates kept sleeping on the job. He was torn apart by the agony, knowing the kind of death he would suffer - and being totally human, how much it would hurt. But, he focused on his goal - saving us from sin - and stuck with what he'd decided to do. That's the most amazing, extreme discipline! (Thankfully, it doesn't take half as much guts to revise for exams - although sometimes sitting an exam feels like a complete nightmare..!!!)

The week after, we looked at telling the truth and not lies. We skipped through lots of Bible passages and learnt that the biggest reason not to lie, is that it's not godly. In more than one place, we found words like these: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil? (That verse was in Numbers 23:19) We can totally trust God because we know that he doesn't lie - on the other hand, lying destroys people and friendships... so it's a good time to stop lying. If you find that difficult, the Bible says you might be talking too much!

Talking about friendships, that's what we looked at the 4th week of April. Choosing Friends Wisely. We looked at two diagrams that illustrated a process called osmosis (has anyone gone home and done any more learning there?) which I needed a lot of help explaining - sorry! Basically though, I was trying to show that it's easy for us to make friends with people who make unwise decisions, and get dragged down with them. Trying to pull a friend out of the mud is much more difficult. Bottom line - choose friends carefully, hang around with people that will help you be someone you like, instead of tagging along with people who you have to try to impress all the time, by doing stupid, unwise things.

Finally, last week...some of you decided to take a holiday, or couldn't make it, so you need to read this! We took a break from the wisdom series, and looked back at what we believe in. We challenged ourselves - is our faith strong enough for us to stand firm, even if people disagree with us, mock us, reject us or think we're desperately uncool? I missed out a key passage at the end of the session which goes like this:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:13-16)

The question being asked last week was: "Who do you say Jesus is?"
We looked at what people like Einstein, Gandhi, Napolean and even Prince Philip have said in the past. And then we also challenged ourselves with some words from C.S. Lewis, the guy that wrote the Narnia books. This quote was taken from one of my favourite books, Mere Christianity:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool… you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Basically, he was saying, we either believe Jesus is who he said he is, or we think he's crazy or plain evil. He's not just a "good man" or a "prophet" or whatever people say about him these days, because he made some crazy claims about himself that are either true and make him God, or are the words of a totally deluuuuded madman! So we had a read through some verses from John chapters 6-15 and had a quick think about some things Jesus said about himself.

To conclude, I asked those of you who were there to just think about what you believe, and tick some statements you agreed with. Don't worry, those of you who weren't here will be able to catch up on that - and also update all the birthday dates we have!! (So you might want to think about who you believe Jesus to be, before this Sunday... cu then!)

John 6:35

2007-05-03T13:11:00.000Z

How's this for a memory verse? This one's especially for you, Andy!

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never
go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Goody goody two-shoes

2007-03-30T19:08:00.000Z

Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act – this week's theme verse.

Bottom line - if you can, make sure you do good! It brings its own benefits - doing God's will is good for us! (Need reminding? Take a peek at Proverbs 11:17 again.)
It seems some people don't deserve it though...we looked for some clues in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 (for those of you that thinking "2 wha..? Fessaalalalinions?" I think you need to practise finding that book in the last part of the Bible!) Some early believers were perfectly capable of working, but were taking advantage, whilst others slaved their guts out to bring in the food. Paul said "NO! Make them feel ashamed of themselves, don't just watch them lazing about, and poking their noses into other people's business! They need to get out there and make themselves useful!" Hmm...let someone copy the homework you worked hard on while they were on msn...?
Flip back to Proverbs 16:26 and you'll find it's actually natural and healthy to want to work. So, sometimes our helping someone can actually do more harm than good...
Luke 14:12-14 (easy, you should ALL know where the Gospel *hinthint* of Luke is) - what's our motive for doing good? Is it because we know we'll get some benefit out of it? I'll get you a nice bday pressie and you'll get me an even better one cuz I know you're really generous and loaded?
OK stay in Luke for a bit and read the parable of the Good Samaritan in 10:25-37. (Sorry for flipping through so many passages this week guys - I was exhausted by the end too - oops!) Take note of how he helped the guy generously and thoughtfully, with what was within his ability. Notice also, that he didn't cancel his trip, take the guy home, wait on him hand and foot, get his kids to help change the dressings on his wounds, and convert part of his hut into a luxurious ensuite bedroom for him...
Back to the bottom line though, if I've gone too deep on how to be wise in doing good, that you've forgotten the theme verse, let's flip to two more passages to remind ourselves that God intends for us to DO GOOD! Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 6:9.

Alright, that's me done then, I've gone overboard with the words again. Proverbs 3:27 is the bonus verse for March if you've got space left in your grey muscle. Learn it! :)

Get a move on!

2007-03-19T17:16:00.000Z

Ok, what is a sluggard??
The example you guys couldn't get over laughing at the most was the one in Proverbs 19:24 "The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!" And it is hilarious thinking of that image, especially since some of you demonstrated it so vividly. How can it be possible for someone who is hungry, not to do something about it?!
And yet that's what we are like in some areas of our lives:

That piece of coursework has sat on your desk for weeks now, you've been studying for it in class, you know everything you need to write for it... but somehow, you can't pick up your pen, or you find yourself chatting on msn every free minute, rather than getting yourself out of the misery of knowing you'll be stuck with a last minute mad rush hours before the deadline. (Prov 20:4)
You've just had a massive argument with your mum over some stupid stupid tiny tiny thing. You were being dumb, but hey, you like shouting... only thing is, you could swallow your pride, open the door you just slammed, and say sorry. Only you like wallowing in self-pity and you're going to let it stew for a few days so that you can keep feeling sorry for yourself for longer. (Prov 24:30-31)
You are that door on the hinge - your mum prods you about 50 times each morning so that you finally fall out of bed and make it into school just before the end of registration. You never have time to check if you've brought the right equipment, on the way to class you panic and wonder if you'd brushed your teeth... you were the one that invented the 'just out of bed' look. (Prov 26:14)
Finally you have an excuse for anything you don't feel like doing. The real reason is that you'd much prefer to spend most of your life in front of the TV or chatting to friends of friends of friends of friends that you met on friendster or hi5 or facebook or whatever, but you'd like people to think otherwise. Yep, you're no sluggard when it comes to making excuses for your sluggishness! What if I get run over on the way to the shop to buy milk? What if a fork jumps out of the sink and bounces against the kitchen wall back onto the cupboard door and onto my toe when I'm washing up? Ouch, it hurts just thinking what might happen! What if I run out of socks to wear if I put the mouldy pile on my bedroom floor into the wash for the first time in my life? (Prov 22:13)

Many of you were howling with laughter and proudly declaring that you were proper sluggards in some areas of your lives. You even insisted that it was natural - but of course. It's our sinful nature that is at work inside us... again we need to turn back to Proverbs 1:7. Will we continue to sit on our backsides wasting our God-given lives, or will we get up and get moving? Will we sort ourselves out, where we clearly know we need to take action? Will we take the initiative? Or are we going to look back one day and regret that we wasted our talents, our time, our friendships, our opportunities... just because we were lazy?
Think about it carefully - NOW.

Wise up!

2007-03-19T16:59:00.000Z

Another warm welcome groupies, to the new website and a return to reminding you what we have been looking at during YG recently.
March has seen the beginning of a series on the book of Proverbs - looking at God's Life for Dummies manual. Last week, we saw that the author of Proverbs urges us to pursue wisdom, because it's more precious than anything you can find. Not only that, its value is in what rewards you will reap if you live a life of wisdom. All our actions have consequences, there's no way foolish actions are going to get you very far, but on the other hand, wise decisions guarantee success!
In the book of Proverbs, the author writes about wisdom as if it is a beautiful, desirable woman that will bring a man great happiness. Many a woman will bring a foolish man great heartbreak, but this one is guaranteed to make him happy as long as he is faithful to her!
The Bible doesn't mince its words - the opposite of a wise man is a FOOL! We asked ourselves, are we more a wise person or a fool? Are there areas of our lives where we are foolish? Our thought for the week was to think about the following questions:

Do you lose your temper easily?
Do you break rules in small ways by cheating here and there?
Do you have problems in your relationships with family/friends?
Do you not work or study as hard as you should?
Do you spend money without thinking carefully?
Are you undisciplined?
Do you lie or distort the truth?
Are you proud, glad that you’re not like certain other people?
Do you struggle with sexual temptations or thoughts?

Perhaps you can think of other aspects of your life that need an injection of wisdom. We'll start off by setting our focus back on where wisdom comes from - God. Our memory verse for the month of March is:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 1:7

It'll be a good start to commit that to memory... step up to the challenge!

Welcome!

2007-01-24T12:46:00.000Z

Hey everyone, welcome to the new becktonyouth webby! Everything moves on as you can see, and blogging seems to be the best way to keep these things going if at all... so, we're bloggin in Beckton!

We are the youth group at Beckton Chinese Gospel Church. We believe that what the Bible says is the Word of GOD and so it's the truth! Our ultimate aim is to build friendships where we can show God's love with other people.
In order to learn how we should do this, we spend time together looking into God's word and sharing about what God teaches us in our lives. We pray together and we spend time just hanging out! (And we work really hard trying to make that time!)
We hope you can join us sometime.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy checking back for updates and news, and you'll keep in touch by prayer if we don't see you. No promises as to when, but we aim to shift as much of the old stuff (photos etc) to this new page as we can, any ideas for content, let us know!
So, pay us a visit if you're in the area, and also let us know your prayer requests too.
Thanks for dropping by... God bless!