Dangerous stories!!

Some of the youth leaders have just attended a conference on the weekend which was in the theme of Dangerous Stories. There were a few big named speakers which didn't all agree with each other, which made it very interesting.

A few quick questions for you to think about, does the Jesus you know reflect the position you are in - ie, a Empire Jesus - authoritive and after domination becase you are in a position of power, or a vicitm Jesus - cos you are being suppressed.... the point is our perception of Jesus is often affected by the way we live - "show me your life and I'll show you who Jesus is"! Get back to the gospels!!

God made us in His image, lets return the favour! Get back to being like Him. (Holy/pure...)

Six obsticles in living a life for God and telling the world are 1. our perception of who Jesus is, 2.who we feel we are, 3. not seeing the world and how it actually is around us (seeing the need for Him), 4. Money (consumerism), 5. Non-biblical concept of family and 6. addiction to the Holywood notions of love (ie, romance, sentimental love, etc, and not seeing how God loves the world - self sacrificial love for the world)

How much spiritual muscle do you have - how easily are you defeated by temptation and other distractions away from God? A though - Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness fasting to prepare Him for only 3 years of ministry - how much preparation do we put in for our entire life of ministry?? We need to focus ourselves on self-denial, submission and the worship of God alone!

We sanitise the gospel to make it more confortable for ourselves - ie, a nice clean nativity scene, with no bad smells, a nice comfortable manger, a happy Mary and no noisy animals, a painless birth etc. Really? A nice crucifiction for Jesus with a piece of cloth giving Him some dignity, really, no not likely, He would have been totally humiliated and humbled!! We need to connect with the real Jesus, who got in there and got Himself dirty, did things and wasn't afraid to be persicuted and threatened to the point of death. We rather keep ourselves safe and clean and God isn't going to get any glory from that - is He?

"Sure those 'christians' are nice people, but really are a bunch of girls!"

We have way too much pride, if we follow the example of Hannah in 1 Samuel and repent with tears and humble ourselves, pray without cease, and really cry out to God, He will hear our cry. REPENT - TO RE-THINK EVERYTHING - how many of us (if at all) repent, but actually RE-THINK EVERYTHING??? Not just shoot a quick prayer Heaven-wards asking God for forgivness, but actually change the way we do things??

Expect the unexpected - Expect God to do amazing, miraculous things - God Himself is doing unthinkable things presently - thousands of Muslims are converting to Christianity through dreams God is giving them!! I wondered how they were going to see the light!! But beware - they are totally sold out to God, they put almost all of us 'Christians' to shame. Things of man multiply, but things of God - explode!

Is your life a dangerous story?? - at least every morning make sure Hell has a crisis meeting knowing that you've just woken up!!

Praise God!!

N.B. - HOLY SPIRIT = EMPOWEMENT 4 MISSION