I’m currently finishing off a talk on repentance for youth group. And I’ve been reading Acts 17. It’s a great passage, and it shows us that God commands us to repent.
The people in Athens at the time are really “religious”, that is they have idols, even one to an unknown God, but they are worshipping their worldly idols, not God. And Paul says:
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
I can see pretty clear links between what was happening in Athens to what is happening now. In our world today we have so many idols that we worship: sex, money, power, Facebook, sport, fame, food. Things that we devote our lives to. But God commands us to repent. We need to turn away from this world and towards him.
So three things.
Repent! Turn to God.
Why? Because Jesus is coming back to judge the world.
Really? Yeah, he rose from the dead as proof of this.
So last weekend I went on KYCK with the youth group at Willoughby. Twas a great weekend for all, and somewhere around 100 teenagers committed their lives to Christ over the weekend! Partay in heaven! Here are some reflections from each other the talks (which were on Ecclesiastes), also, check out Nathan Lee’s reflections from the weekend, he’s a smart dude.
Talk 1: I’m a creature, not the creator. Life is but a breath and I need to stop, remember God and bring him glory.
Talk 2: Thank God for the gifts that he has given us. Stop and do that now.
Talk 3: Enjoy the season that you are in, and thank God for those moments that he gives you.
Talk 4: Our God is good, and his grace is enough! Jesus will fix the world.
Talk 5: Stop making excuses. Stop putting it off. Trust Jesus. Have a go. Serve God.
Talk 6: Remember your creator in the days of your youth. (How good was the end of the talk, where he just walked out!)
These have mostly come from my Twitter stream, just incase you thought you had seen them before.
A great weekend overall, and it was great to see God working.
Being angry is not a sin, but anger can easily lead to sin and we need to be careful of that.
Being angry for a long period of time is not a good thing. It give the devil a foothold and means we are more likely to sin.
So we need to resolve anger.
It can be hard to confront a situation, especially if you are angry with someone close to you. But it is important to resolve anger so as not to give the devil a foothold. It may be tough in the short run, but the best thing to do isn’t always the easy thing to do.
This 5 part series takes a walk through Jesus’ life (Birth, healing a bling man, feeding thousands, dying and rising to life) from the point of view of a fly. They are very well done. Props to the campaign for an amazing DVD resource (these + Bigger than the World Itself). If anyone can share a legit place to download these, please share.
When you eat a hollow Easter egg today, you might get slightly disappointed by the fact that there is no chocolate inside. Instead of being disappointed, be reminded of the fact that when Mary and her friends went to look for Jesus in his tomb, his body wasn’t there, but the tomb was empty. Just like your Easter Egg!
Jesus is alive today! He has risen from the dead.
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Today we remember that God suffered to bring humans back into a right relationship with him.
Today we remember the ultimate act of sacrificial love in this world.
Today is a day where we remember a horrible act, and call it good.
Today is a day that marked human history.
Today is Good Friday!
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Daniel is a strange book of the Bible, and chapter 4 is pretty strange also. You can read the whole chapter here.
It’s a pretty long chapter so I’ll just summarise it for you.
King Nebuchadnezzar (Chad) has a really strange dream about a tree, and Daniel interprets it for him. The dream basically said that King Chad was a bad ruler and unless he stopped disobeying God, his kingdom would fall and he would go crazy.
Well he didn’t repent (turn to God), so God brought judgment upon him, and King Chad lived with wild animals and he ate grass.
After a period of time, this happened.
“At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation.”
Daniel 4:34
What can we learn from this…
God is awesome and powerful and sovereign, he is in control and it was only when King Chad looked to God was his life restored.
We can relate to Chad, we need to turn away from living our lives for ourselves, and we need to live our lives for God.
We can relate to Daniel, Daniel was faithful to God and we need to be faithful to God in our own lives.
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
I often Tweet Bible verses that I have read and liked or Tweet about things that I learn from the Bible.
Recently in my quiet times I finished reading the book of Acts.
As I read back through what I have Tweeted it is encouraging to see Paul’s continued courage throughout his life. When God asked something of him he would always do it, and Paul spoke about Jesus relentlessly. He is a great example for us to follow in our own ministry!
Below are some Tweets about what I read.
“(One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”" Acts 19:15 http://bit.ly/bL4oyD
A man died as Paul went on and on. He fell asleep and fell out a window. In God’s mercy he was brought back to life! Acts 20
Paul didn’t hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful. He was bold, let’s follow his example. Acts 20
When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” Acts 21:14 http://bit.ly/9thHp7
I’m currently finishing off a talk on repentance for youth group. And I’ve been reading Acts 17. It’s a great passage, and it shows us that God commands us to repent.
