WAKE-UP YOUNG'UNS !!!

Where are we?!?!?!?

I'd like to ask: Where is the generation of God that is ready for the torch to be passed down to us?

I must admit, I've been quite upset over the past hour, I’ve been talking to my mum about the current state of the youth around where I am presently living and I feel slightly isolated. I can't seem to find any Christian Youth who are really Christians. 

I feel slightly awful in writing about this, and I am definitely struggling because I do not in any way want to seem like a spiritual-snob who knows everything and has expectations of people. I certainly do not want the spirit of pride and arrogance to overwhelm the emotional response of you reading this. Because I'm not trying to judge any individual (MATT7"1), I'm just making a statement.

For us Christian young'uns who have grown up in The Faith  with Bible believing parents and surroundings , We have absolutely no excuse , Like I said in my last post : 'To whom much is given, much is expected'. LUKE12"48

WE CANNOT (repeat) CANNOT live double (minded) LIVES!!

If we say we are Christians then that’s what we must be! - We can’t walk around like God owes us something. Because He doesn't. He does not owe us anything; we are the one who owe Him everything. 

I was talking to a couple of girls yesterday over some work, there were believers and non-believer there alike, and I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed for the Christian faith, and I was embarrassed at the work that people do under the name of God. I almost felt betrayed. 

When Judas was handing Jesus over to the authorities in the 'Garden of Gethsemane', he had the audacity to kiss Jesus on the cheek, the cheek! Even though in his mind He knew that was committing a great felony against Him. (LUKE 22"47). Even Jesus, The Holy One who never showed anything but love to everyone that has ever existed turned to Judas and asked him: ‘Judas, how can you betray Me with a kiss?’("48)

- And that, my friend is exactly what we do when we are hypocritical to God and His command for us. 

Listen I'm not saying I'm perfect , but I am letting the Spirit of God , the Holy Spirit guide and direct me into all truth (JOHN16"13) And I know that my character is slowly and gradually changing to be more and more like Christ every day.

But it is an entirely different scenario when you just don’t care, you just don’t care how you live your life, you say 'I'm a Christian, but I can do this or that, God won’t mind, after all he is a loving god' - Well I don’t know about you but the god you’re talking about is not my God. My God is loving - and it is because He is loving that He sets us His commands that we can ask for help to live by. We need to give Him something to work with. 

I am going to put it plainly to you. If you can walk around , swearing and cursing , have malice, hatred and anger towards people, going out for wild-late parties and generally acting no different to a non-Believer, then ... hate to break it to you ( no actually , I love breaking this to you because you need to know it) YOU DO NOT HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Your heart should be flooded with condemnation at any time you feel like you are heading towards sin. You are the temple of God! (1COR6"19) - You do not belong to yourself. And you have no right to be dragging the name of the Christian world and faith with you to the night clubs and bars, and general places where they shouldn’t be. 

But Lakechia, you say , that’s nonsense who says I can’t be out at 1 in the morning, or that I can’t go to wild parties and events ...

Well, here’s my answer: 

 'You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols' 1PETER4"3

- You see that? Godless people, according to Peter it is Godless to engage in such things once you’re a child of God - and the true God.

Now look , I'm not saying Christians shouldn't be able to spend time with their friends, going out for meals and what-not. But, and this is my litmus-test:

WWJD

(What-would-Jesus-do?)

- 'You say, "I am allowed to do anything"--but not everything is good for you. And even though "I am allowed to do anything," I must not become a slave to anything.' -1COR6"12

Do you see Jesus dancing to the charts in a nightclub?

Do you see Him sitting around talking about immoral topics?

Do you see Him swearing?

The Bible makes His character clear, and we young Christians cannot ignore everything that He sacrificed His life for ~ Fellowship with Him. Happiness as we delight ourselves in Him (PSALMS37"4)

We may be the only Jesus, our friends will ever get to see here on earth. We must be careful and please, if you know you’re out doing things you shouldn't , sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to fake it to your (non-saved) friends until you have got your self back onto the right track. You being around them will influence their decision on whether they should become a part of Gods Family and Kingdom or not.

No pressure.

Ask God to help you undo the damage you may have done in the past in the way you professed to be a Christian, but did not act like it.

Repent, turn away from your un-Godly ways and rise up towards the mark, and press on to the Goal that Christ had planned for us from the beginning of creation (PHILLIPIANS3"14)

This emotional-rant was not to put-you-down.

I just felt like there needs to be more of us, more young people who are ready to throw away the cares of this life and focus on the Will of God and what He wants for us.

More youth that want to be pure and Holy just for Him.

Not everyone will take this path. But I hope and pray to God, 

That you do.

13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell[a] is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. -MATTHEW7"13-14

LUKE - ch1. - Study.

Hey guys!

I’ve recently been doing a personal Bible Study on the book of Luke – I finished the book of Luke a couple of days ago, and I must admit, I felt abit sad that it had ended. I love His writings, the depth he goes into and his detailed accounts are so amazing. I plan to go from chapter 1 right through to the end into the book of Luke, and His account of the life of Jesus, The Gospel and The Good News of His Kingdom.  This is not a commentary on EVERY SINGLE verse in the book of Luke , I just feel that there were some verses in each chapter that the LORD used to speak to me about various characteristics of Jesus and myself in my own journey of self-improvement in becoming more like my Saviour – Jesus !! 

CHAP. 1

Luke starts by letting us know that He is writing to ‘Most honorable Theophilius’ . Best guessing in this is that Theophilus is a good friend that Luke does not get to see very often. Now Luke was practicing doctor before being Called. And this greatly explains his way of accounting events. “3‘Having carefully investigated all of these accounts from the beginning, I have decided to write a careful summary for you, “4 to reassure you of all the truth you were taught,’

One of the first things that are brought to my attention starting from verse 5: ‘It all beings with a Jewish priest, Zechariah …His wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Aaron.’ This tells me so much about the Character of God. He cares about families. He cares about groups of people who all-purpose to follow Him. We see individuals like Moses and Aaron who were brothers, and listened to the voice of God. And God continued His promise to them more than 35 generations .The scripture says in Psalms 105. God never forgets His promises- “8. And you can trust that in your relationship with Him, He will do just that. I read a lot in the Psalms on how God keeps His promois from generation to generation- Psalm 145”13 . I am so blessed to have an absolutely amazing mum who has raised me in the ways of God and it’s so special when she prays for me and my continual course of salvation. It makes me feel like I’m a part of something bigger than myself. And in a world that is not getting any better in the fact that sin is becoming exceedingly sinful, I believe that no matter what age you are, when you come to the understanding of the importance of salvation, you can continue your line of salvation by praying for the generations after your own. Even though they may be years into the future- remember there is no time with God. He loves families.

Verse 6 of Luke ch.1 says ‘Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the LORDS commandments and regulations. ‘Now one thing we should pick up here is that the couple were righteous in GOD’S EYES. – It doesn’t say in the eyes of men, or in the eyes of the world – or compared to others. And I believe as Christians, we care to much about the opinions of men rather than what God thinks of us. We should be more concerned that in the quietness of our hearts and at home when no one is around that God is pleased with us. From this scripture, we know that Elizabeth and Zachariah were not like the stereotypical (most part) Pharisees, they were not hypocrites. Now the second part of that verse says they were ‘careful to obey all of the LORDS commands’ for me what was highlighted here was not the fact that they obeyed all of LORDS commands, but the fact they were careful to. In other words, they yearned and longed to obey God. In this last movement of the ‘grace message’ one can get easily confused with the part we are supposed to play in our pursuit of righteousness. And that’s what righteousness should be, it should be our pursuit. Not just an added bonus of being a Christian. In in pursuing God we must OBEY the instructions of the HOLY SPIRIT .Whenever He speaks to us – and trust me , He does, the question is whether you have cleared your way to hear Him or not.

In verse 9, Luke says: ‘… he (Zachariah) was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary and burn incense in the LORD’S presence ‘Now I don’t know about you, but I find it quite strange when these profound moments like someone going into the temple is chosen by Lot, the Scripture says that ‘His ways are bigger than our ways’ – You must also realise what a big deal it was for someone to go and speak to God. *I heard that a rope had to be tied to the leg of someone who went into the temple, because the Glory of the Lord was so prominent that the person (Priest) could fall over and die.*

And you know what, it STILL IS a big deal when we speak to God, His presence is still prominent – in fact even more so, the scripture says: In the last days, there will be an outpouring of the presence of God. And what’s more , when Jesus died, the veil between God and man was torn from bottom to top- and it’s the reason we can cry out to God today without making long journeys to Holy places to ‘visit God’. – We must not take this for granted.  ** Familiarity breeds content. The human race is exposed and given up to the Spirit of Christ more than ever before – and we don’t even know it. Think of it like this: Someone is listening to a beautiful Mozart composition, and the first sound of it makes them cry at the beaut and richness of the sounds. But after a while of the music playing, a couple of hours pass by, they don’t even realise its playing. The music remains the same, but they’ve gotten used to it, even though at first it made them cry. The word of God is truth, and it says that God is the same yesterday today and forever, don’t fall into contempt. Treat Jesus with the honour He deserves, Jesus says in Revelation: Return to your first love. Remember when you first became a Christian, and worship felt like heaven on earth to you. Don’t lose that spark.

“13 – ‘But the angel said, don’t be afraid, Zachariah!’ – If I’m not mistaken it is 365 times Jesus in the Bible says don’t be afraid. Why – so we can get the point. This is easier said than done, but we must pray to God for a brave spirit. And not a courageous one of our own strength. But completely confidant in our Saviour- for He has ‘overcome the world’! And so this is the first Supernatural encounter in the New Testament according to Luke. There has been limited contact with God more *** years. And the first thing that is said by this amazing Angel is ‘Do not be afraid’. That definitely is saying something. The funniest thing is, as many of us would do … Zechariahs first response isn’t – Yes Lord … or how wonderful! – Or even some form of happiness when (I’m sure) a massive glowing Angel is standing in front of Him. Instead He questions. In this moment alone, we can definitely fall into the conclusion that Zechariah is a sceptic. But so many of us are: ‘But how can I know this will happen’ – in other words, Can this be sure.

This experienced is juxtaposed to Mary being told the same Good News. Angel Gabriel comes to Mary, - a descendant of DAVID – 2Samuel 7”12-16

And lets her know that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Messiah. And in perspective, both Zacharias and Mary had very similar reactions Mary said ‘But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin’ – some might say she doubted. But you must look at Zechariah and Mary as two completely different people: Zachariah was much older than Mary (“18) He had been a Priest for probably longer than Mary had been alive. He had studied the Scriptures, and in theory and on paper, should have not reacted the way he did. Mary on the other hand was a teenager, with limited experience in the Scriptures and had probably never even been INSIDE a temples inner courts. On paper, her encounter with an angel should have been worse. But she took it very well. She was favoured by the Lord “

Let’s face it, ‘to whom much is given much is required’- Luke 12”48 and Zechariah was made dumb because much was expected of him, but he didn’t seem to think so!