Not Ashamed!

FIONA AGAIN:

I've just got back from my youth group (GAP/IMPACT) weekend-away in Norfolk at a little place called Wells-Next-The-Sea. It was so much fun to take over a youth hostel, go to the beach (twice), go bowling (admittedly, I didn't play because I was doing hwork but it was fun to watch the others a bit!), play a wide game in the forest when I dressed up as a tree and hang out with teenagers, babies and adults at the same time :) 

The theme for the bible studies and quiet/personal times was 

CONFIDENCE in our identity in Christ. 

It's funny, (in the odd way, not the haha way) that so many people around me at college appear confident. They're funny, sporty, smart, popular. They breathe confidence. They sing it in their sleep. And yet...I wonder if they can really, honestly answer the question, "what is your hope in?" or "what is your identity built on and is that solid?". 

Thinking about living without Christ is a terrifying thought for me. I'm a confident person, and yet a future without Jesus or heaven is a bleak, bleak thought. HOW MUCH BETTER is the promise from the bible in Romans 10:9 which says,

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Let that challenge you this week (if you're a Christian and you are actually reading this) to be totally unashamed to call yourself a Christian and tell someone in some way about Jesus Christ's love for them...we'll try together and God will help.

Image source: http://hbiblecommentary.wordpress.com/

Let Your Kingdom Come

Pray with us...

-for unsaved friends who don't know Christ

-for people we know who are struggling with things we know about

-for people we don't know who struggle with things we don't know about

-for the world which longs for Christ to return

-for the peace of our nations and others

-for protection, patience and guidance

-for anything that is on your mind right now

"If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land"

-2 Chronicles 4:17 

Image source: http://genuinelyloved.tumblr.com/post/24188938159/love-you-lord-3-follow-genuinelyloved-tumblr

Scraps of Accidental Evangelism

FIONA HERE:

I was going to say this would be a short post, but knowing me, it will be as long as Alice's..;) Anyways, I have just finished an interesting/monotonous chapter of my life which is Extended Project Qualification (EP), and after printing the 51 pages of the project, I turned one of pages over to find "GOD MADE THE WORLD :D". 

This is a common issue. You print off your coursework, homework etc. and turn over the page (or your teacher points it out) to find that you have used the scrap paper by accident, not the plain paper (is mine the only house who NEVER has ANY PLAIN PAPER?). I know the whole scrap paper thing isn't limited to PKs. Friends whose fathers work for programming companies etc. have all sorts of  <,&6^%?@#~ on the back of their homework, but there's something slightly more amusing about sermon notes, book manuscripts (unpublished work!) or cartoon Adam and Eves on the back of a German essay. 

I like to think that occasionally, maybe one time in 100, my teachers will read whatever is on the back and think about God. 

A bit like a scrap of Accidental Evangelism.

Image source: http://www.simplediscipleship-wordpress.com/2011/03/06/napkin-evangelsim/

A Slightly Different Life

ALICE HERE:
Okay, so this is my first post, and I will (hopefully) make it short! But who knows, I have a tendency to waffle on a bit! I have given this the title, "A slightly different life" because that's a fact that I have had to get used to after being a PK these many years gone by. You have to come to terms with the fact that we grow up differently, we do things differently. Note: differently does not explicitly mean worse, but it does (and you will probably kill me now) sometimes mean better!

Negatives (of course this is all subjective, some of us may enjoy the torments that I list below)

• Embarrassing Fathers are revealed to the whole universe ie. the whole church congregation (and mine cycled in to church down the aisle and then preached in his lycra!)
• The lack of Sunday as a rest day! It's pretty hard to rest as a PK on a Sunday, with guests over, probably rushing homework for the next day and attending every single christian activity humanly possible.
• It is really difficult to maintain a solid spiritual life. Nobody's walk with God is perfect but for us, it often feels like lots is expected of you, like you are never expected to go wobbly. This sucks, completely! Because, when you do go down the drain you "must" ask your pastor for help....wooooo!!!!! visit dad and tell him your life story (NO WAY IS THIS HAPPENING!) Also, it is hard to be convicted from your own Father's sermons especially.

HOW TO COPE: not that I am a genius, and I welcome all suggestions as to how to cope, I have a few tips. 
1) make sure your faith is between you and God, not you, your parents, and God. What I mean by this is that it is your faith, do your own quiet time, grow individually by God's grace, after all he saves us not because of our parents. 
2) Get a christian friend your age! Ideally a PK. Myself (Alice) and Fiona can be rented if you just drop by an email. Talk about life and share your own spiritual pains and joys. 
3) find an older Christian you trust. I have a pastoral worker who I couldn't live without (for example) and meet up regularly and be honest. (and Fiona has Ali + various Old Women)

Positives (because we all need some encouragement!)
God IS good and He is God. He placed us where we are now for a reason and many of us have come to faith through our parents and church, and so He has been good to us in this way. Parents are after all, just people trying to learn how to parent on the go. Talk to them! and embarrass them back!

God bless, Alice :Dx

In Christ alone and Christ in us

To be a Christian is not only to believe the teaching of Christ, and to practice it; it is not only to try to follow the pattern and example of Christ; it is to be so vitally related to Christ that His life and His power are working in us. It is to be "in Christ," it is for Christ to be in us.

 

~ Martyn Lloyd Jones