aftershock.org.uk
devotional mp3 podcasts for young people

What does it take to be this honest? What does it take to be this respectful? What does it take to have this strength of character? Guts are what it takes. Joseph is trusted with everything, so what if he sleeps with the bosses’ wife there not hurting anyone are they? That is how many people would portray this situation. But that is not true and it is not the way Joseph sees things. Joseph can choose to do the easy thing or he can choose to do the right thing. The right thing, by him, by his boss, by God. So how far do we take doing the right thing to? Does it only matter for the big stuff or does it matter If we forget to take a pen from the stationary cupboard; or not tell the canteen lady that she gave us too much change? I guess it depends on how much you want to be trusted. Luke 16:10 says “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” No explanation needed then!

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Man can you believe it Joseph’s brothers have sold him into slavery. He is no longer free to do what he wants, but is owned by another person. We have to thank William Wilberforce that he managed to abolish the slave trade 200 years ago or this could still be going on today. But of course by now you know that this is just my way of leading into the fact that it is still going on today. There are 12.5 million slaves worldwide today, or by my rough calculation that is two in every one thousand people alive are slaves. These slaves are not in some distant country they are men, women and children who are being trafficked into England, The United States and Canada, and many more countries in Europe and Worldwide. They are not enslaved to do slightly messy house chores, they work in the sex industry as prostitutes for men that beat them, they work in factories, and on farms in conditions you would not keep a dog; and some of the food and clothes they produce end up on our tables and on our backs. William Wilberforce was a great man and he had to fight hard for England to abolish slavery two hundred years ago and he won that battle. But the war is not won, and we have let the enemies of freedom for all people fight back. We need more Wilberforce’s and we need them now. We can not sit idly by with our Ipods and our full bellies whilst our fellow humans who God loves are enslaved. Join me and others in the next battle to beat slavery go to www.stopthetraffik.org or go to aftershock.org.uk and follow the link from there.

Matthew 25:20: The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Can you imagine the day the Joseph was born his brothers thinking, “excellent we can beat this new brother up and get rid of him”. No this type of resentment and bitterness takes time to build up. Unfortunately it may take time but it starts all too easily, even between, or some people would say especially between Christians. All you need to do to build up bitterness and resentment between you and another person is to ignore any difference of opinion you have. Then you can get wound up inside and they probably won’t even know about it until the day you throw them into a cistern. OK it might not be that extreme, but you get the picture. Fortunately Jesus tells us very clearly how to deal with conflicts, and his first piece of advice is to talk to them! He say so in Matthew 18:15 If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. That once piece of advice from Jesus will stop most problems with friendships and relationships. If you think the Bible isn’t relevant to you life, just think how following that one verse from Jesus could have saved you hassle in the past.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Have you ever had people scoff at your dreams? Do people say you can never do that and laugh at you? Well that is what literally happened to Joseph. He had a God given gift that he would be able to interpret dreams. But people just laughed and scoffed and some actually became very angry. So what went wrong? We know that Joseph’s dreams were true, because we know how the story ends. We know that Josephs gift was God given because he eventually would use his gift to save thousands if not millions from starvation. So why did people scoff and laugh at him? There are at least two things we can learn from Josephs troubles. Firstly I am guessing that Joseph was a little bit arrogant, the favourite son, and the posh coat, which was a very important symbol. I think he may not have made many friends with the way he acted. So we can see the way we act in our day-to-day lives does have an effect on how people react to us when we have a God given message to pass on. But also secondly we can see that when God gives us a dream or a goal in our lives not everyone or even most people are going to understand what it is we are doing. If God has given you the vision it is your job to pursue that even if other people don’t see it.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

As we finish Acts it seems Paul is determined to finish of the way he has acted during the whole book. It seems that no matter what Paul’s does, what situation he finds himself in, he makes the best of it. God always seems to honour Paul’s efforts and use his problems to spread the word about Jesus. Sometimes I make excuses for myself, how about you? Do you have a lisp or a stutter? Moses had a problem with his speech and God used him speak to thousands of slaves and free them from the Egyptians. Is it different for you because you re a girl, and it’s easier for the blokes? Esther rescued thousands of people when she was petrified of the mighty king who had a reputation for intolerance and killing people who spoke against him. Are you too young? Joseph was the youngest in his family and was hated by his brothers but he stopped millions from starving and rescued his family. Are you from the poor part of town? I know this bloke who was born in a cattle shed with the smell of dung all around him, his dad was a chippy (carpenter) and his mum got pregnant before she was married. That bloke went on to save the world. What’s your problem?

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »