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Have you ever seen those pictures of Jesus the white skinned, blonde man with blue eyes? He seems to float around, with pristine clean feet and a halo around his head. He has pure white robes and his arms are open, as he welcomes young joyful children into his arms whilst baby lambs jump around him. Yes Jesus is meek and mild, and perhaps a little wimpy. Well not the Jesus I know. Ignoring the fact that Jesus was likely have had a much darker complexion, with rugged carpenter hands and covered in dust from his journeys; Jesus could be better described as a revolutionary than this picture some of us have of him. Jesus just picked his times. But going into Church that had turned Gods place of worship into a shop and a rip off shop at that made him lose it. This makes me ponder how God will deal with people that use him for profit whilst on this Earth. I suspect they will not be seeing the meek and mild Jesus when it comes to the final judgment. Don’t confuse this with giving Gods teachers a living wage, but those who choose to be God teachers put themselves in a position where they had better be sure what their motives are. So if you had ever thought that becoming a pastor or vicar was an easy life and perhaps a bit wimpy just like Jesus, think again. Becoming a vicar or pastor means you put yourselves on the line, and you may need to be a revolutionary, just like the Jesus you intend to serve. But then no matter what you age, maybe you’re a revolutionary.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

I love the fact that Jesus announced his arrival on this Earth through a celebration, a party. But actually there is so much more to Jesus’s first Miracle than the fact he turned water into wine. Imagine how you would feel if you invited you mates around to watch a film and you did not have anything for them to snack on or drink. When you have people around you want them to feel comfortable you want them to feel welcomed. This happens all around the world. I was visiting a friend in Tanzania and the lady that cleans his house invited me and a couple of friends for afternoon tea. We arrived at her mud hut and were welcomed inside, where on the window ledge stood three bottles of fizzy drink; one for each of us. The cost of the drinks were way out of her reach, and she would have gone without food to buy them, and yet she wanted to make us feel welcome. This lady struggled to feed her family, but wanted us to feel blessed, and boy did I feel humbled. In the same way the host at the wedding would have wanted to make his guest feel welcome. For a host to run out of wine at a wedding would have been a major embracement and people would have gossiped about it for years. “Do you remember when Joe’s daughter got married and he ran out of wine?” Embarrassing yes, but not life threatening, yet Jesus cared enough to do something about it. He wasn’t really ready to announce he was here, but he did it anyway to help out the host. You see God cares about the big things and God cares about the small things. God cares about those who are very very ill, and God cares about your Maths test. God just cares about you. So next time you think God is too busy to worry about your small problem. Think again, God cares about my friend in Tanzania who is struggling to feed her family, but that does not stop him caring about you, that’s how big our God is.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Jesus is gathering his A Team. A team of guys whom he will teach, and who will eventually go on to spread the word about Jesus. So if you were going to put together a team how would you start? If you were putting together a football team, you would want the best, the most skilful, the most agile. You would want people who have proven themselves on the field, players who knew the rules and knew how to get past their opponents. You would want the A Team. So Jesus is putting together a team of people to spread the news about God, he is bound to go to the Churches of the day and get the biggest teachers, the people who understand the scriptures the best. Only he doesn’t. No, Jesus picks ordinary people with no training and with no deep understanding of scriptures. And from these twelve eventually comes the Church that exists today. Do you think Jesus knew what he was doing? He picked people whose hearts were open, who had no preconceived ideas of who he was, and he taught them along the way. Yep Jesus taught these twelve nobodies as they did the work of God. Next time you think you don’t understand the Bible enough, that you are too young, or have not been a Christian long enough to tell people about Jesus, remember the twelve. Let Jesus teach you along the way, as you do the work of God.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

John pointed towards Jesus, that was John’s purpose in life; he was here to say, “Here comes the Son of God.” Man what a great purpose to have. And the good news is that we have the same purpose as John. We are here to point towards Jesus. In the work place, at college, at school we point others towards Jesus. Now take your hand and point towards something around you. Interesting isn’t it there is one finger pointing at the object and three fingers pointing at you. It’s a silly way of remembering that when we point towards Jesus, people look at what we do to see him. You see whilst we should take the opportunity to tell people about Jesus, it is often better if they ask us why we act the way we do. People are much more likely to listen to you about Jesus, if they have asked the question. Questions like “Why did you help me?”, “Why did you not join the others in taking the mickey out of me?”, “Why did you visits me in hospital?”, “Why are you calm, when I am worried?”. Of course to be asked the question we do need to be living the life that reflects Jesus.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” This is a God of action; this is a God who does stuff. Our God is not a God who sits on the couch and looks at the bad stuff on the TV and does nothing. God could see that we were stuffing the world up again. This wasn’t new, we had blown it before and God had washed it all away in the flood, but now it had promised not to do that again so what was he to do? Think of it like this, you bedroom is trashed; smelly socks in the corner, half empty cans of cola, the only clear area is the ceiling and that’s looking at risk. You parent has been going on and on about it until finally in their anger they loose the plot; and when you are out at a mates, they simply throw it all away. You have nothing, no clothes, no music, no posters, no TV, nothing just a bed in the corner. Eventually they come into your room and say, “well I did warn you, but there you go you have a fresh start and I promise I won’t do it again.” Well you have learnt your lesson and so you are going to keep the room clear from now on. Over the next year, you forget the “bedroom trash” incident and eventually your bedroom is just as it was or even worse. What is your parent to do, they have promised not to throw it all away again. Then it happens they walk into your room and you are ready for the nagging you are about to get. When they suddenly take you by the hand lead you into their pristine bedroom and say “there you go it’s yours, you have my room and I will have yours.” You stand their confused; don’t they know that eventually you will trash this room as well? Yes they know, but they do it anyway. Just like after the flood, we trashed the earth with our actions, God sent Jesus to become flesh and blood and said “Their you go your selfishness means you couldn’t go to a pristine heaven, but take my Son and come anyway.” He knew we would continue to be selfish and years later we have been, the difference is that in sending his Son once; he cleared up the rooms of our lives forever.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »