aftershock.org.uk
devotional mp3 podcasts for young people

Are you frustrated? You run around trying to be like Jesus and telling people about what he has done for them. Or maybe you simply try and live a life that is honouring to Jesus so that people will see him in you. And yet no one ever seems to give their life to Jesus when you are around, and no one ever seems to ask you about him? I know this drove me nuts until someone explained to me what Jesus meant with this idea of farmers harvesting crops that other farmers had sown the seed for. Imagine a scale of 1 to 100 where 1 is don’t know Jesus and don’t what to know Jesus, and 100 is I have given my life to Jesus. Well everyone is on that scale somewhere. You mate at school or college is on that scale, they might be at 35. Your parents are on that scale, what number are they at? They guy in the corner shop is on the scale, is he on 90? You see every time someone who is not at 100 has a positive interaction with you and understands that you are a Christian they move on a little. They might jump from 60 to 61, or they might move from 5 to 20, but they will come closer to knowing Jesus for themselves. And that is why you don’t always see the results of the work you are doing for Jesus. Of course you might meet someone who has bee helped to 95 by other people, and you help they go from 95 to 100. Then will see them give their life to Jesus but someone else moved them to 96 someone else sowed the seed. You may help your mate move from 0 to 10 and never see them go to 100. But when they do reach 100 someone else will pick the harvest, someone else will see them give their life to Jesus, but it was you who sowed the seed.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

“Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever.” He’s at it again. He has met a woman by a water well and so now he is talking to her about knowing God as though he was a drink of water. But what a great way of explaining things. If God was water you would never get thirsty again, because God would satisfy all you wants for water. You see everyone is thirsty for God, everyone wants God in their life, it’s just that not everyone realises it. People try and fill this need for God by following bands and getting into their favourite singer big time. But hey eventually get let down by them, or get bored and the need for God is still there. They might use alcohol or drugs to replace the need for God. But they eventually they hit rock bottom and the need for God is still there. Many young people try and fill this need by having sex with lots of people, but they get let down and discarded and the need for God is still there. None of these things will ever replace the need for God and they will often cause great damage. The message for you to accept and pass on to your mates, is that Jesus will take away that need. Things won’t suddenly go right all the time, but the yearning of something will be filled.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

More of Jesus and less of me that the message that is what John is trying to get across. Sometimes John 3:30 is translated as “He must become greater and I must become less.” As we grow in our Christian walk people around us see changes and see us become wiser. Suddenly it doesn’t matter whether we are 11, 15, 18, 21 or 70 years old, people start respecting our points of view. This is an exciting and a dangerous place to be. Exciting if we understand that Jesus must become greater. Because when we are asked questions we point our mates to Jesus and his “Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth”, or as others know it the B.I.B.L.E. But dangerous if we misunderstand the source of our wisdom and start bigging ourselves up. We can only pray that we fail fast, and fail without hurting others, if we start relying on our own wisdom. Remember in all that you do, Jesus must increase, he must be the receiver of the glory, don’t worry about you, Jesus has that sorted.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Have you ever seen those signs at football matches with John 3:16 written on them. This has to be one of the most famous verses in the Bible. Perhaps the old language of the King James version says it the best. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” No messing with that verse. God sent his most precious gift to this earth so that those who choose to believe, would live forever in Heaven and not go to Hell. I’m not entirely sure why God bothered with the rest of the bible because this verse seems to sum it up. Still that’s another question, I am bound to forget about this when me meet up in Heaven. Anyway God obviously wants to make sure we hear because the next verse seems to say the same thing in a different way. Maybe sometimes we don’t hear very well and need things repeating. I said maybe we don’t hear very well and need things repeating. So just in case you missed it: “For God so loved YOU that he gave his one and only Son, that if YOU believe in him YOU shall not perish but YOU will have eternal life.”

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Born from above is how The Message translates what Jesus has said. Other versions of the Bible translate it as born again. To be fair to Nic you have to say it does sound a bit weird. Imagine that some guy walks up to you and says “for you to go to Heaven you must take your old clothes off.” You would start screaming “Nutter Alert.” But that is the way Jesus often got his message across, he would use stories and examples to make his point. He isn’t saying that you literally have to be born again and I’m not saying you literally have to take your clothes off. What Jesus was saying is that you need to put your old life behind you, what I am saying is that think of your clothes as your old ways of doing things and throw them away. When people hear the words born again they start thinking that you are talking about some religious madman, some Jesus freak. Well I want to be a Jesus freak I want to discard my old clothes my old ways of doing things; I want to be born again. How about you?

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »