aftershock.org.uk
devotional mp3 podcasts for young people

I can hear you now. “Hold on a minute first I understand God the Father that you described to me. Then Jesus comes along and you describe God the Son. Now you’re telling me that Jesus left a friend behind called God the Holy Spirit. What’s this all about? Do we believe in three different gods?” Man I can see that it would be confusing, but no our God is one god and is all three parts Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Think of God as water. Water can be in different states. Water can be flowing water. Water can be frozen ice. Water can be steam. At any time did what water was made up of change? No it didn’t, it was still made up of the chemicals that make water, but it did look different didn’t it? Now I know that that doesn’t really answer your questions but it’s does help us see that an everyday item can appear to be different, but still be the same thing. Now lets look at the Sun. No not Son the big shiny thing in the sky, the Sun. Many years ago people use to believe that the Sun circled around our planet. We now know that the Earth circles the Sun. Did the facts change? No they didn’t it’s just that we have learned the truth, and before the truth was beyond our understanding. Is it possible that the truth is, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it just that we don’t have the ability to fully understand this? Thank God for his Bible because in his instruction manual he says very clearly, that God is God the Father (Isaiah 45:18), Jesus is God the Son (John 8:58), God the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4) but there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10). When we don’t fully understand, at least we can rely on God’s word.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

And Jesus said “be nice, don’t hurt anyone and you will go to Heaven.” Wouldn’t that have been so much easier if Jesus had actually said that? Or he could have said, “It doesn’t matter what God you believe in, we will all meet up in Heaven.” But the problem is he didn’t. Typical Jesus he didn’t mess around he laid the truth out plain and simple. In other translations it says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So the only way to get to God is through Jesus. If we truly believe that the only way to party forever in heaven is to accept that Jesus came to this earth and died for our selfish acts, then what should we do? Well for one thing we should realise that everyone needs to know Jesus, the good, the bad and the ugly. The good need to accept Jesus, because he didn’t say be good and you will go to heaven. The bad need to know him, because Jesus did not say if you have done bad stuff you can’t get into heaven. The ugly? Well there is no ugly person in Gods eyes. But those who feel ugly, those who feel they don’t deserve to be forgiven, they need to accept that Jesus died for them as well. In short Jesus dies for us all, Jesus died for the good, the bad and the ugly. Jesus is the one way to God our Father in heaven.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Love each other as Jesus loved us! Sounds simple doesn’t it? But if we are to do that how does it effect the way we are tomorrow at school, what would we do different at college? How would you go into work if you were to really live this command out? Yes because it is a command. Jesus didn’t say I leave you with this one suggestion. No, there was no email with tip of the day from Jesus. Jesus said “a new command I give you” or “Let me give you a new command.” So how much does Jesus love us? He loves us enough to come to this earth and teach us. He loves us enough to talk to Father God for us. And there was the small issue of him hanging on a cross in excruciating pain and dying for us. Yep that’s a fairly big example of his love. Now Jesus isn’t saying that we can hang on a cross for our friends. Actually none of us are pure enough to commit that sacrificial act. But we can look at Jesus and the way he dealt with people. We can look at Jesus and the way he lived his life, as an example of the way we should live our life. How did Jesus treat the woman at the well? How did Jesus treat the leapers? How did Jesus treat the robbers on the cross? How did Jesus treat his mother Mary? How did Jesus treat his friends the disciples? Then maybe we can ask ourselves. How do we treat those in need? How do we treat the outcast in our society? How do we treat out parents and family? How do we treat our friends? Only you and God know the answers to those questions.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

People are people and they stuff up. Your mates will stuff up. Your Mum and Dad will stuff up. Your youth leader will stuff up. You will stuff up. Because people are just people and that’s what we do best. We all try really hard to be like Jesus, but we know ultimately we will never reach the purity of Jesus without Jesus. If there was anyone on this earth who was so pure they could stand in front of God, why would God have needed to send Jesus to die for us? So should we just give up, should we just go and do want we want? After all we can never measure up? No, Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him; he even gave him permission to go ahead and do it. But did you catch the pain Jesus felt? This version says, “Jesus became visibly upset.” If Jesus becomes visibly upset at something that he knows must happen and he gives permission for, how must he feel when we stuff up? No, we shouldn’t give up we should continue towards our goal of being Jesus like. When our friends, our Mum and Dad, our leaders stuff up, we should forgive them. And when we stuff up, we should get down on our knees and ask our gracious God for forgiveness, knowing that his son died on a cross two thousand years ago so we could be forgiven.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »

So Jesus washed the disciples feet, what difference does that make to us? Jesus took the grubbiest job and got on with. Washing your mates feet, at the end of a sweaty, dusty day would not have been nice. Actually you probably would have got your lowest servant to do it. But Jesus didn’t, actually Jesus did four things. Firstly he was observant enough to spot a way he could do something for his friends and fellow believers. Then he got on and did it. He didn’t send money, he didn’t arrange for someone else to do it. No Jesus felt it was important enough that he did it. Thirdly he washed everyone’s feet, even Judas who he new would betray him. He didn’t pick and choose the guys he liked; he did it to all of them. Finally he was very straightforward and said, I am doing this so you guys can use me as an example. Jesus was plain that this is how we should look after one another. There was no messing with this, and I was reminded this week of a famous old preacher guy call John Wesley who put it another way. John said “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.“ So as you look around at your mates, and those who go to your church or youth group that you might not like as much; can you see things that people need to be helped with? If you can’t should you be looking a bit harder? After all Jesus was very plain that him washing the disciples feet wasn’t a one off it was a way we should live our lives.

Author - Max Cross, Uncategorized | No Comments »