aftershock.org.uk
devotional mp3 podcasts for young people

Sometimes I just wonder if we actually deserve God. Here is Jesus giving this amazing talk about how he is the bread of life and the people are just missing the point. You know the times that you are in lessons or lecturers and you fade away, that’s what the people are like. Your teacher is trying to pass on some real wisdom and all you hear is blah, blah, blah. Well Jesus is explaining that he is the bread of life; he is the stuff we need to survive. And all the people can hear is blah, blah, blah. Jesus is saying look everything you need in school, college or work, you can find if you believe in me. And what do they do? Do they bow down and worship him? No, they say show us a magic trick, give us a miracle, do what Moses did. In other words, all they hear is blah, blah, blah. Maybe sometimes when we read the Bible or hear an aftershock dev, we too fade away. Maybe all we start to hear is blah blah blah. Wouldn’t it be a shame, if we too, missed a vital message from our God? Blah, blah, blah!

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

How do you respond when people ask you how school or college was? “OK.” Or when your mates ask you how you are doing? “Fine.” I had a friend once tell me that FINE stood for Feeling In Need of Encouragement. Yep sometimes we are not fine, even when we say we are. Sometimes our lives at school and college can feel just as stormy as the storm the disciples were in the middle of. Sometimes we to are petrified, just like the disciples were. Funny thing is with the disciples, Jesus strolls over and says “Chill, it’s OK, I’m am here.” Now, putting aside the fact that he has just strolled across a stormy sea, he immediately understood that the disciples were scared and wanted to calm them down. Hey you would be scared too, a) they are in the middle of a storm and, b) some guy is walking on water. But isn’t that just like you and I, when we are in the middle of storms in our lives? We are busy worrying about exams, parents, jobs, relationships, or whatever, and then someone asks us how we are doing. What do we do? “Oh I am fine.” Jesus has just walked over water to send someone to you, and you are so scared you turn them away. This isn’t an excuse to always blurt out every little thing that’s wrong in your life. But next time someone who you trust asks you how you are doing, tell them the truth. If you are Ok tell them you are OK. But if you’re not tell them that you are Feeling In Need of Encouragement.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

Your Lord is pretty impressive. He provides for the needs of a massive crowd of people, just by using the packed lunch from a small lad. That’s pretty radical in anyone’s book. In the same way today God provides us with everything we need. Yes, I said need not want. He could round us all up and keep us like pets, in a little cage, where everyday he feeds us and lets us worship him. After all, this God of ours created the entire universe and everything in it. But He doesn’t. Firstly he gives us the ability to choose ourselves, whether we worship him or not. Then he says, I will provide for all your needs. He could say, I will provide for everything you want, but he doesn’t. Now, I am thinking, that God providing everything I wanted would be pretty cool. I want the latest play station, the latest Xbox, the latest Wii. Not to mention a fast car, aeroplane, helicopter and the best MP3 player going. But I think maybe, we can begin to see the problem here. When I get what I want, rather than what I need, I have a tendency to become a little greedy. Anyway, if my effort was not involved in providing what I need, and God just gave me everything I wanted, I would become his pet again. But no, our God provides you and me, with the ability to have what we need to live our lives to the full.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

It’s incredible what people are happy to believe. In the not too distant past, people were happy to believe that the world was flat. In the very recent past, some people believed that the colour of your skin had an impact on your intelligence. Some of your mates are happy to accept that the world was created in some sought of cosmic explosion. Many of your mates believe that their ancestors were squidgy slime based creatures living in a swamp. And people were and are happy to believe these things, either with no evidence or with massive holes in the evidence or theories. And yet, today, just as in the days that Jesus walked upon this earth, people struggle to believe the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. Despite the fact that Jesus fulfilled the predictions of the prophets that came years before him. Despite the fact that Jesus life is chronicled, not only in the Bible, but with much other historical documentation. I guess, it just goes to prove one thing. It doesn’t matter how much evidence exists or does not exists for Jesus being the son of God, it is all down to the individual. At the end of the day, whether we or your mates believe in Jesus, it doesn’t impact whether he is the Son of God or not. Our belief in Jesus, doesn’t make him anymore the Son of God that he already is. Other people’s disbelief in Jesus, doesn’t make him any less the Son of God. It’s down to each and everyone of us, to ask God to reveal to us his existence and for us to make our own choice. Of course we could always choose to believe in squidgy things that live in a swamp.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

Now is the time to act. That’s what Jesus message is in this passage. He is pretty clear about what the consequences are of choosing to follow him and what the consequences are of not choosing to follow him. It may not make for a nice fluffy message to you and your mates, but the facts are plain. If you choose to follow Jesus in this life, then you choose to follow him forever and party in Heaven. However if you choose not to follow Jesus in this life, then you will not be forced to be with him forever in Heaven, you have chosen to be apart from Jesus forever. If that plain fact was not hard hitting enough; Jesus now says, don’t hang around, you do not know how quickly you choice will be committed to eternity. It is a sad fact that some people die when they are over one hundred and others die when they are children. Why? I don’t know and maybe we can ask Jesus when we meet him. But that does mean that those who have the ability to choose between following Jesus and not following Jesus, should get on with it, because we never know when our time to stand in front of him will come. I often hear people say they will do what they want in this life and then ask Jesus to be their mate and forgive them on their death bed. Let’s hope and pray, that those that choose that way of life, have the chance to do just that. As for me and my mates and family I would rather we made our choice now and then we can be sure of our future. Yep, not only is it urgent, it’s an emergency.

Author - Max Cross, John | 2 Comments »