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devotional mp3 podcasts for young people

Rabboni, Professeur, Lehrer, Insegnante, Teacher. It doesn’t matter what language you say it in, we all choose people who we want to learn from. Mary looked upon Jesus as her Master and her Teacher. Up to this point Mary had spent much of her time with Jesus, because that is what we do when we want to learn from someone. You don’t choose a teacher so much as choose the people you want to hang around with. If you choose to hang around with people that play the guitar well, you will soon find that your guitar playing improves. Hang around blokes that spend their time on game consoles, and your hunger to play games will increase. Hang around people that smoke and swear and guess what, don’t be surprised if you find yourself swearing unexpectedly in other places. Mary chose to hang around Jesus and her hunger to be more like Jesus increased to the point that she felt despair when he appeared to have died. Who do we choose to hang with in our lives? Do we choose those guys who move us closer to becoming the person we want to be, or those guys who are so caught up in themselves they wouldn’t notice if we were not around. Do we choose those who move us closer to Jesus, or those who move us away from Jesus? Choosing a teacher is as easy

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

Years before Jesus was born Gods people were saying things about the bloke who would be the Son of God. In fact there were so many things said about who the Son of God would be, that it made it impossible for the wrong person to prove they were Christ. Heir to the throne of David, born in Bethlehem, crucified, pierced through hands and feet, born from a virgin, soldiers gambled for His clothing, and the list goes on and on. Having a faith in Jesus is more about the God the Holy Spirit guiding our hearts, but God does not ask us to remove our brains. He is up for us having questions and looking for answers that are logical. If we attack these things people predicted about Christ then we might be able to raise doubt about the odd one or two. You might say that there were lots of decedents of David, and the Messiah could have been anyone one of them. You could suggest that there were loads of people crucified. I’m sure that soldiers gambled a lot, and you could say they were just being soldiers. But if we use our brains it’s very simple to work out the truth. Whilst there may have been many people that each one of these prophesies were true about; there was only one person that they were all true about. So what does this mean to us today? It means that as we go to
school, college or work today we can walk tall, knowing that our Saviour Jesus Christ is as valid in our brains as he is in our hearts.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

How easily we can get drawn along with the crowd. Just a few days ago these were the same people that welcomed Jesus into town as a King, shouting Hosanna and praising his name. Yet here they are, shouting for his torture and death on a cross. It’s just like the feeling you get at a football game. The emotion inside of you can get whipped up into a frenzy, and before you know it your are shouting things at the referee that you wouldn’t believe you could say. What is it that makes us want to be part of the crowd? What is it that makes us do and say things that are wrong rather than stand out from the crowd? Fear. Fear of being different; fear that if we don’t run with the crowd that they may turn on us. At school and college we may run with the crowd and gossip about friends, in the hope the crowd won’t gossip about us. We dress like the in-crowd so that we have an identity and won’t stand out. Well you have an identify, you are a Christ Follower. Your identity wasn’t created in some fashion house, where what they really want is your money. Your identity isn’t in some label, like Goff, Emo or Skater. You are not part of the crowd, you were created individual, and God has known you before you were born. You know the difference between what the crowd think is right, and what you know to be right. Part of the crowd? No, you are too good for that, God made you too individual to run with the crowd.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

Pilate is having a bad day. Firstly he tells the Jews to take this problem of his hands and Judge Jesus for themselves. Then when they won’t he ask Jesus to confess and take this problem out of his hands. Finally he says, ‘”OK guys I can release one prisoner, so please take this problem of my hands.’” But still no joy. You see Jesus is persistent. Jesus knows that Gods will is for him to die on the cross for us, and that’s what is going to happen. Gods is persistent with us as well. God doesn’t give up on us just because we have made rubbish decisions in the past; no God sticks with us through thick and thin. God wanted you to hear about his Son Jesus and he was persistent with that until you stood up and took notice. Of course you can be stubborn and ignore him. But that does seem a little Pilate like. Personally I think being persistent in seeking Gods will for your life might be the better plan. What do you think?

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »

So Peter has denied that he knows Jesus not once, not twice but three times, that’s a Strike, and he is out. Not so long ago in John 13:37-38 he said “Master, why cant I follow now? Ill lay down my life for you!” Jesus knew what was going to happen, do you remember his reply? Jesus said “Really? Youll lay down your life for me? The truth is that before the rooster crows, youll deny me three times.” And as the sound of the rooster crowing dies away we are reminded once again, that Jesus knows every bit of our heart. Of course we have never said that we won’t do something, and then gone ahead and done it have we? I know I have never said that I wouldn’t snap at someone I love, and then snapped at them because I was feeling grumpy. Hmmm well maybe I have just once or twice. But I am sure that you would never do such a thing, would you? Of course if you were to do things that you said you wouldn’t what should you do? Should you feel guilty and beat yourself up? Should you not care and just give up trying? Well it seems to me that when Jesus talked about being selfish he said things like ‘”you are forgiven, now go and be selfish no more.’” So the answer is that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up, but we should say sorry and keep on trying to not do selfish stuff. As for Peter who is probably feeling rubbish right now, well we get back to him later on.

Author - Max Cross, John | No Comments »