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You know guys at college who are always boasting. Maybe there is someone at school who can always beat what you’ve done. You know the type of thing, you say you have a new MP3 player and suddenly they say they have the biggest iPod you can get. You spend the weekend surfing, they tell you they did a parachute jump. Older people are no different. They get a new car; their neighbour gets a bigger car. The pastor asks them to head up a team, and they tell everyone they meet how the pastor and they are best mates. What is it that we want to seek other people’s approval by being better then they are? What is it that makes us think that just because we are different to someone else we are better then them? James tells us straight, if you want to be wise, if you want to be better, then don’t go around shouting about how great you are. James reminds us that God looks at the heart of a person; he is not interested what they look like. It’s all about actions. James hits us between the eyes. If we want to be better then we shouldn’t make other people feel small by telling them about what we own and what we do. No we become the big man, we become the big woman by making others feel good about themselves, by treating each others with dignity and honour.

Author - Max Cross, James | No Comments »

Do you listen to your mates and take what they say about God as being the absolute truth? Do you listen to your pastor and take what they say as being the truth? Do you listen to what we say here as Aftershock and know that it is the absolute truth? Hmm that’s interesting. Ok here is a quick pop quiz, which of these sayings is not in the Bible?
1. God works in mysterious ways.
2. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
3. Money is the root of all evil
4. The eye is the window to the soul
5. Spare the rod, spoil the child
Well did you guess? The answer is none of them. None of those sayings are in the Bible, yet there are millions of people walking around speaking those sayings with authority as though they are fact. Sometimes they are twisted versions of verses from the Bible, other times they simply do not exists, but how would you know? You would know because you should question everything your mates say about God, everything you pastor says about God, everything Aftershock says about God. James reminds us in this passage that being a teacher is hard and we often get it wrong. So when you hear someone say something like money is evil and the Bibles says so, go and find out for yourself what God really says in his Bible. If we say that you must live the be true, actually it is true, but you will believe it all the more when you read it in Gods owners’ manual, the Bible for yourself.

Author - Max Cross, James | No Comments »

Two guys eating lunch in the canteen. One says, I’m Ok, I go to youth group, I listen to Aftershock, I go to church on Sunday, I even go to CU, yep I’ve got my place in Heaven booked. The other guy says, I help out at the old peoples home, I’m nice to smelly kids at youth group, I send money to charities, yep I’ve got my place in Heaven booked. Who has got their place booked in Heaven? And the answer is………. Neither. Sorry but the bible’s pretty clear unless you accept Jesus died for you and me on the cross for the selfish stuff that you and I do then we don’t get into Heaven. It doesn’t matter how good we are, it doesn’t matter how many times we go to Church, it doesn’t matter how many nice things we do, we don’t get into Heaven. Right that’s OK then, now we’ve got that sorted we can just spend all our time praying to Jesus. All we have to do is sit in a room with a Christian worship CD on in the background and read our Bible all day long. Ahhhhhh Noooo. James points out that it’s not just about believing in Jesus, even the demons believe Jesus exists. If we have asked Jesus to be our friend and thanked him for dying for us then it is going to change the way we act. We won’t do good stuff to get into Heaven, we will do good stuff because Jesus has paid for our ticket into Heaven. If Aftershock is about anything it is about taking what Jesus has done for us and making it change the way we are in our day to day lives. Jesus will change the way you are to your mates, your parents, your brothers and sisters, those you don’t know, and yes even those who you don’t like.

Author - Max Cross, James | No Comments »

Does this passage mean anything to you? Is there a situation when James might be speaking to you? No? Let me rephrase some of it for you. Are you ready?

Hey my mate how your going. Don’t worry what your school or college mates think, you have got to do the things that Jesus would. If a rich kid with the current iPod and Play Station comes into your youth club at the same time as a smelly kid wearing hand-me-downs what do you say to them? Do you say to the posh kid, hey come and join in our pool game over here, and ignore the smelly bloke? Do you think God loves these guys any different? Listen mate, can’t you see that God would act differently? He would speak to the smelly kid, clean him up and invite around for a party and a meal. God promises heaven to anyone who loves God, and here you are being horrible to one of the people God loves. More often then not, it’s those who think they have all the iPods and clothes that are horrible to people like you. You would be better off remembering that Jesus said treat others with love in the same way you want to be treated with love.

Hey I’m not getting at you the same is true of me. I would rather speak to people that are like me, that would be the easy thing for me to do. But as we often say, when we asked Jesus to be our mate we didn’t sign up for the easy life. So next time this happens to you, say a quick prayer and do the Jesus thing not the easy thing.

Author - Max Cross, James | 3 Comments »

Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. That’s may be a very old saying, but it is also the biggest load of rubbish you will ever hear. Words do hurt, what people say to us does have the power to hurt us. What we say to other people does have the power to hurt them. I can tell you now there are words that people said to me twenty years ago that echo in my head today. Have people said words to you that wound. Has someone told you that your rubbish has someone told you that you are can’t do something? Well the good news is that these things are not true, but that didn’t stop them hurting did it? James tells us in this passage that the tongue is a very powerful weapon both for good and for bad. James says if you consider yourself a Jesus follower but don’t watch what you say to people then you have missed the point. So in the same way that we can be hurt by what people say we too can hurt others. If we get angry quickly and says things to hurt other people; then we are doing to them what others have done to us and that is not how we Jesus followers should be. Wow sometimes it’s hard to be a Christian, but James reminded us early in this chapter that ultimately we would be rewarded for living the Christian life, for doing the right thing not just speaking the right words.

Author - Max Cross, James | No Comments »