I'm a Disciple

Pre-Note: Sing the above title of this post to the tune of Destiny's Child 'I'm a Survivor', guaranteed to make your booty shake ;)

So we've talked about Salvation and what it means to be saved but what comes next?
Do we just accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and then go ahead and everything is rosy from then on in?
Unfortunately no, just because we accept that Jesus is the Son of God and Lord and Saviour of our life doesn't mean that we automatically walk around with halos above our heads constantly singing choir songs. (Some of us do that anyway but it's definitely not a pre-requisite for being a Christian).
We live in a broken world with broken people and we've still got a lot to learn. We might still have a lot of healing to do ourselves, we might still have bad habits we need to break and we are needed in other people's lives as well. We need to gain insight, discover the specific gifts God has given us and work out what God wants us to do with our lives.
In order to do this we gotta follow Jesus' example and in order to know what Jesus did we gotta learn about him. We gotta be students of Jesus.

In old Jewish Culture (that is still alive and pumping in many different forms today) a young man of about 12 years old would start learning from a Rabbi every day in the Synagogue. So essentially a Rabbi would be an older teacher that would be wise in the Scriptures (part of what is the bible today) that would have younger followers walking in his footsteps and doing life with him every day so they could learn from him. The Synagogue was like a church.
This is what Jesus did and then he became a Rabbi himself with followers (disciples) until his death.
In order for us to be disciples of Jesus we need to walk with Jesus through prayer and through reading our bibles (the scriptures) every day.

We need to make sure our influence is Jesus and not let other things in life like negative people and peer pressure get in the way. That is essentially what the point of discipleship is, learning to listen to God in life, not other negative influences.

But, remember, discipleship is not easy. It is a challenge that can involve pain and difficulty at times...

Take a moment to think about how you learn in life. How did you learn to ride a bike? How did you learn to kick a footy? How did you learn to read and write?
We learn by watching and copying others. When we are in school sometimes we learn stuff by being told but it never really comes real for us until we do it...
Like getting your driver's license. You read the book on the road rules, you might even read a car manual to learn how to operate a car, someone might even tell you what to do. You sit for your L's, you get all your Give Way questions right and you're given your license with a cute photo of you on it. But that doesn't mean you know how to drive right? It's not until you get behind the wheel of a car that you learn (really quickly for most of us) how to steer, how much pressure we need to put on the brakes and remembering to use our indicators...

If we have a bad driving instructor we're going to make some serious mistakes when we get out on the road. It could end in us being in a car accident that might even lead to our death! So we need to make sure we choose a good instructor, someone we trust and someone that's going to care about us if we make a mistake.
The same can be said for our lives...
Choosing good role models in our lives is really important. Who we follow will determine what kind of people we will be. It's really important we follow people who are good, who we trust and who care about us no matter what happens...

Think about it, pray about it...

Animation Salvation

Last week we talked a lot about the rubbish in our lives called sin...
As we mentioned, sin can enslave us and bring harm into our lives but God wants us to have SALVATION.
Salvation brings life, freedom and a relationship with God. To experience this freedom we must believe that God died and returned to life to save all of us.

Sometimes all the 'church talk' around 'being saved', 'coming to faith' or being 'born-again' really does our heads in! What does it all mean? How do you even know if you are 'saved'? If you have questions around these things than please ask your leader or officer about it. They can pray with you and ask God to make it real for you too! If you feel you don't have anyone around or nearby that you can talk to about this stuff comment on here and we would love to start a discussion with you (publicly or privately) and we can pray with you over the virtual world :) Being part of an emerging generation is so fun and has so many benefits! We don't have to feel isolated by space or time, use technology to connect with friends, leaders and your faith!

Here's some discussion points to get the ball rolling or for you to think about;
What does God want to rescue us from in our lives?
What might that look like in your own life?
What has God done to save us?
Why did God save us?
What must I do to be saved?

I tried making a video for you guys this week but it was first of all too big and then when we tried to convert it to make it smaller it was sideways. So we abandoned that idea. But if anyone knows how to compress video without turning it sideways give us a holler, we would love some help.

Read the book of Romans this week to understand salvation in your own time.

P.S if you wanna know more check out what Wikipedia says about Christian Salvation here, or watch this cute Salvation Animation.

Go!

Sin, Salvation and the bit in between.

Today we have a guest blogger, Tash Lovelace from Eaglehawk! :) She has helped us put together todays blog. Enjoy...

Last week we mentioned sin…

Have you thought some more about it? What do you think? When we think about what kind of people sin we often think about really bad stuff and really bad people…

Well actually, everyone sins, even you.    

We mentioned a few things about what happens when we sin last week but here’s a re-cap…

When you sin you are hurting yourself your friends and even God. You may not realise it but you are and after you have sinned there is almost always regret.

Freedom from sin makes us happy…

Freedom from sin gives us relief…

You feel happier about yourself when you don’t have to worry about shame…

Our friendship or relationship with God can be restored. But what saves us?

How do we have a restored friendship with God? Sit down, pray and ask God to forgive your sin, be willing to let the rubbish in your life go and let God guide you to a life free of sin.

Romans 10:9-10 reads; ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.’ 

What do you think about that?

So, salvation, how do you get it?
Salvation is not inherited from you parents or family and it’s not found within a church. Salvation is a choice that only you can make. God offers salvation to all humanity in love but we can only receive it if we turn to him only you can choose salvation.

Sin can control us and bring harm into our everyday lives BUT God offers salvation because he loves us.  This salvation brings us Life, freedom and a relationship with god. To accept this salvation we must believe that Jesus died and returned to life to save us all then confess it with our mouths.

If you have never done this before perhaps take a moment now to speak to God about the rubbish in your life, give it over to Him and ask him to give you life. Let us know what happens!

Salvation? What the?!

Helllooo crazy guys and gals!

Ever wondered what the 'Salvation' in The Salvation Army is all about?

Hmmm, good question!

Salvation is the experience of being rescued and protected from pain or harm and it can mean many different things to different people. We can be saved from a burning house or from a boring conversation at a family reunion, but it always means avoiding something unpleasant and finding something better.

There can be all sorts of painful and harmful things in our world, so what has God got to do with it? What kind of Salvation does God offer us? Have you ever played the game 'Stuck in the Mud'? Sometimes our lives can feel a bit like that, stuck, bored, angry, frustrated.

When we are set free it changes though doesn't it? We're happy, relieved, free...

Ever heard about sin? That's the stuff that goes against what God asks, commands or wants for us. Examples of (Big) sin are; murder, theft, adultery but there are other (more secretive) sins like; lust, lies, jealousy and selfishness.

What kind of consequences do you normally experience when you commit a sin? Guilt, sadness? Do other people often experience consequences when you sin too? Sometimes they do... One other big consequence is it affects your relationship with God too. Whether it's Big sin or more secretive sin.

Look up Romans 3:23 in your bibles or look it up here what do you think salvation has to do with sin? Discuss.