ReFuel at the Svantröms!
7 - 10pm.
Bring your friends!
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Friday, 26 September 2008
This evening
Remember the prayer meeting tonight at the Rizzos' house. It will be great - and even better if you lot are able to go!
Hope to see you there.
Hope to see you there.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
COMING SOON....
This Friday: (26th)
PRAYER NIGHT! Come along, we're in for half and then playing games... It's gonna be good!
Following Friday: (3rd)
ReFuel! Iiiiiiit's movie night!
Weekend 10-12th:
CHOSEN (weekend away in Les Diablerets.... More on this soon!)
PRAYER NIGHT! Come along, we're in for half and then playing games... It's gonna be good!
Following Friday: (3rd)
ReFuel! Iiiiiiit's movie night!
Weekend 10-12th:
CHOSEN (weekend away in Les Diablerets.... More on this soon!)
Week 2 (21.09.08)
This week we took a look at the Beatitudes and explored reasons why Jesus might have been saying this stuff to begin with (!)
The passage (Matthew 5:1-12) on one level gives us a basic guide as to how we should react as Christians when life isn't going the way we'd like. More than this though, it is Jesus telling us that if we want to bring his Kingdom on earth (when we talk about the "Kingdom," what we mean is trying to make God King on earth; so living the way he wants us to live, which will show everyone around us what it really means to be a Christian... In other words, the way we live now should reflect what Heaven looks like), we will be blessed. He says that living this way will be tough at times, but that God is with us and he understands. It is a passage that lets us know how our hearts should be, but also what this looks like in action.
Reading this passage usually brings up questions, like: "What on earth are you talking about, Jesus?!" This is because what he is saying is completely different to the sort of thing we would expect. After all, who feels 'blessed' when someone dies? Or when people hate you for what you believe? Jesus is not trying to say that these things in themselves are good, God doesn't want you to suffer but he knows that, whilst we are on earth, we will and doesn't want us to give up when we do. The way we respond to tough stuff (here comes that "Kingdom" idea again!) will show that God is with us and changing our hearts for the better and will start to bring his Kingdom on earth. Non-Christians will look at us and want to know how we can handle things so well and when we tell them it's because we have Jesus with us to share the load, hopefully they'll want to get to know him too!
Lois and Eleanor
The passage (Matthew 5:1-12) on one level gives us a basic guide as to how we should react as Christians when life isn't going the way we'd like. More than this though, it is Jesus telling us that if we want to bring his Kingdom on earth (when we talk about the "Kingdom," what we mean is trying to make God King on earth; so living the way he wants us to live, which will show everyone around us what it really means to be a Christian... In other words, the way we live now should reflect what Heaven looks like), we will be blessed. He says that living this way will be tough at times, but that God is with us and he understands. It is a passage that lets us know how our hearts should be, but also what this looks like in action.
Reading this passage usually brings up questions, like: "What on earth are you talking about, Jesus?!" This is because what he is saying is completely different to the sort of thing we would expect. After all, who feels 'blessed' when someone dies? Or when people hate you for what you believe? Jesus is not trying to say that these things in themselves are good, God doesn't want you to suffer but he knows that, whilst we are on earth, we will and doesn't want us to give up when we do. The way we respond to tough stuff (here comes that "Kingdom" idea again!) will show that God is with us and changing our hearts for the better and will start to bring his Kingdom on earth. Non-Christians will look at us and want to know how we can handle things so well and when we tell them it's because we have Jesus with us to share the load, hopefully they'll want to get to know him too!
Lois and Eleanor
Week 1 (14.09.08)
This week we did "wise and foolish builders" and talked about why it is so important to live our lives according to what the Bible says.
The passage (Matthew 7:24-27) tells us that if you read the Word and do what it says, making God the foundation of your life, then when things go wrong you won't fall apart or lose your faith. However, if you read the Word but don't let it have an effect on your life, then you won't be able to hold everything together when bad things come your way. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we should always ask God to teach us from his Word and help us to be impacted by it.
Then we spoke about how we can go about reading the Bible in the first place: it's a big book and sometimes we just don't know where to start!
So... If you're interested in getting your teeth into the Bible (not literally) and really starting to get to know God a bit better, but you're just not sure how, here's a few tips:
1) Don't just open the Bible randomly and read any passage out of context (it just won't make sense!)
2) We would recommend that you made your way slowly and steadily, rather than trying to tackle huge chunks.
3) Read a book at a time, start at the beginning of your chosen book and try to read a bit every day (whether that's two verses or a chapter at a time: whatever suits you best)
4) Start with a gospel (that's any of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and continue with books from the New Testament. (We're not saying the Old Testament is bad, we love it! It's just easier to start with the New)
5) Don't get put off by lists of names (we can't pronounce them either!) - just skim through or leave them out and go to the next bit....
6) Finally and most importantly, we think we should always pray before we start to read. The Bible was written by God and therefore we're never going to understand it all straight away and we need his help, so by praying before we begin, we're asking him to make the words on the page come alive to us as we read.
Reading the Bible is a great way just to hang out with God, it's great to get to spend time with him in this way and we would really recommend it.
If ever you come across something that really doesn't make sense, or if you find something really interesting, we'd love to hear about it and have a chat with you about your thoughts, so let us know!
Lois and Eleanor
The passage (Matthew 7:24-27) tells us that if you read the Word and do what it says, making God the foundation of your life, then when things go wrong you won't fall apart or lose your faith. However, if you read the Word but don't let it have an effect on your life, then you won't be able to hold everything together when bad things come your way. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we should always ask God to teach us from his Word and help us to be impacted by it.
Then we spoke about how we can go about reading the Bible in the first place: it's a big book and sometimes we just don't know where to start!
So... If you're interested in getting your teeth into the Bible (not literally) and really starting to get to know God a bit better, but you're just not sure how, here's a few tips:
1) Don't just open the Bible randomly and read any passage out of context (it just won't make sense!)
2) We would recommend that you made your way slowly and steadily, rather than trying to tackle huge chunks.
3) Read a book at a time, start at the beginning of your chosen book and try to read a bit every day (whether that's two verses or a chapter at a time: whatever suits you best)
4) Start with a gospel (that's any of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and continue with books from the New Testament. (We're not saying the Old Testament is bad, we love it! It's just easier to start with the New)
5) Don't get put off by lists of names (we can't pronounce them either!) - just skim through or leave them out and go to the next bit....
6) Finally and most importantly, we think we should always pray before we start to read. The Bible was written by God and therefore we're never going to understand it all straight away and we need his help, so by praying before we begin, we're asking him to make the words on the page come alive to us as we read.
Reading the Bible is a great way just to hang out with God, it's great to get to spend time with him in this way and we would really recommend it.
If ever you come across something that really doesn't make sense, or if you find something really interesting, we'd love to hear about it and have a chat with you about your thoughts, so let us know!
Lois and Eleanor
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