The Selfless Generation : Jonathan Crabtree

13:24 Forge 0 Comments


This post is entitled the selfless generation and I have a feeling this will be popping up every so often for a while on this blog because this is exactly what I am trying to help facilitate and inspire through this blog in general, its about giving you life tips and inspiring you to go the extra mile for your fellow man, making your life less about you and more about the people around you. Just look to the bible at the two commandments Jesus gives, Love the lord your god with all your heart, soul and strength, and also love your neighbour as you do yourself. If we could raise up as a generation of young people who truly understood that commandment and lived it out how much of an impact would that have?! Look at your life for a second and look at how you treat yourself, when you get a spare bit of change you go out and buy yourself new stuff, you look out for your wellbeing. We need to have this same attitude towards everyone in our lives, regardless of how they treat us and act as an example to the rest of society. The fact is no one wants to know about a "religion" telling someone the good news of jesus will stir something in them but it alone wont have an impact without a level of good and love that comes from your heart and from your actions. The world is full of people telling them they can make their lives better, wether it be an advert for a pair of trainers, a new skin product, a deodorant, a new fast food restaurant, they are all telling you they can make you perform better, feel better, give you a better life, what makes the story of jesus any different to those promises to someone who doesn't believe? no amount of persuasion and argument will change their mind. However the thing that pulls the argument over is a changed live, a good action, a friendly deed. No corporation will get anywhere without customer referral, without someone trying it and saying to a friend, WOW! this really works! we need to understand as a christian that we are the best advert for christianity there is, most people have a preset view of christians, how they look, what they do, what music they listen to, how they act. our job is to blow that out the water by being ourselves and also being loving, kind and selfless. Christianity has bad press all over the world because of the extremes, people falling over in services to us as christians seems amazing and wonderful, but to someone who doesn't understand its strange and unwelcoming. If we don't show people that not all churches are like that then they will never realise it! We need to be open about our faith so that people can understand further and realise what it is that is so different about us! I guarantee that if you are a real christian who loves god, but aren't open about your faith people will know you are different but not know why! You will be surprised how people notice you change and they just didn't know what had! We are the front line, the hands and feet of God so we need to remind ourselves every day that the day is not just ours, but it is gods and we need to live in the knowledge that every day is a gift from God, Im not saying drop everything you do, because lets face it living a life of soul devotion to god is only for a few people, if everyone was born to be a pastor who would we all pastor? and more importantly, who would let the people at your school or your work know about jesus and act as salt and light? We are called for exactly where we are at, all we need to do is take up that calling and change your mindset, dedicate your day to god each morning, pray before your day begins, remind yourself you need to be the difference  during the day, speak life into people rather than joining in the complaining, bring some joy where there are dampened spirits and tell yourself your going to put some people before you in your day. Im telling you for free the change wont  happen over night, but If you don't make a decision to change and take some steps it will take much longer than if you step out and put yourself before god. The process of becoming selfless is natural when your a christian, but taking the steps I just spoke about speed up the process and make it much easier to facilitate when you bring god right into your day from the outset! Hope this has helped you and I hope you have a blessed week! 

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Mercy : Jonathan Crabtree

09:12 Forge 1 Comments

I have had a lot of key things happen in my life over the last couple of days, a Christian camp with some of my best friends, amazing guest speaker who could possibly have changed my life forever by his conduct and life story and so much other stuff that I don't have space or time to mention. At times like this when you are full of mixed emotion you can find yourself looking back on your life and thinking about how you were compared to how you are now. God does amazing works in our lives daily and builds us up as people daily, but sometimes it takes a lifetime (or what feels that long) to be able to notice the change. We need to take time out of our busy schedule to look back on our lives and look at what god has done for us! I cant bare to think where I would be without Jesus and all the people I have met thanks to him. I was a depressed lonely teenager with no real friends, no one to turn to, no real confidence, no self esteem, each day was a struggle, and yet now I am free of all of that, I have strong friendships, a god who loves me unconditionally, a new found confidence in myself and Im having the chance to help people out of the place that I was in less than 4 years ago! Our God is a god who switches lives around! We can find new Identity in christ and new mercy through him every day. The thing is when we look back we don't have to look back in regret, all the past is washed away and we never need to live up to how things have always been. I could easily stayed in the shell that I was in before, said to myself "this is what people think of me, I should stay that way" but no, God says we shouldn't listen to what people say, but what he says, we need to put the past behind us and move on to our promised plan that god has for our lives!

I was reading my bible in 1 John this week and a verse clearly stood out for me, It was 1 Peter 2:10, it says "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Notice how it says, "Once", "But" you were lonely, you did feel insecure... but now you are the people of god, you have a purpose, belonging, a family. No reflection on the past, just focussing on now, and what is to come. We need to look at life like this!

My prayer for you is that you would come to realise your new found Identity in Gods family, that you would leave behind the past but not forget it, remember where you came from and know where god took you from and where he has taken you too! Amen.

This is a song I wrote about Gods mercy. Mercy, By JC Music & Saphire Bell

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Take Ownership : Jonathan Crabtree

08:29 Forge 0 Comments

This post is aimed at everyone, everyone is included and no one is exempt. We all need to take responsibility for our own world, that being the places we do life, so where we work, where we shop, where we hang out, all of this is our world, and all of our world needs Jesus. Now I know what your thinking, how can I make a difference in all of those places that were just mentioned? Well I don't mean to be corny, but every little helps, stretching out a hand of friendship, kindness and love where ever you are makes a huge difference and speaks out for your faith. If you regularly shop at the same shop, make an effort to get to know the staff there rather than ignoring them. You would be surprised how much of an impact that can have on a person, and how much that will make you stand out from the crowd. The rest of the world pay no attention, but you take an interest. It will make you stand out like a sore thumb! The problem we tend to have is we categorise outreach to a specific type of person. The outgoing type, or the outreach pastor at church, or people older and more mature. The fact is, none of those people live in your world, yes your worlds may cross over in a few places, you may share the same church or the same supermarket, but the fact is you are in touch with different people, speak to different people and live different lives, so no one else in the world will be able to reach out to the same people as you. And yes, your outreach pastor may have that as a job, but no one is a better suited outreach pastor for your walk of life than you, because you are there day in and day out. Don't just rely on other people take ownership and get involved yourself! Also, if you feel under equipped for the job, step out and see how God will support you! It says in the bible that god provides anything to those who ask, if your short on some courage pray about it and watch yourself grow in strength, you feeling quiet or unable to string a sentence together under pressure? pray about it and god will provide you with the words to say! God isn't going to let you get into a situation where you aren't prepared or don't have the skills to succeed, he is only going to stretch you a little to build your character, but if you never step out your never going to grow! we need to put some faith in god and put ourselves in a place where we aren't comfortable.

 Just to end with, I want to send a message out to the young people like me. You need to stop letting your youth get the best of you. Just because your young doesn't mean you cant achieve anything or succeed. Look at the bible, God used 11 young people who were mostly teenagers, and they founded the church as we know it! The disciples were all young people, so if anyone tells you your too young or if you feel that in your head, shake it off and tell yourself otherwise! Your born to thrive from the second you walk the earth, don't spend your time waiting to be older, because you have never been as old as you are right now so make the most of it!

 (Also thankyou to Beth Rollo for the amazing photo I used in the graphic!)

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Circles

04:54 Forge 0 Comments


I know I'm usually uber spiritual on my blog, but today I'm going to talk about circles and how Saphire Bell hates them.
I love circles, they are the perfect shape for any graphic, and yet when I am working with her circles are a no go area! because they are too generic and everyone uses them.
Now Im in no position to judge here, but I don't think you can pick and choose what parts of your personality are hipster and what parts aren't! "Oh, well Im a shape hipster" It does'nt make any sense. You cant be luke warm, you have to be hot or cold! Get your act together Saphire Bell. That is all.

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Look At Life From A New Perspective : Jonathan Crabtree

07:42 Forge 0 Comments


Recently I have been thinking about how we can often put god in a box by coming to god with solutions to our problems rather than the problems themselves. We serve an almighty all-knowing god, he doesn't need our advice, we need to take his and understand that he knows best. God is there to support you in more ways than we can ask hope or imagine, but often our solution comes but we totally mis it because we are so caught up in our solution that we forget why we were even asking for it in the first place. We need to put our mind aside and understand that we don't need to comprehend what god is doing, all we need to do is trust that he will do the best for us and let him work. We can never see the big picture, we are down on earth doing our day to day life and we are trying to understand what god can see when really we don't even have the brain power to even understand a tiny portion of what is going on in his master plan. Charlotte Gambil put this in a great analogy, its like we are pieces of a jigsaw, as hard as we try we can try and fit ourselves together but it will never work, but god sees the full picture, he sees all the pieces and he sees the box lid, the blueprint that he has designed for his church, and for his world, and every time we submit to him, we are one piece closer to making that blueprint a reality. We need to stop trying to comprehend it all and let his will be done, stop giving him advice, but giving him full control so that he can put us in the perfect place, and make us into the men and women of god that he  designed us to be.

 I pray that you would submit to god this week, that you wouldn't give god the answers to your problems, but the problems themselves, that you would put aside your own understanding, but give it up to god and let him take the wheel so that you can advance through your troubles and live life to the full. Amen.

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Solid Ground : Jonathan Crabtree

11:07 Forge 0 Comments

Hey guys, Im going to talk to you about rooting yourself in solid ground. Now the most obvious scripture that relates to this is the story of the man who built his house on the sand, this can be found in Matthew 7:21

 The Wise and Foolish Builders
    24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

 Now most people just take this and say, "oh you need to build yourself on jesus and not on other things" and yes, in its most basic form that is true, but they forget to look at the why. This passage makes it very clear that the wind and rain will come. Its not like the second you choose jesus your life will be all hunky dory and perfect, because if you think that or have been told that its a lie. Life will hit you, and it will hit you hard. Its easy to love god in the good times, but when you find yourself in a hard situation, thats when you will find out where your roots are and where your foundations are built. So with that in mind you need to build your foundation in the good times so when the harsh rain and wind comes you have shelter. Its no good being on the rock, but having no foundations built. You may as well have built on the sand. Also, if you have those foundations built and the wind and rain comes and your safe indoors, don't get scared and run out of the house. It made no sense to do it and yet people do it all the time! They build there foundation and they love god and love life, but then an obstacle comes along and they run away from church and from god when its the very thing that would save them from it. Stay inside gods house and stay connected to him, because he is our refuge and strength in times of need!

 My prayer for you is that you would find refuge from god, seek him in all times not just in the good or bad, so that they would build a long standing foundation that would last for a whole lifetime. Amen

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