Leave The World Behind : Jonathan Crabtree

15:38 Forge 1 Comments

This world is governed by flesh. Although god reigns and has already won the battle because of the free will he gave each and every human being in the world we have control. We have the choice between the worlds ways and Gods ways. Im putting it in plain english, as blunt as it gets because sometimes we can get used to the same old nicely nicely preaching we get every week at church it looses impact and becomes familiar to us. we need to remember that "our ways are not Gods ways, nor our thoughts Gods thoughts" we need to separate what god wants for our lives and what god wants for our lives and take the straight path, the path with god leading the way. I was inspired to write about this after a youth meeting we had at ALC (soon to be LC) where the students had taken charge of the night and hosted a Q&A session about the life choices and decisions that come between the ages of 15 and 18 and how to fit god into those choices. Manny answers were valid but no one said exactly what was needed to be said in the moment, which is why I am filling in now. God has a plan for every single person on the planet, it is just down to us to choose that path over the path that is placed in front of us by the people around us, wether that be our parents, our teachers, our youth pastors, who ever it may be, even if they are honoured and respected, none of them can fill in gods shoes, he has the best plan for your life and he will reveal it to you via the holly spirit, the word of God and manny other means. The real struggle is not how we know what our calling is, because naturally God will reveal himself to you and you will know when the time is right because it says in the bible he has a plan, so we need to stop being caught up in what the plan is and focus on putting the plan into action. But until the final plan is revealed to you, don't just settle in life praying for god to reveal the way to you, the way is written in gods word, we need to become better people, more like jesus, love one another, be forgiving. All of those things are a calling on our lives and we shouldn't dismiss them waiting for god's big plan for our lives. We need to live by his word and abide to it, and although at first it isn't easy to do what god wants over what you want, ultimately it makes you happy and contents you! You may think that going to serve in gods house, or do gods will is less glamorous and fun than anything in your social calendar, but i can tell you for free, i know that serving in the house of god fills me with joy, and it will fill you too. It is contenting, life bringing and it will turn your world upside down. In the bible it says that one day scrubbing the floors in the house of the lord is like a thousand on sun kissed beaches! and that isn't propaganda preaching, it was the honest opinion of david, and he wrote it in psalm 84! Gods plan for your life isn't draining, upsetting, boring. It is life bringing! If you step out in faith and say to God, your ways are higher than mine, and i will live them out, I guarantee you will have a blast! It wont be comfortable, but you will grow as a person, be stretched in your talents, build on your strengths and have a great time in the process! God designed you with a specific purpose in mind, so he has given you gifts and talents to suit his plans, so if you follow his guidance you will be in the perfect place for you! Our God is a God who wants to make you into the optimum man/woman you can be, so listen to his guidance, follow it and find your life again. Take the world, all I need is Jesus.

Evangelism Explained : Jonathan Crabtree

03:35 Forge 0 Comments

Recently I have been thinking about the miss perception that my friends have been having about evangelism. It is preached from the pulpit weekly how we should always be striving to invite our friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and every other human we encounter to church. Now I'm not taking the strength out of that statement, we should be inviting people to church, but unless it is a preach specifically on evangelism, the heart behind it can be lost. it is often said in an off comment during every preach, but unless the congregation have heard a sermon on evangelism recently they can either forget or sometimes no even realise how important the heart behind evangelism is. I have friends who feel pressured into telling everyone that they should come to church when that in itself defeats the object of evangelism. Evangelism comes from the heart and comes from a deep relationship with god. Its not about us getting people into church for our benefit, or for the sake of the preacher so we can get brownie points, but its because we want our friends to understand the love and compassion we get from god, and the best way to show them is to take them into the church, into the house of god, where they can be in an atmosphere saturated with gods presence.

Another thing to be aware of when thinking about evangelism is who to tell, who to talk to about god. I have seen my friends come away from church and think, "Who can I invite to church who will want to come". Wrong question to ask. The worst thing you can do is specify people and attack them with invites and church talk, It needs to come natural. I find the best form of evangelism is love. If you want someone to come to church, respect them, wether you think they want to come to church you love them, and then offer them to come to church once and if they say no keep loving them. You need to let them understand that you like them, and care about them wether they want to come to church or not. Express to them gods unconditional love and they will eventually ask you if they can come, or the next time you ask they will say yes. We need to remember that they are all gods children and our brothers and sisters, regardless of wether they are interested in church or not. Interested in us or not. Our two commissions from jesus are to love god with all our heart soul and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourself. If we treat everyone like christ intended in that verse we will surly see the church across the UK grow tenfold over the next year. But in the midst of all this don't forget to pray and bring gods spirit into the situation. if you have someone in your mind that you know needs Jesus, rather than bombarding them with flyers for church events, bombard them with prayer and bless them. This will soften their heart to the things of god and help them see the light.

My prayer for you this week is that you would have a god perspective on your peers this week, wether they are your friends or not. I pray god would reveal to you that they are all his children and your brothers and sisters and thus make it easier for you to love them this week, i pray you would have boldness to speak out about your faith but constraint to be yourself and let god move in their life and not for you to do it all in your own strength, Amen.

(Also i am not sugesting that Olivia is broken in any way, she is awesome :P Just clearing that up)

Unity : Jonathan Crabtree

15:26 Forge 0 Comments

Today at our fortnightly youth prayer meeting God laid something on my heart for the church across the country. Now I know the whole of England is a pretty big place and although the whole of england cant read this blog post you can see it and try and use it to help your life or your church. But most importantly god sees it and he is making it happen because the word came from him in the first place! This word was unity, unity for gods people in the UK. Now this is right out the dictionary, this is what the word unity means.


3a. The combination or arrangement of parts into a whole; unification.

4. Singleness or constancy of purpose or action; continuity

5a. An ordering of all elements in a work of art or literature so that each contributes to a unified aesthetic effect.

5b. The effect thus produced.

We as the church, In the UK in particular have become divided, we have been separated because of slight differences in our belief and so have built walls between each other and started arguments that never needed to be started! How can anyone outside the church believe or agree with the message of the gospel when the people who are teaching it cant get on? In small towns there are turf wars between churches, churches splitting and dividing, how can we think about changing a generation for christ when we ourselves cant manage to love each other? We need to lay aside our differences and look at what really matters! Yes they might be baptist, yes they might be Pentecostal, but the fact is we are all christians and we all need to treat each other like the brothers and sisters in christ that we are! Churches across the country are crying out for help to god. "Our youth ministry is crumbling" "people are leaving the church" "we are running out of finance" when the fact is the answer to your cry could be around the corner in the next church! Your crying out to God, and god is saying I placed you two churches next to each other for a reason, but you are too busy praying at god to listen! Think about it, If every church in a town has 2 or 3 young people then if you all met together you would have a good 20 or 30 youth! and the fact is numbers attract numbers, when there are that amount of people coming, it will multiply faster than you can think! all it could take is a few steps into contacting churches and stepping out in faith! Look at the list of meanings for the word unity above. As the church, Gods bride, we need to act in harmony together, we are the components that make the engine of god on this earth, but an engine with missing parts wont work to its maximum potential! We need to include every part to make it work before we can make the car pick up speed! Lets get together, make steps to knock down the barriers set before us and unify the church again!