The Pulse

I wonder what you spend most of your day doing and thinking? Maybe you are in a rush in the morning to get to school then when you come home you watch a bit of t.v., play some sport or hang out with mates, play on your PS3 or whatever... All these things are great ways to spend time but I wonder whether this is all there is... or is there is more to life? Jesus claims to be the way, the truth and the life, therefore spending time getting to know Him will teach us how to truly live!

C.S. Lewis wrote:
"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far to easily pleased."

The other night I watched a film called: 'Pay it forward'. The idea came from an 11 boy who was set a school project to come up with a scheme to change the world. His idea was that when someone was in receipt of a favour they should not return it to the same person but pay it forward to three other people. Thus, one person touches three, three nine and nine twenty seven.

It is a bit like how we can respond to God. The way that we can thank God for helping us is to help someone else -acts of love and practical help. If we get on with paying it forward we really will change the world. 

In a world where different religions are often lumped together and put on oneside, when exploring the Christianity, it is important to focus on who Jesus is.

In the book 'Mere Christianity' C.S. Lewis makes this statement:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

I wonder who you think Jesus is...?

Make 2010 your year!

In the film ‘Amazing Grace’ William Wilberforce (an MP) asks William Pitt (current Prime Minister) how an earth they can take on the slave trade as they are so young!  Pitt replies by saying ‘we are too young to realise these things are impossible… so we’ll do them anyway’. 

 For me one of the greatest things about being a Christian is that I can start each day afresh putting my fears and failures behind me and dare to dream new hopes and vision about how I can change and transform God’s world!  I can allow myself to have faith in what is seemingly impossible and ‘do them anyway’. 

 Often people grow old and wise but lose the determination, courage and fight that people had in their youth.   As a youngster you have the responsibility and privilege of shaping our community, our nation and our world for the next generation.  What impact are you going to have upon the people you meet?  What legacy are you going to leave for your children and your children’s children?  What are you going to do in 2010 to make this world a better place?