Time Flies - Easter time already! WOo!

Hello! How is everybody? Sorry for the delay between posts. I have been flat out crazy since Mark*d started!!

In short

• I've found Intro to the Bible to be quite boring, but we are still in the introductory part of the subject, so I'm hoping it picks up a bit soon!


• Salvation Army Youth Ministry is going fantastic!! LOVE IT! We have been doing quite a bit on the History of the Salvation Army, and I'm learning heaps! Made me realise that the aim of the Salvation Army has drifted a bit and we have become to comfortable in the way things are done. I believe we need to remind ourselves (and others in the Army) of the original mission William Booth started. Our aim is to reach the lost, the last and the least. We need to be innovative in how we do things, ready to fight and Win the World for Jesus. We need to remember to have a practical faith (because that's what separates us from other churches!!) and take on board what James Barker (The first Officer sent to start the Salvation Army in Australia) told us before he left Australia for bigger things "By all means aim to reach heaven, but be like Jesus and take a thief with you!"

This afternoon I'm heading to Mount Evelyn for the MCD youth Easter camp, tomorrow morning the MCD group of Mark*d Foundation-ers is doing the Good Friday Service the theme quite obviously being the Crucifixion of Jesus! I'm doing the talk because I'm the oldest? and Love to talk?? haha. Any who, below is a copy of what I'm saying (edited from a listeners point of view, to a readers). Let me know what you think!

Good Friday Morning Service – The Crucifixion

Passion Of Christ Crucifixion scene played.

Who has ever been blamed for something they didn’t do? I remember once when I was seven or eight getting told off for lying about something I did. I then lied again and blamed my younger brother James for the lie. James, not understanding what he was doing, admitted to the crime and as a consequence got his mouth washed out with soap. Like James took the blame for my lie, Jesus took the blame for our sins.

Before the actual crucifixion, Jesus was beaten, whipped and tortured. The Romans took Jesus and tied Him to a post leaving his back exposed. They used a whip made of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. It doesn’t say in the bible how many times they use the whip to hit Jesus, but in Jewish law the number was set to 39 (believed at the time to be one hit before death). During this beating the skin was stripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of muscle and bone. Isaiah 52:14 described his face as being so disfigured, that he seemed hardly human. By looking at his appearance one would not even know he was a man!

After this beating, the Romans clothed Jesus in a scarlet robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and stuck it on his head. They then made fun of Jesus by spitting on him, kneeling in front of him and shouting ‘Hail, King of the Jews’. After the mocking and horrendous beating Jesus was forced to carry his own cross. The cross is said to have weighed about 135kg. Which was probably about 1 and a half times his own body weight.

You just watched how Jesus was nailed to the cross. These nails would have been about 18 cm long and about 1 cm thick, and driven into his hands and feet. Being crucified this way was a slow and painful process. It was a slow suffocation of a person because the way the arms were nailed in place, forced the ribcage out only letting them take short breaths. The shallowness of the breaths would eventually cause parts of the lung to collapse and eventually fill with fluid. Some would last up to 3 days on the cross! But because Jesus had lost so much blood from the beatings and floggings before that his death came much quicker.

We heard Sean tell us earlier about how Jesus was human just like us. Could you imagine having to go through any of this? What if was for something you didn’t even do? I know that I’m one to squirm when people get hurt in movies because I think I can feel the pain too.

The bible tells us that Jesus was pure he didn’t commit any sin, yet Jesus went to the cross ready and willing to die for sins he didn’t commit. He knew that this is what he was sent to do. Isaiah 50:6 tells us Jesus offered his back to those that beat him, his cheeks to those that pulled OUT his beard and he did not hide his face from the mocking or spitting. He went through all this for all our sins, mine and yours. God loves us so much he sent his son to die. Jesus loves us so much; he willingly went to die so that each one of us here could live forever in God’s kingdom.

‘For God so loved the world that he sent his only son to die. So that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life’ John 3:16

Officially Mark*d!!

Today was officially the first day of the Mark*d Foundations Program! It was great! There are 6 of us doing the Program. Caitlin (Glen Waverly Salvation Army), Cassie (also from Glen Waverly, but she will be doing her placement at Ferntree Gully), Sean (Glenroy Salvation Army), Sam (Macleod Salvation Army), Alana (Greensborough Salvation Army) and me! (Werribee, now known as Wyndham City Salvation Army).

The day started off at 10, we met at the Training College and made our way over to Whitley College for our first subject 'Introduction to the Bible'. It was good, very broad introduction but next week we start to delve deeper into the Bible starting with Genesis and Exodus. Should be easy, having done Old Testament last year!

This afternoon we had our main subject for the year 'Salvation Army Youth Ministry'. It was fantastic!! To begin with I was wondering how I was going to get through the 3 hours, but by the end of it I was wondering where time had gone!! We had 5 'guest speakers' come in and give us a talk on the work they have been doing in Youth Ministry and the challenges they have come across, also gave us ideas and kind of a 'pep talk' on how to bring Youth to Christ.

Here is some of the stuff I got out of it...

People (youth) are intrigued by passion, Your passion for God is what will attract them to God. Youth are the most selfish groups of people, they are always wanting more. You wont get people saved by organising big attractive youth events to impress them. You will get them saved by showing your passion and inspiring them to become Christians. (Inspire, Dont Impress)

One of the speakers (Matt) gave us 3 scriptures on which he bases his Youth Ministry on:

• Job 13:15 apparently best read in KJV Bible "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him." But read in NIV it says "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face." (Which to me makes much more sense)
• John 6: 60-66 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
  Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
• Philippians 3: 12-21 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
  Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Our aim is to disciple people, to bring youth closer to God. In doing so, we must continue to have a healthy and growing devotional relationship with God. We cant expect the youth to grow if we aren't growing also. They can only grow as far as we have grown. We need to be inspired by what God says in the Bible. Be like Jesus to the kids. Love them, care for them and be there for them. We don't need to force the scriptures on to them to get them saved. More youth/people will get saved if we set the example of a Jesus like life.

Some things we also need to remember:

• We need to find a balance between the community, and what we are already doing in the church. (Both groups need to be ministered to)
• When we are desperate we rely on God more, and he will provide.
• Even through failure God will raise something great!
• God in you brings God out of you

Today was a great first day, I have never been more excited in my entire school/uni/college life to come home and start the readings for the next class! I'm looking forward to what God has planned for me this year!

Bless you all and remember Inspire dont Impress!
♥