The Road to Cuba.

So, for those of you who don't know, I spent three weeks in Cuba this summer on a christian mission trip with an organisation called Latin Link who have a passion for spreading the gospel in Latin America and helping to develop the church out there.
  Seeing as I haven't written in a bit I thought that, for those people who I haven't had enough time to explain what my Cuba experience was really like (that being most people!) or those of you interested, I would tell you what it was like and everything that we (and God) did out there.
  In this first post though, I'm going to tell you about how I got there. I don't mean like, by plane, I mean how I came to going in the first place. It's quite a tale, and for those of you doubting how God can be active in a person's life, maybe this will give you a little bit of an idea.

Last year, my first year of university, I had to pick an outside course to give myself enough credits for the year.  As my course includes  year abroad I was encouraged to take a language. Seeing as I had done German at school up until standard grade (which I got a 1 in by the way!) I thought that it made sense just to pick it up again for my course- that's what would be easiest, right? So, I met with my Director of Studies and he put me down for studying German as my outside course. However, as things turned out, the university were only running a beginners course in the first semester which I was overqualified for. I literally turned up for the first class and the teacher said that if anyone had any previous experience in German that they should leave, right there and then. So I did. It would have been easy to just stay in the class and pretend I was learning all of this for the first time and I was just amazing at German but that would have been dishonest and I'm not a very good liar.
  So, I looked at my other options. Elementary French wasn't running that semester, Introductory Italian clashed with my timetable. That left Spanish. I'd never really had much of an interest in Spanish before but it was the only European language that I had been left with and so I thought, why not. It was only for a semester until I could do intermediate German in semester 2, I just needed to pass it for the credits. So I emailed my DoS and I was put on the class list for Introductory Spanish.
 So my journey began.
 The way it had all happened, I just knew that God was doing one of His God-things and that I should be on the look-out! A few weeks passed and nothing significant happened until one evening at my small group. Small groups are organised by the uni Christian Union and are groups of Christians  or anyone who's interested, who meet once a week to chat, study the bible and pray together. One of the leaders of my small group mentioned one evening that he and the CU president were looking at taking a team of people to Cuba for a mission trip and asked if we could pray about God showing them the way forward if there was to be one. They spoke Spanish in Cuba, right? I felt something inside me telling me this must be it, but I decided to hold back and pray about it.
  A few more weeks later and my small group leader said that the trip was going ahead and told us if any of us were interested to let him know and he'd send out information and so I did. I looked over the information and as I read I only became more enthused. I spoke to my mum about it when I was home that weekend and she was really positive about it. In my heart, I knew I really wanted to go and that it was right, but I thought I'd better do the christian thing and pray about it some more.
  The next Friday evening after I got back from CU I decided to have some me and God time, praying and then watching a christian biographical film that I love called Faith Like Potatoes. I spent a long time in prayer, speaking to God about a variety of different things, including asking for confirmation on whether He wanted me to go to Cuba or not. After praying I went to my laptop to find a copy of the film online seeing as I didn't have the DVD with me. I found a website with a large amount of different links and I just clicked on one at random. It was a good'un and loaded really quickly and I cosied myself into bed while the opening credits were playing. I looked at the screen and burst out laughing in amazement at what I saw. At the bottom of the screen were subtitles.
 Spanish subtitles.
I knew this was God giving me the confirmation I had asked for. I was so excited; God had asked me to do something, something amazing! He was taking me to Cuba on a mission trip, something I had never even considered doing before! I emailed my small group leader right away and said that God wanted me to go; I was in! I then called my mum to let her know, but she said that she'd known as soon as I told her about it that I'd be going so it came as no surprise to her.
  The next stage was then waiting for a meet-up with the female leader of the team. December came and then so did the Christmas holidays and still no-one had been in touch. I didn't think anything of it, assuming everyone had been as busy as I had been with the pre-Christmas exams.
  Over Christmas I was with my grandparents who are missionaries in Phuket, Thailand for their 50th wedding anniversary. My cousins, who live as missionaries in China, were also there and it was a wonderful time as, due to us all being in different areas of the globe, it's not very often we are all together. I told my grandparents and aunt and uncle all about me going to Cuba and what we'd be doing and they were all really excited and enthusiastic for me. Before university started back up again, I emailed my DoS saying that I wanted to continue in Spanish and take the intermediate course that semester instead of moving to German as planned- I was going to need it!
  I got home and returned to uni the third week in January. Halfway through the week I received a facebook message from my small group leader.
  I wasn't on the team going to Cuba.
  In the information they'd sent out it hadn't been explained how many people they were looking to have on the team and what male: female ratio they were looking for. Both he and the other leader had prayed very seriously about it but felt that I wasn't suited for this particular mission. He encouraged me to pursue my interest in mission, but perhaps somewhere more locally.
  The world came to a halt around me. What was going on? I had felt so strongly that this was what God wanted for me, that He wanted me to go to Cuba. So why was this happening? I respected both of the team leaders as Christians and knew that they must have prayed a lot about their team, and I knew that God doesn't lie or lead us on. So that left me; I must have gotten it wrong somehow. How could I have been so convinced that God had spoken to me if it was really just me imagining things; what did this say about my ability to listen to God, my Heavenly Father?
 So I did what any girl would do: I sat and cried for a while.
 Then read the message again... and cried some more.
  And a little bit more after that.
 How was I going to tell everyone I wasn't going to Cuba anymore? My Mum, Grandparents and other relatives, all the people at church who my Mum had told. What would they think?
  That Friday at CU was a special missions night with lots of different organisations speaking about the work they did in different countries and what type of people they were looking for to help out. I listened to them all, eager to hear something that would explain why this had happened and get rid of this confusion. But nothing did, speaker after speaker I listened and still felt no call to any of the projects.
  I continued to pray and seek God's voice, having faith that something was going to come of this, this wasn't the end of something; it was going to be a beginning. I felt the Holy Spirit comfort and assure me and so I continued to pray and wait for something, anything to happen.
  The weekend after that was the weekend-away with the student group from my church. It was a fantastic weekend with brilliant teaching from God's word and wonderful times of fellowship getting to know more of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Throughout the weekend during prayer times, I continued to ask people to pray for me, that I would be able to decipher what was God's voice and what was just my own will. I arrived back on the Sunday evening and called my Mum to tell her about the weekend. However, she had some interesting things to tell me too!
  That very morning at my home church, the Scottish representative from Latin Link (the organisation the CU team were going to Cuba with) had been speaking. My Mum realised God was doing something and spoke to him afterwards and spoke briefly with him about my 'situation'. He'd been very enthusiastic and said that I should get in touch and he'd see what he could do.
 At last, SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING!
God had listened to my prayers of anxiety and confusion, He had comforted me and felt my pain and now He was showing me His power and ultimate sovereignty. He had a plan for me.
At the beginning of the year I had felt convicted to read through the whole bible and so I had started having a daily quiet time with God which I had never gotten around to before that point. I read three chapters of the Old Testament, a psalm and a chapter from the New Testament and read from a devotional book called "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. The Monday morning after, I started reading that day's devotion and felt like I had just been knocked over the head with a bag of bricks. The words were speaking directly to me:

"January 30: The Dilemma of Obedience
'Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision' (1 Samuel 3:15)
God never speaks to us in dramatic ways, but in ways which are easy to misunderstand. Then we say, "I wonder if that is God's voice?" Isaiah said that the Lord spoke to him 'with a strong hand,' that is, by the pressure of his circumstances (Isaiah 8:11). Without the sovereign hand of God Himself, nothing touches our lives. Do we discern His hand at work, or do we see things as mere occurrences?
  Get into the habit of saying, "Speak, LORD," and life will become a romance (1 Samuel 3:9). Every time circumstances press in on you, say, "Speak, LORD," and make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline, it is meant to bring me to the point of saying, "Speak, LORD." Think back to a time when God spoke to you. Do you remember what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it Thessalonians 5:23? As we listen, our ears become more sensitive, and like Jesus, we will hear God all the time..."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, Updated Edition

OOFT. I was blown away. Again, God was letting me know that He had spoken to me. I had to have faith and trust that He had it all under control.
 So, I knew that I hadn't been imagining things, God had spoken to me and I knew that, even if it wasn't to be Cuba, His plan for me included Latin Link. My Mum sent over some information and booklets she had picked up at church and I read through them and looked on the LL website. I felt the same as I had at the CU missions night, nothing was calling out to me. Nothing except Cuba.
  Eventually I decided just to go with it, and I sent off an application form for Latin Link's Cuba Step team. The next week I remembered about phoning the LL rep and so I gave him a call. I explained to him what had happened how I felt God calling me to do this and he was really encouraging and said that he'd received my application that morning. He said that, if I wanted, he could speak to the leaders of the CU and see if he could still put me on that team. It wasn't what I had been thinking of and I hadn't actually met up with my small group leader to chat about what had happened yet, so I decided that it would be better if I spoke to him first, rather than have it look as if I had gone behind their backs.
  I did eventually speak with both of the leaders separately, but to respect their privacy (you'll notice I haven't mentioned names either) I'm going to skip that part of my story out.
  Eventually I had my interview to be on the Latin Link Cuba Step team. It was a really great conversation and God helped me to just be really honest about things. I was then told that I was, pretty much, on the team! The way Step teams usually work is that individuals apply to LL, sometimes for a specific country and sometimes not, and then LL put the teams together. This means that, usually, the teams don't know each other. I was understandably wary about spending three weeks in another country with a team of people I'd never met before but had faith that God must be doing something special, taking into account all the trauma I'd gone through not being on the CU team! I was really excited to find out who was on my team and excited that finally things had come together. I was able to look back on those weeks and weeks of uncertainty and see how God had drawn me closer to Him in that time, to develop my faith in Him more and to show me what it really meant to "wait upon the Lord."
  Things continued to develop easily and naturally. I spent five days speaking only in Spanish to try and encourage people to sponsor me to raise the funds for going, walking around with a small whiteboard all the time so that I could write down what I was saying for people (... pretty much everyone haha) who didn't speak Spanish. I didn't get much money donated from friends but the money steadily kept coming in from people at my home church, family friends, friends of my Mum's, colleagues of my step-dad's, friends of my step-dad's parents... in fact, pretty much all of the money I needed came from donations, I didn't need to do much active fundraising at all! It was God who told me to go to Cuba and so He was faithful to provide what I needed to get there.
  In June, I went down to Reading for team orientation where I would be meeting my team for the first time. It was a wonderful weekend and as soon as I met the team I knew that these were the people I was meant to be with. We had so much fun and it only made me more excited for going to Cuba.
  Before I knew it, I was sitting at the departure gate in Edinburgh Airport at the start of my journey. Through all the confusion and uncertainty God had been working His sovereign power and after all the waiting, here I was: on my way to Cuba, finally.

A friend gave me a verse during my time of waiting which really sums up what I went through and learnt:

"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?" Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

God isn't just some supernatural being who stays up in His heaven and let's us get on with things. When we surrender our lives to Him, He is faithful to do amazing things with it and use it for His glory. He never leaves us for one second, never slumbers nor sleeps, always taking care and loving us as our perfect Heavenly Father. Even when something is happening in your life and you don't understand why, surrender it to God and He will use it. Becoming a christian doesn't mean that bad things won't happen, but it does mean we can know that God has a purpose in everything that He does and lets happen and that He will be with us every step of the way, providing us with all we need; material, spiritual or emotional.
  As a child of God I am able to look into my future with no worries. Whatever happens, I belong to God and all will work to good for me. To live is Christ and to die is gain.
  If you haven't accepted Jesus as your saviour and surrendered your life to Him, this is the kind of relationship you could have. This is the relationship you were created to have. God is waiting for you with outstretched arms, longing for you to come to Him. Through Jesus Christ you can have life ABUNDANT! You can be free to live your life without being a prisoner to sin, free to be the person God created you to be. Only then will you have the peace that passes all understanding and joy that stands against all of life's trials.

Praying for you always, may you find peace in Christ Jesus,
Amy
 

What kind of heart do you have?

It sounds like a title for one of those flowchart quizzes you see all the time in magazines and hopefully, unlike afore mentioned quizzes, by the end of reading this blog you will have a fuller idea of what's going on in your heart and what you can do to change it... if you want to. Unlike magazines, the Bible is filled with the Truth and when we read it, it truthfully reflects the image of ourselves back at us. Like a mirror, it doesn't matter how much you don't like the reflection, the mirror tells you the truth and if you don't like it, it's up to you to make the decision to change. God doesn't beat about the bush; His word tells us it as it is without messing around. It tells us the truth. The author of the book of Hebrews says it like this:
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
 With that in mind, let's get a move on and look at what's on the menu today.

The Parable of the Sower

You may recognise it, you might even know the story. While travelling through various cities in villages, a huge crowd starts to form and Jesus tells them the story of a farmer who goes out one day to sow some seed. The seed falls on various types of ground. One portion of seed fell along the path, onto hard ground, and was walked on and carried of by the birds. Another, fell on rocky ground and so the roots couldn't grow properly and the plants withered in the hot sun because they had no moisture. Some seed fell among thorns and weeds which, as soon as  the plant started to grow, choked and killed the plant. The last portion of seed fell into good soil, and produced a bountiful harvest.

  You can read the story from:

Matthew 13:1 http://www.esvbible.org/Matthew+13/ 

Mark 4:1 http://www.esvbible.org/Mark+4/ or

Luke 8:4 http://www.esvbible.org/Luke+8/

Perhaps like you right now (unless you read the passage/s for yourself and know what it means, 10 brownie points and a Blue Peter badge for you!), the disciples were pretty confused and weren't really sure what Jesus was getting at and so asked him what the parable meant.

 Before we go on any further, some of you may be wondering what a parable is. It is the word used to describe a story which has a deeper, moral and spiritual meaning and Jesus used these because they allowed him to relate to the people in a way they could understand. In context of this parable, we may not be so hot on middle eastern farming, the people Jesus was talking to totally understood. However, it also meant that these people had to look for the deeper meaning behind the story for themselves; those who were just following the crowd and joined in following Jesus to be like everyone else wouldn't bother looking for the meaning because their hearts weren't in it, but those who really listened to Jesus and trusted in Him wanted to know what the lesson behind the story was- they had a hunger and desire to understand what Jesus was saying to them.

 So, now onto the meaning of the parable. The seed in the story is the word of God, the Truth, the good news that can bring salvation to our souls. Some of you may have figured out from the title that the different pieces of ground represent different states of hearts; Heart #1, Heart #2, Heart #3 and Heart #4. So, without further ado let's have a look.

Heart #1 - The Hard Heart

This is the seed that falls along the path. In the fields that Jesus was talking about there were paths that ran throughout the field so that the farmer could sow his seed by hand, these paths were created solely by people walking over the same area time and time again until the ground became hard and a noticible path had been formed. So, farmer is walkin' along sowin' the seed and some of it falls on this path, this hard soil. For the plant to start growing, the seed needs to sink down into the soil so that its roots can grow. You can imagine why this seed wasn't very successful, it just sits on top of the ground, unable to go anywhere or do anything useful, until the birds come along and eat it.

 This heart has been trampled on, life has just walked all over it until it builds a barrier, a hard exterior to keep anyone from hurting it again. Unfortunately, this keeps a lot of good things from coming in too, so God's word just sits there on the surface going nowhere. That's when Satan, the birds in the parable, comes and removes it before it has the chance.

 Do you find yourself hearing about Jesus and just can't let yourself believe it? It's just a story, a fairytale; you're not even going to consider it because it just can't be true, it's ridiculous. You've been given the chance to accept Jesus but your heart just won't let you. Then in comes Satan and takes it away so you can't believe and be saved and that opportunity is gone. You didn't want it, and so it was taken away. Fair enough, right?

But what if it is true...

 

Heart #2 - The Shallow Heart

This is the seed that falls on the rocky ground. Now, before we go any further I need to explain what this is: this is not soil with lots of rocks and stones sitting in it. In these fields there were areas of shallow soil with solid rock beneath the surface and that is what Jesus means by rocky ground. So the seed falls on this soil and it all looks great, it sinks down and starts to grow and on the surface things are looking good. However after a while, the plants roots can't develop properly because of the rock so close. Unable to soak up any moisture, the plant dies in the hot sun.

 This heart accepts the Good News with joy and on the surface it looks like salvation has taken place, the plant starts to grow. However, very soon a problem arises. The shallowness of this heart means that faith is given nothing to help it grow, it has no root within itself, and so when hard times come along and the faith is tried, it just dies out. Following Jesus and having faith is just too hard. No harvest is coming from that dead plant, and so no spiritual fruit is going to come from a faith that is dead. There's no salvation there for that soul.

 

Heart #3 - The Worldly Heart

So, heart #3 is the soil with the thorns. Here, again, the seed is able to sink into the soil and the plant begins to grow. Unfortunately, plants and weeds can't exist in the same space. Either the ground has to be weeded so the plant can grow or the weeds will soak up all the water that the plant needs and the plant will die.

 What we have here is a heart that is divided. Like heart #2, God's Word has been received joyfully and again, it looks like there has been a real salvation experience. The problem is that this heart doesn't think Jesus is enough, and it gets caught up in the cares of the world and materialism and trying to make itself happy. These things don't coincide with faith in God and so that faith becomes choked and dies. No salvation.

 

Heart #4 - The Genuine Heart

This is the heart that represents the good soil. The seed sinks down into the ground, the roots have plenty of breathing space and there is nothing else in that soil that is going to detract the plant's growth. The seed that falls on this ground produces grain, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold and some thirtyfold. That's a lotta grain.

 In this heart, the Truth is accepted wholeheartedly with joy, there is no hardness or unbelief to stop it. It is a steadfast faith that doesn't waver in face of trial or persecution and that gives up everything to follow Jesus, not allowing itself to be distracted or divided. This kind of faith makes itself evident in a person's life. It is impossible not to notice, and it makes things happen. This is what we call spiritual fruit- this is the harvest in the parable. No fruit means no faith, and no faith means no salvation. Without salvation, we're headed to a lost eternity.

 

 

If you're reading this blog, the chances are that you've also read my other ones and if you haven't I would be overjoyed if you gave them a look at. I've told you the Truth, it's up to you what you want to do with it: take it or leave it. Jesus is longing for you to accept Him, but because He loves you, he lets you make your own decision, even though it breaks His heart when you reject Him. He came down from Heaven to live as a man on earth so that He could die for your sins, so that you could be free and be saved from spending your eternity separated from God. In Hell. You don't have to go there, you have this choice... but if you choose not to take it then you'll have to take the punishment for your sins, because you chose not to accept Jesus' payment.

 

 There is a scary part to this parable. Two out of three unsaved hearts appear to have been saved. They think they're safe because they said a prayer at some point in their lives but the fact is they're not. Their faith is dead and they're doing nothing to change that.

  There is an easy way to diagnose a faith that's dead. If there is no faith, there is no fruit. I'm gonna show you a passage from the bible that talks about fruits of the flesh and fruits of the spirit to make this a bit clearer:

 

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

(Galatians 5:19-24 ESV)

 

 

Have a look through that list and be honest with yourself, which fruits are you growing in your life? I'm speaking to people who would call themselves christian here. If you've read my first blog then you know what being a christian really is, but let's say you've read that and you'd still say you're a christian: you believe the bible, you go to church, you've prayed the prayer. Let me ask you this: are you bearing fruit for Jesus? Does your faith prove to you and to those around you that it's alive and growing? Do you put everything on the line for God: your popularity, your sense of humour, your social life, your lifestyle, your love life, your work life, the words you use, your reputation?

 

After being told that God lives inside of us after we ask Him into our lives a small child asked, "But isn't God bigger than us?" The Sunday school teacher answers, "Yes, of course."

"Doesn't that mean that He would show through?"

Is God showing through in Your life?

 

If I were to go around your friends, your family, your work colleagues, anyone you spend time around and gave them a list of the qualities listed in the passage from Galatians and asked them to tick the ones that you showed, which ones would they tick and what conclusion would that bring you to about your spiritual life? Are you spiritually alive or are you spiritually dead?

 

There are only four categories of heart and they are all listed in this blog. Do yourself a favour and be honest with yourself: which are you?

The next question you need to ask yourself is: what do I want to do about it?

 

Guys, I share these things with you because I love you and I need you to know the Truth so you can make a fair decision. That decision is up to you and I can't do anything about that, but I can't let you make that decision before you know the facts and that's what these blogs are all about.

 God is pursuing you. He loves you with a love that we aren't deep enough to understand, a love that meant a perfect and holy God, dying so that He could pay for your sins. He wants to spend eternity with you, it's not an offer you can turn down lightly.

 Praying for you guys, may you find God's peace.

  In Christ Jesus,

 Amy

 

P.S So sorry that I haven't written in so long! Will make it up to you with more coming soon hopefully :)

The Truth? Part 2

Okay, so today we're going to continue looking at Jesus, specifically looking at his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. This should be a little shorter than yesterday's (and they all breathed a sigh of relief).

So, number 2...

Jesus really did die on the cross

You don't have to look very far before you see that the crucifixion of Jesus and the events leading up to it are all completely historically correct and it would be uneducated and immature to suggest otherwise. However, arguments have been made that Jesus, although he was crucified, was not really dead when they buried him and so his supposed "resurrection" was nothing more than Jesus waking up, rolling the stone away and walking out. So, let's tackle why this could not have been the case.

Argument #1: The soldiers in charge of the crucifixion were not new to this job. In fact, taking into consideration who it was that was being crucified that day, the soldiers chosen were probably the "best" crucifixioners (I may have made that word up...) out there and would have seen more crucifixions than you could wave a stick at. There is no way that they would risk a) the humiliation and b) the punishment (probably execution) of not making sure somebody they were in charge of crucifying was dead, especially when it was someone as famous as Jesus. This is why it is such a big deal when the centurion and those with him witnessed Jesus die (don't forget they also witnessed the 3 hours of darkness before he died and the earth-shattering earthquake that took place just after he died) and were so awe-struck that they declared "Truly this was the son of God!". They knew this was like no other crucifixion they had ever overseen before.

Argument #2: Because it was so important that Jesus really was dead, the soldiers took a spear and pierced Jesus' side and blood and water came out. From a medical perspective, this proves that the person is dead. (Note that this is one of the fulfilled prophecies I mentioned in the last blog). Also, in Mark's gospel he mentions that, when Joseph of Arimathea comes to ask Pilate for permission to bury Jesus, Pilate is so surprised that he is already dead (as I mentioned yesterday Jesus took a very unusually short period of time to die) that he sends for the supervising centurion to ask him if Jesus really is dead and the centurion confirms this. Permission is then given to Joseph for the corpse to be buried. This would never have been granted if Jesus were still alive.

 Hopefully you now recognise that the possibility of Jesus surviving the crucifixion experience really is tiny. In fact, at risk of being criticised, I would say that really it would have been impossible for that to have happened.

 Moving onto number 3...

Jesus really did rise from the dead

So now that we've, theoretically, declared Jesus as officially deceased after being crucified, let's look at the argument people have against him rising from the dead, that is, that the disciples came and stole Jesus' body from the tomb to make it look like he had risen when in fact he was still dead. Let's take a look at the arguments against this theory.

Argument #1: There were far too many guards at the tomb for the disciples to have rolled back the stone and smuggled the body out. The day after the crucifixion, the pharisees get together to go and talk to Pilate and tell him all about how, while he was alive, Jesus had said that three days after he died he would rise again. They therefore urge Pilate to secure the tomb in order that the disciples couldn't come and stage a resurrection. Pilate grants this request and tells them that they will be given a guard of soldiers and to make it as secure as they can. They then proceed to do this by setting the guard and sealing the stone. Let's look at this logically, the minimum amount of guards that would have been at the tomb is four (they would keep watch in three hour shifts during the night). However, neither the Romans or the religous leaders want to let this body disappear under any circumstance. Now, we know that the Romans were quite a clever bunch really and quite strategic; consider how they would have gone about guarding the tomb taking into account Jesus' 11 dedicated disciples- it would make sense to have at least the same amount of soldiers, and seeing as it's Romans we're talking about there is a possibility there were many, many more than that. If you look in the book of Acts when Peter is imprisoned, it tells us that 16 soldiers were guarding him, and he was only a disciple of Jesus! Also, all these events took place during the passover; Jerusalem would be absolutely chock-a-block with thousands of pilgrims, a lot of whom would be in support of Jesus = more potential tomb raiders. I imagine that, similarly to the soldiers supervising the crucifiction, these would be no inexperienced, fall-asleep-on-the-job kind of soldiers either; they were guarding the man who claimed to be King of the Jews- no way he's going to be getting out of that tomb if they can help it!

Argument #2: Not only would there be Roman soldiers, it is more than likely that- given that the pharisees probably trusted the Romans as much as they did the disciples- they would send some of their own men. Now that you're beginning to get an idea of the number of different people guarding the tomb, you're probably picturing how extremely difficult it would be to even get past these guys, nevermind shift a huge rock (estimated to be between 1.5 to 2 tonnes, the weight of a midsize car) which required levers to move and get the body out!

Argument #3: So, assuming that the disciples somehow manage to sneak past the guards who, contrary to the their report, were most definitely awake, silently move the huge rock and run away with Jesus' body unnoticed, this must mean that the disciples had to lie to a whole lot of people AND stash the body somewhere (considering the body has never been found in the near 2000 years since he died, it must have been a pretty good hiding place). The majority of the disciples were killed for telling people about Jesus and his resurrection that had brought life to all men- is it not somewhat surprising that, if all of this were built on a lie, they didn't buckle under the pressure and save their own lives, especially considering that none of the disciples actually believed Jesus when he told them that he would die and rise again in three days? In addition to this, the Roman seal was on the stone covering the entrance; if you were caught breaking this seal the punishment was upside-down crucifixion. Would you risk it?

Argument #4: Let's consider the possibility that Jesus is still alive in your mind, despite the arguments above, and has woken up in the tomb and manages to get himself out. The first problem with this theory is that, even if he wasn't dead from being crucified, it is most certain that he would have died from the injuries (nevermind being well enough to walk about, shift a stone that potentially weighed 2 tonnes from the inside of the tomb and walk away!). Before Jesus was crucifed he was horrendously beaten and tortured, so much so that it is said that he barely looked human, and it wouldn't be out of the question to suggest that he could have died from these injuries alone. Add to this the nails that were put through his hands and feet (considering he had nails in his feet, I would think it impossible he would even be able to stand nevermind walk!) and then add onto that the spear wound in his side from the soldiers checking to see if he was dead and the blood lost from these injuries. It is highly unlikely (I would say it was impossible but I'm trying to be polite and understanding here) that, if he was alive when put into the tomb, he would have come out of it alive.

Argument #5: Jesus appeared to hundreds of people after he had risen. He proved to them he wasn't a ghost because he ate and drank with them, and proved it was him (other than his appearance duh) by showing them the scars from the nails on his hands and feet. Again, you could try and argue that the disciples just lied but, other than referring back to the same logic as argument #3, in all four gospels it is mentioned that women found the empty tomb first and were spoken to by the angel. In Jewish society, if the disciples were going to make such a story up, there is no way that they would say that women had found the empty tomb first or that they disbelieved the women when they came to tell the men. Also, it wasn't just the disciples who witnessed the resurrected Christ; before Jesus ascended back to Heaven he was on earth for forty days. Think of all the things you could do and all the places you could go in forty days! More than 500 people (that we know of) saw Jesus after his resurrection; if only the disciples claimed to have seen him resurrected, do you really think we would have Christianity 2000 years later? There's no way people would have believed if only the disciples had seen him! Even Thomas (one of the disciples who missed seeing Jesus at the same time as the others) didn't believe them, and he had spent three years with Jesus listening to him telling them he would rise again! If you're not satisfied with that and still think that it was down to bias, it wasn't only believers that Jesus appeared to: one of Jesus' own brothers called James, despite growing up with Jesus, didn't believe he was the son of God and is mentioned along with his other non-believing siblings all through the gospels. Jesus appeared to him after his resurrection and now, aswell as believing, he's even written one of the books in the Bible! If that's not good enough then what about Paul? He hated Jesus' "Christians" so much that he did all he could to get rid of them, including imprisoning them and sentencing them to death! If there was anyone who disbelieved the resurrection of Jesus, it was Paul! Jesus appeared to him in a blinding light while he was on his way to arrest more christians one day, and he became the world's very first missionary, writing about half of the New Testement in the Bible! That's one hefty turn around if you ask me. He even went on to die for his faith. He must have been completely and utterly convinced that what he experienced that day was Jesus speaking to him.

You are now left with two choices:

To ignore what you have just read and think up reasons for it not to be true, or

To realise that Jesus is the son of God who died to pay the price for your sin, and overcame death so that you may have eternal life because God loves you. I can't expect mere logical arguments to reach your heart, for logic speaks to the brain, but I pray earnestly that you recognise God's voice calling to you and that you realise who He is; not some distant, angry God just waiting to condemn you, but a Father who is waiting for you to come home to him with open arms, ready to forgive and bless you. You don't have to be certain any of this is true to ask God to forgive you, there is nothing wrong with uncertainty, but if you ask Him to come into your life and turn it around He will be more than happy to show you how real He is!

If you have any questions I would be amazingly happy to do my best to answer them for you, and if I can't I'll go away and find out about it for myself and get back to you. If you're reading this and you don't know me, feel free to add me on facebook (Amy Beth Ferry) or to follow me on Twitter (@ampedsilence). I love you all, and it pains my heart to think of anyone spending eternity in Hell. It's not nice to talk about but it's a real place and there are far too many souls in there already without you joining them. If you haven't already read my blog entitled Life? feel free to do so. Keep seeking, friends.

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

 Love and prayers,
Amy

Here are some articles I looked at to write this blog:
http://sntjohnny.com/front/how-many-guards-at-the-tomb-of-jesus/485.html
http://www.ichthus.info/CaseForChrist/Resurrection/intro.html

The Truth?

Many of you may have read my blog entry entitled "Life?" in which I talked about sin and our need to be saved. You may have found it interesting, you may even have felt challenged by it or encourage by it. However, some of you may have read it and thought, "That's all very well, but I don't believe it". This is fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions. Today I'm going to discuss the core issue surrounding unbelief: Jesus Christ.
 You may be surprised by this. Perhaps you think it would make more sense for me to talk about or prove that the Bible really is the diving and living word of God, or to discuss suffering in the world, why science and christianity don't agree and so on and so forth. However, if I can prove to you that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he died on a cross at Calvery and rose from the dead three days later, all of the issues I mentioned become irrelevent. It proves that the Bible is dependable and that it was written by God through more than 200 prophecies concerning Jesus, most of which were written hundreds, if not thousands, of years before Jesus was even born. By proving the Bible to be true that then scores out everything else as the Bible addresses it all.
  So then, there are three things that I am going to tell you about Jesus:
1) He is the son of God
2) He really did die on the cross and
3) He truly did rise from the dead, ultimately proving he is God.
 Depending on how long this gets I may have to split into three separate entries so I don't bore you! (Not that there is anything boring about Jesus).

Okay, number 1...

Jesus is the son of God

The first things I'm going to talk about in relation to this are all the prophecies that I mentioned up there. Now, we're not talking a few little guesses about Jesus scattered here and there, over 200 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. They weren't all written (physically) by the same authors, they weren't all written in the same time period, they don't all talk about the same things, NONE of them disagree- it's pretty mind-blowing stuff. We're talking about

• Promises of a Messiah (Saviour) for the world who would rescue it from sin
• Which men he would be descended from (concerning his earthly-adopted father, Joseph): Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the tribe of Judah, King David.
• Where he would be born: Bethlehem
• When he would be born
• That he would be born to a virgin
• That there would be a massacre of infants (this was done by King Herod in attempt to kill the baby born to be King of the Jews)
• That they would flee to Egypt
• Prophesying his ministry in Galilee
• That he would be a prophet
• That he would be a High Priest (in the sense of atoning for our sins, not earthly-literal)
• That he would be rejected by his people, the Jews
• Describing some of his characteristics
• How much money he would be sold for (Judas and his 30 pieces of silver)
• That he would be accused of things he didn't do by false witnesses
• That he would be silent when accused
• How he would be torchered
• How he would die
• That he would die alongside sinners
• That he would be mocked
• That people would gamble for his clothing
• That he would be given gall and vinegar to drink
• That his side would be pierced (this was to prove that he was really dead)
• That NOT ONE bone in his body would be broken (in crucifixion, normally it can take up to three days to die- Jesus died in approx. 6 hours- and the legs of the offenders would usually be broken to speed up the process)
• That he would be buried among the rich
• That he would rise from the dead after 3 days
• That he would be seen by hundreds of people and eat and have fellowship among them
• And that he would ascend back to Heaven to be with his father

Now that's a pretty hefty list, right? If you want to look at the exact references you can google the subject for yourself or here's a site I found: http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/prophecies-concerning-jesus-and-their-fulfilment and that's not even all of them!

My second point is that the whole of the Old Testement, although Jesus isn't there physically (apart from if you believe it was him in the furnace with Radshach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3) the whole of it points towards him. The first mention of a Saviour is right back at the very beginning in the garden of Eden! I can't name all of the pictures of Jesus in the OT but to mention some of them:

• The one door in the ark that Noah built is a picture of how Jesus is the ONLY way to have salvation
• The unblemished ram to sacrifice provided by God to Abraham instead of his son, Isaac whom God had promised to him, even in his and his wife's old age
• Moses is a picture of Jesus as he comes and saves the Hebrews from the Egyptian Pharoh
• The Passover feast, instigated in Egypt before the Hebrews leave. They sacrificed an unblemished lamb and painted the doorposts of their houses with the blood, and when the Lord sent his spirit through Egypt to kill all the first born (the 10th and final plague) he passed over the houses with the marked doorposts. This is a picture of how Jesus (the lamb) died in our place and that if we accept him as our saviour we will be given eternal life.
• The Bronze Snake in the desert (if you read Life? then you will recognise this story!) in which the Isrealites were dying from snake bites after disobeying God and God told Moses to make a snake on a pole made of bronze and that all who looked upon it would be saved (Jesus is the bronze snake).
• The different sacrifices the Isrealites had to make to atone for their sin, set down in the book of Leviticus mostly, point towards Jesus and his role as, not only the High Priest making the sacrifices, but also as the ultimate sacrifice would would be able to atone for ALL sin.
• Joshua leads the Isrealites into the land promised to them by God. This is a picture of what Jesus does for us spiritually.
• Boaz, in the book of Ruth, is pictured as a Redeemer when he redeems the property belonging to Naomi so that Ruth can be his bride. So Jesus has redeemed us by paying the ultimate price for sin, death, so that we can be his (The church is often called The Bride of Christ).
• King David life is a picture of all that Jesus would be, including his birth in Bethlehem.

I think I have given enough examples to make my point. Jesus is not some random guy who turns up and claims to be God and happens to be able to perform all these miracles. He is there from the beginning and, between pictures of him and prophecies about him, he is all over the Old Testemen

Now, speaking of miracles, Jesus did enough while he was here to prove he was the son of God, nevermind all the OT stuff! Again, you might choose not to believe it, but once I tell you all about how he definitely died and definitely rose again, we'll have all that sorted out.
 Some of you might have been fortunate enough to have gone along to Sunday School or be taught some of these stories in school etc but for those of you who don't know let's give you some examples of what Jesus did while he was here.
 He had authority of Nature: He turned water into wine without physically doing anything; he walked on water; he calmed a storm which had experienced fisherman, who knew the sea of Galilee like the back of their hands, terrified; he healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, the terminally ill and the lepers; he raised people from the dead; he fed crowds of thousands of people with only enough food for a few on at least two occassions, with baskets of food leftover!
 He had authority over spirits: On multiple occassions Jesus casts out demons, they fear him! He saved a little boy from a demon who was causing him to have epileptic fits and fall into fire and water; he heals two men with demons and allows them to enter into a herd of pigs which then rushed down into the sea and drowned.
 He had authority in speech: all through the gospels (The four books at the start of the New Testement which tesitfy to Jesus' life on earth) the religous leaders and teachers are trying to trick Jesus into saying something for which they could condemn him, they tried to "outsmart" him and failed every time. Everything Jesus said was completely perfect and agreed with the scriptures, when people heard him speak they recognised that he spoke with an authority no man before him had. When he healed a lame man one day, he heard the attitude of the pharisees that was in their hearts and answered them. When a woman with internal bleeding touched his cloak while he was passing by so that she may be healed, despite the fact they were in a great crowd he felt that power had gone out of him and spoke to the woman.
 These are only the things that are mentioned! At the end of the book of John he says: "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I supposed that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." OOFT. That's a lot of things left out!
 In all Jesus did while he was here, he demonstrated that he was the son of God. Even in death: after Jesus gives his spirit up to death (death had no authority over him to take it itself) a Roman centurion recognises that he must have been the son of God.

You can debate the reliability of these historical accounts if you want but just know that, forgetting about how most of it was prophesied hundreds and thousands of years before he was born, four different people wrote accounts of Jesus' life, containing a lot of the same stories and not contradicting one another at all, despite the fact they were from people from different backgrounds writing at different times, some of them who had witnessed events for themselves and others who hadn't, in particular Luke who went about it like an investigation, interviewing witnesses and finding evidence.
  I think that's where we'll end if for today, and I'll move onto the next two areas in my next entry!

Continually praying for all who read this, may God bless you and have mercy upon you,
Amy :)

 

Anytime guys...

So today's blog is going to be a little more laid back and a little less serious than previous ones. I'm just gonna chat about some things that have been on my mind lately, namely, guys.
 Don't get too excited, it's no-one inparticular, just guys in general. In fact, christian guys mostly.
 Something a lot of people don't seem to realise is that us religous nuts/bible bashers/spiritual fruitcakes/christians are in fact, beneath the banner of grace God has put over us, pretty normal. Unfortunately I can only come at this from a girl's perspective but whatever, this is a blog from the girls to the guys of christendom.
  Amongst the regular, normal things that us christians do like other people, is date. Or go out, or "go steady" for you americanised folks out there. However, like most areas of life, for christians it's not quite the same as it is for those who aren't christians; we don't have sex, we don't live together, we don't have fun... haha, just kidding folks. On the last one anyway. Anyway, another area in which it's different, and sometimes not in a good way, is the speed at which- not the relationship grows- but at which the relationship actually formulates.
  Now, maybe this is just because I'm a single 19 year-old christian who's not had the best (or most existant haha) love life but from my experience, christian guys are about the slowest movers on the planet:

Okay, so maybe I exaggerate slightly. In fact, maybe it's specifically a British problem (she said, expertly basing her opinion on her intake of American culture: movies and TV). Now please don't misjudge me; I am very happy where I am in life, singleness included. I have peace knowing I am in the centre of God's plan for me and He's got it in under control. However, that doesn't mean that I don't go all girly and throw the occasional pity party for myself because Mr. Right hasn't walked into my life. What I am saying is though, when he does come into my life walking is fine. Walking briskly is fine. Running is fine. Crawling and tip-toeing is not.

 Christian guys of Britain: BE MEN.

By all means get to know someone, pray about it, but seriously, if you like a gal just ask if she'd like to hang out some time- with other people, with a bible in between you- you can add your own side details as you wish, just as long as you go for it!

2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline" Amen to that, brothers!

 On a serious note, society has kind of messed up the roles of men and women and it does kinda get confusing about who does what and who pays and whatever. However, in a biblical man-woman relationship, the man is the leader. Check out Ephesians 5 where it talks about Man - Woman equates to Christ - Church.

• Christ seeks US out and pursues us; men, you can figure out how that equates to men-women relationships.
• Christ leads the church.

When you guys take months/years to approach a woman in terms of starting a relationship or expressing interest, you have no idea what it's like for us bible-believing, God-fearing woman and girls waiting for YOU to make the move, and the longer you take the more tempting it is for us to try and take control of the situation by trying to make a move, flirting, wearing more revealing/eye-drawing clothing etc etc. Basically, not good. It is serious. It's issues like this that have driven people to start christian dating sites. I don't know what your opinion is, but honestly I think it is one of the most contradictory things on the planet: "Oh yes, I trust God, I want a Godly man/woman, but nothing is happening so I'm going to take control of the situation, not trust God and look online instead." YEAH... okay. Now, I'm not saying that good relationships don't form out of them but I just don't think it's the way to go. It's like you're telling God that His way isn't working or isn't good enough and thinking you can outsmart Him. Doesn't sound good to me.

 Now guys, if you feel you have some growing to do in your relationship with God first before you can even think about starting one with a girl then that's fair and I would REALLY encourage that. There is nothing more attractive to a Jesus-loving woman than a man who is completely captivated and in love with Jesus himself, so get into the biblical weight room and exercise your faith muscle some more. But if God brings a woman into your life, don't run away from it- God made women because it wasn't good for you guys to be alone, come on!

 Maybe I'm by myself in this and I'm just making myself look like a lonely, desperate Queen of the Singles, but that's not why I'm writing this, and I hope I'm not the only person who feels this way.

As much as I'm basically telling you guys to get a move on, more than anything else, just listen to God and react to what (or more importantly, who) He's putting in front of you. If you feel God's telling you to remain single, then do that. But don't use your spirituality as an excuse for being a woose.

(In case you hadn't cottoned on, I'm talking about christian-christian relationships here. If you don't understand why christian-nonchristian doesn't work then I'll maybe write something else to do with that.)

There ya go, your regular dose of Amy-thoughts for a while. God loves you guys and He's reaching out for you, you just have to acknowledge the signs. Praying you find God's peace,

Amy, Queen of the Singles.

Everyone?

One of the things that surprises me most when I talk to some people is that they don't know/have never been told that God loves them. In fact, so many people say "God must hate me" or "God must hate that kind of people", or even that I must hate them!
 Oh how Satan, the father of lies, corrupts the truth.
  Others come from a different perspective and ask, "How could God love that person? After all the horrible things they've done, they don't deserve to be forgiven or loved by God."
 Well, today I'm going let you know how God can forgive those people and why He loves everyone.

The first subject I'm going to address, which will take up most of this post, mainly because it's a very current topic in the UK and also it is also linked to one of, I think, the most widely believed lies out there, is

Homosexuality

That's right, I said it. There is so much hurt and confusion over this topic, and it's one that nobody can escape talking about, especially at the moment with the consultation on marriage going on in the UK.

 One of the most shocking (and untrue) things I have heard about homosexuality is that God must hate anybody who is gay.

Truth #1: God loves everyone.

I touched on this in my blog "Life?" a couple of entries ago, and I'm going to refer you to the same verse I used there:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever belives in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

God does not hate people who are homosexual. Christians should not hate people who are homosexual. Unfortunately there may be those out there who do profess to hate people who are gay but you know what, they're not living in accordance to the word of God which is the ultimate truth. Jesus isn't like that. He loves us all, no matter what circumstances are in our lives our what kind of sin we do a lot. God wants everyone to come to Him and be saved:

"This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our saviour who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3-4

If God is in complete control and desires everyone to be saved through Jesus, why doesn't He make them? Because He gives us the choice. If God forced Himself upon us, would it really be real love? Because He loves us He gives the choice to us, even though it hurts Him to see us making decisions that, eventually, are eternally harmful to us.
 God doesn't hate people who are attracted to people of the same gender, or who have sex with people of the same gender. He hates the sin, not the sinner.

The second thing I am going to tell you, may be something you have never been told before which wouldn't be surprising because even as christians we're prone to believing differently.
Truth #2: All sin is the same.
I know, I know- it sounds crazy. What I'm saying is, there is no sin that is worse than another one before God, the ultimate and perfect judge.
 "Now hold up," I hear you sayin', "you're telling me, Amy Ferry, that stealing a pencil from work is the same as being some crazy mass murderer?"
 Yep. That's pretty much what I'm saying. In society, we seem to have this "moral ranking" of "big sins" and "little sins"- in fact, that's probably less true these days because morality, in the west especially, is just a mess- anway, the point I'm making is, God is perfect. We can't be in heaven unless we too are perfect, which we aren't, which is why God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins so that we might be blameless before God and join Him in Heaven etc etc.
"Yeah, yeah, Amy, you said all that in the other blog, get to the point!"
  I am, just wait for it.
 What I want you to take away from that is, it doesn't matter how much sin is in our lives or what those sins are, the reality is that you still can't get into Heaven on your own.
Context: Being gay isn't any better or worse than anything else and actually, as far as being attracted to people of the same sex goes, that isn't ANY different to lusting over someone of the opposite sex; having sex with someone of the same sex is exactly the same as having sex outwith marriage in a heterosexual relationship. THEREFORE, how could God, or anyone, possibly hate people who just happen to be inclined to this particular sin? Would make zero sense, bro.
 Under God we are all the same. We are brandished sinners, unable to change anything in eternity's perspective without the grace and mercy of God. That's why it's called grace, because none of us deserve it. God gives it to us purely because we are His creation and He loves us.
 Christians aren't any better you, whether we would have you believe that or not; we have exactly the same problems, issues and temptations and we screw up- some of more than others in different ways but that is irrelevent. The only difference is that we have allowed God to come into our lives, throw the sin away and free us from guilt, and give our lives the long-awaited makeover that it so desperately needs. Although we can't condone homosexuality, because the bible makes it very clear that any type of sexual immorality is a sin, that does not mean we think we are better or that we dislike people who are gay. God calls us to love everyone just as He does and to view them as He sees them- easier said than done- and that does not disclude anyone.

 I'm going to speak very quickly about homosexuality in the context of marriage, because it is very relevent to us at the moment. I believe in equality. I believe that everyone should experience the joy of loving someone and having an intimate relationship with them, however, marriage is an institution instigated by God. We know that God is holy and perfect, and as imperfect beings, we often don't understand certain things about God's character and His judgement, but because He is perfect we have to believe and have faith that He is just. As a perfect being, God instigated marriage so therefore, marriage was created perfect. God saw that it was good for a man to leave His family and "hold fast to His wife and become one flesh". The bible makes it very clear that marriage is to be between a man and a woman- and you can argue all you want about polygamy in the Old Testement (I actually don't understand that but hey, I never claimed to know everything, right?) but it is still between a man and a woman. God created woman with man in mind; they fit together not only physically but mentally too. They compliment one another. After the fall, all throughout the bible, it is then made very clear that homosexuality- a man behaving with another man as he should with a woman or vice versa- is a perversion of the perfect image God created of man and woman (which is created in His image by the way; Man and Woman = God and Christ. Therefore, perfect image) and that is is sinful. The reason bible-believing christians do not agree with same-gender marriage is that
a) God created marriage and gave its definition. We are not at liberty to change that and
b) Marriage is a perfect institution instigated by God and homosexuality is a sin inspired by Satan. It doesn't even make sense biblically that the two could ever mix.
 Now of course, there is imperfection in marriages- we're sinners, we can't do anything perfectly, and yes, in most places marriage isn't actually respected as the holy union that it should be- a life-long commitment to one person- and that's among heterosexual people, christian and non-christian alike so really, the image of marriage has already been defiled and altered. However, the marriage of two people of the same sex isn't, biblically, possible.
 Now maybe you're reading this and you don't believe in God or Jesus or that the bible is legitimate and that's fair enough, it's your decision, but that is why bible believing christians, like myself, cannot accept same-sex marriage. I understand that this is a sensitive issue, but all I ask is that you accept this is what the bible says and that I, as a follower of God, believe and respect it, just as I respect that you make your own choices and choose to believe what you do.

I'm just going to close by tackling the second thing I brought up- how can a perfect and just God forgive people who have done such awful and horrific things that He himself says are sinful? Well hopefully you grasped the idea from truth #2, God views us all as sinners no matter how little or much there is or whether they are "big sins" or "little sins". All sins are equal beneath the judgement of God and none of us actually deserve forgiveness or eternal life. We are in no position to judge other people's sins as worse than our own. God will forgive anyone of anything, if only they come to him in repentance and ask Him.

Well, I know that's a lot to take in and I don't ask you to believe it all, just so you know that's what the bible says- I don't claim any of this as my own wisdom or intelligence it all comes from the bible, the living word of God. Any christians reading, if you feel that in some way I have misportrayed any of it or that I'm off on anything, I welcome any correction. I don't want anyone believing something that isn't right. On that note actually, don't take everything I've said as fact just like that, go and look it up, read the bible for yourself and see what you think.
 Thanks for bearing with me on this one and not abandoning me, if you've gotten this far. It's just my heart breaks for all the people out there who believe that God isn't interested in them or who think there is no path to God for them; there is and God is waiting to accept you with open arms. You know the angels party it up every single time one person is saved? Pretty cool, I think.
 God bless you guys, I'm praying for you :)

19 Years

19 years of life.

19 years of smiles.

19 years of laughter.

19 years of tears.

19 years of sorrys and thank yous.

19 years in the loving care of Christ Jesus.

On Friday 11th May 2012, I turned 19. Looking back over the past year, I have so so much to be thankful for. It has been, without a doubt, the best year of my life so far. This time last year, there is no way I could have pictured what my life would be like and I certainly wouldn't have been as bold as to imagine it this good.

  A lot of people won't know this but in the last few months of 2010 I found myself struggling with mild depression. I was halfway through my last year of school, I had auditions to be worrying about for music courses, I'd recently dislocated my knee cap and so practice on my flute was more arduous than usual, I had a piano exam that I HAD to pass, I was struggling with the fact my Mum was going to be getting remarried- it felt like I had all this stuff to deal with and I just couldn't do it; it was too much.

 Without dwelling on that too much, everything that I was worried about back then and that I thought was too much for me to deal with, God took it and made it wonderful.

• He lead me away from music, which I had been planning on doing in higher education for years by that point, and lead me to chemistry at Edinburgh University. Nobody I know ever dreamed that I would end up studying a chemistry degree at university, in fact even my 6th year chemistry teacher was kinda shocked (probably didn't think I was good enough, woteva!), but in some twisted, only-God-could-make-this-up way, it's worked and I can't imagine doing or being anywhere else!
• My Mum being remarried is one of the most blessed things that has happened. They are so happy and God has just blessed them and their marriage so much, and although it's sometimes upsetting because my Dad isn't here, my Mum is happier than she's been in a long time and that's what's important.
• God threw everything up in the air and put me in catered accommodation. I applied for self-catered, and after I had fulfilled my conditions for Edinburgh I still didn't get an offer for accommodation until eventually, they told me I had no other option but a bunkbed room in catered accommodation. This seemed absurd because 1) I am a fussy eater and so being in catered accommodation just made no sense and 2) I thought there was no way I could afford it. However, looking back now I can't imagine how different my life would be if God hadn't switched things up; I have met the most incredible and lovely people who I plan on being friends with for a long, long time (if that's okay with them!) and after having no close, God-orientated friends throughout my high school career, I now have an abundance of them! God is so faithful.
• I have found a wonderful church which is just a continual blessing and has brought a new meaning to my Sundays.
• I'm currently in the middle of fundraising for a mission trip to Cuba! I've never been on a mission trip before and, to be honest, probably wouldn't have pushed myself into doing it by myself and I certainly wouldn't have gone as far away as Latin America! But God is sovreign and has a plan! I'm so excited that God is using me in this respect and I can't wait to see how He will use this trip, not only to help me change those around me, but to change me and my perspective and and continually challenge me in my relationship with Him.

I could literally speel on for ages about how much I have to be thankful for over this past year, but I think you get the idea. For those of you who are of the "How can you know for certain that God is real? Where's the proof?" clan, I know in my heart, for certain, that God is real because, not only is He in my heart but He makes Himself evident in my life! He leads me, guides me and even speaks to me! Imagine that, the Almighty Creator of the Universe would stoop so low as to have an intimate relationship with me; an imperfect sinner who's constantly letting Him down and making decisions that are contrary to what He would have me do. WOW, is that love or is it love?

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for all that you have given to me, all throughout my life, even the things I didn't like at the time. I thank you that you are sovereign and that you have a plan for my life in which you are glorified and I am sanctified [made more like the Lord Jesus]. Thank you that, despite all the times I let you down and do things that I'm not proud of, that you don't love me any less because of it because I am your daughter through Christ, who you sent on the greatest rescue mission in history to save me. Lord, I pray for all those people out there who are hurting and who don't know what it's like to have you in their lives, I may not know their problems and hurts but you do and I pray that you would put your hand of comfort and healing upon them and really make them aware that you love them regardless of who they are, where they're from, the things they're not proud of, or whether they like men or women. I pray you would just speak to them through circumstances in their lives that they may see you and recognise that all you want is for them to be saved and to get to know you, so that they might spend eternity with you in heaven where there is no sin, no crying and no pain.
 Father, please go before me in my life and may I continue to get to know you better and to love you more, no matter what the circumstances. I love you,
 In your son's precious name,
Amen

Life?

A lot of the time I think about what my life would be like without God in it and I struggle. Namely, because my life has never not had God in it. I was brought up by christian parents, reading the bible, going to church and watching christian children's videos and so forth. Many would try to tell me I've been indoctrinated, brainwashed etc etc. I totally disagree.
 You see, so many people don't actually know what being a christian is. It's not:

• Going to church
• Reading the bible
• Hanging out with christians
• Believing in God
• Being a good person
• Doing good deeds in the name of "God"
• Feeding the poor

And so on and so forth. Those things may (and should) come as a result of being a christian but they are not the means of becoming and being one. In fact, the whole lable of "christian" is getting pretty old. People have messed it up so much that people have no idea what it actually means anymore.

Being a christian, technically, means being a "follower of Christ". Another term, that I guess has kinda gotten old these days is to be born again. Now, I imagine for some people, this concept may seem kind of edgy and strange. I mean, how does that work? I wouldn't judge you for asking. In fact, the first time Jesus used this phrase, the man he was speaking to was a really high up, intelligent guy in the Synagogue who would have studied the scriptures (Old Testement) from a young age and know them back to front and he didn't understand it AT ALL. He thought all he needed to be saved and receive eternal life was to live a good life according to God's law (Ten Commandments etc) and to be Jewish. Done and done. He was aaaalll good. Right? Wrong. Or so Jesus said anyway.
  But why?
  I've started reading the bible every day this year in an effort to read it all in a year. Today's chapter in the New Testement is John 3. It's the chapter where Jesus is chatting to this Pharisee (high up, important dude) who is all perplexed 'cause he's just been told he's not entering the kingdom of God unless he is "born again". Rightly so, he asks Jesus to explain as, being an intelligent man, he knows this can't mean being born again physically (bet his mum wouldn't be up for it either!). Jesus says this:

"Truly, truly I say to you, unless ine is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3: 5-6

So, Jesus is talking about being born again of the Spirit. Whatever that is, I bet you're thinking. He then goes on to say, probably the best known verse in the whole bible (I'm going to give you the verse running up to it aswell, just 'cause I'm nice like that):

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness*, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world [in this way], that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."John 3:14-16 (italics my own)

BAM.  A couple of things about this should stand out to you: God loves the world. That means everyone, whoever they are, whatever they've said or done, how drunk they've gotten, whether they like to sleep with men or women, whether they're the new Mother Teresa or they're in jail for killing someone. Second, God gave his son so that anyone of these people, latterly mentioned, could be saved. Note that, these people need to be saved in the first place.
  A lot of people ask, if God loves everyone then why doesn't he let everyone into Heaven? Good question. The answer is this: we need to be saved and the only one who can do it is Jesus. Saved from what? Fill in the blank as you like: that feeling where you wonder why you're here at all, that nobody cares about you, that guilt about that thing you've done that's eating you up inside, that constant feeling like you are never going to be good enough. Here's the thing. None of us are perfect, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. The thing that prevents us from being perfect is called sin. It's the reason you do that thing, that thing you know you shouldn't do, but you end up doing it anyway because the temptation is too great. It's that thing that lets you say all the wrong stuff to people you care about and to get angry and to hurt people, and to hurt yourself.
 In another book of the bible called Romans, a man called Paul writes this:

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Chapter 3:23





That's right: all of us. Even all those "high up, snooty" christians who appear to think they're better than you. They're not. They are just as dirty, scarred, hurt and imperfect as we are. Later in the book, Paul writes this:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Chapter 6:23



"So," you're saying, "Amy, you're telling us we're all imperfect and sinful, and because of that, someday we're going to die. You're also saying that God loves me, and He sent His son to save me. How does that work? Everyone dies. Nobody can live forever. And you said he'll save us from all the guilt and sin, how? And what do I even need to do to get it? And you still haven't explained what being a christian really is."
  All in good time.
  Because we've sinned, we have to die. However, this is death on two levels. Firstly physical, because sin is a disease. It spoils every good thing and kills it. The second, which most people don't know about, is death in the sense of being separated from the Living God forever. That is why not everyone can go to Heaven. Why? Because God is holy and perfect, and it doesn't matter how much He loves you, if you have sin in your life that stops you from spending eternity with Him in Heaven because God and sin are incompatible. They can't be together.
  So, how can Jesus save us? Death is the price to pay for sin. That price needed to be paid, and God loves us so much that He couldn't let us pay it ourselves. So he sent his son into the world, not 50/50 man-God, 100% man and 100% God. 100% man, because in order to pay for man's sin, he had to be a man or it wouldn't be valid payment, right? 100% God because, if he was less than that he wouldn't have been able to live a completely perfect life in order to pay for OUR sin. If Jesus had sinned he would have been just like the rest of us, unable to pay. Oh yeah, and also he wouldn't have been able to rise from the dead and therefore defeat death.
 Right, so, the price has been paid. How can we benefit from it? How come we weren't all automatically saved when Jesus died? Because God loves us.
"What?!" I hear you ask. I know, hold on.
  God loves us, and that's why He gave us all a choice. God would never force anyone to love Him. Besides, would it really be love if it were forced? So, He leaves it up to us to decided whether we want His gift of life and forgiveness and eternal life.
  Well who wouldn't want that?
  "Okay," you're saying, "then how do I 'accept' it? Is there some big religous ceremony; do I have to stand up in front of people and make big, fancy vows; do I have to dress nicely? No, no and no- not unless you want to dress nicely anyway, haha. Here it is in a nutshell, again from Paul's letter to the Romans:

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Chapter 10:9

That's it. Not probably or maybe, you will be saved. You only need to ask. Your debt is paid and you are free to live a life free from the compulsion of sin. You're not perfect, you're still a sinner y'know, but you've started the journey of becoming less like a sinner and more like Jesus. You're free. You can't know what that feels like until you experience it; it's like you've had a rucksack weighing 10kg on your back all day and someone comes along and says, "I'll take that for you."

So, what is being a christian then? It's being born again, getting a fresh start and living your life the way God intended it to be; in a relationship with him. Listening to him by reading His Living Word the bible and getting to know Him and hear His voice, and always having someone to listen to your problems and help you through. It's realising that other people don't have the salvation you've accepted and telling them about it so that they might be saved aswell. You have a heavenly father, ready to accept you with open arms if you'll only open your heart to Him and ask Him to forgive you.

I don't know your problems, your troubles or your doubts. But I know mine, and I know that I manage to deal with them because I have my heavenly Dad helping me out. I can't imagine what not having that would be like, but I'm guessing it's not great.

 I don't share my faith with people because it's "the christian thing to do", or because I want to show off how "good" I am. I don't do it to annoy you (whether you'll believe that or not). I do it because I love you. I don't know exactly what Hell is like, yes it exists too, but I know that it's somewhere neither I not you want to be.

 If you had the cure to cancer, would you keep it to yourself? It's like that. I want people to know the salvation that I know, to have the relationship with God that He's given me the opportunity to have, and to come and party it up in Heaven with Him and me once this life is gone instead of spending eternity in the place where God isn't, and pain is.

If you've read all of this, firstly, well done. And secondly, don't go away and forget about it. If you don't believe it, then investigate- is eternal life worth missing out on just because you couldn't be bothered to look into it?

I'm going to leave you with the continuation of what Jesus was telling the Pharisee:



 "For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." John 3:17-21

Over and out. God bless you all.

Introducing me.

Well, hello blogger-verse. Here I am, Amy Beth Katriona Ferry, the next in the long line of individuals trying to make their voices heard. What do you even write to start one of these off? Might aswell introduce myself for those of you people who don't know what I'm all about!

 I'll keep it short and sweet; just like me (Ha!). Well, the short bit is true anyway, I'll leave the sweet part up to you to decide. Right now, I'm one month away from my 19th birthday, my hair is coppery/red/brown (and the product of a not-enough-dye/too-much-hair scenario) and I'm just starting the revision period before the barrier that is standing between me and finishing my first year at uni: exaaams. That's right, and it's my skills in procrastination that you have to thank for this new venture in blogging. I study chemistry at Edinburgh University and to be honest, I'm not even sure why... Well, I know why in a non-direct way: God lead me to it.

  Oh yeah, that's another thing about me by the way; God and I are kinda a package deal. Well, as in, if you want to listen to me you get to hear about God too; I'm not too sure if you started your own relationship with God that He would tell you very much about me.

 But yeah, Edinburgh, Chemistry and God. I guess that's enough for you to start off with. Catch up with you later to disclose more of my little inklings, ideas and thoughts on life. God bless, folks :)