Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day (http://www.hmd.org.uk/). Of all the events in history this is one that you might know quite a bit about. It has been covered in movies, books, history class… but this day of remembrance is not about remembering details of what happened. The reason that you should think about the genocide that took place only around 70 years ago, is so that you question your own actions.
Someone sent this video to me through Twitter. How does it make you feel?
(If you cannot see the video above, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCAs_CyopMQ&feature=player_embedded)
If you had grown up in Nazi Germany, would you have got swept away in the gradual propaganda that was printed about Jews? Would you have hidden families in your house? Would you have stood up against the authorities? Would you have given in to the racism, even just a little bit?
In 2012, do you think about the genocides that are happening in countries around the world at the minute? Do you find yourself being suspicious of middle eastern men in airports? How do you really treat the Eastern European people who are now living in Northern Ireland?
The Holocaust might have been the most ‘famous’ atrocity in the last century, but some of the issues that contributed to the Second World War are still problems today.
As Christians, we should be God’s agents on earth. We should be reflecting His love to those around us. Check out this verse from Romans 12:2 (MSG):
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Thank you for being such an amazing God! You know each one of us individually and you know what pressures we are under. Father we pray that you will be with all our GB girls who are under school pressure at the moment.
Exams, mocks, revision, results, assignments, deadlines… all these words just burden us and make us feel stressed and panicked. Please help us all get through this time.
We pray that you will help us revise well and work hard. Please help us stay focused and give our best, whatever that might be.
Father, we pray that you will be with us in that exam hall, that you will help us understand the questions and let us show the examiners all that we have learned.
We pray that you will help us get assignments done in time and that we will not be rushed at the last minute. Please help our minds become clear so we can see what we have to do.
And God, if the exam does not go well, and if we feel like we have messed up, we pray that you will draw along beside us and give us peace. You already know the plans that you have for us, and Father please help us trust in those plans, even when we feel like it is the end of the world.
Most of all Lord, we pray, that even when we are distracted and stressed, that we do not forget about you. We pray that all the girls in GB will come to know and trust you more, and that we do not push you aside.
It is so amazing that you want us to bring our normal, tiny, everyday stresses before you, our Heavenly Dad. We pray that as we do this, that our friends might catch a reflection of you in our lives.
Amen.
(PS. If you are a Senior or Brigader and you never received one of our Panic & Stress Prayer Cards, then ask you leader to contact Sarah in GBHQ and she can send you some extra copies for free.)
So Christmas is over and we are mostly all back to school and/or work. Hands up who is delighted about that! Hands up if you have the cold! If you could see me right now you would see that my hand is up
Isn’t the cold just the most annoying thing? You don’t feel 100% but you are not actually sick enough to be off school. It is one of those things that you just have suffer on through, but it is there, tickling your nose and throat, making you cough and sneeze, pressing on your sinuses and giving you a sore head…. Blugh!
As I sit here and blow my nose every other sentence, it got me thinking about the new year and sin. Generally on the 1st January we make all sorts of resolutions and promises to ourselves: to be ready for school on time, to do homework when you get it rather than the night before it is due, to read your Bible everyday, to eat less junk food, to watch less TV…
By 3rd January, these resolutions are pretty much out the window. You see, sticking to these promises is too difficult for us on our own, because we are all sick!
We are all infected with sin. It is kinda like a cold, doesn’t stop us going to school, having friends, playing sports, but it just makes everything blugh! Sin stops us living the life that God intended us to live.
Now we are told that if you wash your hands after the toilet and before you eat, if you avoid being coughed over and get enough vitamin c, then you will not get the cold. We do the same spiritually: we try and read our Bible everyday, we pray to God when we are in trouble, we pray to God to thank Him for all the good things that happen, we avoid getting in trouble, we do not swear or get drunk or lie, so how come we are still infected with sin?
There is nothing we can do to get rid of sin by ourselves, in the same way that there is no known cure to the common cold. However, if we ask God for forgiveness, He will free us from the sins that tie us up.
Being a girl in Northern Ireland in 2012 is not an easy thing to be in many ways. There are so many things that tie us up and stop us from truly believing just how much God loves us, and block us from living the life that God intended:
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10
We are going to be looking at issues like this at our Worship Event for all Seniors & Brigaders in GBNI this February. Ask your leaders about booking you tickets, all the details are below.
In the meantime, remember that God is the only cure for sin.
So, who would you like to get to number 1 for Christmas?
There is the song from the Military Wives. The words are made up from lines from letters that these women have sent and received from their husbands in Afghanistan. This song has not only raised millions for charities, but it has given these women a voice and something to be proud of. I dare anyone to watch the programme about the choir without balling their eyes out!
Maybe you like Dominic the Donkey… a particular favourite of the Christmas elves who work in www.gbnishop.co.uk! Only at Christmas would a song that was released years ago about an Italian donkey get near the charts never mind no 1!!
Did you watch the X Factor this year? Maybe you are rooting for Little Mix?
Well regardless of what song gets to the top of the charts this year, I would love you to spend some time considering who you make number 1 at Christmas. Do you consider God at all?
I love love love the song O Holy Night! My first memory of it was in ‘Home Alone’ years ago, but I just love to see it on an Order of Service for a Carol Service. This year however as I was driving along, singing along to it really loudly as there was no one else in the car (and forgetting that other people in traffic can see me when I sing and drive!!) I noticed the words of the song again. There was one verse in particular that stood out:
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
This song, that I have sung for years, actually has the most amazing lyrics. This song explains the freedom that Jesus can bring to our lives. In a world were we see so much heartbreak, poverty, oppression, depression & sadness… we forget that Jesus came to pay the price for all the sin of ours that cause this!
This is the message that I pray you will all remember this year. ‘Christ is the Lord!’ and it is the time of year when we celebrate this!
Thank you for reading our blogs this year and we will see you all in 2012!
Merry Christmas
Sarah
PS Check out the GB Europe Youth Blog who have been posting Christmas snippets everyday in their Christmas Countdown! http://gbconnect.wordpress.com/
The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart.
This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve , resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed “Sub-sequential Internal Non-Morality,” or more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.
Some of the symptoms include:
1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion
The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this defect.
The Repair Technician, JESUS , has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.
The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.
Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus , into the heart component.
No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it with:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control
Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.
WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service, call on Jesus .
DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility. Thank you for your attention!
- GOD
P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by ‘Knee mail’!
Another GB girl had shared this video on Facebook last night, and it ties in perfectly with what I was going to blog on today…
Christmas can be a great time of year. Everyone seems that bit more cheerful. The world twinkles a little bit more as fairy lights decorate everything that is near enough a plug. But just because it is nearly Christmas does not mean that all the stresses and worries that you have the rest of the year will go away. When you were little it might have felt like the magical feeling that we see in Christmas movies was automatically what everyone would feel at Christmas time, but as you get older you realise that it’s not always the way.
I have had a few conversations with GB girls recently who are worried about what comes next… maybe they are in the final year of school or university, maybe they have a big decision to make in their lives, or they just have sooooo much on, that they really can’t think ahead beyond the mountain of stuff they have to do. These girls are Christians and have a strong relationship with God, but that doesn’t mean they have all the answers.
You can hear Bible verses and stories that tell you to put your trust in God, and when things are going well you will see no problem or difficulty with that. However, when you are in the thick of a problem or a hard time and you are not sure which way to turn, everything you knew may suddenly not seem so certain. You find out that those Bible verses that you know of by heart, well maybe you never actually realised what they meant. Your brain might understand them but you don’t truely trust them in your heart ….. and that can be very, very scary!
Let’s go back to Mary. She was a teenager who was in a stressful, scary situation. Can you imagine how scared she must have been? Suddenly she was pregnant. Who was going to believe that she hadn’t had sex? Go to 1:20 in the video & watch that bit again. It struck me while watching this that she would also have to deal with Joseph’s feelings of hurt. This big strong carpenter… heartbroken.
I think this video makes Mary & Joesph’s story very human. Yeah it was extraordinary, but they had normal human emotions during this time, and they were the complicated, difficult, messy, dramatic kind! So lets look at how they got through it…
They trusted in God. We can see that they wobbled a bit. But ultimately they trusted in God’s plan for them, even though it seemed so out there!
As you read this you might be thinking, that it was all very well for them, God sent actual visible angels to give them messages straight from God. Yes, that is true that meeting an angel might help you believe in something a lot quicker, but remember that the message the angels brought for Mary and Joseph is still given to us today… it is just written in a book rather than spoken out loud to us.
We read on that Joseph was obedient, He did exactly what God had asked him to do. Technically he had a choice as the baby was not inside him, and technically he could have divorced Mary quietly…but He didn’t. Even though it was difficult, he made the choice to obey God and stay with Mary.
Mary didn’t really have so much choice, as the baby was in her womb and growing. However, we do see that she did not panic or complain or stress. She trusted God to the extent that a song of hers is recorded in Luke 1:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.
This song wasn’t a ballad, it was a full on worship song. You need to be in a good place to write something like this!
I not saying that you are not a proper Christian if you complain and question and stress and panic! God wants to hear your most honest feelings and thoughts. What I am saying instead is that you are not the first Christian to suffer doubts. Those Bible verses that you have heard a hundred times are still true. (Look through previous blogs and you will find them.) However, you cannot get through this alone. You cannot make your heart believe what your brain knows without God’s help. The words of the prayer below might help you:
Dear Lord,
Things are tough at the minute. I don’t know where to turn next. I have so much work to do / I have no idea what I am going to be doing next year / My heart is broken / This challenge is too much (delete as applicable)
Father, please draw me close to you and bring me your peace. Please let me let you take the driving seat in my life and grant me your wisdom as I make these decisions.
I pray that all the Bible stories and teachings that I have heard over the years will become real to me and that you will open my eyes to the love you have for me.
Lord, you sent your Son down to earth as a baby so that He would grow up and experience the world of emotions that we go through, and because of that you know exactly what is going on with me. Thank you for that as it shows just how much you love me.
Father I pray that I will be able to follow the examples of Joseph and Mary. I pray that I will be obedient to your Word, and that I will find your joy in my life as I worship you.
Amen.
We have said it before and we will say it again, being a Christian in this world is the hardest path you could choose. However, our God created us and loves us (We are His masterpiece! Ephesians 2:10). God does not leave us to go through difficult times alone, He is right there… we just need to turn to Him.
If you have any other thoughts or advice for anyone who is worried about the future, please share them in the comments below.
And we pray that over the Christmas period that you will be reminded of just how much God loves you!
Ooooh isn’t it exciting! The 1st of December means that you get to open that first little door on your advent calendar! Or you have to sharpen your elbows to make sure that you get to the chocolate before that annoying little brother or sister does… only joking, all siblings are wonderful
Yes, for 24 days you are allowed to eat chocolate at breakfast time without getting shouted at… unless you have one of those ones that a parent has to fill in which case you might get fruit or something
But apart from chocolate, what is Advent all about? The Dictionary definition is:
It’s all about getting ready. It’s exciting! It’s just like getting ready to go out with your friends, only this isn’t a physical getting ready, it is a spiritual one. Yes there is shopping to do, party dresses to get, Christmas cards to write and maybe food to prepare, but have you ever set aside time to get yourself prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Christmas is the start of the most important epic story of all time. Remember what we said about Celeb Hunting? (http://www.gbni.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/11/07/celeb-hunting/) How much time do you spend thinking about shopping at Christmas? Should you not spend some time thinking about the sacrifice that God made at Christmas for you?
We are delighted to welcome some guest bloggers this week. Please meet Turk and Georgia from On the Edge Theatre Company, a new Christian Theatre Group that Sarah met at a Youthworkers event recently. It is great to hear of girls using their gifts to do something different for God! Read what they have to say about our YOUnique theme this year!
“Amazing. It’s such an over-used word that I think the meaning has gotten slightly lost. If you think about it, to be amazing is actually quite cool. It means people are ‘amazed’ at you, at just how great you are. And we’re here to tell you today that you are exactly that. Amazing.
Recently, On the Edge Theatre Company (that’s us!) have taken a few workshops based around the issue of identity and knowing who you are ‘cause that’s what God says about you. It can be difficult for us girls to accept how beautiful we are, how perfectly we were made. This is not helped by the media, who are constantly bombarding us with “How To Get Thin Before Tomorrow” articles and encouraging crash diets, which do us a lot more harm than good and don’t really work anyway. When we open magazines, it doesn’t help that we are instantly greeted by the sight of ‘perfect’ models with over-cheesy smiles or pouting like there’s no tomorrow.
The reality is, although they are pretty girls, it doesn’t make them any different to any of us – ‘cause we’re just as pretty! What we see in the magazines is not how those girls look naturally. They’ve been airbrushed, nipped, tucked, and altered to give off the impression of ‘perfection’. Truth is, they’re normal – and, on weekends off, you’ll probably find them sat lounging round the house in giant granny knickers and jogging bottoms, scoffing Ben and Jerry’s and crying their eyes out at some rubbish remake of “Gone With the Wind!”
And although people tell us these things, sometimes we just can’t accept ourselves. We’ll still look in the mirror and wish we looked like Ciara Knightley. We constantly rely on compliments from boys and comments from others to spur us on, just to get us through the day.
What we really need to concentrate on, and even work on to believe, is who God says we are. That’s the truth, and the only thing worth knowing. Everything else is false.
Georgia from On the Edge suffered from bullying while she was growing up. She was fed with lies for so long she actually started to believe she was ugly and not worth a thing. No boy would go near her ‘cause the rest of the kids at school were doing this to her. Things didn’t improve at university, when one of her boyfriends continued to tell her these things. Georgia tried to ‘fix’ things by trying to kill herself – but God had bigger plans for her, and as she went to do the unspeakable, and go through with it, God jumped in and started speaking things to her that are true for every girl: “I love you. I say you’re good enough. You ARE good enough.”
This doesn’t mean we have to do something drastic in order for God to take notice of us – God is constantly taking notice of us and what changes is how much notice we take of Him. If we concentrate on what it says in the Bible about us, God will be able to equip us in love to go do exactly what He made us for – our purpose. And my purpose is different to your purpose, just as your purpose is different to everyone else’s. It’s yours – YOUR OWN – and no one can take that away from you if you hold on and press into God.
You are loved.
You ARE good enough.
You have a purpose.
You are a work of art, better and worth more than the Mona Lisa!
Psalm 139:14 says “I praise you,because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
It’s true, ladies – you are! The same God who made the sea, the mountains, the flowers, and arranged the stars so beautifully in the sky… He made you and me! He’s a kind and loving God who made and designed us in His image. (Genesis 1:27)
We are one of a kind and unique. There will only ever be one you, and one me. Even something so simple as your fingertips have been so finely detailed that no one EVER – past, present or future – will EVER have the same fingerprints as you.
God didn’t mess around when he made you; He planned every single little detail. He knows every hair on your head and counts every tear that you cry – because He loves you… because YOU (yes, you!) are worth it (cue cheesy hair flip on shampoo ad). You are all beautiful – don’t ever forget that!”
Lots of love,
Heather and Georgia ☺ xx
On the Edge are a new and exciting theatre company who will soon be going into a school near you! We are Heather (also known as Turk) and Georgia, and we want to tell everyone in the country how great God is… through drama! Find us on Facebook and press ‘Like’! – www.facebook.com/ontheedgetheatre If you are interested in knowing more about us, feel free to send us a message – we would LOVE to hear from you.
Penguins are my new favourite animal. If you have been watching the BBC series ‘Frozen Planet’ then you will know why. They really are amazing and really really funny. (Check out the video at the bottom of the blog to see why they are soooooo funny!)
But how, you might be asking, are GB girls supposed to be like them? Well it is not the way they walk, but the way that they stay warm. You see they live in the Antarctic which is cold beyond belief, and when the wind and snow storms hit the temperatures drop even more. The penguins need to do something to protect themselves, so what do they do…. they huddle together!
They share their body heat by supporting each other, and all take turns to be on the outside of the group. It really is the only way that they can survive.
The whole point of GB is summed up in our motto: to Seek, Serve and Follow Christ. However, I think the best bit about GB is that you are all in this together! You are all on the same journey, with the same aim.
Following Christ is not an easy path to take. In fact becoming a Christian is possibly the hardest path you could choose, but you have the other Christians in GB around you to help. You huddle together to support each other, to help you survive and to protect you from the storms of life that will brew all around you.
Ask yourself: Do you really support the other girls in your company in their faith? Do you pray for the other girls and leaders in your Company?
After all, that is what we are told to do in 1 Timothy 2:1-3:The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
So after you watch the ‘Criminal Penguins’ below, then spend some time thanking God for the Christians that He has placed around you and pray for the other members of your GB Company.
Does anyone reading this blog also read magazines? What kind of magazines do you read?
Growing up I heard so many youth leaders talk about the bad messages that were in magazines and how we should be wary of them. I never really thought what I read was too bad, it was always more gossipy/fashion rags that I read rather then the more risque ones… however, if I look at some of them now, they still had detrimental images in them. I always thought that I could see past the negative messages, but I am not as sure about that anymore.
If I am totally honest, I always thought that those youth leaders were a bit over the top. However, I was at a youth event a few months ago and the speaker said something that stopped me in my tracks. He was quoting from a book called ‘Essential Youth: Why the Church Needs Young People,’ by Andy Hickford. This is the quote:
‘Watch a teenage girl going through her favourite magazine. She is comparing herself to images, imagining herself with certain products displayed, comparing male portraits to her own fantasies, and in general being instructed as to how she can better live her life socially. In effect, she is having her cultural quiet time.’
OK so what is the girl getting from that magazine:
What she should look like;
What she needs to have;
What she should look for/value in others;
How she can live better.
I’m also going to add:
How she should deal with issues with friends and boyfriends;
What she should watch on TV;
Who she should idolize;
What she should be doing on her weekends;
Answers about issues of sex and relationships.
This is so true isn’t it!
So what is the problem… well as a Christian we should be looking for all those things in the Bible not in magazines.
You might be thinking, I have never come across the parts of the Bible that talk about Autumn/Winter fashion. Fair enough, but read Matthew 6:30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? (It was mentioned a few weeks ago too!) That is God’s fashion advice, and that is only a tiny, tiny bit of the advice that is in the Bible.
The problem with the Bible is that it is big. You can open a magazine and everything is printed clear as day in front of you, but to get to the message in the Bible to have to dig deeper into the text. But here is the secret…. that is the most amazing aspect of the Bible.
God gave us this book that is made up of His actual words. You can spend a lifetime reading this book, and God will still continually reveal more of Himself to you through it.
In GBNI, we produce a Scripture Course every year, which will hopefully help you get into the Bible a bit more. There are also a mountain of Bible reading notes out there as well as podcasts, emails, websites, blogs, books…. There has never been more material produced to help you read the Bible, you just have to actually use it.
Even if you do not like reading, you should still try to get into a routine of having a quiet time with God everyday. This is a time when you stop, pray, read a bit of your Bible and reflect on it with God.
Quiet times are not complicated things, they are between you and God, but it is by meeting with Him every day that you build up a relationship and gain further knowledge of your Heavenly Father…. just the same as you would with any friend or family member.
So next time you sit down to read a magazine, ask yourself if you wouldn’t be better getting what you are looking for in the Bible. After all the Bible is ‘God-breathed’ and as Hebrews 4:12 says, ‘the Word of God is living and active.’ Can you say that about a magazine?
