There is new book out published by YTCpress and supported by International Association of Youth Ministry that I have written a chapter on Church on the Edge. Edited by Paul McQuillian in Australia it draws together several key thoughts on as it says on the cover “discovering God with young people in a secular world”
www.metro.co.uk/19under19
19 Under 19s is a campaign by the Department for Children Schools & Families (DCSF) aimed at revealing the true image of our nation’s teenagers.
Local authorities and community groups were invited to nominate young people, aged 19 or under, who are making an active contribution to their local area and, crucially, a positive difference to their own lives. From these nominations, DCSF selected the most inspiring 19 to become the face of real youth in England.
Not only does each of these 19 Under 19s have a great individual story to tell, but together they reveal an important, but too-often overlooked, truth about today’s teenagers.
Namely, that rather than hanging around on street corners or engaging in anti-social behaviour, the majority of young people are instead using their free time to get involved in a huge variety of positive activities. These range from sports coaching, dancing and drama to vital roles in local youth groups and community action projects.
Through Aiming High for Young People and the work of the Youth Taskforce, DCSF is investing a total of £679 million in creating opportunities for young people at a time and a place that suits them, including Friday and Saturday nights.
ACTION: Consider nominating any young person you have given an Alternative ASBO to.
www.good-hood.co.uk
This is run by the Member of Youth Parliament for Birmingham. It is becoming a fairly aggressive campaigner (in the best way, not negative!) for the Press to change their representation of young people to become fairer and less discriminatory using the Press Complaints Commission.
ACTION: please visit the website and keep an eye on the website. Maybe you’d like to get in touch with your Youth Parliament and ask them to link on this campaign.
www.youngpeoplessunday.co.uk
A positive response for the Christian community to use – to encourage engagement and prayerful support for young people, highlighting the contribution young people make in your community. FREE downloadable resources – sermons, prayers, images, creative ideas, video clips etc.
ACTION: get downloading now and give to your Vicar, Minister/Youthworker and organize a Young People’s Sunday service.The X-Files: I Want to Believe psp The Moving Finger the movie
Finding God in the wait of advent, admist the chaos of the commerical christmas is a particular task. I came across the Augustinian notion of God in memory a few weeks back and and been reflecting on this for a while. Paula Fredrikson writes on Augustines take on God and Memory that “memory is nesscessary not simply for recollection, but also for cognition and persception. It is through the exercise of his or her memory that the individual – time bound, imperfect, mortal – is enabled to know and to recogize both him/herself and most especially Truth….. Put simply memory is the site of our illumination. Memory is our bridge to the world outside ourselves, to ourselves, and to God.”
In the wait of advent even in my most disciplined moments christmas memories (time bound, imperfect, mortal) creep in. To borrow from the traditional christain language I wonder if this is the devil invading the space I seek to encounter God. So is the spiritual task in the wait of advent to exercise the memory of Truth, and exorcise the memory of the time bound, imperfect, and mortal, redeeming these memories and preparing us to experience the renewal that the new birth of christ brings.Fist of Fury (aka Chinese Connection) download
Prayers for Christmas eve – not all my own work and can’t remember where I got the refrain from …”help us make room for Jesus – be born in us tonight.” a bit long as well – verses can be cut out at will…
Tonight we celebrate the birth of Christ
We celebrate the birth of a baby
We celebrate a small God
We celebrate a God who became one of us
We celebrate a God who makes his home in us
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of us who have everything
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of us who are competent
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of us who are independent
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of who are strong
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of us who have all the answers
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
For those of us who need to be in control
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
And at this time of the year we pray for the powerless, the small people who go unnoticed, the poor , the weak, the beggars, abused children, the outcasts, the ugly, the smelly. These are the people who Jesus identified himself with. So lets pray for the world and allow ourselves to hear the Christ within ourselves and see the Christ in others.
Holy Child
Whose parents found no room in the Inn;
We pray for all who are homeless
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
Holy Child
Born in a stable;
We pray for all living in poverty
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
Holy Child
Rejected stranger;
We pray for all who feel lost and alone
All who cry for loved ones
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
Holy Child
Whom Herod sought to kill
We pray for all who live in danger
All who are persecuted
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight Live Free or Die divx
Holy Child
A refugee in Egypt
We pray for all who are far from their homes
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
Holy Child
Help us we pray, to see the divine image
In people everywhere.
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight
Why wait for the gift that has already come?
Why wait to meet the guest already here?
Why wait for the child already born?
In the wait we see the beauty of the gift
In the wait we encounter the true presence of the guest
In the memory of the wait we know the child who holds us
God came down to touch humanity.
Jesus gave God a face and skin.
A physical presence that we could touch
We are now his body
So..
Disgrace move Wayne’s World 2 full
If we are the physical presence of God on earth,
When we touch each other
We touch God !
So go and give God a hug today!
We give thanks for the journey of this food
The waiting involved
The hiddeness of the seed
The fragility of the egg
From the seed to the fruit
From the egg to the bird
From the field to our plates
Giving us life and energy
As advent reminds us of your conception in us
The miracle that God makes his home in us
Help us remember the miracle of the seed
planted in the depths of the earth
Help us remember new life
Which grows and feeds us.
We give thanks for the small God
We give thanks for the small seed
We give thanks for the fragile egg
We give thanks for life.For Love or Money the movie Ocean’s Eleven dvdrip Imprint movie download Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie video
I believe in God, who had the wild idea of becoming one of us
I believe in Jesus, who restricted himself to Mary’s womb for a while
I believe in the Holy spirit, who overshadowed Mary,
I believe in the incarnation of God,
I believe that God lives within us
I believe that God is with us.Alive or Dead release
In the discussion about Christian’s wielding power over others through the means of democratic government, the question comes up of what is good.
The crux of the question is: Is forcing people to behave in a particular way, so that people’s lives are easier, more comfortable, ‘nicer’, etc., “good”?
I can see that for most people a “good” thing is something that makes life ‘better’ for people. On the other hand we see that ultimately ‘good’ is having a relationship with God, which makes ‘evil’ the state of not having a relationship with God. ‘Good acts’ are therefore the things that we do that come out of our relationship with God and ‘evil acts’ are those things that we do separate from God’s influence. These two views of what ‘good’ is are virtually opposed to each other – the first claiming that good is independent of God, the second that it is dependent on God.
There is nothing wrong with having a subjective definition of ‘good’, it’s quite useful to be able to say “hey that’s good”. However, if we are trying to do good and we believe in God then the idea that we can do good apart from God is actually rather a distraction and can take us away from the good that God wants us to do. In fact, we can end up behaving in ways that oppose God in order to do what we feel is good. Take the simple statement “love your enemy” – we can suddenly turn that on it’s head if we believe that we can do ‘good’ by killing our enemy and stopping them doing the evil things that they were going to do. 🙁 (as if somehow ‘good’ can fill the gap left by the evil things that weren’t committed by our enemy)
This relates to my previous post ‘Freedom The Four Feathers on dvd
Adaptation. divx Alive or Dead full ‘, where I ponder whether freedom is a prerequisite for good and whether anything that is forced cannot be good.
It seems to me that God created us with the intention that we have freedom. Before the fall Adam and Eve were entirely free, free to do whatever they wanted – note that they only wanted to do good stuff.
When I think about Jesus’ approach to things, the same seems true – he appears to only give us freedoms. He hasn’t tried to override our free choice – he wants us to freely choose to accept His ways. He challenges us but he doesn’t seem to have made (forced) anyone to do anything. When we do what He wants it seems to me that we do it because part of us wants to do it. Our motive is inside us and the outcome is the good that we do because of that good motive inside of us.
So perhaps we shouldn’t force others to do anything? Obviously the Crusades come to mind, but also other types of politics. Should we force people to pay taxes for good causes by using our power to vote in government elections? Sure, the result may appear to be good, but isn’t there a problem with us impinging on people’s freedoms, and claiming to be acting on behalf of Jesus?Scrooge dvdrip Ben move Thunder on the Hill rip
