Sorry this was supposed to be posted a few days ago but somehow got saved for later here we go now:-
What fun we had! Last Friday to Sunday saw me at Yellow Braces, for those of you that dont know this is a youth camp run by the diocese with around 80 young people, involving worship and activities all wrapped up in this Christian Community ethos. I have had the privilege for 2 years now of being the main speaker/evangelist at this event, and both have been fantastic despite my input. Its always great getting to meet new people who want to be able to share the gospel and the leaders on this weekend were definitely all about that, the Band led us in worship with great sensitivity and enthusiasm, all the leaders genuinely wanted the young people to get the best out of the weekend this all in terms of the activities, the worship and the community so the whole atmosphere was just great.
For those of you that werent there, or missed some of the talks or even just wanted a recap I shall attempt to add some notes here over the next few days, but here to start you off is the first one:-
Session 1 Friday evening- The Bible:
The Bible should be the foundation for our lives and everything we do and yet although all Christian believe this, none or very few of us read it as much as we feel we should. Sometimes we try and come up with excuses, Peter himself even gives us an excuse in his second letter when he says some things in Pauls letters are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16 ncv), its true isnt it, sometimes we just read a passage and the first thought that enters our minds is huh, whats that all about? and sometimes because of this we switch off, its too difficult for me so I wont bother. But Paul in one of his not so complicated bits, his second letter to Timothy tells us All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Tim 3:16 niv). As Christians the Bible (the breathed word of God) needs to be the foundation our lives are built upon, yes some of it is difficult to understand (and some bits can seem boring) but there are tools to help us understand, books are one place but there are friends, youthworkers or ministers we can talk with, the key thing is we need to be building our lives upon the word of God, this is the foundation of our faith and the foundation upon which we try and build the community that is Yellow Braces for this weekend, and the foundation upon which our thinking is going to be based over the next few days.
Well thats a rough outline, still to come are these:-
Session 2 Saturday Morning – The body of Christ:
Session 3 Saturday evening – Love your neighbour:
Session 4 Sunday What next: