Having a Personal Faith

Something I’ve been challenged on recently is the idea of having a ‘personal faith’. It’s so easy to fall in to that trap of feeling like you know all there is to know about Christianity, so you must therefore have a really strong faith, right? Well, maybe. Doing a degree in youth work and theology at a Christian college often tempts me in to thinking that attending lectures, learning about the Bible, going to prayer meetings and being a Christian youth worker is enough. But I’m starting to learn that it’s not. My ministry needs to be rooted in my relationship with God; otherwise there is just no point. So, like any other relationship, a relationship with God requires sacrifice. That sounds brutal, but I mean it in the sense of sacrificing our time and effort to spend time getting to know God on a personal level. This means listening to Him and valuing what he has to say. Only then can we truly have faith, because God can do some wonderful and exciting things in our lives that we couldn’t even imagine unless we take time to invest in Him. It’s like; imagine that you had never tasted chocolate. So you read about chocolate and people tell you about how great it is. But only you know how great chocolate really is when you try it yourself. And let’s be fair, the rewards are pretty amazing! So today, I encourage you to think about how you can have a personal relationship with God, and go for it!

Charli Wood is key worker in Bilborough

She is also on the 3rd year @ MCYM

What have you been trusted with?

Writing a Blog always makes me reflect about what is important to me, important enough to write about and share with other people, so I was really glad when on our Notthingham Youth for Christ away day our boss, Richard said that the scripture for Youth for Christ this year was the "Parable of the talents" (Matthew Chapter 25 verses 14-28). This story really impacted me as a child, and challenged me once again when I read it with the team.

The story talks about a Master who gives 3 servants with a different number of talents, to one he gave 10, another 5 and another 1 before he went away. While he was gone the first two servants invest in their talents and are able to double their numbers. The Master is overjoyed, praises them and is able to share and entrust to them more of what he owns. The servant who had one talent didn't invest in his talent. In fact, he was scared of the way his Master ran his work/business so hid his talent in the ground until his Master came back to return it. As a result he was punished, his talent taken away and given to the one with 10 and he couldn't share in the Master's riches and was thrown into suffering.

This story reminded me that, in life, we are all different in our giftings and responsibilities, that God has made each person in a particular way. Our gifts, personalities, skills, styles, strengths, weaknesses, weird habits and relationships with people in our lives make us unique. It's not just what they are, or whether they seem a lot or a little that defines us, it's maybe even more what we do with them.

I used to focus on the last servant more than the other two who had used their talents. I used to feel sorry for him because he let his fear of a person (his Master) and a scenario (his Masters business) which was a misunderstanding in the first place, confuse and rob him of his duty, which was only to do the task right in front of him, to look after his talent. Because of fear and misunderstanding he missed out on the opportunity to use his talent, enjoy using and learning How to use it, reaping the rewards and sharing that, and more with his Master and the other servants.

This story reminded me again that God is a Dad, He is a loving Father. We may not always understand Him (the Master), in fact we CAN'T because He is an indescribable Being who controls the universe (His business) and we can't even control a fly or our lives properly, but we can know this: He has made us who we are, and there are things that we have been trusted with, people, jobs/chores, (home)work, decisions, opportunities and talents and if we are faithful with the few things right in front of us then when the time comes we can be trusted and blessed with more.

I hope this has blessed you as much as reading the story, and writing this speel has blessed me. Don't let life confuse you, don't be afraid, learn to enjoy who you are and what you have, and believe that He will always want to bless you.

Mona is key worker in Arnold

Being that someone

We all probably had someone in our Christian walk or just in our general life someone who has always been their for us. Someone that has encouraged , challenged, inspired you, someone that has not given up on you when your going through a hard time. I know when i was growing up having someone that was all those things helped me through life but most of all in my christian walk. This someone was a youth leader in my youth group. The way that she lived her life that reflected God and the way she never gave up on me even though i was a pain some of the time and tried to push her away she still stood by me.  She showed me that God to was all those things and so much more.

Working with young people i have noticed that encouraging them makes a real difference to them. Helping them reach their potential and not giving up on them when sometimes they feel everything in their lives is going wrong. Sometimes you might not see all the impact that you have on a young person but i know from my experience that the person that encouraged me has helped me get where i am today. 

I hope that in my life I can be that 'someone' who takes the the time to listen, to encourage to challenge and inspire someone and that the way I live will reflect God who is always that someone to everyone .  Can you be that 'Someone' ?

emily@nottinghamyfc.co.uk

Emily is our key worker in Inham Nook 

and is also our church resources worker