Believing Like MJ

what is believing anyway? I mean, is it really what its cracked up to be?
Im not sure about you guys but when i want an answer to something I generally ask a question. They help a lot.

-Question one) why should you believe in something?
is it is because it gives us a deep sense of belonging? because we can come together in our belief (like Santa and the easter bunny etc)? or is it because we need (a religion to help us) to formalize our panic about death. "quick! death is coming! put on the gold hat and sing songs about dead people!"... well some of this is true and some, not so much. but personally i like to believe in stuff because its true and kinda mandatory for... well, everything! like i believe in cars coz they are really there and thats why there has been no need to scrape me off the road (yet). this works for me, this believing in cars thing.

-Question two) what is true?
don't you hate them stupid true and false question on tests! they just bug me. never the less truth is generally needed for people to understand things. Example of true and untrue things: Unicorns= Not real, people= Real, Michele Jackson= em, not sure! The way we find out truth is when we check it out and try to understand through our own research.

in faith our own research is reading the bible and stuff. people can tell us stuff too, but sometimes we just don't want to listen coz we think it won't help us. like when the waiter puts a plate down on the table and says "careful not to touch it, its very hot." when he leaves i always touch it to see how hot it is... and i burn the hand off me usually.

Look for truth, all you can do is gain, you can't lose a thing, but if you don't look you can lose the world.

"what good is it if a man gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?"

sexed up!

Sex. This word gets loads of different reactions from different people, and personally i think some of them are hysterical! Christian reactions are the funniest though coz nobody knows how quite react so its great. try it the next time your with a bunch of Christians. just look them in the eye and slowly say "sex..." its great.

   The christian view on this is often fuzzy and therefore leaves it open for attack from the outside world. but personally i think sex is fantastic! amazing! such a gift from God! God doesn't think we should ashamed of sex, he invented it for goodness sakes! a whole book in the bible id dedicated to it! (songs of solomon)

I can't wait until i get married so sex can be a big part of my relationship with my wife. Sometimes i get pretty mad at some of my "mates" who go on about what a great night they had with some girl one night, or things to that effect. then i just become sad because they have such a lie in their head. They think that sex is all about how much i can get or who i can get it from... That is not what sex is about. sex is an selfless act of giving. It is a time when you give your whole physical and emotional self to that someone you love. That is a big deal. the thing is, if you keep giving bits of yourself away to that girl who you spent the night with or whoever else who happens to pass by, will you have enough left to give to the one you love? I want to be able to say to my wife on our wedding night "I kept myself for you because i love you. Now you can have my whole heart.", i pray she can say the same to me.

  There was this kid, and he really was siked about christmas! i mean who isn't? This kid was more excited that usual because he had asked his parents to buy him a PS3 for christmas. one day in November he caught a glimpse of his parents carrying a box covered in a big black bin bag, they carried it through the house quickly and up to their bedroom, making sure their son couldn't see what it was. Every friday and Tuesday his parents Got back late from work so the Kid had some time on his own on these two days each week. so as Tuesday arrived he sneaked up to his parents room, searched around and then he found it, the black bag. Through the plastic he could just about make out "PS3". he was so happy and excited about this gift and he left the room content. Then on friday he came up for a second look, this time he pulled the bag out from where it was hidden and opened it a little just to see the box. he  spent a good 20 mins just looking at the closed box enjoying what was in his hands. he put it back in its place and left the room, making sure his parents wouldn't have known he was there. The on friday he opened the box to see the the clean plastic of the console in its stirafome padding before putting it away before his parents returned. By early december every tuesday and friday the kid had his PS3 plugged into the TV and was playing away. Then came christmas day and there was his PS3 wrapped up under the tree. he opened it, then moved on to another present, unfazed.

That amazing Gift was used to much before its time and became worthless. don't do the same with you Gift.

Faith

"suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food and one of you say to them, 'go in peace, keep warm and well fed', yet you do nothing about their physical needs what good is it? in the same way, faith if it is not accompanied by action, it is dead." JAMES 2:14-17

What in the world is this stuff called faith? Jesus talks about it so much! from what i can gather from other parts of the, faith can do stuff. like jesus said "get up, your faith has made you well."... okay, so this faith stuff must be like some kinda medical thing or something coz it heals people. right? so i guess it does a lot of good. also other jesus said that "your faith has saved you." that sounds pretty cool, coz the army saves people and so does 'air sea rescue' and they have them big fancy helicopters, so this faith stuff must be pretty cool. however in james says if you don't use this faith then its pointless having it.

   i want you, yes, you if your reading this, to think of the coolest thing in the world! for some of you it may be the avatar movie or Emma Watson, but try to stick to tangible things for now. for me the coolest thing in the world is my "jeep wrangler." that i wish i had. now if my dad bought me a jeep wrangler i would be freaking out! i would be ecstatic. Once i have my jeep wrangler i can come to youth club, or school, or wherever a group of my friends are and i can tell them "I have my jeep wrangler! wooohooo!" then a friend says, "so aren't you going to drive it?"
 "no!"
 "well why not?"
"pff, i don't know, im just not."...

if i go on about my car as much as i do, then when i finally get it i don't drive it, anybody would have the right to think im slightly crazy. that is kinda like faith. our father has given us this amazing gift! that we should be freaking out about coz its so cool! coz it can move mountains and do loads of cool stuff. but once when we get it and don't use it, its pointless.

sometimes when you see the news and you see the famine that is spreading all over the world and the degenerative living conditions of 1000's of people sometimes, i bet you get angry at God for allowing this. i got angry at God when i was in a place called garbage city in egypt. i was so mad at God because he let kids i had come to love, run about the streets without shoes on, he allowed people to drink disgusting water! he allowed people to have no education, right there in front of my eyes. i asked God "how can anyone called God allow this?"
he replied "how can we allow this?"
"you cant say we, im not God!"
"yes, but are you not my hands, are you not my feet? why aren't you doing anything?"

shall we get to work?

Prayer points- Back to school

Glory to God in School 
-keep focused of God in school

-us the God given talents you have in school
-encourage believers and non-believers in school
-(suffreing students)

sent out to school
-be a witness
-one one one with people
-for God to bring something big to you school or your workplace

Uni students
-Martha
-Chryso
-Theo
-Roy
-Adam
-Nini
-Chris
-Robert (work)
-Alex (waiting on a job)
-Tony
-Sophie (work)
-Alicia (work)
-Lionel
-George
-Lorna
-Julia
-Loukios
-Elina
-Kait

jesus can't be the Son of God!

- Did this man called 'Jesus' raise from the dead?

- Problem. Statistically not many people raise from the dead. Most people who are dead stay dead. Historically the tomb was empty so somebody must have stolen his body. There were only three groups of people around at the time, the Romans, the Jews and the 12 disciples. If the romans or jews took his body, they would have produced it right away to disprove Jesus as God (the jews) or to stop a rebellion (the Romans) but they didn't. Thus both a belief in this new God and political unrest occurred! Christianity should not have got off the ground it should have been proved wrong.

- Did Jesus survive the crucifixion?

- The Roman empire was the best military force in the world. they had total control of all the known world! a big reason for this was due to their strict rule over crime and rebellion. many criminals didn't even make it to the cross due to the flogging. Jesus was more than a criminal, he was a revolutionary (in the eyes of Rome) who was in for it big time! the floggers themselves were under rapps, if their victim escaped death then their punishment was execution. so not only did Jesus survive being wiped and beaten, he survived the mile walk under the weight of a 30 kg cross beam, being nailed to the cross, suffocation, drowning (in his own blood), showing all signs of death, then he was in a tomb without food or water for three days, then he has the strength to role back 1000 kg rock and fight off 2-16 soldiers trained in the greatest army force of the time.

-The disciples

-these 12 guys knew Jesus inside out,they were his closest mates. say they stole the body o Jesus so their point would look good. however did these people go all over the world for a lie. at the time only Europe was known about. they new nothing outside that. its like you or i going into outer space to preach about our mate to whoever is out there. they didn't just say he was alive, they died for that fact. his mate James was crucified and asked if he couldn't be nailed to the cross so he would have more time to live and preach the gospel from the cross. john asked to be crucified upside down because he would not be worthy to die in the same way as christ.
10 of the remaining 11 dies for christ name and the son of God. The 11th died of old age as he wrote letters and books to other believers around the world. isn't it possible that one of them could have cracked?

Dartfordians...

I have never really been one for studying nature, but this summer in had the extraordinary opportunity to witness many Dartfordains in their natural habitat. I spent about a week in Dartford where i could look around many of quaint English pubs and off license, thus blending in with the local women and children. on one night my friend lionel and i were encountered by two radically happy clappy drunks who said us "glabber da buffen der."... i wasn't quite sure what was on offer however i just carried on with the conversation and thrust my 'please don't kill me and take my liver' smile onto my face. upon witch i believe i was asked to produce marmite... although i could be mistaken. some people may say that i am being rather critical and judgmental about dartford, but not at all. Coming from northern Ireland where people share 4 yellow piano key teeth between a family and have given up drinking alcohol due to the energy exerted, instead they pump it directly into their veins, Dartford was rather refreshing.  Although some people (including myself) would call this herd of Dartfordains who attended newday, weird, crazy and quite possible dangerous, they truly hold a very special place in my heart.
  A very important person who I became intimately aquatinted with with a guy by the name of frank or tank depending on how close you are to him. He truly is a lot of fun and is intensely creeped out by spiders witch makes it all the better. A native who became mandatory for my survival in Britain was Herminy granger, famous for her pocket dairy with lots of "Phil", "Phil", "Phil" and "sarahgesicaparkerlookslikeahorse.com".

The reilly family are my favorties. Dawn, the mother and only women in the family im sure became rather stressed due to my arrival and literally living "out" of a suitcase, (all over her nice room). i had amazing chats with coffe junky, wise man 'Grahm', good times with arty, broken army...? (the best i could come up with) lewi, scary times with little brother Arnold jacob, cool movie times Gerogy boy and super cool jo jo!


not to mention sarah j,  Nicole, megs (kolo humus), sam the man (skater) yates, Frankie, elisa,, dil, Lynn, john, edi, josh, oli, poppy, connie, alex, emily, eloise, erica and rachel! and lots more!

miss and love you lots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPxiWvnrDF8

Newday 2010

Newday is an event run by 'newfrontiers', a church that is spreading across the globe with an aim to share the gospel. This event, or festival as I choose to call it attracts believers and non-believers from all corners on the united kingdom and indeed many from other parts of the world like myself. It is a truly momentous occasion when thousands of teenage christians come together to praise, serve and encounter their heavenly father.

   This year there was in the region of 7000 people camping on the show grounds in Norfolk. Everywhere you went there was tent after tent with lots of people running about wearing spotty wellington boots, multicolored rain coats and in my case multicolored hair everybody looked very busy yet excited. It was like what you imagine goes on behind the magic doors of Argos. there were lots of fantastic cafe's such as the rhythm factory for the beat-boxers and street dancers and everybody else because its just that fun. There is the retro cafe with its famous ice cream and Elvis Presley music, the pinks and the gents bar for the girls and the guys witch have lots of things witch you can get involved in such as nail painting and candy floss for the guys and sumo wrestling and table football for the girls... depending.

Each of the seven days start with an optional prayer meeting — and I went to every single one because they were amazing!!!!- usually lead by one of the main speakers accompanied by some worship. Then we move to the morning worship time witch is held in the "big top" that the big blue tent by the way, no worship event is complete without one. These are split from 12-14's and then 15-19's ... they are "AMAZING!" I have a feeling im going to be using this word a lot... After a message has been given you can choose from many great seminars. Then you eat, thats always good! And if your cooks are named Dawn and Lynn then all is well indeed! At this time you can also have the opportunity to go on outreach in the local towns and villages where you can talk to people on the street or help the communities by cleaning up gardens and painting fences. After much resting or skating if you happen to be utterly insane there the evening worship gig and message, witch is ... A... AM.... AMAZING! Of course, what else!

For more information check out this website!
Newday website

Getting started

Welcome to Above and below. A page where you can read about a variety of topics all of witch have christ as their center.