One80 Youth - Sydney

By Sarah Goh

I’m still in shock about how April is nearly over and we are heading into the mid year of 2012.  Time has surely passed by quite quickly this year and I bet, before we know it, it will be Christmas all over again. Just take a moment to think, can you believe that you have just started another term at school and hence, are another term closer to summer holidays 2012 and summer camp?

However, at the same time, the strange cosmic concept is that, time actually also passes quite slowly. For example, the days at school where you count the minutes to your lunch break, the months you have to wait till your birthday and the days you have to wait until the weekend… So, when you think about it, time can pass slowly yet on a large scale, a year will pass like a blink of an eye.

 EPHESIANS 5: 15-16

‘BE VERY CAREFUL THEN, HOW YOU LIVE- NOT AS UNWISE BUT AS WISE, MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY, BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL.’

Let me ask you the same question I ask myself every day… ‘What are you doing with your time?’

It is so incredibly easy to take every single day for granted and not realize what a gift time is from God. We all know that someday everything will end and we will either go to heaven or hell, but until then, each day we have is another day of LIVING FOR GOD, or yourself. It is easy to forget that each day we have on earth is another blessing from God.

So, with that in mind- are you wasting precious time on things that don’t matter?

Let me give you some examples,

• How much time are you spending on Facebook compared to the time you spend with God? (Romans 12:1 ‘Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God…)
• How much time are you fighting with your friends instead of making peace with everyone? (Romans 12:16 ‘Live in harmony with one another…’)
• How much time are you procrastinating on things you know you have to do, maybe homework? (2 Timothy 1:2 ‘For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of POWER, of love and of SELF-DISCIPLINE.’)
• How many times do you fight with your parents or purposely disobey them on a regular basis? (Ephesians 6:1 ‘Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.’)
• How many times have you chosen not to invite your friends to youth because you couldn’t be bothered? (Matthew 28:19 ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations….’)

Let’s be a youth group that makes the most of every minute, hour and day we have since God has blessed us with time! No more thinking and holding on to silly things that don’t matter in the end, but focus on God and his plans for your life. IT STARTS NOW, get praying & get moving for God!

By Micaela Alcaino

“I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.” Phil 4:12-13

 When I was quite young I went to the beach with my family and I remember swimming with my dad, when all of a sudden we were both caught up in the rip. I remember freaking out coz it didn’t matter how hard I paddled, I couldn’t fight it, all it did was make me more and more tired. But in the midst of that, my dad was by my side the whole time, and after my failed attempt of panic and paddling he told me to stop, to grab onto him, and let rip take us out a little, until he found a place where he could stand and got us out of it.

Now I looked up in goggle recently tips on how to get out of a rip and here were 3 of them:

1. Keep your feet on the bottom as much as possible when swimming in surf conditions. Keeping your feet firmly on the lake or sea floor will help you to avoid being swept out to sea by a rip current.

2. Remain calm if a rip current begins to pull you away from shore. If you get caught in a rip current, your first instinct will likely be to panic.  Understand that a rip current will not pull you underwater; it will only pull you away from the shore.

3. Regain your footing if possible. If the current is relatively weak and you’re in shallow water, you will probably be able to touch the bottom again and prevent yourself from being dragged out further. If you can’t touch the bottom, do not struggle against the current. Rip current victims drown because they become exhausted fighting the current.

There are times in our lives that we feel like we are caught up in a rip. Im not just talking about bad circumstances and events in our lives but also in our requests to God. Sometimes we make a request with all our hearts and we don’t hear a peep out of Him. And despite asking time and time again, God stays silent and immoveable in the situation.

The thing to remember is that the problem isn’t as important as your Relationship with God.

He wants you to want Him more than you want relief from your problem. And when all you want is a way out of the mess, you can miss the very rock in front of you that will protect you from the waves and the rips.

Just like in a rip, our first reaction is to panic when we don’t seem to be moving back to shore, but sometimes we need to just be still, let the rip carry us until we find a way out. And sometimes God keeps silent so that we may learn to trust him through our problems and not get pulled out of them. He will never let the circumstance pull you underwater, unless you run away from Him. And most of the time these situations bring a strength of character and a strength in our relationship with God. Our relationship with God can often suffer and diminish due to our strive to take control of our circumstances, than to trust God with them.

If stopping the stress is more important to you than finding God, chances are the stress will keep up until you get your priorities right.

Just like my dad was there the whole time, looking out for me, despite my panic, Our father in heaven will always be by your side, whether loud or silent, he is still there.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” Duet 31:6

When you truly trust Him, even the biggest rip or storm won’t shake you. And the more you trust God the more you will see that God is always watching out for you, moulding you and making you stronger.

By Jana Hunt

This is ‘the motto’ that’s been spread through the youth of today thanks to the rapper, Drake.
The main intention being to “live life to the fullest because yolo” the other, to exhaust the term through trolling and just plain annoying people.

This motto has been plastered all over the Internet, with teenagers using it with many different meanings behind it. Some of these teens view living life to the fullest as drinking and smoking yourself until you’re mentally incapable to make clear decisions.Some view it as doing as much as they possibly can in a day, completing their own mini bucket list.

But what I want to tell you about, is the Christian way of looking at the motto’s intention. How God wants you to live your life to the fullest.

God has given you a purpose on this Earth, “he has plans for you to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” as it’s stated in Jeremiah 29:11, and if you’ve ever encountered God before, you’d know that it’s true, because he plants these ambitions and dreams in your heart. You begin to yearn to be that person you’ve always wanted to be, whether it be a doctor, a singer, a pastor or a leader, anything you’ve dreamed about.

God dreams for you, he dreams BIG.

If you’re thinking right now of your biggest dream of becoming something that your worldly mind says “yeah it’d be mad to be that but there’s no way that could ever happen to me!” Think again. God dreams bigger and through him, nothing is impossible. Like it says in Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”

Trust in his plan for you, and although it can be hard sometimes, we have to trust in his timing too because like it says in Ecclesiastes 8:6:
“For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter..”God has not only a time but a strategy for how he’s going to get you to your fullest potential and through every situation you face.

It goes on to say..

“Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come?” – Ecclesiastes 8:7
Live every moment to its fullest for God. You never know what’s just around the corner. What opportunities he has in store for you. What you focus on, is naturally what you’ll invest into. So ask yourself, what are you focusing on everyday?

Have your own mini Christian bucket list and make your mission, to trust in God’s plan for you and to live for him everyday.

Whilst I was going through all these yolo posts on tumblr, I came across this little quote for when you’re feeling down
“When you feel like you’re drowning in life – don’t worry, your lifeguard walks on water.”
Keep your dreams big and believe that he can make it happen. You only live once on this Earth so make it worthy of the eternity in heaven with him.

By Micaela Alcaino

The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender. -William Boot

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21

I live in a pretty reasonably sized house, which can get quite dusty if left too long unattended. This isn’t really helped when my black labrador, oscar, sheds his hair like the rain God sent in Noah’s time. So you can imagine that if the house isn’t looked after it can get pretty crazy. But luckily I have a mum who is pretty much the cleanest person I know, and in our household we know to never get in the way of her cleaning. But with the busy lifestyle both my parents, my sister and I have its hard to find the time to clean, so my mum hired a cleaner. In doing this, the cleaner comes every week while we are at work or uni and cleans the house thoroughly, this meant we had to give her the keys to every part of our house. That also meant a huge leap of trust that she would do a great job in gaining access to every part of the house. Many years later we still have our cleaner because of the great job she does as well as being trustworthy in keeping our house keys safe.

So I want to ask you, how many keys do you own in your life. Im not talking about the tangible keys, but the ones that unlock every past and present area of your life.

But before I go on with our topics of keys I think we need to be reminded that as christians we were not saved by our good or bad behaviour, we were saved through our faith and through the gift of God’s mercy and grace. We did not earn grace, nor did we work hard to own it, it was given to us freely as a gift. WOW, to serve a God who cleans our past completely no matter what we have done, we are lucky indeed.

So therefore, if we understand that grace is a gift, we must understand that it isn’t just a gift we receive and put on the shelf on display behind a glass case, grace is a gift that asks us for a change of heart, change of lifestyle and a complete surrender of ourselves. This means a surrender to every key to your house, to your life. Jesus asks us to surrender not just the key to the front door, but the keys to every room, to every cupboard, to every draw in the house, hiding nothing. But many of us find ourselves refusing to give him certain keys.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” – Luke 9:23

As christians we are asked that once we are saved, to take up our cross daily, which means dying to our old life and allowing ourselves to be transformed into the people God wants us to be. Yes, we all screw up, but if we don’t give God every key to our lives, daily, he is unable to clean out the dust in areas we are withholding from him. This means we are telling god “You have all these keys, and I’ll keep the ones that I can control myself in my own strength.” or “Im too ashamed to give you certain keys, coz that rooms way too messy.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” -Proverbs 3:5

Yes sometimes we can do things in our own strength, but we forget that God can do an even better job. And I’m not just talking about the bad stuff, but especially in the good stuff as well. Because when everything is going happy dandy we tend to rely more on our own strength than God’s.

So I want to challenge you, what keys are you keeping from God? And are you willing to surrender every key no matter how great or how bad that key is? 

Because thanks to Gods gift of grace, God is willing to transform all your mess and dust into something great!

 By Micaela Alcaino

“Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.” – Hosea 6:3″

 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your[a] own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ – Acts 17:27-28

Just the other day I went to a wedding and realised I got the wrong time for the reception. The Reception was on a boat, so if we were to miss it, we wouldn’t be able to get onto the boat. Come 5.30 (still at home), my sister, best friend and I realise that the reception started at 5.30, and we were still in strathfield, whilst boarding was in Darling Harbour. Right then and there we could have easily given up, but we were so determined to support our friends who just got married, that we were going to try. After a few phone calls we heard the bridal party were running a bit late so we rushed out of the house, and raced to the city, with my fantastic James Bond driving skills we managed to get to the city, park and run in the rain to the warf just to find out that the boat had just set sail. BUT we still were determined to get to the reception to support our friends. So after a few phone calls to many booked out water taxis and with the help of our best friends brother, we managed to get the last water taxi available [seriously they were all booked, hallelujah praise God for that blessing], waited for 20 mins, jumped on, and began pursuing the boat the reception was on. After speeding under the harbour bridge and past the opera house (and taking a few instagram photos), the driver radioed in to the big boat to stop so that we could jump onboard from the water taxi. AND after crazy rush and chaos, and a few frustrating obstacles, we managed to jump on and spend the reception with our friends and family.

Dramatic hey? but isn’t that the same with God? If we choose to pursue him, we are always going to get crazy obstacles in the way, but are we determined enough to pursue him, despite all the chaos?

What does it mean to pursue God to you? I think today we live in a society where we are taught all about God, and how to live as christians, yet many stop there. Many live their pursuit through their leaders’ teachings, and don’t actually step outside their comfort zone to learn more individually and pursue more on their own.

Many make the misconception that after they make the decision to accepting Jesus there is no expectation to crave further revelations from God. On the other hand I think many of us become complacent in pursuing Him, and therefore miss out on the path and wonders that God has planned out for us.

Its as if we begin our walk on the path that God calls us to, but the moment a wall is plonked in the way we think “Oh its a wall, I guess this is how far God wants me to go,” instead of realising God is saying “CLIMB OVER IT! I placed it there for a reason, I want to know if you have to guts to actually see whats on the other side. CLIMB!!”

We all know the verse from Matt 7:7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” ASK, SEEK, KNOCK. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all VERBS, all ACTIONS! If we want more from our christian lives and our relationship with God then we have to begin to pursue! To seek his blessings, ask for his guidance, knock on the doors that have been so far, unopened.

Don’t let your leaders be the ones that pursue God for your lives. Leaders are placed in our lives to teach and to guide, but not to be your faith and pursuers. Are you daring enough to see whats on the other side of that wall? Or are you comfortable in just showing up to church and letting the preacher give you all the “revelations”?

I challenge you to wipe the dust off your bible and begin to read it yourselves, take time to pray and talk one on one with God, seek what he wants from you and where he wants you to Go. Pursue him like you’ve never pursued anything before. And don’t give up! Because along the way God will be opening doors you never thought could be opened. But it only comes when you choose to individually pursue Him and His heart.

Let us be a generation of pursuers, not back-seat christians! Let us jump on a water taxi and chase after Him! I promise you that it’ll defiantly be an adventure, but the result is that you will learn and grow spiritually and so intimately with your Creator.

By Joel Samways

If we are hungry for growth, to be closer to Jesus, to go deeper in our relationship with Him, then we need the basic desire to want to change ourselves.

It seems simple, and that’s because it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Growth in your relationship with God begins by looking at your life and then looking at Jesus and recognizing what needs to change until your life resembles the life of Jesus that much more.

We need to have a hunger in us that is constantly wanting to transform ourselves more and more into His likeness. We can’t be content with where we are in our relationship with God.

Romans 12:2. ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’

The verse uses the word ‘transform’, which is suggesting that the idea of us renewing ourselves into the image of Christ isn’t a one off spectacular show that happens in an instant, it is a continuous process if we let it be. We need to be constantly looking at our lives, our attitudes and our hearts to see what we can change, what can we improve to shine the light of Jesus more into other peoples lives.

And at the end of the day, that is what we have been called to do, to shine the light of Jesus in this world, and if that desire to do so effectively isn’t there in your life, then you need to have a good look at where your relationship is with Jesus.

We need to be hungry for growth, not growing in hunger

Our relationship with God is like water left in a cup on a bench. The thing with that water left on the bench is that after a while of just sitting there still in the cup, it becomes stagnant and can taste completely different and usually worse than the fresh water.

The same is with our relationship with God. If we just sit where we are in our relationship with Him. Not moving around, not being disturbed and getting uncomfortable, then we become stagnant and we get to a place where we realize that we aren’t so close to God as we thought we were. In fact, it can seem as though we are miles away from Him.

And then we start to think:

“Lord what did I do to distance myself from you? I don’t remember sinning, but if I did I’m sorry!”

But he says: “Nothing. You did nothing. That’s the problem.” 

In our relationship of God we need to be moving towards Him, we need to be passionate in or pursuit of Him and His righteousness. When our focus is to be more like Christ and more in love with God, then we become hungry for growth. But at the same time we are growing so that hunger is being filled and renewed all the time. But if we are comfortable with where we are and who we are on the inside, if we think there is no room for improvement and that there is nothing more we can do, then we have completely missed the point and we aren’t hungry for growth, we are just growing n hunger, but that hunger is never filled.

1 Peter 2:2-3.  ’Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.’

We are being told to continue to hunger for growth in God, not just enjoying the first taste we have taken of Him, but continuing to refine ourselves and be moulded into His image.

Let’s live a life worthy of Jesus. If we were worth dying for then surely He is worth living for. I encourage you to always seek God and ask Him to show you ways you can be moulded more into His image.

2 Timothy 4:7-8. 

‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.’