Growing

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IS YOUR TYPICAL DAY LIKE MINE?

3.00am – awoken by heralding angels. Join in angelic throng singing songs of praise.

4.00am – awake by glowing halo above head, rise up then lie face down on the ground for a brief 4 hour prayer time.

8.00am – turn to the Word. Make choice from the 23 Bibles available. Choose Hebrew version. Read the first 18 chapters of Deuteronomy (off by heart) then learn the Book of Leviticus.

8.30am – decide to go without breakfast as today is a fasting day to celebrate the Jewish festival of the Day of Atonement.

9.30am – 6.00pm – spend time in joyful worship, singing joyfully with guitar, rainbow guitar strap and flute to Cliff Richard’s holiest hits.

7.00pm – fellowship meeting at church with quiche to celebrate end of fast. Lots of green cups and plates.

9.00pm – to streets to tell teenagers about how they are doomed for hell.

9.16pm – arrive at Casualty department at hospital rejoicing at being persecuted for the faith.

(Note – some of the above may not be entirely true…)

JOHN 17 – JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS FOLLOWERS

Read John 17.11-12 – John 17.13-19 – John 17.20-23 – John 17.24-26

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Q1 – What can we learn about prayer?

1. That we should pray – Jesus did (John 17)
2. We should pray for each other (v.9, 20)
3. We should pray for safety too (v.11, 15)
4. We should pray for unity (v.21)

Q2 – What can we learn about the Bible, about truth?

1. We should accept the Jesus – the Bible’s teaching (v.8)
2. The Bible is truth. What it says will happen (v.12, 17)
3. The Bible is a way God teaches and shapes us (v.17)

Q3 – What can we learn about worship, our lives?

1. The world looks at us to see Jesus (v.6)
2. We have a place in heaven with Jesus and with God as Christians (v.11, 24)
3. The duty of a Christian is that God is glorified through our lives (v.21-23)
4. We should have joy in our hearts (v.13)
5. We’re different to the world & don’t belong to it (v.14)
6. Worship – being a Christian – is about serving (v.19)

What can you learn from this bit of the Bible?

QUESTION – How do you get from where you are to where you want to be?

1. GET REAL! Don’t try and do too much – start with some bite size CHUNKS of time reading the Bible and praying.

2. JUST DO IT! Make sure you do read the Bible and pray – remember, if you do something for 2-3 weeks it becomes a habit!

3. BIBLE NOTES. Get some ! Don’t know which ones ? Ask a youth leader. Don’t understand? Ask a youth leader, well some anyway!

4. LET GOD SPEAK. Ask God to speak to you, to help you, to show you what he wants to say to you.

5. REACT. Don’t just listen to God or read the Bible. Do what God says!

6. WHEN? WHERE? Don’t just expect to find time to read the Word & Pray. Plan a time – like when you wake up or before you go to bed.

7. THINK! Ask yourself what the Bible bit means for your life.

8. TALK TO GOD. After you’ve read the Bible to show you if there’s stuff you need to deal with.

9. WAIT! Listen for God’s voice – don’t do all the talking.

10. WORSHIP. Lifestyle stuff. Live for God 24/7 not just Sunday. Ask what Jesus would do. Don’t watch anything if it’s violence, sex, porn, bad language. Don’t swear or say ‘oh God’. Think before you open your mouth and talk..

11. PRAYER. Say thanks to God – say sorry for sin and ask God to forgive you – Ask God for things you NEED (not want), for people, for situations.