Encouragement

SO this seems like it just might be my last blog before Christmas, who knows i may do one next week so keep looking :)  SO last week was a good week, we had an assembly tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday and Friday at one of the schools we go to, this was in ordser to advertise our lunch club, we spoke about the True meaning of Christmas to over 800 pupils in this week, and when we had out lunch club, we could see the difference as ther was alot more peopel popping there head into the room we were in, so a very succsesful week!  so what else happened this week? well we were able to talk to lots of other schools about what christmas really is... and that CHRISTmas is about christ, i did something called the offereing talk at our youth evennt Friday, and talked about why giving is so important!  i also had a chance to play with a group of people from a place not far dowen the road, and they were doing an event called 'the chirstmas lie' this was about people who love christmas but not for the right reason, and what chrsitmas was all about, so it was a worship event with a bit of a talk in the middle! was great, and 3 people gave there lives to Jesus and was just a great event and really well done! we also had our second meeting with our new christians group, which was great another two people came this week so was great to chatting and learning about gGod with people who are seeking God more and more! this week i have also been planning my new house group for 15-18 year old so we have baught a few bits and bobs for it, and started advertising it proporly to the right people, so things are looking exting for this group after christmas that is starting!


I was really encouraged this week.... i sent a message to two friends asking them to send me bible verse's just randomly, no explanation and they ended up being very similar to each other! they both spokje about looking to God first in all things, and remaining happy in all situations! this was really good for me, because as i look around to lots of different people in the world, and see the opporunities people are getting and the situations that people are being placed in, and i wish i was like them , i wish i could be in there boots rather then my own! but i feel that God was trying to say to me that i should be happy and be glad in what im doing! in phillipians 4v6 it says 'Don't worry about anything instead, pray  about everything, tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done' this very week i was told by someone that they fast once a week in order to spend time praying and speaking to God and asking him for help and praising him and so on... so i really feel like this is something im going to start doing in the new year... i will prayt to god overf the christmas period and ask him if this is what i should be doing, and if so what day shouyld i do it? so im really going to be seeking God first this christmas and hoping that i can keep chirstmas this year what is really should be about CHRISTmas!!!!!!!!!!

Even If People Appose You....

Soooooo! this week again has been a great week....   It started off being a very busy week which just got worse and worse with alot of things but it ended really well! my highlight was doing and leading a 'new christians' Bible study at my church! there was 6 of us and went really well,  people seemed to get alot out of it! we did it on Seeking God first in all situations so not just when times get hard but at all times :)  I also got to go to Family Friday which is a family event at my church Mount Zion which was Christmas Unwrapped so was awesome just going into the bible in a family and fun way so was great to see many off my youth there and many people who wouldn't normally come to church!  then i managed to go home on Friday evening and spent a busy weekend at home! firstly being put on a Christmas parade as Joseph (had a drawn on beard and everything!!!!) then spent the day with a good friend catching up ... then was at passion praise in the evening worshiping god with many other people from the area! then on the Sunday was church followed by a dedication meal for a good friend of mines Daughter! was great to spend the weekend at home and see people again and just yeah was awesome!!


People may not kill us for witnessing about Christ, but they may let us know they don't want to hear the truth and try to silence us. Keep honoring God in your conduct and words ; though many may turn against you and your message, some will follow Christ, Remember, Stephen's death had a profound impact on Paul, who later became the world's greatest missionary. even though who oppose you now may later turn to Christ' 


we as a hub (east Lancashire) are studying Acts this year so this week were studying Acts 7 and in my study bible i found this quote! and i think its amazing to hear.... even if people appose us, if people may not physically or verbally abuse us but may emotionally abuse us by not speaking or ignoring us that doesn't matter, stay true to God stay true to what you believe in and what you know is true and one day a miracle may happen like what happened to Saul Later called Paul...  A man who hunted and executed Christians who later wrote many of the books of the New testament and became the greatest missionaries ever to live. remember everything is possible if God is on our side ' Romans 8 v 31 If God is for us then who can ever be against us' 'acts 5vs 39 'if this is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them'




Have a great week :) 

If Our God Is For us....

So i wrote a whole Blog out last week and came onto my blog account today and it didn't send!!! so i wont bother sending it now i will just incorporate the main things from that one into this one here!

         So i spoke in my last blog about me getting back from our 'M4' weekend and things from there have just blossomed, there have been 4 young people starting 'text a prayer' where they put a number on a poster in school in if someone wants prayer they text in and then these people will get together and pray for it! its been great so far and has really made a difference so far 150 texts have been received in two weeks! there is also lots of people wanting to make differences in there schools and colleges, people telling there friends about God telling  people about events going on with the local church and encouraging the people to get along side it and come to the events!  So has been the best result after the M4 we had two young lads from one school who were telling there mates in the lunch club about why Jesus was there Hero and why there friends should go to church! has been amazing and what we do here isn't about us its not about how much we get out of the year, its about blessing these young people and it seems like were doing that and seems like were really  making a difference in their lives!

In terms of my church life things are really growing there, we have got an idea for a new bible study we will be starting for the 15-18 year Old, and ive taken feedback from all these young people and have put together an idea for a once a week meeting, this will start the week after Christmas so its really exiting! also an idea for me leading worship and even doing a preach at my church is coming about so things are looking up and are looking very exiting for this next few months coming up!

     If our God is for us...   this is a verse which has really touched are team here in Burnley, we turn to God in all our situations and we look to |God in all we do, and we come up with difficulties,  a school we once got 70 people at a lunch club! one school we once has 0 people! so we have facing these, then we face difficulties with the student that come, some dont care about what we have to say and some do... and then me on a personal level am struggling with the youth at my church as they are finding it hard to make commitments to things and coming along to things because they live so far away from church! so we face difficulties but in ROMANS 8 V 31 it simply says 'If God is for us, who can ever be against us' and then also Acts 5  39  'if it is from God you will never be able to stop them' And this is what has kept me Personally Going and has Kept me positive, if God is with me and in me.  then who can be against me and who can stop me?  simple answer NO ONE...


Thank you to Everyone who let me know that you read my blog was great to see who does read it... and i would love to set one challenge this week for people who are reading this, i don't care if your Christian, NON-christian or somewhere in between this is something i want to challenge you with. some time this week when your experiencing a problem, may it be you have work to do, you have to go somewhere, you've got to speak to someone who you really don't like... then i challenge you to do something, before you do it pray to God... say to God 'God please be with me in what i am about to do' and then go and do it, i bet you something different will happen in this difficult situation, and if it does please let me know, would be great to here from people who have done this and who have seen a difference


Cheers Luke

M4 Weekender!!!!

So this week has been quite a cool one to be honest....

started off the week with a few really good lunch clubs.. one we spoke about Seeking First God... so spoke about why its important to Look to God first in all situations no matter how big or small they are, then we spoke about why is Jesus are Superhero.. so we went into a school and one of the young people actually came to the front and in front of all his friends told us why Jesus was his superhero, was Fantastic to see and he was just a real inspiration to me about doing this. so we had two amazing lunch clubs. Also I helped out at Life Kids which is the weekly kids club that happens at life church was great to be involved and see young people ENJOYING coming to church! and I love it there!  So Yeah the week started of amazing and finished off even better!!!

So the week Ended with Something called M4 Weekender.. this is one off the Pais ideas for mission with Young people. Hence M4 (Mission 4, 4 ideas for mission) so this weekend was Weekender, so the whole point of the weekender is to invite your young people from your church who you cans see are wanting to do more are wanting to be an impact in their schools and communities, so we ended up getting about 40 young people at the event, from around east Lancashire and it was just a weekend of Praising God and giving the young people ideas off how to work in their communities and get them fired up to get out there! so we had some amazing talks from some directors of  Pais GB and hub and team leaders! was great to be involved in it and you could really feel Gods spirit in the event and throughout the weekend. on the last evening off the event  God entered the building and his spirit fell among all of the young people and they just ended up praying for each other! 15 year olds praying for other 15 year olds who they have never met before! it was just phenomenal and i loved ever minute of it!  I was involved with the worship band so got to play with an amazing group of musicians with our goals just being to worship and bless God!!!

   My weekend ended by going to Church Sunday morning and speaking to the church about what im up to and everything, they seem very motivated and exited about ideas i have for the young people at church and are really supporting me well in the ideas i have! i then got to go down to Nelson at the Mission church to watch a lad from the M4 weekender getting baptised! was awesome to go down there and see everyone and one of the Pais workers lead worship and another Spoke and was just great to hear and see them both glorifying God! the service finished and i couldn't find any off the youth anywhere and finally i found them.. all 20 of them were praying with each other in a room in church for about an hour after the service!! come on they were being encouraged to do more by one of the young people who had been on the weekender! was great to see the passion in these young peoples lives and it was a great way to end such a great week

Now we move onto the next stage which is Coaching young people.. we aim to try and SSSS Young people... SO spread the word of God... Spot the young people who are seeking and searching for more.. Stay with the young people who we have spotted then Send the young people out... so over the last few months i have been spreading and spotting young people.. now i am begging to Stay with them and input into their lives and give them encouragement and support in what they want to do over the next year with God!

Time has gone so quick already with Pais, and if the year is continues to be as great as the first few months have been then im looking forward to an AMAZING year!!!

I would love to just find out who and how many people are reading this blog... so would be awesome if you could just send me a quick email on    luke.al.thomas@gmail.com     just so i can get a gage of who is reading it :) 

Thankyou 

The cloud and the Line

So this week has been quite a cool week.  I got back from Blackpool then was baptised so was a cool weekend, Then this week me and my Team have been going into schools again talking about Gods love, we have been into 2 Primary Schools talking about ‘man looking on the outside but God looking at the heart’ so has been great going into Primary schools there a lot of fun and the Children treat you like celebrities when they see you. I had a tough task this week in teaching in a lunch club about a concept which pais workers have which is the ‘cloud and the line’ (which is the name of the book the global director wrote a few months ago) the concept in simple terms is there is a line in life and on one side of the line it says ‘how much can we get away with’ so how much can we push the rules of society in order to still be OK with the law or in Christian terms with God how much can we push God rules to still be in Gods good books. Then the other side of the line is how much do we have to do in order to get something back so I want an xbox so im going to tidy my room, do the lawn ,wash my clothes, do everything so that my parents will buy it for me or in Christian terms if I pray everyday and I thank god every day maybe he will bless me lots and lots, how much do I have to do in order to get something in return! So there the two extremes of the line and the concept of the line and the cloud is, when God appeared on earth to Moses he appeared in a cloud, so our aim in life is to live in the cloud so we want to live in the presence of God so in order to do this we must live above the line! We shouldn’t be thinking how much have a I got to do to get something back and how far can I push the rules, we should be living above that, we should be thinking about are motives behind things why do we do things? Do we do things in order to bless God? Is what were doing a good witness for people?  So I had to explain that to young people in a lunch club and its very deep stuff, but they seemed to get it and seemed to respond really well to it!  Also I got to drop in on Sunday with the Fuel band (Passion praise equivalent) and meet the worship leader Neil Wilson, and just spent the day talking and observing how he lead the band and was just great to learn things of him and talk to him and just be with him for the day. Really helped me learn a lot of cool things about worship leading and ive defiantly taken some thoughts out of that!

I’m going to do things about different this week and give you bullet points of my thoughts, rather then big paragraphs

·         Jesus uses things which were everyday items,  so Garments people would be thinking wool, leather… things like that, so people then day would know how they are made

·         Wine was also an everyday occurrence and everyone new about how to make wine

·         Everyone understood that wine releases C02 during its fermentation so  while it was in the wine skin it would stretch the skin, so a new skin would be able to stretch more then an old skin!

·         If a new natural piece of cloth was put onto an old one when washed that piece would shrink, then if it was sewn properly it would tear causing a worse whole then to start with, also who would put a piece of NEW cloth onto and OLD cloth?

·         So Jesus has given us illustrations about old things and new things and not mixing them but how does that apply in our lives?

·         2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

·         So when we accept Christ into our lives our lives must be changed we must not let the old into our lives we a new people in Christ so we must not mix the old and the new!

·         Make sure God is glorified in everything don’t mix the old and the new, accept Jesus as your God and become a new person in Christ

·         “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;” (Ephesians 4:22)

This was a great parable for me to read just being baptised and was great to have this message in my head over the last week and help me think about what the act off baptism has done and will do for my life!   So yeah any thought please comment or email me J    this week im studying ‘ THE SOWER’ 

Mathew 13v 3-23

Mark 4v 2-20

Luke 8v 4-15

Have  great week

         

How much do you have to hate someone to not tell them about Jesus?

So this week as been one hectic but probably the best week of Pais so far! started off with having two days off for half term,  so was very much relaxation plus catching up on work which i haven't done, then by Wednesday last week me and my Burnley team traveled down to Blackpool to help out with there M4 Weekender! this was AMAZING we lead the worship as a team, and it went really really really well! i was so pleased with it and God really showed up and made himself clear to everyone! at one point we were supposed to be doing 30mins of worship, but it turned into an hour just cause God took over and lead the meeting! had some great talks with lots of the young people down there and was just great to see how they are getting on and seeing them fired up for God! then i came home on Saturday! and on Sunday it was my Baptism! with a girl called Lydia! and it was amazing! the church was so packed extra chairs had to be brought in... was great to see all my family and friends from all my old churchs and was just an amazing service!

      Last week i didnt have much time to do one of mmy parables so this week im starting up again by doing 'New Cloth on and Old Garment' and this is found in  

matthew9:16

mark2:21

Luke 5:36

 So if your free and would like to get involved with reading this with me then please feel free to :D  this week is going to be amazing just lots of cool work to do! and on Sunday i get to go down and meet Neil Wilson who is a worship leader for something called fuel! and i get to spend the day with him and the band and just interact with them and learn from him in how he leads the band spiritually and musical is going to be a great week! also on Friday at my church i have something called 'Picking up the Pais' which is a family event run by me and CC in which were doing a quiz about Pais and things :D

so the title of this! well i dont really want to speak about it but i just want to add a link to you and encourage you to watch it and have a look at what you think about it! its very sad what he says and i hope like me it fires you up!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w

Thankyouuuu 

The Parable of The Foolish Builder!

OK wow this week has gone so fast, honestly feels like yesterday i wrote the last one of these! its been such a busy yet cool week! every night this week i have been out going to some people's from church's houses for dinner and then helping at Kids Club then finally at Echo! so going through the week, i had my first KFC in a long long time which was Wonder full!! then i had a great catch up with my line manager at Mount Zion! were we discussed all about what i was getting up to right now, what else i need to get on with, to check everything i was doing was OK and just to see what else we can do to help the church! is Wonder full meeting up with Her and is great just to talk! then i helped at Life Kids which is the Kids club at Life church! this week was Jungle theme like im  celebrity so we had lots of games were you had to gather stars and luckily this week i had all the nice kids so was great and FUN!!!!! then Finally we ended this great week with a chance to get youth groups from all over East Lancashire to get together at Life church and i managed to lead the Worship at that! which was a great opportunity and went well!! Then Finally Today (Sunday) i was playing in the Band again which again was a great thing to do! On Saturday i had my first experience of a motorbike, my host drives one so i was on the back and we were driving around for an hour was great when he was hitting top speeds and was a whole bunch of Fun :)



The Parable of the Foolish builder....  i found when i was reading this passage this week that this story is so well known, its probably one of the most popular parables there is, and im sure there isnt one Christian who do-sent know this off by heart!  but yet, ive heard this story 100000000 of times yet i havent heard this story! its one of these things that happens, if you hear something enough times you remember it but you brush over the meaning because 'you know it' sort of thing! so although i know this parable.... i haven't really thought about it before. So i was reading it from Matthew because i loved the way that Book portrayed the passage!  OK so firstly Jesus says 'anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys it is wise' so reading that you know that what you about to hear inst just about listening to Jesus and agree with what he is saying its about living what Jesus is saying! (this may sound like the simplest of analogies youve heard but sometimes its good to go back to basics) so jesus is talking about living a life Like him not just agreeing with him. So he continues by saying ' like a person who builds a house on solid rock' the great thing about Jesus is, he gives us pictures to associate things with! Jesus could simply say 'Anyone who listens to me is wise' and end there but know it shows how important this message is that he is giving it to us in an easy way hes drawing it out for us!  its like he's made the food, is dished it up, hes cut it all, hes put it on the spoon, hes moved it to our mouths... he's done all the hard work, now all we have to do is listen and do what he's saying. just have to open our mouths and eat the food! so if you listen to me and obey me then your like a wise man.. BUT  ( a big But) if you listen to my word and dont obey me your like a man who builds his house on sand! OK im sure we have all seen pictures of this were you build a house on some rock and its ok then build it on sand and its not OK so i wont bother spelling the picture out to you! but i think we can go deeper... its like church, i think this passage maybe meant for Church, listening about Gods word every week yet not living it, your  fool.. but listen and apply it your wise!! i just encourage you to read james 1 v 19-26 this amplifies Jesus message about listening and doing! i just want to end this by adding something in which i read this week...  me and My Burnley team are doing a study on ACTS and this week was Acts 4! and in that it says at bs 11 'the stone that you builders rejected ha now become your corner stone' so if you look into depth about a cornerstone is the main piece of a building without it there is no building! and in this passage its called jesus the corner stone!   and i just want to link that into this parable! so Now i want to challenge you with two things.... One  Be a wise man build your house on the rock.. listen To Jesus and OBEY him and build you house on rock... but also when you build your house make sure Jesus is the cornerstone.. make sure everything you do is based around him.. so that you have a strong foundations everywhere... make Jesus the center of Everything...


So this week i have monday tuesday off which should be nice.. then wednesday me and my team travel to Blackpool for 4 days to lead the worship down at there M4 conference, which is a chance to inspire and send young people out into the communities and school to make them missionaries... so that should be GREAT!!!!! and then im ending the week with just a little visit home i dunno i think i might get baptized not sure yet ;) so yeah great week ahead :D


Prayer points.....

that the two days off rest ARE days of rest.. that i dont get to bogged down with things i need to do and actually enjoy the days off...
That the conference will go great.. that every young person who comes will be inspired to promote the love of JEsus in there areas
that my baptism with go swimmingly :D

The Lamp of the Body

Another week gone by! its so sad when i look at my yearly calender and see that im like 1 1/Th through my Pais year! this month has gone so quickly!!! so this week i have been doing a few things! Saturday night i went down and watch a IONA concert down in Bolton! and if you have never heard them or seen then i recommend it! there some of the most talented musicians ive ever seen! this week i also started helping at Life Kids! which is the young peoples group At Life Church! (like Fusion in Oswestry) was very hectic but fun so looking forward to that this week again :D  I also lead the young peoples Sunday school this week again which was awesome! decided just to have a chat with the young people and was just cool getting to know them all more personally! schools went well.. in our hard school we decided to go for a drama and see how that would work and they responded so so so so well! which was a blessing! and the rough school listened with no interruptions at our talk and was just a very good week! we have now finish our series on Identity with one school and have two weeks left in another, so after this week there will be alot of prep deciding what to do as out next topic!

         So for those of you who read my blog last week i have just started a study on Parables! where im taking on one parable a week looking in depth at it and how it works for me! when i was spending time reading i found that my favorite expression of the parable was in Luke 11v2 in the NIV which calls it 'The Lamp of the Body' now what i didn't know about Luke was that Luke was a Doctor and traveled around with Paul, and he wrote both Luke and Acts, he also gathered all his information from the other gospels and from people who were at the place at the time! he wasn't a Jew but a Gentile and was interested in healings and facts! so that's why his book is more detailed. whats interesting is half off Luke is actually in mark! so he has copied alot! so you now kind of know the background in which this was written, Luke and Paul travelling around Europe together and gathering stories and talking to people to find out more about Jesus and Spread his news! so when he speaks about the Lamp of the Body it is saying 'Your' eyes are the Lamp, so your eyes are the thing which lights your body up so if you let what you see be good then you whole body is good. (this goes back to my blog on Rubbish in Rubbish Out) so let your eyes light your body up by allowing yourself to see good things and not and not bad things! when you search through the other books and what they say about it, it sort of moves on from this message! so Luke is saying make your eyes a lamp and make sure you inside are bright! so then you read that, then you also use what it says is to let your light out, spread your light! so you need to 1) make yourself bright, rubbish in rubbish out, good in good out, Jesus in Jesus out... then you need to 2) let it out... spread what you have inside like it says if you have a lamp why would you hide it, that's not what its there for!  so for me this has been an important message for me... let good into my life.. then proclaim the good to other people... ! what i get out of that as well is in church.... you can go to church every week and receive and receive but then never share what your receiving so there just taking! then you have some people who just give.. its a fact that 20% of a congregation does 80% of the work so you have people who just give give give but never receive! that's not good either you need to have a balance of both! heard a very good preacher at my Church this week and he was saying what harm is there in church in asking if you can help?? the worst that can happen is they say no thank you were OK! if you think you can help, ASK!!!!  maybe the challenge God is giving you is the challenge of asking?   

      If you have any of your own thoughts on this passage please email me on luke.al.thomas@gmail.com or comment underneath! so this week i am studying the next parable on my list which is ' A wise man builds his house on a rock'  which is found in  MATHEW 7V24-27 AND LUKE 6V 47-49 so get reading :D

this week is a hectic week.... alot of work to do, am out every night of the week so no spare time! have the possibility of leading worship on Friday at our once a month youth vent getting around 80 young people... then preparation for when me and my team go down to Blackpool to lead the worship at there 3 day conference with young people! so shall be an exiting but tiring week!

so if you can just pray for that sort of paragraph above.. all my prayer points are in there :D get reading the parable and i hope to hear from you with your thoughts :D 

Parables

So its been over a week since i last did a blog, life has been very hectic so am just trying to catch up on a lot of things! so we have been going into schools all the last two weeks, in our first school we managed to get about 12 young people in the lunch club! the second we got about 25-30young people and the fourth around 50! so the numbers are going great so far with every school! just all we are struggling with at the moment is the people who are actually attending, specifically the school of 50 as many of the young people want to be there but many are just there so we are finding it a bit challenging at this current moment, but we believe God will keep the people he wants to touch and we are just praying that God will give us the right words to say so that we can bless all the people that want to be there! so in terms of Church we have finally got some things up and running we have organised some sort of event to happen once a week on a Friday with the church, so now we are just praying that we can get the young people along to it, so its all about advertising it properly and in the right way. i have been going in and out of all the Sunday school groups at Church as well so has been awesome just getting to know all the young people in the church.
      So parables.... well today im starting on a topic in which im going to be doing my devotionals. the topic as you have guessed is Parables, so having done a lot of research and this may cause issues with some people but ive calculated there is 40parables so every week i will be doing a Study on each one, and will hopefully give you my opinion on them, and if your reading this and want to get involved in it with me then please do this week i will be studying the parable of 'the lamp under the basket' and it is found in Matt 5:14-16; Mk 4:21,22; Lk 8:16,17; Lk 11:33-36 
so please feel free to read it with me and study it in depth with me and see what opinions and thoughts you get out of it! i truly believe that each parable inst written with a  stone cold right answer, i think they are there to be adapted to each of us so that each of us can use it in our life, although the core message may be the same, thoughts around it will be different for each of us!


OK so prayer points

- prayer for the young people who are just turning up at our lunch clubs and want to be there just to mess around and distract others
-prayer for the young people at mount zion that the right young people will come on the Friday events which me and alot of people at church are putting hard work into

Fight for the heart of the King

Ok well this week has been my first ‘official’ week of work,  me and the team have been preparing all week for a school we were going into on Thursday. We went in and all was going to plan then eventually the bell went half way through are talk and the young people left. We had been given the wrong time, so we were very disappointed in that but we had one very encouraging thing coming out of it, it was a lunch time club and we had 50 ish young people there maybe more. So is great that we could have that many people and hopefully next week we will have the same if not more people J . A great thing happened this week again for me (well two things) I was asked to play at the youth group that have once a month on a Friday! Those of you from Oswestry its abit like passion praise but for 11-18’s. we got about 70 young people I believe and was great (if you want to see pictures they should be appearing on facebook some time soon) so it was awesome to be involved in a band they have lots of equipment in the band and was just really cool and I enjoyed in a lot. Then today (Saturday) I went along to the Church’s band practice and now have been asked to play this Sunday (tomorrow) so yeah its all been busy busy busy this week, but things are beginning to fall into place, ideas I have are starting to be shared with the church and Pais team and things are just growing for me and the people around me.

            Ok so I tend to do this every week were I just say something that has been on my mind and this week its something again in one of the sessions we had at FT(Foundational training) and again it caught my mind when I was reading the book in which it came from. Firstly I recommend the book its called ‘the cloud and the line’ and is by Paul Gibbs the founder of Pais. And the line Fight for the heart of the King

 Is used in this book in relation to an old battle. Were a guy called ‘Robert the Bruce’ who was a well love King of a clan. (ill shorten the story) so they went out to battle and he said if he died to take his heart our of his body and take it to Jerusalem, so surely enough in this battle he actually died so Roberts friend Douglas took Roberts heart and put it in a glass cabinet around his neck and while he fought he had it round his neck. One day they were stuck in a corner and were facing defeat so Douglas took Roberts heart out of the glass case and threw it deep into the enemy so all his army could see then he shouted ‘ fight for the hear of your King’ so his army did, and they won the battle.  And the thing which Paul says at then end of all of this hit me ‘ the heart of robber is now entombed in melorise Abbey, Scotland, dead and buried. It will never be fought over again; however, the heart off our King of Kings is alive and well’    I think that is so powerful. We should be fighting for the heart of our King like those solider did no matter what situation were in, for those soldiers they could see defeat they were loosing, but when they fought for the heart of the King they did the amazing, the unthinkable the Amazing thing. And I think if we fight for the heart of Our king then the same can happen for is…

Prayer points for this week

-          we go into all three of our schools this week so prayer for that as we move on in our work in each of the schools

-          I text someone this week (who was a non-Christian) and I asked them if there was anything I could pray for them. And this was the exact text back I got ‘ Wow that means an awful lot, more then you know, my mum is battling breast cancer’  she’s a non Christian and text me that, so I just want to encourage people to join me in prayer for her mum.

Love you all Luke

Rubbish in, Rubbish out

So this week has been quite chilled, thank you everyone for your prayers that have helped me so much! so this week was hub week (kind of) so we met up together just as a hub luckily my hub is very big so felt as if it was just the whole pais gb!! there was 22 of us this week at life church all going through a few sessions with paul gibbs (founder of Pais) then there was alot of time for us to work in our own teams planning assemblies/lunch clubs in teams then presenting them to other teams so we could have feedback on it and things like this. So out topic this week was 'living life to the full/living a full life) so me and the Burnley team spent a few hours one day and the next day preparing a lunch time club for secondary school aged school children, then presented it to some of the other teams!  was really fun and a really good way to see what kind of things were good at and what things we need to improve on as a team, but over all my team is AWESOME.

     So why is this Blog called Rubbish in Rubbish out? well during out first week of FT (foundational training) pete baker (national director or Pais) took a session on this, and when he first did it, it didn't hit me to much, but reading back over my notes that i made it has hit me! i have always chosen to be a happy and friendly person, i always want to be nice to everyone, say the right things, and be good in all i do! but i always found that i would casually lie about things (not meaning to but it would just come out of my mouth) or i would casually take things because i needed them so basically stealing, and it would only be little things, but i would still do it! so i prayed to God about it asking 'why do i do this, i dont want to do this but i do, please help me' so this was months ago, and yet i continued, then i heard pete do this talk. he used Romans 7v 15-22 and if you just read that it is and amazing Verse! it kind of says in it 'we dont control sin, sin controls us' but thats not saying we cant stop sin, but is saying when we think we can over come sin on our own really were not doing anything, sin is still there! so i was still confused once i heard this, i still didn't get what i could do to help me then in 2verses i knew exactly what i had to do 'Mathew 12v35 and Corinthians 15v33' and in the words pete put it ' goodness in, goodness out.... Evil in, Evil out.... Rubbish in, Rubbish out' so who we are with who we hang round with, what we watch, what we read, what we do, what we drink, what we talk about, how we act, how we dress, how we treat people, how we look at people, what films we watch, what games we play... all of these effect what person we are....so for example if  i watch 18+ films watch 18+ movies talk about 18+ things drank 18+ things smoked/took 18+drugs then what will come out of me!.. but if i.. love people, are nice to people, watch things that are good for me, drink things sensibly, talk about good things, dress properly.. then what will come out of me? do i realised.. i can want my life to be something (godly) but if the way i act and things i do arnt Godly then how can i ever become Godly! i need to think about the things i do and then when i sort out the bad things i do, and the bad things i say then maybe i will stop doing the things i dont want to do and will actually live a good life!
        Ive come to the realisation that i am easily influenced, so who am i influenced by? surely if i hang around God all day every day then he will influence me... but in a good way.. that is my aim for this year..


this week is my week of just me and Burnley.. we go into schools on tuesday wednesday and thursday doing lunch time clubs for each, so prayer points this week will be

- that me and my team will be able to reach out to young people in the school we go to, that young people will Engage  well with what we are doing, and will really get something out of the time we have with them
- continual prayer for me this week as i try and head up the youth program in my church, we had out first youth club on Friday in which 6 girls came to it, one 16 one 15, two 13 one 11 and one 8!!!  so just prayer that as i try and encourage more people to come along that God will really bless anyone that does come


Luke

Live a Life that Provokes questions!!

So this was my last week of Foundational training as a whole, we have one more week now were we train with just people in our HUB so my HUB is east Lancaster and theres about 20 of us there so we will be working all next week in 'life church'

So this week has been awesome again has been a crazy week with lots of getting up at 7 with 12 hours of teaching then bed at 1 so am very very tired and very warn out. There has been a lot of great teaching this week about all kinds of things that will help us in the schools we are going to be working in such as ... "use it or loose it" were we talked about using the talents you have been given by God to expand his Kingdom then about habits and not letting habits control you,  we then had 4 sessions on schools and how to work in schools and what to do and act and respond like in different situations, then mark Richy came in to speak to us for 4 hours about how to teach, then a 3 hours session on child protection and 3 and half hours on Islam and how to work with it. This isn't even half the sessions we have had there just the main ones.
       So i come to now why the title of my blog is. 'Live a Life that Provokes questions!!' this was a sentence that hit me in one of the sessions this week it was basically saying your life should be lived in a way which makes people ask questions 'why are you doing that?' 'why are you so peaceful/ happy/ fun' and questions which make people think about their life. We aim to be like Jesus in our lives, we aim to live a life that pleases God so if we aim to be more like Jesus, then our life should reflect this, and if our life reflects this then people will want to know what kind of drug you are on so they can have some, and you can just tell them its the Jesus drug.
        I've always been afraid to be different and always afraid of questions, but now i am aiming to get asked as many questions about my life as i can, cause surely people are wanting the life i want, then that means i am portraying a life worth living. Jesus was asked lots of questions and if we are aiming to be like him then we need to be too. When people look at me i want them to be seeing Jesus and God all around me, i want to be like in a cloud where they can see me, but they also can see this thing that surrounds me and is coming out of me. This message has hit me alot this week about needing to a live a life for God a life which is 'To Him, For Him and About him'

 so this week i met my host family, they are wonderful and go to a church called Mount Zion which i will be attending tomorrow, they came to my commissioning service today at the life church which was amazing to see/ they have blessed me so much with a whole upstairs to myself with a bathroom and toilet, and bedroom all for me which is a gift from God to say the least.

So prayer points for this week

- It takes me an hour to get to work from the house i live in on the bus, so just prayer that God my provide an easier route for me, or give me the strength and stamina to be able to get up early to get ready.
- i start my first 'real' week this week working a lot of the time in my team preparing for the week after when we start going into school and preaching Gods working, and trying to make Missionaries. So prayer for this week as i undertake these tasks

Missionaries making missionaries

Missionaries making missionaries is the main theme in Pais. The idea of Pais is for us (Missionaries) going into schools in a local area working with the local church and making Missionaries out of the young people we meet in the schools.  It is an amazing concept and imagining it in real terms is amazing, this year just in Great Britain we have got 30 young people who are Missionaries working with Pais. If each of us connect with 5 young people and make them Missionaries in their schools starting and running CU's and amazing things like that then that is 150 Missionaries. If each of them help 5 more people become Missionaries thats 750 more young people and this just goes on. The idea is amazing and the practical aspect of it is so simple and amazing but doesn't come easy!

      So regular day for me at training with pais. we stay in a local church where all 35 young people and leaders sleep talk and just meet together. then we every morning take in in terns to go to the local swimming baths to have showers. once we have done that we aim to be at out host church (pais headquarters) The Life Church. So there we have 4 meetings throughout the day each an hour long and each very intense with topics such as 'fight for the heart of the King' 'judge and be judged 'traits of an excellent team' and 'rubbish in and rubbish out'  each of these are aimed to challenge us, make us thing, make us become closer and want to be closer to God and to help us train for this year preparing our hearts and mind for the upcoming tasks we are about to undertake. its such an amazing place, people who have a passion for God worshiping like theres no tomorrow in the morning and then pouring their hearts out in the sessions trying to encourage us to be great people for God in the time were spending this year together. One concept is that we cant teach others unless we ourselves are in the right place hence the 'rubbish in and rubbish out' session being so challenging for me with the main focus on Roman 7v15-22. and explored the fact 'sin controls us, not we control sin' so its about putting into your body and mind what you wouldn't mind giving out to other people.
     Its been such an exiting week and i cant wait for more from Pais, im not ready to get out there and go to the schools the week as been so encouraging so far and i hope and pray for more

prayer points.....


- i meet my host family in burnley and my church leader on wednesday, so guidance and prayer for that!
- that God manages to continue to bless me and the church by providing some more funds for me at pais
-God will continue to bless and encourage me and what i'm doing at Pais

Preperation

So this is my first blog that i am going to write, I'm hoping to write on once a week it should be ready Sunday morning every week.
       OK for people who don't know the story so far let me just explain to you what has happened. I went to soul survivor (http://www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/) at the begging of August, from there i learnt about Pais. its a free Christian gap year (i get free food, accommodation, and travel) where young people are placed in a host church around the UK, then work on behalf of the church in the local schools in CU's, in assemblies, after school clubs or lunch time clubs talking to young people and engaging with young people. So on the Wednesday i applied to go on this gap year. When i got home on the Friday i received an email saying i had an interview on the following Tuesday in Burnley. (Everything was happening so quick) so i went to the interview and it went really really well, the following Friday i received another email saying they would like to accept me into the Pais project which starts the following Tuesday, so within 3 weeks of me applying i had an interview, been accepted and starting my gap year. hence why it was a shock to most people when the news came out that i was leaving.
   
      So what first? well i'm off today (Tuesday 30th August) to Burnley for two weeks of training, then i am home for a few days then on Sunday 18th i officially start my year out. Things have gone so quick that I'm not to nervous about it all just exited so is awesome


  Some prayer points
1) i met my team and who i will be staying with this year this week so just prayer that i will be OK with them all and we will all get on well and that we will all gel nicely.
2) that i will be able to raise the rest of the £100 i need a month for personal expenses


Luke