LIVING THE CHRIST LIFE

To “theobserver”,

On behalf of our team, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your comments and suggestions. And we will continue to strive to “excel still more” in this ministry that the Lord has entrusted to us. And in response to your other comments we will be posting articles regarding them very soon. Thank you again and God bless.

Hi guys, its been quite a while since my last post and i am very very sorry for that, my laptops keyboard was malfunctioning and i couldn’t use the letters “r” “y” and “u” and its was so frustrating for me to type up new articles. anyway, i hope to be able to post more articles in the next few days to make up for lost time. just an update however, please pray for us because we plan to have a sequel to our first parenting seminar and we hope to have it in november. so please pray for us and i hope that you will continue to support our blog.

Thanks for your comment and support, and i am humbled that you have read our youth ministry’s blog. anyway, i wish i could post more often, but i have a job as a teacher and it can get really really busy sometimes. anyway do continue to support our blog and watch out for our future post! God bless!

Thank you for your prayers, i was recently invited to speak at a local high school and my topic was using wisdom in the teen years, and i would like to share with you my talk at that high school. But first i would like to cite my resources, i got some of my points from the following authors Alex and Brett Harris “Do Hard Things”, Kevin de Young in his preaching “Just do something”.
USING WISDOM IN THE TEEN YEARS

 I’d like to call this message “Using wisdom to make a difference”, you see, as you are seated there this morning there are many many things running through your mind. Important things like, I wonder who visited my facebook account?, will I see or talk to my crush later?, what will I wear to the mall?, what video game will I play?, will I tryout for the basketball team/ volleyball team?, when will kuya tabs finish?, and other life altering and earth shaking concerns. Its funny when you think about it in those terms, but that is exactly what is happening with your generation today.

 Many young people of today are so caught up with trivial and shallow things that because we’re swimming in the mundane and mediocre that we think we’re actually doing something important. Let me explain what I mean, when you look around you do you see people your age actually doing something significant and relevant not only for themselves but for the society as a whole? What has been the contribution of this generation to what is happening in this world, this country, this city, this school, the church and your home? In fact I believe that it has gotten so bad that when young people today clean their rooms its considered an act of heroism, when young people today go to school and ACTUALLY study its considered a contribution to world peace, when we wash the dishes it is a global contribution to the end of hunger in Africa?! Ridiculous? You bet it is.

 There has been a decline and an immaturing (opposite of maturing) of the mindset and perspectives of today’s generation, and the reason for this decline is a FUNDAMENTAL AND BASIC LACK, SCARCITY AND GENERAL ABSENCE OF WISDOM with regard to our view of this stage in our lives called the “teen years”, and the over arching question that we need to ask and answer this morning is this “IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO LIVE THE TEEN YEARS?” AND I WOULD LIKE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION WITH A RESOUNDING YES!

 Yes there is a better and more enriching way to live our teen years, but it will include a three word phrase, which I will borrow from Alex and Brett Harris, “DO HARD THINGS”. I hope to be able to explain this phrase in the course of our discussion this morning.

> In his book ‘THOUGHTS FOR YOUNG MEN” J.C. Ryle wrote, “Youth is the seed time of full age, the molding season in the little space of human life, the turning point in the history of man’s mind.”
> This means that what each of us will become later in life largely depends on what we become now. Question is do you take this seriously? Do you realize the importance of this? Do you even care about this?
> You see, many of you here today only care about one thing, yourself, I’m sorry if that seems harsh, but that is the reality that faces you and your generation today.
> Your generation, swims in a narcissistic culture that promotes love of self, expression of self, the “do your own thing” mentality is so prevalent and predominant today that it has affected and twisted our perspectives with regard to basic values.
> Values like respect, submission to authority, honor, integrity, and especially the recognition and the fear of the Lord.
> If you don’t believe me, just look at how you interact with your parents, look at how you interact with your teachers, look at your attitude when someone older counsels you on what you need to do, look at how you respond when it comes to the Word of God and to God and the Truth That God exists.
> And when you really look at it, the truth of the matter is this, when we go against authority, when we go against what God says in His Word, When we reject godly counsel, and most especially when we don’t recognize God and Fear God…my dear young people we are not exhibiting wisdom, we are proving and evidencing the fact that we are basking in our foolishness.
> The book of proverbs tells us that there are only two categories of people in this world, there are those who are wise and there are those who are foolish.
> Question is which one are you?
> And this is where wisdom comes in. Charles Spurgeon once described wisdom as “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge” another author describes wisdom as “the art of living skillfully in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in life.”
> My dear young people, do you see it? CAN YOU SEE IT? The point of the whole matter is this, this stage of your life called the “teen years” is the launching pad for who you will become in the future. I’m not talking about education, I’m not talking about going to the top universities and getting that high paying job or what your status in life will be in the future.
> What we’re talking about is who you will be as a person, as an individual created by God.
> This time of your life is not a vacation from responsibility, it is the once in a lifetime opportunity that God is giving you to embrace and take hold of the responsibilities that will mold you and shape you.
> Proverbs 20:29 says, “the glory of young men is their strength.” And when is that time when you have the most energy, the most free time, the most physical strength, and the most opportunities? IT IS TODAY! THIS TIME, THIS MOMENT. WHILE YOU ARE STILL YOUNG.
> Believe me. You will never have the same strength, free time, and energy in the coming years.

> And while you are still young, choose to use your teen years with wisdom, this is the seed time of your life (the time of planting), the molding season. It will not happen when your 25, 30, or 40, it happens today.
> Exercise wisdom during this time by choosing to use your teen years to set direction, develop character, and build momentum for an amazing future.
> BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DON’T USE OUR TEEN YEARS WISELY?

III. WHAT A WASTE!:

> I’d like to describe what happens when we don’t use our teen years wisely, by pointing out that one of the reasons why many young people waste their teen years on foolishness is because of a theory call “adolescence”
> Now this is a wide ranging theory, but to explain it briefly, the word adolescence literally means “to grow up”. This is true biologically, but the problem is in the modern understanding of adolescence, that gives a reason or even encourages and even trains young people to remain childish for much longer than necessary. It is a social category of age and behavior that leaves your generation in a state of limbo.
> And as a result there has been a boom in the development of what is called the “kidult”, full grown men and women who still live with their parents who dress and talk and party as they did in their teens, hopping from job to job and date to date, having fun but seemingly going nowhere.
> “Kidults”, generally have neither clear direction nor a sense of urgency, much like when they were teens, and like many of you here today. “Legally their adults, but they’re on the threshold, the doorway to adulthood, and they’re not going through it” (Time Magazine, 2005). And these kidults are the logical result of the Myth of Adolescence, which basically encourages teens to view adulthood as spoiling the fun of the teen years, rather than viewing it as the fulfillment of the teen years.
> And being taught to avoid growing up doesn’t help us launch into adulthood. Like many of you here today, I’m sure that that’s how you view adulthood, and adults in general, as people who don’t know how to have fun and that the stage in life called adulthood spoils everything. And at its best leaves us in childishness and irresponsibility, and at its worst it leaves us unprepared for the exciting challenges of life.
> I like what Kevin de Young said in one of his preachings, he said, “it doesn’t matter what you want to be when you grow up, JUST GROW UP”. And the teen years is exactly designed for that, to launch us into adulthood and to teach us to grow up now so that we land on our feet in the future.
> And you can’t say in your mind “that’s not going to happen to me, I’m mature, I don’t play video games and watch cartoons anymore, I’m all grown up.” Really? When was the last time you cleaned your room without being asked? What did you spend your allowance on? How many hours did you watch tv? How many times did you NOT do what your parents or teachers told you to do?
> You see the wise habits that we develop today will carry themselves in our adulthood, the choices that we make whether wise or foolish will have an influence in our future. For example, if you’re a quitter in the important things, then chances are you’re going to quit in the important things in life as well.
> The teen years, this stage in your life is not a vacation from responsibility, it is the training ground for you to EMBRACE responsibility. Let me use swimming as an example, what’s the first thing you learn when you swim? To float, right? The instructor tells you to relax and not to move around so much and you float, after that you learn how to kick and then to swim on your belly and then how to hold your breath and then the different strokes and then how to streamline and refine those strokes. Believe me even Michael Phelps learned how to float. But what would happen if you didn’t know how to swim and suddenly somebody throws you in 20 feet of water? Duh! You’d drown! Of course you’d try to swim, but I bet in your panic you would have drank half the water in the pool already!
> Now, that’s a picture of life, God is the instructor and in this stage of your life He’s teaching you how to float, kick, use your arms, breathe and He’s refining your strokes so that when you finally dive into life, your better than Michael Phelps. Because you submit to the Lord and you fear the Lord, your not the one without direction in life, your not the one without character and your not the one living an empty and meaningless life. Your living an amazing life because you are Living for Christ.
> Basically what we’re challenging you guys to do, is not just grow up physically, but to follow what the apostle said, “…when I became a man, I let go of childish things”.
> So how do we go about in maturing in this season of our lives?
IV. HARDSHIPS BUILD MUSCLES:

> if you look at history, many of the greatest and most prominent figures have one thing in common, there was a turning point in their lives and then they invested themselves in a way that shaped them into the history makers they later became.
> And we can learn from the examples that they left behind. One example is George, he was born in northern Virginia in 1732 to a middle class family. When he was eleven years old, he lost his father. Even though his peers never considered him very bright, he applied himself to his studies and mastered geometry, trigonometry and surveying (think algebra and calculus) by the time he was sixteen.
> When he was seventeen he got his first job, and what a job, he became the Official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia. This wasn’t a boy’s job, and it certainly wasn’t office work. For the next three years George endured hardships of frontier life as he measured and recorded previously unmapped territories. His measuring tools were heavy logs and chains. George was a man at seventeen.
> At age 20, the governor of Virginia appointed George as a major in the militia (army). Then he was sent on an important mission to scout out the French who were entering Ohio—which he successfully did. And by age 22 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and by age 23 he was commander in chief of the entire Virginia militia. You might know him too because later in life he became the first president of the United States. George Washington.
> I know that we won’t be the next president, but you never know, but what I would like for us to see is that he did not avoid doing hard things. He did not avoid responsibility and that is the genius of doing hard things. You might be saying, buti na lang I do hard things, like go to school, do my assignments, go to the mall, and ummmmmmmmmm play video games, and ummmmmmmmmmmmm…obey my parents, and breathe…
> When I say do hard things, it means reaching higher, dreaming bigger, growing stronger, and most important of all loving and honoring God. It means we make the choice of not wasting our lives. It means doing the things that really matter.

We recently held a parents’ seminar entitled “Biblical Parenteen” and the main focus of the seminar was to help the parents of our church in realizing the importance of their role in the lives of their teenage children. the video below was the first session. Our senior pastor, Pastor Robbie Casas was the Speaker and he talks about going back to the Bible and having Biblical convictions with reagard to our Parenting. I hope and pray that this video will help those out there who are looking for help in raising up their children, especially teenagers.

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To everyone visiting this blog and reading the articles on it, i would like to express my deepest gratitude and thanks. it is very humbling for me to be used by God through this medium. anyway, i will be speaking at a local high school this monday and to all of you who visit the blog, please pray for me. my topic is wisdom in the teen years and hopefully i’ll be able to post that teaching here on the blog. TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

CHAMPIONS OF OUR TRIVIALITIES:
“Everybody, wants to be champions of our own trivialities” one of my friends was telling me about this just a few weeks ago, trying to point out that many of what people do or attempt to do is no more than just trying to boost their “self-worth”. That many people are trying to find fulfillment by being “good” or skillful in the trivialities of life.

Take video games for example, when I was a kid Nintendo came out with the family computer console and when it first came out we saw it as ENTERTAINMENT, today however it has become a “professional sport”! i have nothing against video games per se, but if you really really REALLY think about it, isn’t it obvious that we waste our time playing and when we waste our time, we waste our lives. Here’s the whole point, God has created us for something much higher than video games, He (God) has created us for something much more significant than facebook or twitter. He created us, Christians, to glorify His name and be part of His great kingdom work.

but herein lies our problem, many of us think that life is all about clothes, gear, and “coolness” and we try to find it in the trivial things that the world is showing us and telling us. The mindset of many young people including twenty somethings today is that if i’m good at something, even if it is the most mundane of things (i.e video games, fashion, twitter, etc.) we think that we are a cut above the rest of the people out there. But think about this for a while, do video games contribute to your spiritual growth and relationship with God?, does fashion satisfy your soul or yourself? Now before i continue, the things that i mention here may seem like i’m making mountains out of mole hills, but the main issue here is not video games or fashion per se, but rather it is how we allow these things to take control of our lives.

Our generation has become a generation of “champions”, CHAMPIONS OF THE TRIVIAL,  it used to be that young people were at the forefront of “causes”, we wanted to make a difference in the world, we wanted to be part of change,we wanted to do something . but those days are gone, we need to go back to what the Bible says, “Remember the Lord in the days of your youth”. we need to follow what Paul was saying to Timothy, “…to be examples in word, deed, in life and purity”.

Paul also told Timothy that he should not let anyone look down on him because he is young, that exhortation was given to Timothy as a challenge to rise above the expectations of  those who looked at his youthfulness as a disadvantage, but for most of us today, the reason why people look down on the youth is because WE’RE GIVING THEM A REASON TO LOOK DOWN ON OUR GENERATION!

Let us not be surprised if people don’t expect much from us, or if our parents and other people still regard us as children, let us not take offense if they don’t think we can do anything significant. Because truth of the matter is this, we need to take a look at how we live and see if we are merely “champions of trivialities”. my challenge for this generation is to dare to do great things for God, that we involve ourselves in the GREATEST CAUSE of all and we become CHAMPIONS OF THE GOSPEL, CHAMPIONS OF PURITY, CHAMPIONS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND MOST OF ALL CHAMPIONS FOR CHRIST.

so sorry for the long absence, i’ve been having some problems uploading the videos from our parenting seminar, but hopefully we’ll be able to post them within this week. it’s been very exciting these past few weeks because we were finally able to present to our church the first batch of “graduates” from our music training program. hopefully these young people will continue to strive for excellence and to seek to glorify God with the talents that they have.

Looking around us today and the youth that is part of this generation, two words come to my mind in order to describe it. INDIVIDUALISM AND WASTE, yup you heard me right, these two words for me describe today’s youth in the sense that there are so many young people spending so much time and effort to be “DIFFERENT” to be recognized, that it has developed into a culture of WASTE. The question is, what exactly are we wasting and why do we desperately want to be DIFFERENT and to be recognized? I believe it is because many youth today especially Christian young people are being told that reputation and prestige; popularity and wealth are the things that matter and that if you want to be different all you have to do is have these things and it doesn’t matter how you get them as long as you get and have them.

So what has happened? We’ve sunken so low that any talent, even the most mundane and trivial is deemed as cool or amazing. I just recently saw a show where a girl won 50,000 dollars just because she could SMS faster than anyone on the show, wow! Talk about a world changing skill!!! We give 50,000 dollars to a girl who can SMS like crazy, but we can’t give the same amount of money to people who are doing real jobs, video gaming is viewed as a TALENT! I can’t believe it! Guys, here’s a little advice, just because you can kick butt on a video game, doesn’t mean that you’re better than the kid who can’t. It just means that you wasted more time than most people.

But what’s worse is that we (Christian young people) have fallen into the same trap. We’ve been sucked into a worldly frame of mind and are now conforming to the pattern of this world. If you really want to be different, if you really want to make a stand for the Lord, then it starts by BEING A NORMAL CHRISTIAN.

In this post I’d like to share with you an article from a pastor that I highly respect and admire, I would like to thank him for his generosity for allowing me to post his article and I hope that you would take time out to read and meditate on the message of this article. Pastor Bobi, is senior pastor of THE WAY MINISTRIES in Cagayan de Oro Philippines and is the National Chairman of CCM (Communion of Christian Ministries).

PASSIONATE FOR CHRIST (THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE)
By Pastor Bobi Tayag (The Way Ministries)

Philippians 3:7-21

What is the normal Christian life? It is a life of FULL DEVOTION to Christ. Anything less is sub-normal and mediocre. A lawyer came up to Jesus and asked him which is the greatest of God’s commandments. Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

The word “heart” in the Greek denotes passion. Jesus is saying, “the most important thing in life is to be passionate for God.” He is saying: “if you’re going to follow Me, you’ve got to be passionate for me. You’ve got to give it energy, intensity, and enthusiasm.”

WHAT DOES PASSIONATE LIVING FOR CHRIST ENTAIL? One person who wrote half of the New Testament was living the normal Christian life—the Apostle Paul. In Philippians chapter 1 he testified on what being “Passionate for Christ” is. The Apostle Paul in verse 21 said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” For Paul, the very essence of EXISTENCE itself is Jesus Christ—not a concept, not a doctrine, not a philosophical axiom, but a person. Paul is saying, “IN LIFE OR DEATH, MY LIFE ONLY HAS SIGNIFICANCE IN THAT I AM IN CHRIST!” That is the true meaning of living the Christian life passionately: a life completely defined by Jesus. Even death becomes a means to a greater intimacy with the One who loves us and gave himself up for us.

Paul in Philippians 3 asserts a passion for Christ expressed in a fervent pursuit of “knowing Him TO BE like Him” Christ become the object of his eagerness and intense enthusiasm an ALL else takes lesser value and priority (vs. 7-8). He tells us that PASSIONATE PURSUIT OF CHRIST becomes the measure, direction and drive for ALL our other passions. Paul models to us a passion that shapes our lives to become A JOYFUL, HOPEFUL, UNCEASING, INTENSE AND EAGER PURSUIT OF CHRIST (PHIL. 3:7-14).

NOW, WHAT WOULD LIVING PASSIONATELY FOR CHRIST LOOK LIKE?

Paul lays out the characteristics of a life passionate for Christ in Philippians 3:7-20:

1. PRIORITY OF A DAILY ENCOUNTER WITH GOD THROUGH CHRIST.

Paul did not know God until he had a personal encounter with Jesus. Since then, he said: “ALL I want is to know HIM more and more!” (Phil. 3:7-8) Moses said to God: “I pray You show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18). David prayed: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1).

2. POWER TO BE DURABLY STRONG OVER SIN AND SUFFERING.

In verses 10-11, he wants to know what it’s like to live a resurrected life, to no longer be in bondage to the flesh, to have victory over sin. Knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection means that you live a resurrected life in the present, not later after we die (Romans 6:3-14).

3. PRIVILEGE OF DEEPENING INTIMACY WITH CHRIST.

Paul wants to “know” Christ in greater depth, to experience Christ in all His fullness. He wants personal and intimate relationship with Him. (Philippians 3:10-12). Only through an intimate relationship and knowledge of Christ can we discover the fullness of abundant living Jesus promised in John 10:10. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be the visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ (John 15:1-4).

From Eden, God showed His desire to walk with man and to have intimacy with him! Prioritizing time in God’s presence open the flood gate of revelation that helps us understand the complexities of life and give meaning to every situation. We experience Him as Light, Love, Truth and Freedom. His goodness, mercy and love are repeatedly confirmed as we pray through the activities and the relationships in our lives. Our burdens lift as we find our peace and trust in Him. The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that is a PRIVILEGE our Lord gives to those who are passionate for Him.

4. PURSUIT OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST LIKENESS

Paul not only wanted to know Christ, he wanted to be like HIM; and he pressed forward with utmost intensity toward the highest goal in life—“becoming like Christ”. Heaven is not our goal in the Christian life, it is our destination. God’s goal for us in every circumstance is “to conform us to Christ” (Romans 8:28-29). A PASSIONATE DESIRE AND LOVE FOR CHRIST must result in A PASSIONATE DESIRE TO BE LIKE HIM. We demonstrate the genuineness of our passion for Christ by our earnest desire and sincere effort to be like Him. Christ like character flows out of our passion for Christ and confirms the reality of that passion.
5. PECULIARITY AS DISTINCT POINTS OF REFERENCE FOR CHRIST

The Apostle Paul, in prison writing in tears and with a broken heart says that some in the church have substituted the worship of the living God with the worship of their appetites. They have become enemies of the cross (Phil. 3:17-21)

Jesus meant the cross to define who we should be. Mark’s gospel tells us, Jesus “summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34) Denying one’s self, taking up the cross and the cause of Christ, following Him is the NORMAL Christian life.

Let us not be like those who claim they are Christians but whose lives HAVE NO DEFINING PASSION, who are full of competing appetites, desires, and drives to amass wealth or experience some titillating enticement, or soak in some fleeting pleasure. They are mired in a complex mixture of stresses, anxieties and demands: work, family life, health issues…the list goes on and on. So their Christian experience is weak and bland.

God is calling out to you today to know Him and know Him earnestly. God is looking for zealous responses to His word in this world. He is looking for people who will hear the call and respond to make a difference for Christ. I pray that we may desire Christ’s resurrection power, the fellowship in Christ’s sufferings and conformity to His death to distinguish us from everyone who claims to Christian in our day.