not ashamed youth

Every Monday, I look forward to opening my email and receiving an encouraging email from Andrew of Not Ashamed Youth. I have been getting them since January, when I signed up at Parachute Music Festival to have them emailed to me.

Now, I know that I am really not in the youth category anymore, being nearer my mid-thirties than in my youth - eeek! Did I say that? It hardly seems like yesterday when I was though, and these emails are so worth receiving, see below for what was in this weeks email, so appropriate for what I am going through right now with my parents being in the country.

I especially like how he makes Christianity real, not airy-fairy. It's one of my pet annoyances when people try to make out that following Christ makes you somehow above others, better than them - like that is ever true, after all we are still human!

"Hey Dione!

“I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:18

Last weekend I was preaching in the Wellington Promise Keepers youth event called “Transition”. I was preaching on the relationship between fathers and sons (as Transition is an all guys event) and finished up using a clip from Terminator2. It’s the scene half way through the movie where Sarah Connor (the main Character) is watching her son John playing with the Terminator, she says, “Watching John with the machine it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him and it would never hurt him. Never shout at Him or get drunk and hit him or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there and it would die to protect him.” I remember watching this movie on TV years back and hearing those words and the thought hit me, “that sums up the Father heart of God.” God is always there for us, He will never leave us, never yell at us, never hurt us, and ultimately He sent His one and only Son to die for us, to save us from our sins that would have led us to our eternal death, He died to protect us. God the Father loves you and me and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us any more or any less, He loves you and me just so incredibly much. I know when I am holding our new baby Abby, my heart is filled with just so much love for her yet that is nothing compared to the love our heavenly Father has for us. I love that saying, “if God had a fridge, your picture would be on it.” Now I don’t know what your relationship is like with your earthly father, you might have an awesome relationship, or there might be stuff there that you need to work through or let go of. You may not even know your Dad, there’s a cool verse in Psalm 68:5 where it talks about God being a “father to the Fatherless” but in it all my hearts prayer is that wherever you are at with stuff that you would truly know that you are loved by your Father in Heaven, that He absolutely adores you and wants the very best for you. So this week make sure you spend some time with your Heavenly Dad because He is wanting to spend time with you. Bless ya heaps and take care,
Andrew. "

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