I
am a committed Christian, which means I know I've done things wrong,
and I've messed up like everyone else, but I also know that God loves
me so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to die for me. Because he took
my punishment I can be forgiven.
We have all hurt God by doing wrong, and there's nothing we can do to
make up for that. When you hurt someone, you are giving them authority
to hold a grudge against you or be resentful. They alone have the power
to make you feel guilty, or let it go and forgive you. Forgiveness
doesn't mean what you did wasn't painful or worthy of punishment, but
it means that the person you hurt values your relationship enough to
forget the hurt and rebuild their friendship with you despite it.
That's my experience with God. I've hurt him immeasurably, but he still
loves me enough to overcome my sin and invite me back into his family.
At Warwick Uni at the moment, and attending a local Baptist Church, but
when at home I go to two churches, one of which is St Gregory's
Catholic Church. The Priest there, Anthony Pateman,
occasionally
produces a different version of a gospel story to make it easier to
understand. Here's one I particularly like. Most
people
have heard of the prodigal son, but this story will probably give you a
new insight:
Before coming to Uni I was involved in a self-run youth group with
Christians from the surrounding villages, and now I am co-leading a
1025 group on campus through the Christian
Union, so named from Hebrews 10 v25, "Let's see how inventive
we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping
together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see
the big Day approaching." I find it really helpful to pray
and study the Bible with other people.
Links
John's
Gospel -
before coming to Uni, I started to learn this by heart, inspired by
Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian who was given a Bible, not even in his
language, and translated and learnt one chapter a day. Psalm
119 verse 11 says "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not
sin against you."
New
Testament Headings
- The
Bible is divided into 66 books, and each book is split into chapters,
with (very approximately) 1000 words per chapter. The Chapters are
divided into verses, roughly each sentence or phrase. The different
sections within the chapters which deal with different stories or
events have had headings added in most Bible versions. I have made a
list of the headings in Excel for the New Testament, which includes the
four Gospels (the accounts of Jesus' life), the Acts of the Apostles
(what the disciples and close followers of Jesus did immediately after
his death and resurrection) and the Letters to the Churches (mostly
written by Paul, once a zealous persecutor of Christians and later
possibly the best missionary that ever lived, and detailing all sorts
of issues faced by the early Church as well as clarifying the basic
principles of the Christian faith). The file is searchable and
sortable, so if you are looking for sections headed with something
about the resurrection, you'll get all the versions from any books that
include it.
Related
links - This is a page of links, mainly aimed at young people
and Christian Unions.
Gideon's
Bible references - This page contains the list of helpful
references found at the front of Gideon's Bibles.
The
Sermon on the Mount
- Probably the most important chunk of actual instruction from Jesus on
how we should live our lives, and accepted as such by
Christians
and Non-Christians alike.
The
'One Another' list - A compilation of all the texts from
Paul's letters where the phrase One Another is used.
Adrian Plass
These
are deliberate parodies of real stories from the Bible. I
find
them funny (though Americans don't seem to) but they do make a point -
try reading the actual passage afterwards to see the contrast.
