Youth First Podcast

Grace justifies us... "Just-as-if we never sinned." This is known as justification. It makes us in right standing and right relationship with God, also known as righteous. It's His freely given grace that frees us. We're talking about this idea, this concept of grace because it seems to be one of the most misunderstood, least used and most abused gifts God has given us. As a result, there seems to be some extremes when it comes to this gift of grace.

God is the MASTER of HIDING and we must become MASTERS of DISCOVERY. Maybe you've heard it said before or maybe you've experienced this truth in your life but it's true... "God works in mYSTERIOUS ways." Meaning God does things at times that we don't understand because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Also revealing to us this truth that God is a God of secrets and the beautiful part is He wants to share them with us.

God loves family even though sometimes we don't. He loves family so much that it was one of the first things He created in the beginning, however family can be a trigger. Why? Because some of us have momma drama and daddy issues... At the end of the day though we all come from family, and all of us have dysfunction in our families. The only difference is, your dysfunction is different from mine. But no place has greater influence and impact on your character and spiritual development more than your family, and most of the problems we're dealing with are patterns that we learned at home. Aren't you thankful that we have a Father who never stops raising His children?

Trust is belief and confidence in something or someone. That's what it means to entrust someone. To place your confidence in someone. Trust is an expression of faith. It is believing with confident expectation, but trust issues are when you lack reliance, assurance, and confidence in a thing, a person or God. When trust is solely in people it is misplaced, however trust should always be rooted in God. You should not trust people more than you trust God. Besides, God tells us to love everybody, He doesn't command us to trust everyone!

Have you ever looked at someone and thought, "Who raised you?" Or said, "You ain't got no home training!" Those statements reveal one common truth and it's this... How you love is learned, and your family is the key contributor to the thing you learned good or bad. However, one of the most consequential relationships in your life is your relationship or the lack thereof with your father. Let's just be honest, it's hard to grasp the concept of our Heavenly Father due to the absence, abuse and neglect of our earthly ones. Even if they're a good father, God is the best dad!

Questions... All of us have them. All of us ask them. Questions are natural. Questions are normal, and if God did not allow us to ask questions we would've never arrived at the answer (Jesus). God answered our questions with Jesus... He is everything we need and He is everything we are not. For every need in our life God gave us a name, and for every question in our life, God gives us an answer... Jesus. But the question we're asking today is Who am I?

Have you ever asked God why? Have you ever wondered why? Why would a loving God create an eternal hell? Why does God allow "bad" things to happen to "good" people? One of the undeniable, identifiable traits of people is our proclivity, our predisposition, our tendency and frequency to ask questions... And not just any question, but our favorite and most asked question is... Why? Listen as we learn for every why in our life God responded with "I AM." Bringing your questions to Jesus doesn't mean you'll leave with AN ANSWER, but you will always leave with THE ANSWER. It may not be the answer you want, but it will be the answer you need.

The Bible tells us to remember God's miracles and obey His commands, but it also says to forget the former things. That can seem a bit contradictory... However, the lesson is this, the past is where we go to learn, but never to live. It's a place of reference, not a place of residence. We don't forget the past, we are just more focused on the future. We must all come to the conclusion that if we don't let our past die, it won't let our future live. God was good back then, but He's still good now!

We have a tendency, a natural proclivity to leave. Our knee jerk reaction is to run. To leave the Church, to leave community, to leave Christians, to leave the group and go out on our own... To run away from the place and people you should run to. We want independence without inheritance, we desire resources without relationship, we want God's hand on our life, but not His involvement in our life. We want God's favor, but not the Father's commands. We want God's blessing on our way of life. We want what the Father has more than we want Him. The sad truth is, most people don't want God, they want what He has. We need to learn, realize and recognize that if all you have is Jesus, you have all you need. And you can always come home!

Have you ever asked yourself... Why am I here? What my purpose in life? What is my reason for living? We think the answer to those questions is found in God's Word. Everything God made was intended to survive in the environment that God placed it in, and anything outside of God's intended environment dies. With that being said, the answer to why you are here, your purpose can only be found in the One who placed you here.