What: BATH
Where: Temple Baptist Church
Time: 7pm - 9:15pm
Bible and Talk Hour at Temple Baptist Church. A time for worship and a fun packed Bible study in small groups.
Saturday 23 February 2013
Friday 1st of March 2013
What: Welsh Party
Where: Rhydfelyn Methodist Church
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Cost: FREE!!
PCY will be at Rhydfelyn Methodist Church. Join us as we celebrate St Davids Day this month, this night will be a Welsh themed evening. Come dressed in Welsh costumes or anything Red or Green.
Where: Rhydfelyn Methodist Church
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Cost: FREE!!
PCY will be at Rhydfelyn Methodist Church. Join us as we celebrate St Davids Day this month, this night will be a Welsh themed evening. Come dressed in Welsh costumes or anything Red or Green.
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Christianity, a religion or a lifestyle?
I have been challenged lately to think about how I live my life. What lifestyle do I follow? Who do I want to be? How do I want others to see me? I'm sure you have also been faced with these questions sometime in your lives, and many of you may have found answers to these questions. In this blog I am going to be looking at whether Christianity is a religion, or a lifestyle, and how we should go about living this way.
Further readings:
http://www.knightforchrist.com/Articles-S/christianity-not-a-religion.htm
http://www.shelovesgod.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=7920
I must admit, I am addicted to Facebook. I'm not alone, many other people all over the world share the same addiction. With internet access on my mobile phone, it is possible for me to update my status anywhere and anytime I want, providing I have good signal on my phone. A good friend of mine thinks it is pathetic to be updating a status or checking for notifications every hour of the day, I agree, but it has become an addiction for me! I must state that I do not make status updates such as "Cooking dinner", "Walking the dog in the park" or "Thinking about what to write as my next status", I just merely put down what is on my mind and something that may spark a conversation with other people.
My most recent status update prior to posting this blog was to invite people to list as many relions that they could possibly think of. I received several answers including some rather interesting ones. Amongst those who replied was Rea Longman, she wrote back to me with a list of 20 different "religions". I was quite impressed by her knowledge on this topic until she told me how good Wikipedia was! This is the list that she provided for me:
Babism
Baha'i Faith
Christianity
Gnosticism
Islam
Ayyavazhi
Bhakti Movement
Buddhism
Din-i-Ilahi
Hinduism
Jainism
Sikhism
Manichaesism
Mazdakism
Mithraism
Yazdanism
Zoroastrianism
Confucianism
Shinto
Taoism
What a list! I hadn't heard about most of those before beginning this blog.
I then had a few other people posting with their list of "religions", and like I said, I had some interesting ones like a 'Jedi Knight' being a religion! Sound bizarre huh! However, I do not find it too hard to believe.
"Religion" is defined as a set of strongly-held beliefs, vales, and attitude that somebody lives by, or an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by.
As a friend of mine, Tania, pointed out to me "Religion is ANYTHING that you do religiously, so someone who frequently goes to a pub is religious about the pub".
You may have noticed that I had put the word 'religion' in quotation brackets, that is because the list given above is what todays society class as “religion”. As a matter of fact, all of the above are religion apart from one, Christianity. Yes, that's right, Christianity is not a religion. So, if Christianity is not a religion, then what is it? And what makes Hinduism and Buddhism, or even Jedi-ism(?) a religion?
A religion is something that is 'Man made'. In other words, a man came up with their own interpretation of what faith is, and then re-wrote their own version of the bible, or a manual (Koran, Book of Mormon etc...) as some like to call them, to go along with the true word of God.
God clearly states that no man should add or take away from his word, and also that no man should worship any earthly things. Therefore, if man has taken the true word of God and added to it or taken away to modified it so suit them, then doesn't that make it something that is now man made?
To answer the question as to what is Christianity if it is not a religion, we first need to look back and read what Jesus said during his time on Earth. One verse that really stands out as to our purpose on Earth is from 1 John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly”. This to me tells me that Jesus wants us to live our lives like him, Jesus has come to this broken world to show us how we should live our lives! Therefore Christianity must be some sort of lifestyle, instead of following lots of rituals and rules that would bring us closer to our chosen god.
Jesus also said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(1 John 14: 6). Again, Jesus tells us that we must be like him to get into the kingdom of God, we must live the way Jesus did, live his lifestyle.
Christianity is all about Christ and the life he lived, we are clearly called to live life like Christ did, and because of this we call ourselves Christians. It is a lifestyle that we choose to take upon us, and one of which that is not forced on us.
The desciples of Christ were first called Christians because of the way they lived, they loved like Jesus had commanded them to.
This leads me onto another question. What are some of the characteristics of living a Christian lifestyle?
The biggest characteristic of all is 'love'. Jesus loved everybody, he loved everybody so much that he was willing to die for us and save us from sin. So to be Christ like and a follower of Christ, we must love like Christ did.
Jesus told us to love our neighbour and to even love our enemies. Of course, Jesus was not just talking about the people who live next door to us, he used the word neighbour to talk about everybody around us. Love your neighbour as yourself.
We find it hard to love those who have hurt us. Do you remember that one kid from your school who always did what he could to hurt you? Jesus tells us that we have to love that person too, hate the sin and love the sinner.
Another characteristic is JOY. Any Christian that lives the teachings of Jesus Christ will be filled with Joy. If you love like Christ loved, you will be filled with the same joy that Christ had. John 15: 9 – 17 sums this up very well:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
So, lets look at the questions from the first paragraph of this blog which I said I would try and answer. What lifestyle do I follow?
Right now, I am trying to live a life as close to the life that Christ lived that I can. I hold no grudges against anybody and I try to love everybody the same. It is very difficult to do, but I can sleep on the fact that I am not perfect and I will never be able to show the same love to everybody equally, but I can at least try.
Who do I want to be? I call myself a Christian, and as I have written in this post that to be a Christian you are someone who follows Jesus example and try to live your life like Christ's. That is my goal. This is also how I hope others see in me, I hope that they can see Jesus living through the way I live my life. I try to put Christ at the centre of everything that I do, it's not always easy, but like I said before I can at least try.
My challenge for you is to think about how you live your life. Do you call yourself a Christian? if you do, are you a real Christian who follows Jesus and live your life following his example and teachings?
There is a lot more I could write on this topic, but I am going to leave it here for now and let you reflect on the message I have tried to get across to you. Christianity is a lifestyle and not a religion.
As always, contact me with any thoughts or questions.
mattbailyes@hotmail.com
or
Comment below.
Who do I want to be? I call myself a Christian, and as I have written in this post that to be a Christian you are someone who follows Jesus example and try to live your life like Christ's. That is my goal. This is also how I hope others see in me, I hope that they can see Jesus living through the way I live my life. I try to put Christ at the centre of everything that I do, it's not always easy, but like I said before I can at least try.
My challenge for you is to think about how you live your life. Do you call yourself a Christian? if you do, are you a real Christian who follows Jesus and live your life following his example and teachings?
There is a lot more I could write on this topic, but I am going to leave it here for now and let you reflect on the message I have tried to get across to you. Christianity is a lifestyle and not a religion.
As always, contact me with any thoughts or questions.
mattbailyes@hotmail.com
or
Comment below.
Further readings:
http://www.knightforchrist.com/Articles-S/christianity-not-a-religion.htm
http://www.shelovesgod.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=7920
Saturday 20 August 2011
My story, written by God
Writing this post has been playing on my mind for a while, I've never really given my story before. When I say 'My story', I mean the story of my life so far, and how I have become the person that I am today. What you are about to read is a story not written by me, but a story written by God.
Lets start with the basics and probably the most obvious to some. My name is Matthew Rhys Bailyes, I live in Pontypridd, South Wales. I am 22 years old and currently waiting to start a course at Glamorgan University in Cardiff to study Film and Video. That is where I am right now, but lets turn the clocks back 22 years to where it all began...
I was born into a Christian family with both loving parents, Gaynor and Graham. They brought me up as a Christian, we went to Church every week and there would occasionally be other Church events during the week. I also have a younger brother called Simon, he was the trouble maker when we were younger, always throwing tantrums in random and often embarrassing places! He made me look like an angel compared to him!
Simon and I were brought up in a small house in Porth, just a two minute drive away from our Primary school. It was a Welsh speaking school, which meant that everything we learnt (except English) was taught in the Welsh language. I had many friends in school and my closest friends lived in the same neighbourhood as I did, so very often we would spend a lot of our time outside of school on our bikes wandering the streets. As we became older, around 8 - 9 years old, my friends started to swear a lot. At that age, I wasn't completely aware of what swearing was, so I probably started to say a few naughty words myself without being aware of it. Actually, I did used to swear. In fact I swore several times in front of Dad before he even understood what I was saying! I was a big fan of 'Golden eye' on the Nintendo 64 and I persuaded Dad to a game of multiplayer. As all fathers do, they slaughter their sons at any games they play. I remember Dads character was attacking my character, and every time I was getting shot at I would say out loud "Bl**dy hell!". You should have seen the look on my Dads face, I remember it to this day! Dad politely told me what I was doing was wrong.
Anyway, the moral of that story is that we were all beginning to grow up and began to get caught in life's guilty pleasures. At the age of 10, my friends were getting hold of naughty magazines and exotic 'Top Trump' cards. By the way, I knew that those magazines and cards were bad things, so Dad didn't catch me with any of those... boy, imagine if he did! Before things could get any worse, and before I could have gotten myself involved in some things that I would later regret, Mam and Dad decided that they wanted to move homes and live 5 miles away to where I currently live now, Pontypridd.
This is the exciting bit, this is where my life really began to change! At 10 or 11 years old, travelling 5 miles everyday after school to see my friends was a bit too far to go every day, so I was forced to spend my free time in our new house. I can't really remember much about what I used to do in my free time when we first moved, but it was probably playing some computer game. Perhaps 'Golden eye'! My parents were quite keen for me to find some new friends in Pontypridd, and this is when they decided to send me along to a Christian youth club on a Friday night. It was called PCY, many of you may know of this club, it stands for Pontypridd Christian Youth. On my first night of PCY, I knew no one! Well, I kind of knew of 3 brothers and their parents Joe and Cheryl Hollinger. My parents knew Joe and Cheryl and we visited their home a few times when I was little, but I didn't really know them. I remember feeling quite awkward on my first night and even for the next few weeks. But, something was different.
Something was really different about the people in PCY. Nobody was swearing, nobody was showing off things they shouldn't have, unlike my friends back in Porth. But there was one thing that I noticed that the people of PCY had that none of my friends have ever had in school, and that was happiness. It felt strange and weird, other kids my age and even a bit older were happy and enjoyed each others company, where as before and even in school it would be described as 'gay' to show any friendly affection towards anybody.
As weeks went by, I began to enjoy going to PCY, and I even made some new friends who were actually Christians! I began to learn what made these people so happy, it was because they were all Christians and they were hearing and learning about the good news of Jesus, and if you believe and trust in Jesus you will be saved.
PCY was not all about learning about God, we did lots of really cool things too, like going away on weekends away, playing wide games in Ponty park, movie nights, and the all time favourites for everybody was a 'Lock-in'. We would get locked inside a Church that we have never been to before and the idea was to try and stay up all night and play games etc... it was a lot of fun!
I am not completely sure of the time line, but roughly a year later ( I was 14ish ) I decided I wanted to be more like the other boys and girls at PCY, I wanted to be happy, I wanted to have the future that they have been promised. There was not an exact moment when I decided this, it was more of a gradual thing. I had finally decided that I wanted to live my life for Jesus!
PCY has blessed me with so many great friends, friends which I still have today. They are the friends who have changed my life without even knowing it, so I have to thank them - You know who you are!!! In the book of Ephesians 5:1-2, it says this "Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ." Friends that I met at PCY were imitators of God, and that is what inspired me the most to becoming a full time Christian.
That is how PCY has changed my life when I was 13 or 14 years old. From that time onwards, I have been a committed member of PCY and I had even started going to a 'Coffee Shop' on a Sunday evening where we would have small devotional times and a bit of Worship. Being at Coffee Shop is what inspired me to learn guitar, I was later given a guitar for Christmas and played along with Krissi, who was a Missionary from America, also a great inspiration to me and my spiritual life!
Unfortunately, this isn't one of those 'and he lived happily ever after' stories. Though I had stuck with my faith through out my teenage years, I also struggled with it, as I had many questions and many doubts about God. Even though I had already clearly seen the difference between none believers and those who do believe! Lets face it, we all go through a grey patch! I started to drift away from it all thinking that it's all made up and that Christianity was giving me false hope blah blah blah... But there was something on the back of my mind that wouldn't let me drift away from Christianity entirely. I still had faith, and that bugged me for a while. I guess I became what Jesus would describe as a 'Lost Sheep' (Matthew 18:12-14). And, if we read the story about the lost sheep in the Bible, we know that the shepherd will go and find that lost sheep and bring it back to where it belongs. That is exactly what was happening in my life, I was a lost sheep and Jesus was the shepherd searching for me. That thing on the back of my mind was Jesus calling my name, calling me back. Just like the shepherd who cares about his sheep, Jesus cares about his people and will do anything to get us back. But it is up to us to respond to his calling.
I was getting more and more confused about my faith. I was still attending Church every week, and going to PCY and Coffee Shop, but mainly because I could spend time with my friends. But one day, I decided to respond. I can't remember what prompted me to respond, but I did. From that day I began to take my spiritual life seriously, because I realised that Jesus wanted me and that he has great plans for my life.
I have desires in my heart, things that I would give anything to achieve. One evening I was chatting with Krissi on MSN about what my desires were and if they will ever become true. She told me this, "God wouldn't plant desires in your heart if he doesn't intend to use them". For you to understand this a bit better, I will tell you what that desire was. Many of you know that I play guitar, I've never had any lessons in playing guitar, I taught myself and I'm still learning. But my desire is one day play and lead worship in front of hundreds, or even thousands. I haven't been far off achieving this desire as I have played in a group in front of maybe one to two hundred people, but I'm dreaming a lot bigger than this! I believe that the key to achieving this desire is patience and prayer, a lot of prayer.
Prayer is something that I have told myself that I am never ever allowed to doubt, there are two times in my life where prayer couldn't have been more obviously answered! I will share one of those moments with you now. It was summer 2006, at Coffee Shop on a Sunday evening, Geoff Lloyd was talking to us about a trip to Mbale in Uganda on behalf of a charity called PONT. He was saying how he would like to send a group of young people out to Mbale to visit all the projects that has been going on over there, and also to raise awareness for the charity. I have never been abroad before and would have loved to have gone on this trip that he was talking about. But being a shy person I was then, I didn't have the courage to ask Geoff if I could go on this trip. I couldn't just let this opportunity slide because I could feel a desires inside me that really wanted to go. So as Geoff Lloyd was praying to close the meeting, I said a little prayer of my own in my heart and told God this, "Look, if you really want me to go on this trip, you will make Geoff Lloyd come and ask me, thank you Lord, Amen". A simple prayer I know, but I've read recently that one of the best ways to pray is to pray like a 6 year old. Two minutes after Geoff closes the prayer, something amazing happened, you've guessed it. Geoff came up to me and asked if I would be interested in going on this trip. I had never been so sure of something before in my life, I knew it was the right thing to do! I said yes, and then following summer after many fund raising events, I was out in Uganda on my first trip abroad. Epic! I may blog about my trip to Uganda at another time. After an amazing time in Uganda, I came home and showed everyone my pictures and over 3 hours worth of video footage, a year later, I then got baptised by my Uncle Alan who is a pastor of a church in Exeter.
In 2010, an opportunity came for me to take part in an apprenticeship scheme at an outdoor activity centre in Shropshire. This was a big decision for me, it meant that I would have to move away from home for the first time and live with many other people my age. The Pioneer Centre is a Christian ran organisation and as it was ran by Christians I felt that this opportunity was the right thing for me to do. At the end of July, I moved to my new home for a year. I met so many people there from all over the world who were volunteering at the centre, many that I am still in touch with today. I was part of the activity team, which meant that there were 16 or 17 of us training to become outdoor activity instructors. We all got to know each other pretty well after just 2 weeks at the centre, but I still struggled to work out who was a Christian on our team. It turned out that it was just myself and another lad, Alistar, from Scotland that called ourselves Christian. I was beginning to think that I would find the rest of the year pretty difficult for my spiritual life. Although the other guys on the team were not Christians and some have never stepped foot inside a church before, they were open to the Christian faith. Every morning before work began we would meet up in the activity office for a 5 - 10 minute prayer time before work really began, then each monday morning, the whole staff of the centre will get together to hear a message before the start of a busy week.
The year has ended and now I am currently living back at home with my parents. Looking back over the last year spent at the Pioneer Centre, I can't really say that it did much for my spiritual life and I often wonder why God placed me there in the first place. Perhaps I was being like my friends from PCY when I first started going at 11 years old, I never swore (though some will disagree after some intense games of table football), never got involved with real gambling although I enjoyed a regular game of poker on week nights (no money were involved). I like to think that I imitated God the best I could, and that others could see God through my actions. I did fall short of my imitation of God several times, but I feel that people would see pass those moments of foolishness. It is early stages yet, I have only been back home less than a month and I'm sure God will show me what my purpose at the Centre really was. I'll just have to wait to find out.
I had barely been home one week when it was finally time to go on a youth camp with churches from around the South Wales area. In total there were around 50 of us including leaders all camping at Pembrey Country Park in Llanelli. I started going on these camps when I was just 12 or 13 years old and have been going every year since, expect for summer 2010 where I had just started at Pioneer Centre. It was great to be back on camp this year, there were many 'new kids' should I say this year and it was a real blessing to meet them and get to know them in such a short time. I'd like to mention this camp in my story because it serves a big purpose in my life, it is the one week of my life that I can fully devote it to serving God. For many years now, I have been serving as a tent leader, which gives me the opportunity to teach and share the Gospel with some kids who many not know or fully understand the Gospels.
Steven Harris, who was our guest speaker at camp this year quoted that "there are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and YOU". This is so true when you think about it, each of the four Gospels tells the story of the life of Jesus, and if we become imitators of God, we can then begin to show the life of Jesus through our own lives for others to see!
What inspired me the most from camp this year were the testimonies of the lives of people who decided (or mobbed by Alun) that they wanted to share for everyone in the meetings. Even some of the most unlikeliest to speak in front of people stood up and told everyone how God has worked in their lives and I was totally amazed at how simple the stories were, but yet how powerful their testimonies were! Alun Davies, the camp leader approached me and asked if I would share something about what I had been doing for the past year at the Pioneer Centre. To be honest, I chickened out and told Alun that I would think about it and let him know, and hope that he didn't ask me again! There was something in me that wanted to get up and talk about the last year, but having only been home a few days before camp, I hadn't had a chance to reflect on the last 12 months and summarise it into words. I still don't think I could do it now!
Having heard all the amazing testimonies at camp this year, and knowing how powerful a simple story can be, it has inspired me to put my own story into words. I haven't got one of those dramatic stories, like those of people who have had near death experiences etc... I couldn't see how my story could touch the lives of other people.
So, here it is, my story written by God. I would love to hear if my story has had an impact on your life, or if you can relate to any of the stories above. If you have any questions or would like to simply get in touch, you can email me at mattbailyes@hotmail.com or come find me on Facebook!
Lets start with the basics and probably the most obvious to some. My name is Matthew Rhys Bailyes, I live in Pontypridd, South Wales. I am 22 years old and currently waiting to start a course at Glamorgan University in Cardiff to study Film and Video. That is where I am right now, but lets turn the clocks back 22 years to where it all began...
I was born into a Christian family with both loving parents, Gaynor and Graham. They brought me up as a Christian, we went to Church every week and there would occasionally be other Church events during the week. I also have a younger brother called Simon, he was the trouble maker when we were younger, always throwing tantrums in random and often embarrassing places! He made me look like an angel compared to him!
That's me on the right, Simon on the left.
Simon and I were brought up in a small house in Porth, just a two minute drive away from our Primary school. It was a Welsh speaking school, which meant that everything we learnt (except English) was taught in the Welsh language. I had many friends in school and my closest friends lived in the same neighbourhood as I did, so very often we would spend a lot of our time outside of school on our bikes wandering the streets. As we became older, around 8 - 9 years old, my friends started to swear a lot. At that age, I wasn't completely aware of what swearing was, so I probably started to say a few naughty words myself without being aware of it. Actually, I did used to swear. In fact I swore several times in front of Dad before he even understood what I was saying! I was a big fan of 'Golden eye' on the Nintendo 64 and I persuaded Dad to a game of multiplayer. As all fathers do, they slaughter their sons at any games they play. I remember Dads character was attacking my character, and every time I was getting shot at I would say out loud "Bl**dy hell!". You should have seen the look on my Dads face, I remember it to this day! Dad politely told me what I was doing was wrong.
--------------------------------------------------
Proverbs 13:1
A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline; a mocker refuses to listen to correction.
--------------------------------------------------
This is the exciting bit, this is where my life really began to change! At 10 or 11 years old, travelling 5 miles everyday after school to see my friends was a bit too far to go every day, so I was forced to spend my free time in our new house. I can't really remember much about what I used to do in my free time when we first moved, but it was probably playing some computer game. Perhaps 'Golden eye'! My parents were quite keen for me to find some new friends in Pontypridd, and this is when they decided to send me along to a Christian youth club on a Friday night. It was called PCY, many of you may know of this club, it stands for Pontypridd Christian Youth. On my first night of PCY, I knew no one! Well, I kind of knew of 3 brothers and their parents Joe and Cheryl Hollinger. My parents knew Joe and Cheryl and we visited their home a few times when I was little, but I didn't really know them. I remember feeling quite awkward on my first night and even for the next few weeks. But, something was different.
Something was really different about the people in PCY. Nobody was swearing, nobody was showing off things they shouldn't have, unlike my friends back in Porth. But there was one thing that I noticed that the people of PCY had that none of my friends have ever had in school, and that was happiness. It felt strange and weird, other kids my age and even a bit older were happy and enjoyed each others company, where as before and even in school it would be described as 'gay' to show any friendly affection towards anybody.
As weeks went by, I began to enjoy going to PCY, and I even made some new friends who were actually Christians! I began to learn what made these people so happy, it was because they were all Christians and they were hearing and learning about the good news of Jesus, and if you believe and trust in Jesus you will be saved.
PCY Weekend away many years ago
--------------------------------------------------
Romans 10:10
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
--------------------------------------------------
PCY was not all about learning about God, we did lots of really cool things too, like going away on weekends away, playing wide games in Ponty park, movie nights, and the all time favourites for everybody was a 'Lock-in'. We would get locked inside a Church that we have never been to before and the idea was to try and stay up all night and play games etc... it was a lot of fun!
I am not completely sure of the time line, but roughly a year later ( I was 14ish ) I decided I wanted to be more like the other boys and girls at PCY, I wanted to be happy, I wanted to have the future that they have been promised. There was not an exact moment when I decided this, it was more of a gradual thing. I had finally decided that I wanted to live my life for Jesus!
--------------------------------------------------
John 1:12
To all who believed in him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
--------------------------------------------------
PCY has blessed me with so many great friends, friends which I still have today. They are the friends who have changed my life without even knowing it, so I have to thank them - You know who you are!!! In the book of Ephesians 5:1-2, it says this "Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ." Friends that I met at PCY were imitators of God, and that is what inspired me the most to becoming a full time Christian.
Myself, Sarah, Kath & Michael
That is how PCY has changed my life when I was 13 or 14 years old. From that time onwards, I have been a committed member of PCY and I had even started going to a 'Coffee Shop' on a Sunday evening where we would have small devotional times and a bit of Worship. Being at Coffee Shop is what inspired me to learn guitar, I was later given a guitar for Christmas and played along with Krissi, who was a Missionary from America, also a great inspiration to me and my spiritual life!
Unfortunately, this isn't one of those 'and he lived happily ever after' stories. Though I had stuck with my faith through out my teenage years, I also struggled with it, as I had many questions and many doubts about God. Even though I had already clearly seen the difference between none believers and those who do believe! Lets face it, we all go through a grey patch! I started to drift away from it all thinking that it's all made up and that Christianity was giving me false hope blah blah blah... But there was something on the back of my mind that wouldn't let me drift away from Christianity entirely. I still had faith, and that bugged me for a while. I guess I became what Jesus would describe as a 'Lost Sheep' (Matthew 18:12-14). And, if we read the story about the lost sheep in the Bible, we know that the shepherd will go and find that lost sheep and bring it back to where it belongs. That is exactly what was happening in my life, I was a lost sheep and Jesus was the shepherd searching for me. That thing on the back of my mind was Jesus calling my name, calling me back. Just like the shepherd who cares about his sheep, Jesus cares about his people and will do anything to get us back. But it is up to us to respond to his calling.
I was getting more and more confused about my faith. I was still attending Church every week, and going to PCY and Coffee Shop, but mainly because I could spend time with my friends. But one day, I decided to respond. I can't remember what prompted me to respond, but I did. From that day I began to take my spiritual life seriously, because I realised that Jesus wanted me and that he has great plans for my life.
--------------------------------------------------
Psalm 138:8
The Lord will work out his plans for my life—
for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.
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I have desires in my heart, things that I would give anything to achieve. One evening I was chatting with Krissi on MSN about what my desires were and if they will ever become true. She told me this, "God wouldn't plant desires in your heart if he doesn't intend to use them". For you to understand this a bit better, I will tell you what that desire was. Many of you know that I play guitar, I've never had any lessons in playing guitar, I taught myself and I'm still learning. But my desire is one day play and lead worship in front of hundreds, or even thousands. I haven't been far off achieving this desire as I have played in a group in front of maybe one to two hundred people, but I'm dreaming a lot bigger than this! I believe that the key to achieving this desire is patience and prayer, a lot of prayer.
Krissi & I at Coffee Shop
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Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the Lord,and he will give you your heart’s desires.
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Prayer is something that I have told myself that I am never ever allowed to doubt, there are two times in my life where prayer couldn't have been more obviously answered! I will share one of those moments with you now. It was summer 2006, at Coffee Shop on a Sunday evening, Geoff Lloyd was talking to us about a trip to Mbale in Uganda on behalf of a charity called PONT. He was saying how he would like to send a group of young people out to Mbale to visit all the projects that has been going on over there, and also to raise awareness for the charity. I have never been abroad before and would have loved to have gone on this trip that he was talking about. But being a shy person I was then, I didn't have the courage to ask Geoff if I could go on this trip. I couldn't just let this opportunity slide because I could feel a desires inside me that really wanted to go. So as Geoff Lloyd was praying to close the meeting, I said a little prayer of my own in my heart and told God this, "Look, if you really want me to go on this trip, you will make Geoff Lloyd come and ask me, thank you Lord, Amen". A simple prayer I know, but I've read recently that one of the best ways to pray is to pray like a 6 year old. Two minutes after Geoff closes the prayer, something amazing happened, you've guessed it. Geoff came up to me and asked if I would be interested in going on this trip. I had never been so sure of something before in my life, I knew it was the right thing to do! I said yes, and then following summer after many fund raising events, I was out in Uganda on my first trip abroad. Epic! I may blog about my trip to Uganda at another time. After an amazing time in Uganda, I came home and showed everyone my pictures and over 3 hours worth of video footage, a year later, I then got baptised by my Uncle Alan who is a pastor of a church in Exeter.
The children loved the camera!!!
In 2010, an opportunity came for me to take part in an apprenticeship scheme at an outdoor activity centre in Shropshire. This was a big decision for me, it meant that I would have to move away from home for the first time and live with many other people my age. The Pioneer Centre is a Christian ran organisation and as it was ran by Christians I felt that this opportunity was the right thing for me to do. At the end of July, I moved to my new home for a year. I met so many people there from all over the world who were volunteering at the centre, many that I am still in touch with today. I was part of the activity team, which meant that there were 16 or 17 of us training to become outdoor activity instructors. We all got to know each other pretty well after just 2 weeks at the centre, but I still struggled to work out who was a Christian on our team. It turned out that it was just myself and another lad, Alistar, from Scotland that called ourselves Christian. I was beginning to think that I would find the rest of the year pretty difficult for my spiritual life. Although the other guys on the team were not Christians and some have never stepped foot inside a church before, they were open to the Christian faith. Every morning before work began we would meet up in the activity office for a 5 - 10 minute prayer time before work really began, then each monday morning, the whole staff of the centre will get together to hear a message before the start of a busy week.
Pioneer Centre
The year has ended and now I am currently living back at home with my parents. Looking back over the last year spent at the Pioneer Centre, I can't really say that it did much for my spiritual life and I often wonder why God placed me there in the first place. Perhaps I was being like my friends from PCY when I first started going at 11 years old, I never swore (though some will disagree after some intense games of table football), never got involved with real gambling although I enjoyed a regular game of poker on week nights (no money were involved). I like to think that I imitated God the best I could, and that others could see God through my actions. I did fall short of my imitation of God several times, but I feel that people would see pass those moments of foolishness. It is early stages yet, I have only been back home less than a month and I'm sure God will show me what my purpose at the Centre really was. I'll just have to wait to find out.
I had barely been home one week when it was finally time to go on a youth camp with churches from around the South Wales area. In total there were around 50 of us including leaders all camping at Pembrey Country Park in Llanelli. I started going on these camps when I was just 12 or 13 years old and have been going every year since, expect for summer 2010 where I had just started at Pioneer Centre. It was great to be back on camp this year, there were many 'new kids' should I say this year and it was a real blessing to meet them and get to know them in such a short time. I'd like to mention this camp in my story because it serves a big purpose in my life, it is the one week of my life that I can fully devote it to serving God. For many years now, I have been serving as a tent leader, which gives me the opportunity to teach and share the Gospel with some kids who many not know or fully understand the Gospels.
Steven Harris, who was our guest speaker at camp this year quoted that "there are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and YOU". This is so true when you think about it, each of the four Gospels tells the story of the life of Jesus, and if we become imitators of God, we can then begin to show the life of Jesus through our own lives for others to see!
Steven Harris producing a life changing story
What inspired me the most from camp this year were the testimonies of the lives of people who decided (or mobbed by Alun) that they wanted to share for everyone in the meetings. Even some of the most unlikeliest to speak in front of people stood up and told everyone how God has worked in their lives and I was totally amazed at how simple the stories were, but yet how powerful their testimonies were! Alun Davies, the camp leader approached me and asked if I would share something about what I had been doing for the past year at the Pioneer Centre. To be honest, I chickened out and told Alun that I would think about it and let him know, and hope that he didn't ask me again! There was something in me that wanted to get up and talk about the last year, but having only been home a few days before camp, I hadn't had a chance to reflect on the last 12 months and summarise it into words. I still don't think I could do it now!
Having heard all the amazing testimonies at camp this year, and knowing how powerful a simple story can be, it has inspired me to put my own story into words. I haven't got one of those dramatic stories, like those of people who have had near death experiences etc... I couldn't see how my story could touch the lives of other people.
PCC Camp 2011
So, here it is, my story written by God. I would love to hear if my story has had an impact on your life, or if you can relate to any of the stories above. If you have any questions or would like to simply get in touch, you can email me at mattbailyes@hotmail.com or come find me on Facebook!
JER 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know
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