Real Talk

Edward Gonzales, YPG Texas

The Enemy Within

No matter what you do in order to make yourself happy. Unless you overcome the INNER ENEMY you'll always suffer. 

Annihilate him completely!

"David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine..."

"Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it."

1 Samuel 17:48 & 51

Pr Luke Castro
YPG National Coordinator

Are You Ignoring God's Voice?

Samuel was young when he was called by God. Although he was already in the house of God and was ministering His word, Samuel was unable to recognise God’s voice when He called. Why? Because he did not know God for himself yet.

This example applies to many youths in the church today. They come, they clean, they help and take part in many activities in the church but yet when God calls them they do not recognize His voice because they have not yet had an encounter with Him.

God called Samuel three times, and three times he ran to Eli, the prophet, believing it was he who called. Eli advised Samuel that he ought to have an encounter with God, otherwise he would never be able to be used by Him as he wanted.

"For how long will you continue to hear message after message

and not take the decision to know God for yourself?"

Just like Samuel, the youth hears the voice of God but because he does not recognise it, he runs to Eli (the Pastor) for direction. But more often than never, they don’t put anything they get from the pastor into action and consequently are never able to discern God’s voice for themselves. In fact, many think that what the Youth Pastor is telling them to do is too hard, that we are meant to understand their situation and not criticize. CRITICISM? Give me a break! We are meant to speak in a way that their faith will be awaken, and not spoon-feed them.

So I ask you dear friend, for how long will you continue to run to Eli? For how long will you continue to hear message after message and not take the decision to know God for yourself? Seek this encounter with God that you may know Him for yourself so when He calls you will recognise His voice and answer “Speak, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:10). If you do this friend, be sure that God will use you greatly just as He used Samuel.

"So Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." (1Samuel 3:19)

Pr Luke Castro
YPG National Coordinator

A Pastor's Reward

You'll read below a message I received on my Facebook page from an assistant. This is what a pastor wants to hear. Nothing else matters.

Disciples

Hey Pr,

Its been a long time. Hope you and Mrs. Raphaela are doing great. 

Pr. I was thinking about the day I was raised as a collaborator, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was one heck of a surprise. The Sunday after that great WWG night vigil and you took me to see Bp Julio straight after the morning service. It was a blessed day for me.

But what really sticks in my mind is what happened later that day, when you called the 6 of us who had been raised on or close to that day onto that block in the middle of the auditorium during the youth meeting and you asked everyone to pray for us and then us to pray for them. Its blessed Pr - all 6 of us are still very much in the faith:

Asst Catherine - who is out of all of us the only one still in VYG FPK and is still making the difference, she has many responsibilities and as you'd expect is who probably all the girls look to as an example when they enter the youth group.

Asst. Patricia - discreet as ever but still a blessing, taking photos, working with the magazine (which is now weekly again) God is using her so much I'm sure, maybe more than she realises.

Asst Venice - If I'm not mistaken, she was and still might be the deputy of the Kidzone throughout the UK. A strong woman of God this is clear for all to see, not from the position but character wise and everything else.

Asst Linborn - married now as you know, and blessing the church in the Love team and I think baptism group.

Pr Chris - of course Chris is now a Pr! Enough said really. Imagine how many will be blessed through his life and with his testimony...

Myself - well am finally about to finish Uni and of course am still very much fighting the good fight, here in Oxford and at our newest branch in Hackney where I moved almost 2 years ago now.

You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this Pr. But I read something yesterday from the book of Mark and Jesus was telling the parable about the kingdom of God being like the growing seed. 

(for quick reference/reminder -http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+4.26-29&version=NKJV)

This is truly the work of God Pr - to make disciples. I have very little experience but even I have been able to see that sometimes its easy to make it about numbers, to make it about the church looking full or whatever. But when we toil and toil and work and strive to make disciples, though there may be few (only 6 of us I mentioned here) we do a work bigger than we can imagine, and effect souls we may never meet through that worker we raised.

I know we are by no means at the end - the true victory is making it to the day we get to meet our Lord face to face.

But Pr, thanks for being used by God to make disciples out of us. How can we forget you?

May God continue bless you and your wife and your ministry ABUDANTLY.

Davi Nzuruba, UK

Who Are You?

Stop for a moment … take a piece of paper and answer this question, 'who am I?' Finished? Good. Now answer this, 'who do I want to become?'

It's likely that there is a big gap between the who you are and who you want to become. So what's the bridge that closes the gap?

WORK! In order to achieve anything you have to work hard for it and the time to invest in it is now. Many young people have big plans for their future. They are even told that they can be successful, as I'm sure you've heard or read on a report card, e.g. 'so and so has great potential'.

But years go by and the person's potential seems to just waste away … why? Because they allowed themselves to get sidetracked from their goal, they allowed themselves to get lost in the crowd. Exodus 23:2 reads, "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil."

"Where is this crowd leading you? 
Where are you going with this? 

Closer to your goal or on a completely

different path?"

If you know what you want, go ahead and work for it. What's the point in delaying what you want for the sake of following people in a direction that leads you nowhere near where you should be?

Maybe all you want at the moment is to have fun and just hang around. You're thinking, 'I'll get serious when I'm older'. But remember that as years go by and you take no action towards your goal, it will not only make it harder as you may never get there! You might become like many 40-somethings, only dreaming of what they should have been.

Focus. Don't follow the crowd.

This advice is contrary to what you learn outside. You are taught that you should be part of a gang, a clique… whatever you want to call it - it's a crowd! But stop and think … where is this crowd leading you? Where are you going with this? Closer to your goal or on a completely different path?

Pr Luke Castro

YPG National Coordinator