All the Advice you'll ever need.

this post comes to you courtesy of a guy called Peter and the numbers 5 and 5-7. a bit of background: god revealed this verse to me, when i think back now, at a really cruicial time in my life. the time was near to when i was coming to the end of my schooling and was starting to think about what career path i might take. it is true to say that this verse though i didnt know anything of it at the time, has hugely shaped me and caused me to be where i am today--a missionary to my home town of perth through my job at adenture world and through my ministry at thornlie senior high and as a part of the thornlie.youth leadership team. the vers goes like this.

You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you serve each other in humility, for "God sets Himself against the proud, but he shows favour to the humble." so humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in His good time, he will honour you. Give al your cares and worries to God for He cares about what happens to you.

"You younger men, accept the authority of the elders."
here's what that verse means for you christians out there. God, in His wisdom, has placed as leaders of your church, "elders," or the leadership. they are there to guide the church in the direction that god is leading them. to do this they ensure they are in close relationship with god and they are always seeking god's will for the people that they lead. now as you will probably know if you have been a christian for a while, or if you have just stuggled like the rest of us, that the will of God is'nt always the easiest thing for you or the thing that you will want to do most. the same goes for His church. the elders of your church are put there by god because they are the ones who are able to make the hard calls when god's will seems hard. you,whether you be young, or just as someone whom god has not appointed to be an elder or in leadership, are commanded by god to humble yourself under these leaders. if you think they have made teh wrong decision on a particular issue, then it is not your job to change their minds, it isnt your job to lead or participate in the rebellion against the feinds. it is your role as a follower of the god you call God, to follow His appointed leaders. for those of you who dont like change for the sake of tradition, remember that change is tradition too.

And all of you serve each other in humility, for "God sets Himself against the proud, but he shows favour to the humble."
for the Christian: You may think at this piont that this verse is self-explanatory. it is'nt so much as you think. you see when i came upon this verse i thought the same as you. i thougth that to serve was to be humble, that they were essentially inseparable. but they are not. i do not remen=mber exactly when but it dawned on me that i could be serving for all the wrong reasons. i could be down at the hall every night helping out with anything i could, all for 1) attention, and 2) praise. this shows no humility whatsoever and instead of God recieveing the glory, i would snatch it from him. YOU CAN SERVE WITHOUT AN OUNCE OF HUMILITY, BUT YOU CANNOT HAVE HUMILITY AND NOT BUST OUT OF YOUR SKIN TO SERVE. God is call ing us to serve in humility. this means forgetting who gets the glory or the praise, it means directing any praise given to you, to god and taking your satisfaction from the fact that god was glorified. you may find that interesting things start happening when you humble yourself. God's word says that He shows favour to the humble, but sets himself against the proud. what this will mean for you as you begin to humble yourself is that you will be blessed by god in the way that is most applicable to you ( remember that god knows you better than you know yourself). do not forget that this willall happen in God's time. you cannot put your own deadlines on Gods timing.

Give al your cares and worries to God for He cares about what happens to you.
to everyone, this is a command that most of us find almost impossible. to give all our worries and cares to god would take all day for some people. for some people it would tke no time at all, because they are relying on themselves to get through and have convinced themselves that they dont have any worries or cares or they feel that real people can or should handle their own problems. What a LIE of the devil!! The only Real person in history, was daily taking his problems, worries and concerns to God because he knew that 1 God Cares and 2 that he can handle it. anything that you can throw at god, he can take, because he is the Creator. he created you and he , like i've already said, knows you better than you know yourself. nothing you could say can surprise him, shock him, he's heard it before and he knows the solution if you're only willing to listen to his answer. like i said earlier, it might not be something that is easy or that you necessarily want to do, but it is the perfect solution for you. Giving your worries and cares to god takes a Lot of humility. it takes admitting that you cant control your own life, that god does have control and that you will go god's way. god cares about what happens to you. he doesnt want anything bad to ever happen to AnYONE but because we live in a fallen world, things do happen that he doesnt want. often things happen to us or to those close to us because god is trying to get our attention. he's saying Hey! look at me! look at how i hurt whe =n you do look at my perfect plan for you! look at me! when you look to god for help, you wont be dissappointed--ever. call out his name. tell him your worries and problems and just watch him melt. feel his love, acceptance, grace, mercy, loyalty, faithfulness, you cant do anything that will make him turn his face. his eye is on you like a dad delighting in the first steps of his son or daughter.

any typos will be fixed up later. i'm going to bed.