Y4J Blog

It’s lent… that time of the year when we avoid sweets and try to be nicer to each other. The words ‘Lenten Talks’ may conjure up images of nodding off to sleep whilst a boring old priest babbles on about the Bible, the Vatican and so on. Attending the Y4J Lenten talks with that mentality may cause your initial thought to be “Am I in the right place?” Because Y4J (Youths 4 Jesus) is a youth group for people aged 13+ which aims to bring youths closer to Jesus in a way they can relate to. For the sixth year running, they will be organising Lenten talks… you may have attended some of their previous talks, titles of which included “Let’s Face It” and “Tear it Down”.

Entitled “Who’s pulling your strings?” this year’s talks focus on the fact that we are all tugged at by different strings, which have acquired a certain amount of control over us, such as bad experiences, friends/relationships, fashion and media. Romans 12:1-2 teaches us not to conform to the ways of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. A life with Jesus can cut those strings.

The speaker is Fr Brendan Gatt who, incidentally, is not a boring old priest. He believes being a priest is the best job ever (except it’s not really a job, it’s a life)… it allows him to witness the Lord at work every single day. Although it’s sometimes exhausting and tough, there’s nothing else he’d rather be. Before his Ordination, he decided his aim in life was to be an apostle of joy. One of his favourite lines from scripture is “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4, 4).

So what are we to expect from this year’s Lenten talks? Praise and worship with Y4J’s band, dances, skits, testimonies ,videos, adoration, creative art, meeting other youths and much more! Running daily from 15th-20th March from 8.00PM-9.00PM at St Julian’s parish, these talks are definitely not to be missed! Here’s what other youths had to say about the talks:
“I went to the In the House Lenten talks after reading about them in the newspaper…I’m so glad I did because they were the starting point for my journey with God.” Rebecca Camenzuli, 15

“I had never been close to God before but the Lenten talks encouraged me to dig deeper and start attending Y4J.” Nicole Camilleri, 16.

“Because of the Lenten talks I learnt how to praise God through dance. I learnt that prayer is not just what you learn in catechism.” Becky Albani, 16.

See you there?

For more info visit www.y4jmalta.org

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As valentine’s day is coming up every ones emotions are flying. Last year I spoke about how God is our valentine, and I stick by it. Make God your valentine =) but sometimes we are in need of some tangible interaction. God understands this, afterall He went through it too. Why do you think Adam was created? God wanted a friend. God gave us friends. Our friends are there to love, laugh and cry with.They are a blessing to us. And they are an even bigger blessing on a day where the world forces you to realise you’re single.

You might be single but you are not alone! Your friends should mean more to you than any boy/girl should. So let them know it! Show them how much you care! Spend your valentine’s day showing the people you do love just how much you love them. To be honest, being with your friends on valentine’s day - doing something fun altogether [or even just with one friend] - is more fun than spending the day moping around all day contemplating your singleness.

I know I spoke more towards the single people through this but to all those in a relationship, remember - true love takes time, it is shown through the emotional-spiritual and not the physical =)

Blessings!

Happy Valentine’s day =)

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How often do we doubt God and His existence? Wondering if this life is really worth it all. The world around us just screams at us, “TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT!”. It’s so tempting just to “go with the flow” – do what everyone else is doing. The thing is we’re Christians, or well…we’re trying to be!

Being a Christian is all about taking the hard route. Going against what everyone is doing and doing the right-valued things. It’s so hard for us to do this. We tend to feel annoyed or left out because we’re not doing what everyone else is doing. That’s when all the doubts start flowing in. But there is a logical secret of hope to keep us believing!

You see we have 2 options with 4 different conclusions…

1) We can either choose God, and when we die, we’ll receive eternal life…or

2) We can choose God and when we die we find out that there is nothing after life and we would have spent our lives on an awesome rollercoaster with what we thought was a God…or

3) We can not choose God, and when we die, we’ll end up in hell…and finally…

4) We can not choose God, and die…dead end road.

So which do you choose? Are you willing to take the risk and live the hard way? Or do you just want to hope that there is no God and just live for you?

Your choice…

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How many of us give up? Things start getting hard and we just want to drop everything and do something else. Be it work, studies, a new hobby or even homework. Sometimes the pressure gets too much or we just get too lazy.

The thing is, God knows how you’re feeling. He knows exactly what you’re going through and the strangest part is that He wants you there. He put you there. You see, everything we do is part of God’s plan. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will surprise God because He knows exactly what you are going to do when you do it because He knows you. He knows you so well that He could plan out your life and that’s exactly what He did. Even if you might stray off from His plan, the funny thing is He knew you were going to do it s He made a plan to put you back on track.

The point is that if you feel that something is just too hard at the moment – it could even be talking to a friend about Jesus – just know that God put this burden in front of you and He knows that you can push through it and make it work. He knows you and He believes in you. If you believe in Him and He believes in you then evidentally you just have to start believing in yourself. And once you start believing in yourself and knowing that God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle, then everything will just fall into place and you can slowly get through whatever it is that was breaking you.

Take care and hope everything is going great for you!

God Bless =)

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Y4J’s annual camp has finally kicked off and what a kick off it was! The theme of the camp this year is “Approaching the Throne….this is not Dineyland”.

After an explosion of praise we had our first talk given by Fr Kevin. We’ve started the camp at the gateway of our flight to God’s Kingdom and with the help of Fr. Kevin we’re now well equipped!  We started out by checking our passports and realising our true identities and where we all are in life at the moment. We’ve checked in and gotten our tickets and decided our destination and we’ve made a conscious desicion of carrying a light luggage and leaving all our heavy baggage behind - afterall the less luggage you take up with you the more you can fill it for your trip back home!

A really touching point that came out during this talk was a quote from John 1:35-39 where Jesus asked He’s disciples “what do you want?” Try find the time to truly search for your inner identity and genuinely ask God what He wants from you and what you want from Him.

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AS you all probably know a big group of us have just come back from soul survivor. I’m sure if you’d ask any of us we’d all say it was such a beautiful experience and all we want to do is go back. For those of you who did not go and are feeling a bit jealous or maybe sad about it, don’t worry. God is everywhere. Just call on Him and He will come.

One major point that I learnt at soul survivor is that all you really need to do is expect. When we go up to soul survivor all we do is expect that God is going to do big things over there and our God is a faithful God, so He does. But when we come back to Malta, we expect things to die down so they do. Let’s have an expectant attitude towards the Lord and see what He can do in our lives! Expect and you will receive =)

In other news, our hard working youth team are on their annual retreat pumping themselves with ideas for us so don’t forget to lift up a prayer or 2 for them! Also, coming in September we’ll be having a special guest visiting us at the Mustard Seed - His excellence himself, The Archbishop - so be sure not to miss out!

Last but not least, Y4J will be off to Gozo for the day this Wednesday so be sure to book a place if you would like to join in on an awesome day of fun in the sun =)

God Bless you and hope to see you soon!

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With summer in full blast and everyone at the beach, meeting friends is our main priorities. Because of this, it is absolutely the best time to be a witness to your friends. Spending a lot of time with friends makes your relationships with them grow and they will truly be able to see the difference in you.

If you feel your friends aren’t ready for a Y4J meeting, why not bring them to Mustard seed? A relaxing environment, cheap food and drinks and plenty of laughter and fun; it’s the perfect way to show your friends what a christian life is all about. For those of your friends who are searching and looking for answers, there are people there to help talk to them. Who knows, maybe by the end of it they’ll be asking you to take them to Y4J afterall. But don’t forget you must be 16 or over to come to the mustard seed!

I left a promotional video of the mustard seed for you to have a look see.

God Bless!

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I’m sure you all know the most important commandment “love your neighbour” and I’m sure everyone can think it’s really simple sometimes. “I’m nice to the people around me, I try not to gossip and I’m very friendly” but what I want to ask you is…are you friendly to those who are not around you?

What do I mean by this? Think about all those people you don’t like, or try to avoid for one reason or another. Even those people who you find yourself in an awkward situation with them were you don’t know if you should just smile or say hello or just ignore them - as if you didnt see them at all. All these people are people that you are meant to love. Even the people who you think look strange on the other side of the road. EVERYONE. There is not one exception to this rule. We need to love everyone.

We can’t pick and choose who to love. God loves each of us with all our imperfections and sins, then why is it so hard for us to love everyone too? I know we all probably know this but sometimes it’s good to be reminded of it. We tend to forget about this and just love those around us. It’s taking the easy way out and love is not easy. Like Marisha said in last week’s talk “narrow is the road that leads to life and only few find it”

Afterall, God is love and we are suppost to be reflecting God. God never said it would be easy, He said it would be worth it. So…. Love =) 

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Studies are going at a very fast rate at the moment and the only thing in our minds is our subjects and what we’re going to do to pass them. Let’s take a moment and really understand what exactly is happening this weekend. Pentecost. I’m sure you’re all aware of what happened all those years ago when the Holy Spirit descended onto the apostles and sent them out to evangelise. This really gives hope to Christians as we carry that same Holy Spirit in our hearts and we have the power to do the same things they did through Christ Jesus, our Saviour.

I just wanted to leave you with some scriptures about what the Holy Spirit is really there for;

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. - Galatians 5:22-25

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. - Galatians 4:6-7

“All this I have spoken while still with you.But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. - John 14:25-16

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So many times people gives us a smile, or an sms, or maybe an email or a facebook message and it really hits home. Sometimes it makes our day, sometimes it helps us through what we’re going through, sometimes it just makes life that little more bearable or even sometimes it helps us not make a stupid mistake. Have you ever gone through something like this?

Well,if you have, you are definately not the only one. Have you ever stopped to think that it could have been God stepping in through a friend to tell you what He wanted to tell you? Do you ever get those times were you just cry out to God to show you something and u feel that He just isn’t saying anything, as if He just won’t step in to save the day? But yet, somehow what you needed comes through? Well, God is there and He is stepping in.

God speaks to us in really mysterious ways and we don’t even realise its Him who is talking to us. Through our friends, maybe a song, a random phrase or even a picture. God uses everything and anything to get our attention, to get His word out to us. Maybe He doesn’t speak to you verbally but He speaks to us in other ways.

Try and stop to think about what people are saying to you, what your music is leading you to. Maybe God istrying to use you to bring out a message to your friend. Slow dow and smell the roses, if you go through life too fast you might just miss out on what God is trying to tell you.

I found this video and it really hits home to what I’m trying to portray here. It sums up everything basically.

Hope you enjoy it.
God bless.

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