Christ Church Youth Podcast

Genesis ends with the people of God being outside, in Egypt rather than in the Promised Land, outside the place of God's special blessing. How can people get back inside the blessing and favour of God? Listen in to hear how the Book of Beginnings ends.

Joseph's life can be summarised by Genesis 50:20, where he says to his brothers, "you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, the saving of many lives".

But this is even more of a summary of Jesus' death. Listen in to discover why?

Little kids carry their teddy bears with them everywhere they go; teddy goes with kiddie everywhere. But the story of Joseph shows us that God is with us in the good times, in the bad times, and especially in the times of temptation. Which is great news indeed.

Life is v.messy. But the stuff you can clean up with paper towel is the easy stuff. When your hopes are dashed, your dreams are in turmoil and your heart is crushed, is God there or has he exited the building? The story of Joseph asks and answers that exact question.

The things which impact us the most deeply can often arise out of the most unexpected or unlikely situations. This was true of the way God worked in using Jacob. But what does that mean for us today?

Jacob is the ultimate mummy's boy, so what happens when he is forced to flee his home? God meets him and that encounter transforms him. But is that just a one-off between God and Jacob or does God do the same for us?

Everyone likes to be chosen; it's special to be chosen. But why would God choose Jacob to be part of his family and his plan for the world when he was such an unlikely choice? What does that tell us about God and about our salvation?

Many people are not optimistic about the future. It looks a little bleak, so why can a man in jail talk so positively about his eternal destiny, and why does that give him purpose in this life?

Everybody has heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan. But to understand the story you need to understand the question that is being addressed. Listen in to find out how life with Jesus empowers love for other people.

Newspapers hack into people's phones, there are CCTV cameras everywhere, iPhones keep track of your every movement, Sony Playstation loses your personal information. If everything else that should be private ends up in the hands of others, surely our religious faith should be the one thing that stays private. Except that Jesus says otherwise. Listen in as we see how life with Jesus creates a positive new community.

The Christian faith is personal but not private. But at it's heart it is definitely personal because life with Jesus powerfully transforms us. Listen in to see how this happens in the life of Zacchaeus.

When we look at our world, our schools, our streets and our beaches we wonder how people will come to faith in the Lord Jesus; it can sometimes appear impossible. But Acts 2 has some surprising answers to that question.

In view of the return of Jesus, Christians tend to either get obsessed with creating paradise here on earth, or they spiritually star-gaze, almost lazily waiting for him. The first part of Acts 1 has something to say to both groups of Christians.

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts and talents to all Christians. But if his focus is not on the gifts, nor on the individual to whom he gives the gifts, what is the focus of the gifts?

We have considered how the Holy Spirit is involved at the start of the Christian life. But how is he involved in the rest of our Christian lives?

The way God the Son and God the Holy Spirit fit together is a little like a spotlight which shines it's light on someone on a stage. So which one is the spotlight, and which one is on the stage?

We find it difficult to believe in ghosts, so what are we supposed to think when the Scriptures teach us to believe in the Holy Spirit? Who is he, what does he do, and why is he such a blessing in our lives?

We have tracked the beginning of Abraham's faith, seen him struggle to believe God, but listen in to discover the triumph of his faith.

If you have ever struggled in your faith, Abraham is your man. Listen in to discover his struggle for faith, and how God helps him through it.

What happens when people try to make a name for themselves without God, and what are the lessons for us?

What would drive God to destroy all the earth and its inhabitants in a great flood? And will he do it again?

Sibling rivalry is pretty normal, but in Genesis 4 Cain kills his brother Abel, and there is nothing normal about that. But what does that story show about us and the mess we find ourselves in thousands of years later?

We all like to think that no-one's actions and decisions affect us. But no man is an island unto himself. We are affected by the decisions of people who represent us all the time. Adam represented us, and his disobedience made us sinners. Jesus' obedience can represent us too. But how can that work for our good?

Many things seem to be temptations. But Christians can actually resist temptation. Really! So how does that work?

We often don't recognise those days in life on which everything changes. We only realise later on how such days change everything. That has never been truer than on the day when the first man and woman disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. They could never have imagined how sin damaged everything. But how is that so?

Genesis 2 gives us a picture of life in a perfect world, or in a very good world at least. What was it like, what has changed and what remains the same for us, this side of Eden?

Image is the number 1 issue for young people. We look at the pictures on our screens, in the magazines, on the billboards, and feel bad about our bodies and about ourselves. But God doesn't want us to be in the image of Brad Pitt or Katy Perry. He wants us to know that he made us in his own image. But what does this mean and why is it such good news?

We all worship something; we all give the best of our hearts, time, energy, money and affection to the thing that we worship. It might not be a religious thing, it might not be an obvious thing, it might not be a bad thing. But Genesis 1 powerfully shows us that if it's not a God thing, we are giving our worship to the wrong thing. But why is this so?

The first verse of the Bible looks little, but it tells us something mighty about God.

If you had to choose between spending eternity in the earthy & sweaty excitement of a rock concert or the floaty, ghosty, light cream cheesey-ness of heaven the way it's normally depicted, wouldn't you choose the rock concert? So why will life in our resurrection bodies be better than life in the bodies we have now?

There is a lot at stake if we say that there is no resurrection from the dead. It would at least mean that Christ has not been raised from the dead and we are still in our sins. But Christ has indeed been raised. So what is the relationship between Jesus' resurrection and our resurrection?

If Jesus never rose again from the dead, what could we say about him? Nothing, other than that he was just another lunatic who thought he was special, who died, which is anything other than special. Jesus' resurrection is what Christianity hangs on. But why is that?

It's trendy to make fun of people who still believe that heaven and hell are real places, and not uncommon for people to argue that we live, we die then disintegrate into the atoms that made us. But no one has actually been to heaven or hell or whatever is beyond this life, and then returned to speak with certainty and credibility about where to from here. Except one man, Jesus. Hear what he has to say.

What is the purpose of life? What gives meaning to this existence? What am I supposed to do here? And how does knowing God help us to make sense of life and give purpose to it? Listen in for some good answers.

We are small compared to our planet, our planet is small compared to other planets in the solar system, those planets are tiny compared to our sun, and our sun is miniscule compared to some of the stars we can see in the night sky. Our lives seem insignificant in vast spread of the universe, so does God care for us, how do I know for sure that he does, and why don't I always feel like he does? How did I get here, at this point in time, on this place called earth? Good questions to ask; listen in for some answers.