Making Faith Personal

Welcome to Young

Voices for Christ, a podcast brought to you by a passionate group

of young adults from Crofton Park Baptist Church here in South London.

Brockley.

Here they come together to share their faith, explore life's

big questions, and celebrate the journey of following Christ.

Join them as they delve into inspiring stories, engage

in discussions and heartfelt reflections, all aimed

at encouraging and uplifting your walk with God.

Whether you're seeking spiritual growth, community or just a dose of inspiration,

Young Voices for Christ is here to light your path.

Good afternoon

and welcome to another episode of Young Voices for Christ.

My name is Clement Oke and I'm going to be,

talking to, Young Voices for Christ.

Members, we've got three on the call today.

We've got three.

We've got one on the call and two in the studio.

So if you'd like to introduce yourselves, we've got.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Amari Aiken.

Hey, everybody.

My name's Christopher. Okay.

And down the line we have,

This is Philippa.

Welcome, everybody.

So in this episode, we're going to be talking about how to make faith your home.

And the first question I've got for each of you is,

what do you think personal faith means?

And let's start with Philippa.

I think for me, personal faith is more like

the relationship you have with God on a one on one level,

because they'll be people who are raised into faith.

People who found faith later on in life,

and who go to church and have that sort of like communal safe.

I feel like personal faith is definitely

more of a one on one,

relationship that you have with God.

Thank you for them.

Tomorrow, what do you think

is literally the exact same thing?

So I totally agree that it's personal.

It's one on one.

It's like you believe it.

It also includes style.

So in school, it's.

I kind of put this.

It's it's all to do with you.

And in this case, I'm not going to know.

I think any, just any random person.

It's between you and God.

And it's again that what you do in that secret place,

how you communicate, how you think, how you act or intertwine

with what you believe, if that makes sense.

Yeah. It does. Yeah.

Christopher, do you want to get anything to that?

I'm not sure, but I'll try.

I feel like

it's kind of your understanding of

where you and God put together

rather than where, like you all with everyone around

you who's had their own personal experience of God.

It's more about how you find it rather than others.

Thank you for that.

So in the Bible, faith is defined as belief, and trust in God

is based on evidence without total proofs.

The Bible says, you know, it's a things that we,

trust in the things that we can't see, but we believe in.

Now, what if faith itself comes from Latin for there, which means to trust?

So faith is all about seeing Christian nodding and sweating

is giving you that the faith is all about, trusting.

It's about trusting.

Okay?

Is trusting in God even though we haven't seen her.

But you see evidence of God.

We read evidence of God.

So, I guess

if that's the case, you know,

could you kind of.

Let's move on to why is it important for you to have personal,

in your

faith, personally personal relationship with Jesus, in this case?

Why is that important?

I'm throwing it out to anybody.

Why is that?

I don't mind something.

Okay.

Close yours.

So I think it's important to have a personal faith.

Because if you just do like the surface level things, going to church

and acting seem like a good person and, like, doing

good deeds, you're not really benefiting yourself.

You're more just doing it for not really appearances,

but for your own, like, subconscious.

You're just being like, oh, I'm doing this so that I can say that I'm a Christian.

So I can say I'm doing all the things Christians do.

But if you have no personal relationship with God, then it's really all for naught.

You're not really doing much to better yourself in that sense.

Yeah.

In addition to that, any follow up on that?

I would say that it takes me back to

the fully equipped me up around the Bible.

Verse one is like,

do your access secret and then you'll be rewarded.

I mean, that's kind of what it brings to that.

If I'm having that one on one private time with God talking to him really heaven

and building that relationship with him in my own private time,

it would then show openly it wouldn't,

bear fruits openly.

And that's when people come in that, yes, that is a man of God.

That is a woman or something.

That's what mainly comes to mind.

Okay.

I think what you're talking about, there might be a of pointing, but I'm not sure.

Look at later.

Chris, I mean, you know, it's like when because one of the things

this topic is talking about is how you move away from

that family faith, the you have to go to church, faith, you have to do this.

So why would you say it's important for you to develop

that kind of personal faith with Jesus, to put it, metaphorically.

So when you have a teacher, in that teaching, the entire class,

you're going to get distracted a lot because you're talking to your friends

and you don't pay attention to what they're teaching.

But like one on one tutoring, use

can all of the good of the teaching.

And then you pay attention.

This is kind of like one and one for good.

You're more likely to pay attention.

If it's just you and God, then you're more likely to understand

and then grow from that.

And so,

Are there any practical steps you think?

I mean, before we go to practical steps, actually,

we I think we probably ask this question when we're interviewing you

all in the early stages of this podcast

about your personal journeys of faith.

Well, how would you say your personal

faith is at this point in time if you were to do a health check

today, compared to maybe the first time you heard the word,

how would you say, what would you say?

Your personal faith health check looks like today.

I'll start with tomorrow.

I would say

I'm very content with my faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm very happy with it because I'm not going to.

But I remember when there was a turning point

in which led me to this stage, and one of the turning point was

one of the turning points was

I was going through it, and I probably was actually what I was going through, but

I just felt like God wasn't there, like it was void, like ways of presence.

Like I'm struggling to read your word.

I can't pray, I'm tired, like, where are you at?

I need to let you see your real this is by the way,

this is when I'm baptized and I'm anointed like to give.

But you going to lose those moments.

And I was just like, where are you, God?

And then I just I cried on my bed.

This is when I used to live at home.

I was this grandmother crying on my bed.

And literally, you said no more about this.

Do I know that I am God?

He literally said that to.

And then from then on,

yes, pain gets tested.

It's all a part of the pruning process.

But I have not had doubt in him since.

To this day I could confidently say through all trials

and tribulations, through all successes and victory, is my faith

in Jesus Christ is Lord and that he is the one true God.

That he is above all other kings and powers and principalities, etc.

that I my my faith, hasn't with it.

I am praying for unwavering faith so and it has been, and I.

I will say that I don't have

no doubt that don't get me wrong, that can be tested,

but my doubt is very small if I have any.

But so far I think so good.

And it's all because of him

saying I'm very happy and content where I am with my faith.

And Chris, you are the youngest here and he might be patronizing you to say,

you know, you're probably too young to have had,

like a personal faith journey you can share.

But like I said, some people mistrust very early, so

if I also ask you the same question

about your personal health,

check on your personal relationship with Jesus,

what would you what would your answer be?

I'll put it as gradually spiking up,

but it's like slowly improving over time.

I think in 2024, let's say

a year where I just started to realize

and then I reflect on all the years

before the thing. Wow.

I didn't notice God was there for me, but he was.

And then now we try to be like that from God as well.

What I can do for him.

So, Pippa, same question to you.

That's a good answer, Chris.

So what's your what's yours like at the moment.

Who's to health check.

I would say

I'll probably have to classify it maybe two different ways.

So I think when we think about what faith means definition gave

it was more like.

Whether or not you can believe without sin.

And I feel like that aspect of my personal faith has never wavered

from when I first, became a child of God.

But I would say maybe in the practicality sense, things like

going to church every Sunday, reading my Bible every day,

those kind of practical steps in your like, personal faith journey

probably has diminished from when I first

got baptized to now.

Okay, I'm actually happy to use the word practical steps

because I was going to talk about that because for, everyone has a personal

journey, which means we have a destination and a destination, eternal life.

Now we have different routes to that.

For some people it might be no straightforward one.

Everything's all good.

God's blessing. You like a question?

You know many problems until the devil comes along and says, you know,

take these guys for taking the wait and see what will happen to his faith.

Go figure. That happens to us.

And so we will have much more difficult journeys.

So for one of these things, for a journey, you need to keep yourself with stuff.

Naturally. You need to have the right resources,

to make the journey.

And we know we've talked about this before, about, the essentials,

which is spending time in prayer,

and reading the Bible.

And also when you talk about, you know, your faith hasn't wavered.

It's probably because you're looking back at how God has been good to you.

So, I know

I've been on my kids cases about, you know, reading your Bible.

Well, is there something about maybe finding the Bible reading plan

that works for you?

So at the moment, every morning or school morning, Christopher and I,

we read a verse while he reads a verse in John.

And hopefully my resonate with him.

But this is all about making faith your own.

So I'll start with Chris this time.

If you were to at least practical steps, it's all about,

making your faith your home.

How would you go about taking away

the dad element of like, you know, the family

element, you got to go to church and go to department every day.

It's time for prayer. It's your turn.

What steps do you think you could use to take ownership of that?

I feel like that would be very easy

to remove the family list, that part of that.

And normally when I want to do something that I really,

really want to do something, the boys find a way how to do it

no matter what the cost, no matter how I did it.

So, I just need that light spark

that inspires me, and, well, you've been there for me.

Has been inspiring me to pick up the Bible on my own and, like, remind Facebook

to close the mirror.

Because I can see a smile.

Because I'm looking,

It's so real

when you say about, like, let's say

a Christian family and how, like

when a child is that they see what the parents are doing,

they fall in love doing, their parents are doing.

And it's like even something as simple as,

like going to church and just going to church.

And this Sunday school, maybe the family might be like, let's pray

or pray before you eat, or maybe every Saturday you do a bit of that.

So together it's so

it's so like normalized

especially in the church that,

that people just come just to come when we're

about having that faithful relationship with God without being baptized.

And before the spirit, there is no eternal life

like that is the that is the true honesty of it.

That is that is literally like period of it. So

when it comes to how I know for them and touch them.

But when it comes to

what like

what stepping away from what the family do.

Well, I think that's your case.

So I see it feels like you have a personal relationship with God.

You have a personal relationship with Jesus.

So, you know, not knocking, Christopher or Peter because I see this of them.

But it feels like even if your family stopped

coming to church, that wouldn't affect your faith in any way.

That's true.

But there's always an origin.

So I speaking about me now is very different to how

I was made some years ago.

Because I'm only 18 soon out and I really got baptized

at the age of 12, so that was just a few good few chunk of years of

all different and

ups and downs and stationary and all over the place. So,

so far to.

So I'm just going to have to go back then

and ask you what practical steps did you take to get to where you are now

with your life, with your own personal relationship?

What would you what would you want to share?

Okay, so this worked for me.

I don't know if it worked for everyone else,

but self discipline can be either

your best friend or your worst enemy.

Give me so self

discipline as we go in there is basically no discipline.

No self-discipline.

You what it is so it can be your enemy.

And when you go against that, that you are more of a yolo like do what you want

or you can be like, no, I got this and this and this today,

and I need to do it now.

So the way that I was able to navigate, to increase my faith,

to increase my walk with God, was actually self-discipline and force.

That sounds so harsh, but it got me to where I am now, to the point where

I'm very content and I just want to keep elevating the elevation elevated. So

it starts from,

okay, I'm going to read my Bible today. You.

Then we have the beauty.

Have the force yourself up because the flesh it doesn't want to get up right.

The flesh wants to just lay down, relax and scrolling off.

And however our spiritual health is more important than our physical health.

So you need to go read the Bible.

Let's say you have a goal.

I'm going to read it in a chapter a day.

Just a chapter a day.

All you have to do is read a chapter a day.

But why is it so hard is because of your flesh.

So literally you have to force yourself to go pick up that Bible

and read it and

to walk past me.

It took me a long time. It took me months.

It took me like, okay, I'm going to read it.

I read a chapter today.

Okay. Tomorrow I'm going to try.

I really didn't do it day after. Okay, let me try.

Do it again.

I did it days ago. No, let me read my Bible.

It got to the point where I was getting angry at myself.

I got very upset at myself.

I got married at the Marina. This is not a good word.

So we need to read the Bible.

Or we need to go on our knees and pray.

We need to do something to get closer to God because that is the

ultimate way to reach where he wants you to reach, to get good. So.

So to cut a long story short, all I did was force myself.

I had to force myself.

And there'll be times when, you know, forcing yourself doesn't help.

But then that's where you have to be a god.

This change needs to happen.

I'm can't I can't read my Bible.

I can't pray without feeling tired.

I'm yawning.

Or when I go before I even go to sleep, I'm there to make it.

Jesus. And I know that time and time.

Let me give you my full self or my full energy that I am able

to go read that Bible.

And it took me time and, you know, is is that habits then become like a lifestyle.

Now, if we knew I was doing it every other day,

read my Bible, I was like, okay, okay, okay, let's keep going.

Thank you Jesus, give us strength as a parent.

They'll never number their every day.

Read a chapter every day of the day.

The man became a lifestyle and then before you then you go rejoicing.

You're happy.

You are learning new things.

All it is is to force

for yourself and you have to think up the bigger picture.

Maybe today I might be tired, but if I do it,

a blessing could come further down the line.

Someone else could ask me about something that I read,

but if I never read that, it's like you're blocking your own blessing.

So that's what I'm going to say.

It's not as good, in most things.

And I spoke about this on Sunday, like I said, about turning a routine

into a habit when it will come to you

without you having to put in the effort.

And it's difficult for the first time. It's like a renewing.

So I'm going to learn to lose weight.

I'm going to be I'm going to eat healthy.

I'm going to do all the things we want to do for ourselves.

But the most important thing actually is for our spirit.

Pippa, thank you all. Next to this one,

we'll have you answer this one way practical steps.

A few questions went flying around this.

I'm just trying to remember what the original question was

in terms of we know it's important for us to have a personal relationship with God,

and we know that it's difficult because of all the things we have to do,

whether it's preparing for exams or,

studying or family drama.

Which I need to know how that works.

Then.

So how do you maintain what practical steps can you use to maintain

your personal, faith journey?

I think

it's important to find some sort of enthusiasm about it,

because when I think back to how I started this journey,

it was because I found a place

I heard a message that I think resonated with me,

and it felt like, oh, this isn't something that I just do when I'm an adult

and I start going to church by myself, when my parents know God

and it's more like,

oh, this is actually something that is current and relevant to me now

and something that I can engage in and actually have fun with.

I think, going to the, teen retreat camp when I was 13, 14,

I think that was something for me that I'd never seen before, because

unfortunately, our church doesn't really have the youngest demographic,

so it always felt like church was a thing for,

I don't know, just older people until I saw people my age

who was like really zealous and really excited about the world

and excited about these routines of like having a once a morning prayer walk,

having like these retreats together every year and it was just,

I think it was something like that that inspired me to really,

go for that personal

roots of faith.

I think that seeing that enthusiasm and seeing that like

that attitude towards having a personal relationship with God.

So I think that's one practical step, just being engaged and enthusiastic

about the word and about that relationship would definitely help.

I think what's interesting about, you know, sorry, what you said

when you said that, what's interesting about how you,

kind of came to realization that this isn't just for old people.

It feels like you found friends who.

So this is almost like a community kind of faith versus individual faith.

And why, while the private devotion is important because spending time with

your father is important,

being part of the wider community of believers is also important

because those are the things that encourage your growth.

And like you say, growth in the church at the moment isn't, a wash.

It's, people your age.

So it feels like it's got less to offer you.

So coming to that church actually might even be discouraging.

Like, might be harming your faith in a way,

if your first if your personal faith is not strong,

not being around people to encourage you who understand what it is

you're going through, what kind of things you deal with on a daily basis can harm.

So how

as people who can't go love, just church,

how do you overcome that?

Because you're allowed to go to church.

You leave church, you love to have your friends.

So how do you overcome that challenge?

Do you want me to take that one first?

Yeah. Please do.

I think specifically with me, it's a bit interesting

because everyone who was my age, me

growing up in the church, has left

or is somewhere else, really.

And I don't really get to sit in most of the sermons anymore

because I'm either working and doing the creche or I'm at uni.

So I think we've crossed paths specifically.

I feel like.

I don't know, I feel like it's

a difficult question for me because I'm not really engaged

as much as I

am maybe in boss, even though I'm not part of

any of like the volunteers within the church I go to, and it's

more like there's still that community, those people my age,

people who I see around campus when I go to classes,

people who like meets up for like maybe a weekly lunch

or Bible reading or something like that.

But, with this podcast, I feel like that's definitely

like a an encouraging sight.

I will say that's good.

And that's part of the reason why I like to keep it weekly so

it can be in touch regularly about this kind of thing.

So of.

I think it's very different for me

because I have a new site

for churches to maintain that I can.

It's the one in my accommodation, there's one, whereas

and my daughter goes to this one and there's another one.

And so my community is not

just based around one church,

it's based around quite a few. So,

this question kind of doesn't

apply too much to me because,

in terms of like fellowshipping, it's quite versatile.

It's quite open.

And then I have many friends in different churches

and even outside of church, somehow God's still been able to,

connect me with, other people, specific people, and increase their faith.

But

speaking from across the Park

church, we I would say

that it's okay because

I what do I say to, if you are so

like lonely or because that there's not other people your age group.

Now, I forget that in the Bible also speaks about the elders.

So even the elders you can learn something from.

I'm speaking to elders that have been in Christ and are still in Christ.

You can learn something from

and learn from the ones that are anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit

that, able to also direct you and help you find them and craft the book.

I have my chat to grandma, I guess, say hello and sometimes

you'll look at me, my eyes, and she will say something,

and then it's ever based on my situation or something that's going to come up.

So that's one way and another way is just be out there.

There's always some type of community, some type of society,

even inside of university and outside of university.

But there's always something even online, even online, because,

I know it's online because even on discord, my discord,

I have somehow reached out to someone and they do a whole prayer

meeting for an hour.

So there's always somewhere

where God is there and God can be heard through another group of people.

So even if,

I'm not just going

to say cross them, but any church that may not have your

like your age group, or maybe they're too old or too young, or maybe the age

group who, if you don't maybe fit in, there's always somewhere for you to be.

And even if there's not, pray about it.

Like keep praying about it and just be like, God help me.

I want to find a Christian family and financial results for God.

I want to find someone here

who has the same interest in me and he will direct your path.

Amen. You know, it's

there's we learn to go

to have the benefits of, you know,

other places of worship and, other networks.

So what would you say the challenge is for you

today, for instance, every Sunday school, what do you do,

knowing that it's important to find friends and mentors to encourage

your growth?

How do you see that as a challenge and what do you think?

What do you think about that?

I don't think it's really a challenge.

I think it's more than the obstacle I can overcome with God.

Okay.

As a young person, I'm like a sponge.

I know the previous

generations of the student,

they have a lot of experience about their own personal experience with God.

And I absorb all of the.

And sometimes, some memories.

It hurts grandma.

And they just tell you that a piece of advice

I can they.

Okay, well, I'm going to,

read a few verses from First

Thessalonians chapter four as a bit of encouragement.

I'll start from.

Verse one.

King James Version seems to be everybody's currency,

but I've been recently listening while reading the English translation

because it sounds more like present day English.

The message goes a bit too far for me, but it's also good.

So finally then, brothers and sisters,

we ask you to, urge you in the Lord Jesus

as he received instruction from us about how you must live and please God

as you are in fact living, that you do so more and more.

For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is God's will, that you become holy,

but you keep away from social morality.

Each of you knows how to possess his own body in holiness and honor,

not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

In this month.

So is this matter?

No one should violate the rights of his brother

or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger.

In all of these cases, as we also told you earlier, who will do something for God?

Do not call us to impurity, but in holiness.

Consequently, the one who rejects this is not rejecting

human authority, but God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

So, this is kind of my encouragement, to kind of, like,

hide in the word of the Lord.

You will come across temptations, no doubt.

And the biggest temptation is not to bring or not

spend time with God or not to read the Bible.

And I think one thing to reflect on would be maybe.

Look, tomorrow, I said about

at first it was hard,

but if you commit to something and say, okay, a chapter a day,

just commit to it and then see where that takes you.

Like I said, for most journeys different.

Just pray that we'll continue to encourage each other in our personal journey.

So personal faith journeys, and just be around people

who will encourage you to do so.

But also a bit of a challenge, a bit of a stretch

exercise, encourage others.

Encourage others in their faith.

Those of you who have been faith,

boldly speak about your faith.

Bring your faith and everything you're talking about.

Some people would say, not necessarily preaching to them, but let them see

that you are a child of God.

So thank you for joining us.

Next week we're going to be, discussing

dealing with stress and anxiety as a Christian.

So we'll hopefully come with your thoughts on that.

Thank you very much. Bye, everybody. Okay.

Well.