You’ve all seen those before and after photos right. Might be for a weight loss product or muscle gain protein powder or exercise programme – it’s like before (pose saggy) and after.
In the middle is the stuff that changes between the before and after photos (unless of course its all ai and filters) – is the stuff we don’t see – the hard work, the day by day discipline, the choices FOR a new way of life, the transformation, the process.
Our Kingdom Redefined series is showing you the before – the after – and the process by how our lives change.
We do not come to Jesus as blank slates or untouched lumps of clay. Every one of us is already being formed—by our families, our culture, our fears, our ambitions, our friendships, the world around us, and increasingly by the constant voices of social media, entertainment, and endless streams of information.
These things shape what we love, what we fear, what we believe, and even how we see ourselves. When we come to God, we bring all of that with us: our habits, assumptions, wounds, desires, and ways of thinking.
The invitation of following Jesus is not simply to stay as we are—it IS transformation. God as it will, interrupts us in the middle of our existing formation and begins reshaping us, renewing our minds, redirecting our hearts, and forming us more into the likeness of Christ. He is redefining who we are, how we think, and how we show up in the world.
That the Bible is one big unified story that points to Jesus.
We see this most clearly in Genesis 22 — the story where Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac. This is I think one of the GREASTEST Easter Eggs in the Bible – so if you’ve got your Bible turn to Genesis 22 and lets unpack.
The Setup: Abraham Waited 25 Years
Before Genesis 22, Abraham spent basically his whole life waiting.
From Genesis 12 onward, God kept making bigger and bigger promises:
You’ll have descendants
You’ll become a great nation
You’ll have a son
God told Abraham to look up into the sky and try and count the stars…. An impossibility right.
Right after Jesus says “judge not,” in Matthew 7 He keeps teaching and He actually tells us something really important: we are meant to evaluate fruit.
Matthew 7:20 says, “You will recognize them by their fruits.”
This means we’re not called to be blindly accepting of everything or everyone. There’s a difference between judging people and discerning fruit.
Judging says: “I’m above you. I’ve already decided who you are.” Discernment says: “I’m paying attention to what your life is producing.”
“Judge not, that you be not judged…”—Jesus says this in Matthew 7, and it’s one of the most quoted—but also most misunderstood—teachings.
Jesus isn’t saying we should ignore right and wrong. He’s addressing the heart posture behind how we see others.
He paints this powerful picture: you’ve got a log in your own eye, and you’re trying to point out a speck in someone else’s. It’s almost funny—but it’s also confronting. Because it shows how easy it is to be hyper-aware of other people’s flaws while being blind to our own.
Temptation isn’t a sign you’re weak—it’s something everyone faces. Even Jesus was tempted. In Gospel of Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is in the wilderness, and Satan comes at Him when He’s tired and hungry. But notice what Jesus does—He doesn’t argue, He doesn’t entertain it. He responds with God’s Word and stands firm on truth.
In response to every temptation Jesus says IT IS WRITTEN.
That shows us something important: temptation is fought with truth, not feelings.
Jesus had stored up in the silence what He would need in the storm. He had those verses at the ready – He didn’t need to ask chatgbt, or google, or flick to the index at the back of His bible or phone a friend, he had stored up those verses in his heart and mind, ready for action.
Psalm 42: 5 says Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
There are times when it feels like our soul is cast down. We might feel: Feeling deeply discouraged or weighed down, Like wer’re Losing hope or motivation Feeling distant from joy, purpose, or even from God, Emotional heaviness—like sadness, anxiety, or emptiness, our inner self feels low, tired, or overwhelmed. Firstly – its okay to not be okay! It is also really great to have a counsellor or gp to talk to about these things if it is an ongoing feeling.
But there are things that we can do differently to help cast our soul UP. What does it mean to “cast it up”? The Bible doesn’t use that exact phrase, but it does show ways people lift their soul back up. It’s not about forcing or faking happiness but about redirecting our focus and restoring strength.
In a world that is louder than ever—full of opinions, trends, and voices all telling us how to think, live, and define truth—it’s easy to feel lost or to just follow the crowd or the loudest voice.
The world often calls what is wrong “good” and questions or even rejects what God says is right. So the question becomes: how do we actually know what is true? How do we know how to live in a way that leads to real life?
This is why reading the Bible matters.
The Bible isn’t just an old religious book or a list of rules—it’s an invitation. It’s the way we come to know God. And that’s the greatest invitation we could ever be given. Not just to know about Him, but to actually know Him—His character, His heart, His ways, and His love for us.
Without the Bible, we’re left trying to figure life out on our own or following whatever voice happens to be the loudest at the time. But God hasn’t left us guessing. He’s spoken. Through The Bible, He shows us what is true, what is good, and what it looks like to live in a way that reflects Him. It helps us see clearly in a world that often feels confusing and upside down.
And even more than that, the Bible reveals a story—the story—that gives meaning to everything: who we are, what’s gone wrong in the world, and how God is making it right through Jesus.
So when we open the Bible, we’re not just reading words on a page. We’re stepping into something bigger. We’re learning how to hear God’s voice above the noise, how to walk in His ways, and how to understand the story we’re a part of.
The week before Easter, our last week at River Youth for the term, I got a sore throat. In the last 3 years a funny thing has happened, every time I get a sore throat I lose my voice. Which is fine for a day, but I’ve lost if for more than a week 3 times. The longest was 2 and a half weeks. And when you do a lot of talking for your job, its not fun.
So I got a sore throat. And I lost my voice.
My daughter said to me – oh wise woman she is – it seems like when God wants you to stop he makes you lose your voice.
When God wants me to stop He literally pushes the mute button on me.
He gets my attention.
What does God do to get your attention?
And to get your attention, I bet you’re all wondering why you have a ping pong ball. You’ll need it soon.
We’re going to look at a parable where you would think attention was already being paid and where they would be prepared – but they were not.
Matthew 25:1-12 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lampsand went to meet the bridegroom.Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Jesus is a master storyteller.
He uses stories to convey ideas about the kingdom and invites us to dig beneath the surface of the words to find what He is really saying.
Which makes it in a way harder for us, living 2000 years out of the time He was speaking to, using context and stories and settings that would have been so familiar to His first century audience. You can imagine Jesus speaking this and people imagining their nieces wedding, or their neighbours wedding, or their own wedding or a time they were a bridesmaid, or a groomsman and they would remember the details, and the drama and the joy and the anticipation. They know the cultural clues and it paints a picture to them, differently to how it might for us.
I read this and I’m like what do you mean there is no set time? What do you mean theres no wedding planner in charge of all these details? He turns up at midnight? What about bed hair?
There is a quote that lives rent free in my head and that shapes the why and how we do River Youth and life – “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
The last few weeks we’ve been talking about some of the why we have a quiet time. Simply put the answer is to hear from God, to hear His voice, to be shaped and transformed, to be strengthened and empowered, to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the things Jesus did.
The immensity of the sea. The beauty of the ocean. The wonder of the waves.
Spending time with God because God is God and He is glorious and wonderful and good and invites us to come close and spend time with Him.
We’ve looked at the why we build our lives on the Word of God – because it leads to us becoming whole and holy, having a blessed and successful life, framed and formed by the ways God would want us to live.
We’ve explored that spending time with God is not about spiritual practices, or activities, or coming to church – it’s about having a real friendship with an amazing God who created the whole universe, who knows us inside and out, who has all power, all wisdom, all creativity and loved us so much that He made the way for us to have that relationship with Him through Jesus – not for doing and activities and programmes and services but for friendship and peace with God, not that just gives us an entrance pass to an eternity with God but that opens the door for an everyday personal connection.
We can also over complicate it.
So many of us think we have to have our whole life together before I can connect with God.
Like once I’m over my anxiety then I can spend time with God. When I’m a grown up, I can spend time with God. When my life gets less messy I can spend time with God, when my kids grow up, or my relationship is right, when this season of grief or stress ends, when I’m more mature and more together, when all the ducks are in a row….
But the enemy of our soul hopes that we overcomplicate our faith and wait for a more ideal season and hopes that we think that we can’t spend time with God in THIS season of what our life looks like here and now. The best way to have a real relationship with God is in the middle of our real life. There is no more perfect season to spend with God than right now, the season you’re in.
One Passion One Devotion 