In the Spotlight

That’s a very difficult situation. If somebody is your friend then they should treat you well and care about you. Sometimes, when people have difficult things happening in their lives or are upset about something, they take it out on people they are close to. Even if we really like a person we can still say mean things to them, like when we argue with parents and friends. But Jesus told us to treat others as we would like to be treated. Even if one person is upset, others should not have to suffer. By explaining to a parent or teacher that you still care about your friend but don’t want them to be a bully they might be able to help both of you.

This is a difficult question! I don’t think anyone knows for definite, because God is so far beyond our understanding. What we do know, though, is that God loves us. The scriptures tell us that God created the world for his glory and to share his life with us. He had so much love that he wanted to give it to others. So he created the world to have a relationship with all of us individually. In Genesis it says that God saw what he had created and was pleased. He is very pleased with us!

The Bible never tells us exactly how many children Adam and Eve had. In Genesis it says that Adam and Eve had three baby boys called Cain, Abel and Seth. Later in Genesis it goes on to say that they had “many more sons and daughters” but we are never told all their names. Adam and Eve lived to be very old so had time to have lots of children!

We must remember the Bible was written a very long time ago and was first written in Hebrew and Greek. Many years later it was translated to English for us to read. The original meaning for the word “day” that’s used in Genesis is unclear and may actually mean “a period of time” and not necessarily the 24 hours that we know it as now. So when the author wrote that something happened on the “first day”, this could mean a lot longer than just 24 hours!

The Israelites at the time were also big fans of stories. They enjoyed telling stories and they enjoyed listening to stories, and they used stories to communicate important messages, and to teach. So the story in Genesis tells us that God made us and loves us. We don’t have to take the story ‘literally’ (which means we don’t have to belief it exactly as it says!).

Normally death is a sad thing to remember but in this case, Jesus died for us, as a sign of his love for us! He did this so that all our sins could be forgiven and we could have a relationship with God without worrying about the things we do wrong. Three days after Jesus died, he rose again and after some time went to heaven to be with God. He promised that we would be able to go there too. Jesus knew he was going to die and in John’s gospel he says that he chose to die for us (John 10:17-18).

(John 10:17-18) "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."

No, Jesus never had sex. It is very clear in the bible that Jesus did not marry, and His teaching on marriage and sex is also clear (have a look at the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5: verses 27-28), so we can be confident that He didn’t have sex.

My really simple explanation is that we know from the Bible that Mary conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is God, then that makes Jesus the Son of God and son of Mary.

Yes Jesus is like the generous and forgiving Father in the 'prodigal son' story. No matter what bad things we do if we realise that we have sinned or done wrong and we ask forgiveness, Jesus will forgive us. He loves us so much that nothing can change His love for us, and He loves us too much to hold our sins against us.

For us Christians the meaning of life is to know God and respond to His love, by loving Him will our heart, soul, mind and body. Life is also about knowing who we are in the eyes of God… that we are loved by God and precious to him. It is not about what we have or have not. It is not about being popular or famous … our true fulfilment comes only from God. In the Gospel of John, chapter 10: verse 10, Jesus said He came to give us life to the full!

First we need to think about what the Church understands as sex being about: 1) the good relationship (union) of the couple; 2) being open to having babies; and 3) having fun. The ideal situation is when all three things occur together, that’s when sex will be at it’s best for us. So, what about masturbation? Well, it's something you do on your own, so there's no chance of union with someone else, and there's no chance of having babies either; so, whether it's fun or not, it's a less than ideal sexual situation and we should try to avoid it. However, avoiding it can be difficult and it's very normal to struggle. But God can help us with our struggles, to the point where we don’t need to do it anymore, so it’s good to talk to him about it in prayer.

My really simple explanation is that we know from the Bible that Mary Conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is God, then that automatically makes Jesus the Son of God and son of Mary.

God will never ever stop loving you. God is so loving that it is true to say that God IS Love. Some people imagine God is going to punish crush them if they do something wrong. This isn't a good image of who God is. One of the best images is that of a loving and forgiving Father. God does love you and always will.