Um.. uh, You called?

Don't know if you've noticed but God has been pretty persistent with a specific message over the last two or three weeks? But just in case you didn't catch on, all the prophetic words and all the preaches over this last little while have all been about The Call of God. Yes?

So I thought it would be cool to throw out some thoughts about it.

The first thing to do is clarify what the heck The Call of God is all about and help you understand it a little bit more. It can seem like a massively spiritual thing that freaks people out and causes loads of stress in the lives of younger guys and girls, scared that they will miss it! So, to make it a bit clearer...

"The Call of God lasts a life time. It starts when we get saved and ends when we die. Its effects last into eternity. The Call of God is a journey and not a destination. It is an adventure. It is unique to the individual. The Call of God is designed by Him and chosen by us. It is God glorifying, God dependent and God directed. It always lines up with the Word."

Now that it is hopefully a little bit clearer what I really wanted to do was give some keys about how you walk it all out! It's always good to see how we can apply things practically. So here are 8 points that I feel will help you with regards to actually living a life that walks in line with The Call of God...

1. Make Jesus the centre of your life - it will keep you from going to the left or the right!


2. Know the Father, live as a son - only Godly identity is secure, confident and free.


3. Trust the truth of scripture - read it, believe it, apply it.


4. Be secure, you're qualified by Jesus - you actually don't have the right to disqualify yourself.


5. Live in it - remember I said it lasts a lifetime.. if you sit waiting to hear what you are called to you then you're missing the point and wasting your life.


6. Be Kingdom focused - think about how you can point to Jesus in everything!


7. Unwrap your giftings - discover them and use them.


8. Let the Spirit lead you - it doesn't always make sense but He knows where we're meant to be going!

The Call of God is beautiful. It is glorious. It is fulfilling. And it changes the world! God is speaking to a generation for their generation and when we live in The Call that is when we will impact them the most. We will see them saved, we will see them free!

big love.. bradlows

Combined Youths

This coming Friday, make sure you don't miss out on what is to be an EPIC night of being together with all the youth from around the city, coming together to pursue God's salvation for their generation! Come along and Save UR Generation! Northwood School (Kensington Drive, Durban North) at 7pm. Where there is unity, God commands a blessing!

Here is a brief look-back at one of our top combined youth moments of years gone by:

1. Combined Youth night with Glenridge 2008

-There was the Battle of the Emcee's as Rich and Gabe dominated Jaco and Koos

-Isane worship lead by our Chief (Paul)...who can forget a packed COGS youth hall crying out "I'm Not Ashamed of the Gospel!"

-Brad Klynsmith preaching up a storm

-And the prize event of the night: the Glenridge guys messing up Paul's car with shaving cream and toothpaste and our fighting attempt to get even by covering Brad Klynsmith's car with toilet paper, piles of dirt and all sorts of sauces from the kitchen fridge. Ingredients for a great night!

Get ready for what's coming this Friday!

"Baby, Baby, Baby"

Not just a song by Justin Bieber, but the cry of joy at the arrival of Judah Luke Edy!

The Youth Baby!

In just over 48 hours (plus-minus), the undeniably greatest day of the year for COGS Youth would have arrived as Paul and Evie welcome into the world the newest member of Lieutenant Vinyl, Youth Baby Edy! With all the excitement in the air and anticipation at a premium, many questions have been thrown about. The main ones are, of course, what will the little person look like. Well the votes have been tallied, so let's look at a few of the options:

1. The Ginger baby

-Well Paul does spend alot of his time with red-heads (Jono and Gabe) and both these guys tell us it's not all bad news being born with a little bit of fire on top. But despite this, we still find it highly unlikely.

2. The black (or "darker complexion") baby

-If this did end up happening, the biggest question would undoubtedly be whether the baby boy would take to the strains of Vedder, Cornell and Grohl or more likely Usher, Akon and Chris Brown. But don't stress, this also has a low probability rating!

3. The cute baby

-The third and final option is one that all the voters felt most comfortable with. Combining the looks of both Paul "headboy of Danville" Edy and Evie "Richard once had a crush on me in primary school" Edy, there is not one shred of doubt that this baby is going to be a looker!

Monday's the day. We can't wait to add a photo of a third person to the deadly duo!

The Royal Wedding

If you've been around church for any length of time you would have picked up on the word "baptism". The first time I was witness to one of these incredible moments at COGS was when we all moved through after an evening service to what I thought was the Killball Hall, when the floor in the corner opened up and revealed a swimming pool for midgets (or a bath for giants). In light of all this and to clear up a few myths and preonceptions, here's a quick blog explaining the basic ins and outs of baptism and why you should do it!

1. Jesus did it (Matthew.3:13-17)-
Jesus did it, it must be good enough for us then!

2. The bible says we must (Matthew.28:19)


What is baptism?

Baptism essentially is a symbolic act of what God has done on the inside.
-It's a chance to show all your friends and family the decision you've made in your heart
-It represents what Jesus did (going under the water=death/ coming up= resurrection)
-As you go under the water you are saying "I am dead to myself" and when you come up you are saying "I'm alive to Jesus"

When we baptise people, it's also a great time for people to pray for you and prophesy over you. Everyone always leaves baptisms feeling really encouraged!

What do you need to do:

1. Make sure you have given your heart to Jesus (baptism follows repentance)
2. Ask your parents if they're ok with it and if they want to be there to share in the great moment with you
3. Chat to your cell leader (or Paul) and we will organise the date

Simple. But oh so amazing!

Decision making 101

Below are 6 brief points with scripture references that I have found to be an extremely helpful lens that I put most of my decision making under. Give it a try.

1. Will your decision bring glory to God?
(1. Cor.10:31)

2. Is it beneficial?
(1.Cor.10:23-24)

3. Might it have the tendency to enslave you?
(1.Cor.6:12)

4. Will it strengthen you against temptation?
5. Is it a characteristic of the world or the Father?
(1.John.2:15-17)

6. What effect will this decision have on those around me?
(1.Cor.8:13)

"Decisions become easier when your will to please God outweighs your will to please the world." ~Anso Coetzer

Top 5 COGS Youth inventions

5. A whole new language -words and phrases such as "Big Jols", "Fireday", "Lactrons", "Shonky" and "witk" have become become a part of our everyday vocabulary.

4. Lieutenant Vinyl-other bands fighting it out for this spot were Coals of Juniper, The Evie Edy Band and Smash and Grab...they were disqualified either because they had a lack of COGS people in their band, or because they never really existed, or because in the case of Smash and Grab, they were just not that good.
Lieutenant Vinyl has become the soundtrack to our teenage years.

3. Wii-ing on the tramp-at first we were told we were rude and offensive because of this, but very quickly it became a worldwide phenomenom!

2. Killball-whether it's the girls cheering as the boys take their shirts off or just the sound of a deflated plastic spar ball hitting raw flesh, Killball has made a loud noise in and around Durban and South Africa.

1. Jason Burger-Born and christened as Jasco Vadasco, this young russian imigrant with his permanent moustache moved to Durban at age 12 and began learning the language. 5 short years later, with the help of COGS Youth, he's lost the accent, kept the moustache and become the smooth, bass playing invention that we know today as Jason Burger.

Vote for your Top 5 COGS Youth inventions on our facebook group.

Being a comrade

Hey guys, this blog has become a bit chilled so we are going to try spicing it up with a few guest posts. If you think you have what it takes let us know, but otherwise suggest who you think would make a good guest blogger.

Up first though, after an excellent preach two weeks ago, is a man of many talents. Some might know him as the administrator, but others as tbone, booster, or the infamour Tyron Altern. This is a summary of his preach, enjoy.

BEING A COMRADE

1. It’s not about us, but it does start with us (Matt 22: 38 - 39)

· Need to have a personal revelation of who Jesus is

· How can you love what you don’t know?

· Don’t try earn God’s love, live in His love -share the gospel out of revelation not reaction

· Need to spend time with Jesus (Acts 4:13 - P&J)

· Need to live what we preach (walk the walk)

2. Look at people through the eyes of Jesus

· Don’t look for people like us, look for a soul that needs salvation

· Don’t let fear or inconvenience get in the way

· The gospel is for everyone - who are we to decide who it is for?

· We are called to spend time with those who we wouldn’t normally spend time with (JESUS)

· Let’s look for opportunities to be friends and not to make friends (what we can give not what we can get)

· Try see the potential in others when others or even themselves can’t

· We need to be sign posts pointing people to Jesus

· Don’t highlight what they are doing wrong and what they need to change. Show them what their lives and future can look like with Jesus. Give them Hope!

· The gospel shouldn’t restrict people it should free them!

3. Don’t make church the main Focus (Acts 2:47) - ALPHA

· What is you reason for coming to church? (friends, family, worship?) - should be to equip you to perform better

· Do you love Jesus more than you love Church?

· Jesus needs to be the reason why we do what we do

· Help people fall in love with Jesus not the church - The church will let us down, Jesus won’t

· Need to be outward focused not inward focused

· God didn’t tell people to go the church, he told the church to go the people (the lost)

· We see each other so often (Sun, Tues, Thurs) and will have eternity to spend with each other so let’s be more careful with who we spend our free time with.

4. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies those he calls

· We aren’t all called to be evangelists, but we are all called to witness (great commission)

· People hear our hearts more than the words we say

· We all have a testimony so share it. No one’s testimony is more important or better than anyone else’s

· It should be current and focused more on Jesus than our past.

5. The Holy Spirit draws people to Jesus not us

· The Holy Spirit’s role is to bring glory to Jesus and He will often work through us to do this

· Fruits of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22

· Acts 1:8 - The Holy Spirit gives us power to be witnesses (our lives should prove that Jesus is alive)

· Best advertisement for Christianity is our transformed lives. Start with those people that know us (friends and family)

· The Gospel doesn’t just save lives, it renews and transforms lives - most rewarding thing to see

Captain my captain!

Tonight, while I was reading through an old notebook of mine, underneath old hangman games, scribbles and messages to whoever was sitting next to me in church all those Sunday evenings, was notes from COGS Youth Camp 2006. This was our first youth camp of our own that we had done for many a year and this was also the first year that Paul Edy had been leading us on his own. What I found was remarkable about the notes from that camp was the incredible depth of what was taught that weekend.

Paul "Friday night sess" Edy kicked off the weekend with a preach expounding why and how we worship. What took me by surprise was that Paul took the Saturday evening as well. What would Richard say about that these days!? But that evening our chief preached up a storm on Exodus 33 and experiencing God's goodness and glory.
It's so exciting to me to think that 5 years on COGS youth has had an incredible culture and revelation of both worship and God's goodness. We have had extraordinary times of God's presence being made manifest in our midst together on Friday nights, camps as well as privately in our bedrooms and homes. This is testiment mainly to the fact that we have a man called Paul Edy who has resolutely preached truth relentlessly into the very fibre of who we are as a people and that he has never backed off from what he believes is our full inheritance!

Thank you Paul, for your faithfulness to the word of God, to his presence and to us, your merry band of girls and guys who would follow you anywhere as we know that your compass as a leader is directly pointing to the presence of God.

You are a hero. Lieutenant. Chief. And a dad to many!

And soon to be a Dad in the natural...

And just as you made all those grade sevens years ago salute the matrics, we salute you tonight!

The many faces of Jono Rich!

It's Jono Rich week here at COGS Youth as we seek to honour the man behind the bass...the man behind the keys...the man behind the all-boys cell...the man behind the fliers...the man behind the red-hair. He has so many skills (you should check out his bow-hunting skills!) and just about as many secret admirers to match, so over the next little while we hope to expose you, the avid Jono Rich fan to as much down-low low-down as you can handle. He's not a myth...he's a real life legend. Here's Jonathan Kyle Rich, by the numbers:

22 years= his age
17 years=how long he's been at COGS Youth (he moved down from Howick after being on Eldership there with Peet...or that might have been another Jon Rich?)
5= number of successful bands he's been involved in...Joyful Noise(2006), Northwood School Musical (2005-2006 he got colours for drama for it!), Dani Nieuwoudt Band (2008-2009), Da uth Band (feat.Dan Bailey), Coals of Juniper (2009-present)...keep an eye out on his newest musical experiment, Bangs of Gallet!
0=the number of boys in his cell that have girl-friends
100s=the number of girls he's given bat too
2=the number of degrees he's studying at the same time
1000000= the amount of times I've laughed when anyone says his Mom's name fast (give it a try..."Suerich")

He's an absolute hero that goes by many names...J dawg, jondizzle, J funk... but to his sister he will always just be known as "johnny".

Born to be wild!

I'm lying in bed, sleep somehow resisting me and there's so much noise going on in the house next door that I'm sure they must be re-decorating at midnight or an elephant is trying to change the channel in their living room. Either way, my thoughts are more caught up with Christ and his Kingdom type thoughts and therefore I assume that the bible will bring a kind of stability to my heart and mind at this late hour. Luke.9:57-62 so arrests my soul that I feel God shake me more awake than i have ever felt before in my life!

In this short passage of scripture, Jesus encounters 3 people, all professing a desire to follow him but all with a footnote attached. Check it out:

"As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." Jesus replied, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God"

COGS Youth, remember what we have been called to! We are called to be a wild, nomadic people who count all else as loss for the sake of Christ and his Kingdom! A people who are not attached to assets, homes, riches, comfort! A people who are not attached in the past and constantly looking over our shoulders. A people who are not attached to the opinions and praise of men! Comfort, nostalgia and a fear of man will rob us of our future!

We are a wild people. We serve a wild God. And the future that lies before us is one that is far wilder than what we can imagine!

Greater things are yet to come!

Here's a photo from our first youth camp at pennington back in 2006. With just one glance at it a million amazing memories come flooding back and I'm filled to the brim with nostalgic, happy thoughts! COGS Youth holds some of the best days, best friends and best ice-breakers I've ever known. From watching Richard dress up in his borrowed Khaki outfit to host the 10 week Survivor marathon 5 years ago, to Jon Cilliers introducing me to COGS when I had arrived from Zim with a healthy dose of the chair game, to learning how to wildly worship as Paul moved form a Marshall amp, to a line 6, to his dad's old Marshall, to his Vox (and we were informed of it all week in and week out).

Then there was seeing Paul's cell open, close, open, close and now RIP, Shelley Oswell (now Mom Phipson)starting the first girls cell held at the church split and grow into the two girls groups of Megs and Nikki where the new generation of COGS youth betties are moulded and shaped in the way of WITK and GWEC! Watching James Robertson move from a shirtless, cocky lightie to a shirtless, cocky main manna! Seeing Brad King speak passionatley (but slowly) about cement, to now speaking passionately (but still slowly) about his incredible cell. Seeing the baton of "hot guy that girls pretend to hate but all secretly like" move from Jarryd Smith to Paul Edy to Ryan Gallagher to Paul Edy to Andrew Wilkins to paul Edy to James Robertson to Paul Edy to the now encumbent Jasco Vadasco Burger!

Anyway, all this got me thinking what an incredible past COGS Youth has...but even better than that is the amazing future it has as the next generation pick up the mantle and run harder and faster than ever before!

And as I sang once at the end of a youth camp as Paul cried:

"We can't look back, we can't slow down, everything's changing, we're taking ground!"

..On Earth..?

Why on earth are you here?
Why on earth did Jesus come?
What on earth are you worth?
Who on earth do you think you are?

If I had to answer all of these questions in one message. That message would be the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You are here because Jesus made you, he wants you here. He loves you, he likes you and he wants a relationship with you.
Jesus came in pursuit of you. He came to remove everything that stood in between you and him. And he did. The thing that separated you from him was your sin. And he's taken that away.
You are worth everything to Jesus. He gave up everything he had so he could have you. His deity, his blood, his life. Nothing was going to stop him from getting you.
You who have given yourselves to Jesus. You are his. You are secure forever. No one can take you from him. You belong to him. You have full rights, as his very own children, to everything he has.
Heaven is your home.