Since leaving NISCU last year I’ve been very busy writing and, apart from the Bible, my most useful tool is the thesaurus. If you have ever looked for synonyms for the word “believe” you will find… accept, conclude, trust, understand, “take as gospel”.

It’s ironic now that it’s the gospel that many are struggling to believe. One of our local schools used to have (and may still have) the word “believe” written in large letters on a wall in a corridor. I often wondered what it referred to. Belief in their abilities and aspirations, or belief in God?

NISCU’s purpose is to unpack gospel truth to our children and young people in fun, accessible and memorable ways so they can choose to believe it for themselves. Jesus says in John 20, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Then John goes straight on to say, ‘Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”’

This passage assumes a lot of knowledge. Our young people today firstly need to know there is a God who created them and loves them, then they need to understand that this love led Him to send His Son, the promised Messiah, that now it is possible to have life “in his name”.

Life to the full, life with purpose, a life lived with God’s comfort, guidance, encouragement and hope in good times and when everything goes wrong. Life lived in the light of God’s eternal promises. Keep praying for our children and young people “that they may believe”.