Church Of Christ - Youth Group

There may come a day when our very life hangs on someone else’s actions. Take a look at Psalm 50:13-15 today and see that God is our Life Saver.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.

There once was a man who was trying to master a dangerous climb to the top of Mt. Everest. As he was climbing part of his rope came unhooked. He was dangling on the mountainside. He tried to reach for his radio to call for help. Luckily, there was a helicopter pilot in the area that heard his cry for help. Within an hour the man was safely on the ground. The man thanked the helicopter pilot many times and tried to repay him generously for saving his life.

In the same way, when we are dangling from the mountain of problems, we call upon God to help us. When we pray, God delivers us in the way he sees best. Even if our prayers are not answered the way we would like, we should still glorify God for hearing our prayers and being there when we need help.

Points To Ponder: How does God deliver us? Does God help us? When we have problems, how often do we turn to logic and reason before asking God to help us?

Prayer Possibilities: Pray God helps you with your problems. Pray about other people’s problems. Ask the Lord for forgiveness for not always asking for His help right away.

I’ve got a couple of short passages of the Bible to share today. The first is Matthew 8:23-27.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

The second one should be familiar to many of you - it’s Romans 8:28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

There was a little girl who was 9 years old. Her mom was going to have a baby and she was so excited. She had two younger sisters and she wanted to have a little brother. It was approaching Christmas and she knew that the baby was due any day now. On December 23, a little boy was born. He had problems breathing, so he was put on a respirator and tests were run. The baby’s respiratory system wasn’t fully developed. The baby died Christmas Eve. The little girl was devastated. She was angry at God and had trouble believing that He was a God of love. How could He take back a Christmas gift?

Two years had passed. The little girl’s mom was pregnant again. This time she didn’t want to get her hopes up, so she waited and waited, and her mom gave birth to a healthy little girl.

The little girl in this story was very hurt by her brother’s death. She blamed it on God, when she needed to trust His wisdom and His love.

In our lives, when trouble comes, we have to remember that God will be there for us. We need Him even more. It’s hard to do this because we may forget God is omnipotent. Or, we figure, since He is omnipotent, why does he let bad happen to us? He does it to test our faith. If we trust God, we know that whatever happens in our lives, it will work out.

Remember to trust in God when there is a problem and you will be blessed.

Points To Ponder: Share with your friends situations in which you couldn’t understand God’s wisdom or love? Ask them to help you see what His “way,” His purpose may have been. Do you turn to God when you’re in trouble?

Prayer Possibilities: Pray for strength of faith. Pray for friends whose faith is being tested. Pray for wisdom to counsel and guide them.

How many times have you heard the same thing from your parents - “Clean your room!” We hear them, but we don’t listen. Read 2 Timothy 3:15-17 this morning and you’ll see what I mean.

“and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Like the Scripture says, we have known the Bible and many of its passages since our early days of grade school, or even before that. Sometimes, for some people, we take the Word of God for granted. When, or if, we read Scripture, we may just read words thinking they are of no significance to us. We are so wrong! We must realize the importance of God and His Word in our lives. Even though we have heard many Bible stories many times, we must still think of the importance of those stories in our lives.

Think about the words of the passage again. The scriptures make us wise for salvation. We can’t afford to take our salvation for granted, so why should we take the Scripture, which leads to salvation, for granted?

Points To Ponder: What can we do to keep our daily Bible study from getting boring? What can we do to better understand our Bible study?

Prayer Possibilities: Pray that God helps your Bible study to become interesting and useful. Thank God for the privilege of being Christian all your life and for having easy access to His words.

Today we are looking at Galatians 4:4-5 for a couple verses talking about life.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Glenn had been a soldier for the last four years. He was stationed in Germany during World War II. One morning, when he woke up, he knew that something terrible was going to happen that day. He also knew that whatever happened was in God’s hands and would be for the best. That day was his turn to be stationed in the front row of the battle line, the most dangerous position to be in. He and his battalion were all crouched low in their trenches when he first saw the hand grenade approaching. As it got closer and closer, he decided what he had to do. After what seemed like an eternity, the grenade landed right beside him. At that exact moment Glenn dove onto the grenade, sheltering all of the other soldiers from its powerful blast. Glenn had given his life in order to save all the others.

In the same way, God tells us how he sent his Son, Jesus, to shelter us from the hand grenade of sin. Like Glenn, Jesus also died to protect us. He did not remain dead, however; He rose again. Because He rose, all who trust in Him will escape eternal death and be given the “Gift of Life.”

Points To Ponder: What are the hand grenades which threaten us most in life? Are we truly appreciative of God’s sacrifice for us? How can we show our thanks to God for this great sacrifice?

Prayer Possibilities: Than God for watching over us day and night. Thank God for a wonderful creation in which to live this earthly life. Ask the Lord to shelter us from spiritual death so that we may share His “gift of Life” for all eternity.

Things here on the farm have been crazy busy lately. I have been super tired and sleeping in until 6:30 in the morning and haven’t had a change to post up much for devo’s lately. I’m sorry about that, and will try to do better. To be honest, I’m feeling a little burnt-out and am looking forward to the spraying-seeding-super busy farming time to slow down a bit.

Please pray for me for strength as well as things here are pretty wicked stressful right now. Thanks.