Browsing Tag

knowing god

Track 2 – Lesson #3 (God is not Lame)

Discipleship Track 2 (Lesson #3) – God Is Not Lame

If you were asked by a friend, “Who is God?” what would you say? How would you introduce God to your friend? Many times, we’re led to believe by TV, Movies, books and magazines that serving God is lame and boring. Or that to serve God you’ve got to give up lots of things. This discipleship track tackles those issues.

Main Points

  • God is not lame!
  • Serving God will never bring heartache or sadness.
  • Following God will make your life full of adventure!

discipleship-youth-track-pdf

Growth Questions

These questions will help reinforce the truths in this lesson.
Download Your Growth Questions : Lesson # 3 – God is Not Lame

Growth Scriptures

These scriptures will help you get to know more about God’s true character and how He’s totally not lame!

 

 

 

Track 2 (Lesson #4) – God is Good

Discipleship Track 2 (Lesson #4) – God Is Good

Have you ever taken the blame for something you didn’t do? Maybe you got blamed for your brother breaking your mom’s new dishes, or a rumor was started at school about you that wasn’t true. How did that make you feel? Just like you, sometimes God gets blamed for things He didn’t do. Many times in movies and on TV God takes the blame for things He didn’t do. This youth lesson will show you from the Bible about who God really is.

Main Points

  • God is good!
  • Knowing about God’s goodness helps you love Him more.
  • Knowing that God is good helps you want to live for Him.

discipleship-youth-track-pdf

Growth Questions

These questions will help reinforce the truths in this lesson.
Download Your Growth Questions : Lesson # 4 – God is Good

Growth Scriptures

Read these awesome scriptures about God’s goodness and get them into your head and heart. You’ll find that loving and living for God is easier when you know how much He loves you!

 

How to Read the Bible and Not Fall Asleep – Part 2

Teen DevotionsIf you’re like most people, reading the Bible can feel like a bit of a challenge. Its a huge book, and sometimes, its hard to make yourself really get into it. Perhaps you really struggle with understanding the Bible or feeling like you read it but don’t get anything out if it.

If reading the Bible seems boring to you, it doesn’t have to be.  One great way to get more out of reading the Bible is to start by listening to teaching by other pastors and ministers.  They can offer easy to understand insights to the Bible, which will open the Bible up to you in new ways.  They share great things that they’ve gotten out of scripture.  If you pay attention as they speak you can read along in your Bible as they reference a scripture.  Sometimes, you can pick up where they left off and keep reading in the Bible. Lots of these pastors and ministers offer teaching you can listen to online. By listening to the teaching, you are getting God’s word into your heard, which will help you grow spiritually.

We’ve got lots of great resources too on our website to help you grow in your relationship with God. We offer video devotions and teaching, audio devotions, written devotions, and discipleship tracks to help you get started in your walk with God. Depending on how you like learning the best, you can pick a way that you like and get started getting into the Bible.

You can search online for other good ministries to listen to.  The main thing to watch for is that they teach from the Bible and put their focus on Jesus as savior and Lord of their life.

Don’t let any excuses stop you from reading the Bible. Challenge yourself to not be lazy, but to get into the Bible in some way or another everyday.

Similar Youth Devotions

What Baseball Shows Us About Living For God

Devotion for Teens on baseball and living for GodHave you ever noticed when you don’t know the point or the goal of something it can sort of seem pointless?

For example, let’s say you’re out for the baseball team this year and you show up to practice on time. During the entire practice, your coach never gives you any instructions. You just sit around for the few hours of practice feeling weird maybe you and your team mates might even get mad, all because your coach never told you the goal or point of the practice for that day.

It can be easy to feel that same way as Christians. When we don’t understand the point of we’re living for God it makes it easy to feel mad and frustrated.

So, what is the ultimate goal of the Christian life?  Is it doing good stuff? Or is it all about going to church? Is it learning to become a better person?

While all those things are important, the main goal of the Christian life is getting to know Christ.

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, (Philippians 3:10 NLT)

As a Christian, our main goal should be getting to know Christ. That gives our life as Christians meaning and should be the basis for all we do. It would be a shame to live out our whole life here on earth without spending some time getting to know Christ. So make knowing Him a priority in your life today!

Pray: Jesus, I thank you for what you did for me on the cross. I determine to take time to get to know you. I want to know you and make getting to know you a priority today!

Similar Youth Devotions

How To Make Better Decisions

devotion-for-teens-making-decisionsHave you ever made a really bad decision? Or maybe sometimes you just struggle with making a decision. Maybe you’re afraid to make the wrong choice and so its hard for you to commit to making a decision and stick with it. Making decisions can be tricky at times, but here’s a few thoughts that we think will help make the decision making process easier.

  • God wants to help. God wants to lead and guide His children into making good decisions. Whether its what car to buy, or who to date, God is interested in helping you make a good decision about that thing. So lean on His wisdom and include Him in the decision making process.
    Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.” – Romans 8:14 (GNB)
  • Spend time with God. To really get to know God and get His take on your decisions, you’ve got to start by spending time hanging out with God. You get to know God better by reading the Bible and talking to God/praying. So invest the time now getting to know God so that when a time of decision comes, you’re ready to know and hear His voice.
  • Don’t get mad if you don’t get an answer right away. Its easy to pray about something and expect an answer right that second. Sometimes, the answer doesn’t always come right away. So don’t give up or back out on involving God in your decisions if you don’t hear anything right away. Choose to hang in there, knowing that God will always come through for you.
  • Balance God’s wisdom with other people’s wisdom. If God speaks to you about a decision always go with what God says, not what others say. However, if you haven’t really heard anything from God about a decision, its okay to ask other people for advice or help. Some decisions aren’t world altering, and so its totally fine to just lean on the advice, thoughts, or wisdom of others.

Making better decisions always starts by putting God and His word first in your life. If you’ll choose to always put those things first in your life, you’ll find that you’ll be making better decisions and living with less regret. Choose to always put God and the Bible first in your life!

Why Did Noah Build The Ark?

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Many people know the story of Noah, but why exactly did God have Noah build the ark in the first place?

Until that time in history there were no kings, or laws. Each person was doing what seemed right in their own eyes. The world had gotten so messed up that people were completely against all that was right and good. They were destroying themselves and would continue this way until something changed it.

God loved mankind and had a plan to one day bring a savior into the world to take away the sin of the world.

God knew that to complete His plan, He would need to start over. He had to get the world back in line with how He had created things to run. In Genesis 5:6 we see God’s heart in this very tough decision.

It grieved God to have to make such a tough decision. He chose to save the world of sin and the future of all those that would one day come to know Jesus. But in order to accomplish this everyone and everything on the earth had to be destroyed.

Noah had to build an ark in so that one day Jesus could come to earth and pay the price once and for all for sin. Take a moment today to thank God for his love. A love that chose to do whatever it took to bring us into a relationship with God!

Who Should I Pray To?

Devotion For Teens On PrayerHave you ever wondered who to pray to? Or who you should address when you pray? Should you start out your prayer by saying, “Our Father”? Or should you be directing your prayers to Mary? There are so many questions about what is the “right” way to pray. How do you decide who you should pray to and what you should call that person?

The best place to start with questions on prayer is in the Bible. The Bible talks a lot about prayer. One place that talks about prayer is when Jesus was with his disciples in Luke 11. His disciples started asking Jesus questions about prayer. One of the first things they asked Jesus was to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded like this:

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″] 2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. 3Give us each day the food we need, 4and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.” [/quote]

In this verse, Jesus shows us who we should be praying to, God the Father. He addresses God as Father and since he was giving the disciples a model for prayer in these verses, we can use the same format when we are praying. We can talk to God as our father in prayer! That’s exciting news. God isn’t some far off God that has nothing to do with our lives, but he’s a real God that we can pray to as father.

So remember, that when you pray, you are praying to God the father. He’s the one that you’re talking to and spending time with.

Letting God Have A Say

Youth Devotion - Letting God Have A SayIts really easy sometimes to get wrapped up in all the things going on around us. With all the things in our life screaming for our time and attention, its pretty easy to leave God out of our lives. Most of the time, we don’t intend on leaving God out, it just happens with all we have going on. We simply forget to include God in our decision making.

When making decisions, its easy to go for it without God’s help, and then wonder why sometimes things don’t turn out as good as we’d expected. The leaders of Israel did the same thing in the book of Joshua. They had people from a nation close to them trick them into making a treaty with them. The people from the nation that was close to them lied, and told the leaders of Israel that they were from a long way away. The leaders of Israel believed their lie, and without asking God for His help or advice, they made a treaty with the people that were their enemies.

The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence. But they didn’t ask God about it. – Joshua 9:14 (Message)

Its easy to rely on what seems right, like the people of Israel did in Joshua. They looked at the evidence presented to them and took it at face value without letting God have a say. However, you can avoid bad decisions and much heartache by simply letting God have a say in your life. Let Him influence your decisions. As you do, you’ll find that you’ll make better decisions and live life with fewer regrets.

hope vs. belief

“Something good is going to happen to me” was a phrase Oral Roberts made popular. What do you believe about today? Why not just determine to look for the good today? Expectation and hope are more than just wishful thinking. When you are expecting something good because God is in your life and wants to be part of blessing it you are simply including Him in your day. Hope is not “well I hope something happens good today”. No, hope is expectation that God who is able and willing.

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]2Co 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: [/quote]

Realize that God is looking for someone to believe His goodness, His love, His favor- whatever you need today. He needs you to expect, to believe and to say so that He can do for you! He is not limited by willingness to help you. He is not limited by the ability to help you. He is only limited by your expectation that He will do for you.

How to Make Jesus the Lord of Your Life

Teen Devotion Make Jesus Lord of your lifeMany people think that if it feels good to you, you should do it. In today’s world, there is no benchmark for right and wrong. It’s just about what feels good or seems good for each individual. This attitude is reflected in much of the music we listen to and in many TV shows.

While no one can stop you from doing and believing whatever you want, this concept contradicts what the Bible says.

Acts 4:12 – “There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them.” (NLT)

Even though the world today might scream you can do what you want, say what you want, believe what you want, the truth is you can’t. Not if heaven is your goal.

The Bible says there is one way to salvation, Jesus.

That’s it. No other way will get you into heaven. Not saying the right things or doing some good deeds. Its believing in the name of Jesus.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9 (NIV)

It does matter what you believe. The Bible tells us that we are saved by confessing Jesus as our Lord. Jesus is the only way to heaven.

If you’d like to start a relationship with Jesus, pray this simple prayer.

Jesus, I believe you are God’s son. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I know that I can’t do anything bad enough or enough good things to get into heaven. Jesus, I need you to be my savior. I ask you right now to be the Lord of my life. Come into my heart. In Jesus, name, Amen.


If you prayed that prayer and believed it, you are now a child of God. Begin to read your Bible every day and look for a good church that teaches the Word. As you plug into a good church, your faith in Jesus will grow!