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sharing your faith

What Dominos Can Teach Us About Our Faith

Posted on February 25, 2018

I remember playing dominoes as a kid. I hated playing the game by the rules. Instead, I loved setting up all the dominos in a row in all sorts of fun patterns. Once I had the dominos set up, I’d knock the first one over and watch as the first one knocked over the second, the second knocked over the third. On and on the knocking over happened until all the dominos fell down. Knocking over dominos is really fun. Playing with dominos reminds me of Romans 10.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! – Romans 10:13-15

Each part of this scripture is like a domino. You’ve got to have one to knock down two, to knock down the third and so on. So what are these dominos?

Domino One – To get saved you have to call on the name of the Lord.

This domino makes a lot of sense. If you want to get saved, you’ve got to ask Jesus to do it. You can’t rely on your works, good deeds or anything else. The Bible clearly states that it is Jesus who does the saving.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it – Eph 2:8-9 (NLT)

Salvation is a gift of grace. It’s not about what you’ve done, its all about who Jesus is. It’s all about asking Jesus to save you. The great thing about this is that Jesus doesn’t make calling on him complicated. It’s simple, it’s just reaching out to Him by faith or belief. That’s where the next domino comes into play.

Domino Two – To call on Jesus you have to believe.

You have to believe in Jesus to call on Him for salvation. If you think that you’re saved by your works or any other way, there’s no need to call on Jesus. To call on Jesus, you’ve got to humble yourself and realize that without Jesus you can’t do enough good to get into heaven. You’ve got to firmly believe that Jesus is God’s son, and his sacrifice on the cross was the payment for your sin. Once you believe that, you’re able to call on Jesus to save you.

But that statement makes you wonder: How do you begin believing?

Domino Three – To believe in Jesus, you have to hear about Him.

If you haven’t heard about Jesus, how would you know that you should call on him, or believe in Him? You wouldn’t. You’ve got to build belief in Jesus by hearing about Him. Think about it, the more you hear about a great movie, the more you want to go see it. When you hear about something good it makes you want to try it. The same is true about Jesus to develop the faith to believe Him, you’ve got to hear about Him. You’ve got to learn that He’s good, that’s He is the only way to God.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17 (KJV)

So how do you begin to hear about Jesus?

Domino Four – To hear about Jesus, someone has to tell you about Him.

This about a new restaurant you’ve tried recently. What made you decide to try the new restaurant? Most likely, someone told you about it. Maybe a friend told you the new restaurant was really good and their review made you want to try it for yourself. The same is true with Jesus. If someone hadn’t told you about Jesus, you couldn’t have called on Him for salvation.

When you hear about the goodness of God, it makes you believe in Him and want to invite Him into your life.

So finally, how does someone tell others about Jesus?

Domino Five – Those who tell others about Jesus are sent.

The Bible tells us in Mark 16:15 that we are to go into our world and tell others about Jesus. As believers, we are called by God to tell others about who Jesus is.

And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. – Mark 16:15 (NLT)

So take some time this week to think about this scripture. You’ve been called by God to tell others about Jesus. You are called to preach to people the message of salvation.

[Tweet “You’ve been called by God to tell others about Jesus – @studentdevos”]

As you tell others, they will hear the message, then they have the option to believe and finally call on Jesus to be saved. But the process starts with you telling people about Jesus. If you don’t open your mouth, then other people won’t have the opportunity to hear the gospel. It’s up to you to share with those around you. You sharing salvation with those around you can cause a great domino effect. You could cause someone you know and care for to get saved and to spend eternity with Jesus.

So what are you waiting for? Begin sharing Jesus with others today!

Youth Group Discussion Questions – What Dominos Can Teach Us About Our Faith
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One Christmas Challenge You Won’t Regret Doing This Year

Posted on December 20, 2016

I am admittedly the world’s worst Christmas present wrapper. I try so hard to get the right amount of wrapping paper when I wrap gifts. I usually measure the size of the box, then re-measure it just to make sure I get it right. No matter how careful I am, I almost always end up with an extreme amount of wrapping paper. I either have way more than I need, or less than what’s necessary and end up not covering the box I’m trying to wrap. Despite my best efforts, my Christmas presents always end up looking very strangely wrapped.

Wrapping Christmas presents with the wrong amount of paper gets me thinking about the word capacity. As you can tell, I don’t have the capacity to wrap Christmas presents well. But capacity is an important thing. Our view of our capacity determines how far we will go in life and in accomplishing our dreams. The importance of capacity is seen in the Christmas story. Let’s take a look at Mary and see what we can learn about capacity.

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” – Luke 1:34 (NLT)

Mary Questioned Her Capacity

In this story Mary questioned her capacity. She wondered how this could happen because she didn’t have the capacity to have a child. She was a virgin. The amazing thing about Mary is that she didn’t let herself be limited by her capacity. If I had been Mary, I probably would have listed out a bunch of excuses as to why I couldn’t carry a child. Maybe I would have said that I wasn’t ready to raise a child. Perhaps I’d say that I wanted to go to college first, or spend more time with my friends binge watching Netflix. But Mary didn’t say any of those things. She didn’t put any limits on the capacity that God saw in her. Instead Mary chose to see capacity the way God sees it.

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. – Luke 1:38 (NLT)

If we’re honest, when God tells us to do something, we usually see limitation. We see all the reasons why we can’t do the thing God told us to do. What we should be doing is seeing what God sees – our capacity in Him.

[Tweet “We see limitation. God sees capacity – @studentdevos”]

This is exactly what Mary did. She choose to take her eyes off what was convenient, what was easy and what made sense. Instead she decided to see God’s capacity in her. Like Mary, our capacity to do more is released when we believe what God says about us.

Release Your Capacity To Do More This Christmas

Your challenge this Christmas is to expand your view of your capacity. What has God been speaking to your heart? Who is God telling you to reach? What have you not done because you didn’t think you had the capacity to do it?

[Tweet “Our capacity to do more is released when we believe what God says – @studentdevos”]

How you view your capacity determines your success. So choose to see yourself the way God sees you. Choose to push back against limitations that have held you back in the past. Determine to step forward into the things God has been speaking to your heart. Challenge yourself to release your capacity to do more this Christmas.

No One Likes Eating by Themselves

Posted on October 24, 2016

Have you ever gone to meet people at a restaurant and you ended up getting there before anyone else arrived? Or even worse, have you ever had to eat somewhere completely by yourself? It sure isn’t fun.

There’s a story in the Bible where God invited tons of people to have supper with Him in Luke 14. This story shows us that God paid a huge price for us to be with Him and invite others to come too.

You might have been saved for a long time. You might now have christian friends and hang out at places where others share similar values as you. In one sense, that is great. It’s nice to have wholesome places where you can be yourself as a christian and not be nervous to talk about God. But in another sense you can become isolated from others who still need to know God. Its easy to get so comfortable hanging out with others who love God that you forget there are people all around your city who are hungry for Jesus, they just haven’t had a chance to hear about Him.

That’s what this story about the supper is all about. There was an invitation to come to the great supper but many who were invited made excuses to not come. Some of the excuses were buying land, having oxen, and getting married. Today’s excuses might be, I’ve got a new video game to play, or a new girlfriend to hang out with, or that I’m too busy learning lines for the school play. There is nothing wrong with any of those things, except when those things get in the way of doing what God asks.

You might feel like your friends that don’t know God could care less about Him. And while that might be true for some, most of your friends are hungry for God. They’re just hiding it underneath a lot of hurt. Your friends are hungry for God and if you asked them to go to church with you, they’d probably say yes.

To step out and ask a friend to go with you to church is not comfortable. However, it might be their chance to hear about Jesus for the first time. Your flesh (emotions and often how you feel) doesn’t want to step outside of your safety net of christian friends. But, if you are born again and know Jesus as Your Savior, you have another part of you (your Spirit). This new part of you does care about others who do not know God. It wants to be bold and often is nudging you on the inside to step out and do things to help others experience Gods love.

Make the decision to be open to be used by God. Invite people who do not know Jesus into your life. You might not know how God will do it, or you might not know what to say but the first step is simply being willing. Then the second step is to simply pray that God would help you step out. He might put a specific person on your heart. You might not think they are hungry by the way they act but God knows. If He put them on your heart, you know if you step out that something special will happen.

Right now if you are willing and ready to reach out to the unsaved hurting hungry people around you, pray this: “God, I’m thankful for the things You’ve done in my life. I know that You also love others around me that have never heard or experienced You like I have. God, show me who those are around me that are hungry for you and give me the courage to invite them into my life. Give me the courage to invite them to my church. God, I believe that you will use me. Amen.”

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Help! My Friend is doing bad stuff.

Posted on August 31, 2015

Have you ever had a friend that began making choices you didn’t like? Maybe they started using alcohol or drugs. Perhaps they got into porn or started becoming sexually active. It can be really hard to know what to do when someone you care about starts to make choices that you can see are wrong.

With those thoughts in mind, we’ve gotten a list together of some suggestions to help you when your friend starts doing bad stuff.

Speak into their life – If you have the ability to talk to this friend, do it. See if you can find out why they are making these choices. Don’t yell at them or give them a hard time because of what they’re doing, but be there to listen. Believe that when you talk to them, God will show you something to say that will encourage them to make the right choices. Finally, be careful when you talk to them to not come across as mean or seem like you know it all. Be genuinely interested in what they’re going through and believe that God will use you to encourage them and remind them of the truth.
Pray for them – This can be such a hard thing to do. Many times you want to see instant results. You want your friend to stop what they’re doing and start living right. However, sometimes the best thing you can do for a friend is to pray for them. A great place to start is to pray the prayer that Paul prayed in
Ephesians 1:17-18 (Message) – “Ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory – to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do…”
Pray that they will be able to see clearly what they are doing and the plan God has for their life.
Always love them – Sometimes when friends make bad choices they don’t act very kindly to you. They might lash out at you or stop hanging out with you. It doesn’t matter how badly they treat you, you should love them.
1 Cor 13:7 – “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” NLT
Never give up on friends when they’re making bad choices, instead choose to love them and be there for them no matter how they treat you.

Dealing with a friend who is making bad choices is hard. But with God’s help, you can be a support and help for your friends that are in need. You can love them, pray for them, and even talk to them to encourage them. Regardless if you see results or not, Its important that you choose to love your friend no matter how they treat you in return.

Pray: God, I come to you in the name of Jesus and I pray for my friend. I ask you to open the eyes of their hearts that they might see who you are and how much you love them more clearly. I ask you to help me with wisdom so I know what I should do in this situation and how to help my friend. I believe that you are showing me the right thing to do right now in the name of Jesus, Amen.

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What a Sandwich Can Teach Us About Judging Others

Posted on March 9, 2015

I’ve always hated a small restaurant near my house. I saw the outside of the building and how it was painted and just knew I would hate the food. It really didn’t seem like it was my style at all. I was certain I hated the place and its food.

However, one day a bunch of my family decided they wanted to eat there. So I went along with them to have supper. I wasn’t impressed by anything in the restaurant and knew the entire meal was going to be disgusting and not worth my time. But for the sake of my family, I stayed and ordered some food from the menu. I decided on a simple sandwich. I figured its pretty hard to ruin a sandwich.

Before too long, our food arrived. I bit into my sandwich. I didn’t have an expectations that the sandwich was going to be good. In fact, I was just hoping I could eat it without gagging. I took the first bite, and to my surprise, the sandwich was great! In fact, it was one of the best ones I had ever had. I couldn’t believe it, how could I have been so wrong about a sandwich?

That sandwich reminds me a lot of how easy it is to judge others. You can see how a person acts, the clothes they wear, or even the friends they have and put that person into a box. We write certain people off because of how they treated us, or how we perceive them. However, just like I was wrong about the restaurant being good, many times, our judgements of people can be wrong.

By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The other thing about judging others is that it cheapens the price Jesus paid for mankind. Jesus gave his life for all humanity. That means each person has value to God. From the most popular to the least popular, each person matters to God. Because each person matters so much to God, when we judge others we cheapen the price God paid for each person.

So the next time you’re tempted to pass judgement on someone. To look down on them for what they wear or how they act remember that they are important to God. He loves them and wants them to have the chance to get to know Him. So the next time you’re tempted to judge someone, use it as an excuse to share God’s love with that person instead. See the person like God sees them and invite them to start a relationship with a loving God.

God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. – 1 John 4:9 (GW)

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sharing your faith

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. – John 11:25 (NLT)

Today’s Truth: Jesus is the resurrection and the life!

Tell people about his glory. Tell all the nations about his miracles. – Psalms 96:3 (GW)

Today’s Truth: It’s easy to tell others how good God is.

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. – Daniel 6:10

…for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:20 (NLT)