Weekly devotion/ discussion

I am back, after a year of not posting here, I have decided to revive this old dead thing.  I want to attempt to resurrect this blog by starting a weekly post, which as the title say will include a short devotion for the week and a discussion that I have either experienced through my ministry, or just something that has been on my mind. 

So without any delay here we go:

This past Sunday I was blessed to get to preach; the topic that I chose was forgiveness.  Big topic, I know, right?  Well God blessed me with all kinds of insight on this topic and to be honest I feel as though I personally have a better understanding of what forgiveness is, what it means to be truly forgiven, what I need to do once I am forgiven and well that God offers us forgiveness no matter what the sin, and that continues throughout being saved.  So that is what I want to talk about for this weeks devotions. 

This week I want to look at what do I do once I am forgiven, you know that thing called discipleship...

The passage I am going to use is Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission. 

Matthew 28:19-20

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

There is a lot to get from this passage, including but not limited to:  Jesus is always with us, we need to go and make disciples of all nations, we also need to baptize through immersion into the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  You can read the verse, I am not doing this to teach you how to read, nor am I trying to give you a weekly memory verse, what I am trying to do is give you something to think about that maybe you haven't before.  

Have you ever thought about what it means to go out and make disciples? I mean really, I know I hadn't really before this sermon, which is bad because our theme for this past year at Johnson was this exact passage.  So I should know all about it right?  Wrong.  If you didn't know the Greek word for disciple literally translates into "servant"  Now is Jesus telling us to go and make servants to do our bidding in all the nations...no, sorry to smash your hopes and dreams there.  Jesus is talking about making Christians.  you know we don't see Jesus use the word Christian at all in the bible?  Why is that, well because Christian literally means "Christ Follower".  So in that sense Jesus is saying go and make "Christians" of all nations.  Train all the nations to follow what I have commanded. Train them to follow me.  


We do this to keep the ball rolling, because by training disciples that can teach, you have enabled that disciple to train more disciples to do the same.  


So this week think about two things:  That Jesus is always with us, till the end of the age, Amen to that; and how can you be a disciple and light to the world, and who can you disciple to have a better understanding of Jesus.  


So the discussion of the week is this:  


2 weeks ago I asked the kids in my youth group to write me questions they have about God, Christianity and the Church.  In general I expected questions like why do we have communion, why do we sing and questions like this.  I even got some questions like this, but I also got questions like how are preachers picked, and why do we dress up for church, why do we have an 8:30 service...typical kid questions.  I did one question, that to be honest I didn't expect to get, but I know that God is using this question to help me grow in my faith and allow me to gain a better understand of how to approach kids for my future ministry.So here is the question:

"How do I know that God exists?"

Big question right, I mean I know people my age and older that aren't mature enough to ask this question, or may have not even questioned this.  I mean have you ever asked this?  I grew up in church so I have been blessed to have a wonderful Christian household along with wonderful Godly parents to raise me, but still I have sort of always accepted my beliefs and never questioned, so this question coming from someone so much younger than me shocked me, but in a good way.  


So here it is:  how would you approach this child with an answer, this child is around 7 years old.  


I hope that God blesses the rest of your week, and that he uses you to bless someone in your life.


God bless,

Will