I thought in light of last night's message at youth group - "Live in the Living Word" - that I would post links to some of my favorite youth Bibles. Check them out!  LIVE delivers easy-to-understand NLT text and hundreds of relevant opportunities to respond to God's Word right on the spot. Illustrations are by teenagers, for teenagers. Brief devotions and challenges peppered through the Bible invite honest, open responses.
Click here to check out the Live Bible!
 Like the acclaimed Apologetics Study Bible that has sold 115,000+ copies, the Apologetics Study Bible for Students will anchor younger Christians in the truths of Scripture by equipping them with thoughtful and practical responses for whenever the core issues of their faith and life are challenged.Click here to check out the Apologetics Study Bible for Students!
 Packed with personal notes, cool quizzes, challenging insights, smart advice, and open discussion about life today, True Images is the Bible for real teenage girls with real lives. This revised edition features the same relevant features with updated content, a new interior design, and a new cover.Click here to check out the True Images Bible!
In addition, here are a couple devotional Bibles that are great for students who are looking for a way to get in to a regular daily routine of reading the Word!  The great thing about the One Minute Bible for Students is that you will never again get stuck in Leviticus for forty years. The One Minute Bible for Studentsmoves you through the entire Bible—from Creation to the return of Jesus—in just ONE YEAR!Click here to check out The One Minute Bible for Students!
 The Message Remix: Solo revolves around lectio divina, or "divine reading," an ancient approach to exploring Scripture updated for today's students. Each devotion delivers a unique, contemplative study that will encourage you to uncover biblical wisdom and revelations as you learn to read without the typical limitations that often cut Bible reading short.Click here to check out Solo!
This is adapted from a Bible Study I recently taught middle and high school students on Matthew 6:9-13 - The Lord's Prayer.
You should pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” - Matthew 6:9-13 (HCSB)
1: Prayer reintroduces us to God.
“Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.”
When we pray like Jesus taught us to it reminds us of Who God is. When we direct our thoughts and affections toward Him in worship and prayer, we are introduced anew to the only One who is worthy of receiving such attentions. Our tendency to forget Who He is from moment to moment (evident in our lives through doubt, worry, sin, and inaction) necessitates our reintroduction to “our Father in heaven” Whose very Name is to “be honored as holy.” Prayer puts us into His presence, awakening us again to the reality of God’s true identity as Creator, Sustainer, Almighty, our Father, the Holy One.
2: Prayer realigns our priorities.
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
If we follow Jesus’ model of prayer it means that we assent to God’s Kingdom and His will having supreme priority in our lives. It is impossible to pray this sort of prayer and remain selfish. Maintaining a consistent prayer life that is centered on asking God for His plan and His purpose to be lived out in our lives removes any delusions we may have that this life is all about us. When we pray in earnest we are moved to work less on our little kingdoms and more on the Kingdom that is coming and is now already here.
3: Prayer reassures us of God’s providence.
“Give us today our daily bread.”
Prayers for “our daily bread” can cause one to wonder why some who pray earnestly still go hungry or without the necessities and comforts that many of us enjoy. A student of Scripture quickly realizes though that the bread that sustains is the body and blood of Jesus – ultimately our communion with Him. “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again.” (John 6:35) Prayer reassures us of God’s provision of His Son who is with us “always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)
4: Prayer reemphasizes grace.
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
At the center of Jesus’ redemptive relationship with mankind is His intrinsic nature of grace. One simply cannot know and have fellowship with Jesus Christ without having an experience of and an intimate knowledge of His grace. However, we quickly forget the mercies that were extended to us and thus fail to extend them to others. Praying like Jesus brings us to the recollection that we are sinful people who need forgiveness every day of our lives and have it through the grace of our Lord.
*Note that Jesus’ prayer is presumptive in that we are to have already forgiven our debtors. Having lingering conflict or relational strife in our lives is a detriment to our prayer lives and Jesus taught us that as we come to our Father in prayer it should be so under the condition that have at the very least attempted reconciliation with those who have, as some translations say, “sinned against us.” "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” – Matthew 5:23-24.
5: Prayer redirects the way we live.
“And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
When we pray like Jesus taught us to, it helps to put our lives on a different course than the one our sinful nature or our enemy would otherwise lead us to. The heart that pleads to God to be delivered from sin and Satan – who “roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) – is one that God is faithful to redirect away from the temptations both within and outside of us. The Christian who is faithful to pray to God for deliverance from sin is the one who quickly learns that when we are faced with temptation God always provides a way out (1 Cor. 10:13).
6: Prayer recasts the lead role in the story.
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Finally, prayer forces us to remove the spotlight from ourselves and place it on to the One who is truly worthy of it. The most appropriate form of prayer is the kind that literally “puts us in our place”. When God’s people will “humble themselves” and pray, then God truly “hears them from Heaven” (2 Chron. 7:14). The throne in every man’s heart that is reserved to seat the King of Heaven and earth is always under threat of being taken over by “self”, but to pray as Jesus taught us continually replaces or secures the true King upon the throne. It reminds us that the story we are living in is not our own and neither are we the stars of it, but His is the glory forever!
So this week Trisha and I both headed back to work, me full-time (I'd already been back part-time for several weeks) and her part-time for the next couple months.
I know it's going to be hard - a big adjustment for both of us - but it CAN be done! I'll be bringing GGB with me to church in the mornings while Trisha goes to work, and then I'll drop him off to her at lunchtime and she'll have some mommy-time in the afternoons with him.
Check out the picture above of my new workspace. Do you think I'll be able to be productive? :)
- Tim B.
Okay - I'm laying it out there. After a day of being confronted with numerous consequences of sin in one form or another in students' lives and discussing with them the problems so prevalent on the high school campus - drugs, alcohol, sexual confusion and promiscuity, bullying, violence, loneliness, depression, suicide, etc., etc., etc. - I feel this impressed upon my heart (and shared it with some of our students tonight):
High school is hard. The "culture" of high school can change you. I've seen so many students enter our ministry in middle school and be "innocent" and full of hope and joy and graduate high school scarred, cynical, and crippled by the bad decisions they've made along the way. High school can change you...
But is there any hope that WE can change our high school? Is there hope that instead of the culture around us shaping us we can instead take a stand upon the truth of God's Word and begin to shape, impact, and change the culture around us?
Could teenagers surrendered completely to the Gospel change:
Hatred to Compassion?
Violence to Peace?
Selfishness to Service?
Lust to Purity?
Bullying to Self-Sacrifice?
Racism, Prejudice, and Oppression to Understanding?
Lies and Confusion to Truth?
Loneliness to Love?
Depression to Hope?
Addiction to Freedom?
Death to Life?
Darkness to Light?
Could it happen? Is there any hope that a handful of teenagers can change a community? Can God really do something like this?
I know what I believe... what about you?
- Tim
Last Friday was the "Day of Silence" - a day set aside to recognize the bullying/oppression/persecution of anyone who identifies themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual. I had wanted to write some thoughts on the day since we work with many students who are gay or lesbian or struggling with their sexuality in some way or another, but couldn't find the words to do an entire blog post on it. Luckily our friends at Dare2Share posted a great article on the Soul Fuel section of their website, and I'd love to pass on the link to you. You can click right here to check out their thoughts, and I'd love to hear any of your thoughts in a comment on this post! - Tim
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
This morning I talked with our students about problems. Every teenager goes through different types of problems - the most common ones, in their opinions, were loneliness, peer pressure, relationships with the opposite sex, temptation to use drugs or alcohol, and difficulties at home and/or with their parents.
I brought up that there are two types of problems every human being faces:
- Problems that we CAN do something about. By changing a habit, behavior, or taking some kind of an action, making a difference is within our ability, albeit with the grace and strength of God to guide us.
- Problems that we can NOT do anything about. These are problems that, for whatever reason, are out of our control. Perhaps we are victims of circumstance or environment or maybe we're just stuck in the situation we're in with no "out".
Whatever type of problems we are facing - ones that are inside or outside of our control - the Bible says that God will comfort us in the midst of our storms. I encouraged our students (and would love to encourage you) to remember that God comforts us in the midst of problems for two reasons:
- To prove Himself as "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort". To get the glory He deserves as a never-ending source of strength and peace.
- To shape and prepare us for future ministry. If we are aware of this - that God comforts us in our struggles so that we can comfort others - it makes getting through the valleys much more bearable and even gives us a sense of purpose as we walk through them.
Are there problems in your life you are asking God to help you sort through? Maybe some of this will help you. Leave a comment on this post sharing your story or how I could pray for you!
This Easter season our church has launched a pretty massive marketing campaign called "Find It Here". The campaign is designed to engage people in a multitude of ways - tangibly and through media outlets - with a simple, straightforward invitation to attend a church service (specifically Easter Sunday service) at FBC Cold Spring.
The state community of churches we belong to - the Kentucky Baptist Convention (www.kybaptist.org) - has put out 30-second TV and radio spots that will air in the several weeks leading up to Easter. On the local-end of things, we distributed around 3,000 door-hanging bags to as many homes in the community surrounding our church. Each bag contains both a Find It Here pamphlet and a half-page sheet with information on our Easter weekend events/services and an upcoming revival the week after Easter (which I just so happened to design - check it out below!).
I'm really interested to see how effective this campaign is. In the past I've done a lot of neighborhood canvassing for Vacation Bible School, Sports Camps, and other children's activities, and only met with mild success. However, this campaign has so many facets to it - the TV and radio spots, a strong online element, and then the local touch of door-to-door delivery (which always leads to at least a few one-on-one conversations in neighborhoods).
I hope we'll see much fruit over the next few weeks!
This is an article I wrote for youthministry.com earlier this year.
One of my biggest struggles lately has been coming to terms with my inability to birth passion within the lives of students. Hard as I try, I just can’t seem to force passion on them.
Don't get me wrong. I believe that in youth ministry part of our calling is to foster passion within the lives of young people - passion for God's fame, His glory, His kingdom coming, and their story within that Kingdom. I think you could look at it as tending soil, if you're into agricultural metaphors.
The thing is though, you can water the ground all day long but if there's not a seed below the surface, nothing is going to grow there. In the same way, if there are no seeds of Godly passion within a young man or woman's soul, our efforts to inspire them for the sake of the Gospel are, ultimately, in vain.
Even though I know this in my head, I still get heart-frustrated when faced with the spiritual apathy of so many young people, especially the ones who have been in church their whole lives and think that the whole thing is one giant cliché.
At the core of this struggle, there’s a fundamental truth I have to grasp:
I am not God.
Shocking, right?
In John 6:44 Jesus says "…no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him..." I just have to keep reminding myself that God is the One doing the real work in the lives of the students in our ministry. I am, in a very real way, just there to work the soil of their lives. And in the same way that gardening or farming takes time, patience, hard work, and a willingness to wait for the right season to see the harvest, God will, in His perfect timing, plant the seed and cause it to grow.
So here’s my encouragement to you. Let’s keep working. Let’s keep watering. Let’s keep tilling the soil and getting down deep into the lives of young people and praying for the opportunity to witness God-planted seeds of passion take root and break through to the surface of their lives. And let's remember that when we are frustrated with the blank stares, the apathetic attitudes, and the compromising behavior, this simple truth: we are not God.
But He is. And He can do anything.
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