10.02.2012

Students with no Word

I am apparently much more naive than I previously thought.

Something interesting happened to me tonight, and it happened during a crossroads with a class I have been co-teaching. It was brought to my attention that there are some kids within my class, our church, our community... that have never read or flipped through the Bible... some of them have never so much as held a Bible. Now, I really don't know why that shocks me the way that it did... but not only did it really catch me off guard, it broke my heart. I can remember even when I wasn't a Christian (and by not a Christian I mean I hadn't allowed God to transform my life, or allow the Holy Spirit to dwell inside me) still reading my Bible from time to time. I guess I had an advantage because I was raised in a home where the Bible was revered, read, and revealed to me at a very young age. Yet, the whole way home tonight it just kept bothering me...

A brother of mine once said to me that he realized, long ago, that "children are not ours-- they are God's children, we are just charged with raising and protecting them while on Earth". I believe that to be true... and I think that's why I am so distraught over the fact that there are children-- GOD's children-- that are missing out on the Truth. The Bible contains the very words of God. Whether they were directly spoken to the author, or conveyed in some other way... they are from God. The Bible is such an important part of my relationship with Christ; at times-- it's how He answers me in time of need, how He lifts me up when I'm down, and how He calls me to do things. It's a comfort for me, to be able to pick up my Bible and know that I hold in my hands the Truth that God wants to speak to me. Don't get me wrong, I can understand how there are kids that don't know the Bible, or even choose not to read it... but to literally be at a place in your life where at 15 years old you have never even held a Bible.. in THIS country, that blows my mind.

Throughout the day, I had been feeling as though God was trying to speak to me about something. I actually have written two drafts of two very different blog posts today. While writing the first though, I could hear God telling me that my time to write had not yet come today... I needed to wait, I needed to put it off just a few more hours. Now I know why. I love the way God prepares us for these lessons... He's been preparing me for almost a week. Last Friday, I went to the first "Theology for Breakfast". Basically, it's a gathering of high school students, at 6:30 am, to just really dig deep into Theology through a book called Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem. It's a condensed version of the book Systematic Theology, and it focuses on 20 basic questions every Christian should know. The first topic/question (which we discussed last week) was "What is the Bible". God was preparing me for tonight. He was stirring in me a prayer, a hope, a passion for students to really know the answer to that question. I got an opportunity to somewhat answer that question, in a prayer I wrote this evening during my class... I prayed this:

Father--I realize now I need so much patience in more than just the situations I have been pleading to you about, Lord. I don't understand how kids here, in this class, and in this church have never read or even looked through a Bible. Lord, Your Word is so precious and it literally breathes life into the lifeless. Not knowing You results in lifeless-ness. Father, surround these students with Your love, stir in them a desire to know You. Use me in whatever way you need to, to help speak Truth into their lives. No one should grow up without feeling the unending grace and redeeming love that comes from You, Lord. Start a revolution in the hearts of our students, set fire to the dry forest that is a generation and let it burn like crazy. Move mountains when they face mole hills, flood them with the Holy Spirit when they face storms. Lord, begin to change the face of a generation, of a culture, and of the world. I love you. Amen.

That prayer was written because it was exactly what was on my heart in that very moment. I am convicted by the knowledge that there are students in my midst that don't know the Word. Some don't even have access to it, which makes something like posting a verse on Facebook-- seem so much more important. I don't know what God's going to do through this lesson-- but I do know it has already caused me to treasure my Bible in a way that I never have before. The Word of God is a beautiful gift, and a guide to how I need to live my life on a daily basis. I am more thankful for that gift tonight, than I ever have been.

Read your bible. Right now... go on, I dare you- and if you have more than one Bible, maybe one you aren't reading at all-- give it to a friend, a student, a kid at church, or a guy on the street. Everyone needs God's Word.

Grace and Peace,

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