Students as Leaders

Posted on by Derrick Laughlin

Students today are not children finishing childhood.  They are young adults preparing for a real world.  We see many examples of this in Scripture.  Over and over we read how young people did remarkable things for God and His kingdom.  Students today are not the church of tomorrow as much as they are the church of now, alongside adults, fulfilling the work of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

  • Joseph – was victimized by his own brothers, sold into slavery, and abandoned. Yet as youth in difficult circumstances determined to serve God, became second in command of all of Egypt.  He becomes critical to the redemption of God’s chosen people and remains central to the mission of God.
  • Miram – risked her life to look after her brother Moses.
  • Samuel – heard the voice of God when His voice was rare
  • David – as a teenager kills Goliath
  • Josiah – stood for God and ended idolatry and witnessed a revival
  • Daniel – stood valiantly for God despite the circumstances
  • Esther – risked her life for her people
  • Mary – teenager saying yes to God to be used to deliver His Son to the world
  • Timothy – led the church following Paul’s footsteps

We cannot understand the amazing gospel, the great narrative of Scripture detailing the mission of God, without the role of young people in critical times.  When we read the Bible, we can easily see that God often used youth to fulfill his purpose.  And because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we can know that He still uses young people.

Students today want less to do with institutional programs and religious rituals and more to do with personal relationship and social injustices.  In the movement of Christianity, we must clearly speak truth and find a vision for living in light of that truth.  When the gospel has been at the center of the faith of believers, Christianity can become such a force.  We must also take care to not become so involved in the movement itself, but become overly involved with the Master of the movement.

It’s about Christ, not our preferences.  Worshiping God, not a style of music.  Showing and telling others the gospel, not our political or philosophical views.

People like you and me are the kind of people God wants to use in His movement.  Are you taking part?

Philippians 4:13 – “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

 

God’s Love for the Lost

Posted on by Derrick Laughlin

Out of the millions of different ways God could have chosen to tell the world about His love, He chose you and I.  He designed us to tell a story. In fact, He designed all of creation to tell a story.  And that story, as a believer, should always point back to Him.

As I prepared for the series Jonah and the City, I am reminded that we as disciples are called to be on mission everywhere we go.  God’s love isn’t just for believers.  God’s love is for all. It’s for the person who cut you off this morning on your drive to work.  It’s for the drunkard walking into the bar tonight.  It’s for the single teenage mother going to night classes.  It’s for the conservative.  It’s for the liberal.  It’s for our friends. It’s for our enemies.

You have been given a divine appointment, God-created opportunity, to tell others about His love.  Exactly who you are and exactly where you are in your life, God wants to use you to spread the Gospel message of Christ.  As we learn from Paul, speaking to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-2, (paraphrased): Timothy, all that you have heard and seen from me, show and teach others who will show and teach others, who will continue the legacy.

This is the multiplication method of discipleship that Jesus taught.  Make disciples who make disciples.  Our compassion for the others, including the lost should be imitating the compassion our Father has for His creation.  And what better story to know about God’s compassion than the story of Jonah.