This is a guest post from Kelly Lippenholz. She is the Family Ministry Project Coordinator at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. She oversees the development of content and curriculum for student and children’s ministry. She lives in the Northern Baltimore County with her husband and two boys. You can connect with her on Twitter @klippenholz.
Several years ago, I was in the midst of my first bible study class. In my 30 years, I’d barely cracked open my bible, much less studied it. And on top of that, I wasn’t sure I’d had any kind of encounter with Jesus either.
Courtesy of misko13/Creative Commons License
I enjoyed the class. I was learning things my Catholic upbringing had never taught me. We looked at how Jesus interacted with a few different people such as:
Somewhere along the way, we were discussing how Jesus treated society’s lowest class. We looked at how he always:
They always went away changed, inspired, forgiven, and unashamed.
At that moment, our teacher asked us a question that changed me forever.
WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN YOUR LIFE?
It was a question I’d never been asked in my life (my 8-years-of-Catholic-education, never-missed-a-Sunday life). A question that would leave me with no other option but to act differently next time I encountered anyone.
I had to wonder, “When people walk away from an encounter with me, do they feel inspired, forgiven, unashamed, or even good about the encounter? Or do they feel defeated, less than, insulted, drained?”
This one question changed the way I looked at scripture. I now saw through a different lens. A lens that told me I had to emulate what I saw in scripture, not just read about it.
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22
To help your teens see scripture and life through a different lens, this is a question you need to ask them too. It’s a question that will:
Typically teens are just fed information with no idea of how to use it. When you ask that question it changes the way they approach God’s word. It tells them, “This is instruction…use it.”
God’s word sometimes takes time to process. By asking them the question you are encouraging them to slow down and take a second look. They might see a word or a phrase that is relevant to their life. If you just review the scripture as a text book they might miss that.
Challenge your teens on a weekly basis to dive deeper into God’s word. Encourage them to live out their faith in a very tangible way by helping them look at scripture as something relevant to their life.
Do you agree that this is the big question? What question would you ask weekly? Please comment.