Ignite Your Faith

Description

Christian teens often want to spend more time with God but don't know where to start. Or they've tried to develop a habit of personal quiet time only to be frustrated when they don't keep it up--or become bored with it because they're simply going through the motions.This devotional from the team at Ignite Your Faith magazine aims to change that with a collection of 365 reflections and activities that turns daily devotions into an adventure. Using a variety of approaches to spiritual growth, Ignite Your Faith handles topics such as faith, friendship, family relationships, school, and church with a relevance and skill that will make this a go-to devotional for teens hungry to meet God in new ways each day.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441207289
• Langue: English

Extrait

2009 by Christianity Today International
Published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.revellbooks.com
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording- without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0728-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture marked CEV is taken from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture marked ESV is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked Message is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Scripture marked NCV is taken from the New Century Version . Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NIrV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL READER S VERSION . Copyright 1995, 1996, 1998 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Today s New International Version Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories, some names have been changed.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
CONTENTS
How to Use This Book
The Bible
Extreme Makeover
Enemies and Other Annoying People
What s So Great about Jesus?
Your Prayers Matter
Nonstop Worship
Everything Changes
Entertainment
To Date or Not to Date?
Why Church?
Keeping Pure
Jesus Took On Death
Taking a Stand
Imperfect Heroes
Invisible
Stressed!
Jesus First
Let Love Loose
Parents
Turning Kindness into Action
Lost Causes and Hopeless Cases
Who s Your Daddy?
Friends Who Need Jesus
All-Out Worship
Lust
How to Be a Hero
The Big Plan
Who Am I?
Happily Ever After
The Holy Spirit
Wow!
You re Not Alone
Off with the Mask
Words
Laugh It Up!
Forgiving Jerks
Feeling Full of Fear
Choices That Matter
When Life Hurts
Temper, Temper
In God We Trust
Brothers and Sisters
An Attitude of Gratitude
Let Your Talents Show
Stuff
Failure
God Became Flesh
Don t Give Up
Acknowledgments
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
TWO WAYS TO SET YOUR FAITH ON FIRE
Option 1: Look for what interests you. This book is arranged by topics. Many of these topics are labeled with a Bible or faith theme (for example, What s So Great about Jesus? ). Other topics deal head-on with a life issue (for example, Lust ). Still others dig pretty deeply into a spiritual discipline (for example, Your Prayers Matter ). With this in mind, you might want to find a topic that grabs you, spend your devotional times going through that topic, and then move on to another topic of interest.
Option 2: Do a devotion a day. It s a great spiritual discipline to read a devotion each day of the week. We ve got you covered for a year. Just start at the beginning and keep going until you ve read all 365 devotions. Don t freak out if you miss a day here or there. Each reading is pretty short. It will be easy to get caught up in order to keep yourself moving forward.
Keep this in mind: This book isn t simply something to put on your spiritual to-do list. It s been created to help you grow in your faith, strengthen your relationship with Christ, and dig deeper into the Bible. It s also meant to help you apply God s Word to everyday life. In fact, application is huge. Plan to take action by completing the many activities and spiritual exercises you ll find throughout these pages. In doing so, we believe you ll discover that Christ is shining a little more brightly through all you do.
So find a topic of interest or flip to the first devotional, and prepare to ignite your faith .
DAY 1 I Don t Get It
I believe the Bible is God s Word, but there s a lot of stuff I can t understand- like people who live to be six hundred years old. Is that all true?
-Anonymous

How about you?
* What are your own questions about the Bible? Write em here.

Pray your questions
* Ask God your questions. Turn them into a prayer.
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
-Hebrews 4:12 NLT
DAY 2 The Bible Didn t Mean Much to Me
I plopped down on the couch and looked around at all the people who had come to my youth group s Bible study. I went almost every week to the regular Sunday night meetings and just didn t see any reason to go to another church activity. But Kelly, my youth group leader and someone I really respected, told me it was really important to take time out to study the Bible. So I decided to give it a shot.
There were lots of new people, and Kelly wanted us to get to know each other. She asked us each to talk about how we d become Christians. When it was my turn, I shifted nervously in my chair, cleared my throat, and began.
I became a Christian when I was nine. I paused, feeling a lump form in my throat and my eyes fill with tears. It was the year my mother died of breast cancer. . . . She was a Christian, but that didn t make it any easier.
When I finally stopped talking, I got a lot of hugs-even from people I didn t know. I saw that Kelly had been crying too.
The following week, I went back to the Bible study. Kelly started the night off by reading James 1:22: Do not merely listen to the Word. . . . Do what it says.
As I listened to Kelly, I felt kind of guilty. I d spent a lot of time reading the Bible-but honestly, it didn t mean that much to me. While I wasn t really a bad person, I know I didn t work that hard at applying God s Word to my life.
Live your life according to the Bible, Kelly went on. Let it be your guide.
With that challenge, Kelly asked each of us to have daily devotions and memorize Bible verses. She said one of the best ways to do this was to have an accountability partner-someone you talked to each week to make sure you were on track with your devotions.
I wasn t sure if I wanted to make this kind of commitment, but Kelly volunteered to be my partner. I really liked her and I wanted to know God better, so I agreed.
Kelly called me once a week to see if I was keeping up with my devos. As the weeks passed, we started having some really great and even deep talks about God and life.
One night, I told Kelly I still struggled with my mom s death. She didn t say much, but mostly listened. She also assured me that God really loved me and wanted the very best for me. In a soft, gentle voice, she quoted Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the L ORD , plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. That conversation with Kelly really helped me. I d always known in my head that God loved me, but now I was able to feel it in my heart too. And it wasn t only Kelly s words that helped me feel God s love. The way she reached out to me and cared about me showed me just how much God loved me.
Throughout the year, I became really close with Kelly and everyone else in the Bible study. And as we all got to know the Bible and God better, I was able to come to peace with losing my mom. I no longer doubted that God loved me.
-Emily

What changed?
* How d Emily s attitude change toward the Bible? Why the change?

Who?
* Who helps you understand God s Word? Nobody? Who could you ask to help you study the Bible?
DAY 3 How the Bible Helps
My friend Jim was trying to copy off my paper during a chemistry test, but I told him to stop it. As he tried to convince me to help him out, Ephesians 4:25 came into my head:
Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor.
My friend blamed me for the bad grade he got on the test and didn t talk to me for days. It would have been easier to let Jim cheat. At least he wouldn t have gotten mad at me. But it comes down to what the Bible teaches about honesty. And God wants me to be honest in everything I do-even if it means making a friend mad.
-Matt
Shortly after my aunt was killed in a car accident, a student from my school died from a severe asthma attack. Then a short time later, a close friend of mine was taken to the emergency room because of an asthma attack. Frightening questions went through my mind: What if something horrible happened to me? Wh