THE REBIRTH YOUTH ON FIRE MINISTRIES

Bible Reading: Romans 1: 16-17 I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes. Romans 1:16 WALDO STROLLED DOWN the city sidewalk, lost in thought. He was going to church. He had decided he had run from God long enough. I can’t stand it anymore, he thought. The guilt, the conviction, the feeling that my life is missing something. After walking for blocks, he reached a church and walked inside. He stood for a mo­ment to let his eyes adjust to the dark. “Will you be coming in?” The voice startled Waldo. He turned and saw a man standing beside him. “Uh, yes,” Waldo answered. “I want to come in.” “Your brains please, sir,” the man said. “My brains?” “Yes, your brains. You have decided to become a Christian, haven’t you?” the man continued. Waldo nodded. “Well, then, you have to drop off your brains here at the door. You won’t be needing them anymore.” No, there isn’t really a guy named Waldo who was forced to fork over his brai...

Bible Reading: John 1:10-13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 HOW DO YOU treat people who trash you? Let me guess. Maybe not quite as kindly as God treats us when we reject him? See, God loves us whether we receive that love or not. You probably know that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes …” (John 3:16, NIV). The key word there is  whoever.  When God gave his Son, he knew that some would believe and others would not. John wrote, “Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted” (John 1: 11). God knew that a sizable chunk of humankind would stomp on his gift of salvation and hoof it away from him. Yet he keeps on loving us. If you ever doubt that God’s love persists even when we snub him, consider how Jesus displayed love. He knew Judas would betray him, but he loved Judas and called him to be a disciple anyway. When the crowd cried, “Crucify him!” Jesus respond...

  Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 There are three things that will endure-faith, hope, and love-and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 TURN ON THE radio or TV at any time. You can’t get way from love. It’s sung about on music stations, dramatized-often melodramatized-in soap operas, humorized in sitcoms, and mocked in trash-talk shows. Here’s what you hear: “Love can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” “I love what you do for me.” “If you really love me, show me.” If love means making the health, happiness, and growth of another person as important as your own, here are some examples of what that might look like: If it’s reasonable for your sister to babysit your little cousin while you go to a party, love requires that you do the same for her sometime. If you expect your teachers to treat you with respect, love requires that you treat them with respect and not bad-mouth them to other students. I...

 Bi ble Reading: Philippians 2:1-4 Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Philippians 2:4 LOVE-THE WORD slides into conversations almost unnoticed. “You love her. Admit it.” “I saw a great movie. You’ll love it.” “Yeah, I’d love a burger slathered with onions.” “I love the acceleration and handling of this car!” “My kitten is so cute. I just love him.” The word love has a multitude of different meanings. So when we talk about love these days, it’s important to know exactly what kind of love people mean. For exam­ple, if a guy can’t spot the difference between loving his dog, loving his favorite baseball glove, and loving his girlfriend, he’s in deep trouble-with his girlfriend, not the dog. And a girl had better know that her love for her prom dress and for her par­ents are two totally different things. The apostle Paul dedicated a whole chapter to the topic of love. What he wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 describes what love d...

  Bible Reading: John 15:9-16 Now you are my friends.  …  You didn’t choose me. I chose you.  John 15:15-16 THEY WALK the halls of high schools all over America. Dorks. Gearheads. Skinheads. Jocks. The names change from time to time and place to place, but the idea stays the same. There’s a right group and a wrong group, an in-crowd and an out­ crowd. And everyone says that your job in life is to hang with the right people. First, there are the dorks, dweebs, geeks, or nerds. Tacky, mismatched clothes.  Hiked-up pants. Pocket protectors, too. And they actually  like  math and science. Then there are the skinheads and hard noses-the racist types fascinated by fire­arms. They wear army fatigues and can’t wait for the next war. Another group is the grease monkeys or gearheads. When they say “baby” they’re more likely to be talking about cars than cute girls, as in, “This baby can do zero to sixty in eight seconds.” And there are always the jocks. They hav...