Pinedale Student Ministries

Today’s Passage:
Isaiah 40:28-31

Experience:
Here you are! At the end of your 40 devotions! Maybe you’ve been looking forward to these devotions all year. Maybe you couldn’t wait for them to end. Or maybe you want to continue these devotions for the next 40 days, or even longer than that! If so, we encourage you to do just that! We may not be writing these anymore and giving them to you online or in a book, but you can definitely continue to study God’s Word all year long.

Eventually though, you will get tired. Reading and studying and allowing God to grow you everyday can be a challenge. I mean, it’s not like you don’t have enough going on at your school or whatever, right? Spiritual growth can take a lot of work and be exhausting. Maybe you tried doing all of the activities and you even shared the gospel with your friends, but they didn’t want to talk about God. Or just the opposite, you told your friends about God and now they have all of these questions… and they wants answers.

This passage is so encouraging to me when I face hard times. The author seems to be asking the beginning two rhetorical questions with a sense of amazement. Why wouldn’t we know about all the good things God has done, even if just in the past few weeks? The author continues to paint a picture of God’s everlasting power, the same power he chooses to put in you. These verses also contain a promise, that God will renew us when we’re tired of fighting the good fight. God has us in mind. He wants the absolute best for us. He knows it won’t be easy, but he promises that if we’re constantly pursuing him, we won’t be spiritually exhausted.

We really hope you enjoyed the lessons from the past 39 days. We’ve enjoyed experiencing this journey with you. As always, we pray that God pursued your heart through his scripture and our words, and that you’ve used what you learn to influence others! Don’t stop just because the devotions are over, make sure you show God’s love for the rest of the year, too!

Today’s Passage:
Luke 15:1-10

Experience:
On Day 11 we learned how Jesus often helped people understand his teachings through simple parables, stories that were related to cultural things they already knew. In today’s passage, Jesus tells two parables, both with the same purpose. Jesus described two situations where someone loses something very valuable. The search begins, and when the item was found, the person who had been searching rejoiced. Could you imagine having a party every time you found your lost cell phone? Or car keys? Or homework? Okay, maybe you do have a little party when you find those things, because they’re important… I guess. I mean, yeah, I normally freak out when I lose my keys. But back to the point…

If you’ve heard this parable before, you probably know that Jesus’ point in teaching this parable was the value of a nonbeliever finally accepting Jesus. It’s the “lost” being “found.” But here’s a point you may have not previously considered. In these parables, both the sheep and the coin once belonged to the owner. They had touched those things, held them, and the owner knew of their value. That’s the reason why it was so exciting to find them again! The owners knew something was missing.

Interestingly, God feels the same way about everyone in the world. We all initially belonged to God. We were purposefully and lovingly created to be people that wanted God. But when Adam and Eve allowed sin into the world, it’s like we all went into hiding. God knows us. He loves us. And he wants us back. He knows our value because he’s had us before.

If you know someone who is “lost,” and unbeliever, picture him as a lonely, dusty, gold coin under a couch. He’s just waiting for someone to shine some light on him so he can be found. The last 38 days have hopefully pointed you toward what it means to love Jesus and to show others the true love of God. We are called to be the ones finding the lost sheep and coins. And when those people come to know God, God promises the biggest celebration we’ve ever known. Chances are, you know someone who needs to be found. They need to hear the word of God. Don’t you think it’s time you start looking under the couch and finding the lost?

Today’s Passage:
Matthew 9:35-38

Experience:
A couple years back, I played in a band with some awesome guys with great hearts. In our minds we had set out to be a ministry through music, playing at bars, churches, or anywhere else that would allow us to come in and play music, and then talk about what we believed. Little did we know then that God had bigger plans for us than just playing music. As we started to have Bible and book studies as a band, we realized that we had to get out of our comfort zone of the stage and step out into the world.

Our idea was to go down to the worst neighborhoods in Winston Salem and just have cookouts. We gave food, clothing, and played a little music, and before we knew it, there were 100 people standing in a vacant parking lot in downtown Winston Salem. Some were homeless, some were living in poverty, some just wanted free food. Never before had I felt God as real as I felt him that day. It’s absolutely crazy what God can do when you just simply put yourself out there. It’s been 2 years since we started doing cookouts downtown, and every time that we do them we have a blast. I’ve gotten to meet so many amazing people, and had so many good conversations with people over a hotdog.

The scripture for today talks about how there is a lot to be done, but not a lot of people willing to do it. I always thought that I was a worker for the kingdom because I talked about God from the stage, but it wasn’t until I put my feet in the mud with the people that no one else wanted to be with, that I experienced the true joy of serving people and working for the kingdom. In saying all of that, my challenge to you today is be a worker. If God has laid something on your heart, go do it. Even if you’re not sure how, just go do it.

(Submitted by Gray Steadman)

Today’s Passage:
Matthew 5:13-16

Experience:
Last time I checked, I didn’t taste salty. Seriously. No go ahead, lick your arm. Do you taste like a pretzel? I didn’t think so. (And if you did, go take a shower or something, gross!) And I’m no Cyclops either, I can’t emit light from my eyes or anything.

So what is this passage all about? Does God actually want you to become the salt of the earth or the light of the world? Well, sort of. In the moment you become a Christian, you’re already the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It’s true that salt can lose its flavor (its impact) and light can be hidden. The same is true for you. God wants to use your life to flavor (bring real life to) others and to preserve (fulfill) their lives to be used by God. As people see your good deeds, they’ll know it’s from God.

The more you do for God, the more well-known you make him! And just like we’ve been learning, you don’t have to do crazy things to just show people you love them and God loves them. Your personal mission is to make Jesus known, and being salty and bright is a great way to do that!

Ask God to give you opportunities to be salt and light to others this week, and take notice of what he does!

Today’s Passage:
Isaiah 6:8-9

Experience:
You know that feeling, you have just turned in your project and you have to present it. Your teacher stands in front of the class, rubric in hand, and asks, “Who wants to go first?” There is that very suspenseful moment where your heart is racing and you are holding your breath, hoping someone will go to the front and that it’s not you who gets called on. Finally, some brave soul steps up to the front of the room and you can breathe.

Is that you? Are you sitting in the back, holding your breath for someone to make the first move? Or are you that brave soul who takes the first step toward the right thing?

In this passage, God asks who will be the first to go and spread his Word. He asks for someone that is willing to follow Him. Isaiah, who was living in corrupted world, steps up to the plate instantly, launching his mission to warn the people of Judah. He moved beyond the opinions of others, beyond the world he’d grown up in, and beyond the the obstacles set before him. He didn’t let his past dictated his future, but he trusted that God would provide everything that he needed.

God calls us everyday. Will you tell God where you are and let him send you to spread his love and Word?

Check out this video.

(Submitted by Paige Schurter)

Today’s Passage:
2 Corinthians 4:14-16

Experience:
This week, you guys have had to work through some deep personal issues like worry, pride, and distraction. So today, we just want you to focus on God’s word and be encouraged by it. You just read the few verses above in the NIV version, and here is the entire chapter of 2 Corinthians 4 in The Message paraphrase:

Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.

If our Message is obscure to anyone, it’s not because we’re holding back in any way. No, it’s because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won’t have to bother believing a Truth they can’t see. They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.

Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

Today’s Passage
Philippians 4:8

Experience
What do you like about you best friend? Is she nice? Is he really good at soccer? Can he do some really cool trick? Or maybe she’s super funny? Whatever you like about your best friend, those things are pretty easy to think about. So what do you like about God? Have you ever thought about it? When we start to focus, we may be able to think of characteristics about God that we really like. He’s loving, he gave us Jesus, he purifies us when we confess our sins. But sometimes it doesn’t feel as easy to discuss what we like about God.

Life’s distractions can often get in the way of thinking about God. Have you ever tried to pray, and then your mind started to wander, or maybe you fell asleep? It happens. Sometimes Satan is really good at using temptations to distract us, other times, we make distractions for ourselves. Wherever they come from, the things that distract us can really pull our focus off of God.

In today’s passage, Paul is writing to the Philippians about the things they think about. Right after he talks about the faithfulness and peace found in God, he encourages them in Philippians 4:8. You see, Paul knows that people encounter distractions. He knows that we can’t focus and sometimes we forget the things we need to do or we lose sight of the end goal. But Paul is hinting at how to stay on track. What is true? God is the Truth. What is pure? God is pure. What is lovely and excellent and praiseworthy? God. Paul wanted the people he was writing to-and us- to want God. We can’t completely avoid distractions, but when it comes down to it, the best way to let God fill our lives it to focus on him alone.

What kind of distractions keep you from wanting God?

How would focusing on God affect you at school? How would it affect you at home? How would it affect you at church?

Today’s Passage
1 Peter 2:17

Experience
I love the card game solitaire. I love repeatedly flipping through the cards, rarely discouraged by how many times I lose; I just keep playing until I win. Sometimes I even make a game out of the game, telling my cards that I won’t go to sleep or take a shower or read my devotions until I win. I have played so many times that I have “lucky cards” or preferred decks of cards that I am sure will help me win. For me, solitaire is the perfect mix of a mindless game that still keeps you thinking. But what I love best about solitaire is the most basic part of the game – you play alone.

A few years ago, I shared my love of the solitude of solitaire with my mother, and she told me something that absolutely shocked me. She told me that there are versions of solitaire that you can play with other people! What?! Involving others in the game undermines the name of the game and ruins the entire thing! But she assured me that playing solitaire with other people was more fun than playing alone, and it took strategy and speed. She invited me and my sister to come to the kitchen table, and she taught us how to play multi-player solitaire. Although I’m not completely convinced that it’s the best way to play, I had to admit that playing solitaire with other people was indeed fun.

There are some of us who absolutely love the community aspect of life. We are co-dependent people who appreciate being with other people and prefer not to be alone, especially when going through hard times. And then there are other people who prefer to go at it by themselves, just like I like playing the game of solitaire alone. But in a community of Christians, walking alone, while more comfortable for some people, is often the least desirable circumstance.

Scripture is adamant about community. Multiple times we as Christians are told we should desire to be a part of Christ’s family. Jesus’ analogy of the Church being a body furthers explains that we need each other to fulfill our duties to Christ, and that without each other, we wouldn’t make it very far at all and we are more susceptible to Satan’s advances.

God created humans as relational beings. God made a partner for Adam, and then He gave them children, and the concept of a family was formed. Friendship is another strong element in the Bible. Community is so important to Jesus that He lived His own life in that way, sharing everything with His disciples. Our interactions with other people are meant for encouragement and love; starving yourself of those things is spitting in the eye of the God who made you to crave them. Maybe you’re the type of person who doesn’t recognize the need for community, and you’d rather just be alone. However, even in our most solitary moments, we are never alone; we always have Jesus beside us.

Today’s Passage:
John 3:30

Experience:
Me. My heart. My life. My thoughts. The natural reaction to almost everything with a direct effect on the life of a person is inward. We turn to ourselves first and foremost before considering others… unless we are so lucky as to be blessed with a heart 100% full of humility; but for the rest of us…it’s about us. You hear the news about an accident and wonder what would happen if it was you. You see someone win the lottery and think what you would do with that money. You see this and you see that, all day everyday, and as it affects you, you reflect inwardly.

The point of that statement is to shed light on a different approach to this simple passage. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Duh, ‘I must decrease,’ how much clearer can you get?” and we should end the devotion now. However, it’s not the fact that we understand we must decrease in order for Him to increase; it’s HOW we go about doing this. Go check out Philippians 2:1-11 and apply that mindset to this verse. What do you get?

As I reflect on what Paul wrote to the Philippians, I see a desire to actively pursue others as a reflection of Christ’s example. Do you understand what that means for John 3:30? If you take this verse out of the context of your heart and into the context of the world around you, it gains an entirely new meaning! How selfish are we to keep this simple command to the confines of our own heart? If we focus on a personal decrease in order to make room for an inward increase for Him solely within ourselves, we will miss a literal world of meaning for Paul’s command. Pursue others humbly with the heart of Christ and not only will you decrease, but the blessing that is Christ’s love will flow from you.

As you walk through your day, rather than reflecting inwardly on ways to decrease YOURSELF so that He may increase in YOU, actively pursue the people around you! Don’t even think about it, just be a blessing and you will have successfully, and humbly, decreased the “I” and increased the “He” all around you, and in you.

Today’s Passage
Proverbs 11:2

Experience
I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she receives a compliment. Based on a shrug of the shoulders, a hearty “thank you,” a change in the subject, or an exaggerated agreement, it’s easy to guess if the person being complimented is shy, self-assured, or overly proud. When it comes to things that hinder us, however, pride is definitely in the mix.

Pride isn’t always a bad thing. You can be proud of your little brother for making all A’s, you can be proud of your heritage or for getting into All-County Chorus. But pride trips us up when we are constantly striving for it instead of striving for Jesus. Being overly prideful may keep you from making friends with the girl at the other end of the table. Or maybe you refuse to talk to anyone who isn’t a cheerleader or a football player. Maybe your pride keeps you from confessing your sins to God.

Have you ever tried to run a significant distance with your shoes untied? Pride does the same thing in the race God has set before us. You can’t run along God’s path if you have something as huge as pride standing in your way. God calls us to throw off all the things that hinder us, that keep us from moving forward, and that keep us from loving and living the way Jesus did. Look back over those red words in your Bible; did Jesus ever brag about how good he was in math, or how talented he was as a singer?

Christ died for you with the same urgency and compassion as he did for (fill in the blank of the last person that hurt your feelings). Breaking free from pride can be as simple as remembering just that. Christ was motivated to love the world- you included, but not just you.

Do you feel like you’re a really proud person? Do you think your pride is good or bad pride?

How can you ask God to help you decrease your pride and increase your love for others?

Pray and ask God for a chance to humble yourself this week so you can be open to any opportunities he puts in front of you.