This is a guest post by Michael Kelley (Bible Study Editor at LifeWay Christian Resources). To see the entire series click here.

Don’t Waste Your Summer…Redeem It.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Nuance is everything in this passage. Depending on how you read these words, you can either find yourself emboldened or shrunken back. The hinge seems to be on the word “carefully”.

Since it’s in the context of walking, I think about how I go to check on my kids after bedtime. We live in an older house, and it seems like at night the wooden floors creak with every step. So I creep through the playroom down the hall – being very careful how I walk – to try and keep the creaks from waking them up. The thing about my walk in that instance is that it’s a defensive carefulness – I’m careful with every footfall, like I’m walking on egg shells, because I don’t want to step in the wrong place.

But I don’t think the verse above is meant to cause us to watch every footfall, our head swiveling back and forth and sweat beading up on our foreheads to make sure we don’t step wrongly. It’s true, that some of the Christian life demands that, that we are careful where we go, what we see, and what we do to make sure we are avoiding sin. And sin is everywhere, because, as the verse says, the days are evil.

In the context above, however, it seems to be more of an offensive carefulness that Paul wanted to inspire. We are to be careful in order to make the best use of time – literally, redeeming the time. When you redeem something, you trade it in for something better. You “buy back” the time you have been given to use for good. In that sense, our head is swiveling around, but it’s not fear that motivates it. It’s anticipation. We look in every direction to make sure we’re not missing any chance to do good by way of the gospel.

Here is where this truth hits the road right now: Summer.

We typically think about the summer as a time to pull back. To take a break. To rest up for what will be a busy Fall. So we go to the beach, sleep late, and lounge around.

In other words, we play defense against the pressures of life. But what if instead of playing defense this summer, we chose to play offense? What if we had a redemptive mindset toward the time we have rather than a defensive one?

Summer could become something different. A time to walk boldly. A time to engage rather than pull back. A time to stride through life, looking this way and that, determined not to miss any opportunity.

So, men, the Summer is coming, and it could be more than a time for mowing the lawn and sipping lemonade. Certainly it can be those things, too, but let’s not neglect the best for the good. Be on the offense. Gather a few men and redeem the time. One easy way to do this is to set aside weekly or bi-weekly times where a small group of men can meet for an early weekend breakfast or after dinner hangout. During that time discuss what God has been teaching you, confess sin, hold each other accountable. Redeem the time.

In fact, to make things easier, you might consider letting The Gospel Project guide your conversation.

Offense. Redemption. Forward motion. That sounds like a good idea.

Click here to see all of our Summer TGP Studies!

Samson was the last judge God raised up to deliver His people. At that time, the Israelites were under the control of the Philistines. Samson’s life was full of bad decisions, but God did not abandon him. Samson ultimately defeated the Philistines, but the victory cost him his life.

Samson is remembered as a tragic hero, not the admirable man one might strive to emulate. But the story of Samson in Judges 13–16 reminds us of a greater Deliverer—Jesus Christ. Jesus never sinned, but the Lord turned away from Him as He hung on the cross. Jesus gave up His life to secure the victory over our greatest enemies, sin and death.

As you teach kids about Samson, encourage them to think about Jesus, our Deliverer. Use the following verses to talk about the ways Jesus was victorious in His death:

• Galatians 1:4—Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age.
• 2 Corinthians 1:10—He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and He will deliver us. We have put our hope in Him that He will deliver us again.
• Colossians 1:13—He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.
• 1 Thessalonians 1:10—Jesus … delivers us from the wrath to come.
• 1 Corinthians 15:54—Death has been swallowed up by victory.

As Jesus hung on the cross, it seemed as though His enemies had won. But God was in control, and Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was His plan for the salvation of sinners. We can repent and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and He will rescue us from sin and death.

This is a guest post by Jamie Ivey (Wife and Mommy in Austin, Texas). To see the entire series click here.

One of my favorite things about the summer break from school is how much time I get with my kids. We do life different in the summer than during the school year. We sleep later, stay up later, wear only swimsuits and pajamas most days, and eat most of our meals outside. We swim lots, ride bikes a lot, and go to the dollar theatre a lot in the middle of the day because it is hot here in Texas y’all! We love summer around here, and enjoy the laid back life it creates.

I also view the summer as a time that I get to invest in my kids that much more. During the school year my kids spend 34 hours a week with their teachers and friends away from me. In the summer I get them all to myself each week. I get to 100% invest in them every single day. I don’t want to waste that time every year with my kids during the summer. I want to make the most out of every single summer I get with my children, because each year they get older and older and I won’t have all their attention each summer.

Obviously you should read God’s Word with your kids all throughout the year, but the summer is a sometimes slower pace of life for reading times. You aren’t trying to rush in your 20 minutes of recommended reading a day from the teacher right at night while you are trying to get them in bed. No. In the summer, you can leisurely read by the pool, on a blanket at the park, or at 10am after your late breakfast. Why not use that time to do a Bible study with your child that’s aimed at them or find a devotional for girls that you can go through together. Whatever it is, cherish it, because in a few years they’ll have summer jobs that will occupy their time and you’ll be fighting their friends for time.

Use the summer to truly minister to your children and ask God to move their hearts towards His. You have so much time with them and are investing in their lives every day, so use this time to ask God to point out specific ways that you can pray for them. I love to see growth in my kids, and petitioning God on their behalf is an honor that I cherish as their mom. I love them so much and I know and believe that God loves them abundantly more, and so to ask him to show me how to parent them well and guide them is an honor I do not take lightly.

My youngest child starts kindergarten next year so this is our last summer before she’s a student for the next 12 years while in my home. This means I have 13 summers left before she goes off to college. My oldest will start fourth grade, and so my summers are even less with him. That puts a challenge on me as their mom that isn’t to be held as a burden, but as a joy. I get the honor of parenting them through the summertime in a different way than I do in the school year.

My challenge to you moms is to cherish the summer. Don’t just cherish it because you get to sleep in later, or spend more time at the pool, but cherish it because you get more time with your babies. Use that time to explore God’s Word with them, to pray with them and for them, and to show them more about this God that loves them deeper than you ever could. Don’t let the summer go by without pouring out your life for your kids and the gospel. They are worth it.

Click here to see all of our Summer TGP Studies!

Philippians 3:18-20: “For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In this week’s lesson we learn that believers in Christ are to stand firm in their hope of Christ’s return and reject the spirit of antichrist that dominates the world around us. Here we see Paul echoing this spirit as he talks of those who walk as “enemies of the cross.”

As we learn in the lesson, an opposition to God’s glory, truth, and holiness marks the spirit of antichrist. Here we see Paul talk of those whose end is destruction serving the god that is their belly, and thus, they glory in their shame. They are seeking whatever satisfies self over the glory of God. We see an opposition to truth and holiness as their minds are set on earthly things. They are neither listening to God’s Word nor seeking to be set apart from the world’s desires. Instead, they are chasing the same things as the world.

Self-centered and unholy living is the way of the world. Christians should not be like chameleons that change their color to fit in with their surroundings. As we anticipate the return of Christ, our lives should reflect a standard that is remarkable and unusual to the world. We must be people who submit our lives to God’s Word over the whims of society or our flesh. We should be a people who see everything we do through the lens of whether or not it will bring glory to Christ and not ourselves.

Pause and Reflect

• In what ways do you seek your own glory over the glory of Christ?

• Does your life look just like the world around you or does it stand out as you anticipate the Lord’s return? In what ways? What steps can you take that your life would stand out all the more for God’s glory?

In the video below, Trevin Wax coaches leaders on teaching Spring 2013, Session 13: The Consummation – The King Returns to Live with His People.

Tips and videos for previous lessons are available on the Adult Blog. You can also check out the Additional Resources page for podcast recommendations and blog posts related to this week’s subject matter.

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UPCOMING SESSIONS

Session 1 – Knowing God: The Role of Theology in the Life and Mission of the Christian

Session 2 – The God Who Is: The Existence of God

Session 3 – Our Great God: What God is Like

This is a guest post from Ben Trueblood (Director of Student Ministry for LifeWay). To see the entire series click here.

Student ministry summers can be both fruitful and challenging. It is a time when you, as a student ministry leader, become busier and the students in your ministry do the opposite. You are challenged because students have a more relaxed atmosphere and a different schedule that often negatively impacts their spiritual lives. Yes, this is a significant challenge and it is one that you should meet head on. Expect more from your students this summer and challenge them. Don’t allow another summer to be wasted! Here are three ways that you can make the most of your student ministry summer:

Consider focusing your summer toward one theme.

As you plan ask yourself the question: What is the one thing I want my students to take away from this summer? Once you answer that question, align all of your Bible studies, programming, and meetings to that one takeaway. Make sure your students see the connection between Bible studies, study topics at camp and the theme. One question you might be asking at this point is: If I focus on just one theme won’t the students get bored? The simple answer is no. One of the most challenging things about summer ministry is that as school shuts down for break, so do the students. As you know from working with students they quickly begin to shut down mentally and oftentimes spiritually. Because of this, summer is the time to be even more strategic and focused on your ministry.

Connect your students with opportunities to serve.

Many student ministries take the opportunity in the summer months to take a mission trip, which is great. However, don’t miss the ongoing opportunity you have to involve your students in missions locally. As students serve together it will help build unity within the ministry and it will help the students develop a heart for their community. These are two things that are essential to a healthy student ministry and the summer is a great time to experience growth in those areas.

Challenge your students to think.

Yes, even in the summer. Resist the temptation to take a lighter approach to Bible studies. Summer has often been the time to relax and let things go. In your student ministry, it should be a time when you stomp on the gas pedal. Show your students that the summer can be a time of tremendous spiritual growth. Model this for them in your life personally. Take the time to meet with that extra student or group of students for intentional discipleship. Choose Bible study material that will challenge them to think and engage deeply with God’s Word. This summer, The Gospel Project will spend 13 weeks studying the Triune God. This would be a great study that will challenge students to think as well as point them directly to the life-changing gospel of Jesus.

Make the most of this summer. Be strategic and focused as you enter this very important season of ministry. Deep down your students don’t want to just sit around. They want to grow this summer. They want to be challenged with God’s Word. They want to engage in the discipleship process and they want to see how the gospel impacts and transforms their lives. I pray that this summer will be one of the more fruitful summers you have seen.

Click here to see all of our Summer TGP Studies!

2 Peter 3:11-13: “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God. The heavens will be on fire and be dissolved because of it, and the elements will melt with the heat. But based on His promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell.”

In Peter’s second epistle, he warns his readers that many scoffers will arise in the last days who will question the promised coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their reasoning will be that things seem to be continuing as they have been since the beginning of creation. Peter reminds us that the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise but that His delay is due to His patience. The Lord desires all men and women to reach repentance, but there will be a day when it is too late, and this day will come suddenly life a thief.

In the day of the Lord, the heavens and earth will be dissolved and melt away. Armed with this knowledge, how are Christians to conduct their lives? There are some who spend their time running after speculations about the end times or trying to figure out the time of the Lord’s return. Some assume His coming is a ways off and therefore feel no urgency. But Peter urged his readers not only to pursue lives of holiness and godliness but to actually hasten the Lord’s coming as they do so. Does this mean that we can affect the time of the Lord’s return?

Rather than seeing this teaching as our determining God’s predetermined plan, it is helpful to remember that God has ordained the return of Christ to occur after His purposes for believers and the building of His kingdom are accomplished. Therefore, as we engage in pursuing personal holiness and sharing the gospel, we are actually “hastening” Christ’s return.

Pause and Reflect

• How does the fact that God desires all people to reach repentance change the way you conduct your life?

• How can you be involved in “hastening” the return of the Lord?

Psalm 53:1a – The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

It fascinates me that, last night, I preached Psalm 14, which is almost identical to Psalm 53. Without question, God has placed one thing in my path, on purpose, two times. And what is striking me most is the first line of both Psalms, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

The fool, a person about whom the Bible speaks with the utmost contempt, says to himself, in his own heart or mind, that there is no God. Often, we immediately take this verse as a way for us to look down our noses at any atheists we know, calling them fools and touting our own superior understanding. But I think, if we are careful, we can find more meaning in this text. The fool says, not only outwardly, but at times inwardly, that there is no God. He may not even admit his atheism. He may not even recognize his own atheism.

So, here comes the question that stunned me: “Are you an atheist?” “Of course not!” I cry, “I’m a pastor and a seminary student! There’s no atheism here.” That is what I say with my mouth. What about my heart? What does it tell me? What will reflect my heart’s condition is my behavior. Does my heart show me as a true believer in God through action? Am I acting, with every second of my life, as one who believes that God, the true God, the God of the Bible, is with me? Or, am I saying I am a believer with my lips, but actually living as though I am the only one here. Am I living as a fool? Am I living a practical atheism?

Think of it this way. You have a major problem. Perhaps you are caught in a traffic jam and are late for a meeting. Perhaps you have just discovered that an assignment is due today when you thought it was next week. Perhaps you just received some bad news from the doctor’s office. Perhaps you are a pastor who is feeling the pressure to straighten out a thousand twisted threads in a church when you only have 2 hands. Perhaps you are a mother whose children simply will not behave. How do you live in these pressure-filled moments? Would someone who looks in at your life believe that you believe in God? Do you pray, trust God, and respond with Christlikeness? Or, like so many of us, do you get frustrated, stressed out, overwhelmed, or discouraged? Do you complain, saying, “I don’t deserve this,” and then have a pity party?

Christians, if we are honest, there are times when, if we are not careful, we will live like fools even when we say with our lips that God is there. When we live for ourselves, when we act as though we must solve all our own problems, when we fail to trust God for the future, when we look for others to blame for our problems, when we act without prayer, we live as fools, as practical atheists. Sure, we acknowledge Jesus with our lips; but, when the rubber meets the road, we deny Jesus by the way we try to handle everything on our own or refuse to try to do something that appears to be beyond our own human abilities.

Today, repent of living as a practical atheist. Turn away from the temptation to make this life all about you, your comforts, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Live like one who believes, truly believes and knows, that God is real, he is with us, and he will never forsake his children. Ask yourself, on a regular basis, “Am I living as a fool or as a believer?” Ask, “Does this action make me look like a believer or a practical atheist?” Determine to live genuine faith before your Lord.

Dear Lord, I acknowledge that there are moments, and far too many of them, when I live as though I am the only solution to my problems. I pray that you will forgive me for living in my own little world of practical atheism. Though I would never declare philosophically that you do not exist, I sometimes live as though that is what I believe. I pray that you will fill me with your Spirit, and remind me regularly of your presence. Let me live what I truly believe, that you are my God, my Creator, my Lord, my Refuge, my King, and everything I need. I trust you. Help me, I pray, to live out that trust in every aspect of life.

This is a guest post by Eric Mason (Pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in PA). To see the entire series click here.

The summer months are almost here, and the summer is typically a time of relaxation and ease. However, as husbands and fathers our God given task should not cease. In fact, the summer is a prime opportunity to take initiative to lead our families. In my new book Manhood Restored I examine several aspects of leadership in the home that are vital. Let’s look at them here.

Ministry of Presence

It is almost embarrassing that such a practical point must be mentioned, but men must be at home. Men must be present. When children grow up, they remember certain details about their upbringing. Many times those things are major details, like vacations and big-time punishments. But one thing children never forget is if their father was present in their lives and what that presence was like. When men speak of their father being absent or not around, it is an embedded memory. Presence in the home is the bedrock of being in a family.

As Psalm 127 articulates, a man is to labor in his home. This laboring includes providing, visioning, praying, instructing, and much more. None of that happens without presence—the active involvement in the life and development of the family. Our family is to be the people with whom we have deep and rich relational commonality. Jesus has restored the ability for the man not to be a passive and/or aggressive presence in the home, but one that impacts the life of one’s wife and children. What should the memory of a father and husband be like for his family? This is the sort of burning question men should think through each day in the home.

Ministry of Spiritual Formation

Planning for the spiritual growth of one’s wife and children cannot be overstated. We must be able to biblically work through God’s vision for them. As it pertains to the children, we must seek to root them in the gospel as much as it depends on us by saturating them with a biblical grid. Take initiative and instruct your family in the word of God. Show them the beauty of God’s redemptive story.

Ministry of Gospel Promotion in the Home

Whether we are discipling, challenging our wife, having fun, or instructing, the principles of the gospel must permeate all. This isn’t an easy priority to have before us. Many times when I am discipling my sons, I become so agitated by their actions that I forget the gospel. I forget mercy, love, grace, and, most of all, I forget I am supposed to be helping them to understand forgiveness. Without the gospel, I am only projecting behavioral modification. Change of heart must trump mere change of behavior. Therefore, the goodness of God through the gospel must trump all other philosophies in the home. Don’t only teach them how the gospel transforms all of life, but show them how the gospel is transforming your life.

Ministry of Family Vision

The family must know where the family is going. We are not on some aimless journey of spirituality, but on our way to God. Because we are on our way to Him through Him and with Him (Titus 2:11–15; Matt. 28:20), there is divine reasoning and meaning in every day of our lives. Having biblical vision gives the house biblical grounding and purpose. Vision keeps us from running aimlessly. The culture of biblical vision running the household will give the family a great sense of gospel hope. Remember, Jesus has vision for His family. Jesus has prepared a place based on His vision for us to spend eternity with Him (John 14), has an image that we are conformed to (Rom. 8:29), and will bring it to fruition (Rev. 19–21). To follow His example means we project a similar vision for our own families.

Conclusion

Men, step up and be the husband and father that God has called you to be. Be intentional about being home, engaged and interested in your family. Take the task of spiritual formation and gospel promotion in the home seriously. This is the most important legacy you can leave your children, and the most formative way to love your wives. What is the vision for your family this summer? Are you setting a trajectory for family that is centered on Jesus? Where are you as a leader taking your family? Does the family identify that direction as the goal?

Click here to see all of our Summer TGP Studies!