Youth Story

You Like Jesus Enough to Wear the Cross. Do You Love Him Enough to Bear the Cross?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:20:09 +0000

You Like Jesus Enough to Wear the Cross. But Do You Love Him Enough to Bear It?

YouthStory By Pastor Jon Allen Mark 8:34–38

We went to the county fair, and Cohen wanted the fish. A silly prize became two goldfish coming home with us.

I didn’t think about what that meant for our household. A new tank, filtration system, food, a little fish house. New pets, new responsibilities, new family members.

I thought they only lived a few weeks.

It felt like a bait and switch once I found out the truth.

There is no bait and switch for following Jesus.

Watch the message

The world may have told you it was easy, fast, or didn’t take much more than a prayer. Jesus tells us something very different.

Jesus gives us the cost up front.

He tells us what kind of journey we’re committing to, even if He doesn’t show us every step along the way.

Watch on YouTube ↗

01 / The cross

You Wear It Around Your Neck!

Some of you know so well where this story is heading that you wear it around your neck every day.

It’s the cross.

And I think this is the part the church gets wrong the most.

We have settled for asking people what they are giving up and whether they’re going to get baptized. We’ve treated it like they crossed the finish line of the Christian Olympics because they don’t do whatever our long list of sins is today anymore, and they said yes to Jesus.

We’ve heard it so many times that it’s like we have disconnected our ears from our hearts.

But Jesus is asking us for something here. It’s not a half measure. It’s not partial attention, like He’s some sports game on the TV in the background at dinner.

Jesus is calling us to something much bigger.

In Mark 8, Peter gets the answer right. Jesus asks who His disciples say He is, and Peter answers, “You are the Christ.”

He’s the Messiah!

But the moment Jesus explains that He’s going to suffer, be rejected, killed, and rise again, Peter starts trying to correct Him. Peter understood who Jesus was, but he didn’t yet understand what Jesus came to do—or what following Him would require.

So I think the problem is not just that we have misidentified who Jesus is. I think we have misidentified who Jesus says we are.

You have woefully underestimated yourself in Christ Jesus.

What if our greatest idol is the future we’ve imagined for ourselves? What if the first thing we have to bury is our version of Jesus?

Maybe the reason we struggle to follow Jesus is that we’ve spent so much time creating a version of Him who would follow us.

Jesus says:

“Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Mark 8:34

You can sacrifice something and still make it all about yourself. Not every sacrifice is surrender.

But the cross leaves no room for misinterpretation. This journey will cost you everything.

Jesus tells these people to take up their crosses before He has ever been crucified.

We hear the word cross and immediately think about Jesus, forgiveness, and salvation. These people would have understood a cross as an instrument of Roman execution.

When somebody was carrying a cross through town, they weren’t heading to an uncomfortable appointment. They were being led toward execution. Nobody watching expected that person to finish up and go home to their ordinary life.

And the cross was public. Everyone could see it.

Following Jesus means taking a stand for Him, for His kingdom, and for what He is building.

Carrying your cross isn’t simply having a difficult life. It’s accepting whatever it costs to remain faithful to Jesus and His gospel. That’s why Jesus addresses being ashamed of Him and His words in verse 38. Our allegiance to Him can’t depend on everybody approving of it.

If you’re like me, you’re asking: Can I really afford to surrender everything to Jesus? To use everything God has given me for my brother and sister? Everything for God’s church?

Taking up your cross is expensive. It is hard.

But Jesus has just asked us what it profits someone to gain the whole world and forfeit their life.

He doesn’t just ask what you’re willing to give up. He asks what your soul is worth.

02 / A surrendered life

What Could God Build With a Surrendered Life?

Jesus doesn’t stand safely on the sidelines asking everyone else to sacrifice. He willingly walks the road of suffering Himself.

But His cross is different from ours. Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished what our sacrifices never could. He is the Savior whose sacrifice makes our participation possible.

So what might God want to accomplish with all these surrendered lives?

In Matthew 16, Jesus tells Peter that He will build His church. Then, when Peter resists Jesus’ coming suffering, Jesus calls him a stumbling block.

There’s a difference between being part of what Jesus is building and standing in the way of what Jesus is trying to accomplish.

We want to be part of what He’s building. But do we insist that He build it our way?

Think about Noah. He had God’s instructions. He knew what God said was coming. But he couldn’t see it happening yet.

He had to decide whether he trusted God enough to start building before he saw the outcome. Every piece of wood. Every day of work. All that time and energy committed to what God had told him to do.

We know the ending. Noah had to obey before he saw it.

Do we really have to be knee-deep in floodwaters before we put our faith in God?

Noah’s faith became something he built. Hebrews 11:7 points us back to that obedience.

And in 1 Peter 2:4–5, Peter describes followers of Jesus as living stones being built together into a spiritual house.

God is building something out of people. People who belong to Jesus. People who are willing to bring their lives to Him.

Imagine all those surrendered lives coming together: our experience, our abilities, our relationships, our homes, our time, our resources, and our opportunities.

We are not only bringing things we want God to fix. We are bringing things we have spent years building and asking Him to use them.

What if God took every success, every failure, every ability, every opportunity—everything we’ve placed in His hands—and used us together to build something through which people could find salvation?

Imagine the church becoming something like that ark in our communities. Jesus has the power to save, and He’s inviting us to participate in His work.

That asks something of those of us who lead, too.

Are we leading others by carrying our crosses? Or is our leadership symbolic, with no actual gain for the kingdom?

It can be like being a pace car in a NASCAR race. You’re out front, and everyone is following you, but you’re taking them around in circles.

What if bearing your cross meant your leadership was more like a snowplow? Clearing obstructions from the path. Clearing roads for people you haven’t even met yet. Helping others go further and take the gospel to places they’ve never gone before.

Is your goal really to create disciples who make disciples?

03 / The next step

You Don’t Have to See the Whole Journey to Take the Next Step

Maybe you’re thinking, “But Jon, it’s overwhelming. I don’t know if I can complete a journey like this. I don’t know if I can bear a cross like this.”

At night, I started doing these longer runs. I started off with no goal. Just movement.

Eventually, I started giving myself goals. Eventually, I want to try to run a half marathon.

And you know how I’m going to do it?

I’m going to think about the next step. The very next step. I’m going to put my foot down on the ground.

I’m not going to calculate how many steps are in a half marathon. I’m not going to think about how far away I am from the finish line when I start running.

I promise you, if I start the race thinking about how much further I have to go, I’m not finishing it.

Our faith journey is a lot like this.

Jesus has already told us what it means to follow Him. He’s been honest about the cost. But that doesn’t mean He gives us a detailed map of every single thing we’re going to encounter.

If we could see every challenge, every sacrifice, every difficult conversation, and every obstacle all at once, how many of us would become so overwhelmed that we’d never even begin?

What if God is asking us to trust Him for the next step, knowing He will continue to provide what we need as we follow?

We don’t have to see every step before we trust Him with the next one.

No step counter. Just pick up the cross and start moving!

04 / When the road changes

What Happens When Life Doesn’t Go the Way You Planned?

What happens to your faith when you actually do have setbacks?

When I was growing up, there was this story about a girl who was surfing when a shark bit her arm off.

Bethany Hamilton.

She got back in the water. She surfed again. Now the world knew her name, and she used that opportunity to share her faith around the globe.

If you don’t think God can turn your setback into a setup, you need to read your Bible.

That’s the whole book, over and over.

Maybe you’re thinking, “That invitation to participate sounds good, but my life has changed too much.”

Following Jesus means remaining available to God when the life we can offer looks different from the one we expected.

Your new life in Christ is meant to become a new way of living.

05 / New life

You Were Made New for a Reason

Here’s the reason we can have hope even when the road is difficult: the story of Jesus doesn’t end at the cross.

Jesus told Peter He was going to suffer, die, and rise again.

There is a resurrection on the other side of the cross. That resurrection is the foundation of the new life Jesus calls us into.

Paul writes:

“We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:4

Paul connects burial with Christ, the old self being crucified, and new life. Then, in Romans 6:13, he tells us what to do with that life: offer ourselves to God.

Baptism is not the point at which someone has finished following Jesus. It declares a relationship with Christ that calls for a different life afterward.

And God doesn’t call us into this new life and leave us to figure out how to live it on our own.

He gives us His Holy Spirit.

The same God who calls us to follow Him is at work within us, transforming us, strengthening us, and empowering us to live differently.

This is an invitation to make ourselves available to what God wants to do in us and through us.

So you said yes to following Jesus. You got baptized. You are made new.

Now what?

What is this new life being offered for?

You were not raised from the dead to be a spectator in a church.

You are called to build the church. You are called to carry your cross.

06 / Make room

Open the Calendar

Which part of your week is building the kingdom?

Where is your time blocked out for building the church?

Where does costly obedience to Jesus actually appear in your schedule?

Are you discipling children, caring for someone, mentoring a younger leader, using your best skills to serve, or intentionally helping a neighbor come to know Jesus?

The challenge is to become intentionally available.

Agreement with the message is not the same thing as acting on it.

Some of us like Jesus enough to wear the cross.

But do we love Jesus enough to bear it?

07 / Your response

What Does Your Yes Look Like Now?

I’m not asking whether you remember why you said yes to Jesus.

I don’t remember why I ever let Cohen bring those goldfish home.

I’m asking what your yes looks like now.

The goldfish are family now. They get the new tank, the good water, and everything they need to grow.

You’re in the family now. You need the good water. You need to start growing.

Stop living your Christian life like you’re still living out of that plastic bag from the fair.

Your first yes

Come to Jesus.

For some of you, today needs to be your first yes.

You may have spent this whole article thinking about everything you would have to change. But your first step is not to get your whole life straightened out and then come to Jesus.

Your first step is to come to Jesus.

Trust Him. Turn toward Him. Give Him your yes. The response begins with repentance and faith. Your heart must die to self and be made new in Christ.

You do not have to know how every step is going to work out to take the first one today.

The step you’ve postponed

Be baptized.

For some of you, the next step is baptism.

You already know Jesus is asking you to take that step. You’ve been saying, “I’m going to do that.”

When?

What are you waiting for that has to happen before you can obey what He has already asked you to do?

You do not have to have the whole journey figured out. But you can stop leaving this step somewhere out in the future. Tell your pastor you’re ready to be baptized.

A name. A conversation. A place in your week.

Start making disciples.

And for those of us who already know Jesus and have been baptized, this is not the part where we decide the invitation is for somebody else.

Who is one person you’re going to invest in? One person you will share your faith with? One person you’re willing to change your calendar for?

Whose name comes to mind? What conversation have you been putting off? What could you change in your calendar this week to make room for that person?

You don’t have to control their response. But you do have to decide whether you’re going to take your next step.

Don’t just tell Jesus you’re willing.

Give that willingness a name and something you’re actually going to do.

Tell somebody what your next step is. Let somebody pray with you and walk with you. You don’t have to walk this journey alone.

You don’t need to promise Jesus you have every step figured out. But you can stop putting off the step He has already put in front of you.

Building the church takes all of us. It’s built stone by stone, brick by brick, and cross by cross.

Whatever you have to bring to the table, it’s time.

It’s time to take up your cross and actually follow Him.

That's Not Fair - Why is This Happening to Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 03:49:11 +0000

YouthStory A story by Jon Allen

Faith / Real Life / John 11

That’s Not Fair

Why Is This Happening to Me?

I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for God to move things that, looking back, He may have been waiting for me to move.

There have been seasons when I’ve felt stuck between two choices: walk forward in faith or remain somewhere that had become comfortable.

I prayed. I thought. I waited. And sometimes I convinced myself that waiting was the spiritual thing to do.

God, if You want me to move, make it obvious. God, open the door. God, show me what happens next.

I was waiting for the stone to roll away. But eventually I began wondering:

What if God wasn’t asking me to wait for the stone to move?

What if He was asking me to move it?

That realization scared me. Because if I’m honest, part of me wasn’t just afraid of what was behind the stone. I was afraid of what Jesus might do if it actually moved.

The story

John 11 begins with love and delay

In John 11, Lazarus is sick, and his sisters send word to Jesus:

“Lord, the one You love is sick.”

Not the guy who deserves Your help. Not the guy who has done everything right. Just: the one You love.

That detail matters. Lazarus is loved, and Lazarus is sick, at the same time. Hard things are not proof that God stopped loving you.

Then Jesus does something surprising. He waits two more days. He knows the situation. He knows the urgency. He knows the fear. And still, He does not panic.

Jesus doesn’t panic just because I do.

I do. I can manufacture urgency in a hurry. I want the answer now. The decision now. The outcome now. Jesus does not seem rushed by the things that rush me.

By the time He arrives, Lazarus has been dead four days. Martha tells Him, “If You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” That sentence is packed with the questions so many of us bring to God: Where were You? Why didn’t You move? Why am I still stuck?

Movement One

Faith Waits

Sometimes there is genuinely nothing I can do to force what I want to happen. A diagnosis. A door that hasn’t opened. A prayer I still don’t understand. A loss I would never have chosen. In those moments, faith is not pretending everything feels fine. Faith is trusting that Jesus’ delay is not the same thing as His absence.

Mary comes out next. She’s crying. Everyone around her is crying. Jesus sees them, and then John gives us one of the shortest and most powerful verses in Scripture:

Jesus wept.

He already knows what He is about to do. He knows Lazarus is about to walk out of that tomb. And still, He cries.

That matters to me. Hope doesn’t require pretending it doesn’t hurt. Jesus doesn’t stand far away from grief and lecture people about faith. He enters it.

There have been times in my life when what helped the most was not a perfect explanation, but somebody coming close enough that I didn’t feel alone. A text. A call. A visit. Sometimes just a hug.

Jesus does that. He steps into the pain before He changes the situation.

Personal

What was happening to us wasn’t the only thing happening through us

I watched my mom go through a difficult diagnosis that was taking away functional abilities. There were things happening to her that she could not control. Things that had to be frightening.

And yet one of the things I remember most is how she continued prioritizing love! Love for me, for Kari, for our kids, and for my sister.

She could not control everything happening to her. But she could still influence what happened through her.

What was happening to her was painful. But it wasn’t the only thing happening through her.

I want to be careful here. I’m not saying the diagnosis was good. I’m not saying God caused pain so I could learn a lesson. I’m saying brokenness does not somehow cancel God’s ability to work.

That’s why Romans 8 matters so much to me. God working within suffering does not mean suffering itself is good. It means pain does not get the final word.

That’s Not Fair Why Is This Happening to Me?

The turn

Then Jesus changes the whole story

Jesus reaches Lazarus’ tomb. There’s a stone covering the entrance. And He says:

“Take away the stone.”

Jesus is about to raise a man who has been dead for four days. Could Jesus move a rock? Of course He could. The stone is not the hard part of this miracle.

Yet He tells the people standing there to move it.

Martha resists, and honestly, I understand her. What’s behind that stone is dead, decaying, and smells. The stone is covering something no one particularly wants exposed.

Movement Two

Faith Moves

Sometimes faith waits. But other times Jesus has already made the next step clear. The issue is no longer uncertainty. The issue is hesitation. There are moments when we call it “waiting on God,” when really we are afraid of what obedience might change.

And that’s where this story got personal for me.

There have been moments in my own life when I knew deep down what the next faithful step was. The real problem was not a lack of direction. The real problem was that the miracle scared me.

Change scares me. The unknown scares me. Letting Jesus transform my world scares me. Because if He really brings resurrection into the dead places of my life, I may not get to stay the same.

And sometimes stuck is strangely comfortable. At least I know how to live there.

So Why Me??

What’s behind your stone?

Maybe your stone is a conversation you know you need to have. Maybe it’s an apology. Maybe it’s asking for help. Maybe it’s admitting you aren’t okay. Maybe it’s surrendering something you know is pulling you away from God.

Or maybe your stone is more fundamental than any of those things.

Maybe you’ve spent years around Christianity without ever actually giving your life to Jesus. You know about Him. You may even believe a lot of true things about Him. But there is still a stone between you and Him.

And here is the amazing news: Jesus already knows what is behind it.

He knew what was behind Lazarus’ stone, and He still said, “Move it.”

Move the stone

Do the next thing Jesus has already made clear. Tell the truth. Ask for help. Surrender. Come out of hiding. Say yes.

Trust Jesus with the tomb

You are not responsible for raising the dead. You cannot save yourself, clean yourself up enough, or manufacture resurrection life.

This distinction matters. The people move the stone. Jesus raises Lazarus. Those are not equal contributions.

It’s our responsibility to move the stone. It’s Jesus’ responsibility to raise the dead.

That is also the difference between Christianity and self-improvement. Christianity is not me fixing myself. Christianity is Jesus doing for me what I cannot do for myself.

Good news

Jesus doesn’t just improve dead things, He brings them to life

We are all part of a broken world, and we have all participated in its brokenness. The Bible calls that sin. Sin is not just a few bad habits we need to clean up. It separates us from the God who made us for relationship with Him.

We cannot overcome that separation on our own. We cannot overcome death on our own.

But Jesus refused to accept death as the end of Lazarus’ story. He stood outside a tomb and said, “Lazarus, come out!” And a dead man walked out.

That is why John 11 is more than a story about a miracle in one family. It points to the heart of the gospel. Jesus Himself went to a cross, died, and rose again. The tomb could not hold Him either.

Miracles follow Jesus into places everyone else has declared hopeless.

Saying yes to Jesus means I don’t have to keep hiding the dead things in the tombs of my heart. I don’t have to keep wearing my grave clothes—those labels, those sins, those old identities, those old failures—as if they are all I will ever be.

Jesus offers forgiveness. Freedom. New life. Relationship with God. Not because I earned it, but because He did what I never could.

Watch Your Step?

And maybe this is your stone

If you have read this far and realized, I’ve never actually given my life to Jesus, I don’t want to write around you. I want to talk directly to you.

Maybe you have been hiding things from God. Maybe you’ve been hiding yourself from God. Maybe you thought you needed to fix everything behind the stone before you could let Him see it.

You don’t.

Jesus already knows. And He is not asking you to resurrect yourself. He is inviting you to trust Him.

If you want to say yes to Jesus

There are no magical words you have to say perfectly. Salvation is not unlocked by a flawless script. But if these words express what is happening in your heart, pray them honestly:

God, I need You.

I have been hiding things from You, and God, I have been hiding me from You.

I turn away from the world. I open myself up to You.

I invite You to transform my life, and I want to follow You out of death and into a life of freedom, here, and with You forever.

Amen.

If you just prayed that sincerely, tell somebody. Don’t let this become a private moment you bury again tomorrow. Find a pastor. Tell a Christian friend. Talk to someone who genuinely follows Jesus. Find a church that will help you grow.

And talk to them about baptism.

Jesus saves you. Baptism does not save you. Baptism is your public declaration that you belong to Him—that the old life is being left behind and you are following Jesus into the new one.

Maybe that’s your next stone.

Sometimes faith waits. Sometimes faith moves. Move the stone. Trust Jesus with what only He can do.

YouthStory That’s Not Fair / Why Is This Happening to Me?

That's Not Fair - What About Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 04:04:52 +0000

YouthStory A story by Jon Allen

Faith / People / Real Life

That’s Not Fair

What About Me?

I’m usually not the person in a staff meeting who needs encouragement to contribute.

I have ideas. Sometimes too many. And when I really believe in one, it tends to make repeat appearances. I’ll bring it up, let it sit for a while, and eventually bring it up again.

It feels a little like being in class with your hand raised while the teacher looks around and asks, “Does anybody else have an answer?” I know we need to hear from other people. I also know the feeling of sitting there thinking, I am literally right here.

Then somebody else says the thing I’ve been saying, and suddenly people are interested.

It was a good idea when I said it, too.

I can laugh about that because I recognize myself in it. But underneath the joke is a question that has followed me into more places than staff meetings: Did anybody hear me? Did what I contributed matter?

Or, a little less politely: What about me?

The expectation I hadn’t admitted

My junior year of high school was a good year for me. I became lieutenant section leader, and was appointed section leader heading into my senior year. At prom, I was named Prom Prince.

That turned out to be dangerous information to give my teenage brain.

Nobody promised me anything about the following year. But a little expectation started growing anyway. If I was Prom Prince this year, maybe next year I could be Prom King.

Senior year didn’t unfold quite that neatly. I was leading, making changes, and learning that changing a group’s culture can affect your relationships with the people in it. At some point, it became fairly obvious that Prom King probably wasn’t going to be me.

I thought I was okay with that. Then a friend got it.

I wasn’t angry with him. I didn’t think he was undeserving. I could be happy for him and still feel the disappointment of not being chosen myself. What surprised me was where my thoughts went next: What does he have that I don’t? What did he do differently? What is wrong with me?

Looking back, I had turned one year’s recognition into an expectation about the next. Nobody else had agreed to that arrangement, but I still felt the disappointment when it didn’t happen.

I’ve seen something similar in church. A longtime student pictures themselves leading something. They show up, help, and do what people ask. Then a newer student receives an opportunity they had imagined for themselves.

Sometimes that disappointment makes it harder for them to pursue the very thing they wanted. Discouragement gets louder than motivation.

And sometimes, when they tell me they’ve been overlooked, my answer has to be, “You’re right.” They have done what was asked. We haven’t recognized it. I don’t think every disappointed person needs to be told their perspective is wrong. Sometimes those of us leading need to admit we missed something. That's Not Fair.

When winning stops being the goal

That’s part of why I understand the older brother in Luke 15. His younger brother has left home, wasted his inheritance, and returned to a celebration. The older brother has stayed, worked, and done what was expected. When he hears what is happening, he gets angry and refuses to go inside.

His complaint is about the difference in how they’ve been treated. But the part I recognize most is his response: he withholds his presence. He can’t control the celebration, but he can refuse to participate in it. That much is still his decision. (Luke 15:25–30)

I’ve practiced a version of that strategy around a RISK board.

I love RISK. I can have a plan, a strategy, and a reasonable chance of doing well. Then somebody attacks me, and suddenly all of that becomes secondary.

Now I need to get them back.

I’ll sacrifice my own position. I’ll spend resources I should be using somewhere else. There are times I’ll accept losing the entire game if I can make sure the person who attacked me regrets it.

Tilt / When the goal changes

I stopped trying to win. I started trying to make somebody else lose.

That’s what being on tilt looks like for me. The frustration doesn’t just affect my mood. It changes my objective. Somebody else’s move becomes more important than the game I sat down to play.

I’ve seen quieter versions of that among students. Someone deliberately withholds a congratulations. They won’t like a post because they don’t want to support that person’s success. They stop participating, or their motivation to come to church changes because a relationship with their peers has changed.

Not every absence is a protest. But I recognize the impulse to make sure people feel my disappointment. Withholding encouragement, support, or participation can feel like the only power left.

The RISK table makes me question how useful that power actually is. I can make sure someone knows how I feel and still lose something I wanted more.

That’s Not Fair / What About Me? Luke 15:25–32

The person who comes outside

What I keep coming back to in Luke 15 is that the father goes outside. He doesn’t abandon the older brother to his anger. He comes out and pleads with him. The celebration for one son hasn’t made him forget the other. (Luke 15:28)

I’ve had difficult days in ministry when encouragement arrived through my students, often without them knowing I needed it. A text. A phone call. Something ordinary that mattered more to me than they probably realized.

Sometimes it has been a student calling to tell me they weren’t coming to church that night. On the surface, that doesn’t sound particularly encouraging. But a coworker has reminded me that plenty of students wouldn’t have called at all. This student wanted me to know. They cared enough about our relationship not to simply disappear. I had two choices:

I could hear only that they weren’t coming, or I could notice that they had thought to call.

That doesn’t make every hard day easy. It does remind me that being valued doesn’t always look like the recognition I was expecting.

I’ve learned something similar about expectations within families. Two siblings can do the same thing and receive very different reactions. Sometimes the difference is that people already expected one of them to do it.

I can experience that as being taken for granted. Sometimes it may be. But there are also times I can recognize that people see me as capable. They expect something from me because they believe I can do it.

That isn’t a reason to stop encouraging dependable people. I need encouragement too. It is one more reason not to assume that a quieter response means I matter less.

A relationship, not a ranking

The father’s response to the older brother is the part of the story that changes the way I hear the complaint:

“My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
Luke 15:31

The younger brother’s return hasn’t made the older brother less of a son. His father is still there. Their relationship hasn’t become less valuable because someone else is being welcomed home.

I find it easy to forget that distinction when I’m looking for recognition. There really was only one Prom King. There are limited leadership positions, limited hours in a meeting, and only so much attention one person can give at a time. I know what it feels like to compete for something another person might receive instead.

But I don’t understand my relationship with God as one of those limited opportunities. Someone else growing closer to Him doesn’t leave less of Him available to me. What He is doing in another person’s life isn’t a subtraction from what He is doing in mine.

As I look for rewards, I keep coming back to the fact that growth and a stronger relationship with God are themselves things I value. They aren’t consolation prizes for missing out on something more important.

That doesn’t mean I stop wanting opportunities or appreciating encouragement. It means the attention someone else receives is a poor way to measure the relationship I already have.

What I was trying to win

Near the end of the story, the older brother refers to “this son of yours.” The father answers by calling him “this brother of yours.” He brings the conversation back to the relationship: someone who was lost has been found. That is why they are celebrating. (Luke 15:30–32)

I understand the desire to make sure the father hears every word of the complaint. I’ve wanted my effort acknowledged, my disappointment understood, and my point recognized.

But I’m struck by what the older brother is missing while he stands outside. He hasn’t lost his place in the family. He has gained his brother back. The father’s invitation is to share that, not compete with it.

“What about me?” isn’t always a selfish question. Sometimes it’s the honest beginning of a conversation that needs to happen. I’ve needed to ask it, and I’ve needed to listen when someone else asks it of me.

I’m just learning that my disappointment doesn’t have to become the objective everyone else must organize around. I can want to be heard without withholding everything good I have to offer until somebody hears me.

I COULD choose to lose the whole game by making sure somebody knows how I feel. I COULD choose to leave the party in protest! I would much rather live my life celebrating that my brother is home, and realize I AM WITH THE FATHER!.

YouthStory That’s Not Fair / What About Me?

What I learned on the way to becoming a RISK Grandmaster!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 06:07:42 +0000

YouthStory Faith · People · Growth

By Jon Allen · 6 minute read

What I Learned on the Way to Becoming a Risk Grandmaster

The journey taught me more than the rank.

I started playing Risk with friends and realized I was pretty good at it. I enjoyed the strategy and math combined with the social skills it took to win, so I went home and started learning how to get better.

Then I discovered there was a whole world of people playing this game, much like chess. I was hooked. I was also terrible. I thought I knew what I was doing, but wow, did I have a lot to learn.

I watched grandmasters play for months and practiced different formats. Eventually, I reached grandmaster in both one-on-one and six-player ranked play. I know, it's such a nerd thing to talk about. But I love showing people how much goes into a game they thought was just rolling dice.

What I didn't expect was how much of it would stay with me after I put the game down. I thought the goal was becoming a grandmaster. Looking back, becoming the player and person I am today was the real victory.

I don't remember my losses, and that's the lesson.

When I started thinking about this article, I tried to remember a loss that really bothered me. Honestly, I couldn't come up with one. There were plenty. I just hadn't held on to them.

I wanted to learn how to win. Losing wasn't going to stop me from doing that. Why did someone attack me? What did I miss? What could I do differently next time?

It's harder when the thing that doesn't work is personal. You try something with your students, put time into an idea, or have a conversation you thought would go differently. There's more invested than a few imaginary soldiers.

But I want to bring that same willingness to learn into those moments. I don't have to like how something went to learn from it. And I don't have to keep replaying the loss to remember what it taught me.

You don't have to take every opportunity just because it's there.

Comebacks are the best feeling in Risk. Recently, I won a game where I had to figure out how to work my way through all five other players. I started modestly, taking the smallest territory bonus I could without stepping on anybody's toes.

The blue player seemed to understand that I wasn't his biggest threat. He went after someone else, which gave me an opening. I took it. Then I stopped taking things and started preparing for what I could actually defend.

That part mattered. I could have kept expanding and given everybody a reason to come after me before I was ready. Instead, I built up my position until I could finish what I'd started.

I take the big risks when they're the only way to win. I spend the rest of the game trying to make sure I don't need them.

In life, I'm learning to look for the next few bottlenecks. When will time get tight? What resources will I need? Who needs to be involved? An opportunity can be good and still require more preparation than I've given it.

The question that helps me is, if this doesn't go my way, can I survive to try again? Can I pivot? If the answer is yes, maybe it's time to try. I don't need every outcome figured out, but I do need to think beyond the first move.

Your actions have to speak louder than your words.

In Risk, you can leave two troops on a border instead of stacking a huge army there. You're saying, “I want this, but I don't want to fight you.” You can move troops away to show you have no intention of attacking. There is a whole conversation happening without words.

Most players want to see that you aren't greedy and that they still have a chance. If you take away all their room to grow, you shouldn't be surprised when they decide you're the problem.

That's made me more measured in what I ask and expect of people. People often want to support you. But they're also trying to figure out where they fit and whether your growth leaves room for theirs.

You grow with them. You show them you've invested in their growth, too.

As a pastor, I can tell someone I believe in them, but eventually I need to give them an opportunity, let them carry responsibility, and be willing to help them learn. They should be able to see what I mean before I explain it again.

Not everything needs to become a war.

There are times you have to stand your ground and times you have to let something go. In Risk, a measured response can show someone you mean business without costing both of you the game.

Honestly, showing any restraint puts you ahead of a lot of players.

I think about that when a frustrating message makes you want to respond immediately. What are you trying to accomplish? Does this response help, or have you decided winning this one exchange matters more?

You also learn to recognize people who are willing to take both of you down. I'm still learning that part. Some players will make a decision that helps their own position. Others will hurt themselves if it means hurting you. You need to know the difference and avoid giving one person's recklessness control over every option you have.

In ministry, we get to keep helping each other.

In Risk, even a great partnership eventually ends with one winner. In the kingdom, God wins. I believe he already has. My job is to help other people become part of that victory.

Winning, to me, means making another disciple of Jesus.

For 18 years, I've helped people grow, often from the background. Some could do my job. Some have opportunities that pay more or get more attention. I want to celebrate that and keep growing alongside them, right here with the people God has given me to serve.

We don't have to turn on each other at the end. We get to keep building each other up.

When I read the parable of the talents, I'm challenged by the servant who let fear lead him to bury what he'd been given. What am I doing with what God has entrusted to me? Knowing God wins doesn't make every idea wise, but it helps me remember that a failed attempt won't undo his victory.

These days, the time I used to spend playing looks different. From nine to midnight, I'm building websites, writing, editing content, and learning things I don't already know how to do. I'm running, reading Scripture, and looking for ways to pastor my students better. It's go time now.

I'm only 38. I have a lot of learning left.

I started this whole thing thinking I was pretty good at a game. Getting better required finding out how much I didn't know and being willing to stay with it anyway. That experience keeps giving me courage to be a beginner somewhere else.

I still like having goals. I'm glad I reached this one. But I couldn't have named everything the journey would teach me before I started.

I thought I was learning to win at Risk. The whole time Risk was teaching me to win at life.

How To Poach Your Own People - Lessons I'm Learning The Hard Way

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:27:32 +0000

YOUTHSTORY. Faith · Formation · Leadership

How to Poach Your Own People

Lessons I’m Learning the Hard Way

By Jon Allen · YouthStory Leadership · 9 minute read

For 18 years, I’ve helped students and leaders get ready to go do great things. Some have become pastors. Others lead worship, college ministries, men’s and women’s ministries, or serve on church boards. I love those stories. I’m thankful I got to be part of them.

But I’m having to ask myself a question that hurts a little.

How many people did I prepare to lead somewhere else because I never made room for them to grow here?

Our youth group needs people who can pastor, lead worship, build community, mentor college students, and help make decisions. Almost every kind of leadership someone could offer the church has a place in this ministry, too. Yet sometimes I could see those gifts clearly enough to celebrate them when someone left, without seeing how to make room for them while they were still here.

So this year, I’m learning how to poach my own people.

Apparently, some of my best prospects already have my phone number.

This summer, Pastor Daniel Medders asked my intern a question that caught me completely off guard.

“Are you called to pastor?”

We were sitting at a table talking about her future, and I immediately started trying to soften the expectations. Where I pastor, families often have college and career plans in motion years before graduation. They have good dreams for their kids. I get nervous about how they’ll respond if a student begins exploring a call to ministry that changes those plans.

Community service hours? Absolutely. Leadership development? Wonderful. Something meaningful for the college résumé? We can help with that.

But a call that might change the résumé entirely? I was much more cautious there. In my mind their SALVATION was the goal! I think I may have been scared their parents would hold them out of church if I pushed calling to much.

Daniel kept talking about the need for pastors and how we need to be bold about helping students explore that calling. It probably took me two weeks to let that conversation really sink in.

I had been allowing my fear of how someone might respond to make me quieter about what God could be doing.

And once I saw that, I started seeing other places where I had done the same thing.

A worship intern who needed me to believe in them sooner. A young, locally licensed minister who needed me to stand up for them when it mattered. A student exploring a call to ministry while I was already thinking about sending them off to college.

oof...

There have been people who found their place somewhere else, and only then did I recognize gifts that had been right in front of me. I had been looking for how they fit my idea of the ministry. God may have been growing something in them that would have changed my idea of the ministry.

That’s the part I’m learning the hard way. It costs me my feelings. It makes me admit that I don’t always know best and that trusting God includes letting him do something I didn’t plan.

Look again

Poaching your own people starts with looking at them again.

A couple of years ago, Pastor Friedeman challenged me to have more “I see in you” conversations, including with my adult leaders. He wasn’t challenging me to find more compliments or make something up. He was challenging me to help people see what someone else sees when they look at them.

Recently, a young man moved to town and started attending our church. He heard me preach one Sunday and mention that I was the youth pastor. A few weeks later, he was in our First Steps class for people moving toward church membership.

Over lunch, I learned that his gifts lined up with things I had been looking for. He didn’t arrive with every qualification. He was willing to learn, commit, and serve. I wanted to help him find a place where he could contribute and stretch what he thought he was capable of.

What a rock star he has been. He shows up. He communicates. He follows through.

I saw gifts God had given him for our church, and I told him about them. Then we gave those gifts somewhere to go.

That’s something I can actually practice: take someone to lunch, learn what matters to them, notice their gifts, and say out loud what I see. There may be a future leader sitting in a membership class who hasn’t considered that they could be part of the future I’m praying for.

Make the invitation

Then I have to make an invitation that reaches beyond what they’re doing now.

I have a student whose future had been headed down a very defined path. Her family had dreams and plans, and they were preparing for that direction together. Through Wednesdays, Sundays, camp, NYC, retreats, Bible studies, and other places she encounters God throughout the week, a seed of calling has been growing in her life.

After that conversation with Daniel, I started leaning in more. I began bringing her onstage, giving her smaller opportunities to lead, and asking her to share her story. In a few weeks, she’s scheduled to help me preach. We’re meeting to work on how she can share what God is doing with other students.

Last week, she approached me wanting to know why she wasn’t on a leadership team that was about to meet.

I had already nominated her to lead our evangelism team. I explained that I had been imagining her in that role. But if being part of this other team mattered that much to her, then I needed her on both!

She was pursuing an opportunity to lead. I needed to listen to that, too.

She’s also pursuing college at Trevecca, a Christian university here in town. I’m excited about the opportunity for her to explore her calling there. And I love that “in town” means she has the possibility of continuing to grow as a leader in the church she already calls home.

Graduation can change her role without ending her place in the mission.

That’s part of the invitation I’m trying to make to our seniors and former students through internships, camp counseling, serving as sponsors, and other leadership opportunities. I want them to know there is a future here that includes who they’re becoming.

Make room

Of course, the invitation only means something if I’m willing to make room.

If somebody tells me they need to leave to grow, I need to take that seriously. Every ministry has limitations.

A change in direction

Limitation is
an invitation.

When a leader reaches the edge of the opportunities I’ve offered, that’s an invitation for me to grow, too. A student’s calling might ask more of us than our current plans allow. An adult’s gifts might open a ministry we haven’t imagined yet. Before I assume they need another place, I need to ask whether I’m willing to help this place grow.

Was the ministry out of room, or had I stopped making room?

It’s not about making people stay. It’s about making sure my limitations aren’t the reason they have to leave to grow.

Did I recognize what God was doing? Did I affirm it? Did I give them meaningful responsibility and walk with them as they learned? Did my vision have room for the leaders I was helping develop?

Dr. Dwight Gunter shared something his mother used to say: people are much less likely to criticize their own work, so put your leaders to work. What sticks with me is the ownership in that. People ought to have a real hand in building the ministry they’re being asked to care about, including the freedom to help make it better.

I’ve done youth night a thousand times. Literally. How many nights have I spent leading the leaders while they led the youth?

There’s no rule that says I can’t be in the trenches with students while my leaders take the wheel. Their growth is my growth. When they step into a new adventure, I get to learn how to lead in a new way, too.

And our students gain more people who can lead, care for them, and help them follow Jesus. The trust we’ve built over years gets passed on through people who are now building that same kind of trust with somebody else.

Reconnect

Sometimes, poaching your own people starts with reconnecting with somebody who already left.

During my sabbatical, my wife and I visited a church between Orlando and Tampa. We were worshiping freely on a Sunday morning without having to work. A beautiful thing.

Then a former student I hadn’t seen in five or six years nearly tackled me.

I hadn’t even known she was there. We started catching up, and I told her I was coming back Wednesday to visit the youth pastor and see their ministry.

Because who really stops working on sabbatical? And when else does a youth pastor get to travel around checking out other youth groups?

She told me she was a middle school small group leader. We made plans to catch up that night.

On Wednesday, I was almost in tears watching her minister to her students. Afterward, she introduced me as her former youth pastor and one of the reasons she got into youth ministry. A seed planted more than a decade earlier had been growing somewhere I didn’t even know to look.

We got to talking about our old retreats and trips. Her church wasn’t going to Nazarene Youth Conference that year. Two of my leaders with registration spots had recently moved to Kentucky.

I could feel an idea coming together.

After getting my pastor’s permission, I reached out. I needed a youth sponsor. I had just watched her lead. I had discipled her for seven years. I knew what she could bring to our students, and I told her so.

About ten rounds of God moving things around later, she was at NYC with our group.

Recently, she flew back to Nashville and spent a Wednesday night sharing her testimony and helping bring an SEU worship night to our students. She works as an SEU admissions counselor. Our students can’t wait to see her. They talk to her. After church, I watched her spend an hour having a real conversation with a student in the parking lot.

I MEAN, SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE!

And yet God has given some of her leadership back to us. She has a ministry and a life in another place, and somehow she has become this honorary leader in ours, too.

I couldn’t have organized that story. But I could recognize what God had grown in her, tell her what I saw, and make a specific invitation.

That’s what I want to keep practicing with the people God puts in front of me: look again, name what I see, invite them into something bigger, and grow enough myself to make room for them.

My job is to make disciples who make disciples. That includes students, leaders, and parents whose gifts may take this ministry further than my plans ever could. I want my people to know they can be leaders who are led, and together we can raise up people who will lead somebody else.

The hard lesson

Sometimes the limitation was me.

The lesson I’m learning the hard way is that sometimes the limitation was me. I was asking God to grow leaders while expecting them to fit inside a ministry I already knew how to lead.

Their limitation was my invitation: to believe sooner, make room, and trust God with what we could become together.

I still want to send people out to do great things. But I want them to know they can grow and do great things here, too. And if that means I need to grow alongside them, that’s an invitation I want to accept.

Turns out, learning to poach my own people means letting God change the pastor they already have.

Top 5 Youth Ministry Tools & Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 04:00:02 +0000

YOUTH MINISTRY TOOLS

5 Apps I Actually Use to Run a Youth Ministry

Not five apps I found on Google five minutes ago. These are the things that are actually open on my computer while I’m trying to keep youth ministry from becoming complete chaos.

Youth ministry already comes with enough moving parts. I do not need 47 apps, 19 passwords, and three dashboards all claiming they are going to “simplify ministry.”

I need to know who is coming, tell everybody what time to be there, make something that does not look terrible, edit a video before tomorrow, and somehow get the right words on the screen Wednesday night.

So these are five I actually use.

Clearstream

For telling everybody what time the thing starts.

Clearstream is the newest addition to my setup, but it solves a problem youth pastors know way too well:

Nobody knows what is going on.

I can announce something from the stage, send an email, post it on Instagram, mention it in small groups, personally tell a student, and somehow get a text the next afternoon:

“Wait. What time is it?”

Clearstream lets me text students, parents, and leaders, build lists, automate follow-up, and keep church communication away from my personal number.

I’m using it now, and so far I really like it.

CHECK OUT CLEARSTREAM

That is my referral link. If you sign up through it, I may receive a referral benefit at no extra cost to you.

Planning Center

For remembering who all these people are.

When your youth group has ten students, you can keep a shocking amount of information in your head.

Eventually that stops working.

Attendance. Check-in. Registrations. Groups. Contact information. Trips. Events. People.

Planning Center is basically the organizational brain behind a lot of what we do.

“I’m pretty sure somebody wrote that down somewhere” is not actually a system.

Canva

For making it look like we planned this ahead of time.

Sermon graphics. Retreat graphics. Instagram posts. Parent handouts. Shirts. Announcement slides. Signs.

Random graphics for things I apparently agreed to three months ago and forgot about.

Canva probably gets opened more than almost anything else I use.

Especially when somebody asks, “Can you make something real quick?”

Sure.

“Real quick.”

STAY IN THE STORY

Want the next one?

I write about teenagers, faith, ministry, culture, and whatever I’m learning while trying to pastor actual people in the middle of it.

Get new YouthStory articles and resources by email and text. No daily inspirational quotes. Promise.

CapCut

For proving youth ministry is actually fun.

We take a ridiculous amount of video.

Retreats. Games. Worship. Promos. Recaps. Reels. Students doing something hilarious that absolutely cannot be recreated once you ask them to do it again.

CapCut lets me take all that phone footage and turn it into something people might actually watch.

And I can do it without disappearing into a professional editing program for six hours.

Youth pastor math: if editing the recap takes longer than the actual event, something has gone wrong.

ProPresenter

For making Wednesday night appear under control.

Worship lyrics. Sermon slides. Scripture. Videos. Announcements. Games. Random things I suddenly decide would be better if everybody could see them on the giant screen.

If it appears on a screen in our student ministry, it probably went through ProPresenter first.

Nobody notices ProPresenter when everything works.

Everybody notices ProPresenter when the lyrics are three slides behind.

Including the worship leader.

ONE IMPORTANT THING

None of these apps pastor anybody.

Clearstream cannot notice the kid standing by himself. Planning Center cannot sit across the table from a teenager having the worst week of his life.

Canva cannot disciple anybody. CapCut cannot love a student. ProPresenter definitely cannot save your sermon.

They are tools.

But good tools can take some of the administrative chaos off your plate so you have a little more time and energy for the part that actually matters: people.

And if an app can help me do that, I’m interested.

A quick note: Some links on YouthStory may be referral or affiliate links. If you use one, YouthStory may receive a small benefit at no additional cost to you. I’m only interested in recommending stuff I actually use or would recommend anyway.

That's Not Fair - They Did Me Dirty

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 03:46:24 +0000

THAT'S NOT FAIR • PART TWO

THAT'S NOT FAIR

But They Did Me Dirty

By Jon Allen

Forgiveness is what people expect from me, but they did me dirty and they did it on purpose.

They lied.

They embarrassed me.

They broke trust.

And now I'm supposed to forgive them?

That's not fair.

Last week, the unfair part was that somebody got something they did not earn.

Grace.

This time, somebody really did hurt you.

They really do owe you.

And Jesus still talks about forgiveness.

Matthew 18

How many times do I have to do this?

Peter comes to Jesus in Matthew 18 and asks:

"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?"

I think Peter is really asking:

When am I allowed to be done with them?

How many chances?

How many apologies?

How many times before I finally get to say, "Nope. That's it."

Seven probably sounded generous.

Then Jesus says:

"Not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Jesus is telling Peter to stop keeping score.

Then He tells him a story.

The Debt

The debt was real.

A servant owes a king more money than he could ever repay.

He begs for patience.

Instead, the king does something unbelievable.

He cancels the debt.

Gone.

Then the servant finds somebody who owes him a much smaller amount and demands payment.

That man begs for patience too.

The servant refuses.

When the king hears about it, he is furious.

Jesus never says the second man did not owe him anything.

He did.

The debt was real.

That matters because forgiveness is not pretending nothing happened.

Sometimes they really did you dirty.

Sometimes they knew exactly what they were doing.

Forgiveness only exists because there was something that needed forgiving.

Forgiveness + Trust

Forgiveness is not the same thing as trust.

This is where forgiveness gets hard for me.

I am not usually sitting around wanting revenge.

I am wondering if they are going to do it again.

I am fiercely loyal, so when trust breaks, I immediately start wondering if the bridge can be rebuilt.

Trust

A bridge takes one person to break and two sides to build.

I can forgive from my side.

I cannot rebuild trust from both sides.

That is why forgiveness and restoration are not the same thing.

Access and trust are earned.

Forgiveness is the default.

You can forgive somebody and still set a boundary.

You can forgive somebody and still admit the relationship may never look exactly like it did before.

Forgiveness does not mean handing somebody the keys to hurt you again.

Hurt Creates Hurt

I learned that the wrong way.

When my parents got divorced, I was angry.

Really angry.

And teenage me came up with what I thought was a pretty good plan.

I was going to make their lives miserable.

Honestly, I thought maybe if I made life after the divorce bad enough, they would realize how much better things were before.

Maybe they would fix it.

I thought I was punishing them.

What I was really doing was taking something that hurt me and using that hurt to hurt them.

Hurt creates hurt.

Somebody eventually has to decide:

This stops with me.

Forgiveness breaks the cycle.

It does not erase what happened.

It means I am not going to let what you did to me decide what I do next.

The Future

Sometimes forgiveness keeps the future open.

Years ago, I was working through the ordination process.

It was a hard season.

I was finishing coursework and trying to figure out how honest I was supposed to be with the committee about the things I was struggling with.

I was honest.

Probably too honest.

One of the things I talked about was how much time I was spending gaming.

I was also streaming online at the time, so this was not exactly a secret.

Then I got an email telling me I was not going to receive my minister's license that year.

I was heartbroken.

I was angry.

I felt judged.

It felt incredibly unfair.

But eventually I had to recognize something.

The people making that decision were people too.

They could misunderstand me.

They could make a decision I disagreed with.

They could hurt me.

And if I believed God had really called me, I had a choice.

I could walk away angry.

Or I could forgive them and keep going.

Years later, I sat across the table from the man who had sent me that email.

By then, he had been part of ordaining me.

He told me how important that moment was to him because it was one of the last things he got to do in his role as assistant superintendent.

That conversation has stuck with me.

None of those moments happen if I refuse to forgive the people who hurt me.

Since then, I have had the privilege of baptizing nearly 100 students.

I cannot imagine what my life would look like, or what the Kingdom would look like through the small part God has allowed me to play, if I had decided that one painful moment was the end of the story.

Sometimes forgiveness does not just release the past.

Sometimes it keeps the future open.

If you walk away when it hurts the most, you may never get to see what God might have done on the other side of forgiveness.

The Label

We turn people into what they did.

Somebody lies and suddenly they are not a person who lied.

They are a liar.

Somebody hurts me and suddenly that is the only version of them I can see.

But I have a worst side too.

I have said things I wish I could unsay.

I have hurt people I love.

I am really grateful the people who love me have not decided my worst moment is the only version of me I am allowed to become.

The Default

This is why we tell our students:

We love you,
and there's nothing you can do about it.

That does not mean there are no consequences.

It does not mean trust cannot be broken.

It means your worst moment does not get the final word on whether you are loved.

That kind of love leaves room for repentance.

It leaves room for change.

It leaves room for somebody to become more than the version of themselves that hurt you.

The Receipt

I canceled the debt and kept the receipt.

There have been times when I told somebody I forgave them.

We talked.

I said I was over it.

Except I was not.

Months later, I could pull the whole thing back out.

Replay it.

Remember every detail.

Something new would happen and suddenly I was reaching backward.

See?

This is just like what you did before.

DEBT RECEIPT

HURT REAL

TRUST BROKEN YES

APOLOGY OWED MAYBE

BALANCE $0.00

CANCELED

I said the debt was canceled, but I kept the receipt.

We do that.

"I forgive you."

But we keep the evidence just in case we need it later.

Why Forgive?

Here is why Jesus expects this from us.

We forgive because we have been forgiven.

The servant wanted mercy for himself and justice for everybody else.

I do that too.

God, forgive me.

Be patient with me.

Do not define me by my worst moment.

Then somebody hurts me and suddenly I am keeping receipts.

The King canceled my debt.

So Jesus asks me what I am going to do with theirs.

So What Now?

What do you do when they really did you dirty?

Maybe they really did hurt you.

Maybe the debt is real.

Maybe they never apologized.

Maybe the bridge is broken and you are the only one standing there trying to rebuild it.

Jesus is not asking you to pretend none of that happened.

What are you going to do with the debt?

Forgiveness does not mean they did not do you dirty.

It means what they did does not get to decide what you do next.

Forgiveness breaks the cycle.

Forgiveness keeps the future open.

And forgiveness leaves your side of the bridge ready, even when you cannot build the other side for them.

Access and trust are earned.

Forgiveness is the default.

Maybe your first step is not talking to that person.

Maybe your first step is talking to Jesus.

Jesus, I know what You have forgiven in me. I do not know how to let this go yet. But I do not want to keep carrying the receipt. Help me release what I keep trying to collect.

Sometimes forgiveness feels unfair.

Maybe that is because grace has never really been fair.

And thankfully, neither is the mercy God has given me.

10 Things I Love About Being Married to the Pastor's Wife!

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 01:45:03 +0000

YouthStory • Marriage • Ministry • Family

10 Things I Love About Being Married to the Pastor's Wife

Fifteen years of marriage, a thousand Wednesdays, and a lot of time learning how to stay afloat.

By Jon Allen

After being married to the pastor's wife for 15 years, I think it's time I spill the tea.

She's not just my boo.
She's my buoy. 🛟

She has spent thousands of Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings at church. She has moved for ministry, taken vacation days for youth trips and retreats, and even let me move her into a parsonage that I'm pretty sure hosted the first Nazarene potluck.

The Wednesday Text

Every Wednesday there seems to be something I forgot.

Shoes.
Balls.
Some bizarre sermon illustration.

And somehow she still answers the "Can you bring me..." text.

Being married to a pastor's wife is a strange life.

I should know. I'm the pastor.

She Holds My Hand

Holding hands.

Whether it's NYC, a youth retreat, a Wednesday night or Friday Night Lights, eventually somebody catches us holding hands in front of the students.

We call it making purple.

Our students see a lot of Pastor Jon. They see me preach on Wednesday nights, lead retreats, show up at games, sit in the stands, pray with students, teach Sunday School and spend a ridiculous amount of time hanging out with teenagers.

I love that sometimes they also just see us holding hands.

And I hope when they catch moments like that, they're seeing a picture of the kind of partnership they might want someday.

NYC in Salt Lake City. One of our students caught us walking together.

When life gets heavy or ministry gets intense, I know who's holding my hand.

She Shares the Calling, Not the Job

We started dating right after she switched from youth ministry to accounting at Trevecca.

By the time we knew we were in this thing for the long haul, she was already serving in youth ministry with me.

She knew what she was getting into.

At least we thought she did.

Sharing a calling doesn't mean carrying the exact same burden.

There are student struggles, family situations, conflicts and hard conversations that I have to carry because I'm the pastor.

She doesn't need every detail just because she's married to me.

Sometimes she needs to be involved. Sometimes loving her means not asking her to carry something that isn't hers to carry.

My calling belongs to our family. My job doesn't have to become her job.

She Gives Me Room to Hear God

I was once passed over for a job I really thought I wanted.

I was devastated.

I thought I understood what God was doing.

Then it didn't happen.

She didn't immediately tell me I should stay.

She didn't immediately tell me I should leave.

She didn't try to fix it.

She listened.

She gave me room to be disappointed without letting disappointment decide who I was going to become.

Slowly, she helped me keep becoming the person God was calling me to be instead of letting the outside noise win.

She trusts God enough that she doesn't have to fill the silence. She knows God will speak.

She Knows Who Hurt Me and Still Loves Them

A pastor's spouse sees more than most people realize.

She sees the good, the bad and the ugly.

And then she has to see the people responsible for all three on Sunday.

She has watched people love us well. She has also watched people disappoint us and hurt me.

Sometimes that hurt becomes hers too.

She knows who hurt me. And she still knows how to love them.

Watching her do that has helped me stay soft in moments when it would have been much easier to become defensive.

She Knows When Ministry Has Had Enough of Me

Ministry never tells you you're finished.

There is always another student. Another sermon. Another thing that could be better.

Sometimes the dangerous weeks are obvious.

Everything goes wrong.

But sometimes the dangerous weeks are the great ones.

The event goes well. Students respond. Something starts growing.

And now it's midnight and I can see ten more things we should do next.

Sometimes everything went wrong.

Sometimes everything went right.

Either way, she knows when ministry has had enough of me.

She gives me incredible freedom.

"I've got the kids. You do your thing."

But eventually she also knows when it's family time.

The job will still be there. God will have it there when I'm ready for it again.

The strange part is that the freedom she gives me to do ministry makes me want to come home even more.

Her Spiritual Gift Is Surviving My Ideas

While working on this article, I tried to think of a terrible idea she had successfully talked me out of.

So I asked her.

She told me there aren't any.

Not because I haven't had terrible ideas.

Apparently she has just never successfully talked me out of one.

Fair.

After 15 years, I think her spiritual gift may just be surviving all of my wild and crazy ideas.

She Has a Whole Life of Her Own

One of the things I love most about being married to the pastor's wife is that being the pastor's wife isn't the only thing she is.

She started as an accountant and worked her way up to being a controller.

She can go from high-level executive meetings to putting on a youth ministry shirt and spending a weekend with teenagers.

And neither version is fake.

She has her own friends.

Her own opinions.

Plenty of those.

She serves because she wants to serve, not because somebody handed her a list of things a pastor's wife is supposed to do.

And sometimes she loves getting to walk into women's ministry and just be a regular lady in the room.

She never disappeared into the title "pastor's wife."

I love that about her.

She Taught Our Kids How to Love Flawed People

Our kids have grown up around ministry.

That means they have gotten a close-up view of real, flawed people.

People who are wonderful one day and difficult the next.

And they have watched their mom love them.

They have watched her choose grace.

They have watched her show that people matter more than things and relationships matter more than self-interest.

I didn't have to sit my kids down and teach them all of that with words. The pastor's wife showed them with her life.

I think that may be one of the greatest gifts ministry has given our family.

She Doesn't Let Us Float Alone

When you're young in ministry, you spend a lot of time thinking about what's next.

The next Wednesday. The next retreat. The next student.

Fifteen years later, I find myself looking around more.

And somehow there are people everywhere.

Students became adults.

Students became friends.

Church people became our people.

And some of the people we poured into started pouring into people of their own.

At some point ministry starts feeling less like two people trying not to drown and more like one of those lazy rivers where everybody starts connecting their tubes together.

Some people float beside you for a season.

Some stay connected for years.

And then every once in a while, you get invited to a wedding.

Those weddings hit me differently now.

I get to see baptisms. I get to stand there and watch someone publicly say that Jesus has changed their life.

I love those moments.

But at a wedding, sometimes I look at two people standing there and realize I'm seeing something different.

At a baptism, I get to see a new believer. At some of these weddings, I realize I'm getting to be a part of a whole new generation of believers.

Someone who was once a teenager in our youth ministry is building a marriage. A home. Maybe one day raising kids who will know Jesus because their mom or dad decided years earlier that they wanted to follow Him.

Suddenly all those Wednesday nights look different.

We weren't just helping teenagers survive high school.

By the grace of God, we got to be a small part of shaping people who are now shaping people of their own.

And somehow, we got to do it together.

She's My Buoy 🛟

People sometimes call a pastor's wife his anchor.

That has never sounded quite right to me.

An anchor keeps you from moving.

She has never done that.

She has never kept me from going deeper when I believed God was calling me deeper.

She has gone into the water with me plenty of times.

She has also known when she needed to stay above it.

And when I've gone too deep, stayed too long, or simply didn't have the strength to swim anymore, she has been there.

She doesn't hold me in place.

She helps me stay afloat.

After 15 years, she's my buoy. 🛟

I've spent this entire article calling her "the pastor's wife."

Her name is Kari.

There is no Pastor Jon without Kari.

There is no Pastor Jon without Kari because of the person God made her to be.

Fifteen years later, we're still holding hands.

We've picked up a whole bunch of other rafts along the way.

And I'm pretty sure she's still wondering what I'm going to forget and need her to bring me this Wednesday.

If you came to this article hoping to see what makes a good pastor's wife.... the answer is God Does! And God Did!

I love you, Kari.

That's Not Fair - Check The Scoreboard!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 04:11:07 +0000

YouthStory • Faith • Students • Culture

THAT’S NOT FAIR

Check the Scoreboard

By Jon Allen

Comparison Grace Value Jesus

There are some things nobody has to teach us to say.

“That’s not fair!” is one of them.

Nobody has to explain fairness to a two-year-old whose brother got the bigger cookie. Nobody has to teach a teenager to notice who got invited, who made the team, who got the relationship, or whose parents seem to have everything together.

We notice.

And sometimes the hardest part isn’t that someone else has something we don’t.

It’s what seeing their life starts making us believe about our own.

I learned that pretty early.

Then I Saw What They Had

When I was eleven, my parents divorced.

Eventually, the unusual became normal.

During the week, I lived with my mom. Every other weekend, and sometimes during the summer, I went to my dad’s. We moved what felt like constantly. For a while, it seemed like every year brought another house, another place, another version of normal.

And when you’re a kid, you adapt.

I wasn’t walking around every day thinking about everything my family didn’t have.

This was simply my life.

Then, in high school, I started spending more time at my friends’ houses.

First it was my neighbors, Michael and Danny. Later, I started hanging out and staying over at Chris’s house.

And I started seeing something that felt strangely unfamiliar.

Mom and Dad were both there.

Two parents.

Two incomes.

One home.

I watched parents interact with each other about their kids instead of communicating through their kids.

I saw something I desperately missed: a parent who had enough time to sit at the ballfield and watch their kid play.

I remembered what that had felt like when I was little.

And suddenly, I wanted it again.

I wanted parents who agreed on how to guide me through the world instead of pulling me in separate directions. I didn’t want to feel like I was somehow in control of the relationships around me, or responsible for making sure one parent didn’t think I loved the other one more.

Nothing about my life had actually changed.

But I had finally seen what somebody else had.

Before This was simply my life.

Then I saw what somebody else had.

And comparison has a strange way of doing that.

There’s an experiment with monkeys that explains it better than I probably ever could.

Watch This

There’s a famous experiment involving capuchin monkeys that I’ve shown students before.

Two monkeys perform the same simple task and receive a reward.

One gets cucumber.

The other gets a grape.

What happens next is hilarious.

The capuchin monkey fairness experiment. The video begins at the experiment.

My Cucumber Was Fine

The first monkey was perfectly content with cucumber.

Then he saw the grape.

And suddenly cucumber was unacceptable.

He throws it back. He gets angry.

And that’s what had happened to me.

Comparison Changes the Way We See What We Already Have

🥒 Cucumber What I already had

🍇 Grapes What I suddenly saw

My cucumber had been exposed to somebody else’s grapes.

And suddenly, the cucumber didn’t seem nearly as good.

But there’s one little moment in that video I find even more interesting.

He checks the rock.

He bangs it against the wall almost like he’s inspecting it.

Every time I watch it, I imagine that monkey thinking:

ROCK

Maybe there’s something wrong with my rock.

Maybe the other monkey has a grape rock.

Maybe mine is inferior.

Maybe if I can figure out what’s wrong with mine, I can finally get what he has.

I know I’m assigning a lot of internal dialogue to a monkey.

But I’ve spent enough years working with teenagers to know that we do the exact same thing.

The Comparison Olympics

Teenagers usually don’t walk into my office and announce:

“Pastor Jon, I feel inferior to my peers.”

It usually starts much more confidently than that.

“I am enough. Why don’t they see it?”

Why didn’t I get invited?

Why didn’t I make the team?

Why doesn’t she like me?

Why didn’t they choose me?

Why does everybody else seem to know where they’re going after high school?

Why doesn’t my family look like theirs?

At first, there’s almost an innocence to it.

I deserve the grape too.

Teenagers are so innocent until proven less than.

Most kids arrive at adolescence after years of parents, grandparents, teachers and other people telling them they are valuable.

They’re loved.

They’re capable.

They matter.

Then they arrive in what might be the greatest comparison Olympics of their lives.

Bodies change.

Friend groups change.

Dating starts.

Sports become competitive.

Grades suddenly seem attached to your future.

College enters the conversation.

And now they carry a device in their pocket that allows them to look at everybody else’s grapes all day long.

Instagram Grapes

TikTok Grapes

Snapchat Grapes

At first they look at the world and say:

“You’re wrong. I belong here.”

But enough rejection can change the question.

Enough comparison.

Enough times not getting invited.

Enough times looking in the mirror.

Enough times seeing somebody else’s family.

Enough times being passed over.

Eventually:

“Why don’t they see my value?”

becomes

“Maybe I’m not valuable.”

And that is the moment the monkey starts checking the rock.

I’ve Checked My Rock Too

There have been legitimate reasons I’ve been picked last.

As I gained weight, I became increasingly aware that people saw me differently because of it.

But one of the clearest examples came in ministry.

Years ago, I became convinced I was supposed to pastor at Concord Community Church.

There was just one problem.

Concord didn’t want me.

I was trying to get them to seriously consider me for the youth pastor position.

They wouldn’t.

I didn’t meet the criteria.

I didn’t have the particular degree they were looking for. I hadn’t followed the traditional path they expected.

And wow, did that set me off.

Because eventually it stopped being:

Why won’t Concord consider me?

and started becoming:

Did I do this wrong?

Maybe I made a mistake by pursuing ministry so early.

Maybe I should have taken a more traditional academic route.

Maybe I needed the right degree.

Maybe I needed to be different.

ROCK

Maybe there was something wrong with my rock.

The irony, of course, is that I eventually became the youth pastor at Concord anyway.

And I’ve now spent years serving in the place that once wouldn’t seriously consider me.

Being passed over wasn’t proof that I had misunderstood God’s call.

But it sure felt like it at the time.

That experience taught me something I wish teenagers could learn before comparison teaches them something else:

Being passed over does not determine your value.

And neither does being picked.

Your value isn’t something popularity creates or rejection can erase.

You are someone God created, loves, and Christ gave Himself to redeem.

That is a much stronger foundation than somebody choosing you.

Jesus Told a Story That Isn’t Fair

Jesus once told a story about a landowner hiring people to work in his vineyard.

He hired some early in the morning.

Then more at 9:00.

Again at noon.

Again at 3:00.

And then, with almost no workday left, he went back at 5:00.

Matthew 20

He found people still standing there.

When he asked why, their answer gets me every time:

“Because no one has hired us.”

Nobody picked them.

Everybody else had been chosen, and they were still standing there.

But the landowner chose them anyway.

Then payday arrived.

The people who worked one hour received a full day’s wage.

Naturally, the people who had worked all day expected more.

They didn’t get more.

They received exactly what they had agreed to receive.

And they were furious.

Their complaint was essentially:

They didn’t earn it.

And they were right.

They didn’t.

That’s part of the scandal of Jesus’ story.

The first workers didn’t receive too little.

The last workers received generosity they could never claim they had earned.

“Are you envious because I am generous?”
Matthew 20:15

That’s uncomfortable.

Because the first workers were perfectly happy with what they had agreed to receive...

until they saw somebody else’s grape.

The landowner hadn’t taken anything from them.

Someone else receiving generosity simply made their own reward feel smaller.

Sound familiar?

At 38, I Have Plenty of Grapes to Look At

I’m a 38-year-old youth pastor.

I’ve watched people I went to college with move into jobs that, at least by the normal measures of success, are “better” than mine.

I’ve watched other pastors move on to the “big leagues.”

Bigger churches.

Bigger titles.

Bigger opportunities.

Bigger salaries.

Heck, some of the students I’ve pastored over the years already have the degrees and big jobs!

If I want to build a scoreboard that tells me I’m behind, I have plenty of material.

But here’s one of the ways the grace of Jesus has been changing me:

I genuinely get excited when those people win.

I don’t look at them and think they didn’t deserve it.

I celebrate them.

Over time, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me that somebody else’s win doesn’t have to become my loss.

And I’ve also begun to recognize that something the world could interpret as my failure to advance has allowed me to succeed at something I care about far more.

Maybe this is success too

I’ve gotten to become a launching pad.

Students I’ve invested in have grown up.

They’ve graduated.

They’ve gone to college.

They’ve entered careers.

Some have entered ministry.

They’ve become leaders.

They’ve built lives.

And I’ve gotten to stand in the same place long enough to watch a lot of them launch.

Maybe staying isn’t always failure to advance.

Sometimes staying is what allows somebody else to launch.

That doesn’t mean ambition is bad.

It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t grow.

And it certainly doesn’t mean disappointment stops hurting.

It means somebody else’s success doesn’t have to become evidence of my failure.

Their grape doesn’t make my cucumber worthless.

Teenagers Need Someone Who Can Explain the Rock

This is one reason I believe youth pastors, small-group leaders, mentors, coaches, teachers, parents and good friends matter so much.

There comes a moment for many teenagers when years of assumed confidence finally buckle under the weight of comparison.

They’ve been told they’re valuable.

But eventually they need more than:

“You’re amazing!”

They need to know why they have value.

Because the world is going to present evidence to the contrary.

Someone will be prettier.

Someone will be stronger.

Someone will make the team.

Someone else will get invited.

Someone’s parents will still be married.

Someone will have more money.

Someone will get into the school.

Someone will get the relationship.

Affirmation without a foundation isn’t enough.

When a teenager starts checking the rock, they need somebody close enough to notice.

Somebody who can look them in the eye and remind them that their value was never determined by whether somebody invited them, selected them, dated them, hired them or applauded them.

For those of us who follow Jesus, we can give them something deeper than another compliment.

We can point them toward the One who created them, loves them, gave Himself for them and wants a relationship with them.

Those moments are why youth pastors matter.

They’re why small-group leaders matter.

They’re why mentors matter.

They’re why good friends matter.

Because if you’re there when the question changes from:

“Why don’t they see my value?”

to:

“Do I have any value?”

what you say next can matter more than you realize.

Sometimes it can literally save a life.

Check the Scoreboard

There’s a line I’ve used for years that has become more meaningful to me the longer I’ve lived:

A line worth remembering

You can’t get more than everything.

I’ve lived long enough now to know life can run the score up on you.

Divorce.

Depression.

The deaths of people you love.

Sickness.

Disappointment.

Not getting the job.

Watching somebody else make more money.

Watching somebody else receive the opportunity.

Watching somebody else’s life contain things you’ve prayed for and never received.

And if you’re constantly comparing, eventually you start keeping score.

Their house.

Point for them.

Their salary.

Another point.

Their family.

Another point.

Their opportunity.

Another point.

And pretty soon you look up at the scoreboard and think:

I’m getting killed.

But maybe you need to check the scoreboard again.

Because when you receive the life Jesus offers, you aren’t simply adding another accomplishment to your side of the board.

You’ve been brought into relationship with God.

You are forgiven.

You belong to Him.

You get His presence now, and life with Him forever.

There’s something sitting on your side of the scoreboard that comparison can’t calculate:

Check the Scoreboard

Everything Else 1,000,000 money • titles • houses • opportunities

Life With God ∞ grace • belonging • presence • forever

Infinity still wins.

Infinity.

So what good would it do for somebody else to score a million touchdowns if you already have infinity on the scoreboard?

Let them score another.

Celebrate with them.

Cheer them on.

Infinity still wins.

And infinity winning doesn’t mean the pain didn’t hurt.

It means the pain doesn’t get the final score.

Jesus Christ died for me.

He rose again.

And He offers me something I could never achieve, purchase, deserve or earn:

relationship with God.

Not just someday.

Now.

I can know Him.

I can walk with Him.

I can be forgiven by Him.

I can belong to Him.

And I get life with Him forever.

What exactly is supposed to beat that?

A bigger salary?

A better title?

A nicer house?

A more impressive résumé?

Those things can be good.

I can even want some of them.

But they can’t compete.

Grace changes the scoreboard

You can’t get more than everything.

That’s why I can live from victory even in seasons that don’t feel victorious.

That’s why I can live a life of spiritual abundance even when life doesn’t look abundant.

That’s why I can believe that no matter what life throws at me, it doesn’t get to steal my joy.

And that’s why I can look at the grape in my neighbor’s hand and celebrate it.

Their blessing doesn’t subtract from mine.

Their success doesn’t diminish mine.

Their grace doesn’t cost me mine.

Check the scoreboard.

Infinity still wins.

Stop Checking the Rock

I wish I could go back and tell that high-school kid bouncing between Mom’s house and Dad’s house some of this.

I wouldn’t tell him not to want what he saw at Michael and Danny’s house or Chris’s house.

I wouldn’t tell him his hurt wasn’t legitimate.

I wouldn’t tell him to stop wishing his parents were together.

Some things hurt because something genuinely valuable has been lost.

Gratitude doesn’t require pretending the cucumber is a grape.

But I would tell him this:

What you’re seeing in somebody else’s house doesn’t make you less valuable.

I’d tell the future pastor who couldn’t even get his résumé considered the same thing.

And I’d tell the teenager sitting across from me today the same thing.

Maybe your life isn’t what you thought it would be.

Maybe somebody else got something you desperately wanted.

Maybe you’ve been passed over enough times that you’ve stopped questioning everybody else and started questioning yourself.

Maybe you’ve spent so long looking at everybody else’s grapes that you’re holding your own life up to the light, banging it against the wall, desperately trying to figure out:

ROCK

What’s wrong with my rock?

There may be things about your life that aren’t fair.

There may be losses that deserve to be grieved rather than explained away.

There may be things you should work to change.

But don’t let comparison convince you that somebody else’s blessing is evidence of your lack of value.

And don’t let the scoreboard make you forget what Jesus has already offered you.

Grace.

Forgiveness.

Belonging.

The presence of God.

A Savior who knows you.

A Father who calls you His.

Hope.

Resurrection.

Life with Him now and forever.

The cucumber was fine until I saw the grape.

But after all these years, I’m learning something even better:

I don’t have to resent the grape.

I can celebrate it.

Because in Jesus, I haven’t just been promised forever.

I’ve been brought into relationship with God, and that relationship changes what everything else is worth.

I am known.

I am loved.

I am forgiven.

I belong to Him.

And I get to walk with Him now and forever.

That doesn’t even belong on the same scoreboard.

That’s Not Fair • Check the Scoreboard

You can’t get more than everything.

Check the scoreboard.

The Final Score

∞

Infinity still wins.

YouthStory • Jon Allen

Building the Bible: Created to Build

noreply@blogger.com (Jon) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:38:15 +0000

Faith • Students • Creativity

Building the Bible

Created to Build

By Jon Allen

I've always loved building with LEGO.

I built with friends a lot. We'd build castles, create scenes and then play out whatever stories we had made up.

But some of my favorite memories are building with my dad.

We could sit together with a bunch of LEGO bricks and instructions and work on something piece by piece. At the time I thought we were building whatever was pictured on the box.

Looking back, my dad was building something else too.

He was building a relationship with me.

I think there's something about building alongside someone that does that. You're working toward something together. You're talking. You're figuring things out. You're spending time together.

Maybe that's one reason I've always connected building things with God too. Our Heavenly Father doesn't just hand us a finished product. He invites us into what He's doing. Somewhere along the way, while we're working with Him, He's building a relationship with us.

I kept those LEGO bricks.

Actually, I kept them even though I didn't have kids of my own yet. Boxes of pieces that had once been castles and spaceships and whatever else we imagined.

I just couldn't get rid of them.

Saved Pieces

The same pieces.
A new generation.

I'm glad I didn't. My son and I build and play with those same pieces today.

I've always had a hard time throwing away good pieces.

Some of the same LEGO pieces I saved from my childhood are still being built with today.

Whether I'm building a business or a website, an event or a storefront, I've always enjoyed making things.

I started learning how to cook simple things. I've burnt plenty of them along the way, trust me. I've gotten better and I am the kind of guy who loves leftovers! This year that turned into making 12 breakfast casseroles and enough pulled pork to feed 90 people at our Breakaway Fall Retreat.

I also love working with my hands. I got into carpentry and started building tables, usually with someone working alongside me.

Building Together Turns out some of the best things I've built happened while I was building something else.

I love taking leftover pieces and making something with them.

But after 18 years in youth ministry, the most important things I've helped build aren't things at all.

They're relationships.

I've watched relationships begin with students I barely knew and grow over years. I've been there for baptisms and graduations. I've gotten to be part of weddings. Now I get to watch some of those same students serve, lead and build ministries of their own.

I think we were created to build.

That makes sense to me because we were created by a Creator.

01 • BUILDING IN SCRIPTURE

God has always been building something in His people.

And the Bible has some pretty incredible building projects.

Build 01 • Genesis 6–9

Noah's Ark

What they built An ark built according to God's instructions.

What God was building Faith, trust and obedience.

Build 02 • Exodus 25–40

The Tabernacle

What they built A place created according to detailed instructions.

What God was building A people learning holiness, worship and His presence.

Build 03 • 1 Kings 5–8

The Temple

What they built A Temple centered around the worship of God.

What God was building A people centered around Him.

God told Noah to build an ark, and He gave him specific instructions for how to do it.

Noah had to keep building before he could see the reason for everything God had asked him to do. Board after board, day after day, he was practicing trust. The ark was being built, but so were Noah's faith and obedience.

When I started in youth ministry 18 years ago, I couldn't see the students I'd someday baptize, the weddings I'd attend, or the leaders I'd watch build ministries of their own. I could only build what God put in front of me next.

God isn't only building the thing.

He's building the builder.

Then God gave Moses and the Israelites detailed instructions for the Tabernacle. The dimensions mattered. The materials mattered. The furniture mattered. God even gave people like Bezalel the creativity and craftsmanship necessary to do the work.

I love that creativity and craftsmanship were part of what God was doing.

Later, David prepared and Solomon led the construction of the Temple. Again there were plans, materials, craftsmen and a lot of work. They weren't simply constructing an impressive building. They were creating a place centered around the worship of God.

In all three stories, God's people were building something, and God was doing something in them at the same time.

02 • Keep the Pieces

Not everything we build stays together.

I've also learned that building sometimes means being willing to start over.

My mom was a potter when I was growing up. I watched her spend time working the clay only to smash it when it wasn't right and start again.

That wasn't wasted work. The clay was still there.

I've built successful things, and I've built things that failed. I've learned to keep the pieces.

Recently, one of our students gave me a haircut. He's become an awesome barber.

Sitting in the chair in the barber shop he's built in his garage reminded me of when we used to run Lucky Scruff out of my brother's garage.

I never planned on having to "smash" that business and close the doors during COVID.

But sitting there I remembered that I still had some really nice brushes, combs and other supplies left over from those days. I have no idea why I kept them all these years, but now there's a bag of them sitting in my truck waiting for him when I see him Wednesday night.

A piece from something I built gets to become part of something he's building.

He's even adding a second chair!

I love that.

What I've learned Relationships matter more than products.

Every business needs to understand that.

Every ministry does too.

03 • WHY WE'RE TRYING THIS

What if building something helped us build relationships too?

There are a lot of teenagers in our community who aren't going to a Sunday School class anywhere this weekend. Most churches don't even offer Sunday School anymore.

That means there are students around us who may not have someone regularly sitting across from them, opening the Bible with them, answering questions and helping them learn how Scripture connects with their life.

I want us to keep finding creative ways to change that.

A New Concord Students Experiment

Building the Bible

That's why we're trying something new at Concord Students called Building the Bible.

For three weeks, we're going to study Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle and the Temple. For each story, we've purchased LEGO scenes with detailed instructions that allow our students to actually construct the biblical scene we're studying.

We'll open Scripture first. We'll look at the instructions God gave His people, what they built, why it mattered and what God was building in them through the process.

Then we'll open our instructions and build the scene together.

Yes, I hope some students come because building sounds fun.

But I hope we're building much more than what's pictured on the box.

I hope we're building biblical foundations.

I hope we're building Christ-centered relationships between students and adults.

I hope we're giving students a place to build friendships with each other.

Most of all, I hope we're helping students build a relationship with Jesus.

Want to build with us?

Building the Bible is a free three-week experience for students in grades 6–12 at Concord Community Church, beginning September 20.

Building the Bible Info & Registration

Years from now, I don't know where those LEGO scenes will be. They'll probably be taken apart and turned into something else.

But I hope the relationships we build outlast the LEGO.

That's what my dad was really building when he sat down with me all those years ago.

And that's what I want to build with these students.

The program doesn't have to last forever. The things we create don't have to stay together forever.

Sometimes you build something. Sometimes you tear it apart. Sometimes you save the pieces for years without even knowing why.

I'm learning to keep the pieces. God seems to have a way of using them again.

Imaginary Artificial Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 19:57:07 +0000

ARTIFICIAL GENERATION · PART ONE

A new kind of FAKE FRIEND?

BY JON ALLEN

It started with some strange text messages from my daughter.

She was away at a friend's house after a sleepover when my phone started filling up with plans for our day.

Except they didn't sound like my daughter.

The messages were incredibly detailed. There was an optimized route for everywhere she and her friends wanted to go. There were clothing prices from stores I had never heard of, maps between friends' houses, and even suggestions for what to say to the other parents to increase the chances that they would agree to let their kids come with us.

I remember sitting at home reading all of this and thinking two things almost simultaneously:

This is a little creepy.

And... this is pretty incredible.

My daughter had taken everything she and her friends wanted to accomplish that day, paired herself with an incredibly powerful tool, and generated a plan better than anything I would have expected a kid her age to put together.

At the time, that's mostly what I thought I was seeing.

A powerful tool.

And honestly, I was interested to see what my child might be capable of when paired with it.

Then the questions started changing.

AI wasn't only helping kids figure out where to go.

It was helping them figure out what to say when they got there.

How should I respond to this text?
What did my friend mean?
How should I talk to this person?
What should I say next?

Those aren't really technology questions.

They're relationship questions.

And somewhere along the way, I started wondering whether artificial intelligence was doing something much more significant than generating answers.

WHAT IF the AI is generating more than we think?

The Artificial Friend Is Already Here

I spend a lot of my life with teenagers.

And I've watched AI move remarkably quickly from something students use to complete a task into something they can consult about almost anything.

We actually joke about this at church.

When we're brainstorming, looking for information, or trying to think through an idea, someone will say:

“ASK PASTOR CHAT.”

We've basically turned ChatGPT into an imaginary staff member.

It's funny because everyone knows Pastor Chat isn't actually sitting in another office. Instead, Chat is sitting in each of our students' pockets 24/7.

Lately the joke has made me think much differently.

Our teenagers have access to something that can function like an artificial friend, sibling, counselor, parent, or even pastor, all packed inside the same device.

And it is always available.

I recently asked several teenagers how they use AI outside of schoolwork.

I intentionally did not ask some of the students whose struggles with AI I already know. Their private experiences aren't mine to turn into material for an article. They did however strengthen my desire to do this research.

Instead, I asked students I didn't necessarily expect to be using AI relationally.

Some weren't. About half were.

Some talked about projects, images, college tuition, or learning how to do things.

But others told me things like this:

“I've asked AI for advice on friendships before.”

“I ask AI stuff about life advice like high school stuff.”

“Sometimes AI is easier to talk to because I can explain exactly how I feel without worrying about being judged or making things awkward.”

“It's harder to talk to AI because they don't have emotions.”

“AI doesn't have bias so it's somewhat relieving to have a non biased perspective in your back pocket!”

I think teenagers already understand both sides of this better than adults sometimes assume.

They know what AI gives them.

And at least some of them recognize what it doesn't.

These conversations aren't a scientific survey, and I'm not treating them like one.

But national research tells us they're not isolated experiences.

A nationally representative 2025 study from Common Sense Media found that 72% of American teens had used AI companions at least once, and 52% were regular users. About one-third of teen AI-companion users said they had chosen an AI companion instead of a real person for an important or serious conversation.¹

Something new has entered adolescence.

Something that answers back.

What If AI Becomes Really Good at Friendship?

This would be an easier conversation if AI were simply terrible at being a friend.

I'm not convinced it will be.

In fact, I think we need to prepare for the opposite.

AI can be patient when we're impatient.

It doesn't get tired of hearing the story.

It doesn't have somewhere else it needs to be.

It doesn't worry about whether your problem is interesting enough.

It can help organize confused thoughts, remember what you told it with what seem like perfect listening skills, and help someone rehearse a difficult conversation before actually having it.

For a teenager who is embarrassed, lonely, nervous, or simply trying to figure out what to say next, I understand the appeal.

Researchers see potential benefits here too.

A 2026 review in Child Development Perspectives describes two possibilities. AI companions could give adolescents lower-risk places to explore emotions and practice communication. Those experiences could potentially help some young people in their human relationships.

But the researchers also raise the opposite possibility. AI relationships could displace human interaction, contribute to psychological dependence, and create expectations that real relationships simply cannot meet.²

If AI were awful at friendship, this would be easy.

The harder question is what happens if it becomes really good at it.

This Artificial Generation now begins asking questions much bigger than friendship.

I've already seen AI enter conversations about appearance and identity. I've watched it function almost like a counselor. As a pastor, I'm also noticing that sometimes a student's question about faith has already been filtered through a chatbot before it ever reaches me.

Those questions about identity, counseling, truth, faith, and wisdom deserve their own conversations, and we'll return to them later in this series.

For now, I want to stay with the relationship itself.

What happens when the thing answering all of those questions begins to feel like a friend?

The Friend Who Needs Nothing From You

AI is always available.

It doesn't need you to ask how its day went first.

You don't have to wonder whether you're bothering it.

You can talk about yourself for an hour.

It doesn't suddenly need to talk about something happening in its life.

It doesn't ask you to come help it move on Saturday morning.

It doesn't need forgiveness.

It isn't inconvenienced when you need something.

And when you've gotten what you need, you can close the app.

I wonder if that can slowly create what my pastor Jason Underwood describes as a vending machine mentality toward relationships.

I have a need.
I put something in.
Something comes back.
If I don't like what came out, I try again.

But people aren't vending machines.

Friendship isn't a service we consume.

It's something we participate in.

The same developmental review raises this issue of reciprocity. AI companionship can provide responsiveness and apparent intimacy without requiring much of the compromise that human relationships demand. Researchers are asking whether that could eventually change expectations about relationships or displace opportunities to practice more complicated interpersonal skills.²

I think our conversation will eventually get bigger than whether AI makes a teenager feel less lonely.

Friendship doesn't merely give teenagers something they need.

Friendship teaches teenagers how to become someone another person needs.

Real Friends Go Both Ways

I've watched teenagers hurt one another.

I've also watched them forgive one another.

I've watched students reconcile after relationships broke down.

I've watched them build things together that none of them could have built alone.

That's friendship.

Friendship isn't valuable because two people are always on the same page.

Sometimes its value is precisely that they're not.

I think about my own friendships.

The people I love aren't copies of me.

We are different in ways that just complement each other. They see things I don't. They challenge things I wouldn't challenge myself. Sometimes I need them. Sometimes they need me.

We truly see one another.

That's something I can't do with AI.

I can receive an incredibly convincing response from a machine.

But I will never truly see it.

And it will never truly need to see me.

It doesn't go home encouraged because I listened to it.

It doesn't become stronger because I showed up.

I cannot sacrifice for its flourishing.

In every meaningful sense, the relationship still travels one direction.

Human friendship is different.

Sometimes I'm hurting and my friend listens.

Sometimes my friend is hurting and I have to stop talking.

Sometimes I need grace.

Sometimes I have to give it.

Sometimes they need to apologize.

Sometimes I do.

Human relationships don't merely make us feel loved.

They teach us how to love.

Are Artificial Friends Generating Artificial Friends?

This is the question I keep coming back to.

I'm actually less concerned that teenagers are going to become confused and believe their chatbot is literally a human being.

Most teenagers know it isn't.

Instead I can't help but ask in my heart:

While we teach AI to imitate humanity, is it training humanity to become artificial?

Imagine a nine-year-old growing up for the next ten years with unlimited access to personalized information, advice, affirmation, and artificial companionship.

Whenever they need something, it's there.

But they never have to return patience.

Never have to listen to its bad day.

Never have to sacrifice.

Never have to forgive it.

Never have to change plans because it needs them.

Never have to learn how to love it when loving it is difficult.

Ten years of receiving something that looks increasingly like relational behavior without ever needing to return it.

What habits does that generate?

We don't know yet.

We should be careful here.

We don't have twenty years of research showing that AI companionship will make teenagers worse friends. This technology hasn't existed long enough for anyone to honestly make that claim. The research itself says these long-term questions need much more study.²

But I don't think we need to know the answer before we're allowed to ask the question.

Maybe the greatest risk of the artificial friend isn't that teenagers will mistake machines for people.

Maybe it's that practicing friendship with something that asks nothing of us could slowly change the kind of friends we become.

We are generating artificial intelligence for a generation that will never know a day without it.

Words.

Images.

Answers.

Advice.

And now, something that can feel a little like friendship.

At my church we have a hope for our kids and students:

We want them to never know a day they don't know Jesus.

We say that because we understand the power of a foundation. When faith is there from the beginning, it doesn't simply become something they know. It becomes part of how they understand themselves, their relationships, and the world around them.

That's what makes me think about AI differently for kids.

This generation may never know a day without it either.

They are growing up with personalized answers, advice, content, and increasingly something that can feel like relational connection, all available whenever they want it.

If knowing Jesus from the beginning can shape the way a child sees the world, we should at least ask how growing up with AI from the beginning might shape them too.

Because while artificial intelligence is generating more and more for our kids, something much more important is still being formed.

Our kids.

Something is being generated in them.

Don't Panic. Parent.

None of this makes me want parents to panic.

Actually, I think panic would make things worse.

If our kids believe we're terrified of AI, they'll simply stop telling us how they're using it.

My children are going to use AI.

My students are going to use AI.

I use AI.

There is extraordinary potential here.

I want my daughter to create things with it that I couldn't have imagined creating at her age.

I want our students prepared for the world they're entering.

The goal isn't to raise a generation afraid of artificial intelligence.

It's to raise a generation wise enough to know what AI can give them, and what it never can.

The students who I have seen handle AI the best do it by setting clear boundaries.

“I typically ask my friend about things bc AI always paints everything in a positive light so I don't ever get legitimate feedback”

“I only use AI for work if I need to and typically I can go to my friend if I need to talk about something”

SET RELATIONAL AI BOUNDARIES.

Don't wait until an emotional dependency develops before deciding what healthy use looks like. There is a difference between using AI to plan a shopping trip and building a private emotional relationship with a machine.

ASK ABOUT AI WITHOUT MAKING IT WEIRD.

Ask your kids what they use it for. Ask whether they've ever talked to it about something personal. Ask whether it has ever helped them have a better conversation with a real person. Curiosity will probably teach you more than panic.

KEEP MOVING THEM TOWARD PEOPLE.

AI may help a teenager organize what they're feeling or prepare for a difficult conversation. Great. Let it become a bridge back toward people rather than a replacement for them.

And show them what real friendship looks like. Let them see us show up, listen when it's inconvenient, forgive when we've been hurt, and make room in our lives for people who need something from us.

TREAT THE TOOL LIKE A TOOL.

Use it. Learn it. Create with it. Tools should make us better. But don't let something designed to serve them quietly become the place they depend on for friendship.

The Other Piece of Iron

Jesus gives us an incredibly relational picture of life.

Love one another.

Encourage one another.

Forgive one another.

Carry one another's burdens.

Serve one another.

ONE ANOTHER.

Proverbs gives us the familiar image of iron sharpening iron.

There is another piece of iron on the other side.

There is another person there.

Someone who has needs.

Someone who can disagree.

Someone who can disappoint you.

Someone who needs forgiveness.

Someone who sometimes needs you to put your own needs aside and show up for them.

AI might become one of the greatest self-sharpening tools humanity has ever created.

But God never asked us to become self-sharpening people.

I want our kids to master the tool.

I don't want the tool to master our kids.

USE THE TOOL.
LEARN THE TOOL.
TEACH OUR KIDS TO MASTER THE TOOL.

JUST DON'T MISTAKE THE TOOL FOR THE OTHER PIECE OF IRON.

Because the question isn't only what our kids will generate with these tools.

It's what these tools might generate in our kids.

We are watching the first generation grow up with artificial intelligence in their pockets.

They will use it to generate answers, ideas, images, advice, and maybe even something that feels like friendship.

But they are still being formed too.

Artificial intelligence is helping generate...

THE ARTIFICIAL GENERATION.

And while we teach them to use the tools that will surely shape their generation, we can still show them how to become the kind of friends no machine can ever be.

Not just iron that can be sharpened.

Iron that sharpens back.

ARTIFICIAL GENERATION

Growing Up Human in the Age of AI

A YouthStory series by Jon Allen exploring what happens when artificial intelligence becomes part of growing up, not simply as a tool, but as a voice increasingly present in relationships, identity, knowledge, faith, and wisdom.

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING

1. Common Sense Media, Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions (2025)

2. Child Development Perspectives, AI Companions and Adolescent Social Relationships: Benefits, Risks, and Bidirectional Influences (2026)

YOUTHSTORY · JON ALLEN

Fusion Family Devotional Part 2 of 2

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 16:00:00 +0000

YouthStory Family Resource

Fusion Family Devotional

Continuing the conversation about friendship, family, unity, and what becomes possible when Christ is at the center.

Part Two of Two

Originally published October 29, 2023 following the Fusion Family Service at Concord Community Church. The original devotional has been preserved and reformatted for easier reading.

We hope you were able to join us for our Fusion Family Service this Sunday. If not you can check it out here! We at Concord Community Church would love to have you visit us this Sunday!

Begin Together

Opening Prayer

Lord, as we gather to learn from Your Word, help us to always remember the power of unity, friendship, and Your presence in our lives. Guide our hearts to be true friends to one another and strengthen the bonds within our family. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Ecclesiastes 4:12

Read & Discuss

Stronger Together

Ecclesiastes 4:12 is a beautiful reminder of the strength found in numbers, particularly in unity and friendship. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that when we face struggles, having someone by our side can make all the difference. But this verse isn’t just about numbers; it’s also about the quality and depth of our relationships.

Imagine you have a single strand of thread. It might be easy to snap or break it with just a little pressure. But when you twist multiple threads together, they become stronger and can hold much more weight. This strength is like the strength we find when we stand together, support one another, and have Christ at the center of our relationships.

For families, this verse reminds us that we are each other's support system. Parents, siblings, and even extended family members have unique roles to play, helping and encouraging each other. And for friends, this is a call to stand by one another, especially in trying times.

Around the Table

Teaching Our Children About Friendship

True Friendship: Ask your children what they think makes a good friend. Discuss the qualities of loyalty, kindness, understanding, and being there in good times and bad.

Friends Support: Share a story about a time when a friend helped you or when you helped a friend. Ask your children about their experiences with their friends.

Jesus, Our Best Friend: Talk about how Jesus is the best example of a true friend. He loves us unconditionally, is always there for us, and even gave His life for us.

Talk About It

Reflection

Encourage your children to think about how they can be better friends. Is there someone they can reach out to at school or in the neighborhood? Is there an act of kindness they can do for a friend this week?

Pray Together

Closing Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of friendship and for the love and support of our family. Help us to be true friends to those around us, and may we always keep You at the center of our relationships, forming that unbreakable three-stranded cord. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Fusion Takeaway

Strengthen the Bond

Let this week be a week of strengthening bonds. Reach out to friends or family members you haven’t spoken to in a while. Extend a hand of friendship to someone new. And always remember, with Christ at the center, our bonds are not easily broken.

← Return to Part One

Fusion Family Devotional Part 1 of 2

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:46:00 +0000

YouthStory Family Resource

Fusion Family Devotional

A devotional for families about friendship, companionship, and learning to lift one another up.

Part One of Two

Originally published October 26, 2023 in connection with the Fusion Family Service at Concord Community Church. The original devotional has been preserved and reformatted for easier reading.

Join us at 10 am on Sunday October 29th at Concord Community Church for our Fusion Family Service. This service is designed for Children and Youth in our community to engage in a inter-generational church service!

Begin Together

Opening Prayer

Lord, as we gather around Your Word today, we ask for Your wisdom and insight. Teach us the value of companionship and the responsibility we have towards one another. May our hearts be open to support and uplift those around us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

“For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

Ecclesiastes 4:10

Read & Discuss

Companionship Matters

Ecclesiastes 4:10 highlights the importance of companionship and mutual support. Life is filled with ups and downs, and during those challenging times, having someone by our side can make all the difference. This scripture emphasizes that it's not only about enjoying the good times together but also about being there for each other when one stumbles.

Imagine walking on a tricky path, and you lose your footing. If you have someone by your side, they can help you stand up, brush off the dust, and continue walking. Or imagine falling and being injured, your friends are there to get you the help you need. That's what friends and family are for, to lift each other up in challenging times.

As a family, this verse calls us to be alert to the needs of our family members. It reminds us to be there, offering a hand or a word of encouragement, ensuring that no one faces their struggles alone.

Around the Table

Teaching Our Children About Companionship

Being There: Ask your children about a time when they helped someone or when someone helped them. Discuss the feelings associated with both.

No One Stands Alone: Share a story from your life or from history where companionship played a vital role in overcoming challenges.

Jesus, Our Constant Companion: Discuss how Jesus is always with us, especially in our challenging times, and how He sends people into our lives to support us. We are called to be this type of companion or friend to others like Jesus is.

Talk About It

Reflection

Encourage your children to think about how they can be there for their friends or siblings. Is there someone at school who seems lonely or needs help? How can they be a good companion to others this week?

Pray Together

Closing Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the companions You’ve placed in our lives. Help us to be vigilant, always ready to lift up those who stumble. Strengthen our bonds as a family, and may we always reflect Your love in our actions. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Fusion Takeaway

Lift Someone Up

This week, look out for opportunities to lift someone up. Whether it's a kind word, a helping hand, or just being present, let’s ensure that no one feels alone in their struggles.

Continue to Part Two →

NYC23 Student/ Parent Devotional Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 19:39:00 +0000

Jacob had made a mess of things. He was a deceiver. That’s what his name meant. He came out of the womb grabbing his twin brother’s ankle, trying to be first. He was competitive and tricky from day one. All this scheming took him to the desert, the dry place. But in the middle of the desert was a well. A resting place. An oasis. And even better, there was a woman, Rachel. He thought she was beautiful. So, in the desert, a man and a woman found each other at the well. It was a place of refreshment, hope, and life.

God called Jacob and Rachel to continue the covenant. To bring the river of life into the world. Jacob would know God’s blessing, and he would offer it to others. But he would also continue to make a mess of things. It’s just the way people roll.

Jesus changes things. In John 4, we see that Jesus arrived at what many scholars believe is the same well, the well of Jacob. It’s a familiar story to many. A woman came to draw water and Jesus began a conversation with her.

Here Jesus was in Samaria—a place the Jews said you shouldn’t go—talking to a Samaritan woman, a thing the Jews said you shouldn’t do. Jesus pushed through these boundaries. Why? Because he knew this woman was like Jacob in the wilderness. She was dying of thirst. Her soul was unfulfilled. She was making a mess of things, and Jesus knew what she needed: living water! Jesus himself. He would be one to satisfy her soul.

At the well, Jesus called the woman to a new way of living. She heard the call and shared this living water with others. Soon the whole town knew of Jesus because of one woman at the well.

Jim had heard God call him years before that mission trip in Arizona. He knew he had a purpose. And for me, his healing words were a reminder of God’s living water in my life.

In the same way, God is calling you. Whether you’re still in the desert or you’re loving life in the river, Jesus is pushing through boundaries to call you into a life of purpose. Will you stay at the well long enough to hear him? Will you go from the mountaintop and really start sharing this living water with others?

Jacob did indeed answer God’s call, and the whole world was blessed because of it. It wasn’t a perfect journey, but it was a lasting one. Jesus called the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places. We don’t know the name of the woman at the well, but we know she responded to Christ’s living water and overflowed to others. And in the same way, God calls us today and can use us—despite the messes we make—to bring an overflow of hope into our world.

“With so much distraction, it’s hard to hear good directions and even harder to stay focused on the journey. This is how it is sometimes with God’s calling on our lives. We have this calling from God to live into an amazing purpose, but we often fail to hear it and can easily get sidetracked from it.”

It’s crazy to think that the God who created the entire universe is so interested in each of us that he includes us in his plans for the world. He calls each of us to participate in his rescue operation. We all have a part to play. We just need to listen and then stay focused on the journey. We can help make God’s dream for the world a possibility.

God promised Abraham that he would be with him, bless him, and multiply his family, which would bless the world. Abraham’s son Isaac carried on the blessing, and Isaac’s son Jacob was also used by God. Jacob was someone whom God called, but he was always making things difficult. His choice to deceive his father and steal his brother’s blessing (read Genesis 27) led to broken relationships and eventually led him away from his calling into a lonely place as he fled for his life. He was in the wilderness when he had a vision from God at Bethel (read Genesis 28) and eventually found a deep well, where he began to realize God had a plan to continue the covenant through him.

• Where did Jacob miss the mark and live a life of deceit?

• What was the main purpose of Jacob’s dream at Bethel?

• Do you think Jacob deserved to be assured of this kind of blessing?

• Why would God choose someone like Jacob?

• What was the significance of the well? How did it connect back to the Adam and Eve story? How did it point ahead to Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman?

It was thirty-eight generations later when Jesus showed up at a well in Samaria. Jewish people usually chose to go the long way around Samaria to avoid encountering people who lived there. Samaritans were basically Jewish people who had married outside of their ethnicity and had different religious practices. Jesus recognized all these things, but he also was interested in teaching his followers that all people were important, and that all people were created and called. His interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well was not acceptable behavior to some, but Jesus was willing to push through the normal way of doing things in order to make sure this woman heard the good news of Jesus. At the well, Jesus gave this woman a gift of living water—a well that would never run dry.

“This week, take some time to study the elements of calling found in a biblical figure of your choice (e.g., Gideon, Moses, Mary). As you study these passages, examine the different things God does to call these people. Write down these things (e.g., God speaks through a messenger, God affirms the person, God invites them to do something, God encourages them, God gives them power to do it),

Now, look at your own life and see if God is speaking to you in the same way. Where and how is God calling you?

Romans 15:13

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Monday: Read Genesis 28:10–22 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. In what ways is God reassuring you, walking with you, and calling you?

Tuesday: Read John 4:13–14 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. How would you describe your life with Christ right now? Is it a stagnant lake or a spring of living water? What is the result of Christ’s living water?

Wednesday: Read John 4:39–42 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. What was the Samaritan woman’s eventual response to Jesus’s invitation? How is your life overflowing to others?

Thursday: Read the “Go With the Flow” Weekly Summary and spend four minutes in silent prayer.

Friday: Read Ezekiel 47:1–5 and spend four minutes in silent prayer.

Saturday: Review the “Go With the Flow” Weekly Summary and spend five minutes in silent prayer.

NYC23 Student / Parent Devotional Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:57:00 +0000

WEEK 1

This is the detailed story of the Eternal God’s singular work in creating all that exists. On the day the heavens and earth were created, there were no plants or vegetation to cover the earth. The fields were barren and empty, because the Eternal God had not sent the rains to nourish the soil or anyone to tend it. In those days, a mist rose up from the ground to blanket the earth, and its vapors irrigated the land. One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.
The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed from Eden to irrigate the garden, and from there it separated into four smaller rivers. — Genesis 2:4–10, VOICE
The Great Plains of Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern Colorado, and Nebraska were known for years as the Great American Desert because, although they had plenty of prairie grass, they were dry, arid places that didn’t get much rain. They had few trees, so by the definition of the time, they were considered “desert.” But then rain began to fall. People started moving in. Large farms removed much of the native grasses. Crops grew. Life was good.
Then, in 1930, the rains stopped. It turned out that the rain was just considered a “climate fluctu- ation,” and the area returned to its normal weather pattern—a dry desert.
A place with no water is a place with no life. Plus, the farming methods of the early settlers had left the soil unprotected. The conditions for chaos were in place. For almost ten years, there was a drought in this land, and in the middle of the drought, huge storms lifted the dirt high into the air as huge mountains of soil blew over the Midwest, resulting in the “Dust Bowl.” It was part of a nationwide depression. Dust and dirt were everywhere! It was the worst ecological disaster the United States had ever faced.
Have you ever just felt dry inside? Have you ever felt like some kind of drought in your soul has left you questioning whether God actually matters? Have you ever been surrounded by a storm of circumstances that just makes life messy?

WEEK 1: Ride the River 1
WEEKLY SUMMARY
In the opening scenes of Scripture, we are presented with a dry and arid desert. No native veg- etation to keep the soil in place. No rain to nourish the soil. It was a drought. The conditions for chaos were in place. There was no water. There was no life.
We learn something powerful at the very beginning of God’s story: where there is dry desola- tion, God provides a river of hope. Where conditions for chaos exist, God springs forth waters of life.
In this desert, God created waters to nourish and irrigate. As the waters flowed, God brought man and woman together, created a garden of delight (did you know Eden means “delight” in Hebrew?), and gave them a purpose. The people God put in the garden were to care for it, to make sure the rivers kept flowing and the trees kept growing. The river was massive enough to bless all people, and it was all a gift from God.
Something about a river is powerfully alive. If you’ve ever ridden the river on a raft or kayak, you know this. Your job is to just keep the boat afloat and let the water push you along. The water seems alive with purpose. Likewise, God has this incredible purpose for each of us. This purpose is not a struggle to find if we can just keep riding the river.
The problems come when water surrounds us, but we choose the desert instead. We know the woman and man in the scriptures chose their own wisdom over God. Despite being surrounded by the gift of water, their souls seemed to be dying of thirst. Tragically, this story tells us that though it seems simple enough to stay nurtured in the waters God provides, we often choose the desert of our own desires over the river of God’s purpose.
In 1939, the rain began to fall again in the middle of America. The dust lingered, but new life began to grow. And a movement began that would bring abundance to this once empty and dry land.
NYC is a movement. It could be just the kind of rain you’ve been praying for. Though you feel dry inside, though your church seems stagnant, and though it seems our world is in a major drought, we know the story of God always includes a downpour and overflow. As we prepare for NYC 2023, may we start patching the boats and repairing the paddles as we anticipate the overflow of God’s living water into our lives. May we each find our purpose as we ride the river together!
WEEK 1: Ride the River 2
Main Point: God brings rivers of life and purpose in the midst of the deserts we all face.
A lot of people struggle with feeling like they have a purpose in life. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean said in The Godbearing Life, “Believing in God is not the issue for teenagers today; believing God matters is the issue.”
This belief beckons students to embrace God’s purpose. God matters. Even when our circum- stances are almost intolerable, God’s purpose continues in our lives, and his hope flows from us into the world.
• Have you ever felt spiritually dry or empty? Reflect about this place in your life.
• What practices can you add to your life that will help you through the “desert” places you experience? Why are practices like this important during these times?
The Bible is filled with descriptions of rivers of waters that flow through and out of dry and des- ert-like places. Genesis 2 describes a dry place. God created the world, but it was without water. It was dry and desolate until God acted. He gave the world a gift: water that nourishes; water that brings life. Man and woman were not created until springs or mists of water were given because without water, life is not sustainable. Into the desert flow rivers of life-bringing waters. This is not just how God’s story begins. It is repeated time and time again.
Something about water just satisfies us. It fills a physical longing. Many of you know you can live without food for a few weeks, but you can only live without water for a few days. We need water. It is fitting that Scripture uses this metaphor all through its pages. The inspired writers believed that our need for God is much the same as our need for water. If we are to truly live a life of abundance, if we are to really find our God-given purpose in life, we need to ride the river God provides.
But why do we like the desert so much? We people have a way of breaking things. I remember standing on a glass-bottom floor in the CN Tower, 150 stories in the Toronto skyline. It was an unsettling experience to look down past my feet and be so high in the air. Just then, my youth pastor friend said, “You know, everything man has made eventually breaks.” I scurried off the floor and down the elevator. He was right. Even when God gives us a free gift of purpose, abun- dance, and meaning, we sometimes just mess things up.
Why do you think some people continually choose the desert (dry and lonely places) in- stead of the river (growing and living places) in their Christian lives?
It is true that people often choose the desert. But sometimes, by no fault of our own, we experi- ence desert places or wilderness places. Maybe we were doing great, and then something really big happened that shook our faith. These difficult times can be really hard on us, but they can also be good for us. The biblical story begins in a river-fed garden, but quickly people found themselves in the desert. We know the desert was significant because God’s people were in it
. . . a lot.
We know the desert is important, even if it is difficult. The desert for a Christian student rep- resents this place where we don’t feel God’s presence—that place in Genesis 2:5 where “there were no plants or vegetation to cover the earth. The fields were barren and empty, because the
WEEK 1: Ride the River 4
Eternal God had not sent the rains to nourish the soil or anyone to tend it” (VOICE). But in these places, God builds our faith and reveals our God-given purposes. We know that if we read the story to the end, we see the desert doesn’t go on forever; God sends a mist, and God brings a river. We just need to ride it, and as we do, we begin to live into that purpose that God reveals in the wilderness.
“As you prepare for NYC, what kind of ‘desert places’ do you find yourselves in? [Identify some of these.] Do you think a movement like NYC could be a catalyst for God to bring new life into this generation? How could something like this happen?
We believe God has big things in store for us. We believe God longs to reveal purpose to stu- dents today, even to those who are in the desert places.
“This might be a good time to think about your own circumstances and really start thinking about other students who are planning to come to NYC and their desert places. So many students today are struggling and need a downpour of God’s grace, hope, and purpose in their lives that will overflow to the world.”
WEEK 1: Ride the River 5
Monday: Read Genesis 2:4–24 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. What does this story teach us about the purpose of people?
Tuesday: Read Deuteronomy 8 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. What does this chapter say about the desert and God’s faithfulness in these moments?
Wednesday: Read Luke 13:1–13 and spend three minutes in silent prayer. What does this episode of Jesus in the desert teach us about temptation and faith?
Thursday: Read the “At the Well” Weekly Summary and spend four minutes in silent prayer.
Friday: Read John 4 and spend four minutes in silent prayer.
Saturday: Review the “At the Well” Weekly Summary and spend five minutes in silent
prayer.

Day 38 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:23:00 +0000

27 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

3 The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. 4 From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

9 Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement.[a] So Paul warned them, 10 “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” 11 But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. 12 Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.

The Storm

13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor[b] and let the ship be driven along. 18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

The Shipwreck

27 On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic[c] Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28 They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet[d] deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet[e] deep. 29 Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30 In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. 31 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board. 38 When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

39 When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. 40 Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. 41 But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. 43 But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

Day 37 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 17:22:00 +0000

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”

So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: 2 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

4 “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. 5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. 6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. 7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

9 “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

19 “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. 20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. 21 That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22 But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

24 At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”

25 “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. 26 The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”

29 Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”

30 The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. 31 After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”

32 Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Day 36 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Paul’s Trial Before Festus

25 Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. 3 They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. 4 Festus answered, “Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. 5 Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.”

6 After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. 7 When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them.

8 Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”

9 Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?”

10 Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

12 After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

Festus Consults King Agrippa

13 A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. 14 Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: “There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. 15 When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.

16 “I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. 17 When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. 18 When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. 19 Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. 20 I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. 21 But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”

22 Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.”

He replied, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”

Paul Before Agrippa

23 The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”

Day 35 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 17:18:00 +0000

24 Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor. 2 When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix: “We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. 3 Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. 4 But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.

5 “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect 6 and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. [7] [a] 8 By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.”

9 The other Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.

10 When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense. 11 You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. 12 My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. 13 And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. 14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, 15 and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. 16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

17 “After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. 18 I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance. 19 But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me. 20 Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— 21 unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”

22 Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.” 23 He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.

24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” 26 At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.

27 When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

Day 34 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:18:00 +0000

23 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” 2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”

4 Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!”

5 Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’[a]”

6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)

9 There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.

11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

The Plot to Kill Paul

12 The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

16 But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.

17 Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him.” 18 So he took him to the commander.

The centurion said, “Paul, the prisoner, sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

19 The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, “What is it you want to tell me?”

20 He said: “Some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him. 21 Don’t give in to them, because more than forty of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your consent to their request.”

22 The commander dismissed the young man with this warning: “Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me.”

Paul Transferred to Caesarea

23 Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, “Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen[b] to go to Caesarea at nine tonight. 24 Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

25 He wrote a letter as follows:

26 Claudius Lysias,

To His Excellency, Governor Felix:

Greetings.

27 This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. 28 I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. 29 I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment. 30 When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him.

31 So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. 32 The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. 33 When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. 34 The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.

Day 33 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 17:16:00 +0000

22 1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.

Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’

19 “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

Paul the Roman Citizen

22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

29 Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

Paul Before the Sanhedrin

30 The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.

Day 33 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 17:15:00 +0000

After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.

Paul’s Arrival at Jerusalem

17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”

26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.

Paul Arrested

27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)

30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”

Paul Speaks to the Crowd

37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”

“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”

39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”

40 After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic[a]:

Day 32 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:14:00 +0000

13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

36 When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

Day 31 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 17:12:00 +0000

20 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. 2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. 4 He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. 6 But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

Eutychus Raised From the Dead at Troas

7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Day 30 - Concord Student Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Just_Jon) — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:11:00 +0000

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.

32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.