James 1:2-4
Our lesson tonight was out of James chapter one. The verses above were not actually the focal, but verses 18-27. We focused on our need for the Word in our life to be able to live a Christ-like life; to save us from ourselves (v21), to maintain our integrity, and to live out a witness that the world will take note of. Our students were challenged to be a doer of the word - i.e. to consume the Word of God themselves, for it to be real and personal and not just something they listened to others talk about; for them to personally tap into the power and strength only available from it. That was the encouragement that James wrote to the scatterred Christians abroad who were experiencing many difficulties and persecutions. Some of them probably were struggling with why bad stuff was happening to them who were seeking to follow Christ. It probably was not in their plan or vision of how they thought things whould be.
We didn't get to hear the next speaker. Rick Burgess was scheduled to speak to us after finishing his session at one of the other venues; while he was speaking at that session, his wife called him with the news that his youngest son had fallen in the pool... The ambulance had come, but things did not look good. Many of their church family are here at this conference. Scott Dawson delivered this news to us; we had prayer together with our youth group, then as a corporate body, sang a worship song, and dismissed.
We don't always know or understand God's plan, but we must trust that He does have a perfect plan. We must trust that He will shape us and mold us so we will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Sometimes that process hurts unbelievably, but He will put nothing on us that is too hard for is to bear. I know tonight a couple is struggling under that load, however. A mother is feeling isolated and alone in her fear and her grief; a father is feeling the most helpless and distraught he has probably ever felt. Nothing at all can console either of them; nothing except the Spirit of God. His peace and His comfort are all that can sustain them.
Our lesson tonight was meant to convict us that we needed God's word to stand out in this world; the lesson life taught us tonight was we need God's word to stand at all.
Please pray for the Burgess family. Pray also for all of the youth at this conference as they struggle to make sense of this tragedy. Pray that the fact we can take nothing for granted and the overwhelming truth that we need His strength and power in our lives - not just to hear about it, but to live it and to know it - will be cemented forever in their hearts and minds.
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