I’m nearing the end of Senior High camp in Alexandria, MN and God has been doing some incredible things all week in the lives of teenagers. Eric Samuel Timm (twitter/web) is speaking all week and shared a great message on Tuesday night. The heart of the message was that God doesn’t have grandchildren… only sons and daughters.
The idea is that you can’t experience God secondhand. As a teen, you can’t rely on the faith of your parents to carry you into heaven. Your faith must be your own. We need to push through the walls of clutter (things that steal time away from investing in our relationship with God) and really dig deep into the Word of God. In Eric’s words, you have to read the Bible with “a shovel, not a rake.” We need to spend time with God and experience him firsthand for ourselves.
As a leader it’s easy to read the latest book written by great pastors and neglect deep study of the Bible. When we experience God secondhand all the time we can miss out on the personal direction God wants to speak to us through His Word. We are His sons and daughters, not His grandchildren. I pray for a renewed hunger for God’s Word in my life and the life of all those who I’m partnering with in ministry. Remove the walls that keep you from spending quality time with Him.
