Let’s Talk About Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling for Teens: 50 Devotions to Grow Your Faith” pt.3

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INTRODUCTION

Hello Ladies and welcome to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped. I am your host MelbaToast. If you are new to this podcast, welcome and thank you for joining me! 

In these last couple of episodes we have been going through Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling for Teens: 50 Devotions to Grow in Your Faith”. This is part 3 and the last of this book critique.

I just want to remind you or make note for those who have just clicked on this episode, that Sarah Young writes her devotions using the 1st person pronouns as if it was Jesus speaking Himself to our teens. 

In the first part of this series I took time to make an argument, going through some of her devotions comparing them to Scripture to show how the Scriptures are much better than her devotions to bring your teens to not only grow in their knowledge of God and His salvation but to grow in their faith in their God as well.

In the last episode and also in this episode I hope to show how Sarah Young’s Jesus is different from the Jesus revealed to us in Scripture.

Before we dive in- perhaps you may want to listen to this episode with your teen? We are have been getting pretty theological in these episodes, but not so heavy that our teens couldn’t understand. So listening to these critiques, if you feel so inclined, I pray, may bless them as well. Now,I wish I had thought of this in the first segment of this critique- but better late than never and that’s the beauty of podcasts- you can listen to them over and over whenever you so choose.  

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Ok, now that I’ve laid that all out, let’s press on and dive in shall we?

The first devotion we will look at today is titled: MAKING THE GRADE 

“There are so many things you get graded on. There are report cards for school and points for sports. There are scores for talent shows and beauty contests. And in a few years, you’ll even be tested on your driving. Almost everywhere you go, you are graded on how well you perform.

But I don’t keep score. Not ever. And I don’t grade you on your performance. There is no Heavenly grade book that says: prayer time – B, kindness – A-, patience – C+.

So change your focus from your performance to my loving presence. The light of my love shines on you always – no matter how well you’re doing or how you feel. You don’t need to worry about making the grade. Because you are my child, it’s A+ all the way!”(pg. 50)

-Eph. 3:16-19,Psalm 62:8, Ephesians 2:8-9 are the Scriptures used in reference to this teaching. Yet has absolutely nothing to do with keeping or not keeping score. Eph. 3:166-19 is about Paul praying that the church is strengthened with power by the Spirit, for Chirst to dwell in our hearts through faith, rooted and grounded in love, comprehending the vastness of His love, that surpasses all knowledge, and to be filled with the fullness of God. 

Psalm 62:8 is about trusting God as he is our refuge.

Ephesians 2:8-9 states that it is by grace, through faith that we are saved, this being a gift not a result of works so that no one may boast. While our salvation is given by the grace of God and through our faith, not based on a grade, is true; these verses do not support the claim that God does not keep records. And that is because we will not find verses that God does not keep an account.

We do have 1 Corinthians 13:5 that tells us LOVE keeps no records of wrongs, instructing us to, by the Spirit walk in love, but we must remember that God not only IS love but IS JUST as well. And to be perfectly just one must give perfect justice which does keep ALL records of ALL works. There are MANY verses in Scripture that support this:

In Proverbs 24:12 we read: If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

Roms 14:10-12 says Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹ for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

¹² So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Jesus, Himself warns us and says in Matt 12:36-37:  I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, ³⁷ for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

God reveals that there are books that hold accounts of every deed done in Rev.20:12-13 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

So we can see that Sarah Young’s Jesus completely contradicts not only what He himself had said but what the Holy Spirit has revealed in His Word. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. They would not and do not contradict each other.

But there is another issue here. Whether Sarah Young means to or not she has belittled grace implying that Christ’s grace to us is because He doesn’t count our sin or keep score.  This Grace undermines and distorts God’s holiness and his Justice. God is Holy that he cannot tolerate sin (Habuk.1:13) and like we read, He will punish ALL sin. So in his justice he keeps all records of wrongs and must punish, and hold sinners accountable even for every careless word. 

This is the grace that God bestows on us that instead of deciding to punish us for all our wrongs– our sins – Christ takes the punishment. God does keep record of every sin – and our score is 0 or a big fat F – but Christ paid the price for it, took the sin upon himself and bore God’s wrath for it. This is grace -and this grace, in his love, cost God the Father his Son, cost God the Son His life. Sarah Young’s Grace cost the Lord nothing, but it is an unjust God who doesn’t judge whether something is good or bad since he keeps no records of it.

Why then, did God give the Ten Commandments? Why give instruction on how we live so we might see how and where we fail? Otherwise, if we are not graded/judged by these laws, why give them, when there is no grading/judging BY them?  For those who did not have faith in Christ, trusting in His sacrifice for their sins and receiving by faith His righteousness, they will be judged by these very commandments. 

Let us teach our teens this, let us show them this grace that cost God so much. Let us show them  this God, this Savior, and this grace that saves.

The next devotion is titled: BOTH GOD AND MAN 

“Worship me in my holy majesty. Come close to me, and rest in my presence. You need me as both God and man. Even though I am God, I had to come into this world as a baby and grow into the man who became your savior. That’s the only way I could meet your biggest need – to be saved from your sins.

Since I was willing to give up all of heaven for you, and to die a terrible death for you – then you can be sure I will give you everything you need.”(pg62)

– This may seem trite but even what seems like a small statement can have a big impact on our understanding of who Christ is and what He has done. In this statement we have “Jesus” saying, through Sarah Young, that He gave up heaven for us. To give up means to yield control or possession of something. In this case Sarah Young’s Jesus is claiming He gave up His control, authority, and possession of heaven for us. But that is not true. Jesus never gave up anything as he was and is continually God (Heb 13:8). This includes His control and possession of heaven.

In the incarnation of Christ, Scripture teaches that He remained truly, fully God, while voluntarily – humbly – limiting Himself by taking on flesh (Heb 2:14). This is the incarnation of Christ.

So in His incarnation did Christ GIVE UP heaven? He descended from Heaven (John 3:13; John 6:41) and in His flesh, limited His omnipresence as in His humanity He restricts it to one place at one time. Yet He still had control in heaven, still possessed it in His Deity. In fact, He is sitting at the right hand of the Father wielding all power and authority (Matt.28:18) in it and Earth now. We might say, in our human capacity, that Christ set aside/ limited certain attributes. These being certain attributes of His divine glory – such as omnipresence. But we need to be cautious when we say “give up”. Because in our minds the definition of this connotes a loss that is not retrieved again. This is not the same as Christ possessing heaven, but merely restricting His human nature to Earth during His life and ministry on it. I will end critiquing this devotion with Hebrews 1:5-9: For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? ⁶ And again, when he brings ^othe firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” ⁷ Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” ⁸ But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. ⁹  You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Praise God that Christ has   reigned and will reign from everlasting to everlasting!

The next devotion is titled: AND THAT IS FAITH...

“… I know that sometimes you feel alone. Even though my presence is there with you, you don’t feel it. Ask me to open your eyes so that you can “see” me all around you. I am in the hug of a parent and the smile of a friend. I am in the beauty of a sunset and the majesty of mountain’s. I am in that soft whisper in the back of your mind that says you are important and are loved.”     (pg. 70)

– This sounds Hinduistic – that “the universe is considered to be a manifestation of the divine essence and thus to, in one sense or another, be a part of or an expression of “God.”  Or at the least it comes across as panentheistic- (the belief that, while God transcends creation, the created universe exists in God and is a part of God’s being)”. (Creation and the Divine: Are God and the universe one and the same? (carm.org)

Now Sarah uses Acts 17:27-28 as her Scripture reference but if she had us continue reading we would read Scripture contradict what her Jesus just said. 

In this passage, Paul, before the Areopagus, has met with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of his day to present to them and argue about the nature of God. And again, she pulls out the last half of a sentence as Scripture reference so we will start at verse 26 to get the whole statement. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’  

But let’s keep reading…

 In Acts 17:29 he states Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.

Paul explains that the divine nature is not like gold or silver, anything from nature, or even like anything from the thought of man.  Being not like it, nor is He in it as a substance or form; such as being one with the tree,sand, hug, sunset, or whisper. But in Him all things are held together as all things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:15-17).

“The creation account in Genesis 1:1-2:24 is clearly a description of God creating, forming, and fashioning a universe entirely distinct from Himself. God does not “become,” “emanate,” or otherwise extend His own being into any of the things formed. God creates. He commands, and things come into being. He makes man in His image, but not after His kind or out of His substance. He forms man from the dirt and brings him to life as a separate and distinct living thing. From the opening words of the Bible, we are immediately confronted with the fact that God is separate from and superior to the things He has made. Indeed, our worship of God is rooted, in part, in the fact that He is our distinct creator and sustainer. He is a God utterly outside ourselves to whom we owe our finite existence”- Creation and the Divine: Are God and the universe one and the same? (carm.org).

Scripture does repeat over and over that we are in Him – by Him we live, move and breathe. God is omnipresent meaning that God is everywhere present yet separate from his creation. Hinduism says God manifests Himself in all things, in his creation. His essence is either in them or he manifests himself in them. 

When Scripture says that in Him we live and move and exist, it means He created it and sustains it. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.(Col.1:15-17)

Now in Colossians 3:11 we read Paul saying that Christ is all and in all – but if we are reading this verse in context we can see along with other verses that Christ is not IN these things as a pantheistic view would take by God being IN creation. Christ is fully truly God and we are IN Him (Col.2:9). He has created all that exists (Col. 1:15-16; John 1:3) as He is eternal and holds all things together (Col 1:17), He is the beginning, the 1st born among the dead (Col. 1:18), has 1st place in everything (Col.1:18; Ephs. 1:10; Phil. 2:9-11), and finally He has reconciled all of creation to Himself (Col.1:20). In Him we have every spiritual blessing (Eph.1:3-4), redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14) and are made alive with Him (Col 2:13). This is what Paul means by is all. Not that He is in the hug or in the sunset or in the whisper as to claim that he is manifesting himself in them or his essence is in them; but He is the author, director, creator, and sustainer etc of these things. All these verses state that these things are in Christ meaning He created and He sustains them. 

There is one verse that states that Christ is IN something. Colossians 3:11. Now if we go to Colossians 3:11 in the immediate context Paul is talking about distinctions of PEOPLE in the church. That there should be no partiality made amongst them, no partiality as there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek within the church but that Christ is all and IN all. He is the only distinction. He is the one who reconciled all to the Father and He is in all the Believers– this is what unifies us. He eliminates partiality as we are all new creations created in Christ Jesus (2Corin. 5:17). Many verses explain that the Holy Spirit resides in us (John 14:16-17) and that we, the Church, are a temple of the living God (1 Corin.3:16), but this does not make us manifestations of the divine deity, but we are where the Holy Spirit resides working in us to do all that pleases God (Phil. 2:13).

So I hope I have clarified this and made clear that the Christ from Scripture is not IN the hug of a parent or the smile of a friend. Neither is He in the beauty of a sunset and the majesty of mountain’s. Or in that soft whisper in the back of our teens mind that says they are important and are loved. We are IN Him, sustained by Him, yet He is distinct from His creation. Yes He orchestrates the hug, the sunset, and may even by the Holy Spirit remind you and your teens that they are loved, but His essence is not in those things, nor does He manifest Himself in them.

This is important to know and to explain to our teens as hinduism, mysticism, and new age beliefs teach a pantheistic and panetheistic God and it is creeping into the church. Let us teach our teens right doctrine so they may stand up against the lies creeping in. 

The next devotion is titled: FAITH IS KNOWING (pg 84)

“Bring me your hopes and dreams too. Let’s work on them together, changing them little by little from wishes to reality.

All this takes time. Don’t try to take shortcuts or rush the process. When you work with me, you must learn to accept my timing. Remember how long Abraham and Sarah waited for a son? But when Isaac finally came, their joy was even greater because of their long wait.

Faith is knowing I will keep my promises – believing that things you are hoping for are as real as things you can already see” (pg 84).

-This is a very slight twist on what our faith is in. She equates Christ promises to our hopes. This can be misleading. 1) Our faith is in the God who keeps His promises – but what are those promises? These are promises given in Scripture specific to the Salvation of his people. Even her example of Abraham and Sarah, their being given a promised son, is in direct connection to the first promise given found in Genesis 3. That a seed would come and crush the head of the serpent. Isaac was part of that promise. He was promised to Abraham as he would be a great-great-great grandfather of Jesus, who through Jesus, fulfilled the promise to Abraham to be a father of a great nation who would bless all the families of the earth (Gen.12:1-3; Gal 3:29)

2)Our hopes do not necessarily connect with the faith that saves. Faith that believes God will give me what I’m hoping for can be deceiving. For example, I can hope for a successful career that makes me rich, even believing God wants this for me. But that does not equate that God has promised it.

Sarah Young’s Jesus states that “Faith is knowing I will keep my promises – believing that things you are hoping for are as real as things you can already see”. Remember, this statement is given in the context of our hopes and dreams NOT the given WORD of God, that which tells us WHAT to hope for.

 So we must first look at what God has promised and put our faith in those promises, knowing he is faithful and will keep them. Maybe it might help clarify what I’m saying if I change her statement to: “faith is knowing Christ will keep His promises believing that His promises as found in His word– not what I’m hoping or dreaming for – are as real as things we can already see.”

The next devotion is titled: YOUR AMAZING MIND 

“I created you in my own image. You are the best of my creation. I gave you a mind that is capable of amazing, creative thoughts. And I risked everything by giving you the freedom to think for yourself. Your wonderful human mind makes you totally different from animals and robots. I could have created you so that you had to always love me and seek me. But I want you to use your mind to choose loving and seeking me“ (pg 86).

– Does God’s word say we as humans can choose to love and serve God /Christ?

Romans explains just how well human beings can “think for themselves”. We can think but humanity, in it’s sinful nature, apart from regeneration, humanity’s thinking is futile causing our hearts to be darkened- leading to a debased mind causing us to do that which ought not to be done (Roms 1:18-32). Ultimately, we are born with a nature that hates God, not one that loves and seeks Him as Scripture is clear that NONE seek Him (Rom.3:11).

The Christ from Scripture tells us who seeks who? In John 15:16 we read Him explicitly say, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 

All throughout the Scriptures we read statements made by the prophets and apostles in regards to God’s election of His people Israel (Deut. 7:6-8, 14:2) and His election of people out of the Gentiles, all the people God foreknew to be predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom.8:29). We are chosen by God (Ephs.1:4; 2 Thess.2:13; Acts 13:48; among others).

Jesus says no one can enter the kingdom or come to him unless he be born of water and spirit and God draw him (John 3:1-15; John 6:44). A new spirit must be given to man to enter the kingdom. This is the Holy Spirit’s work, not our work, not our choice and Nicodemus asked Jesus in response to His claim-“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus acknowledges that this is not something that man can do and Jesus helps clarify that it is not accomplished by man but by Spirit.

I hope you noticed that Sarah Young’s Jesus connects this claim to creation; so as all men are created, all men, to Sarah Young’s Jesus have this capacity to choose to love and seek Him. But Romans says no one seeks for God. It is only because God regenerates man, draws him and justifies him that one can then choose to love and serve him by walking in the spirit. He must be born again as God’s original created order has been subjected to a curse: the curse of not being able to know God because we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The 2nd birth is not of our choosing but of God’s direct action (John 1:13).

The next devotion is titled: UNCONDITIONALLY (pg. 104)

“Remember that the devil is the father of lies. He likes to sneak into your thoughts and whisper lies to you. One of his favorites is to tell you that I don’t really love you unconditionally. Satan wants you to believe that you have to be good enough to be loved. If you make one little mistake – if you even think about sin- then surely I won’t love you anymore.

That is a lie. I love you, no matter what. This world is full of temptations. It’s hard to always resist, and it’s impossible for you to be perfect. I understand that. I walked on this Earth, too, and I was exactly your age once.

But be encouraged: I lived a perfect life in this world and then died to wash away your sins. And I rose from the grave to be your savior. All because I love you – unconditionally” (pg. 104).

There is some good and truth in this devotion, but it’s mix with enough ambiguity and wishy washy words to conflate and misrepresent truth.

First let’s think about what Sarah Young’s Jesus says the devil lies about- that our teens must be good enough to be loved. Scripture does say that God loves and God hates- not just sin but all evil doers (Psalm 5:4-5; Psalm 11:5, Rom.9:13). And then we read how all have sinned that:

“None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹  no one understands; no one seeks for God.¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.¹³ Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.The venom of asps is under their lips.¹⁴ Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. ¹⁵ Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known. ¹⁸ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”(Rom.3:10-18).

This is our condition before God in which in his love he must hate. 

John Piper explains this better than I could.

He hates — now here is the paradox — and he loves at the same time. “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16) that he hates. Hate and love are simultaneous as God looks upon hateful, rebellious, corrupt, loathsome, wicked, God-dishonoring sinners.

Now, here are the distinctions we need to make. This is just so crucial. I hope people will listen carefully. Hate and love both have two meanings each. Hate can be intense loathing of a quality, or hate can be beyond that — the intense intentionality to destroy. Love, similarly, can be an intense delighting in a quality, and it can be an intense intentionality to bless even in spite of the presence of some unsavory quality.

So, in any given text in the Bible, we have to ask: Is the hatred being spoken of here only an intense loathing of a quality of a person, or is it also the intent to destroy? And they are different. If you went over to Malachi 1, you would find the latter. And I think some of those texts in the Psalms refer to the former. The same is true with God’s love: God’s love moves him to save millions of people who, in and of themselves, are loathsome to him. (From “Ask Pastor John” episode 140 titled: God Loves the Sinner, But Hates the Sin? | Desiring God)

So knowing we in our unregenerate state are loathsome to him let us move on to the next point:

What do we mean when we say that we love someone unconditionally? A Healthline article by Crystal Raypole states that: Unconditional love, simply put, is love without strings attached. It’s love you offer freely. You don’t base it on what someone does for you in return. You simply love them and want nothing more than their happiness. This type of love, sometimes called compassionate or agape love...This is the typical worldly idea of agape love. 

The word “condition” is a noun meaning-a state of affairs that must exist or be brought about before something else is possible or permitted. So to love someone unconditionally means that there are no state of affairs that must exist for someone to receive love- someone loves another without trying to change the state of that person. This is not the same love that God gives and we will see why in 3 reasons:

1)God is holy, holy, holy – not like us. He is set apart in His justice and must give the sinner what he is owed- death (Roms.6:23)-making us persons not able to receive his love. The Scripture makes certain claims that God is love and God is just. God’s love and justice are perfect and while His love is unconditional as love is His divine nature the receiving of His love is conditional because of His holiness and justice. To be with him (the ultimate good) and receive his love one must meet certain conditions – that we must not have any sin – hence why Christ humbled himself taking on the form of a servant to complete the whole law perfectly for us and take our punishment cleansing us from all unrighteousness so that we may be adopted as sons (Roms.3:21-26; Gal.4:5), call God Abba father (Rom.8:15), and receive his love and goodness forever (Psalm 136:1-26)

2) God’s unconditional love does not come exclusively from his love for us but his love for his Son. In this love to his son he presented to his son a wife (the church) and in the son’s love precipitated to the father, Christ presents us spotless, a people for God’s own possession.  And the Holy Spirit, in love to the Son and to the Father, washes the church in water and the Word. This love that emanates between the Trinity for God’s glory is 1st and foremost. We get to participate in that love, being given as a gift to God for his glory and receiving him as a gift for his glory.

 And finally 3) God by his great love, who loves us and our teens not because of anything we have done or because of who we are, loves us so as to change us. This sinful condition we are in is not acceptable to God and so He works in us, through the Word and by the Holy Spirit to change us and our teens into the conditions that He knows are good. He changes us to be more like Christ- the perfect man. Holy as He is Holy. That is far from what the world would describe as unconditional love- as the world would tell us that we love without desiring to change one’s conditions on the outside and on the inside of that person. To love one unconditionally is to love them despite them being a sinner, love them despite their sin- to accept them warts and all never urging them to change to be made holy and righteous. This is not the same love- for God’s love is not like ours- it works, it regenerates, it makes holy, it makes one like Himself. May our teens understand this as it will drive them to good works and to be more like their Savior.

The last devotion that we will look at is titled: YOU ARE VALUABLE 

“Worry is the result of imagining a future without me in it. So your best defense against worry is to stay in contact with me – both talking to me and listening to me.

Sometimes you have to think about the future. The key is how you think about it. If you only think about the things you must do to plan and be prepared, then you will start to worry.

So when you must plan ahead, follow these two rules : First, don’t spend very much time thinking about the future. The more you think about it, the easier it is to start worrying. And second, always include me in your thoughts. Don’t just imagine what you will do – imagine what I will do” (pg. 108).

First thing to tackle here is that worry is not the result of imagining a future without Christ. There are many Christians who believe in Christ yet still have anxiety and worries. Worry is the result of not knowing or trusting in God our heavenly father. Jesus describes what our best defense against worry was to Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:26-33)

So the Jesus from Scripture tells us that worry is a result of little faith- faith that doesn’t fully know God and understand His provision. And the Christ from Scripture has said what our “best defense against worry” is: to know God and seek his Kingdom as all things will be taken care of by him.

-And we must also note that God has told us only a little about what he will do apart from what he has told us in Scripture. Any imagining what he will do is mere speculation and is unreliable as it comes from our imaginations. But instead let us instruct our teens to do what the Christ from Scripture instructed in Matthew for us to do: to consider what God HAS done. He has provided all things, even our salvation.

So that is it. 3 entire episodes to cover such a short book. 

All of that to show you how Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling for Teens: 50 Devotions to Grow in Your Faith” is 1) not needed and very superficial in light of Scripture and 2) presents to your teens a different Jesus.

 I thank God for this book, though. Only in that it gave me the chance to show how comprehensive Scripture is in revealing Christ and training our teens to life and godliness. And I hope you’ve seen that too. 

So until next time… 

I pray you and your teens are looking to the God who does keep score, yet has placed that score on Jesus who took your penalty for it and in exchange gives you His perfect score. I pray you and your teens are looking to the God Man who had and keeps forever all authority in heaven and on Earth. Who’s essence is not in creation nor does He manifest in it, but is wholly separate from it and yet holds all things together in Him. I pray you and your teens are looking in God’s Word for his promises and putting your faith in them, knowing He is faithful to keep them And I pray that you and your teens rest in God’s choosing of you and are living in light of the love of Christ by His Gospel that changes you…I pray you are in God’s Word.