Another summer is quickly coming to its end. The school term will soon once again begin. With this in mind, I would like to share with you a devotion that I shared with our youth at the beginning of June as we gathered on a Wednesday evening on the hill property to celebrate the end of the school term and the unofficial beginning of summer.
The Summer of 2017
(Genesis 8:22 NIV) “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
The summer of 2017 is at hand. Although officially summer doesn’t begin until June 21st we tend to recognize with the closing of the school term that we have entered the summer season. Summer is a time for making memories. As we age we tend to look back at the summers of the past. Some we have trouble recalling for nothing out of the ordinary took place and that summer just fades away almost as if it never happened.
There are the summers that remind us of typical summer events; vacations, fishing, swimming, camps of all sorts, picnics, hanging out with your best friends, and camping out even if it is only in your own backyard.
But then for some there is the unforgettable summer; a summer when one’s life is changed forever (now and all eternity), a summer when one is part of something out of the ordinary, something bigger than ourselves.
Something so big that it becomes clear it is of God’s doing as we surrender our lives to the amazing God. God doesn’t call anyone to ordinary life but extra-ordinary. But it is up to us to acknowledge this. It is up to us to realize and trust in what the apostle Paul wrote as a matter of truth.
(Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV) 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
This Paul writes to the Christian. Concerning the non-Christian Paul would write.
(1 Timothy 2:4 NIV) who (God) wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Now one truth is that Christ is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
Your belief in this, right now, will go a long way to determine what the summer of 2017 will turn out for you individually and you collectively as the youth of the Main St. church of Christ.
Will it be a summer that you and others will soon forget with nothing notable taking place? Will it be a summer that is typical much like many other summers? Or will it be a summer that you and that the Main St. church of Christ won’t soon forget?
A summer that is extra-ordinary that testifies to the truth that in Christ we are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, (us= whose belong to Christ…if you do not belong to Him now may you belong to Him soon.)
May you make it a summer to be remembered by you and God as you become a new creation in Christ.
(2 Cor. 5:17 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Created in Christ we have a purpose and a mission;
(Eph. 2:10 NIV) For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Conclusion
We live in a troubled world, many talk about it and blame others, even God, for it but few are willing to actually do something about it. What say you this summer of 2017!!! (End of devotion)
You don’t have to be a prophet like Daniel to read the hand-writing on the wall, so to speak. This summer we witnessed what was at hand for those with spiritual eyes as (9) beautiful, talented faith-filled young people made it a summer to remember for themselves and all of us as they were baptized into Christ. But that’s not all. Three adults did likewise. PRAISE THE LORD!!!
No, you don’t have to be a prophet like Daniel to foresee such things as this. But it does take preparation from the workers, courage to face sure opposition along with faith and trust in the Christ in which we are “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Rex McDonald, Associate Evangelist