Day 19 of 30 Days of Praise

I learned something from a young man named Jake yesterday.  Jake has been the youth intern at our church this summer---sharp guy!!  I'd asked him to come and "preach" at Living Water yesterday before he headed out for college.  I praise God for these young people He's raising up as our future leaders!  He had a dynamic word and I only hope I can relay it and give it the credit it deserves.

Jake told us that even though he'd grown up in a Christian home, he'd totally dismissed God and gone into a wild lifestyle in high school.  He hung out with an atheist, who even though he said he didn't believe in God, was angry with a God he didn't believe existed!  Jake said his idea of God was someone sitting up in heaven with a tally book waiting for him to mess up.   He said that because God knew we wouldn't understand who He was, He sent His son to earth.  Jesus stepped out of His royal robes and put on a skin suit and stepped into earth. Now...(this is where it gets good!) he said....Jesus had spent all this time watching His father.  He'd learned what moved God's heart.  He knew how much God loved us.  So Jesus loved the prostitutes, the tax collectors, etc.  In fact, He loved them so much, he spent time with them.  This made the religious leaders angry.  But that didn't move Jesus---He kept right on doing what He knew His father would do.  Bottom line...(and this is because this is so much on my mind right now)...what I took from it was this:  God the Father mentored God the Son.  Is that not an awesome thought???  And one I'd never considered.  Jesus said He did nothing apart from what His father told Him to do.  Wow!!

I love learning from someone as young as Jake!  I think he's probably 20 years old.  What an awesome young man!!  (And if you have a single daughter, he'd be a GREAT catch---very cute, too! ha!)  The end of Jake's story goes like this.  He got in a crisis situation.  A man got out of prison and called him and told him he was coming to kill him.  Jake's atheist friend told him, "Man, you need to get right with God!"  LOL!  Isn't that funny---how God used his atheist friend?  Jake immediately got on his knees and told God that if He got him out of this situation, he'd serve God the rest of his life.  The guy wanting to kill him came and sat beside Jake at a ball game---and never saw Jake.  Jake said it was if he were looking right through him.  Jake gave his life to God then and is serving Him now.  He quoted a verse where Jesus told the religious leaders that "if you can't believe in Me, believe in the miracles I do."  Jake believed because of this miracle he saw God do in his life.  And he's quite the preacher!!

Father, I want to praise You for Jake and all the young people like him that You're raising up for this next generation.  Make them Truth-Seekers.  Guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Keep them from temptation.  Teach them, train them, mentor them.  I praise You that You gave us the Holy Spirit to do that very thing.    Bless Jake, God.  I thank You for what I learned yesterday.  I love you, Daddy!  In Jesus' name, Amen.