‘Father Forgive Them’: Teaching Jesus’ Words from the Cross to Teenagers
We can counsel teenagers to remember that those who do not have Christ do not know what they are doing.
We can counsel teenagers to remember that those who do not have Christ do not know what they are doing.
Whereas our students feel dissatisfied with the fleeting promises of life “under the sun,” Jesus has revealed to us in the Beatitudes the wisdom of God that is far “above the sun,“ in which we can know true blessedness.
Let us teach teenagers what they believe, the humanity and grace with which to approach someone who believes differently, the discernment to sort truth from error, and a dependence on the work of the Spirit to bring people to new life through the gospel.
If the gospel really is the good news that Jesus came to save people from their sin, we should help students understand how the entire Bible points to this truth.
Our teaching should help students understand that the Bible is primarily about God and his plan to a redeem a people for himself.
Unlike Santa, who gives only gifts to nice boys and girls, the real story is that God gave us his only son while we were yet sinners.
In a world that tells students to grin and bear it, put on a happy face, and veg out until you can’t name your feelings, Scripture sings a different song.
The more mom and dad love reading their Bibles, the more likely their children will want to know what compels our attention to those thin, rustling pages.
While youth ministers might imagine that today’s teenagers have a largely negative view of the Bible, these statistics demonstrate they may be far more open than we think.