Beginning Time Alone with God (Youth)
Sunday, Mar 16, 2025
History is the place in which we are challenged to come face to face with the forces of reality and to endure them. Christianity understands time as the opportunity to be addressed by God and to freely respond to him-with yes, with no, or with evasiveness.
WHAT DOES REVELATION CLAIM about us? What does it say to us?
Apocalypse does not mean simply fear. Rather, it means fear that turns to joy. The old world bursts apart and burns up (today's astrophysics suggests something similar), but then greatness arrives, and no one will mourn the old. It is joy when the old world of sorrow and death is overthrown. For Christianity, this way of escape lies on the horizon of the present transient world. Other religions imagine an endlessly repeating cycle (and endlessly repeating misery). But Christianity waits in confidence for history to culminate in a mighty goal. In earlier times, for the first Christians, this waiting was like a torch in the night.
Israel also waited - for the promised Son of Man, ben-‘adam. The first time he came helplessly as a child, noticed only by a few. The second time he promises to come openly in power. Power might seem something threatening, but here it announces "summer." just like the young shoots of the fig tree: "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates” (Mark 13:28-29). This summer is the summer of a righteous, upright, and rightened existence. For the meaning of judgment is that things will be set right.
One way or the other, the task and comfort of each generation is to remember the ultimate goal, especially in times of fear. In the face of fear, nothing helps so much as the flame of longing for the true Lord of history, for the heart-bursting delight" of his coming.
The Psalmist looks ahead toward a morning on the far side of death: "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness" (Ps. 17:15). In another translation: When I awake I shall be sated with your beauty." This is the comfort toward which we are journeying.
Hannah - Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz "The Other Side of Revelation." Plough Quarterly, Summer 2022, pp. 83f "Hope In Apocalypse.”
MONDAY
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on those who need salvation.
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
Your Purity before God.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure –
Read and think and imagine – Acts 5:29-32
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on the need to grow and become like Jesus.
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
The Presence of God in your life.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure –
Read and think and imagine – Acts 5:33-39
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on those who need healing.
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
The Passion of God in your life.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure
Read and think and imagine – Acts 5:40-42
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
THURSDAY
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on the missionaries all over the world – Monica Padilla Trueman, Colorado Christian Services
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
The Power of God in your life.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure
Read and think and imagine – Acts 6:1-4
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
FRIDAY
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on giving thanks for Creation.
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
God’s Freedom in your life.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure
Read and think and imagine – Acts 6:5-7
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – on life all around you.
Petition – Talk with God about your life and needs.
God’s Hope in your life.
Worship – and give thanks to God for everything (be specific).
Bible Adventure –
Read and think and imagine – Acts 5:29-42
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.
SUNDAY
Quiet – yourself before God (2-4 minutes).
Prayer –
Confession – Confess your sins to God. Ask Him to forgive you
and take away all sin from you.
Intercession – Pray for other people’s needs and lives.
Focus – Talk with God about church and worship today at WLCF.
Petition – Ask God to help you worship Him today.
Bible Adventure –
Read and think and imagine – Acts 6:1-7
Meditate on this passage in the Bible.
Write – Journal what God taught you today.
Close – with prayer. Go with God into your day today.