Our team had just finished praying with a student when I turned around and found myself facing about twenty teenagers waiting for the light to turn green and walk across the street towards their neighborhood. Suddenly I was caught off guard when a young man made his way through the crowd and came up to me requesting my attention. "I have a question about the ten testaments." Now, I figured he meant, "commandments," and not testaments. I knew better not to correct him, (my mama had taught me well), but to lean in and start listening. This was about ready to get interesting.
Imagine being a 15, 16 year old with an unresolved issue pressing in your brain and you need someone to give you an answer. It's been on your mind for days and you don't know what to do about it. YouTube "university" doesn't have the answer. You can't find the right words to "Google" search the question either. You've never seen this subject on TikTok. None of your friends have ever posted this on Instagram.
So, what do you do? Maybe those "Christians" standing on the corner every week might be able to answer your question. Just maybe. So you take a risk and approach them after school knowing you might be seen talking to those"old" people, but you do it anyway because you are desperate enough. You're desperate enough to talk to a complete stranger. You must get an answer and you must know the truth.
The student's dilemma unfolded to me as he explained it was "hard to obey" his parents and he really didn't want to when they were always "shouting bible verses" at him. "How was he to obey them when they weren't obeying God" was his question. My mind or the Holy Spirit immediately helped me recall the verses from Ephesians 6, where it says: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And you, fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."
As I listened my heart filled with compassion for him. I believe he truly wanted to honor, obey and please his parents, but he couldn't get passed the deliverance of the message they were trying to convey to him. We talked through this for about 15 minutes and ended up praying for his family.
What a perfect opportunity and gift God gave me to share biblical truth, clarity and knowledge especially when this young man's heart was so open to receive it! And, to think all I did was stand and wait for God's perfect timing for this divine appointment!
"Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Ephesians 6:14-15
I'll end this blog with a call for more "laborers" and volunteers. I know there are many seasoned Christians waiting to pour into this generation that desperately want and need God's love and truth. Please share this and come join us.
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