Relationships and Community on Youth

Quote

Author

Keywords

The flower of youth never appears more beautiful than when it bends toward the sun of righteousness.

liturgy

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing a...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 25:6-9; 1 Peter 3:18

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 25:6-9, 1 Peter 3:18

Leader: "Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me...

illustration

Troubling Statistics about Mental Health in our Youth

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10 , 1 Kings 19:4-8, Jeremiah 29:11, John 14:27, Philippians 4:6-7 , Psalm 34:17-18

Most alarming is the absence of peace among our youth. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is showing an epidemic of mental health problems among eighteen- to twenty-four-year...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 71:1-6

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 71:1-6

Leader: In you, O Lord, we have taken refuge; let us never be ashamed. In your righteousness, deliver us and set us free; incline your ear to us and save us. People: Be our strong rock, a fortress t...

Quote

Author

D. Sutton

Keywords

It is the privilege of adults to give advice. It is the privilege of youth not to listen. Both avail themselves of their privileges, and the world rocks along.

illustration

Discovering Your Unique Purpose

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:5, 1 Peter 4:11

Da Vinci painted one Mona Lisa. Beethoven composed one Fifth Symphony. And God made one version of you. He custom designed you for a one-of-a-kind assignment. Mine like a gold digger the unique-to-you...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 25

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 25:6-7, Psalm 25:11, Psalm 25:16-18

All: Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the...

liturgy

Blessing College Students as They Leave for School

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Consider offering this blessing during worship the second Sunday in August. This is often the last Sunday college students are in worship before they return to school. This prayer could also be used d...

liturgy

God of wonder and strength, compassion,

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Psalm 121:1-2, Isaiah 41:10, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 11:28-30, Mark 4:35-41

God of wonder and strength, compassion, grace and love–all of which we see revealed through the power of a storm and its aftermath: You’re so big–and we’re so small. Your might is unlimited–ours is fi...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 103:1-5

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 103:1-5, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:22-23, Titus 3:5

Pastor: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! People: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, Pastor: who forgives all your iniquity, who h...

liturgy

O God, Giver of all good, and Fountain

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 118:24, James 1:17, Psalm 136:1, Philippians 4:19, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

O God, Giver of all good, and Fountain of all mercies, in whom are all the springs of our life; all glory, thanks and praise be unto thee for thine unfailing goodness; for thy faithfulness which is fr...

illustration

From Apathy to Action

Keywords

When Rosina Hernandez was in college, she once attended a rock concert at which one young man was brutally beaten by another. No one made an attempt to stop the beating. The next day she was struck du...

Quote

Author

Victor Hugo

Keywords

Gentleness

“Monseigneur Bienvenu had been formerly, according to the accounts of his youth and even of his early manhood, a passionate, perhaps a violent man. His universal tenderness was less an instinct of nat...

illustration

Control Issues

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 16:9, Jeremiah 29:11, John 15:1-27, Proverbs 3:5-6, Galatians 2:20, Matthew 6:25-34

In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “formed” s...

illustration

A Different Perspective on the Narcissus Myth

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

In his important book When Narcissism Comes to Church, professor and therapist Chuck DeGroat makes an important connection between shame, narcissism and addiction by looking at the myth of Narcissus. ...

illustration

It Goes Without Saying

Author

E. Randolph Richards and Richard James

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:27, Matthew 2:2, Revelation 19:16, John 18:36-37, Revelation 17:14, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 24:7-10, Colossians 1:15-20, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-40, John 12:12-16

In a culture, the most important things usually go without being said. We Westerners don’t talk all the time about being individualists or about the importance of efficiency or why we prefer youth ove...

illustration

A Need to Heal the Past

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 147:3, Jeremiah 30:17, Matthew 11:28-30, James 5:16, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 33:6

One of the challenges, at least in the western church, is an inability to deal with our wounds in a healthy way. Our training as Christians has been focused on Bible studies, small groups, and Sunday ...

Quote

Author

Sigmund Freud

Keywords

Psychoanalysis . . . daily demonstrates to us how youthful persons lose their religious belief as soon as the authority of the father breaks down.

illustration

We cannot have true justice unless

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Exodus 22:21-22 , Isaiah 58:6-7 , Matthew 22:37-39, James 2:1-9 , Psalm 103:6

We cannot have true justice unless it is motivated by love, just as God’s greatest act of justice, sending Jesus to die for us, was motivated by love. Years ago, before the emancipation of slaves, Fre...

liturgy

God of grace and God of glory on your

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Amos 5:24, Psalm 85:6, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 40:29, Psalm 147:3, James 1:5

God of grace and God of glory on your people pour your power...Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the facing of this hour. Lord—we need You...today, tomorrow and forever. We need you to heal those ...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 130:3-6

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 130:3-6

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. I hope in his word. My soul longs for the L...

liturgy

Lord, You answer our pleas for help.

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Lord, You answer our pleas for help. You draw near to us when we are hurting; You save us when we are crushed by life. Your Psalmists declare it on every page. Yet we often feel abandoned and alone. W...

liturgy

God of the common and of the uncommon.

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:17, Matthew 5:16, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:18-19, James 5:14-15

God of the common and of the uncommon. You meet us in the ordinary routines of life–when we play and when we rest, while we work and while we worship. And You reveal yourself in the extraordinary, too...

liturgy

Lord—There’s nothing You call us to do

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:27, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 12:15, James 5:14-15, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 23:1-3

Lord—There’s nothing You call us to do that you don’t equip us to do. You ask us to release those we care about to You–then You furnish the faith to give them to You who have the love and power to mak...

liturgy

The Psalmist draws us into prayer

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 66:16-19, Matthew 6:6-8, 1 Peter 4:10, Matthew 5:14-16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 103:1-5

The Psalmist draws us into prayer saying: Come and hear, all you who honor God and let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him and God has surely listened and heard my prayer. Praise ...

illustration

To Be One of the Great Ones Is Not What It Seems

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, Isaiah 53:2, Micah 6:8

For those of us who live in the shadow of self-doubt, who may wonder what meaning a life of relative anonymity may have in a society filled with the cult of celebrity in which likes, reposts, and digi...

illustration

No Weaknesses?

Author

Gary Thomas

Keywords

Marriage

Scripture

James 3:2

One summer I spoke at a church in Pennsylvania, and a young woman came up to me afterward. She and her boyfriend were talking about marriage. She asked my advice, and we discussed her boyfriend’s stre...

illustration

A Venomous Creature At Your Bosom

Author

Frederick Douglass

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Jeremiah 22:3, James 2:1, Psalm 82:3-4, Micah 6:8

Frederick Douglass describes how the evils of slavery and racism acts as a sap on the integrity of both our country and our faith in a God where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free: Fello...

Quote

Author

Sigmund Freud

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Malachi 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, Colossians 3:21, Psalm 78:5-6, Genesis 18:19, Proverbs 22:6

Psychoanalysis . . . daily demonstrates to us how youthful persons lose their religious belief as soon as the authority of the father breaks down.

relationships and community on Youth

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

liturgy

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

illustration

illustration

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah