Processing the Gospel

I had the privilege this past week to pray with 2 middle school students to receive Christ as Savior. There is no greater joy of mine! I love to watch students process the whole thing. Middle school students are at the age, where the gospel no longer seems as simple as it used to be in Sunday School. They begin to ask the tough questions. One of the students that I prayed with to receive Christ spent a considerable amount of time asking questions and processing the whole idea of the gospel. I loved it because you could almost see him trying to wrap his mind around this whole idea. He had great questions. Then, when he got it, you could see it in his eyes. He said, "Ok, I'm ready!" It was great!

That night was the culmination of a series we are doing on the whole redemption story. We found it effective to tell God's whole story found in the Bible and show them that the story is about them. In our series, we walked through the Bible in 6 weeks. We talked about Creation, the Fall, Sin, the Law, the cycle of sin in Judges, and then redemption through Christ. We allowed students to process the gospel by looking at the whole story. I have realized that I don't allow students the chance to process the gospel enough. It needs to happen more. It has to be their decision. It has to come alive to them. It has to be their story. Allow them to see how God created us. Allow them to see their own sin and their own need for help. Allow them to grasp the love of Christ. Allow them to see that the Bible is not a history book, but it's a love story...it's God's story for their lives.