This week marks the start to our summer mission season! We have prayed, planned, prayed and prayed more and now the summer is upon us. This summer marks the 20th year of serving youth groups in missions and we have been blessed to see countless lives impacted for Christ. It is our prayer that not only will the communities where teams serve be changed but also each and every person who is on a trip will not return the same. Acts 9 is the account of the Apostle Paul’s conversion. This summer our group devotions will each be pulled from this chapter. We see in this passage how God makes a missionary. Our amazing Lord takes a harsh and violent man and changes him into a bold and faithful witness to the power of the Gospel. God takes the very man who was determined to destroy the church and transforms him into His greatest missionary.
We will emphasize three principles from this passage. They serve as the three main “ingredients” God uses to make a missionary. Those three things are: a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, an obliterated past, and a vocal witness.
As we prepare to serve this summer, we pray the Lord would do the very things He did in Paul’s life among us. Pray that those who have never truly had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ would meet Him. Pray that those who struggle with past sins would comprehend the grace God gives us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pray those who have been raised from death to life would vocally proclaim the Gospel.
Paul wrote near the end of his ministry that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).
As we serve this summer, trust the Lord to teach, reprove and train in righteousness as we share His Word and go out For The Sake of HIS Name!
