Devotion

Sure, we all know what discipleship is. Take the disciples, the Big Twelve. Super-religious guys who hung out with Jesus, carried his bags, handed out baguettes and smoked herring to the hungry followers and listeners (“Where did he get this much food, anyway. My arms are killin’ me.”), did their best to be bodyguards for Jesus (well, except at the end), were the most intimate friends Jesus had as well as the Inner Circle of his teaching (“Nice story, Jesus,but what are you getting at?”). Okay, so when you read the Gospels (or Acts) at face value, the disciples (or apostles) weren’t always on top of things the way Jesus would’ve liked. Okay, let’s be plain: for being Christ’s closest friends and intimate confidants, the disciples were clueless, selfish, erratic, inconsistent, and faithless at least half the time. And Jesus just loved them and used them all the more for it. Author Mike Yaconelli scrubs away centuries of sentimental buildup that has made first-century disciples–well, hard for a turn-of-the-century teenager to emulate. In Devotion: A Raw-Truth Journal on Following Jesus there’s hope for erratic, inconsistent, and sometimes-faithless adolescents who want to follow Christ closer than they do. Here’s a 30-day adventure through 30 traits of disciples as we read about them in the New Testament. And they’re not all pretty. But they’re all the marks of a disciple. Fear. Boldness. Fearlessness. Laziness. Weakness. Sensitivity. Brokenness. Alienation. Hunger. Immaturity. Strength. Preparedness. In each daily reading kids will find: * A discipleship event from Scripture * A brief but pointed paragraph describing that day’s disciple’s trait * A teenager’s first-person commentary on the trait * “The Obvious Truth” and “Obvious Lesson” from the Scripture passage and commentary–and then the “Not So Obvious Truth” and “Not So Obvious Lesson.” * Scripture references for extra reading on the trait * Questions that invite kids to ponder the application of the reading to their own experiences and desires. Devotion: A Raw-Truth Journal on Following Jesus is appropriate for small group reflection and discussion as well as for private use.