Award-winning author Max Lucado has a book  called, fittingly enough, Facing Your Giants. “I was amazed (and delighted) at the echoes between the movie and my book,” he says. Through a partnership with Thomas Nelson’s W Publishers, Max has helped craft a FACING THE GIANTS study guide that you can download from the movie’s website. Using scenes from the film and words from Max’s new book, the study guide challenges readers to think through how they are allowing God to help battle the giants in their world. As Max writes, “Focus on giants — you stumble. Focus on God — your giants tumble.”

This Disciple Now Study is free and can be downloaded HERE.

Below is a photo from our weekend event.

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If Jesus needed to grow spiritually and mentally, so do we. What do you need to do to grow spiritually? Learn from Jesus and do what He did.

There are 3 things Jesus did to further His spiritual and mental growth.

a) Jesus had the habit of going to the synagogue in His hometown regularly – Luke 4:16.

At the age of 12, Jesus started going to the temple in Jerusalem with his family according to the custom – Luke 2: 41-42. Listen, your participation in church life, is extremely important to your spiritual growth.

Can you be a Christian without going to the church? You may, but you will be a spiritually undeveloped Christian.

If you can grasp now the importance of being actively involved in church life, it will keep you on the right track later on in life. Those who stop participating in church life is because they basically said that something else is more important to them than going to church. Life will bring before you many options; Satan will tempt you with lots of things… only to distract you from being involved in church. Someone with a vibrant Christian life will always be involved and committed to a local church.

Psalm 133:1 – How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

Acts 2: 46-47 – Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Hebrews 10: 24-25 – And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

b.) Jesus knew His Bible.

After Jesus’ parents walked a one day walk and then came back another day and probably spent another day looking for him – total of 3 days – they found Jesus at the temple.

What did Jesus do at the temple? He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions – Luke 2: 46.

This is nothing else, but mental and spiritual development. Jesus took time to study His bible, listen to the teachers / preachers of that day and ask questions. When was the last time you asked someone a question about a passage from the bible? Of course we don’t have questions about the bible if we don’t open it and read it.

When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He responded with scripture (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus Christ memorized scripture. Can you see the mental and spiritual development?

Jesus knew His bible… He was familiar with the books /scrolls of the Law and He also knew where certain passages were… – “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written…” (Luke 4: 17)

As you can see, spiritual and mental growth involved active involvement with the Bible; read it and memorize it! You will find God in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is not God; it is a tool that points us to God.

c.) Jesus spent time in prayer!

Jesus Christ liked to talk to God, His heavenly Father. He never forgot to pray. In fact Jesus planned certain times to be by Himself so that He can talk to God freely and as much as He wanted.

Sometimes, Jesus would get up early in the morning and would go by Himself to a quiet place to pray. Other times, he would talk to God I behalf of others – that is public prayer for others.

Jesus didn’t view his prayer life as a burden… it was more of a privilege.

⁵“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men… ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matt 6:5-8)

“If God is all-knowing and cares about me, why do I even have to ask him for things?” And, “Since God is all-powerful and is going to accomplish his will anyway, what effect are my prayers going to have on him?”
Such questions indicate a failure to understand the purpose of prayer. Prayer is our means to connect with God in order to assimilate his will into our lives. Through an attitude of prayer, God’s mind on matters of life can become our mind. “Who can know what the Lord is thinking?” Paul asks. “Who can give him counsel? But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16, NLT). When we learn and practice the discipline of prayer, it deepens our intimate relationship with God and allows Christ to reflect his character and nature through our lives. Prayer is more than words; it is an attitude of the surrendered heart to be conformed into the image of Christ.”[1]

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Our culture encourages us to be as self-focused as possible. The advertisement industry is telling us that we need and deserve to have the things they sell. So, we indulge ourselves thinking that maybe this time we may achieve happiness.

If the world is telling us to GET as much stuff as we can, God is calling us to GIVE as much as we can. He is calling us to lose our lives in order to find them. (Matthew 16:25)  More than ever before, we need someone to rescue us from the me-centered life we thought would make us happy.

The God-centered life works. When God is number one in our lives, we start seeing life and people differently. This year during Disciple Now, we want to help teenagers see everything in their lives – friendships, family situations, their bodies, and even their problems – as platforms to bring God glory.

“It’s Not About Me” bible study is much needed for today’s culture. Young people are not the only ones that need to understand that God is the center of the universe. “When God looks at the center of the universe, He doesn’t look at you.” God loves us and desires a relationship with us, but He doesn’t need us. “Our comfort is not God’s priority. If God exists to please us, then shouldn’t we always be pleased?”

This bible study will help students begin to see everything – our pleasures, our problems, our gifts and talents – as being all for the One who created us.

“It’s Not About Me” bible study has 6 sessions and it is perfect for a youth retreat or disciple now weekend. This material can also be used by the young adult ministry.

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Certainly there are other ministries that offer good bible studies, but in my opinion, the following 3 are the best:

1. The Cutting Edge Youth Ministry Resources – The Cutting Edge Bible Studies are formatted into activity studies, discussion based, and youth camp studies. Some of them are available in hard copy online while more and more are now available in digital format. Do you wonder what an activity study looks like?

• Sample Hard copy lesson (Activity format): Image is Everything (Session #4) – Sample #1
• Sample Digital download (Activity format): Bottom Line (BS outline + PP) “Thermostat vs thermometer” – Sample #2
• Sample Digital download (Discussion Format / Bible Study) Innocent by Associaion -Lesson #2 + PP – Sample #3
• Sample Digital download (Camp Format) Innocent by Association – Lesson #2 – Sample #4

2. Student Discipleship Ministries – SDM is a non-denominational ministry that exists to provide Biblical-based evangelism and discipleship resources.

3. InQuest Ministries – Here you will find a sample lesson of our curriculum, Teacheraides, and other great teaching resources. There is also information on our camps and conferences, links to great Biblical resources, and much, much more.

4. Dare2Share – here you will be able to find great resources about evangelism.

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How do we know if any of these images are Jesus or Mary? We do not have any photos of Jesus. Bottom line… is it really that important that we have these images?

This video could be used in a bible study on John 20: 24-29

²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

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2. When does someone have enough (riches)? {“Just a little more…” – Never enough} Is there a place where you can have too much?

3. Name some situations when silver and gold (money) are worthless. (You are in a desert and you are carrying a sack full of diamonds, but have no water.)

*During the time when James is writing this epistle the rich were the wealthy landowners as v. 4 reveals. The rich of that time were those who owned and continued to buy land and who exploited the people they forced to work their land. There was no middle class then only rich and poor. The term “rich” can occasionally be used as synonym for “the unrighteous”.[1]

4. Verse 3 in James 5 is very intriguing:
a) (NIV – Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.)
b) (NLT – Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment.)
c) (The Message – Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.)

5. Why would James characterize wealth/luxuries as cancer?

Someday some of you may be business people. Others of you may be CEOs or managers. You may be a boss someday. LISTEN… Do not be greedy, do not cheat, and do not be dishonest.  (v. 4)

Greed will catch up with the greedy and some of the greedy will be punished here, others will   be punished here and also after they die.

6. “Riches are a threat to genuine discipleship”. AGREE OR DISAGREE? What are your comments? (Luke 6:24-25; Revelation 18:10-24)

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The passage is in James 2: 14-26

1.  Have you ever seen a homeless person on the side of the road? hat do you think about the people at intersections asking for money or food?

2.  Have you ever helped such a person? How?

3.  Do you tell people you will pray for them and never pray either because you forget or because you think that their situation is not that bad after all?

4.  Have you seen someone in need (food, money, clothing, emotional need) and you felt sorry for them and that moved you to say that you will pray for them that God will meet their needs?

James suggests that such a prayer is worthless; that such a prayer has absolutely no value. READ Matthew 25: 42-43

5.  Problem – some people have faith in faith. The problem is not that you only have faith. The more serious problem is that people put their faith in faith. This appear to be the case with the TV preachers who promote a false teaching in faith itself. “If you have faith, enough faith, then God will bless you financially, relationally, etc”.

Genuine faith results in actions.

6.  Do all good works show faith? Can anyone demonstrate their faith?

Agree/Disagree      * True faith consists of confession and action.

7.  a) Is faith a spiritual gift? – 1Cor 12:9; Rom 12:3 (Do not rush with an answer. Think about it!) Paul says that faith is a spiritual gift.

b) Is doing good deeds a spiritual gift?

c) AGREE/DISAGREE       *A Christian must have both faith and deeds/good works.

8. VS. 18b-19      Make your faith visible!

Take a minute to think about some of the good works you have done and see how and if they are connected with your faith.

Did you do the good you did because it sprang from your faith? Did your faith in God birthed those good deeds or was it your idea?

A dead seed does nothing. It will never result in anything.

A dead person will do nothing.

Dead faith does nothing.

How do you know if your faith is alive?

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