{"id":7238,"date":"2020-04-23T00:21:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=7238"},"modified":"2020-04-23T00:21:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:21:38","slug":"good-news-youth-devotional-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2020\/04\/23\/good-news-youth-devotional-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Good News Youth Devotional"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/04\/Good-News-Youth-Devotional-2020.cropped.green_-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7239\" width=\"222\" height=\"73\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/04\/Good-News-Youth-Devotional-2020.cropped.green_-11.jpg 632w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/04\/Good-News-Youth-Devotional-2020.cropped.green_-11-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/04\/Good-News-Youth-Devotional-2020.cropped.green_-11-560x186.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Colin Scott (Youth Coordinator at the Mechanicsburg Church of the Brethren (Pa.))<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong> John 15:12-17      &#8220;Love each other.&#8221; <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, we have all been challenged by what it means to \u201cdo church\u201d or \u201cbe the church\u201d when we cannot physically gather together as the Body of Christ.  It takes greater effort and more energy to maintain meaningful relationships with, and to care for, those we are used to seeing regularly.  And yet, Jesus\u2019 command that we \u201cLove each other\u201d as He named us \u201cfriends\u201d and prepared to sacrifice Himself for us is as relevant now as ever!  I imagine that each of us can think of someone in need of an encouraging word, a listening ear, or a prayerful thought. How we choose to creatively live out Jesus\u2019 example of sacrificial, selfless love in times of uncertainty and adversity has AWESOME potential to bear fruit \u2013 fruit that lasts.  This is an unexpected chance to form new, lasting relationships.  Let\u2019s decide to thoughtfully continue building loving community by reaching out selflessly as a friend to those who may need support, hope, and reassurance.  The possibilities for connections we make today are endless as we obey Christ\u2019s direction to \u201cLove each other.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Good News:  <\/strong>Jesus has chosen each of us as His friend and sacrificed Himself for us. Jesus tells us to choose to love each other selflessly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Discussion question:  <\/strong>What obstacles might we have to overcome to love each other as Christ commands? How might sharing Jesus\u2019 sacrificial love look for us, practically, today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Go one step further:<\/strong>  Find your church directory, identify a member (or family) in the congregation who could use a friendly or thoughtful note, and mail them an encouraging greeting.  Challenge yourself by choosing someone new, and maybe someone who you do not know well, each week and see what \u201cfruit\u201d is produced through these new relationships. <\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Colin Scott (Youth Coordinator at the Mechanicsburg Church of the Brethren (Pa.)) John 15:12-17 &#8220;Love each other.&#8221; Recently, we have all been challenged by what it means to \u201cdo church\u201d or \u201cbe the church\u201d when we cannot physically gather together as the Body of Christ. It takes greater effort and more energy to maintain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[249,516,644],"class_list":["post-7238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional","category-youth-young-adults","tag-colin-scott","tag-good-news-youth-devotional-2020","tag-john-15"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}