Seize The Summer

Ahh… The lazy days of summer are here again.  It’s time for staying up and sleeping in.  It’s time to go to the beach.  It’s time for the favorite pastime of high school students: “Doing nothing.”  It’s time to…waste?

Let’s be honest.  Summer is a beautiful season of free time.  But many students will waste it this year.

Please, don’t let this be you.

– “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.”

The principle is clear: Don’t waste your summer!  Do work!   Of course summer is a time for fun, but you can also use this free time to grow in your knowledge of God!  Just because you don’t have to be at school at a certain time in the morning doesn’t mean you should sleep in.  What if you woke up early with a specific purpose each day: To seek God in the Bible.

– I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words.

Right now you have a chance to do something few Christians today can say they have done: Read through the Minor Prophets.  These twelve Old Testament books are a treasure chest into the character of God and how he thinks about us.  If you dive in deep and seek to study what they say, you will definitely come away with a better understanding of who God is and how he wants you to live.

This isn’t just a study you can do by yourself, but you can share it with others too!  You can leave comments about what you are learning on Scripture of the Day that will encourage all the True Northers who read them.  And then you can benefit by reading what they have to say in their comments.

You will also be able to talk about what you are reading in small groups.  This summer our girls are reading Practical Theology For Women and tonight Christa will be leading a discussion at our home.  Our Teen Ministers are reading Finally Alive by John Piper and will going over it at our Saturday meetings.  And something that everyone can be involved in starts this Wednesday as we have our first Beach Night.   We’ll be reviewing what we have learned from our first Minor Prophet book, Hosea.  This week’s topic: God is Jealous.

If you have never been to one of our Beach Nights at Salt Creek before they are unique.  There are plenty of people at the beach having a barbecue or throwing a Frisbee.  But we are doing something more.  In fact, people often stop to watch us as we sing praise songs to the Lord and listen as I preach from his Word.  We’ve taken the classic symbol of summer, the beach, and elevated it to something more, a place of worship.

You can do the same thing with your summer.  You can make it something more than what people typically think it is.  Don’t just take a break from school, but make the most of your opportunity to study God!  The free time is all there waiting for what you are going to do…

Seize it!