USA (MNN) — Have you ever been lost and desperately wishing you had a GPS (Global Positioning System)?
We appreciate a GPS for its guidance as we travel. And it's especially necessary if you fall under the “directionally challenged” category.
Sin makes us all "directionally challenged" when it comes to drawing near to Christ. To encourage teens in their relationships with God, Bible Pathway Ministries released G.P.S. (God’s Power Source) devotionals.
Bible Pathway releases G.P.S. on a quarterly basis, targeting teens and young adults ages 14 to 24.
Kevin Jennings with Bible Pathway explains, “The four issues carry you through the entire Bible. You can read and study the entire Bible at fifteen minutes a day in one year’s time!”
At first, Bible Pathway started running notices about the upcoming G.P.S. devotionals in their regular Bible Pathway Magazine. “We would get some calls saying, ‘Hey, what’s this G.P.S. thing that’s coming?’ As soon as we told people, they started to get very excited,” says Jennings. “We’ve had people order for their grandchildren; we’ve had churches call in.”
Jennings says some churches have even started using G.P.S. for Sunday school curriculum. “The Sunday devotional is a little bit longer. We have something that we’ve put in there and we call it The Action Zone. What it does is once a week, it’s got some things that kind of put into action the things you’re learning from the Word of God.”
G.P.S. is encouraging teens in Biblical literacy when it may not come as an automatic motivation. “[It] was hard to get our kids to read before, and now they’re coming in and reading the devotional,” Jennings says. “Some kids just grab hold of the Word of God very easily. Others, it has to be spoon fed to them…. But we’re hearing back from the churches that are using it, and they’re getting their kids to read the material that’s there throughout the week from the Word.”
A typical day in G.P.S. features 1-3 chapters from the Bible and some sort of life application. The readings are very short and shoot for relevancy.
“It reaches out right to where the young people are living today, the things that they’re going through, and they can see their lives reflected in the Scripture through the devotional,” says Jennings.
Something like G.P.S. is a good way for teens to connect with God in the busyness of their day. “Most kids today…don’t realize they’re overloaded, too. They’ve got school work; they’ve got all kinds of things they’re involved in. So we tried to center it in a way that the kids could understand it, retain it, and actually use it and apply it to their lives,” Jennings says.
G.P.S. devotionals can be ordered for a year’s subscription of $23. Church bulk discounts are also available.
Click here to learn more.
