By Greg Miller © 2018

Katherine, Kurt and Katrina were preparing for their senior year of high school.

All three teens enjoyed listening to powerful sermons preached by their church’s minister, Pastor Ken.

Through the Holy Spirit’s anointing, Pastor Ken shared the truths of the Bible in a way that even the very young and the very old, could easily understand. “God’s Word will bring joy to your life!” he exhorted the congregation. “When you accept the Lord into your heart and Jesus becomes the Lord of your life, He will bring a joy that can come from no other source!”

One of Pastor Ken’s favorite Scriptures was the final phrase of Nehemiah 8:10, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

“Are you feeling weak in your spirit?” he asked the congregation. “Remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength! Rise up with a shout of victory and declare, ‘The joy of the Lord is my strength, and I am victorious in Christ Jesus!’”

“You may be fighting a very difficult battle!” Pastor Ken declared. “The devil may think he has you whipped. You may even think the devil has you whipped. But remember this, Satan can only do what God allows Him to do, and also remember this: We are overcomers, and Jesus already defeated Satan at Calvary!”

Katherine, Kurt and Katrina were enthusiastic supporters of Pastor Ken’s Bible-based messages. “You don’t just preach sermons,” said Katherine. “You minister to us deep within our spirits!”

“You help us to stay excited about our walk with God!” said Katrina.

“And to come to church!” said Kurt.

In fact, the Lord was using Pastor Ken’s sermons to draw the teens to Him for individual ministries. Kurt felt a call to foreign missions. “I want to preach the gospel around the world!” he said.

Katrina and Katherine answered the call to open a Christian day care. “We’ll pray for each student daily!” said Katrina.

“And tell them about God’s love!” said Katherine.

Kurt was inspired to pray a specific prayer about the future of the church’s teenagers. “Father, I thank you for the ministry of Pastor Ken, and I pray you will call one of the church’s teenagers to become a pastor that is so full of the joy of the Lord he will become a shining example in ministry the same way Pastor Ken has been an inspiration to us!”

“I have heard your prayer, Kurt,” said the Lord. “And not only am I going to answer that prayer, I’m also going to continue to raise up teenagers from this church to serve me as missionaries and to open Christian day care centers.”

“Wow!” Kurt declared. “You are surely an awesome God, yes an awesome God indeed!”

To contact the writer of this column about speaking engagements, including Christian Comedy Fundraising Outreaches, Christian Creativity Seminars and/or puppet ministry, please email [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].

By Greg Miller  2018

 Greg is retired from the Elizabethton STAR Newspaper, after working there for almost 23 years. He now freelances for the paper. Contact email address is [email protected], also facebook.com/kidcool4jesus. Available for speaking engagements/other ministries. Jesus is Lord