Thursday Morning Coffee Break

How about a chocolate hazelnut breve - rich espresso with steamed half and half - from Caribou Coffee to start our day?  Enjoy! 

We started a new series in youth last night called TwentyEight.  We've done this for quite a number of years now, where we take the month of February and challenge our youth to read one chapter from an assigned book of the Bible each day of the month.  I also teach from that book throughout the month.  This year, we're doing the book of Acts.  In addition to the reading challenge, we're also challenging our students to pray the date.  For example, today, February 6, we will read Acts 6 and pray for 6 minutes.

Last Night: The Visitation

Last night we talked about four places the Holy Spirit showed up in the book of Acts.

1. Acts 2:1-4 (At the birth of the church.)
2. Acts 3:19-20 (After people turned from their sins and turned to God.)
3. Acts 4:31 (After people prayed.)
4. Acts 10:44-45 (While Peter was preaching.)

Here are a couple of key points:

• The Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated.  He shows up when and where He wants.
• The Holy Spirit is omnipresent - everywhere at one time - but there's a difference in Him being there and showing up; making Himself known, manifesting Himself to a person or group.
• The Holy Spirit was sent to prove to people that God is real.
• God sent the Holy Spirit so that we could experience God.
• God sent the Holy Spirit so we could experience refreshment and restoration.

Parent-Teen Connect
Take turns answering and discussing the following questions with your teens this week.  Create meaningful conversation.  Adjust questions as needed.  Use one or two of these to begin a conversation.  Look for teachable moment - at home, in the car, wherever.  Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teens.

1. The Holy Spirit is often the forgotten Godhead (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - we even list Him last there.)  Our worship songs aren't often directed toward Him.  Our prayers aren't often directed toward Him.  We don't talk about Him as much.  Why is that?
2. When you hear "The Holy Spirit" what do you think?
3. There's difference between knowing God, or knowing about God, and experiencing God.  How have you found that to be true?
4. Talk about a time you truly experienced God - the Holy Spirit.  When was the last time you had a visitation by the Holy Spirit?
5. Following Christ includes fighting battles, getting tired, experiencing stress, getting hurt, experiencing pain, feeling alone.  In those moments, how have you experienced the Holy Spirit providing refreshment and restoration?