Author: Nathaniel Colt

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Read: 1 Corinthians 3:5–9

There are lots of ways to assemble a puzzle. Some people like to put the border together first and then the inside. Some people just start matching up pieces until they find ones that fit together. How do you put together a puzzle? Regardless of our different methods, each piece is important to the puzzle being complete. If one piece goes missing, there won’t be a complete puzzle at the end.

People are a lot like puzzle pieces. We each play a very important part in the kingdom of God because God wants to use each of us in special ways. That’s what the apostle Paul was talking about in today’s Bible verses. Paul told the people he was writing about Jesus. Then, a man named Apollos helped the people understand more about Jesus. But God was the one who helped the people to grow in their faith. Some people thought Paul was more important than Apollos, and others thought Apollos was better than Paul. God has given each of us jobs to do, and it’s His power that helps people to grow in God. Maybe we will be like Paul, the first person to tell others about Jesus. Or maybe, we will be like Apollos, showing up after people have heard about Jesus, and helping them grow in their faith. Both jobs are important to God! As we are faithful to do our part, the whole world will hear about Jesus.

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Read: Acts 1:8

The promise that Jesus gave to His followers in today’s Bible reading was the promise of one of the greatest gifts: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does many things to help us in our relationship with God, including giving us power and boldness to tell everyone about Jesus. Jesus told His disciples to go into Jerusalem, which was their town, and into Judea and Samaria, which were their surrounding areas, and to the ends of the earth. He wanted them to go into all the world and tell everyone about who He is and what He had done. And they could do this through the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you are wondering how you can be part of helping all the world know Jesus, the answer is that the Holy Spirit will help you tell people everywhere about Jesus. God wants to use us right now, wherever we are, to tell others about Him. He also calls people to go to other parts of the world as missionaries. They may have to learn a different language and live in a different culture to tell people about Jesus. Whether we go somewhere or stay where we are, we need the power of the Holy Spirit! He can use us to tell others about Jesus around the world.

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Read: Luke 10:2

Have you ever gone down a long country road in the fall and seen fields filled with crops? Every year when the crops grow ripe, the farmers must harvest, or bring in the crops. This is a big, long job that can take lots of people to manage. If a farmer is left to do it alone, he may miss part of the harvest because he can’t do it all himself. If farmers wait too long, insects or plant diseases can attack and ruin the crops, not only for the current year but for years to come. Harvesting is a big and important job.

When Jesus talked about the harvest in Luke 10, He was talking about people, not crops. He was talking about people who are ready to believe in Him and live as His disciples. There are people all over the world who are ready to come to Jesus, but more workers are needed to tell them about Jesus and help them grow in their relationship with God. He is in charge of the harvest, and we are His workers. Jesus said that we should pray and ask that more workers would join us to help bring in the harvest. These workers can be people we know or people we don’t know, as well as people who go all over the world. The people who go around the world or to special groups like motorcycle clubs, prisoners, or hospital workers are called missionaries. Our prayers for missionaries and for the harvest workers make a big difference.

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Read: Matthew 28:19

No two people are alike: every person who has ever lived is different from everyone else! Hair color, eye color, skin color, language, culture, favorite foods, favorite animals—we are all different! You may live in a city or small town or out in the country, but there are people who live in the most remote places of the world who don’t have any contact outside of their group. Can you imagine that? Life for them is very different from life for us!

Jesus told us to make disciples of all the nations—all the people who are different from us, not just those who are like us. He wants everyone to be in relationship with Him and to find life through Him. He doesn’t want people to just pray a quick simple prayer and return to their life without Him. No, a disciple is more than that: A disciple is someone who follows Jesus by surrendering their life to His plans and purposes. This is why God wants the whole world to know about Jesus: God loves every person so much that He sent Jesus to die in our place and take the punishment for our sins. He wants to fulfill each person’s life by making them disciples, lifelong followers of Jesus. And Jesus can use you to reach people around the world for Him!

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Read: 2 Timothy 1:5–7, 13–14

Before firetrucks were used to put out fires, people came together to form what was called a bucket brigade. When there was fire, people grabbed empty buckets and formed a line that started at a water source and ended at the fire. Carefully, buckets of water would be passed down the line until the last person in the line threw the water on the fire to put the fire out. Everyone in the line had to work together to make sure that water was not spilled, buckets weren’t dropped, and that water got to the fire as quickly as possible.

Think of Jesus as water and your life as a bucket. God wants us to bring His water, Jesus, to others—so we must keep sharing about Jesus with them! Jesus is our greatest treasure, and God wants for us to tell others about Him so they can choose to follow Him. We can pass on the truths of God’s Word from person to person. As we all pass it on, the people of the world will have a chance to hear about Jesus. There will be growing disciples of Jesus who will continue to pass on His good news to others until He comes again.

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Read: 2 Timothy 3:10–11

In order to get to know someone, you have to spend time together. It’s not good enough just to have a quick conversation in the hallway at school or send them a quick text every few months. To get to know people, you have to spend time with them. And to get to know God, you have to spend time with Him—and other people who love God.

As we spend time with people who love Jesus, we can learn from them and help one other grow to be more like Jesus. Your friend may go through a hard time, and you can encourage him because you’ve gone through something hard, too. Or maybe you have some questions about God, and your friend has asked the same questions. She may have some help to share with you. As we spend time in relationship and friendship with other Christians, we can help to encourage each other in our relationship with God.

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Read: 1 Timothy 4:12

There are many things you can’t do when you are younger. You can’t have a driver’s license. You can’t have a full-time job. You can’t register to vote. All of these things require you to be a certain age to do them. Can you think of more things that you want to do but have to wait until you’re older? There is one thing that doesn’t have an age requirement, and you can do this right now, even if you’re young. You can live your life to follow Jesus and be an example to those around you.

No matter your age, people are watching your life and the choices you make. Is the way you’re living your life pointing people to God, or is it pointing people away from God? He can use you, no matter what age you are, to influence those around you. Your life makes a difference!

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Read: 1 Corinthians 11:1–2

Have you played the game Follow-the-Leader? In the game, one person is the leader, and everyone in the group must copy everything the leader does. For instance, if the leader walks backward around the room while patting her head and rubbing her elbow, everyone else does the same thing. You win if you never stop following the leader.

In our Scripture today, Paul was writing to Christians in Corinth, where he had started a church. He was one of their leaders, and he was telling them to follow him while he was following Jesus Christ. The Corinthian Christians’ leader was Paul, and Paul’s leader was Jesus! Paul wanted them all to follow Jesus together.

We can learn from this that we should all be leaders who follow Jesus. It’s important for us to have people in our life who we can follow as they live for Jesus. They may make mistakes, but we can learn and grow in our relationship with God by watching their walk with God. In the same way, we can be an example to others and be a leader who leads people to Jesus.