"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD. But they shall not find it." Amos 8:11-12
This may seem like a strange text to start my post with it, but I thought of it when I was preparing to write this. Last weekend our Tábor youth group got together for our 6th of what we call a "Biblický Dychánek" (roughly translated "Biblical breather" or "Biblical picnic"). We take a weekend and invite a teacher to come in and teach through a book of the Bible. This weekend our pastor taught through 1st Corinthians. We talked about divisions in the church and denominations (Chapters 1-4), marriage and singleness (Chapter 7), spritual gifts and a woman's role in ministry (chapters 12-14). What was most refreshing to me was that 15 high school students wanted this. It wasn't just my idea. There is a hunger for God's word in our youth group. In the above passage, God is pronouncing judgment on the Israelites and part of that judgment is His silence. They had been taking Him for granted and living in disobedience. I am praying that it would be the opposite in our youth group, in our church, and someday in the whole city of Tábor. Pray for this hunger to characterize our youth group and that God would speak through His word. Pray that His word would feed our souls and make us more Christ-like.
Speaking of wanting people to hunger for God's word, I spent the day with a friend of mine from English club earlier this week. It's spring break this week in Tábor, so students are either off on vacations with their families or hanging around town with lots of free time. James wasn't leaving town so I invited him on a mini-road-trip with me. We picked a couple of castles in the area and went on tour. It's always fun for me to see Czechs as tourists in their own country. After our fair share of 800-year-old fortresses on the hills of the Vltava river valley we sat down for a meal at Mekač (Czech slang for McDonalds). We talked about the existence of God, what happens when we die, and other life stuff. I want this kid to know Christ so bad. He's been hanging out with our youth group for a couple of years. Pray that Jesus opens his eye's to His reality and presence. I want kids here to hunger for God's word. Pray that they would find Christ, God's Word incarnate.
