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Message from Ken and Melissa Crigger

As we enter into 2008, a new year and a new beginning, we look forward to teaching God’s word to the teens.  It’s basically a new beginning for us and we enter into it prayerfully. 

Our young people need to understand that God has a plan and a purpose for everyone; that they are a blessing sent by our Lord above.  Psalms 86:11 says “Teach me Your way, O Lord:  I will walk in Your truth.” (NKJV)   and scripture tells us that Jesus is “the Truth, the Light, and the Way.”  We hope to be able to use scripture to help the youth of our community understand that through the acceptance of Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they can enjoy God’s plan of salvation and enter into a closer walk with God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The teens will be studying the book of Job during the month of January.  Job shows that life is not simple and easy to understand.  He suffers trials and tribulations just as we do, but he called on God and with God’s help, Job was restored and forgiven.

The primary class, taught by Tammy Williams and Dena Satterly, will be using hands-on activities and Bible studies from scriptures to make sure that even the youngest children can hear His word.

Peggy Burton, who teaches the Youth, uses scripture and activities also to make sure her class is hearing and understanding God’s word.

Jesus said in Luke 18:16 “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little CHILDREN to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”

We look forward to starting a new year with the youth in our area and we hope to see you and your kids soon!

                                                                        Happy New Year and God Bless!

                                                                        Ken and Melissa Crigger

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What is a meaningful life?  What makes our lives important and lasting in the lives of others?  When I was younger I thought that a meaningful life meant I should be someone who was loved by everyone and did important things that would make people remember them for generations.  I wanted to be a writer of famous books that would influence people for hundreds of years.  In my mind no one would ever forget who I was if I accomplished this.

After I became a Christian I realized that a meaningful life has nothing to do with me except in one way.  I must show Christ to others in my life so that they could know Him and become His child.  The only things that are really lasting in this life, the only things that are eternal, are the people that we can influence for an eternal life with Jesus in heaven.  Nothing of this world lasts forever, absolutely nothing, except one thing – the souls of those around us.

We spend so much of our time on things that are temporary that it is unbelievable.  Can you remember the winner of the games you watched or played ten years ago?  Can you remember the plot of movies you watched 10 years ago?  Do you remember what you did with your time ten days ago?  Maybe you are young enough to remember those things now, but wait until 10 years from now, 20 years from now, thirty years from now.  I sat down with a friend and an old college yearbook last night and was shocked at the people I had forgotten.  The events that seemed so important to me at the time had become completely insignificant in my life.  I’m positive that most of those people, if not all, had completely forgotten who I was.  There may have been one or two who would have a passing thought of something I had done that influenced them in some way, but I doubt it.

The most shocking thing to do that reminds us of how temporary this life really is, is to take a visit to an old cemetery and look at the tombstones.  Some names have been worn completely away and after two or three generations no one has a clue just who those people are.  Even the people buried there whose names are easy to read may have no one left in this life who remembers anything about them.  Yet, these people may have had very meaningful and lasting lives because they influenced their children, their grandchildren or others to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. 

I am reminded of a story about Billy Graham’s conversion.  A visiting evangelist came to Billy Graham’s hometown in North Carolina and preached a revival for two weeks.  During the entire two weeks there was only one conversion – a teenage boy named Billy Graham.  I’m sure there were people sitting in that revival who thought the entire two weeks were worthless and tiring.  There were people who probably thought that the minister was a failure and that someone else should have come to preach in the church.  I doubt if very many even remember the man’s name.  Even a year or two later those people who attended that revival may not have seen the importance of the minister’s life as far as influencing others.  Yet, ten years later, twenty years later, and even fifty years later Billy Graham certainly remembered him.

There are people who have influenced my life to know Christ that I will never forget.  They were extremely important to my becoming a Christian and to my growth as a Christian and I will never forget them.  I can remember their faces and the love they showed me, things they said, books they have written, and sermons they have preached as if it were yesterday and yet it may have been thirty years ago.  These are the people who have meaningful and important lives.  They may have influenced just a few people or maybe only one person, but their lives are meaningful to me because I came to know Christ because of them.  We don’t have to influence an entire world to make our lives worth something.  If we obey Christ and say the things He wants us to say at the right time, send a book to someone that will make them closer to Christ, go to visit someone when He leads us to do so, then our lives have the potential of becoming very important and doing something worth doing that will be remembered maybe for generations.  It really doesn’t matter if they remember us or not; what matters is do they know Christ and will they be with us for eternity.

Carolyn Crabtree

To read the other devotionals in this series, click here.

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