If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5
When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, Ask God For Wisdom
Did you know that God gives wisdom and He will gladly give you all the wisdom you need under one condition? What is that one condition? You have to ask for it. It is that simple. In James chapter one, Christians were experiencing all kinds of trials, but those trials were producing the benefit of patience and maturity. It’s God’s nature to bring good results amid bad experiences.
If you are going through tough times right now, chances are, you are very confused at times. In your confusion, you need wisdom and clarity. God promises that if you ask Him for wisdom, He will give it to you liberally. And He will give it to you without reproach. You don’t have to “deserve wisdom” or have it all together to get His wisdom. You just need to ask for it, and it really is that simple. It’s a promise from God with no strings attached.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5
When You Rely on God’s Wisdom Your Life Is Filled With Peace
The pure wisdom God offers leads to peace. It leads to a peace that passes all understanding. The wisdom God provides is first and foremost pure wisdom. It is free from a mixture of impure motives, selfish agendas or lies. God gives true wisdom born within His heart of unconditional love for you. His wisdom is rooted in ultimate truth, and if you ask Him for it, He will give you unlimited access to His wisdom. That kind of wisdom living will flood your life with peace. Peace in your family, peace at work, and peace in your spiritual life.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. – James 3:17
When You Find God’s Wisdom, You Have Found His Treasure Chest For Living
How would you like to wake up one day with all the resources you will ever need for the rest of your life?
Several years ago I met a guy in his early 4o’s living in Indiana. He was working on a Bible study project, and I met with him to learn more about it. While explaining the magnitude of the project, he also shared how he got started on it. He was working for a company, where he had been in his “cubicle” for years, and one day a manager stopped by his desk in October and said, “Since you own shares in the company I think you should know that the company was sold. So, you can continue to work until the end of December, or you can go home today. Whichever you choose, you now have enough money from the sale that you will never have to work another day for the rest of your life.”
He went on to explain to me that the next twelve months were the most difficult days he’d ever experienced in life. His loss of purpose, loss of focus, and confusion about life hit an all-time high. It took a lot of work to get back to feeling “normal and happy.”
God promises when you find wisdom, God’s wisdom, it’s like you have just discovered a treasure chest for life. You will be happy; you will have understanding, your five talents will become ten, your days will be better, your paths will be more pleasant, and more peaceful.
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her. – Proverbs 3:13-18
When You Choose Wisdom You Are Buying Opportunity
The choice is not as complicated as it may sound, either walk circumspectly (accurately, exactly) or carelessly. To walk circumspectly is to embrace the guidelines and the directions our heavenly Father has given us. It’s a commitment to use caution, to crosscheck our move before we commit so that we know we are not carelessly going the wrong way.
Walking circumspectly redeems the time. It is literally as if you are buying an opportunity. If you want to make the most of this one life God has given you, stop, think, pray and ask God for wisdom along each step of your journey.
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. – Ephesians 5:15-17
When You Have Reverence For God, You Gain Knowledge For Life
The fear of the Lord is a healthy, reverence for Him. If you want to attain all the knowledge, He has to offer you, start with the foundation of reverence for God. When you elevate your view of God, valuing and respecting all that He is, you will be rewarded with wisdom for all areas of life.
The alternative is not great. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. A foolish person ignores God, doesn’t value His word, and has no regard for His voice in their life. Wisdom will not come to this person and life will continue to be hard.
Make Him central in your life. Value His word. Listen to His voice.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7
Jesus said prayer was important. It’s actually an essential part of our relationship with God. Read what Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 26:40. And He came unto the disciples and found them asleep, and said unto Peter, “What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?”
Jesus actually said it should be possible for us to spend an hour in prayer. Have you ever spent one uninterrupted hour in prayer with God? No distractions, no interruptions… just you and God… in deep conversation.
Having a high-quality prayer relationship with God is possible. Possibly one of the biggest challenges is just knowing “what to talk about” during your prayer time. The Bible gives us answers to many elements of prayer so let’s take a look at some of them.
Here’s a 30 Minute Prayer Plan
*Over the next seven days, commit to spending 30 minutes each day in prayer by spending 5 minutes on each of these elements of prayer. Find a quiet place and enjoy some uninterrupted time with God.
1. Praise: Praise God for who He is.
Focus on His character and His traits as the one true God. God is worthy of our praise. To praise Him is not the same as thanking Him. Thanking Him focuses on what He has done for us but praising Him focuses on who He is. Praise Him for His glory, power, creation, holiness, righteousness, greatness and more. Psalm 150:1-2, “Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.”
2. Thanksgiving: Thank Him for what He has done and is doing in your life.
To enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise is to enter into His sanctuary. His sanctuary is an illustration of His place of worship. When we come to Him in public or private worship we should come with a heart filled with thankfulness and our praise should overflow. Thank Him for all His blessings in your life. Thank Him for salvation, spiritual blessings, friends, family, health, provision, etc… Make a list of His blessings in your life and continually thank Him and praise Him. Psalm 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
3. Intercession: Pray for others and for their needs.
Part of the design of Christianity is this, Christians are praying people. And we don’t need written, formal prayers because when you have a personal relationship with Christ, you understand that you can fellowship with Him. We have the obligation to pray for all people. Supplications are prayers against evil happening to others, prayers are for God’s goodness and blessings, intercessions and thanksgiving are made for all the good that God has already provided. Take time to pray for others. Notice that He doesn’t instruct us to pray only for those who are just like us, but to pray for “all men” or all people. If we have the power to communicate with Him and receive answers, why would we not pray for everyone? I Timothy 2:1, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.”
4. Supplication: Pray for your own needs asking Him to meet those needs.
Instead of worrying, pray. Christians are supposed to live without care. Matthew 6:25 tells us to “take no thought for our life.” To live without care is to understand and practice the habit of trusting God with past and current troubles, wrongdoings, struggles, trials, and pain.
If I live in an anxious state of mind about all the difficulties I’ve faced in life, my mind will become filled with emotions that fuel a distrust for God. But God gives the antidote for worry when He says, “but in everything pray.”
Not only should Christians pray at specific times, but we should also pray spontaneously as an antidote to worry. Every time you begin to stress about something, pause and pray, asking God to take that burden and stress away and complete the prayer by thanking Him for all He has already done in your life.
When you turn stress into reliance on God and counteract it with gratitude for His blessings, you foster a completely different mindset that leads to more trust in God and more expectation of His future care and blessings on your life.
Philippians 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
5. Confession: Confess your sins and ask Him for forgiveness.
Christians are in the family of God. The family of God is a family of sinners. If you don’t admit this is true, you are deceiving yourself! (His words, not mine. =) Let’s establish this fact once and for all. Just because a person is a Christian, that does not make them sinless. But many Christ followers live as if they don’t need to acknowledge their sins.
Take time regularly to confess your sins to God. He waits and desires this moment with you. He promises when you confess your sin, He will faithfully forgive you of those sins and cleanse your heart. The anguish, pain, guilt, and lack of peace with God will go away with each moment you take time to receive His forgiveness. When you pray, include confession and experience joy.
I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
6. Listening: Sit quietly. Listen to His voice after asking Him to speak to you.
Sometimes God’s children may feel discouraged but don’t feel dejected. Know how to be still, be calm, and rest in the assurance that God is on the throne and He has declared that His plans will be done. He is God over all. Take all those worries and anxieties and process them by surrendering all of it to the will of God, trusting in His power to overcome. Be still, sit quietly, listen to His voice and embrace the peace that passes all understanding that only He can provide.
Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
“Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick, Author of The Path of Prayer.
Easter is coming soon, and I’d like to share a special project you can participate in!
On Easter weekend, 2025, we have a special youth outreach project called “Rise Up for Youth.” We will deliver an Easter gift bag to youth in juvenile centers in Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois. Each bag will contain a Bible, a book called The Case For Easter, a NEW edition of the High Impact Teen Spiritual journal, and some Easter candy. The book, The Case for Easter, is written by former “atheist turned Christian” and former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel. The book makes a powerful case for the evidence of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The High Impact Teen SpiritualJournal is a teen devotional journal I developed with daily Bible reading schedules, a prayer journal, and scripture memory. This revised version of the HIT Journal is specifically for high-risk and fatherless youth with special sections on “How To Have a Personal Relationship With God,” “How To Pray,” and “7 Habits To Help You Grow Spiritually.” Over 30,000 teens have used the HIT Journal since it was first published, and statistically, teens that use the journal average having personal devotions 4 days out of 7 each week or more.
I know you will agree that we are in a culture war between good and evil for today’s youth’s hearts, minds, and souls. And the frontline of the battle is in the heart of our fatherless youth.
You Can Help In Two Ways
Every $27 donated will provide a “Rise Up For Youth” gift bag with these powerful gospel tools. Our goal is to impact at least 300 youth this Easter, and if possible, we could impact 1000 youth through the rest of 2025. We can do more as God provides through His people. To give to this project, go to https://kenturnerministries.org/give/and select High Impact Ministries and the subfund “Rise Up For Youth.”
Write a letter to a high-risk and fatherless teen in juvenile detention. I am collecting letters to teens in juvenile centers this Easter, and I could use your help! See these instructions and consider writing a letter to a high-risk, fatherless teen. I have an online form so you can write and submit it to me online, and I’ll print it and include it in our special Easter Gift bags we are distributing. Here is the link to write and submit your letter. https://getformly.app/RfbLGx If you would prefer to email a message, feel free to type an email and use the subject line “My Letter To Fatherless Youth” and send it to me at kenturner@highimpactteens.org
Your gift at this time will also provide funds to continue sharing the life-changing message of the gospel with fatherless youth throughout the rest of this year!
God bless you as you prayerfully consider partnering to spread the gospel to fatherless youth.
Christmas is coming soon, and I’d like to share a special project you can participate in!
We are calling our Christmas Project “Good News for Youth.” We will deliver a Christmas gift bag to youth in Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana juvenile centers. Each bag will contain a Bible, Christmas gift devotional books such as God’s Blessing of Christmas, A Love Worth Giving To You At Christmas, The Four Emotions of Christmas, and Christmas gospel tracts. We will also include knit hats, gloves and some Christmas candy. Imagine spending the Christmas season away from family as a teenager and having little to no contact with loved ones. At times like this God often moves in special ways to speak the message of His love into hearts and minds. We want youth to know there is “Good News.” Christ was born in order that they might receive the greatest gift of all… God’s gift of salvation. What a great gift to recieve this Christmas!
You Can Help In Two Ways
Every $25 donated will provide a “Good News For Youth” gift bag with these powerful gospel tools. Our goal is to impact at least 300 youth this Christmas, and if possible, we could impact 1000 youth. We can do more as God provides through His people. To give to this project, go to https://kenturnerministries.org/give/and select High Impact Ministries and the subfund “High Impact Needs – Special Projects.”
Write a letter to a high-risk and fatherless teen in juvenile detention. We are collecting letters to teens in juvenile centers this Christmas and could use your help! See these instructions and consider writing a letter to a high-risk, fatherless teen. We have an online form so you can write and submit it online, and we will print it and include it in the special Christmas Gift bags we are distributing. Here is the link to write and submit your letter.https://forms.gle/9YEfHxfcDsVeL3u38
Your gift at this time will also provide funds to continue sharing the life-changing message of the gospel with fatherless youth throughout the rest of this year and next year!
God bless you as you prayerfully consider partnering to spread the gospel to fatherless youth.
Your gift will help bring the gospel to fatherless youth!
On this Giving Tuesday, join us in our outreach to high-risk and fatherless youth. Your gift to High Impact Ministries will be used to bring the hope of the gospel of Jesus to youth who desperately need it.
Here are a few ways your gift today will help us reach youth at the end of the year!
High Impact Ministries – Outreach project to provide Bibles and devotional journals to fatherless youth in juvenile centers across Tennessee, Indiana, and our newest outreach in Illinois. Our other project is to provide Christmas gift bags to 500 or more teens in juvenile centers. Each teen will receive a gift on Christmas with personal toiletries, a Bible, and a devotional book. Your gift will impact hundreds of youth.
High Impact York – Our outreach in York, PA, led by Tom Vietti, focuses on reaching high-risk and fatherless youth in the York County Youth Development Center and the Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center. Tom also leads a Wilderness Discipleship Ministry throughout the year. Funds are needed to bring the gospel to the youth in York, Lancaster, and the surrounding area and for expenses to grow the Wilderness Discipleship Ministry. Thank you for praying and partnering with this vital ministry.
High Impact School Outreach – Joshua Goodling leads our outreach and speaks in public schools throughout KY, TN, VA, GA, SC, and NC. He never charges for his time or travel expenses, yet he has spoken to over 20,000 students in the past few years. Joshua is working on getting his booklet “How to Walk With God” into the hands of students through public school FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) clubs. In the past year, he launched Operation FCA Booklets. He has mailed over 4,000 booklets to almost 60 schools in 12 states. Your gift will help with printing more booklets and getting them into the hands of our young people. Your support will allow Joshua to continue spreading the gospel to students!
Join us and make a difference in the life of a fatherless teen on this “Giving Tuesday.”
Way back around 2008, I received a call from Missionary Fred Kearney in Ghana, West Africa. We did not know each other, but he explained he recently walked into his office in Ghana, and a book was on his desk. It was my High Impact Teen one-year spiritual journal. To this day, no one knows how it got there. He called the phone number printed on the back of the book, and I answered. He explained that this one-year devotional journal was exactly what he needed to disciple youth and young adults in Africa. We shipped him about 75 HIT Journals, and since then, we have reprinted and shipped HIT Journals that hundreds of youth have used in his ministry from surrounding churches.
He needs 120 more HIT Journals for his “Because of the Hour” youth conference in October. What excites me about this is that I know the youth in Africa value the one-year spiritual journal; they appreciate it so much, and they write on every page. Here in the USA, we have tracked the statistics and teenagers that have used the HIT Journal average spending at least 4 out of 7 days each week in personal devotions. I’m sure in Africa, that statistic is higher.
If you would like to donate to help fund this amazing project, it costs about $12 per journal, and your investment will provide a spiritual impact that will carry on for a full year. After we exceed the needed funds for the youth in Africa, we are printing more HIT Journals for the youth we serve in the juvenile centers in IL, IN, TN, and beyond.
High Impact Ministries PO Box 375 Benson, IL 61516
Here are some ways you can partner with us and impact a fatherless teenager.
1. We send Bibles, devotional books, and spiritual resources to youth in juvenile centers. Your support each month helps provide these resources for teens. If you’d like to partner with us on this project, you can give online or at the address below. Select the “High Impact Needs” fund on our online giving link to support this project.
2. We are continuing to collect “Letters to Fatherless Youth.” You can write and submit a letter online using the form we provide at this link. It’s quick and easy! https://forms.gle/US37RjyLRoR4REVm6
Accepting Jesus as your Savior is the greatest decision you will ever make but have you experienced the freedom of being fully surrendered to God.
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Here is what it means to be fully surrendered to God based on Romans 12:1.
The Decision to Yield – “Present your body.” The word present means to yield. Just like the image of a fork in the road, a choice between two options and a “my way or His way” option… every person will one day have to decide whether to give Christ his or her all or hold back. The world is filled with examples of people who have chosen Christ to have a “free ticket to heaven” but continue to pursue their goals without seeking His will. The beginning of a life of surrender is to yield to Him and say, “I’ll choose His way over my way.” Are you open to asking Him before making plans for your life? Are you willing to hear His voice and yield to His will?
The Degree of Surrender – “Your body.” The word body means the entire instrument of life. Jesus asks us to yield our whole body. Can you tell Him, “I yield my eyes to you and ask you to take control of everything I choose to see. I yield my mind to you and everything I choose to think about. I yield my ears to you and everything I choose to listen to. I yield my heart to you and every desire. I yield my hands and feet to you and everything I choose to do with my hands and every place I choose to go with my feet. I yield my tongue to you and every word that comes from my mouth.” The decision is to yield, and that decision’s degree or depth is 100% of your life.
The Dedication – “Holy and acceptable to God.” To be holy is to be set apart for a special purpose. It’s not only to be separated from something but also to be separated unto something. Are you willing to take the eternal gift of salvation and a promise of heaven and tell the Lord that you will live out your life here on earth 100% surrendered to Him, dedicated to His service, and yielded to His will? You will be amazed at the peace and joy you will experience when you stop fighting for your own will and yield to the perfect will of God.
Why not pray today and tell Jesus, “I’m so thankful for your salvation, and I want to commit myself fully to you, fully surrendered and yielded to serve you and follow your will.”
If you struggle to read the Bible you are not alone. When I was a youth pastor in Indianapolis, IN I surveyed our youth group of almost 100 teens about their relationship with the Bible. Most of them were living in strong Christian homes and were attending church and youth group weekly. I found that only 20% of them ever opened the Bible on their own during the week. So, 80% of them never read the Bible on their own. But let’s be honest… this struggle is common among so many of us!
As I think back to my teenage years, I remember struggling with Bible reading too.
One of the reasons I struggled with my relationship with the Bible is that I thought I needed to read A LOT of the Bible for it to count. But I learned later on that it’s not about reading chapters and chapters in the Bible, it’s that we just get into the Word, that counts.
So, I created a process to encourage teens to read smaller portions of scripture and make short entries in a spiritual journal. I learned that reading literally 5-15 Bible verses a day was a game-changer. After deciding to read smaller portions in the Bible, over 80% of the teens in the same group were reading the Bible at least 4 out of 7 days each week!
Think about this quote. “You will be the same person in five years you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Charlie Jones, author of Life Is Tremendous.
So, if reading can change a person so dramatically… imagine how much more enriched our life would be if we read the Bible… the most powerful book ever written?
So here’s my challenge to you… begin to read with a desire to grow! This is different than reading out of obligation to complete an assignment. And make reading the Bible a top priority.
Here Are 9 Benefits of Reading the Bible From Psalm 119
1. Victory Over Sin In Your Life
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Verse 11
2. Cleansing From Sin
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Verse 9
3. More Joy
I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. Verse 14
4. Wisdom and Direction
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Verse 18
5. You Will Be Revived… Rejuvenated
Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness. Verse 159
6. Renewed Strength
Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. Verse 117
7. You Will Experience Liberty and Freedom
And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. Verse 45
8. Less Shame and Embarrassment
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. Verse 46
9. Comfort in Affliction
This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. Verse 50
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Each month, I enjoy sharing stories of how God is at work in the hearts and lives of the high-risk and fatherless youth we are reaching. In our Bible study in the juvenile center this past week, one of the high school guys wanted to share how God has been transforming his heart. Here is his story.
“I’ve spent much of my life angry at my parents. I’ve felt they gave up on me and didn’t provide for me all the things I needed to make it in life. Eventually, the conflicts and struggles in our home led to my parents making the decision to place me in foster care. I felt abandoned. My anger grew worse after being in and out of a few foster homes and now in juvenile detention. But as we’ve studied the Bible together each week, God has been transforming my heart. I now realize that not all of the issues in my life were because others may have failed me. Much of my struggles come from my own heart. As I’ve given my life to Christ and been growing in Him, I realize I have so much more to be thankful for than I ever realized. So, I have chosen to forgive any hurts of the past, and I’ve been writing letters to my parents and each of my foster families that have invested in me. I’ve taken time to thank each of them and also to apologize for my actions and attitudes when they were trying to help me.”
There’s change, and there’s transformation. This story is a story of transformation. When our heart changes and our thinking changes, we know that God is really at work and He is transforming us into the person He has purposed us to be.
Please keep these youth in your prayers! God is doing great things.
Over the next few months, we have some special ministry projects and will definitely need the support of our ministry friends. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will provide hundreds of Bibles, devotional books, spiritual resources, and gift bags to teens in IL, IN, and TN juvenile centers. I’ll get more details to you soon, but please pray for these important outreach projects. I can’t imagine anything more important than planting the seed of the gospel in the hearts of 500-1000 youth over the next few months.
God is doing great work in the hearts of fatherless and high-risk youth weekly, and the prayers and support we receive make it all possible!
Thank you for all your prayers and support! It’s because of you and your partnership and the faithfulness of God we can reach fatherless youth.
In Christ,
Ken Turner
PS. If you haven’t made a recent gift to help bring the hope of the gospel to fatherless youth, please consider donating today. Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/ *The names mentioned are not their real names to protect the privacy of these minor youth. Please keep in your prayers the outreach ministry in Normal, IL; Peoria, IL; Galesburg, IL, led by Rob Skow; the outreach in York, PA, led by Tom Vietti; the outreach ministry of Joshua Goodling in Knoxville, TN, and the outreaches that continue to flourish in Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, Dandridge, TN and Indianapolis, IN.
Our mailing address is: Ken and Jennifer Turner High Impact Ministries PO Box 375 Benson, IL 61516
I meet new teenagers regularly in my weekly High Impact Teen Bible study in the juvenile center in Normal, IL. There are a few guys I’ve been seeing for months, and the spiritual growth I see in them is encouraging! A couple of weeks ago, I met two new guys, and they were very engaged in the scripture we were studying together. As we came to the end of the study, I mentioned the subject of the gospel… and what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I asked if they had ever been told how to know Jesus as their Savior personally. These “new guys” said, “No, I’ve never heard this before.” I proceeded to share the gospel message, and it is such an honor to be in a front-line ministry where I have the opportunity to be the first person ever to share the gospel with someone. I was on vacation last week on a trip to Florida, but I will see these guys again tomorrow at our next Bible study. Pray for them as they have been “pondering” the meaning of accepting Christ.
Please keep in your prayers the outreach ministry in Normal, IL; Peoria, IL (where I recently completed a three-month study on fatherhood); the outreach in Galesburg, IL, led by Rob Skow, the outreach in York, PA, led by Tom Vietti, the outreach ministry of Joshua Goodling in Knoxville, TN, and the outreaches that continue to flourish in Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, and Indianapolis, IN.
Thank you for all your prayers and support! It’s because of you and your partnership and the faithfulness of God we can reach fatherless youth.
In Christ,
Ken Turner
PS. If you haven’t made a recent gift to help bring the hope of the gospel to fatherless youth, please consider donating today. Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/
Our new mailing address is: Ken and Jennifer Turner High Impact Ministries PO Box 375 Benson, IL 61516
“You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you.”
II Chronicles 20:17
Thought For Today
Sometimes God may tell you the best strategy to win your battle is to be still. While the Bible says to be doers of the word, people of good deeds, and be courageous, there will be monumental moments in your spiritual life when God says, “Step aside, be still, I’ve got this!” How do you know when to fight and when to be still? By being a good listener to the voice of God. He will tell you what to do.
Caring about and acknowledging others impacts joy, health, and even the effective spreading of the gospel.
John said in III John 1:14 to salute and greet Christian friends by name. The Greek word used for salute and greet was originally described this way. When you see your brothers and sisters in Christ, you are to warmly receive them, fold them in your arms, embrace them, and receive joyfully. The word is used over 60 times in the Bible.
The University of Wroclaw, Poland, researched the subject of “emotional touch” in 2021. The research gave insight into the pandemic’s impact on the health and well-being of others. The study involved 14,000 people from 45 different countries. While different cultures have different ways of greeting, acknowledging, and showing affection toward one another, the focus was on “emotional touch.” In other words, the act of communicating genuine love and care. While people from different cultures greet one another in different ways, the fact that being surrounded by people who genuinely care about you has many positive benefits such as lower stress levels, a higher level of happiness with life, and even better health. The study showed that older people who are hugged often versus those rarely hugged have significantly better health.
Churches are shrinking. Many people claim the church is shrinking because people just aren’t interested in church anymore. I’d like to suggest a different perspective. Maybe the problem isn’t that people aren’t interested in the church anymore; perhaps it’s that the church isn’t as interested in people anymore.
If you do this one thing, show genuine interest in others, you will not be able to keep people from coming back to your church. And you will not have to worry about people coming back to you to learn more about how Jesus has changed your life. They will come back with intriguing questions and a desire to know what makes you so different.
Is it possible that a warm greeting, simply caring about others, and an extra thirty seconds to stop and pay attention to others could really have a massive Kingdom impact? I think so.
So when the Bible says things like greet the brethren with a holy kiss, don’t get freaked out about that! You don’t have to do THAT, but there is something vital and even Biblical about the way we choose to care about one another. Learn to be better at friendship, look people in the eye, speak, listen, show interest, and care about others. Jesus kept it pretty simple when He said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and love people with all your heart.
When the Bible tells us to “greet” or “salute” one another, it isn’t something we should overlook. People everywhere are looking for authentic connections with others who genuinely care. After searching the Bible and reading each place the word is used, I found a pattern that shows a variety of ways we can become better at putting this into practice. In place of the word “greet” or “salute,” I will use the word acknowledge to describe how we can impact those around us. Here are the ways scripture instructs us to acknowledge others.
Acknowledge Jesus And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. Mark 9:15. The most important person you will ever acknowledge in life is the person of Jesus Christ. Make it a priority each day to listen to Him, talk to Him and allow Him to be your master teacher in all things.
A Single Acknowledgment by an Individual Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. 3rd John 1:14. When you as an individual pause to acknowledge another person, by name, you are showing more than just friendliness, you are proving to a hurting world that each person matters to God and each person matters to you. Of the 60+ times the word is used in scripture, this is the way it is used most often. An individual person acknowledging another person speaks volumes about the love of Christ that is in us.
A Group Acknowledgment by a Friend or Family All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Titus 3:15. To communicate that you and your friends or you and your family acknowledge a person says that it’s not just me, but my whole tribe thinks you matter, you are important, and you are cared about. When you realize not every person has a strong, loving family, and you choose to link a friend into your extended family, you give a priceless gift to a lonely person.
A Corporate Acknowledgement by a Faith Family Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Philippians 4:21-23. The message of care can come from a higher level. The message is that our entire church family cares for you; we pray for you and are here for your spiritual needs. Even though a person has a friend at church, they need to know the church as a body cares.
A Goodbye Acknowledgement as People Come and Go Acknowledgments send a subtle message at two significant moments. To acknowledge a person when you meet and when you leave sends a much more authentic message of care. Everyone has experienced the odd moment when a person “just left without saying goodbye.” The extra care at both ends of a connection are important and mentioned in scripture.
A Generous Non-Exclusive Acknowledgement And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Matthew 5:47. One of the greatest pains people have with the current church culture is the experience people have with believers clustering together and creating insiders and outsiders around the worship experience. Only acknowledging your own friends, your own relatives, your own neighbors, people who are only in your small group or Sunday school, from your own area of town, those with students in your own school, or even those of your own economic status or race, are all ways we divide ourselves. But as the Bible says… how does that make us different because even the unsaved world does that?
I read a story years ago about missionaries who visited an orphanage in the former Soviet Union. When they were taken into the room where the babies were kept, they saw a room full of cribs but noticed the only sounds they heard were the squeaks of the cribs as the babies moved around. The missionaries asked why none of the babies were crying. The staff explained that while all babies cry sometimes, the babies in the orphanage learn that when they cry and no one comes, there is no reason to cry. Our world is full of people who still need God’s love and need to hear the gospel’s message. It may seem that they aren’t interested but don’t let that fool you. They just need to know that someone cares.
