Finding a decent Bible Study curriculum for 15-17 year old girls is more challenging than one would think.

I picked up Mark Driscoll’s new book for the HS girls small group I lead, and am loving the teaching coming from it. Drawing from Ephesians, it focuses on identity/idolatry issues and constantly brings it back to Jesus.

In the first chapter the author puts forth that all IDOLS are found in Items, Duties, Others, Longings and Sufferings and when these things become our identity, we enter a state of doomed identity crises, and our own attempts at crisis management is messy and devastating until our identity is found in Christ.  {sorry sweet high school girls – hope you didn’t think you were getting off easy this round!!}

Some good quotes that have hit home for me:

often identity idolatry rooted in longing is mistaken for good and necessary biblical hope.  The Bible talks a lot about hope because it’s the result of faith in God.  If we truly believe that God is alive, good, and at work in our lives, that changes our attitudes and actions.  Hope helps us get out of bed in the morning, seek the Lord in prayer, and face whatever the day may bring.  But sometimes we use hope in a sinful way, convinced that our desired identity will come in the future rather than living in the identity that is already a present reality…While it’s not a sin to strive for a better tomorrow, it is a sin to set one’s joy and identity on who we will be, what we will do, or what we will have tomorrow in our own efforts rather than on Christ today and who he will make us, what he will have us do, and what he will give us tomorrow._page 11

I found that one incredibly helpful. Seems like on Long Island there’s a lot of people abusing prophecy, so I’m putting the above quote in my back pocket for the next time someone I know gets duped by a traveling prophet…{I’m not even kidding}

Christ defines who we are by who he is and what he’s done for us, in us, and through us._p.19

But Christianity is rooted and flourished in difficult urban contexts, where people struggled with the same things you and I do today…The example of Ephesus is that Christianity can flourish in a difficult and pagan culture, and that Christians can maintain their identity in Christ in such cultures for generations by the grace of God._p.22 & 23