A Chosen Bullet: A Workbook for Teens and Young Adults

By Bill Renje

Bill was a teen on the fast track to destruction until the day he crossed paths with a policeman s bullet. That blast blew him off his chosen track and onto a new one an incredible one designed by God! God s chosen track led Bill to gold-medal wins as a rugby player, followed by marriage, fatherhood, and a successful career! A Chosen Bullet workbook guides you along Bill s path from tragedy to triumph. With discussion questions and biblical wisdom, he challenges you to consider your own choices. Follow Bill s surprising journey for just six weeks and discover what could happen when you: Aim at the wrong target, Choose a different mark, Hit the bull s-eye, Shoot for the stars, Aim for God s best for your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ambassador International
• Release date: Dec 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781620200360

Book preview

A CHOSEN BULLET

A WORKBOOK FOR TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS

BILL RENJE

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Personal Note From the Author

Lesson I: The Wrong Target

Day One: Consequences

Day Two: A Solid Foundation

Day Three: A Spiritual Void

Day Four: Bad Choices

Day Five: More Bad Choices

Lesson II: A Different Mark

Day One: Thinking Positive

Day Two: God's Patience

Day Three: On the Path to Redemption

Day Four: Eye on the Future

Day Five: Road to Recovery

Lesson III: Bull’s-eye

Day One: A Christian Role Model

Day Two: Positive Influences

Day Three: Learning to be Accountable

Day Four: Seeking Eternal Peace

Day Five: Finding Salvation

Lesson IV: Shooting for the Stars

Day One: Not Giving up Hope

Day Two: Seeing Potential

Day Three: Perseverance Rewarded

Day Four: Maximizing Potential

Day Five: Staying Humble

Lesson V: Fixed Sights

Day One: The Lord's Best

Day Two: Growing Together in Christ

Day Three: Learning Selflessness

Day Four: Becoming More Christ-Like

Day Five: Serving Others

Lesson VI: Aiming for God’s Best

Day One: God's Perfect Plan

Day Two: Waiting on God's Perfect Timing

Day Three: The Prize of the Abundant Life

Day Four: The Mountaintop

Day Five: Concluding Thoughts

Guide to Scripture References & Discussion Questions

About the Author

A Chosen Bullet

A Workbook for Teens and Young Adults

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© 2012 by Bill Renje

All rights reserved

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Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN: 9781935507901

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture was taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Cover Design by David Siglin

Page Layout by David Siglin and Eric Andrews

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AMBASSADOR INTERNATIONAL

Emerald House

427 Wade Hampton Blvd.

Greenville, SC 29609, USA

www.ambassador-international.com

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AMBASSADOR BOOKS

The Mount

2 Woodstock Link

Belfast, BT6 8DD, Northern Ireland, UK

www.ambassador-international.com

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The colophon is a trademark of Ambassador

PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

A Chosen Bullet: for Teens and Young Adults is the companion workbook to my autobiography. This workbook serves as a warning of the negative–and often disastrous–consequences of our bad decisions. While much has changed in the last twenty years, the pressures of being a teenager and young adult remain. What I didn’t realize in my youth is that the decisions we make will affect us for better or worse for the rest of our lives. Truth remains for yesterday, today, and tomorrow’s generation. But my story is also a message of hope, redemption, and ultimately victory at the Cross. The Lord in all His infinite power can take the worst of consequences for His greatest glory. My life has been contrasted by deep darkness and then glorious light. It has been characterized by overcoming through perseverance. It has been stained by first underachieving and then experiencing success that I could never have imagined. My family’s support and the deep-abiding Christian faith I eventually developed provide my foundation. The values and lessons outlined in this workbook provide the roadmap for my path from tragedy to triumph.

My prayer for those of you reading this workbook is that you’ll seek and fulfill all the potential instilled in you by the Lord. Don’t make tragic mistakes. This workbook is not meant to be a scare tactic. Not everyone who veers down the wrong path will suffer the severe consequences I did. Other consequences include not living up to and fulfilling your potential. That, in and of itself, is negative; there’s nothing worse in life than looking back with regrets because of wasted potential that resulted from poor decisions. At the same time, a sinful lifestyle doesn’t just revolve around alcohol, drugs, or addiction as it did in my case. A sinful lifestyle is anything that is not in step with God’s will for our lives. For teens in particular, sin can take the shape of lying, cheating on exams, premarital sex, the kind of music you listen to and movies you watch, etc. All of those have the ability to gradually pull you away from the right path and on to one with long range, negative results. Everyone reading this has struggles, obstacles, weaknesses, and insecurities to overcome. My suggestion is to take the verses and discussion questions and apply them to your situation while using my story as an illustration or anecdote.

God has a purpose and plan for all of our lives. Studying my story and seeing how it’s unfolded since my teen years should help you see that He has a roadmap laid out for you as well. Often when we steer away from His path, He’ll redirect our route by any means possible to draw us back to His purpose and plan. God will bring all of us a chosen bullet to get our attention. It may not be a literal bullet from a gun – it may the loss of a job, a break-up with a boyfriend or girlfriend – but God will use something to get your attention as He did in my case. He may let us wander and drift aimlessly for awhile. He may allow us to wallow in the chaos that we create by our bad choices and decisions. But eventually, He’ll get our attention as He got mine when he sent a bullet to drastically change the course of my life.

LESSON I: THE WRONG TARGET

DAY ONE

Consequences

Ephesians 5:12-13 – For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible. (NIV)

Please God—don’t let me go out like this. The thought raced through my head as I gasped for air. A bullet from a 9mm gun had just ripped through my neck, severing my spinal cord and deflating my right lung. This is where my story begins—the early morning hours of June 17, 1989.

A friend of mine and I had left a party to pick up some drugs on a well-known drug corner in Robbins, Illinois. We noticed a drug raid underway as I pulled into the lot. In a scene that could have appeared on the TV show COPS, we saw guys we assumed to be drug dealers lined up facedown on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Because jail didn’t seem like a very good option, my buddy nervously said, Get out of here, and I agreed. And then, out of the shadows came a plain-clothes, undercover police officer. On foot, he approached the driver’s side of my car with his gun drawn. He told me in no uncertain terms to get out of the car.

As I drove past him, ignoring his order, I heard a sound like a loud firecracker going off, only it wasn’t a firecracker. It was a gunshot that in an instant changed my life forever. The driver’s side window shattered, and a split second later my body went numb—everything seemed to go silently into slow motion. I knew in that moment I was paralyzed. I moved my arm to reassure myself that my arms still worked, but the rest of my body felt frozen.

As I regained my breath in the ambulance, I realized I wasn’t going to die. I allowed myself to drift in and out of consciousness. Eventually, I fell asleep.

In the emergency room, the nurse told me that they were going to call my parents. Please don’t, I begged them. The last thing I wanted was for my mom and dad to be awakened in the middle of the night by that dreaded call. Seemingly only seconds later, they arrived. There lay their firstborn son—broken, paralyzed, beaten down, and at what truly was rock bottom.

Over the course of the next few days in intensive care, I thought about how much I had underachieved up to this stage of my young life. I had just graduated high school yet lacked direction. My focus had been largely on going