Young People’s Blog

“Jesus…was troubled in spirit…and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me” (John 13:21).

Before the Lord Jesus went to the cross and was crucified, He told His disciples that one of them would betray him. That disciple was Judas Iscariot, and he made a deal with some of the Jewish leaders. They promised to give him money if he would help them arrest the Lord Jesus in a way that would not cause a big fuss among the people. For thirty pieces of silver Judas led a band of soldiers to the Mount of Olives, where he knew the Lord Jesus would be.

Judas had spent the past three and a half years as a disciple of the Lord Jesus. He had helped the Lord Jesus in His work, he had preached, and had probably even performed miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus. Yet he did not really love the Lord Jesus, and did not really believe on Him. Later his real character came out.

When we grow up in a Christian home, we may know how to repeat Bible verses, help out in doing things with other believers, and in every way we may act like a Christian. But if we do not really know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the real truth will come out. How important it is to be a true Christian, and not to be like Judas!

“Take heed that ye do not your alms [giving money to the poor] before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

There is a big difference between being selfish, and self-centered. We are all selfish at times, and this is not good. But to be self-centered is much worse, for then we want everything to revolve around us, and what we are doing. We can appear to be very concerned about others, and very ready to do something for the Lord, and yet be very self-centered.

The scribes and Pharisees made a great show of giving money to the poor, fasting (going without food), praying publicly, and keeping the law very carefully. Yet they did all these things in order to be noticed. Their hearts were full of pride, even though they appeared to be doing the Lord’s will. The Lord Jesus said of them, “All their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matthew 23:5). But true Christian service humbles us, and then we are not expecting the praise of others. In a coming day we will find, as the Lord Jesus said, “Your Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:4). Those who want the praise of men get their reward now, but it is better to wait and get our reward from the Lord in heaven.

“Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:3).

Have you ever become so discouraged in your Christian life that you were ready to give up and quit? Perhaps at some time in our life most of us have felt this way, although we might not like to admit it. When we feel like this, we need to remember that all discouragement comes from thinking about ourselves too much. We get discouraged because we are expecting something from others — sometimes from other people, and sometimes from the Lord. When we do not get what we expect, we become discouraged.

What should we do if we feel like this? I suggest that we should repeat this verse to ourselves, and remember how the Lord Jesus pressed on in spite of everything that was against Him. He always did the will of His Father. If things are going badly, let us tell the Lord about it, and ask Him for strength to go on, but let us never disobey the Word of God. Self-pity is never right. Rather, we should accept our circumstances FROM the Lord, and take our difficulties TO the Lord. That is the secret of a happy Christian life.

“Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:3).

The word “epistle” simply means a letter, usually a long one, that gives us instruction. That is why quite a few of the books of the Bible in the New Testament are called epistles. They were written to believers by apostles like Paul, Peter, or John in order to teach them more of the things of the Lord. But you and I, as believers, should be like epistles to unsaved people; our lives should display Christ to others, so that they can learn about Him from watching us, just as if they were reading a letter. We should do this in the right way.

Many years ago, a Christian young man asked his father, “Isn’t it all right to have some pride in myself? If I didn’t have some pride in myself, I wouldn’t comb my hair, shave my face, dress properly, and be polite to others.” His father wisely answered, “Son, if you always remember that you belong to Christ and represent Him in this world, you will look after all the things you have mentioned and yet not have pride connected with it.” It was a good answer, for we do not act in a right way in this world mainly for our own sake, but rather because wherever we are, we should be “the epistle of Christ,” “known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look” (Proverbs 6:16-17).

It has been well said that the Word of God teaches us that every form of pride is wrong, and ought to be condemned. This verse confirms this, for “a proud look” heads the list of things that the Lord hates. Why is pride so wrong? It is wrong because pride takes the glory that really belongs to God and gives it to me.

Some may ask, Cannot I be proud of the abilities I have, and what I have done? No, for the Bible says, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Everything we have, including our natural abilities, is a gift from God. We did not get those abilities ourselves, and therefore should not be proud about them. Whatever we may have, or are able to do, it is important to remember that God gave all of this to us. We must give the credit to Him.

“Even Christ pleased not Himself” (Romans 15:3).

We live in a world where more and more people are taken up with themselves, and even the world around us is noticing this trend. Recently, a writer in the New York Times commented about the United States of America, “Far from softening toward one another, the whole country feels even more hardened and increasingly blind to lives other than our own.” This attitude is becoming rather common in the whole world. The feeling in the world today is, If I do not look after myself, no one else will!

But there was one Man who walked through this world who never did anything to please Himself. Rather, He could say of God His Father, “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). Sin makes people selfish and mean, but the Lord Jesus came right down into that kind of a world, to show God’s heart of love by serving others. He healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry, comforted the weary, and in every way displayed the love of God.

As Christians, the Lord calls on us to show the same kind of love for one another and for the world around us, the love  of God. Many people may not read the Bible, but they should be able to see the love of God in the Christians with whom they come in contact.

“God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The hummingbird is one of the smallest birds on this earth, yet it is one of the most complex and can do things most other birds cannot do. Here are some interesting facts about them.

Their wings can beat as fast as 60-80 times a second, producing a humming sound.

Their wings beat in a figure eight pattern. Because of this, they can fly forward, backwards, upside down, or even hover in one place.

Most hummingbirds weigh only about 4 grams (about the weight of a teaspoon of sugar).

At night they are able to slow down their metabolism, like hibernating, to conserve energy.

While migrating, they are able to fly non-stop for 18-20 hours across the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 500 miles (about 800 kilometers).

All this shows man that there is a God, for we read that “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen” (Romans 1:20). Even if a person has no Bible, they are “without excuse,” for the complexity of creation could not have happened by chance.

“I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert” (Psalm 102:6).

Although written in the Old Testament, this is the Lord Jesus speaking about Himself. He compares Himself to two birds, but both of them were unclean birds for the Israelites (Lev. 11:17-18). Why would the Lord Jesus be compared to an unclean bird?

It was because He was “made sin,” for it tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He (God the Father) hath made Him (the Lord Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” Even though He had never sinned, when the Lord Jesus bore our sins in the three hours of darkness, God had to punish Him as if He were the sinner. If you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, your sins were laid on Him there, and so He is compared to an unclean bird. He bore that judgment all alone, for no one else could bear that awful punishment for sin. How thankful we should be for what He has done for us!

“And God created…every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:21).

More than 100 years ago man learned how to make machines like airplanes, and today they are able to fly a long way. Several times I have flown all the way from North America to Australia without stopping, a trip that takes fifteen or sixteen hours in the air. Some are even longer!

Did you know that God created a bird that can fly longer and farther than any airplane? There is a bird called the bar-tailed godwit (about the size of a small duck) that spends its summers and raises its young in the Arctic regions, but then in the fall flies non-stop all the way to Australia or New Zealand. This is a distance of about 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) and takes eight or nine days. During this time, it loses about half of its body weight, and it seems it has the ability to put half of its brain to sleep, while it flies with the other half. Quite an accomplishment!

This is one of the wonders of God’s creation and shows God’s power and glory. But you and I know more than this about God, for we know His heart of love. We may marvel at what He has created, but we are attracted by God’s heart of love, shown out at Calvary’s cross.

 “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit” (John 15:8).

A few months ago, a good friend of mine gave me several small tomato plants that she had grown from seed. I planted them in what I thought was good soil, in large planters, and put them out on my deck. At first they grew very well, and soon began to have small green tomatoes on them. But then the leaves on the lower branches started to turn yellow, and eventually all the leaves began to droop. At first I thought the plants needed more water, but that did not help. The real problem was that there were fungus spores in the soil, and those plants became infected with a bad fungus. I don’t think I will get any good tomatoes from those plants, for they are just too weak to produce good fruit. All my efforts were wasted.

That fungus is like sin in our Christian lives. The Lord wants us to produce fruit for Him, and every right thought in our hearts about Christ, and everything we do for the Lord Jesus, is fruit for God. But if we allow sin in our lives, it weakens us, and we do not produce good fruit. Let us be careful not to allow sin to spoil our fruit for the Lord.