Young People’s Blog

“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

As I write this in July, 2021, the summer Olympics have just begun in Tokyo, Japan. Two girls from the small town near to where I live have qualified to represent Canada at the games, one in golf, and the other as a swimmer.

The one who is a swimmer was interviewed by a local newspaper recently. During the interview, she stated, “I always swim better when I am happy, and when other people are cheering for me.” This is understandable, for our minds do affect our bodies, and the Word of God says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).

However, if our happiness depends on circumstances in this world, then it can go up and down. In our verse for today, it is the Lord’s joy in us that is being spoken about. This never changes! As Christians we do not look for the world’s approval, but we can always experience and appreciate the Lord’s joy in us. If we are living to please Him, then He is always there to “cheer us on,” even if no one else does! Then we live our Christian life in His strength, not our own. When we recognize His joy in us, then it brings joy to our hearts too. The Lord Jesus could say, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11).

“After all this…Josiah…hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo” (2 Chronicles 35:20, 22).

This verse is very sad, for it shows us that even though we may have pleased the Lord for many years, yet we can be led astray by Satan, and fail to listen to what the Lord is saying to us. Josiah evidently did not like it that the king of Egypt was going to fight at Carchemish by the river Euphrates. To do this, the king of Egypt would have had to pass right through the land of Israel, and Josiah wanted to get involved. But it was not the mind of the Lord for Josiah to do so, and he would not listen to advice from Necho king of Egypt, even though it was a word from the Lord. The result was that the Lord allowed Josiah to be killed in the battle, at the age of only thirty-nine. How sad! Josiah had gotten rid of idols, had repaired the temple, and had kept a wonderful passover. Yet he died in battle because he would not listen to the word of the Lord.

This should be a lesson to all of us, for it is easy to become proud when the Lord has used us to honor Him, and then Satan can take advantage of us. Only by walking with the Lord can we be kept from doing what dishonors Him.

“Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem…and there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet” (2 Chronicles 35:1, 18).

In the eighteenth year of his reign Josiah kept a passover, and it must have been a wonderful time. It was such a happy time that the Spirit of God says there was no passover like it since the days of Samuel, who lived almost 500 years before!

As Christians we no longer keep the passover. It has been replaced by the remembrance of the Lord. We read in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” Just as the children of Israel were to remember when they were delivered from death in their homes in Egypt, so the Lord wants us to remember what He did for us on Calvary’s cross. He says to each of us, “This do in remembrance of Me.”

When Josiah kept this passover, his country, Israel was not behaving well. They had failed greatly in following the Lord, but God still valued those who kept that passover, and today He values those who remember His Son in death. The church today is not in a very good state either, but the Lord Jesus appreciates those who remember Him in the way in which He has asked us.

“For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images” (2 Chronicles 34:3).

Today we see Josiah in the eighth and twelfth years of his reign. This would make him sixteen and twenty years old. Between the ages of eight and sixteen we grow up quite a bit; boys become young men, and girls become young women. Sad to say, sometimes young people at this age decide not to follow the Lord, but rather turn away from Him, and follow their own wills. But Josiah continued to seek the Lord, and at twenty was ready to act for the Lord. Evidently there were many idols in the land — gods made of wood, stone, metal, etc., and Josiah started to get rid of them.

Anything in our lives that becomes more important than the Lord can be an idol, and that is why the Apostle John says to believers, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). He did not mean literal idols, but things of this world that we tend to want, and which rob us of our time and ability to do what is right before the Lord. Let us be like Josiah and get rid of them!

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign…and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 34:1-2).

How would you like to be king when you were only eight years old? You might think that it would be an exciting thing to be a king at that age, but I believe that Josiah realized the big responsibility that was connected with it. He probably had older men who helped him make decisions when he was young, but the Word of God records that “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,” even at a young age.

It is important to accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior when we are young, and then tobe able to use our life for the Lord. Josiah did not have a good father, and his grandfather was a very wicked king, yet young Josiah wanted to please the Lord. Probably none of us have fathers and grandfathers as wicked as Josiah did, but perhaps some who read this calendar are not growing up in Christian homes. If so, you can still come to the Lord Jesus, accept Him as your Savior, and then ask Him for help to do what is right in your Christian life. A good beginning is a wonderful thing, and often sets a pattern for our entire life.

“But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34).

We have seen that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, and makes us fit for the presence of God. But here we read about water that also flowed from the Lord’s side. Water in the Bible usually speaks of the Word of God. God cleanses us from our sins by the blood of Christ but does not leave us with only a sinful nature. No, by His Word and His Spirit He gives us a new life that wants to please Him. Then, we might say, we have “the whole package,” and our Christian state is complete. Our sins are forgiven, but we are also clean morally, so that we may live to please the Lord.

We first of all get the new life, and then, as we have seen earlier, we need the constant application of the water (the Word of God) to keep us clean as we go through this sinful world. So the water is applied once when we are saved, but then we need our feet washed regularly. This may sound a bit complicated, but it simply means that God washes us all over when we get saved, but then needs only to wash our feet afterwards.

“Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26).

I grew up on a farm, and I and my brothers often went barefoot during the summer. As you can imagine, we usually got our feet dirty, and my mother made us wash them before we came into the house. The same thing happens to us in a different way, when we walk through this world as Christians. We come in contact with sin, and we see and hear things that defile us, just like dirt on our feet. Then we need what we have in our verse for today — the “washing of water by the Word.” The Bible is like water to a believer; it washes away the dirt of sin with which we come in contact in the world around us.

The Lord Jesus not only died for us, but He wants to set us apart from this world. That is what the word “sanctify” means — to set apart. For this reason it is important to read our Bibles every day. It is good also to have your own Bible, and to read it for yourself. You may not always understand everything you read, but it will have the effect of cleansing you from the sinful things you see and hear in your Christian walk through this world day by day.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

We have spoken about the importance of baptism, and how there is power in the death and resurrection of Christ to keep us from continuing to sin after we are saved. But what if we do sin? What should we do then? Do we lose our salvation if we sin? Do we have to come to the Lord Jesus and be saved all over again?

Our verse today answers these questions for us. Once we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we can never be lost again, for God says, “They shall never perish” (John 10:28). We do not need to be saved again, nor do we need another application of the blood of Christ. Rather, we need to come to the Lord and confess the sin, and when we do this, we find out that the sin which we have committed has already been laid on the Lord Jesus on the cross. God can be “faithful and just” in forgiving us, not to save us again, but to restore us to a happy relationship with Him. How gracious of the Lord to make this possible! God never assumes that we will sin, but He has made a way for us to enjoy His company again, if we do sin.

 “For ye, as many as have been baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27 JND).

This verse indicates to us another aspect of baptism that is very important. When we are baptized, we recognize that we are now identified with the name of Christ. Sometimes people today wear a T-shirt that has a slogan or saying across the front it, and often this particular slogan represents something which the person really believes, and wants to tell the world. When we are baptized, it is just as if we wore a T-shirt with “Christ” written across it. We are really telling the world that we belong to Christ, and are happy to be identified with His name.

It is similar to an army uniform. When a recruit joins the army, the first thing the army does is to issue him a uniform. That uniform does not make him a soldier, but it identifies him as a soldier. Also, the uniform is distinct for each country, so that we not only know that this man is a soldier, but we know to which country he belongs. Since he is wearing that uniform, he is expected to behave in a right way, and not bring disgrace on his country.

So it is with us when we are baptized. We are identified with Christ, and He expects us to act in a way that honors Him.

“As many [of us] as have been baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto His death” (Romans 6:3 JND).

When people got saved in the New Testament after hearing the gospel, one of the first things that was brought before them was the importance of being baptized. We must realize, of course, that baptism has nothing to do with our eternal salvation before God, for it is only the blood of Christ that can wash our sins away. Rather, baptism consists of going under the water and coming up again, and speaks of our turning our back on what we were before we were saved. We recognize that our old sinful self has nothing good in it toward God. But then, when we come out of the water, we recognize that we have a new life in Christ — a life that wants to please the Lord. We identify with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for He went into death and shed His blood for us, not merely to wash away our sins by His blood, but to deliver us from the power of sin in our Christian lives. Now that we are saved, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. God wants to see our new life in Christ acting in our daily life and doing things that please Him. Now we can consider ourselves to be “dead indeed unto sin,” but “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).