Young People’s Blog

Our Refuge

“In God is my salvation…and my refuge”
(Psalm 62:7).

There is an old saying in the world, “Every form of refuge has its price.”

This is certainly true of our refuge in Christ. The great price paid was for God to give His Son, and for the Son to give His life and shed His blood at Calvary’s cross. Now that the price has been fully paid, this refuge from coming judgment is offered freely to all who will avail themselves of it. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).

But more than just refuge from coming judgment, we have One who is our refuge for this life, as we pass through a wicked world where our enemy Satan is lurking. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

Refuge in Christ is free to us, but it came at great cost to Him! Have you availed yourself of this refuge? If you have, you can say, “He is my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower, and my Refuge, my Savior” (2 Samuel 22:3).

By Faith

“Through faith we understand” (Hebrews 11:3).

We are going to have many questions about the reliability and authority of the Bible until we learn to accept it by faith as God’s revelation and stop trying to make it fit our way of thinking. When we get to this point, it becomes a new book to us — a book of interest and a book that satisfies our hearts. The Bible is not true because it satisfies reason, but it satisfies reason because it is true. We cannot reason the truth of God’s Word, but the truth of God’s Word is reasonable.

If we reject the Bible’s reliability, we will not get far in our Christian life. God’s Word teaches us to how to live by faith and have a successful Christian life for His glory and our happiness. I heard of a young university student who allegedly tore up his diploma and sent it back to the university where he had been educated. He included a note saying, “You taught me how to make a living but you never taught me how to live.” Only the Bible teaches us how to live life well and to the full. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).

Prayer

Repentance

“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner”
(Luke 18:13).

Repent literally means a change of mind, or to rethink. It is realizing that what God says about us is true, and taking sides with God on the matter. Like the publican in Luke 18, our salvation and blessing begin with “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). The Lord said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:14).

However, repentance is something that needs to be ongoing in our Christian life. When John wrote to the church at Ephesus, he said, “Thou hast left thy first love.” He then gave an injunction from the Lord, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent” (Revelation 2:4-5). To take sides with God always leads to the self-judgement of acts of sin and self-will. Romans 2:4 tells us “that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” This is accomplished through the work of the Spirit of God.

He Sees

Hagar was a nobody, an outcast, misunderstood, lonely and frightened, and she no doubt felt her case was hopeless. Have you ever felt that way? All alone, no one to turn to, no one who understands, no one who cares? Hagar felt that way — until she realized two wonderful truths. She had seen the Lord, and the Lord saw her. It didn’t make the problems go away or lessen the gravity of the situation, but it did bring comfort and courage. “And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?” (Genesis 16:13).

Maybe you feel like you have come to such a point in your life. If so, look by faith to the Lord Jesus, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). Remember that He sees you, and is well aware of your feelings and circumstances. King David was thankful for this when he wrote,

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” (Psalm 139:2-3).

The World We Live In

Today I am sitting in my own office, at my own desk, in my own home. Over my desk is a large pen and ink engraving of a graphic panoramic view of the battlefield after the battle of Waterloo. In the foreground, the two generals, Wellington and Blucher, are shaking hands while the dead and dying lie sprawled as far as the eye can see.

It reminds me of the world we live in. Sorrow, pain, tears, and death are all around us, and even for the believer we read, “In the world ye shall have tribulation…There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man” (John 16:33; 1 Corinthians 10:13). We don’t understand why the Lord allows many of the trials and sorrows we pass through. But be assured there is always a purpose of blessing, a joy in Himself through it all, and the knowledge that He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). With this assurance we can “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). We won’t be done with the battles and sorrows of life until we are home in Heaven with the Lord Jesus. In the meantime, we can fully trust our Captain, the Lord Himself.

Dear Young Christian,

In many parts of the world, today is known as Valentine’s Day. Love notes and greetings are sent to friends and loved ones and the florists and candy makers pull in their share of profits from the sale of flowers and chocolate. The Bible talks much about love. The love of God, the love of Jesus Christ, the love that we should have for sinners, the love we should have for other believers, and so on.

However, there is at least one thing that we are told in the Bible not to love: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). The Devil is vying for the attention and affection of every young Christian (and older one too), and wants to distract us from following the Lord and being a testimony in a dark, sinful world. But, while we are to love the sinner and present Christ to a perishing world, we are not to love the world. The Lord wants our undivided affection and says, “My son, give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26).

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

His Joy

“Jesus…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

In this verse, we have the Lord’s joy, and we might well ask, What was that joy, as He had the awfulness of the cross before Him?

The answer is profound! It was the joy of anticipating His return to the Father and sitting down at His right hand as a glorified man, knowing that all had been done to the glory and satisfaction of the One who had sent Him into the world. This was the purpose for which He had come, as He affirmed when He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work…For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 4:34; 6:38).

At the end of it all He could say to His Father, with perfect confidence, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:4).

This was His joy, and now He finds His delight and joy in us. May this truth deepen our joy in Him!

Saved By A Fly

“I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy” (Exodus 33:19).

God in His grace and mercy works in wonderful — and often in unusual — ways, as the following account will show:

It was August, 1747, in Ireland, and Charles Wesley was preaching in Dublin. An ungodly tavern-keeper went to the meeting one night to hear the singing, but had decided not to hear the preaching. He planned to plug his ears as soon as the first hymn was over, until the second hymn began. He therefore sat after the hymn with his head down and his fingers in his ears. But, when God will speak to a soul, He can make his voice heard. And He can use things which we wouldn’t dream of. As the man sat there, a fly landed on his nose. For a moment, he moved his hand to drive it away, and, as he did so, nine words reached his ear . What were they? “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9). From that moment, this man had no rest in his soul. He was soon converted, finding forgiveness and peace through the work of Christ.

Have you ever tried to close your ears to the good news of the gospel? If so, I beg you, “Incline your ear…hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:3).

To And Through

“For the Lord is a great God” (Psalm 95:3).

Our God is a great and awesome God. He is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time). Sometimes we limit God by our finite ways of thinking.

Perhaps you are going through something in your life and you are wondering, How will this work out and how can I possibly get through it? The other day I came across this succinct statement which I thought summed up the question so very well:

“If God brings you to it,
He will bring you through it.”

Here is how the prophet Jeremiah put it: “Ah Lord God! behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).

Isaiah tells of “the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power” (Isaiah 40:26).

So remember, whatever He brings you to He can, and will certainly, bring you through. We need to trust Him and avail ourselves of the power that we have in Himself.

Christian Warmth

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

A fellow-believer once told me, “I repeat this text to myself almost every day.”

I noticed recently that the verse before it is a stark contrast: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31). The things mentioned in this verse are like the dark clouds that so often roll across the grey winter sky in Canada where I live. They blot out the warmth and light of the sun until they are past and gone.

So often the clouds of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking cause a chill in our relationships with one another. But we need to seek to warm one another with Christian kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. Like those native islanders of Melita, of whom it says, “And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold” (Acts 28:2).

 Will you be spreading the warmth of Christ today?