Young People’s Blog

The School of God

When we go through deep trials or great suffering, we need to remember that God is working in our lives for a specific purpose. He knows what He is doing, and it is all done lovingly and with our good in view.

Have you ever said, “Why did this happen to me?” Or, “Lord, why did You allow this in my life?” Trials and afflictions are never easy, but, when they accomplish God’s purposes in our lives, then there is true and lasting blessing.

Things don’t just happen in our lives. They are planned and orchestrated by His hand and with divine wisdom. The writer of Psalm 119 realized this when He wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word” (verse 67). “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes” (verse 71).

God uses what seem like adverse circumstances to preserve us, protect us, and prepare us. When you read the lives of many of the great men and women of God who were used in mighty ways you often find that they had to pass through incredible hardships to make them fit and useful in His service. These are lessons not learned from a textbook, or Bible school, but in the school of God.

Take Care What You Say

“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses … And the Lord heard it” (Numbers 12:1-2).

When was the last time you gossiped or spoke critically of someone? The Lord does not look lightly on our speaking ill of another. Remember that He is the unseen listener to every word we speak.

For Miriam and Aaron to speak against their brother and question his God-given authority was very serious, and, as a result, Miriam became a leper temporarily and had to be separated from the rest of the camp of Israel for seven days. While the Lord in His patience and longsuffering with us may not act as quickly or severely, yet the Bible tells us, “That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). In light of this, take care what you say!

Let’s be careful what we say about others, and especially your brothers and sisters in Christ. Also, of those, like Moses, who have been given a place of leadership amongst the people of God. We may not always agree with them, and they may not always act in a proper way, but they are His people, He loves them, and it is His prerogative to deal with them accordingly.

Dear Young Christian:

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go” (Psalm 32:8).

Do you ever feel like your plans are being continually thwarted and upset? You try your best to make things work the way you think they should, but things get frustratingly changed or cancelled? Sometimes I have felt that way, as I suppose we all have from time to time. The other day, I saw the following statement on a billboard outside a local church near where I live:

“Life is what happens to you

while you’re busy making other plans.”

Yes, we can make all the plans we like, but the Lord often changes them in a way that we can do nothing about. That is why it is good to make our plans with the prayer, “Nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Look to Him each day, and be thankful and content with what happens in your life, knowing that His plans are far better than any plans we may have.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

A Skull

“And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified Him” (John 19:17-18).

In three of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, and John), we are told that Golgotha means “the place of a skull.” While this no doubt describes the appearance of the place where Jesus was crucified, there is a deeper significance to the meaning of Golgotha, which is Calvary.

A skull is the empty head of one who is dead. This typifies man in his natural state. “Dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), and “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them” (1 Corinthians 2:14). In other words, this was the height of man’s intellect … to crucify the Son of God. However, little did they know that this would be the very source of salvation and blessing for man. “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).

Today, we, as believers, rejoice that through that mighty work at Golgotha we have “redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).

My Salvation

“God is my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

The expression “My salvation” appears many times in the Bible. One thing it shows is how personal our relationship is with God. It is, as we say, “one on one.” That is why we stress that salvation is individual, and that we must come as such to receive the blessings that God has for us on the basis of the work of His Son at Calvary.

Can you sing, like Moses and the Israelites on the banks of the Red Sea, “The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation” (Exodus 15:2)?

If you are not saved, I would urge you not to put if off. Then you can truly say, “The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14).

If you are saved, here are some further statements that I know will encourage you on this subject:

• “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1).

• “He only is my Rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be moved” (Psalm 62:6).

• “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:18).

Monthly Question Page

Q. Could you explain 1 Timothy 5:24, “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after”?

A. This verse is directly connected with what Paul had said earlier in verse 22. “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” This is why Timothy was warned not to be hasty in identifying himself with new acquaintances or forming partnerships with those he had only known a short time.

There are two types of sins that are mentioned here. Some sins are “open.” There are those whose lives are, as the saying goes, ‘like an open book.’ Their deeds and failures are public knowledge and “reported commonly” (1 Corinthians 5:1). On the other hand, there are those who are able to cover their sins and lifestyle, and so their true character does not come to light until later on. If we are not careful, we can be defiled by association, or as it says, “be partaker of other men’s sins.” Many Christians have found themselves in compromising situations because they have not heeded this warning. The lesson is, we need to choose our friends and associates very carefully and in the fear of the Lord.

A Letter

The following is an excerpt from a letter written on the 1st of June 1855, by an elderly Christian by the name of Andrew Miller, to a young believer who had not been saved very long:

Two things make me very happy:

1. I am washed in the blood of Christ.

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

2. I am made in Christ the righteousness of God.

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Therefore I am fit to be in the holy presence of God, where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.

May you be kept in the faith, living, walking, and acting in the holy presence of our God and Father, with a single eye and an undivided heart for the glory of His Son, your living Savior, by the divine power of the Holy Ghost.

This letter written long ago also expresses the prayer and desire of today’s writer for each reader.

Monthly Scripture Reading
Genesis 37

13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?

16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.

20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him.

Faith

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 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 1:7-8).

Faith in God enables us to be steadfast against the attacks of the enemy. We may have true faith, but, when the trial comes, the qualities of faith, submission, patience, steadfastness, confidence and dependence upon God become real. We are apt to think that a time of deep trial may prevent us from following and serving our Lord and from actively encouraging one another and going on in fellowship together. But these are thoughts that the enemy would seek to implant in our minds. Whatever the trials we may have to pass through in this life, we have in Christ an Object for our affections; One we can trust, though we do not see Him with the natural eye; One in whom we rejoice with a joy that is a foretaste of the coming glory. In the midst of trials, we have an unfailing resource in Christ.

Dear Young Christian:

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity … . Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth … . Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart … . That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:15, 22; 3:17).

These exhortations and encouragements to the young man Timothy are still relevant and needful in these days just before the Lord’s return. With the breakdown of society at every level, and the accelerated work of our enemy Satan, to discourage and dishearten on every hand, there is a great need for all of us to have the same purpose of heart that characterized Daniel in his youth and throughout his whole life. This is what will give you spiritual energy and courage for whatever you face this coming week.

Your Christian Friend,

 Jim Hyland