Young People’s Blog

Spices

“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them” (Luke 24:1).

After His death, those who loved the Lord Jesus had diligently prepared fragrant spices for the body of the One they loved. However, arriving at the tomb on the first day of the week, they found that He was not there but had risen. Others, it seems, arrived too, but without spices.

Preparing spices would typify our ready worship and praise as a result of our enjoyment of the person and work of Christ. Have we prepared fragrant spices of appreciation this past week? As we come into the presence of the Lord today to worship and remember Him and the great work of Calvary, will we come with fragrant worship, praise, and thanksgiving? Or will we depend on what others bring? The Bible reminds us, “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving … . Come before His presence with singing” (Psalm 95:2; 100:2).Is your heart full of Christ today?

Riches

“The exceeding riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7).

George Cutting shared the following.

An American millionaire, John D. Rockefeller, said … “The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.” He was only agreeing with the language of another, who said, “Though a man without money is poor, the man with nothing but money is poorer still! Worldly possessions cannot bear up the spirits from fainting and shrinking when trial and troubles come, any more than a headache can be cured by a golden crown … . ”

Saint Augustine once remarked that “earthly riches are full of poverty;” and this is certainly far nearer the mark than is the world’s notion of riches, which is something like this: that a man who has £10,000 must be twice as happy as the man who has £5,000. Never was a greater mistake made than this, yet how commonly is it believed. It is far more correct to say that money is a universal provider for everything but happiness, and a universal passport to every place but Heaven.

That is why it is so important to have “true riches.” What matters in the next life is not earthly things but what we have in Christ — eternal life, salvation, and forgiveness of sins.

Our Strength — Part 3

“When I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

The Apostle Paul knew what weakness was. If you read the context of our verse, beginning at chapter 11:23, you will see that he is talking about and listing some of the things he had experienced in his walk of faith and service for the Lord. They are things that most of us will never be called on to go through. How did he do it day after day and year after year? Certainly not in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord alone. He could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). He could say this with confidence because he had had the assurance from the Lord earlier, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Are you feeling weak? Do you feel you just can’t face life, even as a believer? It is not wrong to feel our weakness if it casts us in complete dependence on the Lord? “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:30-31).

Our Strength — Part 2

Like Nehemiah, David is another Old Testament character who found his strength in the Lord. When you read about the life of David, you quickly see that he did not have an easy life. From the time he was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king in Israel, until he died, there was one problem and difficulty after another. Family problems, running for his life from king Saul, wars with his enemies, domestic struggles, friends and people he trusted letting him down, and on and on.

But amidst it all, David found his strength in the Lord. In his song of thanksgiving, near the end of his life, he could recount the goodness of the Lord and say, “God is my strength and power: and He maketh my way perfect … . For Thou hast girded me with strength” (2 Samuel 22:33, 40). Often in the Psalms, which he no doubt wrote during many of those difficult times, he refers to the strength he experienced from the Lord. For example: “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

We, too, can experience that same strength to meet the daily round of life and the special trials and tests that the Lord allows to keep us dependent on Himself.

Our Strength — Part 1

“For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah 6:9).

Nehemiah was doing the work of the Lord in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Day after day, week after week, he toiled. But just because we are serving the Lord, it doesn’t mean that it is going to be easy. Nehemiah soon found out that he had a crafty enemy by the name of Sanballat. This man and his cohorts tried many ways to discourage and stop the work.

However, in today’s verse we find that Nehemiah prays and asks the Lord to strengthen his hands. If it had been me, I might have asked the Lord to remove the enemy and give him what I thought he deserved. Or I might have asked Him to give the job to someone else more capable. I might have even asked for a miracle-shortcut so things would get done in a supernatural way without all the sweat and tears.

But no, this man of God asked for strength to press on, even in the face of the enemy and hard, mundane work. It is thrilling to see how God comes in when we are helpless, and all seems hopeless. Remember, “The Lord is the strength of His people” (Psalm 28:8).

His Arms

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Today I woke and found myself
In Jesus’ loving arms,
And all day long He kept me there,
Safe from the devil’s harms.

His grace and mercy followed me,
And all was sunshine bright,
I felt those arms of strength and power,
While walking in His light.

And then when evening came at last,
He brought me safely home,
To where I started earlier,
Throughout the day to roam.

And as I laid me down to rest,
And sleep throughout the night,
I felt those arms around me still,
Were holding me so tight.

Dear Young Christian:

Sometimes, when we think of sin, we think of those gross transgressions that perhaps even the unsaved would consider distasteful and wrong. But the most dangerous sins, and often those that are most detrimental to our Christian life and testimony, are those little sins that slowly and subtly take hold of us and form habits and practices that are unholy and displeasing to the Lord.

As you start out this week, take stock of those things that you are allowing in your day-to-day life without much thought. Often, in standing guard against the great attacks of Satan and sins of sizable account and consequence, we miss his wiles and let in those tiny sins that add up and spoil our joy if left without being confessed and judged. Solomon said, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor” (Ecclesiastes 10:1).Flies are small, and one dead fly is of no consequence. But, when you let them accumulate, then there is a spoiling of what was once sweet and good. Don’t let those little sins accumulate in your life this week.

Your Christian Friend,

 Jim Hyland

His Atoning Sufferings

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Often, we focus more on the physical sufferings of Christ than on those atoning sufferings endured at the hand of God when forsaken during those three hours of darkness. As good as it is for us to meditate of the Lord’s sufferings at the hand of man, we need to remember that none of those sufferings put away sin. Here are some verses to consider in connection with those sufferings that satisfied God as to the question of our sins, and on which we can rest our eternal salvation:

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

“God … 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 5:20-21).

Do You Know God?

Of course, you know there is a Supreme Being, the Creator and Upholder of all things. But do you know God, the holy and righteous God before whom you will stand some day? Do you know that He cannot look upon sin or allow the sinner to go unpunished? Can you look forward to meeting God calmly and without fear?

God has revealed Himself to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ’s mission was to declare the heart of God, to make known His hatred of sin and His love for sinners. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Because of the cross and the work accomplished on it, God is now shown to be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Do you know God in this way? “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). All who know Him say: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid” (Isaiah 12:2). But the great question remains, DO YOU KNOW GOD?

Walk With God

When I was growing up my parents had the following text on our wall at home: “And Enoch walked with God … three hundred years” (Genesis 5:22).

Three hundred years! Wow! That’s quite a record!

How many years does the average Christian have, to walk with God here in this world? Certainly, nowhere near 300! Enoch lived at a time when the world was in a very wicked condition, culminating with the flood in the following chapters. Enoch was gone by that time, but he left quite a testimony for us to consider. “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). “By faith Enoch … had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

John Shaw (1630-1704), when preaching, said of Enoch, “Yes, he walked with God so much that he just got in the knack (habit) of it.” Do you walk in the conscious sense of God’s company? We only have a few short years allotted to us, it is a good thing to get into the habit of walking with God every day.

Someone else has said, “Let us walk with God more, and we shall walk more like Him.”