Young People’s Blog

Epitaphs

“But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” (Job 14:10).

On the grounds of Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, in northeastern England, there is a graveyard with a tombstone bearing the following inscription:

Go home my friends, dry up your tears;

I must lie here till Christ appears.

We call these inscriptions, “epitaphs,” and I am wondering what could be written on your gravestone if you were to die. Could those who took care of your burial and the placing of a tombstone on your grave put something that indicated that you were with the Lord Jesus in Heaven?

I recall another epitaph of someone I knew very well and whose funeral I had the privilege of preaching. It simply says:

“I’m Home!”

Death and eternity are real! Are you ready? Could loved ones put on your headstone:

“Absent from the body …

Present with the Lord”

(2 Corinthians 5:8)?

Guyana — Part 4

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him” (James 1:12).

I have just returned from the south of Guyana and from the area where a missionary couple was murdered by natives in March of 2005. This is just outside of Lethem and on the way to Karaudarnau (Crăw-dăr-năh), where I have stayed and preached the gospel on more than one occasion. It was reported that on March 29, 2005, police in Lethem stumbled on the bodies of the American missionaries after responding to a report of a fire at a San Jose Ranch in the Rupununi District. Richard Hicks was 42 and his wife, Charlene, 58. The couple’s house had been set on fire, and the husband’s body was burned beyond recognition, police said. His wife was found a few yards away with marks of violence. I know several believers who personally knew the Hicks. They all testify of their faithfulness in the gospel and care of others. Their deaths have encouraged many native Christians to carry on the work they began with much blessing resulting.

Remember, the Lord always honors faith and sacrifice!

Guyana — Part 3

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

On our way back to Georgetown from southern Guyana we stopped at a rest area along the jungle road, called “Mile 58.” I have stopped there before, and it is a place where you can buy gas, relax a little from the tedious drive on the clay-mud road, and also buy something to eat and drink. As the five of us purchased some rice and other tasty things, I notice a sign on the door with a timely message:

EAT, DRINK,

GIVE THANKS!

Most of us give thanks before we eat, but perhaps it would be good to do so again after we have finished our food as well. At our table we did give thanks before we ate, and as I looked around, I wondered how many others did the same. The Bible reminds us, “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13). It is good to recognize that everything comes from the good hand of our God and that we can, with thanksgiving, use it for His glory.

Guyana — Part 2

In the same home we mentioned yesterday, on the wall at the other end of the table was the following verse:

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

In conversation with our host and his wife, I very quickly realized that this was a verse that they also really took to heart. Not only had they taken myself and my four fellow-travelers in, but I learned that their gate was always open to those who needed a place to stay and a meal. In fact, on the last evening of our stay with them they killed and roasted a pig and invited everyone from the village to join in a feast just before we had a gospel meeting.

We don’t have to have a lot to be a testimony to the world and a help to our fellow believers. There was a boy in the days when the Lord was on earth who only had “five barley loaves, and two small fishes” (John 6:9), but it was used to feed thousands. The great question is not how much do we have, but are we using what we have for the Lord? “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it” (Proverbs 3:27).

Guyana — Part 1

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

The village of Karaudarnau (Crăw-dăr-năh) Guyana is down on the very southern tip of the country, and I recently had the privilege of visiting there. I stayed in the humblest of circumstances with a Christian couple who shared what they had and with genuine love showed me some of the finest Christian hospitality I have ever experienced. On the wall at the end of the table in their adobe house with a thatched roof of palm fronds, was the following paraphrase of the above verse of Scripture:

Don’t worry about anything,

Instead pray about everything,

And thank Him for His answers.

Each morning as I sat down for breakfast, I reread this text with fresh appreciation. Life is tough amongst the Wapishana (Wăp-ē-shănă) Amerindians, and to live for the Lord is not easy. But I could see that my host and hostess really believed the message of this verse and lived each day in the confidence and joy of the God they faithfully served.

Dear Young Christian:

This week in a Sunday School periodical, the following article caught my eye:

Close to the shore of Spain, a German ship sank in a violent storm. A few days later some parts of the wreck and sailors’ clothes were washed ashore. In one of the jackets, a New Testament was found in which was written the following:

Markus Rotmann, Kolkwiese 12, Hamburg.

Read the first time at my sister Lotte’s request.

Read the second time because of fear of God’s judgment.

Read the third time and all the other times because of love
towards my Savior Jesus Christ.

If someone found your Bible or New Testament, what would they read on the flyleaf? Can you chronicle the times that you have read through the Word of God, and perhaps more importantly, have you read it today, and will you continue to read it this week?Remember, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words … and keep those things which are written therein” (Revelation 1:3).

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

Great Love

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

“God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

The greatest demonstration of love was at Calvary when the Lord Jesus hung between Heaven and earth and when He took the punishment for sin, died, and shed His blood. It wasn’t the nails that held the Lord on the cross but His great love for us. His love cannot be outperformed or even fully comprehended. No one has, or ever will show such love as Jesus did when He died at Calvary.

When was the last time that you thanked Him … truly thanked Him … for His great love and great sacrifice? Let’s do it today from a full and overflowing heart of gratitude. As Isaac Watts expressed it in the hymn so often sung …

Love that transcends our highest powers,
Demands our soul, our life, our all.

The Mirror

“For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:23-24).

As Queen Elizabeth I grew old, her wrinkles were deep and many. It is reported that an unfortunate Master of the Mint incurred disgrace by casting a too-faithful likeness of her on the shilling. The die was broken, and only one mutilated specimen is now in existence. Her maids of honor took the hint and were thenceforward careful that no fragment of looking glass should come into Her Majesty’s hands. In fact, it is said that the Queen “had not the heart to look herself in the face for the last twenty years of her life!”

As a mirror exposes all the wrinkles and dirt on a face, so the Word of God exposes the heart. Reading the Bible shows us our sins. If we refuse to repent and change, we soon get tired of seeing our “dirty faces” in God’s Mirror and we stop looking into the mirror. How foolish! It is better to see the dirt, confess it and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You can pray like David, who said, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2).

God’s Perfect Plan

I saw the following on a very nice wall plaque recently:

God Has A Perfect Plan For Us.

He Never Does It All At Once,

Just Step By Step Because

He Wants To Teach Us

To Walk By

FAITH

Not By Sight.

It made me realize that we are always in training and always learning in the school of God. None of us can ever say “we have arrived … we’ve learned it all.” No, it is a slow, lifelong process, and often a painful one, with repeat lessons.

David was a man who had great problems and difficulties all through His life. But early on he learned to say, “As for God, His way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:31). The sooner we realize this in our Christian experience the better. It will give us real peace and submission to His will and His perfect plan. He wants to lead us by “the right way” (Psalm 107:7). Are we willing to follow, or do we think we are wiser than God and that we have a better plan?

The Tongue — Part 2

“The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:8-10).

The tongue is untamable by nature. Every kind of creature has been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly, uncontrollable evil, full of malicious and deadly poison. With the tongue things are said that poison the minds of others and even turn believers against one another. The tongue can be thoroughly inconsistent, for, while capable of blessing God, it can also curse man made in the likeness of God.

Christians are in speech and acts to be consistent with God’s ways. The tongue, when used by grace and restrained by the Spirit of God, can be used in great blessing and with great benefit. Nothing but the power of the Spirit filling the heart with the grace of Christ can restrain the tongue. When the heart is enjoying the grace and love of Christ, the tongue will speak in grace out of the abundance of the heart.