Young People’s Blog

Love the Lord

“I love the Lord” (Psalm 116:1).

Do you love the Lord?
Do you love Him more,
Than you did the day before?
Do you love Him today,
More than yesterday?

Do your love the Lord?
Is the world your love,
Or the Lord above?
Has His love for you,
Touched your heart anew?

Do you love the Lord?
With affection true
The Lord loves me and you!
Enjoy His love and peace,
And your love will increase.

 

Dear Young Christian:

“Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity”
(1 Timothy 4:14).

Regarding this verse a friend of mine writes:

From the time I was a pre-teen right through high school my mother said to me every morning as I left for school, “Son, be thou an example.” Though I sometimes resented it, her words had a preserving effect on my life, and I am very thankful now for her faithfulness then. The Word of God tells us,“None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself….Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:7-8). We cannot live our lives in a vacuum and we cannot live our lives selfishly, thinking that what we do has no effect on other Christians. It does have an effect, whether for good or for bad. We are members of the same body and we are told to be an example.

Something to really think about this week isn’t it!

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to [email protected]

Worship

“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things”
(Acts 17:24-25).

No, God is worshipped in our hearts. Man has built architecturally beautiful monuments, supposedly for the Lord’s glory and to honor Him. But He’s not worshipped with men’s hands. He looks inside people’s hearts to see what’s there. Every seat in every church building may be filled every Sunday with “worshippers” who go there to be entertained, but much of their worship never reaches heaven.

The Lord told the woman at the well at Sychar, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father … . the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:21-23). More than anything else, He desires the worship of our hearts today.

 

Hearing

“To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).

As children, many of us remember frustrated parents asking if we really heard their reminder to finish an unwanted chore, complete our homework, get ready for bed, etc. We may have claimed to have heard, but our attitude and actions said otherwise.

What about our response to the gospel? Have you heard it? Have you responded? It’s easy to put off making a decision, and the longer we do the easier it becomes.

The gospel is a simple but heart-penetrating truth, and it is not enough just to know it. No, we must act upon it, realizing that we are lost sinners on our way to hell, but that God has provided a remedy for sin through the sacrificial work of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has spoken, we have heard, but we must act. We must receive Him. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).

 

Monthly Question Page

Q. What will happen to the property and possessions of believers when the Lord comes?

A. There is no difficulty with this question when we realize that we are stewards of the Lord. All we posses should be looked at as being loaned to us by Him and belonging to Him. We are to use it for His glory until He comes. “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). When the Lord comes our stewardship ends, and we are no longer responsible, but must give an account at the Judgment Seat of Christ as to how faithful we were with what was entrusted to us. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). What we leave behind is the Lord’s and we can leave it all in His hands. He will take care of it in His own way and we need not concern ourselves about it. Our responsibility has ended!

What we should be concerned about is our present faithfulness and responsibility. The question is, are we using what has been given us in a way that is pleasing to Him, for His glory, and for the furtherance of the gospel? We will be held accountable!

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to [email protected]

Another World

“The world to come” (Luke 18:30).

John Wesley, a classical scholar and gifted with a brilliant mind, gave himself fully to His God and consecrated all his powers to His service. Possessed of a scholar’s love for books, yet he spent most of his life in the saddle and in the active duties of a most strenuous life. With a passionate love for art, especially for music and architecture, he turned away from their charms to blow the gospel trumpet with all his might.

With a more than ordinary longing for the comforts of human love, he rose above disappointments which would have crushed most men. Forgetting his, “Inly-bleeding heart,” (his own expression), he gave himself unreservedly to the work of binding up the broken-hearted. Viewing the beautiful grounds of an English nobleman, he said, “I too, have a liking for these things, but there is another world.”

Yes, there is indeed another world, and the Lord said that those who live in view of it would “Receive an hundredfold now in this time…and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:30).

 

Monthly Scripture Reading

Mark 1

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

 

Doing

What work will you do for the Lord today? Or perhaps better asked: Will you do today’s work for the Lord? Whatever we do, whether it is school work, our job, chores, spreading the gospel, encouraging and helping fellow-believers, or just simply living a quiet testimony, we need to do it all for the Lord and for His glory. Here are three verses that help to qualify everything we do in our day to day life as believers:

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

“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Colossians 3:17).

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 2:23).

Living and doing for the Lord is not necessarily the easiest path, but it is the happiest way, and the Lord said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17).

 

Dear Young Christian:

The other day I was glancing through the Air Canada in-flight magazine as I was flying between Toronto Canada and Bridgetown Barbados. This segment of an article on modern communication caught my eye:

“We are more connected than ever through social media and online networking, yet we’re also more disconnected than ever…Technology makes communication faster, but is it really better? You can’t make a genuine connection with someone by texting, emailing, or friending.”

Yes, everyone has dozens or even hundreds of friends, most of which they have never met in person.

Reading this article made me thankful for the personal relationship believers have with the Lord. Paul’s desire was, “That I may know Him” (Philippians 3:10). Let’s develop that relationship more this week, and get to know Him better as the “Friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to [email protected]

In the Midst

“The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35).
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them”
(Matthew 18:20).

What a precious promise the Lord has given to His own that when they are gathered in His name, He will be there in their midst! This was the call and the joy of the early believers as they met in simplicity to remember the Lord Jesus in His appointed way, such as we have in the incident recorded in Scripture when Paul visited the city of Troas. We read, “upon the first day of the week…the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).

What a difference it would make if only we kept reminding ourselves that the Lord is there. Sometimes we lose sight of this glorious fact and we neglect to display that wonder, that respect, and that holy awe that is appropriate to being gathered around the Lord of Glory. There would also be no problem with attendance either if the reality of His presence was impressed upon our hearts. Wouldn’t we want to be there if we really believed that He was there?