Young People’s Blog

“And he said…If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:22-23).

In this verse the father of the boy who was having fits caused by a demon was desperate. No one else had been able to help, and finally he comes to the Lord Jesus. However, he did not realize who the Lord Jesus was, and came to him just as a person might go from one doctor to another. But now he was in the presence of the Son of God. It was not a question of whether the Lord Jesus could heal the boy, but rather whether the father would have faith in Him.

But the Lord Jesus was gracious, for the poor father broke down, asking the Lord Jesus to help his unbelief. Then the Lord Jesus cast out the demon, and the boy was well again.

It is sometimes like that in our lives. We do not really have faith in the power of God, and we miss the blessing we otherwise could have had. Perhaps we put our faith in something else, instead of the Lord. For example, medical science can do wonderful things today, and it is not wrong to use that knowledge. But let us not rely on it; let us rely on the Lord instead. He is the Great Physician.

“And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, It is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not [he did not know] what to say; for they were sore afraid” (Mark 9:5-6).

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt uncomfortable, and did not know what to say? Perhaps you felt that you should say something, but because you did not know what to say, you said something rather dumb. I have been in that situation a few times, and have said something that did not make sense.

That is what happened to Peter at the transfiguration. He and the other two disciples were afraid when they saw the Lord’s glory, and Peter said something rather silly. Why would God want them to build tabernacles on the top of a mountain? It would have been better for Peter to have kept quiet, and simply to have looked on all the glory displayed before Him.

However, God used the opportunity to teach the disciples something. Suddenly Moses and Elijah disappeared, and only the Lord Jesus was there. Then the voice of God the Father told them to listen only to His beloved Son. The Lord Jesus deserves to have all the glory and praise, and we do better to listen to Him, rather than wanting to talk too much. It is a good thing to listen to the Lord through His Word, and to learn from Him.

“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

This verse is important, for it describes the whole book of Judges. See if you can find another place where this same verse is repeated in Judges. It is true that there was no king in Israel, but Israel did not need a king. God had given them the law through Moses, and raised up judges to rule them, who were faithful men. However, we read in Judges 2:17 that “they would not hearken unto their judges,” and preferred to worship idols. The result was that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. For this reason, Judges is a rather sad book, with many unhappy stories.

It is much the same today in this world, for when people turn away from the Word of God, they end up with no proper moral instruction, and do what they think is right. But then Satan persuades them that wrong things are all right, and soon their consciences do not bother them anymore.

Let us remember that God’s Word is truth, and gives us the truth about everything in this world. Let us not be like those in Judges, who did what was right in their own eyes. Let us do what is right in God’s eyes!

“And Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair” (John 12:3).

“Joseph of Arimathaea…besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus…And there came also Nicodemus…and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight” (John 19:38-39).

I have no doubt that the Lord Jesus appreciated what Mary did, and what Joseph and Nicodemus did. Mary gave only one pound of ointment, while Nicodemus, who was probably a wealthy man, brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. However, Mary anointed the Lord Jesus while He was alive, and it does not seem that she went either to the cross, or to the tomb. No. he knew the Lord Jesus would rise again, and she anointed Him while He was alive. Joseph and Nicodemus expected the Lord to remain in the grave, so they brought a large amount of spices. God saw to it that His Son received a rich man’s burial. But He rose again, so the spices were not really necessary.

Again, Mary, and also Joseph and Nicodemus, did what they could, and all was appreciated and recorded in God’s Word.

“And Joshua said unto them [the Gibeonites], Who are ye? And from whence come ye?…and the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord” (Joshua 9:8,14).

If you read the whole story of this incident in Joshua 9, you will see that the Gibeonites played a trick on the children of Israel. They lived in the land of Canaan, but they pretended that they had come from a far country. They wore old clothes, and carried hard and mouldy bread. Their shoes were worn out, and their wine bottles (made of animal skin) were dry and old. Joshua and the other men of Israel should have asked the Lord what to do, but instead, Joshua and the other Israelites believed the Gibeonites, and made a treaty with them, not to harm them.

Then, in a few days, they found out that the Gibeonites lived right there in the land of Canaan. They had been deceived because they did not consult with the Lord. In our lives, we should always ask the Lord’s help before making any decision about what to do. Israel had to suffer for hundreds of years because of this treaty that was made with the Gibeonites, and we may suffer too, in our lives, if we fail to consult the Lord.

“And she [Rahab] let them [the two spies] down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall…And the men said unto her…Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by” (Joshua 2:15,18).

You are probably familiar with the story of Rahab, a young woman who hid the spies when they came into the city of Jericho to search it out. Rahab was not only an immoral woman, but she also told lies about the two spies, and was a traitor to her city. But she had faith in God, and knew that the Lord had given the Israelites the land of Canaan.

When she let the men down through a window in her house, so that they could escape, she evidently used a rope that was scarlet (a deep red) in color. Perhaps it seems strange to us that her rope was this color, for rope made out of hemp is normally a brown color. However, God allowed that rope to be red, for it is a picture of the blood of Christ.

When the Israelites conquered the city of Jericho, anyone who was in Rahab’s house was safe, because of the scarlet line in the window. In the same way we can be safe from the judgment of God, if we are under the shelter of the blood of Christ.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

There are many in this world who are spending most of their time and energy in order to have more of the things this world has to offer. They may not always want material things, for some people want fame, or power, or just simply pleasure. Yet often those people do not think of eternity, and what it will mean to lose their own souls.

Steve Jobs was the cofounder of the Apple computer company, and became a very wealthy man. At the time of his death in 2011, he was worth 7 billion dollars.

When he was dying of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56, someone congratulated him on his success and his wealth. His response was, “There is no advantage to being the richest man in the cemetery.” That is certainly true. We do not know whether Steve Jobs ever accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, but if he did not, then he has indeed lost his own soul. How important it is for us to look beyond this world, and live our lives in view of eternity!

“As thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

Yesterday we saw that the Lord gave Moses special physical health, so that he could lead the children of Israel through the wilderness for forty years. You and I do not have that kind of strength, and especially when we are eighty years old!

However, in the same chapter of Deuteronomy that tells us about Moses’ good health, the Lord tells us that “as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” This does not mean that we will always be as strong and healthy as when we were young, but it does mean that as long as the Lord leaves us here, He will give us something to do for Him, and He will give us the strength for it.

Sometimes we hear believers say, “I would like to do this or that for the Lord, but I do not know whether I have the strength for it.” But another well-taught believer once gave good advice—“Don’t ask whether you have the strength to do something for the Lord; just ask Him if it is His will or not.” If it is His will, we can depend on Him to give us the strength for it, and to give us the necessary resources to do it too, such as the money, time, etc.

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow” (Psalm 90:10).

“And Moses was an hundred and twenty years oldwhen he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7).

It was Moses that wrote the 90th Psalm, yet it is obvious that he wrote it by inspiration, and not from personal experience. He records that normally we live to be about seventy years old, and if we live to be eighty, our bodies experience increasing weakness and pain during that ten-year period. We may be able to function all right, but our strength certainly begins to fail.

Moses, on the other hand, lived to be one hundred and twenty, and Scripture records that his eyes were still very good, and that his strength was the same as when he was young. They did not have eyeglasses in those days, yet Moses could see as well as a young man. This was amazing, and only the Lord could keep him in such good health.

The Lord allows some people to feel quite good when they are eighty years of age, but no one at that age has the same strength as when they were young. Also, they cannot see as well as when they were young. But the Lord preserved Moses in a special way, to do the work He had given him to do.

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26).

I would suggest that in this verse we find the answer to our question about whether it is right for a Christian to be angry sometimes. According to this verse, the answer is yes. When things are done that are a dishonor to the Lord, and when this world turns it back on God and His Word, then it is right for us to be angry. But let us be sure that we are angry for the Lord’s sake, and not for our own sake. We must admit that much of the time, when we get angry, it is because we are offended or disrespected. Rather, we should be angry because the Lord is disrespected.

But there is also a warning here. When we get angry, we are not to sin. That is, we are not to be out of control, and lose our temper. It is very easy for us to allow righteous anger to turn to sin. We are not to harbor anger in our hearts, but rather think about something better. The Lord was like that. He was angry when His Father was insulted, but He never got angry because He Himself was insulted. He was a good example for us.