Young People’s Blog

Anti-Aging Power – Part 1

Statistics indicate that Americans spend more than $20 billion annually on various anti-aging products that claim to cure baldness, remove wrinkles, build muscle, revitalize the human body, and renew the power of youth. Can those products deliver all the marvellous things they promise in the advertisements? Dr. Thomas Perls of the Boston University School of Medicine says that there is “absolutely no proof that any commercially available product will stop or reverse aging.” Not very encouraging is it?

But there is a promise of spiritual vitality that defies the ravages of age and time. It is found in these words of the Holy Bible: “Even the youthsshall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31). Isaiah used the eagle as a symbol of freedom and endurance, held aloft by a source of power completely outside of itself…just like the Christian carried along by the power of Christ.

Continued…

 

Dear Young Christian:

I hope you are not neglecting your personal reading of the Word of God, or any other aspect of your spiritual life, during the summer months. Maybe some of you are on holidays, but don’t ever take a vacation from the Lord.

I remember a young couple who went on a trip for rest and relaxation, and on returning home were asked by my father, where they had gone on Lord’s Day to remember the Lord and if they had enjoyed fellowship with other believers. Their response was that they were on vacation. How sad! To take a vacation from the Lord and from fellowship with others of “like precious faith” (2 Peter 1:1), is not a healthy thing.

“Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways” (Isaiah 58:2). Wouldn’t you like this verse to apply to you? It would make every day happy, wherever you are, wherever you are going, and whatever you are doing. David said, “I have set the Lord always before me” (Psalm 16:8). Make sure you do too.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

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

Appreciation

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

Don’t you get the impression that Jesus meant a great deal to Mary? Appreciation for Him filled her heart just as the sweet odor filled the house. If you know the Lord personally and have been forgiven of your sins, if this is true, then you know that He has given you very much. Worship is adoration and love you can give back to Him. Mary’s gift was expensive — but He was worth it to her.

Even the criticism of Judas and all the other disciples did not discourage or dissuade Mary. Her heart was full and overflowing, and her one object was the person of Christ.

The Lord valued it, and said, “She hath wrought a good work on Me…She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint My body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her” (John 12:6,8-9).

 

Remember No More

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 1:12).

“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

God doesn’t forget, that’s human weakness. The things I want to remember, I forget, and the things I would like to forget, I remember. Only a divine person can choose not to remember, and one of the things that God chooses not to remember are my sins when they are washed in the blood of Christ. They are gone, never to be brought up against me again. Never! I have no fear of one charge…God doesn’t even remember them. Twice He confirms, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” He also says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins” (Isaiah 44:22).

What about you? Do you have this confidence that your sins are gone, and gone forever, never to be remembered again?

 

Stop & Consider – Part 2

“Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made crooked?”
(Ecclesiastes 7:13).

In heaven we will look back and recount all His ways with us, and praise Him forever, as we realize the perfection of them. When the wilderness journey of Israel is summed up in the Psalms, it says, “He led them forth by the right way” (Psalm 107:7). No doubt, we will echo similar language as we fully understand that “He ledUS forth by the right way.”

Things we thought would never be straightened out, and things we didn’t understand in this life will all be made straight and plain then. “The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Isaiah 40:4).

In heaven we will have plenty of time to consider and praise Him for all His ways with us. However, stop and consider His ways today, and even though you may not fully understand everything, you will go forth with a thankful heart and a renewed appreciation of Himself.

 

Stop & Consider – Part 1

As the months slip by and life goes quickly on it is good to stop and consider every once in a while and just look back on the goodness of God our Father up until this point. The children of Israel were instructed, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

When we look at things in retrospect we not only learn the faithfulness of God with us, but we are also reminded of His love, grace and mercy, in spite of our failure, forgetfulness and sin. We don’t always appreciate our circumstances and experiences as we go through them, nor are we always thankful at the time. But looking back and seeing things from a different perspective helps us to realize that there is one who know best. It also helps us to carry out the instructions of David when he said, “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).

Continued…

 

Praying

When we pray the whole Trinity is involved and has a part in taking up our requests and our care.

God the Father:

“God is…a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

“Pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6).

The Lord:

“The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:5).

The Spirit:

“The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:2).

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18).

The whole Godhead is interested in us, and as a result we should “give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always…” (Colossians 1:3).

 

Go Work

There’s a lot to do for Jesus,

Go work for Him today!

You’ll find a real blessing,

A joy, and rich repay.

Go work today for Jesus,

So loving, good, and kind:

Of things to do for Jesus,

No shortage you will find.

The Master calls, Yes, Jesus;

Go work, and do His will,

There is no labor sweeter,

Your days with which to fill.

Go work, and gladly toil,

Until the day is done,

You’ll find a rest rewarded,

When day at last is done.

“Son, go work to day in my vineyard” (Matthew 21:28).

 

Dear Young Christian:

Yesterday we mentioned the figure of the Lord Jesus going down into the pit and bearing the waters of God’s judgment against sin.

Today I was also thinking of the results of that aspect of the work of Calvary in connection with the verse, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psalm 40:2). Because the Lord Jesus went under the waters of judgment for us, we have been delivered from the pit of sin, and placed on solid ground. “He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword…Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:18,23).

We will never have to go under the waters of judgment, and this should make us the most thankful people on the face of planet Earth.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

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

The Pit

“I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me” (Psalm 69:2).

Joseph is a very beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. We read that when his brothers desired to show their hatred of him “they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it” (Genesis 37:24). Eventfully he was brought up out of that pit and sold to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver.

However, we see that the type falls short when we read of the Lord prophetically, “Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon Me, and Thou hast afflicted Me with all Thy waves. Selah” (Psalm 88:6-7).

For Joseph the pit was empty, there was no water in it. For the Lord Jesus, figuratively speaking, the pit was full…full of the judgement of a holy God against sin…my sins…the waves of which we read, “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42:7). He has exhausted those waters of judgment. Hallelujah!