Young People’s Blog

“The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests” (Matthew 8:20).

As I look out of the window of my study today, the maple tree on our front lawn is just putting out its leaves. But if I look closely, I can see a bird’s nest on one of the branches, a nest that was built last spring. During the winter we had snowstorms, strong winds, and even freezing rain, yet that bird’s nest never came apart and fell out of the tree.

How did the bird know how to build it so well? No one taught the bird to do that; it knew how to do it by instinct. It is something that the Lord gave to that bird when He created it. Using only its beak and perhaps its feet sometimes, that bird can take bits of grass and mud, and put them together to make a strong nest in which to lay its eggs.

Some people in this world try to tell us that all this just happened by a process of evolution, but the Bible tells us God created “fowl [birds] that may fly above the earth” (Genesis 1:20). Only God could give a bird the wisdom to know how to build a nest.

“Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation [conduct, or manner of life], imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and to the ages to come” (Hebrews 13:7-8 JND).

Once again, we are reminded that the Lord Jesus never changes. God has given us leaders in Christianity, and we are reminded to imitate their faith. But what did they teach us? If they were faithful leaders, they spoke about Christ. He was “the issue of their conversation;” that is, Christ was the key to their conduct and lifestyle. They followed Him, and pointed us to Him.

Even those leaders can change. They can fail and make mistakes, and perhaps those of you who were younger notice it sometimes. But God does not want us to follow even good leaders; He wants us to imitate their faith and follow the One that they followed—Christ. He is always a perfect example for us, and He never changes.

“Of old hast Thou [the Lord Jesus] founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands: they shall perish, but Thou continuest; and all of them shall grow old as a garment: as a vessel shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end” (Psalm 102:25-27 JND).

Yesterday we saw how the Lord Jesus was made sin for us, and was compared to unclean birds. Today we see God the Father’s answer to all this. It was the Lord Jesus who created the world, and one day this world will perish: God will destroy it by fire, and create a new heavens and a new earth. See if you can find the verse that tells us this; it is in 2 Peter.

But the Lord Jesus has a title—“the Same.” It is one of the names of God, and it tells us that He is the ever-existing One. The Lord Jesus is God; He was there from all eternity, and He never changes. That is a wonderful thing, for here in this world everything is changing continually. Even people change, and we may be hurt or puzzled to find a friend treating us differently. But the One who suffered for our sins on Calvary’s cross is always the Same: He never changes.

“I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert” (Psalm 102:6).

“For He [God the Father] hath made Him [the Lord Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In our first verse today, the Lord Jesus (prophetically) compares Himself to a pelican and an owl. The pelican catches fish in the sea, but then stores them in the pouch beneath his lower beak, and then flies away to sit alone for hours while those fish digest. Then later it feeds these partially digested fish to its young. The owl too usually avoids places where there are a lot of people.

We might wonder why the Lord Jesus compares Himself to these two birds, for both were unclean under the law. (See if you can find the place where the law tells us this; it is found in Leviticus and repeated in Deuteronomy.)

We find the answer in our second verse. The Lord Jesus was not unclean, but He was “made to be sin for us,” and took upon Himself the judgment for our sins. Our sins were laid upon Him, and in the three hours of darkness on the cross, He became like those unclean birds. These verses emphasize how much He suffered for us.

“If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2).

Here is one last verse about pride. True knowledge makes us humble, because the more we know, the more we realize how much we do not know. This is especially true in spiritual things, where the whole body of truth God has revealed to us is so vast that even the most knowledgeable person knows only a small part of it. Even in scientific circles, those who know the most are usually the most humble, for they realize how much they do not know.

If we are proud of our spiritual knowledge, as were some of those in Corinth, then we have not learned anything in the right way. Paul has to remind them that rather than being impressed with their own knowledge, they needed to realize that God loved them, and that He (God) knew them. When we enjoy God’s love, we are not thinking about our knowledge, or about ourselves, but about God Himself, and that He knows us.

“When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2).

Today we have another verse about pride, and how it eventually brings shame. Why does pride bring shame? Shame comes because a proud person does not want to admit that he/she is wrong. But no matter who we are, sometimes we are wrong. Then, when we are not willing to admit our wrong and apologize, we bring shame on ourselves. Maybe we have been boasting about ourselves and our knowledge, but then someone comes along who knows more than we do, and we are shamed in front of them.

It is much better to be humble, and to realize that none of us knows everything. When we are always ready to learn from others, we get wisdom, as our verse says.

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Some people have a great deal of athletic ability. They may be very good at playing games like football and basketball, doing gymnastics, or running races. Others do better at school, and perhaps become the valedictorian for their class because they have the best grades. Others are good at working with their hands, and can paint beautiful pictures, or use tools to build things like nice pieces of furniture. Some people have very good minds, and can figure out difficult math problems.

Whenever we have a particular ability, it is tempting to be proud of it. But our verse today reminds us that God gave us that ability; we did not get it ourselves. We can be thankful for the skill that God has given us, but to be proud about it is the wrong response. Rather we should give the Lord all the glory, for it is He that created us that way.

“He hath made everything beautiful in its time…so that man findeth not out from the beginning to the end the work that God doeth” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 JND).

I am sure that most of you have heard an insect called a cicada sing in the summer. On hot summer days its noise is very loud, rising to a higher pitch, then gradually falling off. When many of them sing at the same time, the noise tends to scare some people.

Did you know that in northern climates, those cicadas live underground for as long as 17 years before coming up above ground to fly around and sing only for a few weeks? In southern climates, they may live underground for only 13 years. In both cases they feed by attaching themselves to the roots of large trees and sucking out nutritious liquid.

But how do all those cicadas know when it is time to detach themselves from their tree roots and dig their way up to the surface? Scientists freely admit that they have no idea. But God has made those cicadas so that they count the years accurately, and then millions of them come to the surface almost at the same time.

God has indeed made everything beautiful in its time, even if it takes 17 years!

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

We are all familiar with babies, and how they grow best by drinking milk. However, we would be very disappointed if that baby grew bigger, and still wanted nothing but milk. Having nothing but milk is not a balanced diet for a growing child. It needs solid food.

It is the same for us as Christians. When we are first saved, we are like babies, and need very simple spiritual food. We need first to learn the basics of Christianity. However, the Lord expects us to grow, and to be able to take in and enjoy the deeper things of the Lord. Being able to understand “the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) makes us strong Christians, and able to walk well in this world. Sad to say, many Christians today are content to know only the simple things of Christ, and have no appetite for the deeper truths that are in God’s Word. There are many treasures in God’s Word, and we should all be willing to spend the time learning more about them.

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).

In our area we get a lot of “scam calls” on our phones. They come anytime during the day, and last night our phone even rang with a scam call at 4:00 a.m.! Although it is often the same message, they come from many different phone numbers, all over the world. Obviously, it is a good business, and they make a lot of money from unsuspecting people.

In our verse today, Paul tells Timothy to use every available opportunity to preach the word. Are we as diligent in preaching the gospel as these scammers are in trying to steal money from people? I do not mean that we should be phoning people all the time, and especially not in the middle of the night. But do we use every opportunity we have to tell others about Christ? It is something all of us Christians need to think about.