Young People’s Blog

“Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).

We saw yesterday how God is a God of order, having all His creation running in perfect timing. He also loves beauty, as shown in the vast array of color and variety in the flowers, birds and creatures He has created. And now, as our verse today tells us, we need to be orderly as well.

Just a few years ago a man wrote a best-selling book entitled, “Make Your Bed.” He was an American “Navy Seal,” and he gave this advice to young people at a graduation. Basically, he was telling them that an orderly life is a productive one. In making your bed first thing every morning, you are starting the day off on the right foot. Your thoughts will be collected and your work productive, if you have order in your life. Of course, there is balance in all this, for if we get bogged down in the petty details of life, we will not get too far either!

The Lord has already given us this advice in His Word over two thousand years ago. And He has set an example as well! Everything in the Old Testament tabernacle had its orderly place…candlesticks placed here, tongs placed there, washing basins over there. How much easier life is when things are in order! And it makes us happy to do things this way as well, when we know that at the same time, we are pleasing the Lord Jesus. It is something to think about, and work on as a good habit in our lives.

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained” (Psalm 8:3).

We all like to see the stars on a dark night away from city lights. Imagine how beautiful the night sky would have appeared in King David’s time before there was electricity lighting up the earth and detracting from the brightness of the stars and planets! But even more amazing is the precision and orderliness of what is going on up there in the heavens. Planets traveling in precise orbits; earth, moon and sun all in exact distances from each other to give proper heat and light. Comets (like Halley’s which comes every 76 years) are as regular as clockwork.

Yes, God is a God of order. He has the stars numbered and named. He has arranged and directs the migratory flights of the birds, all of which are awesome. He sees it if a sparrow falls, and enjoys the wildflowers that bloom in remote places, that man may never see.

And He has His eye on you, and a plan for you. And He has some advice for you as well. We’ll see that tomorrow.

“When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees…then shall the Lord go out before thee” (2 Samuel 5:24).

Just before this verse, we read that David had inquired of the Lord as to how to proceed in a battle. And this was the answer he was given. I don’t suppose it was any clearer to David than it is to us on reading it today. He might have wondered, Whatever is “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees”? But he had asked for guidance and was willing to wait with this answer, knowing that when the time came, he would recognize the moment.

We too often ask the Lord for His direction in something. Then we must be content to wait, knowing that if we want to do our Lord’s will, we will know when the moment comes, and how to go ahead. Naturally we like to know well ahead of the time! But walking with the Lord is a day by day, moment by moment privilege.

David was victorious in the battle. We can be as well.

“His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14).

Many years ago now, when I was still a teenager, I well remember standing beside the casket containing the body of a young man who had been killed in a car accident. The undertakers had done their best to cover the wounds on his face, but they were very evident. That young man was a Christian, and so was his family. His father approached and repeated to me our verse for today, reminding me that the Lord Jesus had suffered abuse to His face more than any man. I never forgot it.

We know that it was not our Lord’s sufferings at the hands of man that put away our sins. No, that punishment happened during the three hours of darkness, when this world was not allowed to look on. But His sufferings from the hands of man show us how much He loves us. What will it mean to us some day to look upon that blessed face!

“Yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

Have you ever grabbed a pen when someone was giving you their cell number or address and, for lack of paper, written it on your hand? I never have, but I’ve seen plenty of people do it! And there it is, staring at you continually until you transfer the information to a better place, and wash if off.

But here in our verse, the Lord is telling us that our names are graven on His palms. You cannot help but notice something on your palm, and the Lord doesn’t wash it off the next day as we would. It is there permanently! He is telling us that we are continually in His thoughts. His love and grace are always there for us. We will never ever be forgotten.

Our names, from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart they remain
In marks of indelible grace.

                             Augustus Toplady

“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness” (2 Peter 3:17).

God has told us various things in His Word so that we will understand what is going on in the world today, and also so that we may be warned about some of the traps that Satan wants us to fall into. Here He warns us that we may be led away with the “error of the wicked.” What kind of trap is Peter referring to?

I believe he is referring to what he said back in verse 4 of this same chapter, where he says that scoffers will begin to say about the Lord, “Where is the promise of His coming?” People who do not believe on the Lord Jesus and who do not believe that He will come back again will begin to make fun of those who do believe on Him. If we listen to them, those of us who are true Christians can become discouraged when the Lord does not come, and perhaps lose our confidence in God. Then we fall from our steadfastness, which simply means that we no longer go on steadily to please the Lord in this world. We tend to fall down to the level of this world.

It is important to retain our faith in God and His purposes, for God will never fail to carry out what He has promised us. He has always done what He said He would do, and He always will.

“Then I [the Lord Jesus] was by Him [God the Father]…rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:30-31).

Yesterday we were speaking about the universe, and how God created it to display His power and glory. Men can look at the stars and other heavenly bodies, and recognize the glory and power of God.

However, although God created those stars, many of them much larger than the earth on which we live, yet His delights were not with those beautiful stars. Nor were God’s delights with the parts of this earth that are not able to be inhabited. For example, we may see a very imposing mountain made of solid rock, and jutting up into the sky, and with some snow at the top. It is beautiful to look at, but we would not build a house up there and live on it. It does not say that God takes delight in that mountain, even though He created it to display His power.

However, God does take delight in the parts of this world where men can live, for God wants a relationship with His creature man. He created us in His own image, and loves each one of us. He is interested in us as individuals!

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork…there is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1,3).

As I write this in June, 2022, I am out here about 40 minutes by car north of the town of Jackson, Wyoming, USA. Wyoming is not heavily populated, and Jackson is not a big city. Because of this, on a clear night out here you can see the stars very clearly—much more clearly than if you are close to a big city. It is very impressive to see the Milky Way shining so brightly, with its many stars spread across the sky.

We might wonder why those stars are there, and why God created them. Here is one good reason in our verse today. Those stars are not fit for humans to live on them, but they display the glory of God. When the natural man sees those stars, even if he does not have a Bible, and does not know anything else about God, he is responsible before God. God has shown His power and glory through the creation of the universe, in order that men may realize His power. Even if a man does not have access to the Word of God, He can know something about God, and recognize His responsibility to Him.

“By faith Abraham…looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:8,10).

Abraham grew up and lived in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, which was quite a modern city for those days. Yet today it is in ruins. We have some rather large and impressive cities in the world today, with tall buildings that are also impressive. Yet authorities tell us that if all the people were taken off this world, but everything else was allowed to go on, after 10,000 years you could not tell that man had ever been on this earth. Everything that man had made would have disappeared.

Abraham and his family were not looking for a permanent home down here, but rather a city with real foundations—a city that would not decay with time. Abraham never even owned land down here, except for a burial plot.

You and I should also look for something that is permanent—a heavenly home, which is eternal. Yes, we need shelter of some kind in this world, but whether we live in a nice home or a poor home, it is all temporary. Our real home is up there with Christ.

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7).

When Noah lived on the earth, he had never seen rain fall. The earth was watered differently in those days; it says that “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:6). Up to the time that Noah lived, no one on the earth had seen rain. But God told Noah that He was going to send a flood on the earth, and Noah believed God, even though he had never seen anything like that before. Then Noah obeyed the Lord, and built an ark, as the Lord told him to do, so that he and his family could be saved when the flood came.

As always, God’s Word was true, and those who did not listen perished in the flood. It is much the same today, when the gospel is preached. Many do not believe it, and will perish in a lost eternity. But those who believe that judgment is coming on this world will come to Christ, and be saved from that awful judgment.