Young People’s Blog

“And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Yesterday we mentioned the danger of filling our minds with the things of this world—things on the internet, on WhatsApp, things in magazines, etc., and we need to be on guard about this. However, this does not mean that it is wrong to use the internet, or WhatsApp, or to read secular things. The internet has been very useful to help Christians communicate with other Christians in different countries, for in some areas of the world postal mail is not reliable, or perhaps very slow. Social media sites like WhatsApp and Facebook have also been useful in communication. However, like many other inventions of man, they can be misused.

Our verse for today reminds us that we are to use this world, but not to abuse it. We must be careful to use modern inventions for a right purpose. We must guard against occupying our minds with sinful things, or things that may distract us from following Christ, and living for His glory.

“As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

It is a solemn thing to remember that whatever we allow our minds to think about tends to rule our life. When I was in university, I remember a history professor telling us that “how men think, so ultimately they act.” He recognized that in the history of this world, men’s thinking eventually translated into actions. Also, if we think about something often enough, we will find out that we will not be able to think about anything else. It will be very hard to change our minds into thinking about something different.

It is important for us to remember this in our Christian life. If we fill our minds with the things of this world—things on the internet, things on WhatsApp, things in secular magazines, things that are sinful, we will find it very hard to concentrate when we want to think about the things of the Lord. We will find it hard to focus when we want to read the Word of God, or to pay attention in a meeting for Christians. If we direct our minds to better things, once again we will find it easy to continue to think about those things, and it will not be an effort to do so. We will say more about this subject tomorrow.

“Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

It is a very serious thing to harden your heart against God. The children of Israel hardened their hearts against God in the wilderness, thousands of years ago, and God told them that they had to wander in that same wilderness for forty years because they hardened their hearts. During that time most of them died, and never did enter into the land of Canaan.

All this is a warning for us too, for today God is calling people to believe His Word, to repent of their sins, and to accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Sadly, many are hardening their hearts, and refusing to believe what God has said. About two years ago I quoted a Bible verse to one of my neighbors, and he simply said, “I don’t believe that.”

However, God’s Word is true, and that man was hardening his heart against God. If you are not saved, do not harden your heart against God. He loves you, and wants to save you today.

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).

What does it mean to let something slip? It means that we forget something that we have once heard and learned. We know how easily this can happen in natural things. We may learn something in school or college, and then, if we do not use it, we tend to forget it. Today I could not pass many of the exams that I easily passed when I was in high school and university, because I have not used some of that information for many years. However, there are some things that I have continued to use, and I remember them well.

It is much the same in spiritual things. We may learn and enjoy things from the Word of God, yet easily forget them if we do not live and walk in them in our lives. That is why the author of the book of Hebrews, who wrote by inspiration, wanted those believers to pay attention to what they had heard. He did not want them to forget those things, for those things were important. We too need continually to remind ourselves of the things in the Bible, even if we have learned them. That is why it is important to read the Bible every day.

“And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work…for the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it (the tabernacle), and too much” (Exodus 36:5,7).

In our verse for today we see what happens when the Lord’s people have willing hearts. Not only was there enough material to build the tabernacle, but too much! The Lord had worked in many hearts, and they had given much more than was needed. This was surprising, too, for a nation that had been slaves in Egypt for many years would not normally be expected to have all those things on hand for the building of the tabernacle. Not only did they have silver, gold, and precious stones, but they also had large pieces of wood, fancy cloth, badgers’ skins, spices, and many other things. But God had seen to it that they had all these things, and the people willingly gave them to help build the tabernacle.

We are not called to build a tabernacle, but let us remember that whatever we have belongs to the Lord. We should be willing to give it to Him if He asks us to do so.

“And Moses called…. every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it” (Exodus 36:2).

This verse is referring to the children of Israel, at the time the Lord had given to them the plans for building the tabernacle. The jobs were not likely going to be very exciting. Many were going to sit for hours embroidering cloth. Others were spinning, and still others molding silver and cutting stones. They were all to sit under the instruction of a man named Bezaleel to whom God had given wisdom in all these things.

Would you like to do something for the Lord? Ask Him for a willing heart. Ask Him to “stir you up”! And then do not be surprised if the job He leads you to seems a bit mundane. Maybe the meeting room needs cleaning, or someone just needs a helping hand. Do what the Lord puts right in front of you, and when that is well done, He will show you what to do next.

In the previous chapter, we read about “every man and woman whose heart made them willing” (Exodus 35:29). Let’s ask the Lord for willing hearts!

“With desire I [the Lord Jesus] have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

The Passover was instituted almost 1500 years before the Lord Jesus was born, but it is one of the most beautiful types of His suffering, death, and blood-shedding. The Lord Jesus valued the Passover, and what thoughts must have filled His soul as He ate that Passover, just before He went to the cross!

He was the true Passover, and it was really the last Passover that God could honor until the millennium. Once Christ, the true Passover, had been sacrificed, there was no more need to keep it. Today you and I, as Christians, do not keep the Passover; rather we remember the Lord Jesus with a loaf and a cup. However, Paul reminds those in Corinth that the Lord Jesus was the true Passover, and that He was sacrificed for us.

“But the centurion…commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship… And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land” (Acts 27:43-44).

This is an interesting story of how a ship was wrecked, but no one drowned. But God does not tell us this story for nothing. It is really a picture of what has happened to the profession of Christianity down through the ages. The ship represents the outward testimony of the church, while the people on it represent the true Christians. The ship broke up, just as the outward testimony of the church is all broken up today. Believers are split up into hundreds of different denominations.

Yet every true believer will make it safely home to be with Christ. Those who could swim would perhaps represent stronger Christians, who are able to manage themselves in the difficulties of the way. Others, who could not swim, needed the help of a board or a broken piece of the ship. But all of them made it safe to land.

Sometimes it can be discouraging to see how broken up the church has become, but we can take courage in the assurance that no true believer will ever be lost. All will make it safely home to be with Christ!

“And these signs shall follow them that believe…they shall take up serpents” (Mark 16:17-18).

“And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks…there came a viper [poisonous snake] out of the heat, and fastened on his hand…And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm” (Acts 28:3,5).

When the Lord Jesus was ready to ascend back to heaven after His resurrection, He told His disciples that miraculous signs would follow those that believed. These signs would show that their message was from God. One of these signs was that the followers of Jesus would be able to take up serpents.

Here in Acts 28, we see Paul collecting some sticks for the fire, when a poisonous snake bit him. But Paul simply shook it off into the fire, and its bite did not harm him. Later Paul also worked miracles of healing among those who lived on the island of Melita (Malta).

This does not mean that you and I should deliberately pick up a rattlesnake or a cobra, and expect that we will not be harmed. God does not encourage us to do something foolish. Also, God does not work these same miracles today in the way that He did at the beginning of Christianity. But He used these signs in the beginning to show that this new message of the gospel was from Him, and those miracles encouraged people to listen to the message, and receive it.

“And as the shipmen [sailors] were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 27:30-31).

In Acts 27, we have a very interesting account of how the Apostle Paul went by ship from Caesarea to Rome. The details show us how sailing ships operated in the Roman Empire. But in our verses today, we see something important for all of us.

Paul had already been told by an angel of God that no one in the ship would lose his life, but that the ship would be lost. However, that did not prevent Paul from using common sense. The sailors were trying to abandon the ship, and leave everyone to fend for themselves. Paul knew that they needed those sailors with their sailing expertise, and that if they left, the rest of the company could not handle the ship. For this reason, Paul alerted the centurion and the soldiers, who cut the boat loose and prevented the sailors’ escape.

In our own lives we can trust the Lord for His protection, but He also intends us to use our common sense. We are not to tempt the Lord by being foolish, and doing something that we know is dangerous.