Many of the traditions or situations that we organize can cause young people to think that they are second-rate citizens. Whether it’s the “kids table” at Thanksgiving dinner or the youth section at the football game or even youth swim in the neighborhood pool. Young people can begin to think that they are being pushed aside and made to feel useless by the older generation.
I remember those years of being a youth myself, my music preference or the way I communicate or even some of the crazy fads earned me a hour long unsolicited speech many times. I am sure you’ve earned that same talk sometime in your life. It starts something like this, “when I was your age we” or “I walked up hill in a foot of
The enemy is more convinced than many believers, that our greatest potential is our young people. (tweet)
snow to go to school”. There is such a generation gap that if misinterpreted young people can feel that they are not appreciated or needed. But God thinks otherwise!
Reading young Jeremiah’s calling, in the book that bears his own name, we read in Jer 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” God lets this young man who is probably in his teens, know that there’s a specific plan for his life. The creator of the universe knew him before he was born! This incredible visitation doesn’t stop there, but goes on to command and commission this young man to fulfill God’s purpose. Not when he is retired and an empty nester, but right then and now!
The requirement to do great things for God is not that you have to be old and have nothing else to do. But we read in Dan 11:31 that those that know their God and
It’s time to release young people into their God given destiny! (tweet)
are faithful to Him will resist the enemy and do great things for God. Paul exhorts the church in Philippi to grab on to the reason that God has laid hold of you in Phil 3:12. Paul doesn’t give any age requirements to them at all. On the contrary in his letter to young Timothy he says in 1 Tim 4:12, 14, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers… Do not neglect the gift that is in you”. God has a huge plan for young people! Young people are not so tide down and entangled with debt, raising families and building careers. Not that those things are wrong by any sense of the imaginations. It’s just that, to often, as we get older and assume more responsibilities we loose flexibility and time to be whole heartily used by God.
The enemy is more convinced than many believers are of the great potential in our young people. The communist philosophy says, …if you can win the youth you can win a generation. The world will always have a larger youth group than the church because they spare no expense for it. With the Coming of computers and web based learning, children leave behind toys at younger and younger age. Many major toy companies have now lowered their target market to much younger ages to combat the KOGY age (kids growing older younger).
Lets embrace our biggest resource that we have in the church. Our young people! It’s time to release them into their God given destiny! The older and the younger generations need to work together hand in hand to accomplishing God’s plan in the earth. We need each other!
In the midst of the quiet night my wife shot out of bed with a crying scream, “I am in so much pain”! Those who have experience a dry socket will immediately remember the excruciating pain it can cause. It was after my wife had finished getting a wisdom tooth pulled that she was released to go home and recover with the needed medication. Well, at the crack of dawn I was rushing her back to the dentist’s office because of the unbelievable pain she was in. It didn’t take long for the diagnosis of a dry socket to be made and dealt with.
Recently, at a local park I over heard a mother question her child and his friends if they were playing nice? Those words captured my thoughts back to a childhood memory of my own. Where my father had to sit my brother and I down after supper and had one of “Those” talks. My father had been concerned by what he had seen earlier that day when my older brother’s friends had been making fun of me in a derogative way with out any objection from my brother. My father with a tone of seriousness told us that there is never a time for family to side against one another. My father went on to say at all cost we should stick together and not side against each other. I know he was emphasizing the importance of a family bond. Many times we see this same scenario with the different age groups or even different generations. We forget we’re family and allow our differences to bring a collision of generations. It’s not a bad thing to think differently or have different strong or weak points. We must see the value of God’s gifts in each person. In 1 Kings 12, We see a tragic story where this type of limited thinking brought a great disastrous result. It was at the time of transition from the great king Solomon to his son Rehoboam now becoming King. It says in verse four that a representing group from the people came to the new young king asking, “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.” Israel had gone through an incredible generation of building and prosperity under the former king. The people didn’t want to rebel but wanted to enjoy life for a while. It was a reasonable request don’t you think? King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisors of the former regime. These men had been a crucial part of the success and would surely know what to do. Their advice and counsel in verse 7 saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today… and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever” was abruptly rejected! The king then went to his childhood friends and peers and asked them what they would advise. Now these where probably friends that the king had played army with and chased girls and even boasted on what they would do when they grew up? We read their shockingly different advice in 1 Kings 12:11, where they tell the king to say, “now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!'” It was an answer of arrogance and immaturity, yet the young king agreed with it. It was a collision of two generations that had long lasting results of epic proportions! The people were devastated and offended choosing to not follow the new king. This unwillingness to blend the thinking of two different generations caused a wall and great division. Verse 16 – 21 tells lets us know ten out of twelve tribes defected from king Rehoboam and chose their own likeminded king. In the next chapter we see this king leads this whole group astray from God. When the generations don’t “Play Nice” and value God’s gifting’s in each other it will lead people away from God!
The scripture talks much about different individuals that have fallen and tripped along the journey of faith. In Prov 24:16 Solomon might have had his father in mind besides his own experience as he wrote, “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.” I think most honest believers would admit to a time or times that they have tripped and fallen during their race of righteousness. Yet, we will only lose if we don’t get back up.
There is no greater exhilarating feeling than pushing yourself beyond the natural limit during the last seconds of a race. It’s as if every muscle and fiber in your body is working together to thrust forward to cross the finishing line first where with pulling off a victory.
Eager to get on the way, we loaded the car and began our journey. The crisp Sunday morning couldn’t have been any more perfect. We were scheduled to minister in a church on the south side of Chicago that morning. So we got an early start for the trip from Milwaukee, to insure plenty of time to get there.
Remember how you would tell your parents that all your friends are doing something so why can’t you do it? And your parents would sternly say as they looked at you, “If they were jumping off the cliff does that mean you should do it?” Even if you didn’t like when their answer was in the form of a question, it actually made sense. Didn’t it?
Being beaten, mistreated and unjustly thrown in the inner prison. Paul and Silas began to hold a praise and worship service in the midst of their dirty depressing accommodations. I am not sure that’s the response most people would have in these chaotic circumstances. Being wrongly accused and treated in such a despicable manner, I think most people would be crying with anguish, threaten to sue somebody or even change their occupation. But to have a devoted worship set in the midst of such trouble blows my mind! When things are crashing around us its usually not the time for worshipping our Lord, or is it?
Are you a person who knows how to pray with expectant faith? In James 5:16–18, Elijah was not superhuman, but was an ordinary person like us. The scripture goes on to say that he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and for three and a half years it did not rain, not even one drop. Then, in verse 18 it says, “He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
Have you ever tried to climb a mountain and felt as though your heart was going to pound through your chest? If you’re like me the answer is more times than I’d like to remember. One of those times was when I was returning back to my parent’s ranch, which is settled in the midst of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I had decided to climb one of the peaks that I had conquered many times growing up. Whether it was self-deception or a shortage of oxygen that made me think I was in shape enough to start
The moment the gun goes off the sprinters bolt out of their starting blocks with one thing in mind, to be the first to cross the finished line. Many times, the finish can come down to several runners pushing with everything they have to thrust themselves past the others to win by inches. Paul exhorts believers to run the race of faith with victory in mind, not to just participate but to win. (1Cor. 9: 24-26)
There’s a scene in the movie, “The Patriot” that fascinates me and helps me makes a point. The colony people are in the community chapel when the enemy commander comes busting in on a horse. A young bride of a patriot is there in the sanctuary trembling in fear as the commander intimidates and threatens them for being sympathetic towards the patriots. Once the rider finishes his threats and leaves, he orders his soldiers to chain the doors and burn down the chapel with the bride and others inside.
It seems to be running rampant throughout our society. People are offended at the smallest things. These so called offences spawn acts of road rage, displaying public disagreements or setting up walls of isolation. All because someone did something that they don’t like. Their theme song could be “You did me wrong” song. These days’ people are so overly sensitive and tightly wound, that they are quick to take things personal and build walls between anyone that violates their small comfort zone.
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