Dear Matt,
Great news to hear about your baptism! May God be with you in your walk to the Kingdom. Hopefully, the Lord will come soon so that your sojourn will not be a long one. We can’t count on that, however, so l’ d like to share a few thoughts with you.
Now that you are baptized, you are in the heavenlies in Christ. God is now truly your Father in heaven, you are an heir of the great promises and you can have continual cleansing of your sins. But as you know, the struggle is not over. The flesh is very strong in all of us and the world is very alluring.
Throughout my own teenage years, and now in my early twenties, I have made some mistakes which have hurt my spiritual welfare, so I can really feel for young people who are struggling in certain areas of their lives.
Choose friends carefully
Christ clearly instructs us, and the apostle Paul endorses the teaching, that we should not mix with the world, but come out and be separate. It is unwise to choose our friends from the world because more often than not, they will lead us their way rather than coming our way. We must not be yoked with unbelievers.
We’re playing with fire if we make friends with the world. You know how the saying goes, “If you play with fire, you’ll get burned.” I can guarantee you that the world has absolutely nothing to offer compared to what God has promised us. What future is there in “eating, drinking and being merry”? All we accomplish is to wear out our bodies and help the aging process along. What if something goes wrong? Will our good-time friends help us through problems or hard times when they come? Remember the prodigal son. Everything was great for a while, but when things went wrong, nobody was interested in his problems.
The Bible teaches us there’s a time of great happiness to come when sin and death will be no more and when the earth will be filled with God’s righteousness. The works of evil will be destroyed and no longer will we have to fight with sin in our lives. Do we really want to devote our lives, our hopes and our ambitions to things which eventually will meet with destruction?
Beware of desensitization
We may think, “Oh, it won’t happen to me” – “I won’t be led astray” – “I’m strong enough not to get burned” – “I can handle it.”
Dabbling with the world seems innocent enough in the beginning. Some friends in the world appear to be more friendly and empathetic than our Christadelphian chums. After a while, we become desensitized to their foul language and we don’t hear it any longer. Little by little, quite subconsciously, the world eats more and more into our lives until we find ourselves getting involved in unchristian behavior without even pangs of conscience. This is spiritual desensitization. Our consciences become seared with a hot iron and we are not able to feel our great need for forgiveness and salvation.
But never give up
It is never too late. This is when we need a good friend to take us by the hand and start leading us on the road back to faith and hope. Maybe that friend is an older brother who keeps chipping away until we finally listen to him. Maybe we will finally offer a listening ear to a loving parent who was prayerfully waiting for an opportunity to guide us in the right direction.
I was led astray, but I realized through some hard lessons the need to repent of my ways before it was too late. Thanks be to God, I did, and I am happier and more fulfilled than I ever was when I was the world’s friend. It is because of this experience that I wanted to write to you. I pray that not all of us will learn the hard way.
Learn to enjoy the Bible
I know you have some activities that you really enjoy. All of us do. Some of us love sports, music, traveling or meeting new people. None of these things is wrong in itself, but they must be kept in perspective and balance in our lives.
How many of us have the same enthusiasm for the word of God as we have for our favorite past time? How many of us can say that we really look forward to doing our readings with a feeling of anticipation, hoping to find a “new” point (to us!) or a good passage to use in our study of first principles? We can develop this attitude with a bit of determination and a willing spirit.
I admit it’s not always easy to sit down and concentrate on Bible study, especially if you’ re living alone. It takes some discipline on our part. We need to set a schedule so that each day a time is set apart for some personal Bible devotion — whether it be the Bible readings or some particular study we’re doing. It will come if we work to cultivate it. After all, the Bible is God’s only revealed word to man. It is our only authority to eternal life. We would be foolish to treat it lightly.
Why does liking the Bible not come naturally? Of course, the answer is simple. The flesh does not feel comfortable with the word of God. But let me promise you that the closer you get to the Bible, the easier you will feel in its wonderful presence. Don’t forget to pray for help and guidance in your studies. God is very willing to help us if we seek Him.
You’ve got to work to be any good
If you talk to any professional athlete, actor or musician about how he became successful, he’ll probably tell you something along the lines of:1) he was privileged to have a natural skill; 2) he realized his ability and desired to develop it; 3) he had to devote his life to his pursuit, practicing daily to stay at peak performance; 4) he got a “break” at the right time to give his career that extra boost when it was most needed.
Our lives in Christ could be looked at in much the same way.
First, we have been privileged with a knowledge of the gospel. God has offered us the pearl of great price – it is a gift of inestimable value.
Second, the wonderful Truth we know requires a response on our part. We must repent of our sins and be baptized into the saving name of Jesus Christ. Remember, the athlete saw what he had been given and he responded by doing his part.
Third, once we have made the initial response, we must devote our whole lives to the pursuit of our goal. It’s not an “on-again, off again” matter. We need to practice daily, striving to stay in spiritual shape. Regular Bible study is essential. Daily prayer for guidance and direction is a necessity and putting into practice the way of life as set forth in scripture is an absolute requirement. Often we hear in an interview with Olympic athletes how greatly they have devoted their time and energy to their particular endeavor. You hear young skaters saying that all their young years have been spent on the ice at the sacrifice of almost everything else. And these people are wholeheartedly devoted to obtain merely a perishable and fleeting crown! I think we can learn a lesson from the children of this world!
Fourth, if we set out sin gleheartedly for the kingdom, we won’t need a “break” like the professional did. God has made glorious promises which all will receive who love and obey Him.
Can a young believer do much?
In discussion with my peers,I’ve heard some of them say that we can’t do much in the Truth until we get older, so why not enjoy ourselves now? But look at the Bible examples.
Consider 2 Chronicles 34. King Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign and he did that which was right in the sight of God. In the eighth year of his reign, at the age of 16, he began to seek after the God of his father David. In the twelfth year of his reign at the age of 20, he set out to turn Judah and Jerusalem back to God. What an example for us! He was a youth and yet he led his nation in a spiritual reformation.
Actually, the Bible describes many faithful teenagers — Joseph, Daniel, David and Mary, the mother of Jesus, to name just a few. We are not excused from faithful service to God by virtue of being too young. In fact, the youthful years are a wonderful time to begin our discipleship. We are full of enthusiasm, physical strength and vigor — great qualifications for becoming a warrior for Jesus.
Finally Matt, I want to emphasize Christ did not promise that discipleship would be a breeze, but he did assure us of his help and guidance.
I’m sure we all want to reach the goal of the kingdom. We don’t want to be among those who are rejected and weep and gnash their teeth. The battle we are fighting with our human nature will not end until Christ returns and there will be many failures, but we must persevere. By the grace of God we can attain to salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We need much help and God fully realizes this, but He asks us to give it our very best effort.
Your brother by His grace,
Tony Ball
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One