Today's Future Generation

Articles

Gary Womack
02/18/14 - Zephyrhills Bulletin

OUR YOUNG CONGREGATION

As we all come together once again

to worship our Lord and Savior another day,

let us rejoice and sing his praises

while we are gathered to worship and pray.

Today let us pray for our young congregation

and help them to keep their faith restored,

while they go through trial and tribulation

as they strive to live for our precious Lord.

Ask God to be with them, to give them courage

as they follow and worship Him, and not go astray

even though they may sometimes get discouraged

while they serve Him faithfully day after day.

This world is moving fast, while time races

we need assurance that God’s word will carry on.

We see that assurance in their sweet faces.

We see in their eyes, that their faith is strong.

We feel that assurance as they step forward

to lead us in prayer, and also in song,

and to take part in delivering God’s message.

It gives us faith that his word will carry on.

Barbara Vogel

* * * * * * *

Barbara has done it again. With poetic grace and a loving heart she has expressed the essence of our hope for the future as seen in our young people. Pray for them, encourage them, and let them know how much they mean to us.

TODAY’S FUTURE GENERATION

“Behold, children are a heritage from Yahweh, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.” (Psm. 127:3-4) There is no doubt that children are a blessing and a gift from God. Every loving parent can attest to that fact. And with that blessing comes a tremendous amount of respon-sibility. The psalmist here describes them as arrows. And with that analogy there is the accompanying responsibility of making sure that each arrow is trued to insure that, as it is placed into the bow and aimed at the target, it will reach its mark. The target toward which they are to be aimed is heaven.

Since children are a gift given by God, parents are responsible for honoring His generosity by preparing them to serve Him. This means that they must teach their children about God - as a matter of priority. When God began to instruct His people after bringing them out of Egypt to Himself at Mt. Sinai, this is what He said to them regarding their children; “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one! You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deut. 6:4-9) In short, this is a full-time job that is to be taken seriously.

But notice something about what God instructed them. Before they were to teach their children, they were to know that there is only one God and they were to love Him completely - plus, His words (instructions) were to be in their hearts. In other words, they were to be totally committed to God first if they were to be capable of teaching their children. Part of the reason for this is the fact that teaching involves more than just imparting facts. The most effective teaching is backed up by a godly example. You can’t lead someone to God until you have first learned to follow Him - and you can’t teach what you don’t know. Childrearing demands commitment to God - and a level of maturity that embraces the gravity of parenting.

Those instructions given to parents at Mt. Sinai were crucial to the nation’s faithful continuance. Then, as now, we are only one generation from a godless nation if parents fail to teach their children of God and His greatness. By the time we get to the book of Judges (perhaps 50 years or so after having crossed the Jordan River to inherit the promised land), this is what we read; “So the people served Yahweh all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Yahweh which He had done for Israel. Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know Yahweh nor the work which He had done for Israel.” (Josh. 2: 7-10) Why? Obviously, they failed to teach their children.

Of course, children have an obligation to learn from their parents and to apply what they have been taught in their own lives. The Proverbs are replete with admonitions and warnings to children (especially the first 7 chapters). But in those opening chapters of the book of Proverbs we find that their teachings are being presented by a father to his children. The outcome of such parental faithfulness comes with this assurance; “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.” (Prov. 29:17)

Sometimes, young people come to live faithful lives to the Lord in spite of irresponsible, delinquent parents. We find one such example in the person of Josiah. His father had been the 15th. king of Judah whose brief 2-year reign was aptly described thusly; “...he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, as his father Manasseh had done.” (2 Kgs. 21:20) Josiah had little going for him in regard to having a godly example lived out before his young eyes.

“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young (16 years old, gvw), he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.” (2 Chron. 34:1-3) This faithful commitment to God by such a young person in the midst of an idolatrous people gives testimony to the godly influence that young people can have on an entire nation.

“Then the king (Josiah, gvw) sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of Yahweh, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem - the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of Yahweh. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before Yahweh, to follow Yahweh, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve Yahweh their God. All his days they did not depart from following Yahweh God of their fathers.” (2 Chron. 34:29-ff) Young people can make a difference!

In an age when ungodliness is rampant and the outlook appears bleak, how refreshing it is to see so many of our young people making a commitment to serve God both in the worship and in their lives. It gives us hope for tomorrow and future generations. To them we commend these words written by Paul; “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” (1 Tim. 4:12)

- Gary V. Womack -