TEEN CHALLENGE

"But he knoweth the way that I take..."   Job 23:10a     In this verse we find an amazing and encouraging truth! God knows  the way that you take! He knows you . He knows everything about you ! He cares about every part of your life. This is amazing. The God who made the whole universe, the entire world, all of the animals, plants, and people, knows you! More than that, he loves you!       People get excited when they meet famous people- actors, athletes, singers, etc. But do you think if that famous person saw the same fan twice, they would remember them? Probably not! But God Almighty who is in charge of this whole world, knows you and loves you. Think about this every once in a while, and it will change your whole way of thinking. You will remember He knows the way that you take, so you will want to do right. You will know He cares about what is happening to you, so you will talk to Him about it.  You will know He loves you, so you will wa...

 " But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:" I Corinthians 4:3     Our gospel; our testimony, our light to the world. Are you hiding it? If you don't have a good testimony, you're hiding "your gospel" to those that are unsaved. In Matthew 5:16 it says, "Let  your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." If we allow our testimony to be seen by the world, they will see what we do, and they will know why we do it. They will know that we live the way we do because we want to live to honor Christ.       Your testimony as a Christian is your personal gospel to a dying world! Perhaps there is someone out there that only you can reach- someone who you can connect with really well. Something in your life that makes you able to understand someone like no one else could. Maybe you've gone through a hard time, and you don't know what good could come from it. Perhaps G...

  “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that  were  on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15     Choose you this day whom ye will serve. I have three thoughts about this verse. The first is that if you know that you're not saved, be saved today! 2 Corinthians 2:6 says,  "... behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."       The theme that my youth leader chose for our youth group this year is taking the next step. That is another area that this verse could be applied to. If you  know that God is calling you to do something, choose right now to do it! If you know that God is calling you to a specific area of ministry, surrender to it! If God wants you to be a missionary, tell Him you are willing to go and th...

 " Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord." Leviticus 26:2     This verse gives us two commands. The first is to keep the sabbath. Today, this means to go to church! On Sunday nothing that is not an emergency should get in the way of us going to church. Sleeping, sports, hobbies, family parties, nothing should get in the way of us coming to worship the Lord and hear His Word. We need the weekly time of getting away from all the sin and coming together to worship the Lord with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Exodus 20:8 says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."     The second command is to reverence the sanctuary. We should be careful to keep our church looking nice. When people visit our churches, they should get the impression that we care about the place where we come to worship the Lord. A run-down, dirty building shows signs of ungratefulness and carelessness. Neither of those things bring glory to God. We ought to ...

This month's devotional comes from Mr. Chase Salatino from Heritage Baptist Church in Palmyra, N.Y. “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.”  2 Kings 10:31 Jehu was the only “good” king of Israel during the split kingdoms, he was the king responsible for the death of Jezebel and the entire house of Ahab. He also was responsible for the slaying of the worshippers of Baal and the destruction of the images and house of Baal. These actions even led to the Lord rewarding him with five generations of kings.  “And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” 2 Kings 10:30 It appeared that Jehu was a good king, but in the very next verse the Bible tells us he wasn’t as good a...