Friday, April 4, 2014

A crisis for teenagers and beyond

Hi All

I have been thinking lately about why so many young people and even young adults in their 20,30,40s see it necessary to take their lives to end what appears to them to be an unfulfilled life.

As someone who was brought up from a very young age in the confines of church surroundings I have found that I always had an underlying assurance that God was who He said He was and that He was always there as someone to confide in and ultimately rely on.

At the early age of 13yrs realising that I had sin in my life and that it needed to be dealt with, I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation from sins curse and eternal security that only He can give.
I saw a witness from others that convinced me that God was One who would always be a constant in my life.
I did fail Him many times after my original decision yet I always knew of His loving and restraining hand on my shoulder.
Thankfully He led me in a way of His choosing so that with His blessing I am where I am today in His work.

Why I am relating this in thinking about a younger generation?
When I look at teens, twenties, thirties and perhaps even into forties I see generations that did not have the same influences from church based organisations and pastoral care that I was privileged to have.
Things like Sunday School, youth club, after church meetings, Boys Brigade and many other activities that kept me in touch with my God.
Many may well say well this church thing is wrong and it gives our children a false hope of a Deity that may be true but maybe is not true.

That may well be an opinion of those who are a stranger to God's love and care through Salvation however this man can attest to a supernatural keeping of my soul by His power.
Our children today and others who are adults in many cases do not have the surety that when humanly speaking all else fails there is a personage in God in whom they can turn to and He will always listen.
Whether that is a real relationship with God or not the teaching and assurance at a young age that God is there may well have saved many a young person's or older person's life as they sought to die. The teaching that there is a person in whom there is no change is definitely an assurance in life that counteracts despair.
Some might say this is Psychosomatic and that I am advocating that someone may well be saved by a false hope.

Obviously my earnest prayer is that  many would see and believe in the Salvation that God provides through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
All really I am stating today is that there is a rise in suicides and depression illnesses because society has disposed of God and the hope that He always brought to past generations.
Is this disposal of God right for the people of this world

The problem is that God has been and currently is being airbrushed out of the lives of all and when it comes to despair then that someone (maybe a family member) in thinking that nobody in the human sense understands, will have no one not even God to turn to.

Why? Because they have never been taught about God and His love for the individual.
No matter what you as an individual think about God surely the thought of our children being taught wholesome truths from the Bible is more beneficial than the trash that they see on TV, computer type games and also listen to in their headphones.

Two passages of scripture stuck with me from Primary school days and have been a source of comfort and strength throughout the rest of my turbulent years and I leave them with you:
Isaiah 26:3-4 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (4) Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (6) In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
May God be your help in times of despair.
He is always a constant in this world when all things around us fail.
Sin that we all have condemns us to separation from God in eternity but acceptance in belief and faith of the gift of His Son Jesus Christ and His sacrifice at the cross saves and seals us in salvation.
Act 4:12 - Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Thanks for reading


Peter Skillen
www.braehillbaptist.org