Jump Start # 3625
Daniel 3:18 “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Around here schools are starting up. Another school year. The big yellow busses will roll through the neighborhoods picking kids up in the mornings. Stores are stocked with back to school supplies Vacations are over and now it’s time to settle into the routine of a new school year.
Recently, I presented a lesson pointed this direction. I want to share some of those thoughts in this writing.
Another school year presents opportunities, challenges and choices, for the child as well as for the parents. For some families, going to school will be a new adventure for some homes. Some will be off to new schools this year. Some off to universities.
As a believer, young or old, at school, at work, or on social media, there will be three things we face:
First, your convictions will be assaulted. Unfair, unkind and untrue things will be said. It happened to Jesus. It happened to the first Christians. It will happen today. Hiding your faith is not an option. But neither is getting into a dog fight with someone who just wants to make you look bad.
Second, your values will be challenged. The devil used verses to tempt Jesus. There will be those who claim to know the Bible who really do not. Some will twist, bend and distort the Bible to their own purposes. You will be considered narrow, bigoted and judgmental and some will not have anything to do with you because of that.
Third, you will be influenced to do wrong. Satan always provides both an opportunity to do wrong and a crowd to encourage you on. Doing right often finds you standing alone. Doing wrong, always finds a crowd.
This is why having a solid faith is important. Learning to see through things is important. Having a positive spiritual support system is important. When your child is young, you just tell him what to do. As he grows, you must teach him to think, reason and consider. With those tools, he’ll learn to ask the right questions before jumping into things. He’ll place God’s word as the guiding compass in his life.
Current stats show that 50-80% of college students lose their faith by the time they graduate. They come home with a degree and no belief in the Lord. Homes and congregations need to strengthen the faith of our young people through studies of evidences and answer the common questions that are going to cross their paths. Keeping the college students strong and engaged during those years is essential.
Don’t hide from those difficult questions that students hear and wonder about. Don’t give childlike answers to their complex questions. Our world has changed. People are wondering about changing genders, traditions and the “what’s wrong with,” stuff that some have shied away from because they are controversial, sensitive, and difficult.
When Paul walked the streets of Athens, he saw their idols. That’s what he talked about. That was their world. And, we must notice our world today and those are the things that we need to be looking at through the pages of the Bible.
Kids are smart. They know when we don’t know. They know when we are blowing smoke, dodging a topic and afraid to say things. Believe me, they are hearing the other side of these topics from the world. And, what they hear is unfiltered, raw, and blunt. And, as we delicately tiptoe around things, they are bombarded with reasons not to believe. From the classroom, to videos they watch, from the lips of their friends, they hear all the time why wrong is right and right is wrong.
Our kids need to know more than just reciting the books of the Bible in order. They need to be able to stand as Shadrach and his two friends did in a hostile, pagan environment. For them, it was Babylon. For our kids, it may be the university here in America.
It’s time to lower the nets into depth and get our children to think. A weak and shallow faith has no hope of survival in today’s universities. Let’s strap on the helmets, put on the boots and get to action. The souls of our children deserve it. “Just because,” isn’t an answer. It’s an excuse. If moms and dads don’t know the answers to todays challenging questions, then let’s find the answers.
In a foreign land, to the most powerful world leader at that time, Shadrach and this two friends, stood with faith, confidence and assurance. They would not be intimidated. They would not be scared off. They would not be beaten down. And, because of that faith, the king honored the Lord.
Those that survive, will do well.
Roger