Thought 4 Today

Are you being pressured to become sexually active? Many young people write me about these types of issues, and down to a one the person who's always concerned about it is the female. Men, once they have the opportunity to become sexually active, can typically only think about one thing--the next time they can have sex! God's plan is a simple one. Do not have sexual relations outside of the covenant of marriage. Females are often gifted with giving personalities, and men are quite often quite willing to provide the "but I love you" pressure or the "we'll be married one day" pressure to help convince the fairer sex to give in. Applying the pressure is sin, falling for the pressure is sin, and ANY sexual impurity is sin. I can't put it much plainer. But, if you've gone down this road, God's plan is equally simple and He is always forgiving if we do things HIS way. First, STOP today, agree with God that you've sinned and confess it to Him, THEN, remain pure until you are married. And... since we're on the topic, any man who says he loves you but is unwilling to sacrifice for you (and for God) is a liar. His love is only for himself. "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." Colossians 3:5 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

Recently, I spent some time chatting with a young woman who was regretting getting herself into a sexual situation with a young man. Although she felt bad about allowing him to do something she really didn't want to do, she confessed, "I just didn't know how to say 'no' to him." I sadly told her that situations like this were bound to happen again and again if she didn't learn to stand her ground. Not being able to say "no" could honestly have been a death sentence before she knew it because of the things she'd wind up saying "yes" to. Then I was reminded of a quote from a leadership conference I once attended that tried to help executives prioritize things better. The quote from author and leadership guru, Stephen Covey, goes like this: The way to say "no" to something is to have a bigger "yes" burning inside of you. The "yes" my young friend needed was a simple one: "Yes, Jesus!" "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him" Phillippians 3:7b-9a  Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

I've often told ministers who were down because they were forced to work extra jobs that it was fine to do that as necessary, "Hey, even Paul had a job making tents," I would say. There's even a name that's passed around Christian circles for a pastor's other work. The second job is called a "tent making job." Although I was correct about it being OK for the pastor or minister to have another job, I recently revisited the Scripture about Paul's tent making and noticed that I had missed something. Paul only made tents until there was sufficient help to relieve him of those duties. After that, he was able to devote himself more fully to what the Lord had called him to do. Not everyone is called to preach and to teach, but everyone is called to help forward the cause of the gospel of Christ. One is not necessarily more important than the other. In fact, for the majority of us preaching sermons will not be our calling. Instead, our calling is often to support our local church financially so that those called to serve there can devote themselves to their work. "Paul went to see them [fellow believers Aquila & Prescilla], and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ." Acts 18:2b-5 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

If you know much of anything about Christianity, you'll know that God has revealed Himself to humankind as a "triune being", meaning that He has three parts, each separate, but each one very much God. And, even though they are separate, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are also all one. Kind of like a whole family of "Smith's" would all be one as Smiths, but would also all be separate. Now, unlike the Smith's, can you imagine for a moment that three parts of the same perfect and holy God would have disagreements? Idiotic, I know! Then imagine for a moment how idiotic it must seem to God when WE, all parts of the same body (the body of Christ) have divisions and disagreements with one another and are not only happy to do it, but proud of it. Ridiculous as it sounds, if you look at any church you'll find divisions, and very few are founded on anything more serious than who took the other person's parking spot! Analyze your relationships in your church or youth group. If there are broken relationships, do your best to fix them. If you've done your best, then God knows you're on solid ground. If not, make another attempt. Divisions are not something that honors God and we need to do everything we can to stop them, or to fix them as necessary. "In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extend I believe it." 1 Corinthians 11:17-18 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

Imagine for a moment that Jesus walked into the room you're in right now and looked right at you. Immediately, you feel like He's looking right into your deepest, darkest secrets and understanding every motivation of your heart, both good and bad. You don't know what to think, but you know there's no use to hide the truth--you are evil inside and you know it. The only hope is to drop the pretense and simply accept the hand that Jesus is now offering. He offers it in spite of what He knows about your soul. As you take His hand, He doesn't care about your sin any longer; He died for that sin too! "Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?'" John 4:28-29 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34 Those of the Jewish faith had (and still have) a serious problem with Jesus. Not only did He rock their religious establishment, but they were looking for a different kind of savior. They interpreted Scriptures that indicated the Messiah would come to destroy their enemies as proof that no "passivist" could be their long-awaited Messiah. Even though He sometimes talked about destruction of their enemies, He seemingly did nothing! Where was the sword? Where were the mass graves filled with Israel's enemies? Although there are some fringe groups who believe otherwise, true Christians (like the Christ they follow) do not need to kill or mock those who don't believe like they do. We are not like governments around the world who put those of other faiths to death. We live in and among many who think and believe differently than us. We don't drive airplanes into buildings to kill many and intimidate others. None of us are called to machine-gun others because of their faith! We are called to use a different type of sword. It's the one that Jesus brought that remains largely unnoticed by an unbelieving world. Oh, His enemies will fall by the sword alright, but not by one made of steel! They will fall by the sword He left for us to read, study, and become experts at yielding! Honestly, have you picked up your sword lately? "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12-13 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

What do you spend most of your time fighting? In the course of any given day I'll wind up fighting the craziest stuff; my copier for example, traffic, people who don't see things my way, and I even seem to fight with myself a lot, too. But is that where Christians are supposed to be waging war? In this life there's not going to be any end to the stuff we need to put up with day-to-day, but win or lose, is any of it really important in the spiritual sense? And, if we are fighting against the world, then why are we doing it with anything less than spiritual weapons? If we could have fought the Satan and his angels by ourselves, Jesus wouldn't have had to die to break the bonds of sin! I'm convinced that we (the church today) has a very shallow view of prayer and of the powers of darkness in this age. It's almost funny that just about any New Age, Buddhist or Wicca follower would know more about the spirit world than we would. Forget about your worldly troubles and get serious about praying for God's will to be done. You just might be blown away at how God breaks down what lies before you! "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate

"I just can't do it!" Do those words sound familiar to you? Maybe you've even said them yourself. I get a good amount of mail from teens (and even some adults) who are seeking advice on an issue of sin in their life. I research the item biblically, and then I respond with the appropriate Scripture, and usually some words of encouragement. Often, I'll get a reply in a few days with the "I can't!" statement. I guess I'm rarely surprised by it because I was once in the same boat. Several bad habits and some persistent sins were just impossible for me to gain any real ground on. And then one day everything changed. I stopped focusing on what I needed to stop and started focusing on what I needed to start. First, I embraced God on His terms, repenting and accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior--my only hope! Then I began to attend church and to study His Word daily. Before long I developed a habit of prayer, and before even I knew it, nearly all of my old ways had faded away. It's quite simple really. We need God to make us new. Until we're born again, we just can't seem to get away from our old heritage--the heritage we have with Satan. When we scream "I can't," we're probably right! "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26-27 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate