TJC National Youth Ministry

(adapted from a preacher's sermon)

As many of us just finished the semester or are entering the last stretch of the school year, we are also getting closer and closer to summer break. And though "break" may actually be a misnomer for those of us with plans and more plans lined up for the summer, there could still be some benefit from taking a moment to reflect on what it means for us as the spiritual chosen people to make the three days' journey into the wilderness.

When Moses was at the burning bush, God instructed him to say to Pharaoh, "'The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'" (Ex 3:18) The first time Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh, Pharaoh denied them their request and increased the Israelites' workload. After the fourth plague Pharaoh attempted to bargain by saying "'I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away.'" (Ex 8:28) Later Pharaoh said he would allow the journey if only the men went (Ex 10:11), and once more changed his conditions that the Israelites could go if they left behind their livestock (Ex 10:24). It was only after the Egyptians were struck with the tenth plague that Pharaoh finally allowed the Israelites--including the wives, elderly, children, and livestock--go.

Today, each of us may be experiencing different degrees of bondage. Perhaps we have forgotten we need to draw near to God, or worldly responsibilities are tying us down, or maybe we only have enough strength to go part of the way before sin draws us back. Perhaps we have family and friends still in Egypt, and they become reason enough for us to go back. Or it could be worldly material possessions distracting us from making the full journey. Pharaoh will use whatever he can to prevent us from completely breaking away. But with God's help, we can have the determination and make this three day's journey--no compromises.

Questions for Reflection
1. Can we identify the things in our lives that are hindering us from truly reaching God?
2. What were some ways that have worked for you in the past that helped you refocus and enable you to fully go into the "wilderness" in order to serve/sacrifice to God?

A few weeks ago, three elementary school-aged siblings attended our spiritual convocation services with their neighbors, a church sister and her daughter, and have been coming to church ever since. They told us that they like coming to our church because they feel that God is really here, and although they are so young, they pay attention during RE classes, sing hymns loudly during service, and have even started praying together at home every night. Although their parents discourage them from coming to church and praying, they continue to do so every week.

Seeing such a faith in such young children is simply moving. It has caused many members of our campus fellowship to reflect upon what God really means to us.  While these young siblings want to draw close to God even when they are being discouraged from doing so, we students have so many opportunities to spend time with God yet often feel that we are too busy to pray or read the Bible. Let us ask ourselves, how often do we cherish the opportunity to be with God? Do we realize how privileged we are to be able to talk to God at any time and to spend time in His church? Psalm 73:28 says, “But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works.” Let us realize how blessed we are to be able to draw close to God and learn to take every opportunity to do so.

Questions for Reflection:
Are there blessings in our lives that we have overlooked or have yet to give thanks for?
How can we use the time we have to draw closer to God?

“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” (Rev 6:5-6)

Recently, I’ve been slipping in my Bible reading and prayer habits, and when my parents found out about it, I was directed towards these two verses in Revelations. These verses tell of the end times, when there may no longer be a church to attend or pastors to carry out visitations. In those times, there will be famine, and everybody will need to feed themselves.

Many times, we take Bible reading and prayer too lightly, sometimes because we think we can afford to. After all, there are church events, weekly Sabbath services, and friends and family to rely on. However, in the end, everybody will need to have the ability to feed themselves. What would our spirituality look like if we were to be almost totally independent?

In the passage above, wheat and barley are food, representative of God’s Word, which is food for our spiritual selves. The oil and wine represent the Holy Spirit, and all of these are necessary for our spiritual health and growth. However, wheat and barley cost money. The denarius represents how much each person is able to draw nourishment from the Word of God, and in that way continue to grow and survive.

As the end days draw closer and closer, it becomes more and more important for each one of us to possess that denarius, so if it ever becomes necessary, we will have the means to survive on our own. If the time comes, but we don’t have the money, we will eventually starve to death. While we still have time, and while God’s grace is still upon us, we need to diligently develop a disciplined prayer and Bible reading habit.

Questions for Reflection
1.    How important is daily prayer and Bible reading to you?
2.    How much of your “daily bread” is fed to you?
3.    What are good ways of establishing a long lasting P&RB habit?

This week I was assigned to teach E2 class, and while I was preparing for it, I was actually greatly encouraged by God’s word. The lesson was about Paul’s second missionary trip and how he was directed towards his next destination through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.” [Acts 16:6-7]

The past couple of months have been quite rocky for me. Major decisions have been piling up one by one just waiting for me to take care of.  For this reason, I began to pray a lot about my future, hoping that God would give me a clear answer and tell me what decisions to make. But the days just passed by and nothing became any clearer to me. I was extremely discouraged and so frustrated because in every case, no choice seemed to be the right choice. At one point, I became so stressed out that I had a complete mental breakdown.

Finally, though, after preparing to teach this RE lesson, everything began to make sense. In the passage the Holy Spirit did not permit Paul and his companions to enter a certain region or to preach there. However, it wasn’t as if God spoke directly to him, telling him where he was and wasn’t supposed to go. So then, how did Paul know where he was going? He probably didn’t. But even so, at the end of the day, Paul still ended up where he was supposed to be.

This is when I realized that sometimes all we can do is blindly step forward in life. But then again, blind might not be the best word to use, because even if we’re unable to see what the right path is, we always have God to rely on. He knows where we should go, and if we trust Him to be our eyes, we will always end up at the right place like Paul did. Answers may never be clear-cut, but if we never cease to pray and ask for God’s guidance, submitting ourselves to His will, then we won’t have to worry about the future anymore. All that’s left for us to do is courageously move forward one step at a time, knowing that God will silently nudge us in the right direction if we start to get off course.

Questions for Reflection:
1)   Are you facing any major decisions in life that you are uncertain about? Why do you feel uncertain, and how can you overcome this uncertainty?
2)   What are the steps that you take in making major decisions in your life? Do these steps include God?

Read Matthew 25:14-29.

I was once talented. I could read the Bible, and at least vaguely recall many Bible stories when others brought them up, be it in conversation, RE class, or sermons. It seemed like a common talent, so I paid it no attention. Then without knowing it, I turned away and “buried the talent” if you will. Distracted by the world and not treasuring the knowledge and word that God had put into my heart, I read the bible casually at times, with no focus or meditation. I was satisfied with knowing to be a good person, but did not care to know God’s word. When I realized what I had done, it was too late. And now, I struggle to relearn the stories of the Bible, to regain a “basic Christian background.” Slowly, I am learning again that God’s word can train, rebuke, and guide me to righteousness. And hopefully one day, with more self-cultivation and Bible study, we can all wield His word to train and rebuke each other to righteousness according to His will.

Questions for reflection:
What talents have you been trying to make use of for God?
What God-given talents have you been forsaking? Why?
What God-given talents do you take for granted?
What can you do to nurture your talents and make them multiply?
How has God helped you nurture your talents for His purpose?

To the many humble brethren out there--if you can’t think of any talents, here’s a list of basics to start you off: read, speak, listen, walk, smile, ...

Recently, I was thinking about how much I disliked the rain. It’s wet, it makes it hard to drive sometimes, it makes things dirty, it causes lots of people to stay in and for some students (like me), to skip class at times because they simply don’t want to walk in the rain. But then I thought, “There must be a purpose for rain. There must be a reason why God would pour down great amounts of water at a time down to earth.” So, I listed out some reasons why rain would be good and beneficial. Without rain, there would be no fresh water rivers flowing from the mountains, there would be no ponds, no lakes, no streams--all of which are needed for any organism living on this planet to survive. Without rain, there would be no water cycle--there would be no water for soil to absorb, and this would deprive plants of their necessity for water uptake. And if you really think about it, without these plants, we would not have any oxygen. We would just be breathing out carbon dioxide and die from our own CO2 because of the lack of oxygen that these plants aren’t providing. Either that, or we would die from lack of food because without these plants (that need water to survive), herbivores would die, and without these herbivores, carnivores and omnivores would die. Our whole cycle of life would just turn to chaos, and unfortunate events would happen. Also, without rain, a lot of us wouldn’t get free car washes.

So, just as water is needed in order for our flesh to live, spiritual water is important for our spiritual bodies to live as well.  In the Bible Jesus says, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14) This water that Jesus talks about giving is the His Word and His Holy Spirit. Once we have received it, we will never thirst because of the joy we have in receiving it. The joy of having Him so close to our hearts and feeling Him guiding us when we abide by His spirit. The joy of being filled with His perfect, holy, and merciful love. He also says that we will become a fountain of water, but if we do not continuously pray, our water will soon be dried out. Like earth, we need continuous watering. We need continuous watering of God’s Word and His Spirit. If our spiritual life lacks spiritual cultivation, then soon enough, we will be spiritually dead--dry and withered up. But God encourages those who feel dry of spiritual water when He says, “The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys’ I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” (Isa 41:17-18) God says he will not forsake the needy and He will restore those who are dry to springs of living water. In conclusion, keep drinking the spiritual water because it is the source of your spiritual life that brings everlasting life.  Do not look down on or forget the importance of spiritual cultivation.

Questions for Reflection:
1.     Do you feel spiritually deprived of the living water? Why or why not?
2.     Think and share about a time when you have felt the joy of the Holy Spirit, God’s love, Bible passages/verses, prayer, etc.
3.     What are ways to help us remember to continuously drink the spiritual water?

Lately, I’ve been feeling really bogged down by school and worrying about my career. It’s been to the point where I have my priorities wrong, my daily spiritual cultivation has been lacking, and my relationship with God is affected, even to the point of where I know I need to change but feel powerless to do so. This past Sabbath though, was very refreshing for me. In our senior class, we talked about what makes a fellowship grow. There were a lot of good points that were brought up, such as having the fellowship feel like a family, having God present in the fellowship, having a fellowship that seeks after Him and truly trusts in His power, and more. We also talked about how people leave church because they aren’t able to straighten out their priorities, or they feel like they don’t fit in with people that seem to have such high moral standards.

Through this talk, I realized that I’ve lost sight of what’s more important, and I realized that I haven’t been caring about God’s business. When we become so worried about ourselves, consumed by our own goals and passions, before we know it, we become one who lives a selfish life, not benefiting anybody and just toiling for vanity. But if we take a step back, take a look at our surroundings, take a look at our lives and at those around us, we can realize that there’s so much more to our life than getting good grades, getting a stable career, and living a comfortable life.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John 12:24)

When this grain of wheat dies, it’s sacrificing itself. It’s a living sacrifice that realizes the purpose of it’s life. If this grain of wheat doesn’t die, doesn’t feel like going through the trouble of sacrificing, just waits for others to sacrifice, it remains alone. It just comes and goes—passes away. If it is able to die though, it produces much grain. In our own fellowship, how much love the members feel, how much God will abide, how much the members will spiritually grow depends a lot on us individually. To care for members as if they were our family, to overcome our own weaknesses so that God may abide and that we may encourage others, to seek after God diligently that we may be able to share our struggles and our experiences. Have we been a blessing to our fellowship? Have we been looking to benefit from the fellowship, or have we been looking to benefit the fellowship? If no one wants to sacrifice, the fellowship will grow cold. The fellowship will not be able to represent the body of Christ, because Christ Himself was the one who made the ultimate sacrifice. He sat with the sinners, He preached the gospel, He healed those who were sick, He bore our sins, and through His death, we now live. Our Christ-centered fellowship is one that is a fellowship of sacrifice—of love and servitude.

Let us learn that to give is to better than to receive, and that without sacrifice, we will not be able to produce much. If we are able to fall to the ground and die, we may be able to spark the love of God, and spread it to those around us. May God help us to be a blessing to those around us, that we may share the life of Jesus through the death of ourselves.

Questions for Reflection:
What makes a fellowship grow? What makes a fellowship weak? How can we help our own local fellowship/church grow?

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18)

It’s often so easy for us to lose sight of what is most important and truly important. This is because it’s so easy for us to fix our eyes on what is seen: school, grades, job, money, success, entertainment, etc. Even so, we may still see church and God as a part of our lives, but that’s where the problem is: it’s a part of our lives—a part we often put to the side, a part we often subconsciously label as secondary.

The more God doesn’t remain the primary focus of our lives, the further we drift away from actively pursuing the unseen. Our minds begin to clutter with things we need to do. Prayers may begin to seem long and going nowhere. At the same time, sermons and church activities may start to feel more and more meaningless. Not putting God as the focus of our lives blinds us from the deep joy of prayer and Bible reading.

But why feel this way? Why feel far from God when we could instead experience His sweet and loving abidance daily? We have this opportunity to serve the Almighty God who created the whole universe. We have this opportunity to be friends with the King of kings, the Lord of lords—Jesus Himself! And yet, we often forsake so many of these opportunities of gaining eternal rewards, salvaging temporary and earthly gains instead. Have we really forgotten the awesome mansions of heaven? What about the great rewards and treasures from sacrificing and suffering for God on earth?

Let’s fix on eyes on these awesome, unseen things instead. Yes, we will have to give up a lot. Yes, we will “lose” out on pleasures in life. Yes, we will have to do things out of our comfort zone. But, all these sacrifices are light and momentary troubles compared to the eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Our time on earth is but a second compared to eternity, and yet, we can gain everlasting rewards by how we live this second.

How will you decide to spend this short life?

Questions for Reflection:
1. What are some “seen” things in your life that you fix your eyes on? Why is it so hard to shift your focus away?
2. What are some changes you can make in your daily life to put God as the primary focus?