When I was 19...
I have kept a journal for several years. Last week on vacation, I took some time to read from my journal when I was 19.
Tuesday Jan 4 1983
Today was good. Mike came home with me after school. We played catch and had supper. Afterwards we talked for about 1.5 hours. He said that Tuesday he tried to letGod in. Hallelujah! Tonight when I was talking with him, he said he couldn’t understand. I then prayed silently to loose the spirits of understanding and knowledge to come to Mike. About 30 seconds later, I was saying “Some people consider Christianity to be boring, dull no fun, etc…” He asked me to repeat that again. As I did, he said that things went wild in his head. He described it as a thousand images. God had supernaturally given him knowledge. He began remembering the great time that he had when he was a kid. He had felt God then. Basically he was overwhelmed by the thoughts going on in his head.
Reading this, reminded me of the bold faith I had as a youth, willing to tell others about Jesus, but also realizing that when talking to people about Jesus, I CAN RELEASE SPIRITS OF UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWLEDGE so the veil that is over people’s minds can be lifted, so they will know the truth. Frankly, this was a reminder to me to be doing this when telling others about Jesus.
When Duncan and Kate Smith were with us two weeks ago, Duncan taught that all of the disciples except Peter were teenagers. How did he know that? In Matthew 17, when Jesus instructed Peter to pay the temple tax by saying “Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours,” Jesus didn’t instruct Peter to pay the other disciples’ taxes because all of the other disciples were exempt because of their age. The temple tax was only for those 20 years and older. Only Jesus and Peter had to pay the tax, because they were the only ones among the disciples who were 20 or older! Duncan put it this way by asking us, “when you picture Jesus and the disciples do you picture Jesus with a group of teenagers? You should, because that’s who they were!”
My journal entry reminded me how open my friend Mike was to the gospel and how open many youth are to the gospel. Duncan illustrated this point to us, by asking those in attendance to raise their hands if they had given their hearts to Jesus before the age of 30. Most all hands in the room were raised. Only a few had given their hearts to Jesus after 30. Duncan said it is the same every place he goes. The harvest is among the youth. Duncan preached that, just as Jesus did, we should focus on youth. We should expect a harvest amongst our youth.
Lord send us to the youth!
