Lam 3:27-28 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
When a man crosses the mountains he naturally would like to get across as fast as he can. However, if he carries weights he will profit more by the experience by becoming stronger. If he shuns the weights he will have an easier time of it, but will not have the strength and endurance he may have gained when he reaches the other side of the pass.
In youth young men want to do what they wish. They want to climb this range of mountains without weights, to go fast up the hill, to feel the wind in their faces and the experience of standing free on top of a summit. And yet those that bear no weights will not gain what they could have, what they must have when they reach the other side of the range of youth and into the fields of life. If they have been unrestrained, have run free, if they have built no character or ignored all yokes of ethics and morals, they will find themselves much to weak to work in the plains, and to do what they were created to do.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
Friday, December 14, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Always Ready
1Pe 3:1 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
The conversation went something like this "Why do you believe God exists?"
Christian for over a decade: "I have no clue."
No, it is not uncommon, I have met pastors who thought that to believe the Scriptures, we had to give up logic. I have met many young men who were confused and shaken in their faith by such simple questions as "why do you trust a God you cannot see with your soul" or "how do you know the Bible is better than any other religious book on earth?"
If I am an atheist, and I know why I do not believe in God, and ask a Christian why he does, if he says he does not know, than why should I convert, so I can be relegated to the mindless faith I think Christianity is?
I once talked to a college student who was not sure if he believed in God, he told me that he had asked many Christians how a God could have no beginning and no end, and had never received any answer.
I have traveled a great deal, and will proclaim that to find a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it, and can converse on it in a coherent, sound, logical and Biblical fashion, is a rarity.
I am not saying that we ought know every fact and every argument, that is an impossibility, but to know the Scriptures, which are profitable for reproof, (II Tim 3:16-17), to know logic, not in the fashion of Plato, but in the fashion of Christ.
The atheist may not be persuaded, he probably will not be, for the naturual man recieveth not the things of God, for to him they are foolishness. However, the Holy Spirit may draw him, and the person's mind may be changed about Chrisianity because of your answers.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
The conversation went something like this "Why do you believe God exists?"
Christian for over a decade: "I have no clue."
No, it is not uncommon, I have met pastors who thought that to believe the Scriptures, we had to give up logic. I have met many young men who were confused and shaken in their faith by such simple questions as "why do you trust a God you cannot see with your soul" or "how do you know the Bible is better than any other religious book on earth?"
If I am an atheist, and I know why I do not believe in God, and ask a Christian why he does, if he says he does not know, than why should I convert, so I can be relegated to the mindless faith I think Christianity is?
I once talked to a college student who was not sure if he believed in God, he told me that he had asked many Christians how a God could have no beginning and no end, and had never received any answer.
I have traveled a great deal, and will proclaim that to find a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it, and can converse on it in a coherent, sound, logical and Biblical fashion, is a rarity.
I am not saying that we ought know every fact and every argument, that is an impossibility, but to know the Scriptures, which are profitable for reproof, (II Tim 3:16-17), to know logic, not in the fashion of Plato, but in the fashion of Christ.
The atheist may not be persuaded, he probably will not be, for the naturual man recieveth not the things of God, for to him they are foolishness. However, the Holy Spirit may draw him, and the person's mind may be changed about Chrisianity because of your answers.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
Monday, December 10, 2012
Stop Waiting for the Clock
1Ti 4:1 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
I have met many young men who, because of their youth, think they are too young to do anything great, or, in some cases, too young to do anything at all. However, I do not need to tell you how many young men all throughout history have done great things. I could mention the boy Joash who became king, or the young boy who became caption of a ship at age twelve, on which the prisoners mutinied, and the boy had to put them down, or we could speak of King David, who killed Saul in his teenage years. But that is not what I want to speak about, because you probably know those stories, what I wish to remind you is that being young does not give you a licence to goof off, to be a jester, or to waste your life with comic books and movies, rather "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
I am not saying that if you are not an ambassador to to Russia at age fourteen that you are not mature, but I am saying to stop saying "I am too young." The seeds planted in youth will grow into trees in adulthood. If you waste time now, or if you sit around waiting for an event, you will do so, perhaps forever.
Benjamin Franklin said "Lost time can never be found again." Instead of waiting for your age to increase, seek to make your character and maturity do so. Stop waiting for the clock, start seeking to build yourself into a man.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
I have met many young men who, because of their youth, think they are too young to do anything great, or, in some cases, too young to do anything at all. However, I do not need to tell you how many young men all throughout history have done great things. I could mention the boy Joash who became king, or the young boy who became caption of a ship at age twelve, on which the prisoners mutinied, and the boy had to put them down, or we could speak of King David, who killed Saul in his teenage years. But that is not what I want to speak about, because you probably know those stories, what I wish to remind you is that being young does not give you a licence to goof off, to be a jester, or to waste your life with comic books and movies, rather "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
I am not saying that if you are not an ambassador to to Russia at age fourteen that you are not mature, but I am saying to stop saying "I am too young." The seeds planted in youth will grow into trees in adulthood. If you waste time now, or if you sit around waiting for an event, you will do so, perhaps forever.
Benjamin Franklin said "Lost time can never be found again." Instead of waiting for your age to increase, seek to make your character and maturity do so. Stop waiting for the clock, start seeking to build yourself into a man.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Washington Irving's Christmas Essay
Please forgive how long it has been since I last posted, I have been rather busy. However, I would recommend a Christmas Essay recently sent to me by a friend, by Washington Irving, a very good true story of a Christmas Mr. Irving spent in England.
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