Your Bible and You by Arthur Stanley Maxwell Lawrence Maxwell

Author:Arthur Stanley Maxwell, Lawrence Maxwell [Maxwell, Arthur Stanley Maxwell, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, Religion, General, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Seventh-Day Adventists, Seventh-Day Adventist, Adventists
ISBN: 9780828020244
Google: w1pRx3KodKUC
Publisher: Review and Herald Pub Assoc
Published: 1991-02-14T22:00:00+00:00

24

The Road to Radiant Youth

The highway to happy childhood and the road to radiant youth are one and the same. Only the grades are different.

In both cases the essential element is knowledge of God and His Word; but while for children this must be imparted by parents and teachers, for youth it must be personally absorbed and applied.

To the question “How can a young man keep his way pure?” the psalmist answered, “By guarding it according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9, RSV).

The way of life must be guarded according to the Word of God. This calls for prayerful study of the Bible and resolute action in harmony with its teachings-two vital phases of a personal experience.

David continued: “With my whole heart I seek thee; let me not wander from thy commandments! I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee” (verses 10, 11).

Laying up the Word involves memorizing it, thinking about it, and putting it into practice. It means giving God first place in all one’s plans and decisions.

Fortunate is the youth who starts out with this understanding of what matters most in life. With God’s Word in his heart he will be guarded from all evil. His determination to walk in harmony with God’s law will invite the blessings of Heaven. In simple goodness and humble nobility, his life will become ever more radiant with the glory of God.

This was powerfully illustrated in the life of Daniel, the young prince of Judah who was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar about 606 B.C.

After he arrived in Babylon with a host of fellow prisoners, he was soon confronted with a serious personal problem. He had to decide whether he should partake of the food and drink that was set before him. The record does not state what the food was, but it may well have been pork, forbidden in the Levitical law. Certainly the wine was fermented. Probably both were first offered to the idols of Babylon.

Daniel was aware that as a slave he had no rights, but as a child of God he had a conscience. Having been brought up to love and obey God, he felt he could not do anything displeasing to Him no matter what the cost. So your Bible says, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8).

He asked for a more wholesome diet, and his request was granted. But his determination not to violate his conscience marked him as a youth with a future. And what a future it was!

Shortly thereafter he and three friends who had taken the same courageous stand were brought before Nebuchadnezzar. After a lengthy interrogation, “in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm” (verse 20).

Because Daniel walked with God from day to day, he became God’s messenger to reveal and interpret the king’s forgotten dream.

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