Know Your Bible

VOL. 14 September 6, 2015 NO. 26

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CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS TO TEEN PREGNANCIES 2

It is my hope and prayer that you have benefited from the previous article. If you have been inspired, I invite you to share this message with those around you. Now, let us continue to explore this list of solutions to the crisis of teenage pregnancy. Why do we have a crisis of teenage pregnancy?

6. Because we do not recognize that if we hide the word of God in our hearts, we will have the power to resist sin. "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” Psalms 119:11. The word of God can change our hearts. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

7. Because the parents of teenagers have failed to make sure the word of God is ingrained in their own selves, thus they are not able to fulfill God’s word. "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." Deuteronomy 6:6-8.

If every one of us started reading four chapters of the Bible every day beginning on January 1, on October 25 of the same year we would have read the entire Bible. But yet some of us go a lifetime and never even read the entire New Testament. How in all the world could such a person obey Deuteronomy 6:6-8? How could a parent teach what he does not know?

So often we hear parents saying, “I talk to my children all the time about sex and other moral issues.” The problem is,What could you be talking about if you don't know the Scripture? We must realize that the power of conversion is not in our own words. The power to change the lives of all of us including our children is in the words of God.

What would happen if we required our children to read (from the time they were able to read) two or three chapters of the Bible every day? There are some who will challenge me at this point and contend that they do require their children to read the Bible. But the issue is how consistently is this done? Can your teenager start at the beginning of Genesis and summarize it from that point to the end? If a child has been repetitiously reading anything, then that child will learn it. Thus when a child or an adult does not know “hide nor hair” of a book in the Bible, then that child or parent simply has not been spending as much time in the Holy Scriptures as they have made themselves believe. Thus they fail to benefit from the word of God.

8. Because we do not demand and encourage our children to put in practice the principles of the Scripture from an early age. For example, if we want our children to be kind, let us insist from an early age that they demonstrate kindness. Lets show appreciation when they do. If we want our children to be full of courage, then we should encourage and arrange for challenges for success so that we can instill courage in our children. We help them do this from an early age.

From an early age, we help them to learn not to follow the crowd. From an early age, we must help our children to verbalize why they do not follow the crowd. Thus we help them to handle peer pressure by being a leader not a follower. If our children must wear everything “crazy” that everyone else is wearing, we might need to stop that early. If a child leans early, that they will not follow the crowd in what they wear, then they may not be so inclined to follow the crowd when the crowd insists on sex to be accepted. When our children (from an early age) practice godliness, they develop strength to resist ungodliness.

9. Because from an early age, we do not teach our children to be loyal. This means defending the authority under which they reside. We must teach our children not to tolerate criticism of their parents. Not to tolerate criticism of the church for taking a moral stand. We must teach them to defend it and to speak out. There is a strong possibility that children with godly parents will hear criticism of their parents when they impose benefiting restrictions. At such time, they hear the message, “Your parents sure are backwards.” Children who do not have the resolve to defend their parents, will absorb this message (sometimes given by their peers) and the effect of the parent's authority will be diminished. Thus the teaching of the parent about sex does not take root.

10. Because parents, the church, and others of authority are hypocrites. Parents need to teach their children that sex outside of marriage is wrong and then comply with that themselves. Too many preachers are preaching all the while living in sin. And then someone proclaims, “Taking your child to church won't matter.” Maybe not if that church is full of hypocrisy. Maybe not, if between the lines of the song “Oh how I love Jesus,” we are backbiting every sister and brother. Maybe not, if the only thing that the child hears in the home is a negative view of the church. Then we wonder why it did not have a positive effect on their lives.

If a congregation is bad (and not all congregations are good, particularly those that tolerate preachers living in adultery and those that do not teach the pure doctrine of Christ), then go to one where you can give it praise before your child. But I must say that a parent is not a hypocrite for having done wrong in the past if he has stopped such wrongdoing. A person, who used drugs and stopped, is not wrong to tell his children not to use them. Such a person has repented.

In the past, I allowed the sin of pornography to enter into my life. I felt the need to confess to the church that I had allowed this sin in my life. Thus I repented. There is nothing wrong with parents telling a child that they don't want them to make the same mistakes that they have made provided they have repented and ceased the sin.

(To be continued in two additional parts.)

—Abraham Smith

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NOTHING TO LIVE FOR

A Somebody once said, "Many people have everything to live with and nothing to live for." How true that is.

Many wealthy people live hollow, meaningless lives. They have more than enough possessions to make life comfortable, but they have little purpose in life to make it meaningful. It takes decades before some people eventually realize that life lived for mere self-indulgence is ultimately an empty life. A time can come, however, when even the shiniest new car, or the biggest house, or the flashiest jewelry, can't mask the hollowness of a life without high purpose.

The Bible doesn't condemn all wealth, and new cars and nice houses are not wrong. But lasting satisfaction doesn't come from mere things or self-indulgence. On the other hand, people with little to live with may have much to live for. For example, Jesus' apostles were not wealthy (Acts 3:6), but their lives had real purpose.

The Scriptures assure us that God can bring purpose into our lives, too. He can give us something to live for that is missing from the lives of people whose lives are hollow and without purpose. It has been said that “a man who has not lost himself in a cause bigger than himself, has missed one of life’s mountaintop experience that can last the rest of your life”. -- it can ultimately take you to be with God.

—David Watts

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