Instructions To A Young Life

Love is so amazing. Love empowers the giver of love and the receiver of the love. Love influences and changes lives. Love gives worth to the recipient and even gives greater worth to the one who gives love. Love sets free the one who loves and sets free the one who is loved. Love gives great joy to the recipient and even greater joy to the giver. There is nothing that can compare with love. Money can not buy it. Love can not be sold. Love is a gift that is a choice of the lover and the one who is loved to receive the gift of love. Love can not be forced but it is a force that changes people, nations and the world. The one who loves is more at peace, has more joy, experiences more freedom and is richer than the richest person who has ever lived. With love people can do far more than they ever dreamed and without love a person is almost paralyzed with loneliness, fear and many other ailments.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. I John 4:8

God is love. Love is who God is and the Lord made man to receive love and to give love. The Lord made man in His image and an attribute of God is love.

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; Genesis 1:27, 28a

Man and woman together is the image of God. It is a mystery and it is beautiful the way God created male and female. We need each other. It is not good for man or woman to be alone.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

It is not good for a husband and wife to be alone. The Lord called them to multiply so that together they could not only love each other but love another with the love they had together.

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, Genesis 1:28a

Love is a choice and the Lord allowed choices in the garden so that man and woman could always choose to love God. God loved Adam and Eve but He did not force them to love Him.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16,17

The Lord still offers man the choice to love Him. Love means coming to God. God’s grace through Jesus Christ is His invitation to come to Him and be restored to Him and to live in His amazing love.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Eternal life is knowing God. When a person comes to God then they come into a personal knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3

When a person comes to know God then they also come into an experiential knowledge of the love of God. This love changes their life. This love changes everything about them. This love of God changes their desires, their decisions and their destiny. The love of God through Jesus Christ sets them free from their unforgiveness, bitterness, their sin and their guilt. This love from God living in them through His Holy Spirit empowers them to live above their circumstances and to have a peace and a joy in their circumstances. This love of God gives them more worth than all the money in the world for now they are a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. I John 3:1a

God’s love is truly amazing and although we will most likely never fully understand it we can experience in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is love and the expression of love. When we know Jesus Christ then we know love. When we become God’s child then we have love. When we give God’s love to others then we express His love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. I John 4:7

Nothing in all of the world has a greater influence than love. Men and women can be forced to do things they don’t want to do but love will cause the very things that they otherwise would not want to do seem like privileges to the one who loves and is loved. No one has had a greater influence on mankind than Jesus Christ. He never forced anyone to follow Him. He loved his followers.

Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1b

He never asked of anyone anything that He himself had not already done. His leadership style was not being served but rather He came to serve.

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28

His power was not in Himself but He trusted One who could not be seen.

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, John 5:19

He did nothing on His own initiative and never sought His own will.

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 5:30

He never sought His own glory.

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. John 7:18

He was faithful to do the work that God had given Him to do.

I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. John 17:4

He was humble and gentle.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, Matthew 11:29

All of Jesus’ disciples but one died a martyr’s death. They voluntarily gave up their lives for Jesus who loved them and gave His life for them. Nearly two thousand years later people are still following Jesus Christ and giving their lives to love and serve Him and if necessary to die for Christ.

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; Revelation 6:9

Jesus Christ was not physically attractive.

He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. Isaiah 53:2b

Jesus Christ was so unassuming that no one recognized that He was God in the flesh until God revealed it to them.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16:15-17

However, Jesus Christ had so much influence when He walked on earth that the religious leaders envied Him so much that they wanted to kill Him. They looked for people to accuse Him so that they might have a reason to put Him to death and they could find no one.

Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. Mark 14:55

Jesus Christ was innocent of any wrong doing and He went around doing good. Yet, His influence was greater than any man who has ever walked on this earth. All of history is determined by His life. B.C. means “before Christ” and A.D. means “in the year of our Lord”. Jesus Christ was crucified, died and was buried and rose again in Jerusalem. Everything to the east of Jerusalem is called the east and everything to the west of Jerusalem is called the west. Geography is measured by His death, burial and resurrection. Men are still today trying to erase His name and put an end to Jesus Christ just as they did in His day. It will never happen. Jesus Christ is alive and is coming back again. He is the beginning and the end.

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 22:12,13

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden the Lord drove them out of the garden lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever separated from God.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22-24

God sent Jesus Christ to die for the sin of the world so that anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ would be restored to a right relationship with God. Christ died, was buried and rose again so that we might have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18

Those who have believed in Jesus Christ have been forgiven and have had their consciences washed clean through the blood of Christ and have the right to eat of the tree of life and live forever in heaven.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. Revelation 22:14,15

Those who have believed in Jesus Christ have been forgiven and can eat of the tree of life. Those who have not believed in Jesus Christ will be judged for their sins and will not be able to enter into the presence of God. They will be outside forever. The word “dogs” is another word for unbelievers. If we believe in horoscopes or ever have had our fortune told then we are practicing sorcery. If we have ever looked at another person in the wrong way then we are immoral. If we have hated anyone then we have murdered in our heart. If we have ever put anything before God then we have committed idolatry. If we have ever even told a white lie or any lies then we are guilty of lying. All of us deserve judgment and yet the Lord offers us forgiveness because Jesus Christ took our judgment and punishment on the cross. Those who believe in Jesus Christ have been forgiven of their sins and will not be judged and will spend eternity in heaven. Those who have not believed and followed Jesus Christ will be judged for their sins when he comes again and will spend eternity in hell.

Everyone needs comfort and will seek it out. A man longs for comfort as much as a wife does, however, comfort for a man is different than what is comfort for a wife. A man needs to feel like a man and he is comforted when his manhood and masculinity is affirmed. A man also needs the love and comfort of a female. A man should go from his mother’s love to his wife’s love. For this reason the Lord told the husband to leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

A wife completes a man and together they are the image of God. She brings out of a man something that nothing else will bring out of him.

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27

If a man loves his wife then he will be willing to die for her. When he marries his wife he gives her his heart and soul. He makes a total commitment to her because he is taking responsibility for her. The wedding day is a total change for a man. They are no longer two but one and now he is responsible for another. A wife is a gift from God.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing And obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

A man needs a wife to comfort him. A wife is a companion to a man. Most men will rise to a higher level in every way when they find a good wife. Marriage is not only union of the body and spirit but union of the soul. A wife becomes a man’s soulmate and he will share his innermost thoughts, ambitions and desires with her. He needs a wife whom he can trust.

An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life. Proverbs 31:10-12

One of the meanings of the word “good” means the highest form of love. An excellent wife will love her husband and only do her husband good. One of the meanings of “evil” is to bring grief. An excellent wife will not bring her husband grief. She will be his greatest treasure and will bring him comfort through her quiet and gentle spirit that trusts in the Lord. He will know that she will always be there for him. He can trust her.

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, But she who shames him is like rottenness in his bones. Proverbs 12:4

An excellent wife will be the crown of her husband. A man needs to rule and an excellent wife gives him the right to rule. A wife needs to understand that God made men to conquer and rule and a husband must first believe that he rules well in his home first before he can conquer the world. A husband that has an unsubmissive wife will be frustrated all of his days and will bring her husband shame. Submission is a good thing within God’s will. A submissive wife helps her husband succeed as a father and also in life. A man ruling his family well is so important that the Lord makes it a requirement for leadership outside of the family.

He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?) I Timothy 3:4,5

A husband also needs his wife’s praise and respect. Often a man will put on a facade of confidence but on the inside he feels his own insecurity and failures. He needs for his wife to respect him and praise him. Their children need for her to praise her husband publicly around them. A child’s self worth comes from their father and when a wife praises her husband to her children then she is actually increasing their own worth and confidence in life.

And the glory of sons is their fathers. Proverbs 17:6b

A wife also brings comfort to a man through the physical comfort of her body.

Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love. Proverbs 5:18,19

If every wife understood her husband’s need for comfort and love and met them then there would be few divorces. Divorce begins with the neglect of comfort for each other. A man generally will not leave his wife for any other reason than for the comfort of another woman. Any woman who marries or has an affair with a married man is an adulteress. It will be his destruction but he is blinded by his need for love and comfort. An adulteress is a totally selfish and manipulative woman who cares only for herself and does not even have the capacity to love a man. She will use him and never respect him. She is pretentious in her words and actions.

The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it. Proverbs 22:14

An adulteress uses the two main needs of a married man to deceive him and lay a trap for him to fall into a deep pit. A man needs praise and he needs physical intimacy. An adulteress flatters a man that she wants to deceive. Flattery and praise sound the same but flattery is manipulative and praise is genuine.

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your intimate friend;
That they may keep you from an adulteress,
From the foreigner who flatters with her words. Proverbs 7:4,5

An adulteress offers to a man what his wife is not satisfying him with, to both of their destruction.

“Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
“For my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;
He has taken a bag of money with him,
At the full moon he will come home.”
With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life. Proverbs 7:18-23

He may no longer desire his wife’s affections because he is bitter toward her.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. Colossians 3:19

A man’s eyes may no longer be satisfied with his wife. Generally, a man who is moral before marriage will be moral after marriage. The eyes of man are never satisfied but he needs to learn self control so that he will be satisfied with his wife.

Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied. Proverbs 27:20

If he has self control before marriage then it will be easier for him to exercise self control after marriage. A man who wants to have a great marriage and be faithful to the Lord might want to make a covenant with his eyes just as Job did to keep himself pure. A faithful husband needs to do whatever he needs to do to hold himself accountable to God.

I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin? Job 31:1

Also, if his wife satisfies his physical needs then he will not be so easily tempted just as a man needs to satisfy his wife’s emotional needs so she will not be tempted. Marriages are God’s provision for comfort and love for a man and a woman. Marriage gets sweeter and sweeter as the years go by if the husband and wife learn to love and comfort each other. It is the most intimate of all relationships and the closest that one can come to experiencing heaven on earth if both are believers in Jesus Christ.

God loves children and has provided comfort for them. God, in His kindness and goodness, provided parents to be a comfort for their children. Children are so vulnerable and helpless that the Lord provided a double layer of comfort for children. If one parent fails then there is another to give the child what he or she needs. The greatest reproach that the Lord could give a Christian is given to a parent who does not provide for their family.

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I Timothy 5:8

The first thing that a baby seeks for is comfort. Even before food, a newborn baby will quit crying when they are comforted. A baby has already learned the sound of their mother’s voice before they come out of the womb. When they hear that sweet voice then they are comforted. Even a baby can make the connection between a voice and comfort. How great is our longing for the comfort of feeling loved. As soon as a baby learns to nurse, a baby will associate the closeness of the mother and her warm milk with love. A baby will grow and thrive in proportion to its intake of milk and love. In a similar way, we grow as Christians in our relationship with the Lord in proportion to our intake of His Word and the knowledge of His love for us.

like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, I Peter 2:2

Children need for their souls to grow in wisdom and knowledge and their bodies to grow and mature in stature. They will do so as they soul (which is their mind and heart), is nourished through love and knowledge and they will grow strong in body as they are nourished with good food. Feed a child junk food and his body will not be as strong and healthy and in the same way, feed a child’s soul the junk food of entertainment, internet, television or songs filled with the perversions of the flesh and their souls will become sick and perverted as well.

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:6-8

Do not expect for the heart and mind of a child to long for what is good when they have never known what is good. A child’s heart is like a sponge and will absorb what it is around. Only God is good and a child’s heart must be filled with the love and knowledge of God.

No one is good except God alone. Mark 10:18b

Two of a child’s biggest needs of their souls are security and significance or worth. Both of these needs are met through love. Love believes the best and sees the best. A parent is given the responsibility of instilling in a child a sense of security in who they are, how special they are created, and a sense of destiny and purpose in believing that they are of great worth. This can only come from teaching them and showing them who God is and how wonderful His love is for them. The Lord formed and created each child and He makes no mistakes.

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Psalm 139:13-15

A child needs to know that the Lord sees them at all times and is aware of all of their actions and words. This will put in children a healthy respect for God and will keep them from many a temptation when they would otherwise think that no one sees them.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Psalm 139:1-6

A child needs an example to learn from and not just be told what to do. We all know instinctively what we need to do but we do not know how to do it. Words are not enough.

A slave will not be instructed by words alone; For though he understands, there will be no response. Proverbs 29:19

A child will feel loved and will feel secure when they see their parents loving each other. Love is a choice and no matter what your “feelings” may be at any given time, you can always choose to love another. The Lord would not have commanded us to do something if He did not give us the grace to do it.

This I command you, that you love one another. John 15:17

There are not many things that the Lord says that He hates, but He says that He hates divorce. Why does He hate divorce? He says He hates divorce because of what it does to the children.

This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:13-16

If you love God then you will love what He loves and you will hate what He hates. No one can say that He loves God and counsels someone to be separated or divorced.

There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the Lord. Proverbs 21:30

The Lord says that what He has joined together let no man separate.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matthew 19:6

Divorce destroys everyone it touches. A man has to harden his heart to divorce his wife and a wife also has a hardened heart if she divorces her husband. There is no innocent one in a marriage where there is divorce. That is a lie that is seeking to place the blame elsewhere. Most divorces happen because of two people who compromised before they were married and in their marriage they reaped the fruit of their own sins which they did before they were married. The children are the innocent ones and the lack of control before marriage is expressed in the divorce and it is the children who suffer. Children do not learn love and commitment when there is a divorce and their significance and security in life is shaken, sometimes never to be recovered.

Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. Ephesians 5:33

The greatest temptations for children come from seeking comfort when they have little or none. A child receives love and comfort through attention, praise, discipline, forgiveness and their needs of justice, provision and protection being met. If every parent understood this then there would be few runaways. There would be no gangs and very little juvenile delinquency. There would also be fewer broken hearts of parents.

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, Psalm 127:3a

The Lord gives children as gifts and when they are brought up in the Lord, as God designed, then they bring great joy to the parents as they grow and mature and they bring great comfort to the parents when the parents are old.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:4,5

How blessed are the parents who followed the Lord and trusted in Him rather than in the ways of the world. Everyone wants “good” children but the only way that someone will have “good” children is if they have godly children because only God is good.

No one is good except God alone. Mark 10:18b