Monday
Prayers for the weekend were answered. We had wonderful times of worship. The message centered on Jesus at the age of 12 being "found" by his parents in The Church He helped design! (Colossians 1:16; John 1:3).
Both services, teens and young adults came to the altar area for a time of admonition and prayer. Youth from Tanzania, Korea, Mexico, Sudan, Togo, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Burundi, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Haiti, Philippines, China, U.S. (Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Orange, Buckingham, Waynesboro), et al., gathered for a time of consecration. It was a beautiful and inspiring moment.
Sin has always been sin; however, the convenience of sin has greatly increased with the development of technology. In the 1950's when teenagers for the first time in history were allowed to have cars, social behavior changed. Drive-in theaters, a boy and girl alone in a car, and other opportunities greatly increased possibilities of promiscuity.
Warriors home from WWII worked hard, saved their money, and the economy prospered. For the first time in history married couples began to think of having children for pleasure instead of children being economic units on a farm. The number of children in families decreased. Families started moving to the city. Children had little to do except eat, sleep, go to school, and find ways to entertain themselves.
Money and too much time helped to produce children of the sixties bored and frustrated with the old ways. Marijuana and other drugs were used for pleasure, and with the casualness of drugs sexual promiscuity was a natural. Free love communes with sex for pleasure freely and openly, evolved.
Parents too often were too naïve to read the times. Traditions blinded many parents, preventing them from understanding or accepting the social changes.
The 1970's began to reap the harvest of the promiscuous 60's. Babies born after WWII had grown up and married. Their foundation for marriage was not solid. They had experienced too much too soon before marriage. Divorce erupted like a violent volcano. Compounding the tragedy of divorce was the legalization of abortion with Roe vs. Wade.
Until 1970, virtually every marriage manual written was by either a medical doctor or a minister. During the 1970's books and manuals about marriage and sexual behavior were written, but very few were written by ministers.
During the 1980's a new phenomenon evolved. Adults divorced and remarried producing blended families. Children from two prior marriages were woven into the complicated fabric of step-mothers/fathers, step-grandparents, and extended families of various descriptions.
All the while, the number of abortions climbed by the millions...today approaching 50,000,000. One of the penalties of abortion is that Americans have failed to produce sufficient labor for the economy. This requires Congress annually funding billions of dollars to bring in immigrants for the work force.
A greater penalty of abortion is the erroneous sense of liberty given to young men and women that sexual promiscuity is natural, and abortion is a quick alternative to fixing pregnancy. Planned Parenthood's profits from abortions are annually in the millions of dollars. However, liberals choose not to discuss the facts of profit. The end result is damaged bodies of young women, increase of cancer, and emotional scars that last a lifetime for men and women.
Here we are in 2008. Oprah Winfrey and other high profile persons argue for the rights of young people to be gay, lesbian, promiscuous, have abortions, and be their own little gods, as Oprah argues she herself is. Many school systems insist on teaching evolution and reject Creationism. If man is evolved, he is animal. If he is animal, he acts his nature without any penalty from any god. Many school officials act out of fear, preventing any mention of God or Jesus.
Recent years have added email, MySpace, YouTube, and cell phones. A new phenomenon is teenagers taking indecent pictures of themselves and emailing to friends or posting on websites.
Liberals in the hands of the devil are attempting to sell that all teenagers are following the lust of the flesh, eye, and pride of life. This is a lie perpetrated by hell to try and snare the innocent. God has always had a remnant. God has always had young men and women who are willing to take up their cross and follow Jesus.
Here is good news. If you know of a young person who has stumbled, assure them that God wants to start new today. Repentance and turning to God is a right and proper way of achieving a new start.
Today is the day of salvation. Now is the acceptable time. Thus my heart did and does rejoice to see scores of young people in worship on a Sunday, listening to godly instruction, fellowshipping and purposing to keep themselves pure before God and man. No matter what temptation hell concocts, the Bible assures us that the power of God is greater than the forces of hell. My hope is that every young person who reads this letter will purpose to live a holy life. My hope is that every adult who reads this will purpose to encourage young people to serve Christ.
Much love,
Pastor Bare
Hebrews 3:7-14