© 17 Colin Melbourne
Lest We Forget
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Ecc. 12:1 KJV. Wise words indeed, to the young of every generation, and especially to the youth of today, wherever you live, whatever your culture, religion, parentage, or ambitions;
Slaves Have No Rights
God made you; He is your Creator: So He owns you whether you believe or not.
You are not your own, you have no entitlement, you have zero right to yourself, because your first parents sold you as a servant to sin. (Gen. Ch. 3, Rom. 5:12, 6:20-21.)
That is why, apart from Him, you are empty: Unfulfilled, inside where it matters.
Made for Divine Life
You were created for happiness; but you will only be happy living in harmony with Christ Jesus.
The One who created you, graciously; preserves, protects, provides, feeds, clothes, and upholds you.
Your life is in His Hands.
He has made you able to know, love, and serve Him in this life, with the potential to enjoy Him in Glory for ever.
Redemption is Free
Because your ancestors sinned; they severed your relationship with Him, but God sent His Perfect sinless Son to die in your stead, to redeem you with His Blood. He offers eternal redemption, through faith in The LORD Jesus Christ, who gives His Spirit to enlighten, convince, and draw you from vain pursuits, and sin.
Remember Him now and always; that He is your Creator, a loving, tender, affectionate, and merciful Father.
The Power of Kindness
In youth, abilities and passions are strong, but; a heart deformed by sin cleaves to anything rather than to Christ.
Consider this; when a friend is kind towards you, you fix it in your memory, feel gratitude for it, and the person is thereby endeared to you.
But remember your Creator: Your body, soul, and spirit came from Him; He gave you existence, eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet: What blessings are these, so useful and essential you take them for granted, yet will you forget Him who gave them?
God’s Gift or Sin’s Wages?
Remember Him in your youth, in order that you may have a long and successful life, that you may be saved from the sin, corruption, and misery into which young people dive headlong; enduring the suffering that inevitably results from following the sinful desires of their unregenerate hearts.
Your First Estate
Youthful vigour enables you to be active and capable of noble acts and pleasures. Faith, hope, and love, can be strong in their least encumbered state: With no spouse, mortgage, career, business, children, or responsibilities to deflect you from your Creator’s purpose: Making it simpler in youth to; believe, hope, pray, love, obey, and deny yourself, than it can often be in old age.
Only Today is Yours
Remember Him at this stage of your life: For you have no certainty of tomorrow; now is yours, tomorrow may not be.
Though you are young; you may never become old.
He waits to be gracious; tomorrow may be too late.
An evangelist, at a crusade in the UK, was leaving the stadium with the joyful crowd, when the Spirit of God prompted him to speak to a teenage girl, enquiring if she’d given her life to Christ. Embarrassed, she stammered that she, “wasn’t ready to commit because her boyfriend wouldn’t like it”, and away she sped.
The following day he was informed that on her way home she was hit by a bus, and killed.
Jesus calls now; His Spirit strives; His ministers exhort you.
Besetting Sins
You have your health; but outside of Christ, sin will have greater dominion over you in future, increasing every moment, if you don’t surrender your whole heart to your Maker.
Even if you should live to old age, it is a sorry time to start to serve the Lord.
Middle-aged and older people find it difficult to adapt and change. Weaknesses and lethargy slow mental and physical faculties, and there’s little time left to; call upon the Lord, learn, develop, and grow in Christ.
The aged think and act on rails. Evil habits have become entrenched; and each besetting sin is a stronghold for Satan. There’s less time for repentance, less for faith to grow, less for obedience, less to learn how to apply our New Covenant blessings.
Harsh days assuredly come to the unsaved, and the years in which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” and, what is worse, the heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Saved On Death’s Doorstep
The Lord has often sent me to elderly widows before they die.
It is pure joy when they respond in faith.
One woman in her eighties jumped up as soon as she received Christ, whooping like a teenager, “Oh I’ve got it!”.
We praise the Lord for His enduring mercy, but what a fruitless waste her eight decades had been, with absolutely nothing of eternal value to show for them.
Young One: Remember Now!
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Smith Wigglesworth was led to the Lord as a child, by his Primitive-Methodist Grandmother, and, after he was filled with the Holy Spirit in the 1906 Sunderland outpouring, Smith became England’s greatest Evangelist. Miracles, signs, and wonders endorsed his preaching. This glorious book is one result of his Ever Increasing Faith in Our Lord and Saviour. Study to learn the lesson, so you can walk with God and finish your course strong in Him, as Smith did.
Acknowledgement:
Stimulated by the thoughts of Dr. Adam Clarke (1762-1832) on Ecclesiastes 12.
© 17 Colin Melbourne
