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May 21, 2010

Bible readings from the living Bible

Psalms 144

Bless the Lord who is my immovable rock.  He gives me strength and skill in battle.  He is always kind and loving to me; he is my fortress, my power of strength and safety, my deliverer.  He stands before me as a shield.  He subdues my people under me.

Oh lord, what is man that you even notice him?  Why bother at all with the human race?  From man is but a breath; his days are like a passing shadow

Bend  down the heavens, Lord, and come.  The mountains smoked beneath your touch.  Let loose lightning bolts, your arrows, Lord, upon your enemies, and scatter them.

Reach down from heaven and rescue me; deliver me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies.  Their mouths are filled with lies; they swear to tell the truth of what is false

I will sing you a new song, oh God, with a 10 stringed harp.  For you grant victory to Kings!  You are the one who will rescue your servant David from the fatal sword.  Save me!  Deliver me from these enemies, these liars, these treacherous man.

Here is my description of a truly happy land where Jehovah is God:

Son’s  vigorous and tall as growing plants.  Daughters of graceful beauty like the pillars of a palace wall.  Barns full to the brim with crops of every time.  Sheep by the thousand out in our fields.  Oxen and loaded down with produce.  No enemy attacking the walls, and peace everywhere.  No crime in our streets.  Yes, happy are those whose God is Jehovah.

Son’s  vigorous and tall as growing plants.  Daughters of graceful beauty like the pillars of a palace wall.

What a great statement!  When I look at my two children who are now just entering adulthood I see my son as vigorous and tall as growing plants.  It wasn’t that way always, as I certainly had struggles raising my son.  I’m sure all of you who are parents, and especially parents of teenage kids will have struggles raising them.  I mean really, a teenager is from another planet.  In growing up in today’s society there are so many problems and difficulties these teenagers are facing.  The world has changed as we have a nation of children growing up without God in their lives.  Who do they have the model after?  Unfortunately, the models that they’re being subjected to our misdirecting them.  As parents, we have a massive battle to fight for our teenagers.

Without God in your life, dealing with your teenager is going to be very difficult.  Seriously, don’t think things would have turned out the way they did had I not had God in my life during my children’s teenage years.  I cried, I pray, I struggled, but most of all I waited on the Lord to direct my steps.  As it says in the above Scripture he is my fortress, my rock, and he will protect me and my children.

Whether you think you need the help or not, if you are raising a teenager today with all the influences that are around them, you need God to help you.

I look at my daughter, who is now 17, and see her as a daughter full of Grace and beauty like the pillars of a palace.  God has truly blessed me with her, in the sense that she is so hungry for the Lord.  I look back upon my life and realize if I had walked with God when I was 17 my life would’ve turned out a lot different.  I had serious struggles in my late teenage years with four divorces in my family in my senior year of high school.  I turned to drugs and alcohol for release from the pain I was under.  I can certainly tell you this did not help my situation at all and it took me all the way through my early 30s before I started to come out of the stronghold of drugs and alcohol.

Today the pressures on teenagers to drink and do drugs is much stronger than what I faced.  This is the enemy stealing our children.

My daughter, is gaining wisdom and strength that is from the Lord and not from this world.  I cannot tell you how happy I am about this.  Today’s colleges, have become a cesspool for drugs and alcohol in sexual abuse as well.  If she had gone off to college without the foundation that she’s getting now, this lure of the enemy I am sure would’ve pulled her in.  But now, she is away at Bible school, and getting a foundation that is going to protect her and prepare her for what she faces when she goes to college.

I can’t thank God enough for what he is doing with both of my children.  When we walk by faith, we look beyond what we see and we trust in the Lord.  Easier said than done when we face the trials as a parent when dealing with our teenagers.  Sometimes my faith was weak, but I bless the Lord who is my immovable rock.  He was there when I wasn’t for my children.  He protected them when I couldn’t, he stands before me as my shield as it says in Psalms 144.

If you have a teenager today you need God.

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