Last Saturday one of my Verse of the Day emails was Philippians 2:14-16. “Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.” [NLT]
It had my complete attention. The night before Bob and I had watched two “law” shows. One was “Alaska Law,” and the other, “Ozark Law.” Both rattled me!
I know that the intention of those shows is to rattle, but “Ozark Law” was most disturbing as it showed what happened last Memorial Day weekend at the Lake of the Ozark strip. I watched scantily clad women, drunks, fights, foul language, and scenes of what my generation might label debauchery. I wanted to cry over the hopelessness and lostness of so many of our young people.
As Christians, we are commanded to “live clean, innocent lives as children of God.” We are commanded to shine brightly “in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”
We need to pray for our young people. We need to shine brightly with hope. We need to live clean lives. There can be no deviation from the Word of Life.
If our young people do not see Christ in us – where will they see Him?
