Christian Crier
Are there certain topics that Teenagers can study that apply specifically to them? Yes there are. Explore topics for teens that you might not have thought of.
Teens God Used
Teenagers are frequently mentioned in the Bible. These young men and women were used by God in powerful ways. There is Mary, the mother of Jesus, Daniel the young man later turned prophet, the young shepherd boy who would rise to prominence as Israel’s greatest king and many others who courageously changed the world for the better. Names like John Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark with Peter’s perspective and Timothy, the young pastor mentored by the Apostle Paul. Teenagers should be able to identify with these young men and women because today, Christian teenagers are still changing the world and helping to transform it as they too can the world upside down (or really, right side up).
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Mary was probably only a girl of 12 or 13 so she qualifies as one of the greatest Bible study topics for teenagers. Look at her response to God’s Word by means of an angel of God in Luke 1:26-38:
“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
The angel said that Mary was favored by God. She was certainly chaste as she was still a virgin and what was Mary’s response to such an unbelievable call? She said what many teens can say and are saying to God when He speaks to them through His written Word, the Bible, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” God is looking for such godly teens like her today as it says in 2 Chronicles 16:9a “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” Is that you?
The Teen Daniels Example
We read next about Daniel, who was just a young man when he ran into a test and refused to eat what God had forbid the Jews to eat, ignoring the king’s edict, and putting his own life at risk. Read what Daniel did when faced with persecution from a pagan king in Daniel 1:6-16:
“Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.”
Daniel refused to defile himself with unclean foods. It may have been because “And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.” The chief of the eunuchs feared for Daniel’s life if he didn’t eat what the king had assigned or ordered for them to eat. The eunuch feared for his own head too but Daniel convinced “the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.” They allowed Daniel to challenge them to who would be “better in appearance and fatter in the flesh (or healthier) than all the youths who ate the king’s food.” After the test of ten days were up, clearly Daniel and the other three young men were in much better shape and health by not taking the king’s diet. They refused to eat the king’s food and drink his wine at risk to their own life. Daniel may not have even been of age in our society today, but he showed restraint in not drinking wine and gorging on exorbitant food, and he showed that when we obey God, God is pleased and God blesses those who obey Him. Daniel chose to do the right thing, even if it meant disobeying a king who held his life in his hands.
David, from Shepherd to King
David was called by God a man after His own heart. Why so? It was because David was humble in nature and trusted in God and strived to be obedient to Him. David was a teen when he faced Goliath, the greatest and biggest warrior of the ancient world. Based upon a human comparison, David had no chance of taking on such a giant of a man. Goliath was fully armored and completely equipped. David had only a slingshot and five stones. When David heard Goliath slandering God and His chosen people, he was livid. How did he react when he heard God’s name being insulted? It is recorded in 1 Samuel 17: 31-37:
“When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
David had no fear for he feared God above man. Is that you? When you face your own giants, will you trust in the Lord and obey Him at all costs? David must have trusted God as he said that God will “deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” David’s trust of the Lord and his fierce determination to protect the sanctified name of God made him a teen hero and the perfect candidate for the next king of Israel and the best king in Israel’s history. My dear teen friend, do you uphold the holiness of God’s name in your world? Would you also be offended when someone blasphemes God’s name? Trust in God and fight for what is right and if you obey Him, He will deliver you through the many trials and tests in this world, even if they are gigantic in size.
Bad Company Corrupts Good People
Let’s look at three other Bible studies topics that teens can use. In 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 Paul writes “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.” The lesson here is that a person can become like those that they run with. My wife and I are Christians. She influences me positively and I hope I do her. We also influence our children, hopefully for the better. The more they are with us as they’ve grown up, the more our influence has impacted the way they are. If we were horrible parents then they might turn out horribly. The point is that if you run with those whose feet are swift to run to evil, you will find yourself in their shoes more and more often and getting into more trouble. Truly, bad company corrupts good people.
Find a Mentor
Every Timothy needs a Paul. That is, everyone needs to have a mentor and everyone need to mentor someone. In 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 18-19 it is written that “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.” Paul wrote to Timothy to help him in the ministry but he called him his “true child in the faith,” probably because helped to bring him up in the faith and was his spiritual father since Timothy’s real father was a Greek and not a Jew. He said the teachings he instilled in Timothy was a “charge I entrust to you” calling him, “Timothy, my child.” Every young person needs a mentor and every teen can mentor a young child in the faith.
To Find a Friend, Be a friend.
You are going to need to surround yourself with godly friends. There is so much peer pressure these days to run with the crowd. If you have godly young men and women as friends, you are more likely to have a positive peer pressure (to do the right thing) than a negative peer pressure (pressuring you to sin). Proverbs 17:17 says “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” A friend loves you through the good times and the bad. They can help support you and encourage you through times of adversity. There are no lone ranger Christians in the New Testament churches. If you want a godly friend then be a godly friend. Teens need godly teens because two are better than one, especially if they are believers who believe and act more like you.
Conclusion
Jesus is your friend no matter what age you are. The teens in the Bible I mentioned are ones that even adults should emulate. Find a godly teen that you can become best of friends with and then maybe they will say this about you, “These [young] men [and women] who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6b).
Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon
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