God Help Our Youth

• Paris Ragan
• Christian Living
• 0 comments
• February 16, 2018

Psalm 119:9 says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”

Just two weeks ago, I dealt with the catastrophe in our public schools, which started in the early 1960s, when prayer and the Bible were banned from our schools. I had planned on dealing with another subject this week, but with the tragedy that our country witnessed on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but address this subject again. I don’t believe that we properly understand the severity of the problem we are facing in the generation coming up through the ranks. On Wednesday, 17 lives were taken due to senseless violence carried out by a young teenage man. We are only 47 days into 2018, and we are already dealing with the aftermath of two major school shootings.
Immediately, the finger pointing begins as to what we can blame for these tragedies: a gun problem, a mental health problem, the parents’ fault, or the school missed something. Many things may have attributed to this traumatic event, but we have to evaluate history and recognize the correlation. The chaos that we have seen over the last two decades actually began in the early part of the 1960s when our country (the responsibility lies at the doorstep of the people) decided to remove prayer and the study of the Bible from our public schools. From that time until now, we have watched chaos unravel in our public schools with violence on the rise and morality plummeting. We see grades falling to new depths and new forms of “education” actually dumbing down our young people. When are we going to say enough is enough? At what low point do we finally decide that we need to do something about this epidemic? We have teenagers going into their high schools and shooting other teenagers—is this not enough for us?

We have teenagers calling in bomb threats to their schools—is this not enough for us?

We have students punching teachers and principals—is this not enough for us?

The passage provided at the beginning of this blog says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” In other words, how can a young man cleanse his way? The young man who did this thing needed the path he was walking down to be cleansed. He needed to be changed. He needed to hear that there was hope. He needed to be instructed in morality. He needed to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. None of this was available to him, or any of his peers, because there was no influence of the Word of God. The psalmist clearly tells us that without the Bible—the Word of God—there is no morality, and there is no way to cleanse a man’s path. The only way that things like this can be avoided is not through new laws or better medication—it’s the Word of God.
I challenge pastors and youth pastors all around this nation to do your homework on the religious freedom rights in the public schools in your states. We need to make high schools and middle schools a priority in our efforts to reach our communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is not done with this generation!

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