SDA Youth in the Last Days

It was warm and cozy in my room at about 7:00 in the morning. I got up from my bed where I’d been sitting having my devotions and headed out to the kitchen for breakfast. Suddenly, I stopped. Should I leave my door open or keep it closed? I wondered. If I left it closed I’d be able to keep my room warmer for longer, but if I opened it, I would help warm up the rest of the house. I was wondering what to do when, suddenly, a thought popped into my head: It’s kind of like the church.  You might be wondering what my bedroom door has to do with the body of Christ. It’s like this: like my bedroom, the church is warm inside, spiritually. Outside, like the rest of the house, it’s very cold. People outside the church don’t enjoy the warmth that we do.  It made me think. Shouldn’t we, as a church, open our doors to help shed some warmth out on the rest of the world more often than we actually do? Shouldn’t we try to bring souls who are freezing, whether they realize it or not...

     A man walks down a beach, searching. His feet sink into the sand and waves lap at them with every step. He stops and stoops down to pick up a stone. A smile plays on the corners of his lips as he holds it in his hand. To the ordinary person, it’s a rough and beach-worn stone; chipped and full of imperfections. But as this man gazes at the stone, he sees past those chips and scratches, past its dull appearance, and sees in it a beautiful gem, full of possibilities      He slips the stone in his pocket, and takes it home to polish it. First he puts it in a tumbler with a bunch of other stones. As it is tumbles, its many imperfections are chipped away. When the man finally takes it out of the tumbler, he holds in his hand a beautiful gem, no longer the dull stone it once was. Then he carefully covers the whole stone with a layer of polish. Once it is dry, the man picks up the stone and rubs his finger along its smooth, glossy surface. A smile of satisfa...

    Bang! Our front door slammed shut as my brother and I raced inside. Crash! We both skidded to a stop and spun around, wondering what had broken. “Ashley, look!” My brother exclaimed, pointing to the clock that usually hung by the door. The clock lay on the floor, the glass front of it broken off. “Oh no… What have we done?” I said slowly, picking up the glass pieces on the floor. That clock had always been unsteady on the wall, but now we knew how unsteady it really had been. “What’s mom gonna say?” Aidan said softly.     We didn’t have to wait long to find out. Mom was not pleased with us for slamming the door, resulting in the clock breaking. Although, the clock still worked, it was just the glass front of it that had broken off. My brother and I were both in charge of buying a new clock, though.     A few days later, after we had replaced the batteries in the broken clock and swept up the millions of tiny glass pieces, the clock now hung back up ...

The traveler’s dusty feet plodded heavily down a rocky path, aching with every step. His stomach groaned as he imagined the delicious meal he was sure would follow his father’s welcome. He gazed into the distance, his eyes wandering past the rippling fields of grain, past the little white clusters of sheep scattered over the green hills, and past the many herds of cattle, his longing eyes finally resting on the tents of his father.      Footsore and weary, he plodded for hours, until he finally rounded a bend in the trail near his home. He stopped as he noticed his brother standing over a nearby fire, preparing soup.      “Let me have some of that soup! I am so hungry!” He cried. He waited impatiently as his brother, deep in thought, continued to stir the pot of soup.      “Give me your birthright. Then I will let you have the soup.” Jacob finally said.      Momentarily, Esau thought of h...

   During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific Island. The fighting had been intense, and in all the smoke and crossfire, he had lost touch with his companions.    All alone in the jungle, he could hear the enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling quickly for cover, he carefully found his way up a high ridge where several small caves in the rock were. Quickly and quietly, he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him came up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.    As he waited, he quietly prayed, “Lord, if it is your will, please protect me. Help me to get out of this alive.”    After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close. He prayed again, “Please Lord, protect me.” Suddenly, his eyes focused on something near the entryway. A small little spider began to build...

A horse gallops wildly through the deep dark woods. On its back rides a terrified girl, her small, weak hands clinging to the reins draped about her horses neck. Her dress is torn and dirty and her unraveled braids fly out behind her in a tangled and wind tossed mess. The trail, full of potholes, rocks and fallen logs, snakes its way through an ominously dark and dreary forest. Dark, sinister trees threaten to grab her and pull her off of her horse. At every bump in the trail, the girl bounces, nearly losing her grip. Her knuckles whiten as she tightens her grip on the reins. She looks down at the blur of rocks and logs racing beneath her and imagines with terror what would happen if she lost her grip. Behind her sits a Man, His face a picture of tender kindness and pity. He longs to help the girl who clings so desperately to the horses reins. The girl’s eyes, full of fear and blinded by tears, look imploringly at the One riding behind her. “Little girl,” He says, His eyes s...