SDA Youth in the Last Days

A few days ago I woke up to a gory sight out the window.  An elk stood in the shallow part of the lake, but not alone.  Two dogs swam about it, trying to gain a deathhold on the poor beast, and drown it.  This went on and on, and it appeared the elk grew weaker and weaker. Had the elk stayed on land, it would have had no difficulty fighting the intruders.  But once it stepped into the water, it was vulnerable. You and I are in the exact same situation as that elk.  1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Satan is no dummy.  He knows our weak points, and will use every tactic imaginable to try to bring us down.  But we have a firm foundation, and that is Jesus. We have solid ground, in the secret place of the Most High.  Every time we compromise, every time we ignore the Holy Spirit and heed the devil’s whis...

All was quiet in the temple and only an occasional snore would echo through the silence. Then suddenly, “Samuel, Samuel!” a voice called. A boy stirred sleepily and rubbed his eyes. “Coming, sir!” he yawned as he jumped up and ran to an old man's bedside. “Here I am sir,” he cried, eagerly. The old man slowly pulled himself up and looked at the boy quizzically. “I didn’t call for you Samuel, go back to your bed.” Samuel reluctantly obeyed and tiptoed through the darkness, back to his bed to sleep. Again, Samuel heard his name called, and again, he rushed to the priest’s room to see what he could do to help the old man. But as before, Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” Then it happened a third time. “Samuel, Samuel!” The voice called. Samuel sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes in confusion. “C-coming sir!” Samuel said bewilderedly as he ran to Eli’s room. “I’m sure you must have called me!” He exclaimed. Eli gazed at the little boy standing befo...

When a butterfly starts its journey, it is a small, helpless caterpillar. The only two things it does is eat and grow. That's similar to a Christian. We must feed on God's word in order to grow in our relationship with Him! Once the caterpillar has eaten and grown, it enters into the chrysalis. Then it changes and grows, until it emerges a beautiful butterfly... or does it? When a butterfly first emerges, its wings are limp and useless. It is not until the butterfly has done some wok that it can actually use its wings and fly. Christians are similar in a way. We are saved by God's loving grace but the transformation doesn't stop there. The next step we have to do is to be sanctified, by letting the Holy Spirit come in and change us from the inside. Then, we can begin to do God's work. Now, what if the caterpillar decided one day to be naughty, that the changes were too hard, and that it wasn't going to bother to do all that work?  What if it liked being a...