Rebuilding the Wall
"...Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." (Nehemiah 2:17)
Welcome to Rebuilding the Wall! In recent generations, the Christian faith has continued to grow weaker. Christians, especially teenagers and young people, have been taught to love and follow Jesus, but the world has acted as a stumbling block to the growth of their faith. The things of this world have distracted them from Christ, questioned their beliefs, and chipped away at the spiritual wall around them that is supposed to serve as protection. America's young people have not been adequately equipped to face the dangers, temptations, and philosophies of this world. Instead, they have compromised with the world, creating easy access for the Devil to invade their lives. It's time to return to our beliefs. Not only that, but to know what we believe, why we believe it, and how to defend it. It is time to rebuild the broken wall and create a faith that is firm and unshakable!
Hello! My name is Matthew and I am striving to provide a resource designed to support my fellow teens in their walk with God. I could simply post a series of Sunday school lessons on faith, love, obedience, and the like, but today's churches cover that well enough. I want to dig deeper and explore and explain the tougher issues in order to build and strengthen your faith in order to help you in your daily life. What I present to you should not only be applied to your teenage years but also to the rest of your life.
There will be three aspects to this blog.
1. I will post articles on Christian worldview. "Now, just what is worldview?" you might ask. Your worldview is simply how you view the world and interpret the things around you in order to apply them to the choices you make in life. A simple example could be something like this: "I have observed that walls (especially brick ones) are very hard and are not pleasant to run into. Thus, my worldview concerning this is, 'Walls are hard and so I will avoid running into them as much as I can.'" To bring it up to a more realistic example, consider this: "I believe that all life is precious to God and consequently to me. Thus, abortion is obviously wrong." These could all be parts of someone's worldview.
So, when I write about Christian worldview, I will dedicate an article to a specific facet of Christian worldview. Although there are many obvious topics like the Christian view on divorce, abortion, evolution, etc., there are also harder (and seemingly foreign) topics like Universalism, the New Apostolic Reformation, Biblical Prophecy, and others.
The book of 1 Peter 3:15 explains why we need to be concerned with worldview and knowing what we believe. It says, "...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..." It also notes to, "...do this with gentleness and respect." If someone were to question your faith, would you have an answer? If they claimed, "There are many ways to get to heaven," "No one will go to hell," or "God doesn't care about me or my circumstances," what would you say in reply? What if they asked you hard questions like, "How do you know the Bible is true?" "Why should I give my whole life over to Jesus?" or even, "Where did Cain get his wife?" would you know what to say? My goal is to equip you to meet the tough issues and question that this world eagerly brings forth.
2. I will also post articles on biblical thinking. This is an area that emerges from your worldview. If you have a Christian worldview, you should hopefully be able to think biblically as well. Biblical thinking involves making decisions based on what the Bible teaches as well as interpreting scripture. It sounds very similar to worldview but it does not involve the issues so much as they involve thinking through those issues. In this blog I will incorporate this kind of thinking into the worldview posts. However, there will be other posts on issues that involve interpreting Scripture. For example, topics like how to handle tragedy, how to live the Christian life, how to evangelize, and other such topics. In these areas I will prompt you to do your own thinking by asking questions and not always providing the answers.
3. Throughout this whole blog, I want to encourage you in your faith. I want you to grow, to become more knowledgeable, to recognize the dangers of this world, and bring you closer to God. Keep in mind though, our faith is not a feel-good Christianity, it is a convicting and challenging belief. We can't effectively improve our relationship with Christ without seeing the problems in our own lives that need to be fixed. I will do my best to share some thought of encouragement in nearly every post. However, hold me accountable and comment if I become too derogatory. I know it can be tempting to move from a state of building people up to an area of tearing others down. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 reads, "Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up..."
Now that you know how this blog will run. I want to finish up on a couple of things. First, feel free to comment on my posts, ask questions concerning my posts, requests for a certain topic to be addressed, or whatever you think necessary without being irritating. Whatever you do, please stay on topic. I do not want this blog to become a place to socialize. Nor do I want it to be a place of useless chatter. Paul commands Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:16, "Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly." Let this blog be a place where people can be built spiritually with all hindrances cast aside.
Secondly, I do not claim to be the final authority on any of these issues. There are many others out there who have also written on such issues as I will bring to the table. In other words, be sure to check and make sure that what I write is in line with Scripture - for only it is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking correcting, and training in righteousness,"). I am relying on God to grant me wisdom as He says He will (James 1:5 - "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."). I believe that the advantage I may have over other worldview teachers is that I am also a teenager and have experienced my share of the temptations, trials, and testings. Thus, I can relate to your situations. I pray that God will give me the insight necessary to convey these things to you in a way that is easy to understand and not foreign to the world of teenagers.
Thirdly, because I must continue in my education, I will not be able to post daily like other blogs might. Instead, I will try to post a new article every one or two weeks. So please be patient with me.
Finally, enjoy this blog. Let it encourage, convict, and challenge you. Accept the conviction and use it to fix whatever problems you have in your life. Don't allow anything to keep you from fulfilling the wonderful role that God has given you to play in His Kingdom.
All Glory to God,
Matthew
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