Darren Mirren recently filed (and lost) an age discrimination suit against the Spotless Commercial Cleaning Company in Glasgow, Scotland. His complaint was that the company, which had not hired him when he didn’t show up to a scheduled interview, had not given him direction for the 20 minute trip from his home. He reasoned that a person of his age could not be expected to find an address unless they gave him directions. He was, after all, only sixteen years old. Unfortunately, he might be right that our world does not seem to think much of young people. It might be the world has good reason for that. But the Bible sets a different standard for the young Christian in 1st Timothy 4:12. “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe”. Our young people need to not use their age as a reason for bad behavior but for good. As much as our young people need to have good examples, they also need to be good examples!
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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