In this book we shall see a number of crucial matters related to the young people in the Lord’s recovery. In this chapter we shall see their need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ together. In the next chapter we shall consider the vision of the Lord’s recovery. Finally, in the last chapter we shall fellowship concerning four strategic points: the life experiences, the divine Spirit and our human spirit, reading the Word and the messages, and the matter of giving in God’s economy.
It is so good to be young persons in the Lord’s recovery. In every age and generation God has come to the young people for the carrying out of His move. Both the Bible and church history show us that God wants to use the young people. We may say that Adam was very young when God was with him because he had just been created. Abel, the second generation of man in the line of life, was probably also young when he offered sacrifices to the Lord (Gen. 4:2, 4). Enoch was young when he began to walk in God’s presence. He was sixty-five years old when he began to walk with God, but at his time a man who was sixty-five years old was still young. He walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him at the age of three hundred sixty-five (Gen. 5:21-22).
Abraham also was called when he was a young man. You may point out that Abraham was seventy-five years old when he was called by God (Gen. 12:1-4). But if you read the Scriptures carefully, you will see that Abraham was seventy-five years old when his father Terah died in Haran (Gen. 11:32). Acts 7:2 tells us that “the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.” The first time God called Abraham was while his father was still alive, and the second call came after his father had died. Therefore, the first time God came to Abraham was much earlier than when he was seventy-five years of age. Furthermore, we have to realize that at Abraham’s time, a man who was seventy-five years old was still quite young. Moses was called by God and began to serve Him when he was eighty years old, but his preparation for service began when he was a small boy being nursed by his mother. At the age of eighty Moses “graduated” from a period of training by God, but he was called into this training when he was very young. Samuel was a very young boy when he was caught by God (1 Sam. 2:18). David also was a young man when he was anointed to be king (1 Sam. 16:11-13). Likewise, Daniel was young when he was an overcomer in the palace of the king of Babylon (Dan. 1:4, 17).
In the New Testament, none of the apostles whom Jesus called was an old man. They all were young people. When the Lord walked along the shore of the sea of Galilee, He called the young people. Zebedee was with his two sons, John and James, but the Lord called only the sons and not Zebedee (Matt. 4:21-22). It was God’s divine way and economy to call the sons and not the father. The elders in the first church on the earth, the church in Jerusalem, were young people.
The Bible also tells us that Timothy became an apostle (1 Thes. 1:1; cf. 2:6) as a young man to carry on the Lord’s testimony. In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul wrote, “Flee youthful lusts.” This indicates that the receiver of that Epistle was still a young man. I am happy that I was called by God when I was a teenager. All those who were in the initial stage of the Lord’s recovery of the proper church life over fifty years ago were young people in their twenties. Very few were over twenty-five. Most were either in high school or in college.
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