A lot of the issues that so affect negatively us these days, I believe, are possible because young people have grown up under influences counter to those older folks like me and others my age grew up with.
Just recently, corporately, we shared a Shabbat meal with and were lead in it in a traditionally Hebrew perspective, by a long time friend and fellow ministry leader on a visit from Israel, after which he filled us in on a ministry that his organization promotes there, in the land, and it has to do with youth.
In short, they have a youth group, one of the ministries of Hope for Israel, called Neryah, which youngsters enter early on. They have a place to go and people they can form relationship with, kids their ages, under the Word of God.
The unique thing about this ministry is that there is no aging out. Once a young person becomes a part of the group the ministry itself partners with them from then on so that after high school when all Israelis are obligated to military service, Neryah stays in constant contact with them through texting and care packages.
After the military when many are off to further education, that communication continues and even after that as they enter the work force and have families.
Educational scholarships are available and aid in hard times. It’s a kind of …no…I’d say it is… a family…on talking terms, one with another… a sense of belonging… for the duration… It can be lonely for a believer in Israel and many drift from the faith once they are separated from the friends and overseers who encourage and guide and who have a love for them that is not self seeking.
We have the same problem here in America.
The idea is not new. The great deceiver has been in the business of seducing the minds of youth since the beginning with the expressed purpose that they will represent his ways when they enter the world as adults. And it’s not necessarily that the kids are aware. They just don’t have an alternative view… and/or we who are supposed to be the Godly examples are not as forceful or dogged or an ever present influence in their lives as the enemy faithfully is.
So the idea of Moron Rosenblit’s ministry is that children will be raised up under the Word of God, that bonds will be formed that last through out every season in their lives and that out there, in the community at large, now there are tradesmen and professional types in all areas of enterprise, who walk in God’s ways and are being an influence to those in their spheres and able to reach back and give a hand up to the young ones coming behind them.
They are balance and counter-forces… examples and voices… that push back on the worldly ways of man… ways that seem right but lead to death… those ways that separate, both intentionally and by error, from the One who created us to be in fellowship with Him.
It starts with adults and an understanding that we have a calling and a duty, to pay attention to what our young people are exposed to, the kinds of ideas and pursuits available to them that are not good and create an environment and world for them to grow up in and learn in so that they might be able to contend with very strong and ever present, persuasive opposition ... go out into the world and be a presence and example for God’s ways…to the glory of God.
It’s the long view, the enterprise that has no date of completion, and is in motion until the day of our Redeemer’s return.
That’s what I like about it. Kind of like life don’t you think? Starts at conception and doesn’t end… till God says so.
Father… You have given the example.
You call us to You and guide us in Your ways.
So prepared and in constant contact with You we are, in our daily lives, able to face all the enemy’s strategies and campaigns against us…
be an example and influence of what Good and Rightness really are.
That we might learn from Your example and follow it Father…
to pass on what You have given us, to our children…
and continue with them throughout their lives like You do with us…
and they be able to stand up for You as well…
be right in Your eyes …
and pass it on to those coming behind them.
Enable us to genuinely possess love for You and Your ways…
that motivates us in regards to…
a world that is crumbling…
and how that relates to the way our children are coming up and what part they will play…
motivates us not to be despondent or resigned to it…
but to apply Your ways and push back…
showing our children how such things are done…
and they are not out there by themselves…
but they are part of a bigger body, and Truth that can be relied on…
a Way that doesn’t seem right but is right…
that leads to life…and not death.
Glory and honor to You… our Father.
In Yeshua’s name we pray.
Amen.
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