I recently received an email from Focus on the Family offering a course on how to defend the Bible or how do we know the Bible is true. I love this stuff! I love to watch youtube videos talking about scientific facts confirming the Bible, archaeological finds confirming the historicity of the Bible, testimonies of atheist scientists who converted - I love all of it. Then they go on to say that not knowing these verifications of the authenticity of the Bible causes kids to fall away when they get to college. Answers in Genesis, who I also love and support, would make the same claims about college students being deceived by evolutionary teaching and losing their faith. This jump to cause and effect I balk at. What they are saying is that when a student loses faith in the Bible, then they decide not to follow the teachings and leap headfirst into sin. After years of working with teens I think it is more that the desire to sin looks for a reason not to believe the Bible, not the other way around. I have found that a logical question to ask when a teen says they no longer trust the Bible is - "Did you meet someone you want to have sex with or have already?" or "Are you wanting to have homosexual relations?" Although these seem like maybe too probing questions or too big of a leap to ask, I think you would see that the answers would lead to why they don't believe the Bible.
I've been watching the Bachelorette with my wife lately (don't judge me - it's quality time with her doing something she loves and I don't) and there was an interaction with Charity and Xavier that I found fascinating and I think lends some insight into this topic. Excuse the language but this was the only video I could find.
What you see is Xavier confessing that he has cheated in past relationships and he can't promise that he won't in this one. To be committed to one woman when there are so many beautiful temptations out there may be something he isn't capable of. What she wants to hear is that the reason he has cheated before is because he had never met Charity before. His heart had been searching for a love like theirs and now his restless longings are over. How could he look elsewhere when he has found the best. That's what she wanted to hear but didn't. Rightfully so she sent him packing.
Relating this to the question posed at the start, why do kids leave the faith in college? Why do they cheat on Jesus? Because they aren't in love with Him. They love the youth group, retreats to the beach, free pizza, 5th quarters after football games, trips to amusement parks but they never developed an intimate love relationship with Jesus. No wonder they have wandering eyes for the beautifully packaged allures of sin. Then they blame it on the Bible and we react by beefing up the Bible or worse deconstructing it, when the real problem is they failed to see that the wonder of Jesus far surpasses anything that Satan has to offer.
What can we do to cultivate that love? It starts with a personal relationship. Why do so many of these Bachelor relationships end? They are asked to fall in love after 2 dates in exotic locales. Do you love the person or Fiji? Youth need to meet with the Lord spending time in the Word in prayer in talking and listening and then serving the poor and lost with Him. The problem is that you will get 100 to play dodgeball but 5 to have an intense in depth meeting with God. What you will see is those 5 moving ahead with their faith and the other 95 struggling. Parents need to assist and encourage their kids in hearing from and knowing Jesus, you can't expect the youth pastor to accomplish it if you aren't first of all modeling it at home and secondly helping and encouraging them to do it. Buy them devotionals and journals. Ask them if God showed up in any way today. Ask them what they are praying about and one thing they learned from their Bible reading. Do devotions with them that are fun so that they can taste and see that the Lord is good.
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching." John 14:23,24
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