Prayer for a Blessing<\/b><\/p>\n
Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth, The gift of saving grace; And let the seed of sacred truth Fall in a fruitful place.<\/p>\n
Grace is a plant, where\u2019er it grows, Of pure and heavenly root; But fairest in the youngest shows, And yields the sweetest fruit.<\/p>\n
Ye careless ones, O hear betimes The voice of sovereign love! Your youth is stain\u2019d with many crimes, But mercy reigns above.<\/p>\n
True, you are young, but there\u2019s a stone Within the youngest breast; Or half the crimes which you have done Would rob you of your rest.<\/p>\n
For you the public prayer is made: Oh! join the public prayer! For you the secret tear is shed: Oh shed yourselves a tear!<\/p>\n
We pray that you may early prove The Spirit\u2019s power to teach; You cannot be too young to love That Jesus whom we preach.<\/p>\n
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper\u2019s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York<\/p>\n
Pleading For and With Youth<\/b><\/p>\n
Sin has undone our wretched race; But Jesus has restored, And brought the sinner face to face With his forgiving Lord.<\/p>\n
This we repeat from year to year, And press upon our youth; Lord, give them an attentive ear, Lord, save them by Thy truth!<\/p>\n
Blessings upon the rising race! Make this a happy hour, According to Thy richest grace, And Thine Almighty power.<\/p>\n
We feel for your unhappy state, (May you regard it too,) And would a while ourselves forget To pour out prayer for you.<\/p>\n
We see though you perceive it not, The approaching awful doom; Oh tremble at the solemn thought, And flee the wrath to come!<\/p>\n
Dear Saviour, let this new-born year Spread an alarm abroad; And cry in every careless ear, \u201cPrepare to meet they God!\u201d<\/p>\n
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper\u2019s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York<\/p>\n
Survey<\/b><\/p>\n
Survey results from youth attending Southern Baptist summer activities: 22% witnessed violence in their homes. 27% had been involved in a physical attack. 19% had considered suicide. 20% had engaged in sexual intercourse. Nearly 60% had experimented with alcohol by age 13. 27% had tried drugs by that same age. 9% had experienced some kind of sexual violence. <\/p>\n
Scocaster, publication of Scofield Memorial Church, July 11, 1993<\/p>\n
Lying, Cheating, and Stealing<\/b><\/p>\n
Lying, cheating, and stealing are becoming an \u201cacceptable norm\u201d among high-school and college students, says Ralph Wexler, speaking for the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics. In a recent survey, the Institute reported that 61 percent of the high-school and 32 percent of the college students polled admitted to having cheated on an exam during the past year; 33 percent of the high-school and 16 percent of college students said they\u2019d stolen something in the last year; and 16 percent of the high-school and 32 percent of the college students said they\u2019d lied on a resume or job application.<\/p>\n
National and International Religion Report, quoted in Signs of the Times, June, 1993, p. 6<\/p>\n
Survey<\/b><\/p>\n
1986<\/p>\n
\u2022 70% of high school grads leave the church, never to return<\/p>\n
\u2022 65% of evangelical teens never read their Bibles<\/p>\n
\u2022 33% believe religion is out of date and out of touch<\/p>\n
\u2022 40% of all teens believe in astrology<\/p>\n
\u2022 30% read astrology column daily<\/p>\n
\u2022 93% know their sign<\/p>\n
\u2022 58% of Protestant teens believe students should have access to contraceptives.<\/p>\n
\u2022 25% of high school students contract some form of V.D.<\/p>\n
\u2022 42% of Protestant teens say there are many ways to God.<\/p>\n
\u2022 60% question that miracles are possible<\/p>\n
\u2022 28% feel the content of the Bible are not accurate.<\/p>\n
1990<\/p>\n
\u2022 65% of all H.S. Christian students are sexually active<\/p>\n
\u2022 75% of all H.S. students cheat regularly<\/p>\n
\u2022 30% of all H.S. students have shoplifted in the past 30 days<\/p>\n
\u2022 45\u201350% of all teen pregnancies are aborted<\/p>\n
\u2022 3.3 million teens are alcoholics<\/p>\n
\u2022 1000 teens try to commit suicide daily<\/p>\n
\u2022 10% of H.S. students have experimented with or are involved in a homosexual lifestyle. <\/p>\n
Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prayer for a Blessing Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth, The gift of saving grace; And let the seed of sacred truth Fall in a fruitful place. Grace is a plant, where\u2019er it grows, Of pure and heavenly root; But fairest in the youngest shows, And yields the sweetest fruit. Ye careless ones, O hear … Continue reading “Youth, cf. Teens”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}