“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 NKJV
In the Nelson Study Bible, Dr. Earl Radmacher comments: “God is light by nature, in His essential being, just as He is Spirit and love. Light refers to God’s moral character. No darkness at all: God is holy, untouched by any evil or sin. Because God is light, those who desire fellowship with Him must also be pure.”
Given the privilege of suggesting the theme for the July 1961 Youth for Christ International Convention, “Christ through you can change the world” was approved. And Ted Engstrom, president of Youth for Christ International, asked me to write a song on the theme. Harold DeCou wrote the music, and I penned the lyrics.
Standing in the back of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle at Winona Lake, Indiana, I heard a 500-voice choir accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra sing my song for the first time:
“Christ through you can change the world! Let Him be your guide. Christ through you can change the world! Stay close by His side. Though fierce the battle be, He’ll give you victory. Just keep your flag of faith unfurled, you can change the world!”
In August at the YFC Directors’ school at Maranatha Bible Conference in Muskegon, Michigan, I was asked to conduct a Bible hour every morning for teenagers whose parents were attending the school. The message “Christ through you can change the world” was presented scripturally day by day.
A teenage girl whose parents owned a cabin at Maranatha attended each morning, arriving just in time to hear my challenge.
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6
David Jeremiah wrote, “As people of God, we know we are ‘in the world but not of the world.’ We are not focused on the world as we know it but on the world as God wants it … Christians joining together … stand up against the darkness of our world to bring the light of Christ to every corner.”
January 4, we introduced our 2025 theme: “Give the Light” … and celebrated 3,075 consecutive TTT Saturday nights – Telling The TRUTH. God commanded light to shine out of darkness … He gave the True Light: His Son Jesus, providing eternal life to each of us who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, turning from the darkness of our sin to His light … and then we are to reflect His light, giving the light of the Gospel to others.
Saturday, February 1, TTT Christian Youth Ministries turns 59 (God willing). The mission continues: Telling The TRUTH to/through teenagers.
But increasingly, social media and smart phones have altered the lives of most of today’s 10-19 year-olds, and some even younger.
Long-time friend and youth ministry leader Allen Weed wrote recently about the impact of technological changes on today’s teenagers, as his ministry (interlinc) tracks and responds to these changes. Weed shared that Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation” and others “have sounded the alarm… today’s pre-teens and teenagers are in the midst of an ‘epidemic of mental illness’ caused by the ‘rewiring of childhood’ brought on by young people’s constant companion (smartphone) and their 24/7 involvement with social media.” Haidt said we have “overprotected kids in the real world and underprotected them in the online world.”
Please pray for youth evangelism training partnerships to accelerate, beginning with the February 4 “First Tuesday” luncheon, providing fellowship and training for pastors and youth workers in person at TTT and online.
September 1964, my wife Mary and I were watching the Miss America pageant in our home in Waco, Texas, and I said, “That’s Vonda!” She was the Michigan teenager attending my morning Bible hour in August 1961. Vonda was asked during the pageant: “We understand you carry your Bible as a good luck charm. Tell us about your religion.” She answered, “I don’t consider my Bible a good luck charm. I consider it the most important book I own, and wouldn’t consider my companionship with God as a religion, but as a faith. I believe in God. I trust in God, and I pray that even tonight His will, will be done!” That night, Vonda Kay Van Dyke was crowned Miss America 1965.
Circumstances change, but God’s Word never changes. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105 NKJV
“The entrance of Your words gives light…” Psalm 119:130 NKJV