We can all think of sometime in our lives where we can remember going through stages. Some of us are still going through stages, some haven't picked up on the fact that their life has stages, and there are some who have been through so many they don't think about the stages anymore.
Some people would even call these stages, "seasons of life". Well as Christians we are called to live according to God's guidelines. He has given us His word to go by and to guide each of us through these seasons.
I can remember being in high school being the average teenager, a little crazy at times, but for the most part average. From there going to college and getting into the real world. The scary thing is I was a Christian, went to church, worshiped God, but I wasn't mature in my walk. I could say that my church, church leaders, Sunday school teachers and other Christians weren't equipping me to be the man of God I needed to be. Ultimately I realize now that those things were true but no one could answer for my mistakes but Don.
God finally straightened me out, and woke me up. But I look at several of my friends now that I was in youth group with, in Sunday school with, basically were in the same situation I was in, but they are engulfed in a world of sin. Do I feel for those friends, yes my heart goes out to them and I remember them in prayer often, but I cannot answer for their lives. I can try to encourage them but ultimately they have to answer to the Holy Spirit.
For anyone that reads this and is dealing with situations that are questionable in your life I want to encourage you that God calls us to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we make a commitment to keep Him first in our lives. Well if He is first then every bad thing that we encounter or allow to come into our lives we are putting Him through it as well.
The apostle Paul reminds us in the book of Philippians how we should live:
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worth of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one Philippians 1:27 NASB
