This is a very helpful discussion on the need for the church to meet both spiritual through the clear preaching of the gospel and physical needs through acts of mercy. Let me know what you think.
A Conversation: Tim Keller, John Piper, D.A. Carson (1 of 6) from Ben Peays on Vimeo.
The college years can be great. They can also be disheartening. Often I am asked, what are things students can do to help make their college years great. Here are ten things I have learned over the years.
1. Read Every Day. I don’t mean your textbooks, I mean the Bible. The Bible is God’s revelations of who he is, what he has done, and what he calls you to. The consistent reading of God’s Word will direct and transform your life as you walk through this season.
2. Don’t Date The Church. So many students spend their college years jumping from one church to the next. In this they are never known and loved by the family of God. This is tragic. Settle down at one church and go there every week . You will have a much richer relationship with God and his people if you do this.
3. Date. Okay you might not need this, but I will put it out there. Statistically most young adults get married, so it might be wise to start looking now. Here are some guidelines to follow when dating. 1) Make sure you love Jesus . So many young people put their relationship with God on the back burner so they can focus on a romantic relationship. This is a recipe for spiritual, and relational disaster. 2) If your boyfriend/girlfriend is not walking with God, dump him/her. If you don’t you are foolish. If you won’t, you love your boyfriend/girlfriend more than God. This is idolatry and is not wise. 3) After 5 dates have a vision for the relationship. This doesn’t mean that you need to start planning your wedding or naming kids. But if after 5 dates you can’t see the relationship moving towards married, end it.
4. Stay Home. College is an extremely relational time with every night packed. This leads to a fun, but shallow college experience. At least once a week stay home by yourself and read your Bible and talk with God. I guarantee you will have a deeper, richer college experience if you make this decision.
5. Get Small. At Real Faith we challenge every student to be in a small group. We believe it is so important for you to have a small, safe, intentional, community through which you encounter Jesus and The Bible. It is in these groups that you will form your closest friendships and grow in your commitment to Jesus. So, don’t forget to get small.
6. Change. The thing about change is that it happens. We grow up. We move from playing matchbox cars, to driving remote controlled trucks, to getting our drivers license and making our parents nervous. We move from playing house, to awkward dates, to finding love and giving ourselves to another person. Change will happen during these years. Embrace it. Bend and move as God shapes and molds you.
7. Simplify. Trim the excess fat from your life, so you can travel light. So many hold on to so much. Our lives are too complicated. This should not be. The spiritual life is a simple life of following Jesus. The rest can and should go.
8. Give. It will be very important that you learn to give. By nature we are great takers and poor givers. Look for opportunities during these years to change this. Begin giving to a local church, offer to serve in ministry, sacrifice so that you can feed those in poverty. Learn to give.
9. Depend. You have been created to depend on God and on others. It will be important that you learn this discipline of dependence during your college years. Daily you need to come to God, share with him your needs, and allow him to meet them, either through himself or through his people.
10. Die. In this I mean die to the things in your life that need to be put to death. Die to your selfishness. Die to your lust. Die to sin. Die to your expectations for college. Die to your parents’ expectations for your life. Die to your greed. Die to drunkenness, dishonesty, gossip and the rest. Only when you die, can you live for Jesus.
I hope this helps. Know that I am pulling for you. Any thoughts you have would be fun to read.
Here is a video about Real Faith ministry. Enjoy.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)
Just a reminder from this past Sunday, be reading Matthew 13:44 and asking God four things.
1. God help me to understand that your rule in my life through Jesus Christ is a treasure.
2. God help me to want Jesus’ rule in my life.
3. God what do I need to give up to have Jesus as my treasure?
4. God what are you calling me to embrace so that Jesus becomes my treasure?
What is God teaching you as you ask these questions?
- Charlie
Take a look at this great clip from 60minutes. Global Orphan Project is an organization that Faith Evangelical Free Church is partnering with to make a difference in Haiti. Our team just came back and God did a very special thing in and through them. He gave our team great clarity about next steps for our church in Haiti and he used our team to bring hope to the hopeless. God is good.
This past week, Faith Evangelical Free Church sent a team to Haiti. Here are some pictures of what God is doing in and through this church. I am so thankful to be apart of a church that responds to God’s heart for the helpless. Enjoy. Let me know what you think.
http://jbcrane.zenfolio.com/p7560339
Here is a great article by Josh Loveless. It is very helpful. I include a bit of it here on my blog and then a link to the rest of the article. It is worth a read.
I have been leading a rebellion, and chances are, you’ve been part of it.
Sure, you’re not participating in my particular branch of this rebellion, but each week, hundreds of thousands gather together under this banner of mutiny. And they do so to worship God.
I have been leading a 20s/young adult/college ministry—whatever it is you want to call these ministries that are launched with a separate worship service, under the blessing of their church. But I’ve realized that at their core, these services are birthed out of rebellion.
The attitude is rarely named. We prefer to cloak it, to explain it away as a simple difference in musical tastes, or as an aversion to getting up early on Sundays. But let’s call it what it is. Rebellion. Mutiny.
Most of these ministries are created out of a desire to do church differently. There are a handful of young adults in a church who have new ideas for what church should look like. They want their church to be different, and starting a new ministry that looks like the church they wished their church was is the easiest way to leave without leaving.
Over the years, I’ve noticed the more transitions and graduations that have to happen for someone to be a part of a church, the more difficult it is on a person’s spiritual formation. I don’t know what happens, but we get lost when we transition from middle school ministry to high school ministry, from high school ministry to college ministry, from college ministry to single adult ministry, from single adult ministry to the young married ministry, etc. For those of you who are fortunate enough not to slip through the cracks, you end up spending your church life exclusively in relationship with people who are just like you. And relationships formed over a lifetime with people who are just like you is, honestly, a form of self-worship.
But now I think it’s time for us to take a deep breath. It’s time for us to find another way. Both younger generations and older ones need to own their mistakes and the ways each one has contributed to the situation we now find ourselves in.
Click Here to read more.
On April 23rd Donald Miller will speak a Faith Evangelical Free Church on the themes from his New York Times best-selling book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, What I Learned While Editing My Life.
Date: April 23rd
Time: Doors open at 6pm. Evening Begins at 7pm.
Cost: $12 in advance, $15 at the door.
Ticket Info: Tickets can be purchased online at www.itickets.com/events/240894.html
Here is an interesting statement that came in this week, from our series Kiss Like You Mean It.
Here are my thoughts.
There are several truths in the statement above.
- People in the Bible married young, probably around 15.
- God told those people and us to wait until marriage to explore our sexuality.
- In our culture, people tend to get married later in life, usually around 26 – 35. So yea, if you are follow God’s wisdom and keeping yourself pure, you are waiting longer to have sex or you are getting married young.
With that said, the conclusion of the statement above that God’s wisdom about sex does not apply to us is false. That conclusion allows culture to shape our understanding of morality. And let me say this, if you allow culture to shape your thinking and life, you will walk around pretty messed up. Conversely, if you allow God to shape your thinking and your life, you will find life and wisdom and beauty.
The argument that it is morally right for you to have sex before marriage because statistically people are getting married later is absurd. It would be like saying waiting for justice to be served is too long of a wait, so I am going to seek revenge or waiting to have enough money to buy an xbox 360 is too long, so I can steal one.
Sadly this is what we do with sex. We rip it out of the context that God intended it to be enjoyed in. Sex becomes common – a commodity to take and use, instead of a gift to cherish and protect.
I think the main reason that people are getting married later, is that they are ripping sex out of the context of marriage. Because of this they little that pushes them to marriage and committed love. Sadly this is producing a generation of selfish, immature, users, instead of faithful, giving lovers.
Instead of trying to find creative ways to justify sexual immorality, our culture needs to submit to God’s wisdom, grow up, love well, and give ourselves emotionally, spiritually and physically to another human being in the context of a loving marriage relationship. This is only possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. So really what we need to do, is quit groping each other, so we can grab hold of the cross of Christ.
Those are my thoughts. I would love to hear yours.
Do you want to teach the Bible? Please watch this video. Thanks you Chuck Swindoll.
