We carry around a lot of baggage that weighs us down.  If you feel weighed down, God wants to come alongside of you take those bags off your shoulders.  Come out Thrusday nigths and find out more.

There is a special deal going on right now.  There’s an early-bird special (register and pay $199 for the total cost by November 1^st) and it’s still on for only two more weeks.  This means you actually get $25 off.  You could also pay a $50 deposit before November 1^st and pay the balance of $175 when you get to the conference.  After November 1^st, the cost goes up.

I want you to go.  You register yourself online at www.godcc.com.  If you need help, let me know.

Denver Christmas Conference Promo from DCC on Vimeo.

New BASIC series

We are looking at events in the life of Elijah.

Come check it out every Thursday at 9 PM in the Housing Commons

Love Costs Everything

I recently was a sponsor for our church youth group to a national conference called Move.  It’s put on by a parachurch organization called Christ In Youth (CIY).  As a high school student myself, I went to this conference (although it wasn’t called Move back then) and it was exciting to get to know the student more and see lives changed that week.

CIY puts on a variety of conferences and mission trip opportunities for high school youth throughout the year, but this past year was unique in the fact that CIY also got into the film-making business.  This past year, CIY traveled around the world filming and editing a documentary about persecution of Christians throughout the world titled Love Costs Everything. 

They traveled to Iraq, Columbia, India and even America to document the daily risk that Christians are in around the world even in the U.S. as Christian families are on the run from other family members wanting to kill them for their faith in Christ.

I forced myself to watch every bloody moment of this film.  I always intellectually knew about the persecution of Christians worldwide, but to see it happen (even on a big screen) just does something to you.  Very rarely do you experience a movie in which as the credits begin to roll NO ONE gets up.  That happened after this film.  You sit there in silence broken by the tragedy that you saw and inspired by the faith of the people in the midst of all that.  And you wonder, do I have a faith like that?

After the film was over, the conference began a 20-hour prayer for the persecuted church.  Our group, at one point, went to the chapel to pray.  In that time, I read a Scripture passage that I’ve read countless times but I saw it in a completely different light.

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,  persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3: 10 – 17)

I have been guilty of using the latter part of the passage to talk about the importance of reading and studying Scripture and completely missed the context in the light of persecution.  As we were praying, I read this passage and verse 12 and 13 jumped off the page at me (the bold part).

The folks that we saw and prayed for are living a godly life in Christ and they ARE being persecuted for it.  It’s also true of what it says about those doing the persecuting.  In the film, the people and their acts get worse and worse (beatings to killing).  This verse reminded me to pray not only for the Christians who are being persecuted but also those doing the persecuting.

And the question kept ringing in my head…Do I have a faith like that?

I have never shared with any of you about my prayer rock.  I got this rock about 9 years ago at a convention.  It is a flat rock that has the word IMAGINE engraved in it.  What I do is I stick it in my pocket everyday with my loose change.  As the day does by and I stick my hand in my pocket, I feel that rock and it reminds me to pray specifically for the campus, campus ministry or for specific student(s) on the campus.

“¹⁶Be joyful always; ¹⁷pray continually; ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)  “¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)  I don’t share about the rock with you to say ‘Look how spiritual I am’, but I do take these admonitions from Paul seriously and I hope that you do as well.  We have been sharing specific requests and will continue to do so through the summer.  Sometimes our prayers can sound more like shopping lists and we need to pray for the things that God’s heart beats for.

I like the word IMAGINE on the rock because I can imagine some pretty big things.  “²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20, 21)

What can you imagine for our ministry in this next year?

Here’s mine:

• Students who purposefully and effectively share Christ with other students.
• A community of believers (a family, a home-away-from-home) that is attractive for all students.
• Four or five discipleship clusters that meet together weekly for Bible study and prayer.
• Students using their spiritual gifts to glorify God and serve others on the campus.
• Students gathering for informal hang-out times and doing positive, spiritually healthy things for fun instead of engaging in the culture around them.
• Students involved in the campus ministry would also be attending local churches.

This is just a partial list for me.  I haven’t even mentioned service (Saferide, free meals, mission trips) and campus wide events we would host or some specific things about BASIC meetings.

Here is my challenge to you.  This week come up with a list of things that you can imagine for the student ministry and begin praying for those things all through the summer.  Seek the Lord for what He wants you to do in ministry while at Barton next year (or at your next institution if you are a graduate).

And on a side note, I’d love to know one or two things on your list.  Post them to the CCF Fan Page wall so that we can all share them.

Besides your list, let me give you a few other prayer ideas.

• Pray for the students who are not Christians that are coming to campus.  That the Lord will prepare their heart over the summer for the good news that we have.
• Pray for the students who are already Christians that are coming to school.  Pray that they will have the courage to take a stand for Christ, see the importance of being involved in a campus ministry, and to stay away from the temptations and “bad” elements of campus life.
• Pray for our beginning of the year activities.  The first few weeks are really important for the growth and health of the ministry. We will need to be ready. (I’ll share more on this in a future email in July on how you can help)
• Pray for our Student Leadership Team; that the Lord will give them wisdom as decisions are made in preparation for the year.

I’ll be posting copies of periodic summer devotionals I write and send out via email to students during the summer and, as the fall approaches, some announcements concerning the student ministry launch.

Here’s the first devotional.

A Solid Foundation

 ¹⁰ But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. ¹¹ You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—but the Lord rescued me from all of it. ¹² Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. ¹³ But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.

¹⁴ But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. ¹⁵ You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. ¹⁷ God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3: 10 – 17)

Paul is writing to Timothy, a young man whom he calls “his son in the faith”.  Timothy is a young preacher who followed Paul in his missionary journeys and Paul writes to this young minister and I think Paul’s message can be applied to you as well.

You have come through a year of school, and in that time, many of you have learned a great deal about Jesus that you didn’t know before.  Some of you made first time commitments of your life to Christ and some made rededications and now you’re back at home.  You’re different but your old friends and relationships are not.

The reality is you’re different now and expect persecution.  Not in a threat of physical death sort of way that the early church and Paul experienced, but quite possibly rejection.  If you’re going to live a godly life, then expect some sort of persecution.  It’s coming…I promise.  That’s the reality of what Paul was telling Timothy and it’s true for you as well.  So, how do you remain faithful in the midst of this?

Paul tells Timothy to rely on the Scriptures (the Bible).  That is the only foundation that will withstand the shifting ground that you find yourself on.  The source of the Bible is God Himself and it can be trusted.  However you got to know what’s in it.

So let me lay out a challenge as you start this summer.  I challenge you to read through the New Testament by the end of the summer.  If you read three to four chapters a day, you should be able to make it through.  Psychologists say it takes about three months to form a habit.  If you don’t already have a habit of reading the Bible on a daily basis, then the summer is a great time to start.  This obviously isn’t an issue of salvation.  If you don’t do it, you’re not going to hell.  However, this is a really positive spiritual discipline to have and you can use the summer to start it.

So, if you’re up for the challenge, read through John, Philippians, and James by the end of May.  I’ll send out a June list in a couple of weeks.

Thursday, January 13th 2011

9 PM

Housing Commons

Merry Christmas