Exhortation from Campus!

This contribution is from a Brother currently studying away from home at University.

Greetings all in the matchless name of Jesus; to God be the glory, great things he has done. Before I go any further I would like to say that all that is mentioned in this article is based on my own experiences I have had as a young Christian as well as being a university student. It’s just to help bring to light the real frame of mind that young people may have as university students or prospective students.

What most young people really want – to get free of mum and dad!

University…. almost every young person’s dream is to know that the limitation of freedom by the constraints of their parents has been lifted. As young people we almost become so skilled at doing things in secret, and making our parents or other adults feel as if they know us; so the luxury of leaving the home we live in, eases the extra methods we once used to hide things.

Another skill we begin to adopt is innately developed by us giving off the appearance to people at our home church that “all is well with our soul”, we can articulate the church clichés so well but seem to forget that we don’t spiritually live to please others but to please our creator. I believe the most dangerous period of time for prospective university students waiting to leave their nest is the time after exams and the wait for our results because during this time, the hidden areas of our heart begin to reveal the curiosity of different things that we may never share with others; almost anything that you may have struggled with while at home that you once conquered, if it was to arise during your time at university, would we allow Christ in us to be our defence? Or if we are to be honest with ourselves, did we always want to do that thing, or try that thing, or visit that place, or hang around with those people? God knows your heart.

What brought me to my senses was when I was in the very place and with the very people doing the very things I know I shouldn’t be doing, the voice didn’t shout “Thus saith the Lord” or “Judgement shall fall on you”, it just simply said, “come on Andrew, of all people, what are YOU doing? Even you know what you’re doing is silly; you’re not even successfully able to do what others do at ease because you don’t belong to them but you belong to me.” Please believe that not everyone may not have the voice of God speak to them in such a gentle manner.

Shrinking boldness when the stakes are raised

Remember when you were first saved or received that fresh touch from the Lord, how enthusiastic you were and the zeal you once had, and how you weren’t afraid to say ‘I don’t go there’ or ‘I don’t do this’ but now we’ve come to the stage where we are too embarrassed to live holy even at university because it means that we cannot fit in. So we’re now struggling to fit in, not on the outward part of us because UNFORTUNATELY, some of us are good at doing what the world do so we will convince ourselves that if I'm good at this then it must be for me, but we ignore the struggle on the inward part of us, that knows the scripture that says “be not conformed to this world”.

Sometimes we make mistakes, but it is so much better to learn from the testimonies or even the mistakes of others, and not even develop a taste for certain things in the first place because as young people we have taken this popular slogan 'YOLO' (you only live once) as an excuse to do all kinds of madness in our lives but not everyone is able to recover from the things they may have delved into and wonder why it's so much harder for them to not just feel the presence of God, but to even partake of it. Even after our deliverance from some things, we may still have to deal with its long term affects; may that not be our portion.

Being Holy at Uni – what it means

Holiness at university is not about the rules we are told to follow, it's about spiritual discipline, because if your life is not disciplined, the enemy can present things to you when you leave to go university and you succumb to them. Many of us have come from good stock, so to know better is to do better.

I have grown to realise that sometimes people who are not even saved, can be the people to keep us in line on our Christian journey whilst at university, it sounds weird but here is my reason. How is it that if ever there was a conversation concerning the Word of God within a group of people that we may be with at university and if something was ever said that we knew wasn't correct in the scriptures, that's when we wouldn't be ashamed to speak up and say hold on that's not right, but then when it comes to worldly socialising and we do what they are doing, the same companions could turn around and say "hold on, I thought you were a church boy/girl?" these type of sly comments would affect our inner man because we need to ask ourselves, do we want the world to be confused as to where our allegiance is pledged?

So some of us will go to the extreme of going to university and not even let people know our Godly standards from the very beginning just so that we can avoid all that trouble of having to hold up the blood-stained banner. That is a very big risk to take because we are breaking the heart of the God of the universe that gave you the intellect to even get into university in the first place, and to be honest, I wouldn't want to knock the doors of Heaven asking if I can come in and have the very person who created me to speak through the letter box and say 'I know you not'. There's no safety even standing outside the door, you're either in or you're out, so let's avoid being part- time Christians at university and go there with the mindset to spiritually cause trouble in the enemies camp. Now I am not saying that university belongs to the devil, but I'm saying the very environment of university can bring a lot of contention to what we stand for.

When you leave home you become a prime target for Satan

We are young Christians in an unholy environment and are still told to live holy, because then we would be worthy to secure our name in the Lambs Book of Life. In case you don't know how excited the enemy is when you leave your home to go to university, let's put it like this: the Bible describes Satan as a roaring lion, and if you were to look at the nature of how a lion catches its prey, they will wait patiently to catch the weak and vulnerable animal by itself away from the protection of stronger animals, so imagine if we were to go to university with the WHOLE (not some of) armour of God, then the devil will not be able to attack our weak areas of life because they'll be covered.

Get your own oil!

I once heard that we need to have our own drive. We all know you drive a car from inside the car and that you cannot drive a car from outside the car. Some of us have been towed from the outside for so long that we need our own inner drive to keep us going. When we leave to go university, that is when we realised that our flame can no longer be re-lit by the church we were brought up in, but we have to have our own oil on the inside of our spiritual lamps to keep the fire burning. What type of foolish person would swim against a current? I'll tell you; it's the person who acknowledges the drop at the end of the waterfall that many students will spiritually be falling down so the person would want to swim the opposite direction to a rock of safety; on the journey there, it will feel as if everyone and everything are opposing you but God has given us the skill to handle the currents because he's our very strength and also our safety is in him. 

What's wrong with being different if the Bible says that we are a peculiar people. At university some people don't really know anything about Jesus so the only Jesus they know is the hope of glory that's in you, so people will be attracted to the difference in you.

Get on the front foot!

In closing, just to encourage those students who are reading this, seventeen year old David took up five smooth stones, but only used one to slay goliath, so my encouragement to you is to find at least four other young people in university that are willing to join you in upholding the blood-stained banner, because Samson slew a thousand philistines, so if two can put ten-thousand to flight and twelve disciples helped to spread the gospel around the whole world, then I'm sure that five can bring hope to a whole university.

Heaven Bless you and thank you for reading.

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• Alpha & Omega newsletter November 2012

• Alpha & Omega newsletter October 2012

Restoration Revival Fellowship Harlesden

Children’s School of Wisdom – Class 3

January 2012

Lesson 1

Memory Verse 1: Genesis 3:15

Topic: Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the Redeemer

1)      Read Genesis Chapter 2 and 3

Homework:

a) Find out the meaning of the word ‘enmity’.

b) Find out the meaning of the word subtil

c) Write what you understand the memory verses to mean. Don’t worry about right or wrong answers- write what you understand. Use another translation if you must at www.biblegateway.com. 

2)      Focus for the lesson:

a.      Gen. 2:7 – the formation of man

b.      Gen. 2:15 – the positioning of man in Eden

c.       Gen. 2:16 – the first commandment to Adam

d.      Gen. 2:20 – the making of woman

e.      Gen. 2:23-24 – foundations of family and marriage

f.        Gen. 3:1-7 /Rev. 12:9 – identifying the serpent

g.      Gen. 3:14-19 - The curses upon mankind

h.       Gen. 3:21 – The significance of the covering provided God

For Sunday 22nd January

Topic: Creation

Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:3

In Class Debate: The Bible's creation account is mere mythology and is not supported by scientfic facts.

For pro-Bible arguments see www.answersingenesis.org

For anti-Bible arguments - just tell us everything thing they told you at school!

Download

• Class Test January 2012

This blog exhibits “diary-honesty”, and yet exhorts young people to acknowledge the mercy of God, and to stay on the righteous path. What you are about to read is the speech notes of a recent graduate in a brief presentation to young people.

University: The Theme Park of Sin

Let me preface this article, by saying this...

I cannot encapsulate everything I would like to say in this piece but I speak on the subject of University.

University is a Theme Park of sin. Everything you have ever struggled with, desired, or even partaken in that is not of God and detrimental to your spiritual life will be at your fingertips at University.

Sin is the most addictive entity in this world; you will never know what you have an appetite for, till you try it.

MESSAGE!!!

The more doors of sin you open the more you will have to close). If you walk 100 miles in the wrong direction...then do a 180 degree turn, you will be waking in the correct direction...But you will still have 100 miles to walk to get back the place you made the wrong turn.

I started University with GOOD intentions. All the people I lived with knew I wasn’t a partaker in usual happenings of fresher’s week and I managed for most of my first year to not entangle myself in snares that routinely passed my way.

However, I had no idea that the one time I let my guard down that I would be caught up into a lifestyle that gripped me and put me on a short road to hell.

If there was a plane ride to hell: I felt like I would have been the 3rd co-pilot.

I became addicted to the rollercoaster life, exhilarating highs and unbearable lows. Like a fiend I always looked for my next high. Because of the way I grew up I knew all I was doing and pursuing was wrong and had no long term future, but the pleasures of the world had me in vice grip, and no amount of strength or courage I could muster could help me back to God.

I could not stay too long in reality; I had to find things to take me out of my true state of mind and reasoning because the reality of my life was too much to bear. I would settle on the fact that I was going to hell, and that was what I deserved for my abhorrent behaviour. I had gone too far and there was too much obstacles issues and questions I had regarding life and the church for me to be saved.

I hated of the instability of this rollercoaster, but doing better is always easier said than done. This life destroyed all godly perspective I once had. My life was becoming like a soap opera, frequent encounters with the police, break downs, court dates, and one drama after the next, I was literally losing my mind. The final year of university culminated in me being kicked off Campus and being told not come back until my final exams.

MESSAGE!!!

(AMP) ⁸ And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome,

²⁹ Until they were filled (permeated and saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice. [They were] full of envy and jealousy, murder, strife, deceit and treachery, ill will and cruel ways. [They were] secret backbiters and gossipers,

³⁰ Slanderers, hateful to and hating God, full of insolence, arrogance, [and] boasting; inventors of new forms of evil, disobedient and undutiful to parents.

³¹ [They were] without understanding, conscienceless and faithless, heartless and loveless [and] merciless.

³² Though they are fully aware of God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them themselves but approve and applaud others who practice them.

My life was a complete mess, yet I felt I could not turn to God. My faith had been almost completely eradicated. I believed that Hell was on Earth and that Joy and Peace were not achievable on whilst on the Earth. I told a friend of mine, that the day I came to church and no longer felt convicted to change my lifestyle, that, that would be the confirmation that the game was up for me.

MESSAGE!!!

(AMP)Hebrews⁶ For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.

⁷ You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline?

⁸ Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all].

All to Jesus I Surrender:

It is with my heart I implore you to not enter in the path of unrighteousness or if you are on it, to turn back now, we serve a gracious and merciful God. But we do not know the day or the hour where our soul will be required. I thank God he saved me when he did, I thank him that whilst like brother Paul I felt like the chief of all sinners (considering my upbringing) that I had an experience of God as a child which served as a witness against me. It also prevented me from delving any further into everything that was available and offered to me, because there are some things I know there would have been no comeback from (despite my enjoyment of the pleasures of sin, I always desired to give it up and follow the true and living God).

But I thank God that I like brother Paul, I obtained mercy for the reason that in me, as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might show forth and display all His perfect long-suffering and patience for an example to [encourage] those who would thereafter believe on Him for [the gaining of] eternal life.

1^st Timothy 1:16 AMP

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

Jude 1.24 AMP

Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible and immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever (to the ages of ages). Amen

1^st Timothy 1:17 AMP 

Nobody leaves University in the same condition they entered...what condition will you leave in?

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