Claire Meckler

This coming Sunday morning, as a part of the missions conference at Scofield, we along with the junior high, senior high, and family class, will meet in the amphitheater to hear Claire Meckler, a missionary in Ethiopia. Here’s a paraphrased quote from her which speaks of her missional lifestyle and application of what she knows toward spreading the Gospel: “I’m a nurse here in the US, but over in Ethiopia, I’m the doctor of the town. We do everything from delivering babies to pulling out leaches from people’s throats.” Sunday morning, she’ll tell her story.  Even if you’re not a missionary there, you should be a missionary here.  Her story will help you apply this value so it becomes functional.

 

Called to Craftsmanship by Os Hillman

Then the Lord said to Moses, ”See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts-to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. ~ Exodus 31:1-5 Bezalel was called by God to perform a most important work for Him. I am sure that Bezalel believed that he was naturally gifted with his hands to make fine crafts with gold, silver, and bronze. He probably did not associate it with God’s work. But the Scripture tells us that God chose him and filled him with God’s Spirit to enable him. Does God call men and women into their vocations to fulfill His purposes - to fulfill that which needs to be accomplished throughout the world? Have you ever thought about how many occupations there are in the world? How did that balance of interest among each human throughout the world happen? Did it just happen? Was it by chance that we have only so many doctors, only so many accountants, only so many geologists? Your interest in your vocation is not born of your own making. So many workplace believers and even pastors have made the mistake of encouraging us who have a deep desire to walk with Christ in the workplace to pursue vocational ministry. To remove us from the workplace where the greatest harvest is yet to occur would be to remove us from where God called us. Do not take this bait. Serve the Lord in the workplace where He has gifted you and called you. I almost made this same mistake when God drew me to Himself when I was 28 years old. I concluded that I must be called to be a pastor. I took steps to fulfill this by leaving my job and entering a Bible school for training. Upon completion, I took a job as an assistant pastor in a church. But God’s mercy allowed me to be removed from that position only three months into it. I was “forced back into business,” where God wanted me in the first place. It was a great lesson. I was never cut out to be a pastor in a church, but a “pastor” in the workplace. © Copyright 2000 Os Hillman. www.marketplaceleaders.org To contact author: os@marketplaceleaders.org

 

College Game Night

 

Who’s calling the shots?

Many of my consistent, intentional sins are permitted (by me) because I haven’t been punished and, unfortunately, most people don’t care about me sinning. Rather than living for the Lord because of who He is, I rather live for what I can “get by” with which = lame, diluted Christianity. So something helpful for my walk with the Lord and cutting away the crap that lingers is living by the higher integrity of God rather than my own idiotic cause-effect applications. This is called “straight-up honoring the Lord” and for the most part, I suck at it. Solomon writes concerning this frustration in Ecclesiastes 8:12. “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and preserves his life, I yet know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before Him.” Solomon, in his observation of righteous and wicked people, realizes that the wicked sometimes make out much better than the righteous. What’s up with that?! Seems unfair. BUT HE DOESN’T CARE AND DOESN’T LET THIS WEAKEN HIS LIVING FOR THE LORD. When we think and act in contrast to Solomon’s conclusion, we’ve made too worldly our outlook and not considered the joy and honor of living for God (even when it hurts) rather than what “gets us by”. We can trust God. To fear God is to obey Him regardless because we, as humans, cannot invert our place of humility before Him though we try. If we are mature in faith, our potential consequences one way or another should not change our actions if God has commanded something. We, actually trusting God as greater than what we see, should live by HIS higher integrity rather than what “we can get away with”. Sad that I think I feel entitled to call the shots with such ease. Forgive me Lord; You are Lord, not me.

 

Strength in Christ

Our God is Awesome. He is the most powerful being in the Universe…and He is always with us. He has promised to “never leave us, nor forsake us”. In Joshua 1:9, Yeshua is calling (joshua) us to be strong and courageous, and to not be terrified or discouraged. But don’t think He’s asking you to do it on your own. No, if you need strength he’ll give it to you. If you need courage he’ll fill you with it. If you are afraid He’s there to comfort you. And if you are discouraged the Ultimate Encourager is right there by your side. All you have to do is Ask.

Unfortunately I have been neglecting God the past week. I’ve been too focused on satisfying my needs on my own, rather than slowing down- spending time with him- sharing my life with him - and trusting that he’ll take care of me. I’ve been running around looking for people to encourage me. I’ve been “terrified” of started new/better habits in my life, because I’ve become too attached to my Uber-Comfortable-Lazy-Tasty-NonCommital ways. I haven’t been strong or courageous in my faith, by reaching out to others in word or deed, at school…

BUT I know God is calling me to change right now. He’s calling me to daily Commit myself to Him.

Before you go check your email, give ben more schrute bucks, and study for you test… It would be awesome if you could say a quick prayer for all the students in the Scollege ministry. ….. Amen

jdh

 

good quote

I’m here at school, working in the Writing Center, and I come across a bookmark. Just wanted to share this quote with you guys:

“A Christianity which will bear witness to God’s Word in Jesus will be a speaking, thinking, arguing, debating Christianity, which will not be afraid to engage in intellectual and philosophical contest with the prevailing dogmas of its day.”

–Oliver O’Donovan

We (I am very much included in this “we”; maybe we’ll say, “wIe”) are often fearful to overstep the normal boundaries of conversation and this particularly American personal space. However, even those who are lost are ready to voice it, to deny Christ as truth and to explain their beliefs in something different. We should be all the more empowered to speak up. God is pleased when truth is discovered. If it is discovered through intellectual challenge, it is then truth that might be etched even deeper into the mind and heart.

 

Nehemiah the Baller-part dos

This morning Mike Willis and I met for coffee at White Rock Coffee to just kind of chill and have some deep conversation, and we started talking about what we had read today in the One Year Bible in Nehemiah. The passage was Nehemiah 9:22-10:39. You should seriously stop reading this and go read the passage and then finish reading what I’m saying because what Nehemiah does is pretty sweet.

He talks about how God has remained faithful to the people of Israel even though they repeatedly turned their backs to Him and put other gods before Him. God’s faithfulness to His people absolutely shines in contrast to the way that we can be so unfaithful. Nehemiah outlines the people’s unfaithfulness and how God’s justice and righteousness is shown throughout their history.

So the coolest part comes in verse 9:38 when he says “In view of all this (the people’s unfaithfulness), we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.” Then, he lists all the names of the people who signed it. What makes that so awesome to me is that they committed to being intention about holding each other accountable to following God’s commands. They committed themselves to never give their sons or daughters in marriage to other peoples, keep the sabbath holy and set apart for the Lord, tithing, serving in the house of the Lord and sacrifices. I’m doing a terrible job of describing it so you should really just read it for yourself. It just shocked me how awesome it was that they were signing an agreement saying that they would hold each other accountable for these things. All of their names are listed in the Bible and they are there for us to read some thousands of years later. That is ridiculously awesome to me. They committed themselves to carry out the Lord’s work and follow His commands and we should really be doing the same with each other.

Reading that this morning really made me think about the way we keep each other accountable. It would be awesome if the men and women of Scollege would hold each other to the same standards that Nehemiah and the Israelites did back then of committing to follow the Lord’s will. We should really strive for those deep, intentional relationships so that we can spur each other on towards a deeper relationship with Christ as we serve Him together.

Word out. Ball like Nehemiah.

 

College Challenge

The challenges from Sunday morning and how to do it per your request.

1. Get a One Year Bible and read every day (15-20 minutes). Let’s face it, we need the discipline and there is no doubt we need the Word even more than once per day! I got Vanessa and me two from www.christianbook.com after searching for “One Year Bible”. we got the ESV translation in hardback but you can do whatever. $18/bible for us. Bookstores would have them, too. Also, it’ll help us all with deisel conversation about Scripture with one another and others (even if you don’t get a One Year Bible cause your Bible intake is already great). Oh! To save money, print this and tuck in your Bible: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan/oneyearbiblereadingplan.pdf (copy link).

2. Blog on this website about what you’re learning or confused about and comment on one another’s posts. (Or blog about anything you’re learning!) It’s a great way to stay in touch at a deeper, Scripture, growth level. This is something where we can all use some work. Let me know you want to become a writer and give me your email address and I’ll make you a bonefied contributor!

3. Now, at the beginning of the semester, get your priorities straight and let life happen around them so your priorities feed your life rather than your life screwing up your priorities.

4. (from 1 Peter 5:6-11)
1 Peter 5:6-11
Humility with God and others.
-a quiet time is about getting humble.
-evangelism is about humility before God.
-”haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked are sin” pr 21:4
Endurance in the process.
-we are justified and we’re being sanctified til we die: process.
-humility before God helps us endure temptation - why?
-at the end of the process, what is our hope? to this, we live.

-Don’t expect an easy life. Preachers have it wrong when they preach ease, health and wealth.
-Be faithful by staying humble.
-Read the Word, pray, encourage your Brothers and Sisters in Christ and let them encourage you.
-Don’t settle for lame Christianity just because you’re more mature than others around you. Keep growing.
-Be intentional with all of your relationships.
-Don’t ever lessen the volume of your Christian identity.
Make this year about further Christian maturity over-and-above other goals you have.
-Do what it takes to stay in process while the rest of life occurs amidst this priority.

love you guys and am pumped about your growth this summer. keep it up and stay the Course!

willis

 

Jesus Has a Secret Admirer

Crap. It’s the Church. Rather than the Church being Jesus’ secret admirers who cringe at the thought of public identification of belief in His redeeming person and work, the Church should rather be disciples of Jesus characterized by His commands. Don’t give Jesus flowers or even a financial offering and “call it even” and fool yourself into thinking this is a pleasing offering. This is cultural Christianity that is so diluted it is barely recognized by anyone and hardly respected. Plus, you won’t find any praise in Scripture for this sort of weak devotion. Give Jesus your life. That ain’t secret.  That is what discipleship means. Anything less is not Christlike as He gave His life for the world to believe and be redeemed from sin. He didn’t call the Church to be His admirers - He called the Church to be bold in the world and be His followers. The word “commitment” is a dirty word in our world today. To what is there a more worthwhile commitment? Jesus has billions of admirers, but few disciples.

 

Unrighteously Rich

At our church here in Lubbock we’ve been going through the book of James. It’s been a really neat study and I wish Justin and I could have caught more of it. Yesterday, we discussed James 5:1-6. This passage is a warning to what our pastor Dusty referred to as the “unrighteously rich”. Basically it is a warning to those who selfishly spend their money.