Happy Friday friends!
Our lives are ruled by the campus calendar, which has its benefits and drawbacks.
One of the benefits is the ability for our students to "reset" themselves at the beginning of each semester. Their schedule is new, and there's a fresh sense of purpose and new beginnings during the first couple weeks.
In our teaching we try and play toward this feeling by encouraging them to trust God for big things in the upcoming semester.
Last night at our NavNight (large group meeting), I encouraged our students to "be a tree" this semester. In multiple places, the Scriptures use the picture of a tree to describe the life of a person secure and fruitful in the Lord.
Psalm 1 is one example of this picture.
Our lives are ruled by the campus calendar, which has its benefits and drawbacks.
One of the benefits is the ability for our students to "reset" themselves at the beginning of each semester. Their schedule is new, and there's a fresh sense of purpose and new beginnings during the first couple weeks.
In our teaching we try and play toward this feeling by encouraging them to trust God for big things in the upcoming semester.
Last night at our NavNight (large group meeting), I encouraged our students to "be a tree" this semester. In multiple places, the Scriptures use the picture of a tree to describe the life of a person secure and fruitful in the Lord.
Psalm 1 is one example of this picture.
1 Blessed is the man[a]
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
I challenged the students to trust God for their best, most growth-filled and fruitful semester yet! I suggested for practical application that they simply tell the Lord regularly that they desired to be the person described above, and that they would delight in God's Word, as referenced above as one of the causes of this fruitful life. I wonder what the Lord will do in (and through!) the students who take up that challenge.
Would you consider doing the same in 2013? What might He do in (and through) you?
Other "be a tree" references:
Jeremiah 17:5-8
John 15:1-8
Thanks for sending us into this semester with your prayers!
-Noah
Next week: I'll share about a "campus ministry spiritual discipline" that I've been feeling we've neglected quite significantly in our time at Illinois. So we decided to do something about it.
Would you consider doing the same in 2013? What might He do in (and through) you?
Other "be a tree" references:
Jeremiah 17:5-8
John 15:1-8
Thanks for sending us into this semester with your prayers!
-Noah
Next week: I'll share about a "campus ministry spiritual discipline" that I've been feeling we've neglected quite significantly in our time at Illinois. So we decided to do something about it.
