Gallaudet
Lutheran Student Fellowship
|
|
Gallaudet
Lutheran Student Fellowship
|
|
|
Recently I saw an interview with a devout atheist.
He is a university professor whose mission in life is stomping out Christian
influences in our culture. When the interviewer ask the professor if
he wants to see everyone reject God and embrace atheism, he said, "I don't
mind if people believe in religion, just so they don't let it influence the
way they live." Think about that statement a minute, and you
will probably come up with a half dozen responses as I have. You may
even have a good laugh.
The Christian faith is suppose to influence the way we
live, the way we think, and the way we relate to other people. Our
relationship with Christ is, first and foremost, concerned with our eternal
destiny -- where we go when we die. But faith in Christ also has a
practical side that directs the decisions we make every moment of our lives
-- decisions to what is good, wise, and right, and decisions not to do wrong.
It is to this practical side of our faith to which I will
dedicate our campus ministry articles this year. We will focus on two
topics: (1) How to receive God's guidance for important decisions.
(2) How to successfully resist temptation. So let's jump in right now
to topic #1...
Right away I must correct something I just said about
this topic: How to receive God's guidance for important decisions.
If we limit our consideration of God's leading only for
the "important" decisions, we will fail miserably. Jesus said, "Whoever
can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever
is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." (Luke 16.10)
In other words, if we deliberately turn down God's counsel for the small
"personal" decisions (like honesty and sexual purity), why should we expect
God to guide us for the major "important" decisions (like job and marriage)?
Even if God does graciously offer us His guidance for an important decision,
would we be spiritually alert enough to even see His guidance? If we
continually snub His leading, we deaden our consciences and become unable
to sense His leading. We tend to search more for loopholes and excuses
rather than to really desire to know God's will.
So the first step in receiving God's guidance is to "be
willing to will the will of God." You can translate that into a prayer:
"Lord, what do You want me to do?" More than anything else, we want
what God wants. And when we find our desires conflicting with His desires,
we pray that He will change our desires to conform with His.
That is an essential prerequisite to receiving God's guidance.
How God actually communicates His plan to us... we will begin to explore
that next month.
From time to time we post announcements to the Lutheran Student Fellowship by email. If you would like to be included, please send your email address to Ron.Friedrich@gallaudet.edu