by Elizabeth | Nov 20, 2014 | Learning Story
Excessive drinking, casual hookups, secular humanism agendas in the classroom…
College presents an array of startling, and sometimes unexpected, challenges.
As a parent of college children, two graduated, two still on campus, I can honestly say I don’t know how they would have come through it all with any level of gospel sanity if it weren’t for…
Gospel-centered campus ministries.
Today I share an update from my FAVORITE campus ministry worker (in gold LSU tee shirt, above) — our elder daughter, Jackie Turnage.
As you listen to her stories, pray for students and workers on college campuses. While you’re at it, consider supporting a gospel-centered campus ministry today if you don’t already.
Hey Guys!
Here to give you a little update about RUF at LSU.
Fall has finally arrived in Baton Rouge as temps have dropped to an icy 77 degrees or so (although as I’m writing this we have a freeze warning for tonight…don’t ask me), football season is almost over, and we are in the final push of the semester. I’m pretty tired. Things are hard, and also things are really good.
I figured I’d share a story or two and if you want to see some more highlights from the semester just scroll on down!
“I believe in Jesus that he has saved me and that the Bible has authority over my life, but my life does not reflect it at all. I want it to, but honestly I know in my heart I’m not fully willing to give up certain things in my life to obey Jesus. I can say I won’t get drunk this weekend or that I want to stand up for what I believe but I can’t even do the easy things. I’m struggling and I just feel stuck.”
This sweet girl was one of the freshmen I nearly gave up on last fall– never texted back, always cancelled and rescheduled and cancelled again our lunch dates, and one day started showing up to Large group second semester. I’ve gotten to know her pretty well over the last year, but this conversation was the first time she really opened up about her faith and her desire to follow Jesus but inability to do it in her own power. Clearly God has been pursuing her heart from the start.
One of the things I love about my job is that I get to sit across the table from students like this and tell them what I need to hear just as much as they do —
You’re struggling. You need Jesus. In Christ you are washed, you are forgiven, your sin no longer is your identity. And that changes the motivation to do everything you do, to pursue righteousness, to love people. God is not a kill-joy, he wants to make you whole because he loves you.
The thing is, my students don’t need me to help them “make good decisions.” What they need is to come to a fuller knowledge of their sin and a fuller knowledge of Jesus’ profound and perfect love for them demonstrated by his life and death on the cross for us. Don’t we all need that?
Please keep praying for this student, that she would be encouraged and grow in the gospel! And please pray for other students like her, that RUF could be a safe and sweet community for them to come and be welcomed by weary, broken people who are being “renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16) by the love of Christ, together.
If you want to read the entire newsletter and see all the pictures, please click here.
What’s your story?
What struggles did you experience as a college student or a young adult? Were there people who pointed you toward real hope?
Jackie says, “We all need that.” How does knowing “that” change your daily life?
by Elizabeth | Jul 18, 2014 | Learning Story
When we know God’s story — the story of the gospel; the Story of Faith and Hope the Bible tells, it changes our prayers. No longer dry, dull, and distant, prayer becomes interaction with the story God has told and is telling. That is why an essential feature of each Living Story Bible study is called “Praying Story.” Here is one I wrote for the end of Chapter 6: The Hero’s Story, in Living God’s Story of Grace. Try praying this story aloud, or write your own prayer to the God who fulfills promises and restores hope in His way, in His time:
Dear God, Fulfiller of Faith, Restorer of Hope,
We come to you humbly, confessing that we so often want your promises to be fulfilled in our time and in our way. We thank you that you are God and we are not, that you refuse to bow down to our demands, but instead draw us to kneel before your majesty, to declare your wonder, to marvel at your beauty. Help us to walk as heroes of faith, fixing our eyes on your heavenly city from afar, remembering your “already” redemption, and knowing with deep assurance that you are redeeming and transforming now. You will never stop until the day Christ returns to fulfill your greatest promise — eternal life with you in the new heavens and the new earth. In hope assured by you and faith founded in you, we pray. Amen.
by Elizabeth | Jul 15, 2014 | Learning Story
It’s July 15 — can it really already be time to think about back to school and back to Bible study? Apparently so, since I received a from our women’s ministry leader that teachers needed to let her know by August 1 what we’re teaching.
If any of you are looking for good material, be sure to check out the Living Story Bible studies. I wrote these to help you know the story of grace Scripture tells, to know your own stories, and to live them out in real life. I address questions that people new to Bible study may ask and that people who have been doing it for years may need to be reminded of — in short, the good news of the gospel.
There are now three studies in the series — you can do them in sequential order, but they will also stand alone:
Learning God’s Story of Grace looks at the whole story of redemption: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation, and what it means for our lives.
Living God’s Story of Grace focuses on the struggle of faith and hope that we all experience.
Loving in God’s Story of Grace is about, you guessed, it — love — the radical, countercultural love that the gospel tells.
Try them — you’ll like them! And, if you do one of these studies with a group and would like me to meet with your group via Skype or telephone, let me know! I would love to interact with you!
Check out this “theological theme,” in which I try to take some “big words” and make them make sense in real life:-)!
Theological Theme: Justification by Faith
“Abram believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
In the first chapter of the study, we asked the question, “What does faith do?” One of the most important byproducts of faith is “justification.” To understand the word justification, consider this story:
I had spoken impulsively, reeling off some sarcastic remark sure to draw peals of laughter from my daughter’s friends. Immediately I felt chagrin. My joke came at the expense of my daughter’s dignity. I wanted to justify my action, saying I was only trying to be funny, but it was clear there was no excuse – I had traded my daughter’s reputation for a moment of fame among a group of 13-year-olds. In God’s court of law, I would have been declared guilty of a love-failure.
As sinners, which we all are (Romans 3:23), there is no justification for our sin. In a court of law, we are declared guilty. That is why Genesis 15:4 is such a radical statement. Abraham is declared “righteous,” that is, “not guilty,” just because of his faith. Abraham’s righteousness does not come from his moral rectitude or good actions – it comes from his faith, which comes from God.
Faith in Christ brings an even more astounding reality to our stories. We receive the credited righteousness (see imputed righteousness in Learning God’s Story) by transferring trust from our own efforts at being good to Christ’s finished work on the cross (Romans 3:23-26). When a person confesses, “I believe Christ has fully paid the price I owe for my sin,” we are credited with Christ’s righteousness (Romans 4:23-24).
The radical concept of justification by faith should humble and astonish us. One of the great old hymns asks, “How can we keep from singing?” Indeed, when we understand that the holy God sent his holy Son as the only adequate substitute for our sins, how can we keep from living a life of loving God and loving others?
