God has certainly been challenging me. The previous semester took a lot of work. I have been leading a discipleship group of about 15 people on campus and working on many other projects required for the internship. At times when it is easy to give up and lose heart due to burn out or a heavy load of work, it is even more difficult to motivate and encourage others while in this type of funk. But God is faithful even when we are not.
During Winter break I also had the privilege of preaching at Karis— privilege, but a burden nonetheless. Not only did it take a week of studying Greek, reading commentaries, and brainstorming application for the audience, but it was heavily laid on my heart that the first person I was preaching to was myself. The passage was on 1 Corinthians 9: it’s all about the way the Apostle Paul lived his life. He gave up anything he could without violating God’s will, in order to win people to Christ. So much of the time it seems we as Christians are concerned with the freedoms we have in the US of A and all the rights we now have as Christians, instead of being more concerned for those who have not yet tasted freedom in Christ at all. We fill our lives with all types of distractions to the point where reaching out to our neighborhood and serving in our community becomes, at best, last on our list of priorities. It seems however that Paul lived such a life that took others in consideration before himself. If Paul lived today- he would likely live very different from the average American. One example in the passage is that of drinking. Paul wouldn’t drink around those who struggled with becoming drunk. He wouldn’t even eat meat if it bothered a person’s conscience. Not because he didn’t have the right, but because he was willing to give it up in order to communicate love to that person. So they wouldn’t be stumbling over Paul’s actions due to their flawed opinions and traditions. It seemed impossible for me to preach on this without Kelly and me reevaluating some of our own priorities. At the end of the day it is much easier to pop in a movie or play a game instead of inviting people over for dinner or showing God’s love in other ways. We feel the call on our lives not just to be missionaries someday oversees, but to live as missionaries here. So we also feel the call to repentance for the ways in which we constantly fall short of this type of lifestyle. It is easy to blend in. Become content. Or to close your eyes.
The community group on Campus has been going quite well too. We’re in a transition now, trying to find a house to meet in off of campus. During my time in Moberly I’ve met several people who have lived there their whole life, but yet have never even heard of CCCB. Discouraging to say the least. There is a lot of work to be done. One thing that will help is if we can get outside the college atmosphere and into the real-life community where people have fulltime jobs, 3 kids, no summer breaks, and a desperate need for good news. I’m excited to see what happens through the group. One of my main goals was to set something up for when I left CCCB— a system where new students can come in and get involved and get their hands dirty outside of the classroom. After all, if all we do is read the Bible and never tell it to people, what benefit is there aside for us?
One final thing that Kelly and I will be working on is a more frequent blog post. I’m required to keep a journal entry about several books I’m reading and we’re going to be setting in stone this new habit on top of that. I’m extremely encouraged by all those who are praying and giving and can’t explain my gratitude. To know that there are others of the same mind, trying to further the kingdom of God, is encouragement enough on its own to keep going.
Warning: I’ll be experimenting with the website soon! Got an HTML book- so don’t be surprised if there is construction. Till next time! Grace and Peace~
-Caleb
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