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Student Ministry January 2019

Dear Church Family,
           The Christmas season has come to an end yet again, and it’s back to life as it used to be. A truly sad reality for some and a very welcome prospect for others. But there are some definite things that should never change for a Christian after Christmas time: Love, Joy, and Peace. These are words that we have seen posted everywhere during the Christmas season. And there is nothing wrong with that! It’s kind of nice to see people aspiring to Christian values. But the problem is, people in the world can only hold those values for a short season. And even during that season, those values are actually quite lacking. I’m not sure how many people actually feel the love, joy, and peace when fighting the crowds at the mall or driving up and down Green River Road! Why is it that having love, joy, and peace is so hard to keep up?

The answer is that love, joy, and peace come from the Lord. They belong to Him, and it is only in Him that we can find them. Unbelievers can aspire to these values as much as they want. But eventually they will burn out and default back to themselves. Even Christians seem to have this same experience. But if believers and unbelievers alike cannot attain love, joy, and peace for   longer than a couple weeks in December (if that), then what’s the difference? And that’s my point. There is a difference. Believers truly can have love, joy, and peace throughout the year, in all circumstances. I did not say they would be healthy and wealthy, but that they could have Christlike attitudes through all of life’s situations. The key is that we must ask God to give us these values instead of thinking we can muster them on our own.

Where is this coming from and why am I writing about this? Well, it’s coming from Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” And I’m writing about it because I have found that having Christian values, even as a Christian at Christmas time, can be very difficult. The Lord has shown me that love, joy, and peace (and all the rest), are not just values that I need to try to live out, but they are realities in my heart that will only be displayed when I walk by the Spirit and not in my flesh. That simply means that I must ask God to give me His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control every single day. If I am not asking the Holy Spirit to guide my heart daily, then something else will. And it will make me unloving, dissatisfied, and in an uproar within.

I see those sad realities around me all the time in the life of students. They are dissatisfied with life, constantly fighting  internal turmoil, and only full of love for themselves. It is also a reality for unbelieving adults. But it really doesn’t have to be our reality. Every Christian can have love, joy, and peace, because we all have the Holy Spirit living in us! And we can have, and do have, these things for all of our lives. Maybe you feel the same tension of being a believer but struggling to experience them in your life. Maybe you know a student who desperately needs to be encouraged to pray and ask God to give them these things. My hope and challenge for us all is to be a people who walk by the Spirit and rely on Him to give us love, joy, and peace all year long! If you are following Christ, then this is your reality. Now, ask the Lord to help you experience it more this year than ever before!

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren

Student Ministry November 2018

Dear Church Family,
This month my wife and I will be welcoming into our home our new baby boy! We are   beyond exited, slightly nervous, and definitely ill-prepared for the amount of sleep deprivation we are about to experience.  Ultimately we feel abundantly blessed, and we can’t wait to get to know this person the Lord has entrusted to us. It is because He has entrusted the raising and training of this child to us that we have been reading a book by Ted Tripp titled, Shepherding a Child’s Heart.

In this book Tripp discusses the need to train the heart of a child, not just the behavior. The premise is that scripture teaches that behavior comes from the heart, which means that if your heart is sinful, then ultimately your behavior will be too. And since scripture also tells us that all humans are sinful (Romans 3:23) we all have sinful, self-focused hearts that will produce sinful, self-focused behavior. Tripp’s point is that this reality is the number one issue when it comes to parenting. Children’s hearts are sinful and our parenting must point that out and give our children the solution. Obviously teaching children and teenagers proper behavior is extremely important, and discipline is necessary to do so. But we cannot forget that for all of our discipline and teaching, we cannot, as Tripp would say, give our children God oriented hearts.

But that is not to trouble us too greatly. It should make us feel a little powerless to command and dictate our child’s life; but that’s the point. God didn’t give you your child so you could control their life. He gave you your child so you could teach them about God and help them understand the gospel. He gave them to you so you would grow in your faith to trust the Lord with the heart of your most precious possession. You see, this is the hope that you have as a parent: God can change the worst of hearts. Look at what scripture has to say about God’s ability to move the heart. Proverbs 21:1 says “A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.”

When you are disciplining your child, or lecturing them for the thousandth time; remember that their heart orientation is what truly matters. How are you pointing them to the gospel in your discipline or lecture. More importantly, how often are you praying for God to change their heart? Do you believe that God can change the hearts of great kings? If so, won’t you hope in Him to guide the heart of your child? By all means teach, lecture, and discipline your child. But more than that, lead their heart to Christ and ask the Lord to do the work only He can do.