Some Tips

Here are some things to consider when making a tough decision:

• Pray – Scripture tells us that we can pray for wisdom and it will be given to us (James 1:5). Of course, wisdom is not about just knowing the answer, but more about learning to exercise good judgment, so don’t be let down if your answer doesn’t just magically come to you.
• Study the Bible – Take a look at Proverbs 16:3, notice the order, first we commit our work to the Lord, then our plans will be established. In other words, knowing God more will help us learn to make wiser, more “Godly” decisions. Our will conforms to His.
• Seek Counsel – Have the humility to listen to and consider the advice of those you trust (Proverbs 12:15, 15:22). It’s also good to get the advice of older, more experienced people, in addition to your peers.
• Practice Discernment – Not all the advice you get will be good advice, make sure it stacks up well against scripture (1 John 4:1). Be especially careful of signs and audible answers. He certainly CAN answer prayer this way, but it’s not wise to rely only on that.
• Don’t Test God – We are explicitly told not to “put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:7). So, you shouldn’t pray things like “God, if this is your will, then “. Likewise, don’t bargain with God (see Judges 11:29-40 for an example of what can go wrong).
• Consider Fasting – In scripture, people will often fast before making major decisions (Acts 14:23). However, (like with prayer above), be careful to not set improper expectations, and make the goal of fasting be growing closer to God.
• Trust in God – In the end, after prayerful considerations, just make a decision. Don’t grow anxious over the decision because God’s has it under control (Matthew 6:25-34). And even if you make a “wrong” decision, God can, and will use it for good (Romans 8:28).

Further Study

If you’d like to know more on this subject, I found the following particularly useful:

Can I Know God’s Will by R. C. Sproul

Your Plans; God’s Plans (a free sermon by Timothy Keller)

To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, I have a non-denominational, protestant background. I did not grow up observing Lent, nor do I view it as something you HAVE to do as a Christian. With that said however, I do feel that it is a great opportunity to learn and grow in Christ. The purpose of Lent is to prepare us for the Holy Week, the week leading up to the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. When deciding what you want to “give up” (or alternatively, “do extra”) for Lent this year, try to keep that in mind. So, if you decide to give up Facebook, don’t just fill that void with IM and email, but fill it with Christ.

Personally, for Lent, I plan to doing a few things, first, I’m trying to get my regular Bible Study back on track, and I’m doing this with a group of people dedicated to do the same. Another thing I’m doing, is I plan on reading at least one reason per day from Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die by John Piper. In doing this I hope to prepare myself for Holy Week by concentrating on the reasons for the cross.

If you decide that you want to observe Lent this year, I encourage that you truly make the most of it, and that you have a good reason for how you choose to observe it. If you keep your focus on the Cross and Resurrection, it will help keep you motivated and stay on track with your decision, and more importantly, it will help you grow closer to Christ by gaining deeper understanding of what He’s done for us.

As of right now, everything should be back, with the exception of the actual mp3 files from the talks (you should get a nice little error when trying to play or download audio files now). I’m hoping to resolve this by the end of this week, and then work on updating the site filling in the missing talks.

UPDATE: All the old talks are back online.

There’s not too much here yet, but we hope to flesh this out with information about our group and our events, picture galleries of past events, student testimonies, tips and recommendations for further Bible Study, and all other sorts of stuff we haven’t figured out yet.

Feel free to poke around, leave comments on posts, or whatever. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Hope you enjoy your stay! And Christ’s grace be with you all!