“Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved,” Matt. 24:12-13. 

Love growing cold–Jesus described it as one aspect of the times before His coming. By the media, however, you might think “love” is as hot as ever. Sensual Super Bowl commercials a couple weeks ago portrayed a sultry heat. That “love” may be enticing, but by God’s standard it is cold, hollow–and tempting. Though worldly pressure makes it difficult, our challenge is to live righteously nevertheless. 

Our culture constantly entices us by the allure of fleshly desires (2 Peter 2:18). That allure leads us into the lawlessness Jesus forewarned and the coldness that must follow. Such a chain strays far from God’s ideal love. What is His ideal? Paul beautifully illustrates it in 1 Corinthians 13. 

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails….But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13. (emphasis mine) 

This is love–the fruit of the Spirit God forms in us. It takes work, but it is “the greatest of these.” Remember, though, increased lawlessness ices most people’s love. Consider what Paul writes about lawless men and the difficulty to live with them in 2 Timothy 3:1-4.

 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” 

Do these characteristics resonate today? Absolutely! They also diametrically oppose the love of 1 Corinthians 13. Whenever I study the Bible and come across such contrasts, I like to list them out and see what I can learn: 

The list could go on. Men in the last days are volatile. Love never fails. Love does not act unbecomingly. Yet how do these men of the last days behave? How do people today behave? The result–lawlessness and cold love. 

The challenge to live in these last days is to live against cold love–cold love to family, friends, even strangers. I see coldness’ effects on marriages. The once distant, sad reality of high divorce numbers becomes real in the faces of my single friends. They look for a love to grow old with, but the statistics haunt me–how many of them will divorce?  When you and your friends want a love, how do you fight a culture that turns “the greatest of these” into a sex driven shell? God, how do we live in these last days? 

Look again with me at Matthew 24:12-13. Contrasts, often signaled by the word “but” or “however,” are so important to catch when reading the Word. I use a bold color to mark them in my Bible to see them easily: 

“Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. BUT the one who endures to the end, he will be saved,” (emphasis mine). 

How do we fight in these last days? Endurance. 

Hebrews 12:1-2 says:

 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 Endurance comes with shedding encumbrances. You can’t run hard and long with stuff, innocent or evil, weighing you down. What is encumbering your race for God? 

Endurance comes with the right focus. What do you look at? Jesus’ eyes were on the joy set before Him. Our eyes need to be on Jesus. 

Endurance comes with trial. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance,” (James 1:2-3). Ritchie Johnson aptly defined two mottos for guys and girls in our last days culture. For girls it is “Love me.” For guys it is “Entertain me.” Warring against fleshly desires that fulfill those mottos is our constant trial (1 Peter 2:11). 

The ability to stand up under–to endure–the pressure of these last days is a God produced virtue that perfects us (James 1:4). Yet we cannot not stand under that pressure of sensuality, lawlessness, and cold love by our own will. Thankfully, it is Christ who makes us strong (Phil. 4:19). It is God who gives us wisdom (James 1:5-6). It is God who gives us love and power and discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). By His working through us He will produce purity and strength in us. Then our race may be encumbrance free and our life a testimony to His warm Light.  

In these last days, may He use us to proclaim His saving love. May the world see in us what is truly the greatest of these.

Stephanie has been serving the past couple of years with Transform Student Ministries as a Boot Camp and Conference Staffer. Stephanie was also, a part of the Intern Program in 2010.

Some time ago, I began writing a story whose main character was, quite simply, a man who had determined not to allow Time to dictate his life.  He wanted no age, no birthday, nothing by which his life could be measured.  Perhaps he thought by removing Time from the equation of his everyday living, he would be ageless somehow – I really couldn’t say.  But he was quite committed to the cause.  For example, he broke all connection to his origins, including any relationship to his father, instead telling everyone he was an orphan.  He kept no friendships very long, no long-term jobs or habits.  Eventually, he rejected days of the week, then hours on the clock-face, then any time frame whatsoever.  But that’s a tale for another time.

I cannot recommend his lifestyle.  We all live by clocks and calendars, for good and bad.  We use these devices to guide our daily actions, interactions, meetings and partings.  We allow them to determine what we can and cannot do, say “yes” to some things, “no” to others.  We make judgments of others by them (“she’s too old to wear that” and “he’s too young to do that”).  And for many of us, the longer we know them, the more we despise them. 

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. 

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

How do you number your days?  Moses’ prayer is a convicting one, to be sure.  In these “last days,” I want to be one who has learned to number his days rightly, to gain that heart of wisdom.  But I’m convinced that for most of my life, I have failed this in two regards.

First, I do not count my days at all.  As a younger man, I still often take days for granted without numbering them or reckoning their worth in light of their brevity.  I overlooked the importance of each day under the assumption that I had countless days to come.  In his psalm, Moses confronts this with a stark truth.

 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

But then I may number my days in the wrong direction.  The silent deceit of clocks and calendars is that they are constantly counting upward.  Nine becomes ten, 2011 becomes 2012, and round and round it goes, spiraling upward.  But the truth of this world is that all of Time is counting down to the day of the Lord – as even Moses prophetically attests!

Return, O LORD!  How long?

Such a question!  We live within this question – whole lives of men have passed within this question, as Time marches to its perfection at the day of the Lord.

If I am to number my days aright, I must admit (as Moses the man of God admitted) that the number of my days is ticking downward.  How do I live by this reality, though I do not know the exact number remaining?  One way is to live eagerly.

We wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. 

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time … to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

I ask myself if my life is characterised by an eagerness, and find myself convicted.  God, put in my heart an eagerness which cannot be confused with mere passion or zeal but has a firm clear object to its hope!  Your day is coming; Your day is my eager hope.

In the passages above, there is no separate word for “eagerly” – the single word fully means “wait eagerly.”  We are waiting, as Moses did, asking God how long until that day.  But this waiting is not idleness; it shapes our actions and our speech.  The works of our hands – those things that we commit our hearts and hands to – will be affected by this waiting.  For when we surrender to Christ, we surrender also to His calendar.

I want to live eagerly, live by countdown.

Lord, teach me to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom.

(Scriptures drawn from Psalm 90, Romans 8, Galatians 5, and Hebrews 9.)

David Ritterbush is a nobody. He believes Christ and occasionally forgets. David has volunteered with Transform Student Ministry since 2006, and happened to meet his wife there.

Are we living in the last days?

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He comforted His disciples by promising to send the Holy Spirit to be with them always (John 14 & 16). In Acts 2, Jesus had returned to heaven and His followers were in one room together. Then Jesus’ promise was fulfilled when the Spirit came upon them. Onlookers mocked, saying that they were filled with “sweet wine.” Peter responded to these accusations by quoting a prophecy from the book of Joel: “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind’” (Acts 2:15-17).

Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” And in 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul says that the stories written in the Old Testament “were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages has come.”

In each of these passages, “the end of the ages” or the “last days” refers to a segment of the world’s timeline. It began with Jesus’ first coming and will end at His second coming. Therefore, here in 2012, we are living in the last days! (There is a difference between “the last days” and what many call “the end times.” The “end times” will take place at the end of the “last days,” near Jesus’ second coming.)

What does that mean for us?

Thankfully, God has not left us without direction! While we cannot know when Jesus is coming back for us, we can know how to live until He does. Two of the primary ways that God has chosen to guide His children through this period of history is through the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit.

First of all, we receive God’s direction in these last days by soaking ourselves in His Word. We love to complicate Christianity… but really it boils down to reading, believing and applying the Bible. 2 Timothy 3 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” So many times we wish that God would tell us “His will for our lives”… forgetting that He already has done so! Scripture is the very Word of God- the primary way that He speaks to us and tells us how to live. So cool!

Secondly, God has chosen to direct us in these last days through the Holy Spirit. In Ezekiel 36 God said that one day He would put His Spirit within believers and cause us to walk in His ways.  When someone makes Jesus his personal Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit enters that person’s life to be with him always. Christians can trust that as we walk in the Spirit, He will comfort us, bear fruit in our lives and give us wisdom. That is so reassuring to me! We don’t have to come up with a legalistic set of rules to self-righteously follow. One of His roles is to lead us into and remind us of truth (John 16). Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” As Christians, we have the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us!! So incredible!

I am so thankful to belong to a God who loves us and has given us access to abundant life through His Son. I pray that we would be humble and moldable to conform to His image in these last days!

Emily is a native of Athens, GA, who never left. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2009 and now works for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at UGA and Watkinsville First Baptist Church. She loves spending time with college students, cheering on the Dawgs, running, and drinking an unhealthy amount of coffee.

After the post Christmas hype, when we head into the New Year, there is one thing I really look forward to here at the office! It’s a big task, and requires quite a bit of reading…but, it’s worth every bit of time! It’s so much more rewarding than a lot of the things on my list of to do’s and really, it builds my faith, leads me to worship, and causes me to pause and reflect on the goodness of the Lord! Do you want to know what it is?

Reading through all of the Boot Camp applications!

I love it because I get to read about how the Lord has saved students, how He has led them out of darkness and into light. So many say how they thought they knew the Lord when they were little kids, but now He has shown them what a life of surrender is and drawn them closer to Him. Some talk about previous Boot Camps, how the Lord spoke to them and led them and transformed them through time in the Word. Sometimes, the stories lead me to tears because I really can’t imagine the pain and sadness these “kids” have lived through…yet they turn and praise God for how He has used it to show them more of Himself.

The really cool part is that these applications aren’t just essays on paper, they represent real lives. They are the stories of students who will all be here in June at our Boot Camp. These students will be studying God’s Word together, worshipping together, and sharing their stories with one another. I know I’m probably biased, but this camp really is the best camp for students who are seeking to grow in their relationship with the Lord, who want to know how to study His word for themselves, and who desire to be around other students their age…who have the same passion and devotion to God.

You don’t have to just take my word for it! I’ll leave you with a small sampling of some applications I’ve read so far this year! I can’t wait to read the rest! It’s amazing how teenagers can teach this 30-something to walk with the Lord by living life totally surrendered to Him!

“Toward the end of middle school, God began to reveal Himself to me through many Bible studies and church services. I now know how desperately I need God. It is amazing how the more you understand the great need for God, the more you experience and relish His love. He has shown me through countless mistakes how lost I am when I try to make it on my own.”

“In the months leading up to Boot Camp 2011 we’d had 5 deaths in the family. My cousin’s 9 month old died a couple weeks before camp. I went to his funeral, and the very next day traveled to Boot Camp. The study and time at camp really helped me because reading and studying for myself the fact that God does NOT break His promises or covenants made me want to trust Him even more. I know that He will always be here for me even through the good times and the bad.”

“One of the main things I learned at Boot Camp 2011 was simple and basic. It was that I no longer bear my sins, but I’m forgiven because Christ was the one true sacrifice! I’d heard that so many times in church growing up, but never felt it and took it to heart. A huge burden was lifted off that week last year, and I have been filled with joy since.”

Just so you know, the application deadline is quickly approaching! All applications MUST be postmarked by February 1, 2012. If you’re interested in finding out more about camp, or downloading the application you can get it here

I look forward to reading YOUR application soon!

Brooke Ritterbush
Coordinator, Transform Student Ministries

The young woman, Ashley, eventually became my wife in 1998. Shortly after we married, we were invited to a retreat where the student ministry directors, David and BJ Lawson, would be teaching some inductive Bible study. At the retreat, they re-connected with Ashley and invited us to apply to staff at the next summer’s bootcamps. The rest, as they say, is history.

I found bootcamp to be an amazing experience, one like I had never seen or even heard of before. What made it so unique? Well imagine 150 or so young believers, passionate about their faith, studying God’s Word in community for hours a day. There were no televisions, radios, walkmans (just kidding, this was late 90’s, not 80’s), newspapers, or many of the distractions that we deal with everyday. Now we played some games together, played sports in teams in the afternoon, had a giant obstacle course and did those kinds of things, but when it came down to it, it was as simple as God’s people in God’s Word.

And that remains the essence of camp today! We are receiving applications for camp this year, and the deadline is approaching soon. For more information about camp, and to download an application visit this section of our website!

So, former bootcampers – share a story from your own experiences at camp. What made your experience at camp one you would suggest to others? What made it unique from other camps or left the most lasting impression? Share your own bootcamp story!

Ritchie Johnson
Director, Transform Student Ministries

Titus 2:11-14 

I can not get these verses out of my head. They were part of our study at Transform Ministry’s December Student Conference earlier this month. We studied the book of Titus, focusing on the topic of doctrine. This passage, however, jumped out at me especially in regard to this Christmas season. I took these verses and weighed them against how I usually view Christmas and the Baby in the manger. Titus 2:11-14 adds power to that stable scene. They show what Christ did (and does) for us and what we do in Christ. 

Look at the verses while considering what we celebrate this time of year. I read them and see Christ’s birth, “for the grace of God has appeared.” I also see His death and resurrection, “bringing salvation to all men….Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us.” I even see His coming again, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” 

Earlier in Titus, Paul mentions the hope of eternal life promised by God (Titus 1:2-3). God manifested that hope at the proper time. When was that? At Jesus’ birth when, as Titus 2:11 says, the grace of God appeared. Why did His grace appear? Why did Jesus appear? To give us that manifested promise. To “bring salvation to all men,” (verse 11). To–as verse 14 says–redeem us, purify us, and possess us. Read that again. The Baby came to redeem us. He came to purify us. He came to posses us. When I look at my manger scene, that is the purpose I see there. 

What about us? We are not left out here. When we worship God our Savior this Christmas let us consider not only singing His praise in our carols, but living His glory in our lives. Look at verses 11 and 12. Salvation came to save us, but it also instructs us. Make a list with me on what salvation is instructing us to do: to deny ungodliness, deny worldly desires, to live sensibly, to live righteously, to live godly, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our God. I think of Isaiah 58 which is about true fasting–about living out fasting in a way pleasing to God. I compare Titus 2 to a part of true worship God shows us–living out worship in a way pleasing to Him. 

Consider, also, verse 14 and how we may live worship here. Christ’s redemption of us is from lawless deeds. Christ purifies us as a people for His possession. What kind of people? A people “zealous for good deeds.” We are redeemed from lawless deeds–set free from slavery to them–and purified to be zealous for good deeds. 

Christmas is all about the worship of our Savior. I love worshiping Him in Christmas songs (though I can’t sing, so they are for His ears only). My family always worships by reading the Christmas story from Luke 2. But this year I also want to intentionally worship Him by living Titus 2:11-14. I want to worship Him knowing that Christ lives in me–empowering me to live in Him. I stand in awe knowing that manger Baby came to set me free from slavery to lawless deeds. That Baby came to purify me so that He might posses me. And I shall live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the coming again of the glory of my great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Will you join me in the worship of our King? 

O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

Stephanie has been serving the past couple of years with Transform Student Ministries as a Boot Camp and Conference Staffer. Stephanie was also, a part of the Intern Program in 2010.

 A well-known prophecy about the Messiah’s birth is found in Isaiah. Written hundreds of years before He was born, the prophecy tells the people of Israel who He would be:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” –Isaiah 9:6

This single verse contains a wealth of information about our Savior. In the Bible a person’s name is often a description of his or her character. Similarly, the names of God in Scripture describe aspects of His character.

Although all that Scripture says about God is true, it is not exhaustive! We will never know all that there is to know about God. Period. And that makes sense. After all, why should mere humanity be able to fully understand the God of the universe?

But this should not paralyze us in our pursuit of God. It should encourage us to seek after Him even harder. God’s infinite beauty and majesty should simultaneously cause us to stop and gaze in awe, and to chase after and long for Him more.

One of the ways that God has chosen to reveal Himself is through His names. Here are a few of the names (and characteristics!) of Jesus that are in Isaiah 9:6:

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Wonderful Counselor:

He is our Counselor! Jesus Christ is the One who is fit to direct our lives. He is full of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom (Isaiah 28:29). His glory should fill our hearts with wonder.

Not only that, but He has made His wisdom and counsel available to us individually through the Holy Spirit. In John 16, Jesus is preparing to leave His disciples after living life with them for three years. He comforts them by telling them that it is better for them that He leaves. What?? What could be better than having Jesus in the flesh with us? But Jesus says that it is better because “the Helper” would come to them after He left. Do we really believe the value of having the Holy Spirit inside of us?

When you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the trinity, came to live inside of YOU. He was given to us so that we could be led by Him. He convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment (Jn 16:8), He guides you into all truth (Jn 16:13), and He will dwell in you forever (Jn 14:16-17). He will give you the ability to live wisely and walk in obedience (Ezekiel 36:26-27)… how comforting! If you belong to Jesus, these promises belong to you.

Mighty God:

Jesus is our mighty God! What a straight-forward statement of Jesus’ deity. Jeremiah 32:17-19 says that God has made the heavens and the earth by His great power. He created the heavens and the earth! He continues, “Nothing is too hard for You. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.” Here are a few more verses you can look up about His might and His deity: Genesis 1, Deuteronomy 10:17, Nehemiah 9:32, Psalm 24:8, Isaiah 42:13, John 1.

Everlasting Father:

He is our everlasting Father. This is one of those places that we see the beautiful mystery of the trinity. In 1 John 3 we read that Christians have been adopted into the family of God. Verse one says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”

He is everlasting. The Hebrew for “everlasting” means “perpetuity, forever, continuing future.” He is “‘the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8).

Prince of Peace:

Jesus is our Prince of Peace. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 tells us that God has reconciled (made peace with) us to Himself through Jesus. Before we were saved we were His enemies. But God, the offended One, took the first step in forgiveness. There was a “great exchange” as Martin Luther called it. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Not only that, but He did that so that we might be the righteousness of God! Thus He became the ultimate Peacemaker. He took on our sin and gave us His righteousness so that we could have a restored relationship with God.

One of the fruits that the Spirit produces in our lives is peace (Galatians 5). If you are experiencing a lack of peace in your life right now, ask God why that might be. Is it sin? Circumstances beyond your control? Fear? Disappointment? Humbly ask Him if He would do a supernatural work and provide that. He is our Prince of Peace and has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1).

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This Christmas thank Jesus for who He is and what He has done. Thank Him for being YOUR Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

**By the way, if you are interested in studying the names of God, you should get Kay Arthur’s study Lord, I Want to Know You!

Emily is a native of Athens, GA, who never left. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2009 and now works for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at UGA and Watkinsville First Baptist Church. She loves spending time with college students, cheering on the Dawgs, running, and drinking an unhealthy amount of coffee.

            “Yes!” I nodded back, “it was great.”

            “No,” he leaned in closer, “did you hear the message?” 

Mr. Robert is the kind of person whom God endowed with an extra helping of the encouragement/exhortation gift. He and his wife both possess a godliness that makes you wonder how you could ever on this earth attain the same. Hebrews 10:24 says, “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” Well, Mr. Robert must spend most of his time considering. Countless times he has told me he prayed for me. He always asks–sincerely–what is going on in my life. And, of course, he encourages me in pointed, real ways. 

This month is the thankful month. Thanksgiving Day, much food, seeing anything and everything as a gift to be thankful for, and more food. You do not need to look hard in the Bible to find a plethora on thankfulness, too. A good cross-reference search on the word proves that. (BlueLetterBible.org is great for word searches, by the way.) In those cross-references you would see that Paul, among others, is always thankful. If he is not unceasingly giving thanks for certain brethren (Ephesians 1:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2), he is instructing said brethren to unceasingly give thanks themselves for all things (Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). 

So what about people like Mr. Robert? How can we apply thankfulness here? What about people–in church or out, Christian or not–that God placed in our lives to teach us or bless us?  Consider this–how many people have we learned something from yet never told them how grateful we are for their example? Yes, told them how grateful we are. Like Paul, we share how they have blessed us and why we thank the Father for them.

 I ought to be thankful for a man like Mr. Robert. I certainly am, so I wrote a note once to Mr. Robert thanking him for his prayer and encouragement. It was such a simple, easy little note. The next Sunday his wife caught me first. She pulled me aside, earnestly grateful, “I can’t tell you how much that blessed him.” 

I share this story because of what God taught me through it. At first I thought, “What? You mean I blessed the blesser?” Then He showed me–God recycles thanksgiving. He recycles it powerfully. God is honored and magnified when we thank Him (Psalms 50:23, 69:30). When that spills to a verbal thanks to others, I learned God uses it as a new blessing to those people. 

Thanks is recyclable, friend. God does it all the time if we start it off. We thank God for who (or what) He gives. We verbalize the blessing to others. His blessing spreads. We see Him honored again by the thanks they in turn give back to Him. Paul told the brethren how thankful he was to God for them. In our striving for Christlikeness, let us take this apostles example–never ceasing in giving thanks while making mention of our Mr. Roberts in our prayers.

Stephanie has been serving the past couple of years with Transform Student Ministries as a Boot Camp and Conference Staffer. Stephanie was also, a part of the Intern Program in 2010.

Luke 7

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” ⁴¹ “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” ⁴⁴ Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. ⁴⁷ For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” ⁴⁹ Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

This woman understood the depth of forgiveness, the Pharisees, not so much.  And as Christians we should be thankful not only for our justification, that forgiveness which sees our adoption as sons and daughters of God, but also for His continued grace and mercy as we struggle with sin still.

1 John 2

 ¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 

With Jesus Christ as our lawyer, arguing on our behalf, bestowing His righteousness on us, we don’t have to live under constant guilt and condemnation for our sins. That is a great blessing. And understanding this blessing which we’ve received allows us to give to others. In this case, it allows us to forgive! You see, those who understand the forgiveness given to them have the ability to forgive others as well and desire that their brothers and sisters be restored when they struggle.

 Let me encourage you to evaluate your own heart. If you have great difficulty forgiving others, then it’s a distinct possibility that you’ve lost sight of thankfulness for your own forgiveness. If grace and mercy are hard for you to demonstrate, then have you fully received them yourself? Do you see what I’m getting at? My prayer for anyone who reads this is that you would fully embrace God’s forgiveness for yourself, resting on his promises to “remember (act on) your sin no more” and to “remove your sin as far as the East from the West.” Only in understanding your own forgiveness will you then be able to pay forgiveness forward! 

Blessings,

Ritchie

 Ritchie Johnson
Director, Transform Student Ministries

It means giving my self fully to another with thankfulness and that is something that God has been really refining in my heart. I then started thinking about how selfish I really am and how even in friendships I don’t naturally think about the other person. No, my natural tendency is to be selfish, and that’s not what God has been revealing to me is the Christ-life. It is pretty easy to say with our mouths that we want to live a Christ life, but it’s actually quite a hard task.

Think about this:

“And someone came to Him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?’ And He said to him, ‘Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’…The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.” (Matt 19:16-17,20-22) 

If I am honest with myself, I think I would be walking away grieving as well. In this day, we have so much stuff, and our world pushes to have more and gain the latest things – and yet our economy is failing. We spend our money on things that will eventually dissatisfy us while our neighbor is starving physically and spiritually. Giving to the poor did not bring salvation but brought treasure in heaven. I need to look past the temporary and see things in light of eternity.

This means that it’s not just about giving our earthly possessions but about giving our time to others as well. Christ gave his disciples time. He loved them and built relationship with them. This is another area where God has been revealing to me my selfishness. We are to love our “neighbor” as ourselves. The word “neighbor” literally means “the person right next to you.” How do I love the person standing right next to me? The answer can be something as big as spending years getting to know someone to bring them to Christ or allowing another to jump ahead in line at the grocery store. Everything should be seen in light of Christ.

There are to be boundaries of course. He says to love them as you love yourself. It doesn’t show me love to have someone screaming down my ear or to have someone “self-sacrifice” when I can tell they don’t really want to do it. There needs to be wisdom in how this giving of myself is done.

Christ loves His bride and sacrificed everything so that she may be with Him. He gave away life in heaven to be on earth. He gave time to those around Him. He gave His life so that all may come into relationship with God. He was sacrificed so that love may triumph over His bride. I think that is what thankful giving looks like, and may I never become too prideful to not give up some time or possessions to share the gospel of my God!

Ryan Thomason has been around Transform Student Ministries for many years. Ryan is a former Boot Camper, Staffer, and Intern.