encourage

Staying Christian In College Part 1: Setting Your Heart On Jesus

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I wrote a short, challenging letter the other day on my blog to my friends who are in high school and college.  The purpose of the letter was to invite everyone to come back to read my series on “Staying Christian in College”.  The forthcoming series isn’t only intended to benefit students of high school and college, but also to benefit and encourage all Christians regardless of your age or school grade.

The idea that I want you to consider is staying Christian in college.  Before my Calvinist brothers accuse me of heresy, I want to make it clear that I am not insinuating that anyone is going to lose their salvation because of some experience in school. I believe that John 10:29 makes it crystal clear that anyone who comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ will always be in God’s treasured family.

What I mean by “staying Christian in college” is this: maintaining a firm foundation in the Christian faith while experiencing trials, temptations, and persecution at a time in your life that you are going through transition and are vulnerable to the devils attacks.  

First, I want to provide you with a list of 5 things you shouldn’t do in your pursuit of staying Christian in college:

  1. Slam the bible down peoples throats.
  2. Pick fights with people who don’t agree with you.
  3. Be “that kid” in class.  Yes, anyone who has gone to community college knows what I am talking about. That kid who always has to have his opinions heard by everyone.
  4. Write nasty,mean, and offensive articles to the school newspaper editorial staff telling them how you were “offended” by some kid in your class who said Jesus isn’t God.
  5. Quote Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged” every single time a fellow Christian gives a reasonable opinion or comment on a hot issue in class.
Now that we have covered a few don’ts, let’s get started on the do’s.  My primary scripture for this series is Ezra 7:1-10.  The primary verse that we are going to be looking at for this 4 part series is Ezra 7:10.  Today I will quickly take us through 7:1-10a for part 1 “Setting Your Heart On God”.  I want to warn you that if your attention span is lost after a few minutes of reading, skip to the end where the 5 practical points are made.  For those of you who love bible study, enjoy 🙂

Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest—this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.
And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

(Ezra 7:1-10 ESV)

In Verses 1-9 we meet Ezra who works for the king of the Persian Empire Artaxerxes.  The scripture provides us with a complete lineage of this man Ezra which goes all the way back to Aaron the chief priest and older brother of Moses.  Ezra comes from the priestly group and is a scribe by trade who appears to be working directly for the king in some capacity.What is a scribe you may wonder? A scribe during biblical times was someone who was responsible for transcribing important documents and information.  He was essentially a record keeper.
What made Ezra so special was that he was fluent in Hebrew. You may wonder “so was all of Israel” but that wasn’t the case, because earlier in the scriptures Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were deported out of their homeland and consequently began living in other cultures resulting in them speaking a different language.  This language was Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke).  Many Jews during Ezra’s time could not read the Hebrew bible.  They required their priests to translate it for them into their languages, and Ezra was fully qualified to do this, especially given his priestly lineage.
In verse 6, the providence of God is witnessed in that it says “The hand of the Lord his God was on him” and that because of this “the king granted him all that he asked”.  It’s important to understand that God can use whoever He want’s to accomplish His sovereign will, even pagan polytheistic warlord kings like Artaxerxes.
In verses 7-9 we are shown what Ezra asked of the king; to allow Ezra and some of his fellow Jews to return to Jerusalem (remember it had been destroyed previously).  What’s even more fascinating about this story is that the scriptures tell us exactly how long this journey took for them to arrive in Jerusalem.  5 months.  Now a days if we want to go somewhere we get in our car and drive there at 60 MPH or fly there at 600 MPH.  During Ezra’s time, travel took time and consumed a good portion of the travelers life.  a 5 month journey is quite the commitment, but it was worth it.
I want to challenge you to follow Ezra’s example and make a commitment to walk with the Lord right now. Again, it doesn’t matter how old you are, what grade you are in, or what your background may be.  What matters most is what you do right now, either commit (or continue to commit) your life to following Jesus in everything you do, OR, live in dangerous territory where it is next to impossible to determine whether you have any commitment to Jesus or not.
Here are some practical points I want you to consider applying to your life right now. Hopefully these points will assist you in your goal of staying Christian in college.
  1. You have to make a personal commitment.  This isn’t something you should do because your parents force you or you inherited Christianity from them.  You have to be able to say “I want to walk with the Lord” “I want to be different” “I want to be the light in the darkness” and “Jesus is worth it”.
  2. You need to be intelligent about how you approach this commitment.  Set reasonable goals to attend church, get connected with Christians your own age,  put away music that may cause you or your brother to sin, respect your parents curfew, be careful who you surround yourself with,and most importantly, walk with Jesus daily in prayer.
  3. You need to follow through with your commitment.  At times it is tough to “stay Christian in college”.  Sometimes it feels like the world is against you.  Whether it be a professor making you look stupid in class, textbooks telling you Jesus isn’t God or that the “big bang” created the world, or when a fellow student offers you a hit from his blunt.  Whatever the case may be, you have to be committed to resist these trials and temptations, and ask yourself “how is God using these experiences to sanctify me?”
  4. The hand of the Lord needs to be on you if you plan to succeed.  Don’t expect to stay Christian in college if you are quick to abandon your Christian values for whatever momentary pleasure that might come up.  Sex, drugs, and alcohol are all powerful thing’s the devil takes pleasure in using to derail college aged students from their commitment to loving God and loving others.
  5. Some of the best things in life happen after long periods of waiting.  Any time you make a commitment you have to prepare your heart to be patient and wait to see what God has in store for you.  It took Ezra 5 months to get to Jerusalem.  It took him years of service and the hand of God himself to persuade the pagan King to fund his trip back home.  Being a Christian is about endurance, and our race isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon, so pace yourself young brothers and sisters, and fight the good fight of the faith. Don’t sell yourself short for temporary pleasures, instead “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act” Psalm 37:5
I hope that I have encouraged you and I pray that you will come back later this week for part 2 of the series which will be much shorter.  I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions, please comment below!