Dangers for youth and young adults in a doctrinally sound church...

I read a blog written by one of the student deans at my graduate school, The Master's College. He often has some very thoughtful things to say, and although he wrote this most recent post directed at the students of the college, I think it is especially pertinent for the young people being raised and working through early adulthood in a strong doctrinally sound church, much like the one I attend. I have struggled through some of these same issues and have witnessed it firsthand in many young people at my church. May we be careful to examine where our pursuits, both academically and spiritually, are leading us. Here is his blog post:

Dangers of The Master’s College
November 28, 2009
This past Monday night a small group from the dorms came over to our place to spend some time together. They had asked me to share some of the dangers of life at the college. Before they came, I sat down in the living room to reflect, and wrote down nine dangers that come to mind. Some overlap, and some are more prominent than others, but all are legitimate dangers that I’ve observed and experienced. We only had time to talk about three, and I promised I would send them the rest. But since the rest were only bulletpoints, I thought that expanding on them here would be a good way to make the most of my opportunity to reflect on an important question. So these are for Austin, Garrett, Sam, Jon, and Brandon. Everybody else is just being nosy.

1. Apathy. In a residential Christian community this side of eternity, the sacred can quickly become common. Zeal fades, lethargy sets in, and apathy reigns. Truth becomes fodder for discussion more than fuel for mission, theological issues become writing assignments for grades, relationships lose spiritual meaning, and participation in chapels and classes and community events become requirements instead of privileges. We gather fuel but light no match.

2. Bad habits. This relates more to general college life than TMC specifically. College is a place of new-found independence, a garden in which priorities are planted, and an assembly line of life decisions. Yet unfortunately, the college community is fairly accepting of bad habits — procrastination, lack of discipline, misplaced priorities, noncommittal attitudes. Instead of crucifying some of my bad habits in college, I fed them. And they are much more difficult to slay now. The wise student will fight for good habits in the core disciplines of life. College is a crossroads. Settle some things now.

3. Self-deception. It isn’t too difficult to pick up the lingo, abide by the rules, fit into the culture, and learn the customs. This may all be OK if my heart is pure and my discernment is active and the overall culture is biblical, but if I am just unwittingly following the crowd or (far worse) subtly playing the game, I am deceiving myself. I am coming to see that self-deception is a much bigger and more prevalent issue than I ever thought. It’s all over Scripture and all over our hearts, and the American entertainment and advertising industries are masterful at exploiting our penchant for deceiving ourselves.

4. Hyper-criticism. Studying at an institution that stands firm for doctrinal detail and biblical methodologies can tempt a student to become a relentless critic and a professional stone-thrower. We become those who shoot first and ask questions later. On the other side are reactionary students who lambast the critics, judge the judgers, and trumpet virtual equality among all ideas and methods. It takes the wisdom of discernment and the quality of self-restraint to be one who discerns wrong from right and good from best, and to be one who is developing a working understanding of the difference between those two comparative categories.

5. Disillusionment. Plenty of students come to TMC with a set of baggage that differs in color, shape, size, and contents than the stereotypical black, Samsonite, rolling carry-on. They can feel instantly judged, marginalized, pushed to the fringes, and generally given no sincere opportunity to learn as well as to contribute. On the other side are students who come from conservative Christian homes, and either instantly or over time grow disillusioned with the idiosyncracies or outright weaknesses of the community. How the disillusioned deal with their disillusionment is a vital issue. There’s the danger that instead of dealing with frustrations by going to the Word, abiding in Christ the vine, seeking harmony with other believers, repenting first of personal sin, talking it out patiently with those older and wiser, and gently yet boldly offering correction and perspective to those perpetuating unbiblical attitudes and methods, disillusioned students may choose to distance themselves from the community, solidify kneejerk views in isolation, gather ammunition, and use every felt wrong and negative experience to construct walls. I’ll be the first to admit that we need to do a much better job ministering to the disillusioned.

6. Over-reaching. With all the opportunities at the college and all the calls to Christian obedience and all the nuances of practical living, it can be easy to over-reach. You can be tempted to start putting up crown molding before the foundation has been laid. This is not to say that we should only obey one command at a time, starting with those that seem most fundamental. Only that focusing on all the details and complex dynamics of the human heart and the Christian life can sometimes distract us from mastering the basics. Sometimes I actually want to distract myself with labyrinthal issues so that I don’t have to face my own negligence in the simplest matters of faith and discipline. Certainly there’s nothing praiseworthy about a longtime believer who still needs milk instead of solid food (Hebrews 5:11-14), but among the younger generation, first things first is a needed principle (Proverbs 24:27).

7. Works-righteousness. We don’t need rules and policies and requirements and discipline procedures to make us lean on our own perceived righteousness. But the clear presence of these standards and expectations in a community can certainly tempt us to become focused on personal righteousness (or even appearances of righteousness) to the exclusion of the grace and forgiveness found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. Further, instead of heart-transformation and a purified conscience, we can become focused on externals. Healthy patterns of outward behavior can become the goal, to the neglect of a heart after God.

8. Missionlessness. College is a place to be trained. I strongly disagree with the dichotomy that’s often made between college and “real life,” but I freely acknowledge that college is a time of training and preparation. The spiritual battle still rages, yet in many ways college is a boot camp that’s preparing students for the battle outside. Forgetting the purpose for which we are being trained is destructive, not just to an individual but to the college community and especially the future local church to which a student will belong. God is on a mission in Scripture, and we are benefactors of and participants in that mission. Our college years are not simply for vocational training or career preparation or personal improvement. We are arrows being whittled and fashioned and sharpened — for a purpose. I am fully convinced that one of the greatest needs in the church today is clear, accurate, multi-dimensional teaching on the mission of God in Scripture and how that mission relates to every part of life. Without it we are aimless, misdirected, and wasteful at best.

9. Guilt. Over the years many students have testified that they had culture shock throughout their first semester at college and beyond. They come from being leaders in their youth groups, examples of Christian character in their public schools, and older siblings in their families to being rookies and seeming benchwarmers in a place that can appear very spiritually intense. All of a sudden the academic standards skyrocket, the biblical fire hose is turned on, and the expectations are ratcheted up. Even for upperclassmen at TMC, there are constant reminders of the diverse sufferings of the outside world which you can’t do much about, calls in chapel and classes to get bigger, faster, and stronger spiritually, along with the constant temptation to compare yourself with the spiritual maturity of your peers (which only leads to pride or despair). A constant sense of guilt and the burden of underachievement is almost accepted as a normal part of the Christian life. It’s just here to stay, Romans 8:1 notwithstanding. On top of all of this, there’s the simple fact that guilt gets stuff done. It’s a great motivator, plain and simple. Yet for all that it can produce (externally), it eliminates joy, erodes love, and evicts kindness, meanwhile increasing competitiveness and envy. Guilt is a slavedriver, and eventually a silent killer. But grace — grace is the wonderful, freeing, unexpendable Christian motivation. It creates joy, fuels love, and cultivates kindness, and it destroys competition and comparisons and jealousy. And the striking thing about the saving and sanctifying grace of God expressed in the work of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit is that this grace is the solution and the corrective to every one of the above dangers. It drives away apathy, it urges us toward good habits, it frees us to be honest with ourselves, it destroys judgmentalism, it replaces cynicism with gratitude, it allows for progress over time, it gives us righteousness apart from works, it informs and saturates our mission, and it purges us of guilt and shame.

Refinement is often painful...

“Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
9 Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
10 For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.” (Psalm 66:8-12. NKJV.)

The heart is so easily distracted by earthly matters...

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing is His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand.
Fernando Ortega

I have so many thoughts swirling in my mind this week, actually for several weeks now. There have been some interesting bumps in my road lately as well as the anticipated holiday season and what might as well be called wedding season, even though it's not June! One small thing that I have thought about much in the past few days is how quick my heart is drawn to earthly matters. I spend time talking about what dress I should wear to an upcoming event, and then wonder whether I have matching shoes or jewelry. I go into other people's homes and often begin wishing I had a home like theirs, that I had space to entertain, or could buy some nice decorative items to spruce up what I do have. I love projects and I love to do things for other people, but sometimes even these things can become a distraction from the only thing that really matters, and that is knowing Christ more and more. This next thought seems a bit disjointed, but it's all part of the ongoing progression of my thoughts these days. I was watching a few minutes of the movie "Troy" this afternoon, and I always get so inspired by Prince Hector and how he defends his city, even when his brother acts like a cowardly fool crawling to his feet begging for his help. The King is there telling the younger brother to fight, you can almost hear him in the background, calling out, "Come on, be a man!" I am so moved by Hector's eagerness to protect and guard and defend his bride, his father's kingdom and all those in it. I know this movie has no spiritual bearing whatsoever, but I was suddenly overcome with the thought that this is how my Savior is for me. As an unmarried woman, I often long to be protected or provided for in some way, wishing someone were quick to defend me, and eager to protect me. I don't fear often, but when I do from time to time, it's easy to think how nice it would be if someone were there to be looking out for me. But then I was reminded, as I was watching some silly movie, that Christ is all that for me. When I hear a strange noise, when I am in the dark, when I am feeling alone, when I am worried about how I will make it alone as I get older, I remember that Christ is my all in all. I may not have an earthly husband and I may not have a beautiful home that is filled with spacious and creatively decorated rooms. But I have Christ living within me. I have the power of the Spirit dwelling within, equipping me for every good work. Is there really anything else that matters? And in recognizing such things, how could I want for more? When I do, I am saying to God that He has somehow not given me enough or that what He has given me is not the right thing. How ridiculous and selfish for me to be so busy thinking I must have a new dress every time there is a wedding to attend, or to think that I have to get the best things to make my room all coordinated. What are my clothes and belongings for anyway? They were all given to me by a gracious God to be used for the advancement of His kingdom. He clothes me, feeds me, and provides shelter for me so that I can open my arms to others in generosity, so that I can minister to those in my path. I am merely His slave, a servant who should always be ready to do His bidding. May I forsake the ways of this world and cling to His fellowship tightly.

John MacArthur says, "Those who are consumed with their own needs and comfort rarely accomplish much. Many noble servants of God have suffered much to reach the spiritual goals of Christlikeness in life and ministry. Many even paid with their lives. All had one thing in common - their own comfort was less important to them than being like the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. They left their mark on the church through their undying devotion to Him and their untiring efforts for His gospel."

Seeing our sin...

How do you truly recognize when you are looking for an excuse for your sin? Well, it’s just like Eve in Gen. 3:1 – “Did God really say?” As young women, how often do we find ourselves asking some variation of this question. For example, in regards to our dress – “well God did not clearly outline the specifics of what is modest and immodest so how can we be so stringent?” or “Well God never said we couldn’t drink at all, so what’s the big deal?” or even seemingly good things – like a young man we are interested in or a job we wish to pursue, we challenge our authorities with responses like, “well Scripture is not really perfectly clear on this issue, so I have the freedom to pursue this even though my spiritual authorities have spoken up about their concerns”. What if your parents or pastors have voiced a concern and yet you press on to get what you want, when maybe their concern was the very thing God using to keep you in His will. Be cautious not to disregard this counsel, because you may just end up with exactly what you want and live to regret it. Sometimes God’s will is to let us pursue our own agenda, which in the end might be to our own demise! Don’t be like Eve, who even tried to reason that this fruit was “good for food” as a means of soothing her troubled conscience about what she desired in her own heart. This is manipulation. Be careful you are not trying to manipulate God’s will for your life, seeking to bend and twist it to your own interests.