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We have begun our second semester at Cornell as students have come back from winter break. After a period of transition, we now have a new director on our staff. Greg Ray has come from Madrid, Spain, where he was doing missionary work to lead our team. As we move into this new stage, we look forward to seeing how God is going to work through the team on this campus.
Greetings from Cambridge!
As I was recently reading Nehemiah, I was struck by how single-minded and focused he was on the task the Lord had called him to do, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah chapter 6 some of his opponents try to distract him away from his mission, but his response is quite remarkable: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” There was no taking Nehemiah away from what God had called him to do.
It has been a spiritually rich month here in Princeton as our students have returned from break with a desire to seek the Lord. As you may know, Princeton’s usual academic calendar means that January is the month of final papers and assignments for the students. During this time, we have developed a tradition of hosting our daily prayer meetings at the Melrose Center. In the midst of exams and assignments, our students have been faithful to pray. Over this month, we regularly had groups of well over a dozen students praying together. Overall, we sense our students are showing an increased desire to seek the Lord and we praise God for this.
This week is our first full week with the students after winter break, and it is starting with a bang. This weekend we are heading to Refreshing Mountain near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a weekend retreat. Nearly 50 students will be seeking the Lord’s presence and renewal, and we are hopeful for a filling of His Spirit as we worship, pray, and fellowship.
One of my perennial resolutions in every new year is to read more deeply and profoundly about both faith and the world around me. However, given my suggestion in an earlier letter, I am moving from resolutions to building habits - they tend to be much more permanent.
College students often share a common blind spot that we all fall prey to: the tendency to think of life through a very narrow and individual filter. I don’t blame the students—the schools cultivate that brand of individualism, and we as a society certainly model it as well. So even as we draft our own personal goals and resolutions for the new year, allow me to offer some perspective from C.S. Lewis:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
— 1 Timothy 4:13
Stand Firm and Take Action
Wednesday, January 29
He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant,
but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.
- Daniel 11:32 (ESV)
This passage refers to Antiochus IV who dominated Judah for a period in the 2nd century BC, forbidding Jews to worship God as the law prescribes, and desecrating the temple. All who refused were put to death. It was an incredibly difficult and dark time for those who loved the LORD and sought to be faithful to Him. America has had its ups and downs spiritually but has never seen anything like what the Jews experienced at that time, and there’s no guarantee that this won’t happen in America at some point. This is why we fast! To seek favor, forgiveness, and blessing from God so that He will have mercy on the nation and bring increased freedom and blessing.
Resolve to be Undefiled
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
- Daniel 1:8
Daniel was just a teenager when taken as an exile to Babylon and inducted into the King’s service. He was no doubt scared and resigned to the fact that he would probably never see his homeland again. Yet his faith in God was extraordinary, even as He and his devout friends started to learn the literature of their adopted homeland and began preparation and training to serve the king in the administrative state. As the book of Daniel reveals, young Daniel would grow in skill and stature assuming a very high role in the kingdom in his later years. Yet, from the very beginning, he would not compromise his walk with the LORD.
Honoring God at All Costs
Monday, January 27, 2020
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
- Daniel 3:161-8 (ESV)
Fearless. Brazen. Reckless. Foolhardy. How else might we describe Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Faced with the prospect of death by fiery furnace for not bowing to the golden idol made by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, the three Jewish men refused to compromise their worship of God. Furthermore, they didn’t plead for leniency. They didn’t run and hide, either. In fact, they boldly and unapologetically defied the powerful king, declared their allegiance to God, stated their faith in His ability to save them, and made known that nothing--not even death--could stop them from honoring God’s law.
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