Ben Caver. This guy is from my hometown and went to church with me. By no means are we best buddies, but I end up hanging out with him every once in a while and he’s an awesome guy. He is incredibly talented. He’s a Nashville writer and he’s written for some big names. Check out some of his stuff and you’ll immediately know why. Here’s a couple songs (‘Love Who You Love’ and ‘Masterpiece’) he’s written that have been recorded by some big names.

NoiseTrade. This website offers music for FREE. In exchange for the music all you must do is provide an email address. I think it’s still free to put your music up on the site if you’re an artist. It’s definitely a great way to get your music out there. The site was created by Derek Webb and the whole site was redone very recently.

Articles On Prayer. Here’s a great series they’re doing over at The Resurgence on prayer. I’ve really enjoyed this series and it has helped me gain a new perspective on prayer. I hope you benefit from it as well.

• The Bible teaches it. Scripture is the Authority in my own life and I believe every word it says. The Bible teaches us that humanity inherits a sinful nature from our first father, Adam. It is only by a work of God that any human is able to do any sort of good (whether that be in an act of common grace or through regeneration). The Bible teaches this is many different passages. For the sake of time, I’ll just give a couple of examples. Psalm 14:1-3. The entire book of Romans.

Perhaps you do not ascribe to Christianity or any religion and you are not convinced by the Bible’s teachings. Consider this:

• No one has ever had to be taught how to do evil. It happens naturally, its as if we are prone to do evil. In fact, consider all of the institutions parents put into place to condition their children not to do bad things. Punishment and discipline are both deterrents from evil. Even reward and incentive systems are preventative measures. These systems would not be necessary if there was no innate evil. Everyone would function in harmony and there would be no  conflict. Obviously that’s not the way humanity is, so an explanation is in order. My explanation is an innate evil in every human.

Click this link for a far more deep look into total depravity from a Christian perspective.

Everybody has theological views. Whether they realize it or not, everyone has a theology they ascribe to. Theology is simply a concept of God. Some people don’t believe in God and ascribe to Atheistic theology. Some people think that God is distant. Some believe God is in everything (God is  the ice cream cone you eat as desert, God is the bike the guy on the street is riding on, etc.). Some believe God is personal and answers prayers. Some believe God is distant and is uninvolved in humanity. All of this is theology.

We can know God. At least to some extent. Through the Scriptures, God has chosen to reveal things about Himself (including His heart, character, attributes, etc.). We will never be able to fully grasp all that God is (even after we make it to Heaven), but He absolutely has given us a glimpse of Himself in the Scriptures and through the person of Jesus Christ. We should strive with all of our might to attain the most accurate view of God we can while on this side of Heaven. After all, our call is to become like Him and how can we do that without an accurate view of Him? Sadly, many Christians sell themselves short by buying into the ideology that God is too big to grasp and conclude that He is not meant to be at all understood. This often leads to a life of ineffective ministry, little theological confidence/certainty, and little spiritual growth.

Theology can be dangerous. Theology is powerful. It has the power to separate. It tears churches apart. It creates sects. It can be very divisive. However, it also has the power to unite. Having all come from different backgrounds (spiritually speaking), we are bound to have differing opinions on some doctrines. The goal for our group is not to all come to agreement on every minor detail (or minor doctrines), but to unite under the Big ‘Ideas’ (or Core Doctrines).

Theology can also be dangerous when it comes to pride. If not checked by prayerful self-examination, one can quickly get puffed up with pride and a sense of personal accomplishment. Theology is meant to bring us closer to God, yet ironically it has the potential to destroy us. That is why humility and prayer are absolutely necessary to growing spiritually. We must constantly check ourselves and remind ourselves that it is not us discovering God on our own, but it is God revealing it to us. Studying theology without the Holy Spirit is in vain. It’s actually destructive. It leads to head knowledge. Head knowledge without heart knowledge is worthless. We have to grasp that. We have to make sure that we are ‘digesting’ what we are taking in. We need to make sure we are transferring the doctrinal truths we are learning from our heads to our hearts.

Theology is meant to be lived out. God didn’t give us this knowledge of Himself to simply be stored up in our minds and hearts. He gave it to us so that we may know His character and as a result become more like Him. As we begin to grasp more and more who God is at His very core, the Holy Spirit works in our lives and molds us into what He desires for us to be. The way we live our lives is a reflection to the world of who God is. When there is inconsistency, the world gets a tainted view of Him. Thus, the more accurate our personal concept of God is, the more we are able to accurately portray Him to the world. This results in personal spiritual growth and God receiving glory. That’s the bottom line.

Theology affects every area of your life. As I mentioned multiple times already, accurate theology results in personal spiritual growth and greater intimacy with God. In my own life, it has completely changed the way I view all of life. It has altered the way I see everything. As I look at the world and at all that’s happening around me, I see the effects of the sin. I see the hope that He gives to the broken. I see His sovereign Hand at work. I see the big picture. I see the story of redemption unfolding. I see the justice that’s coming. I am more confident than ever in my God and what He’s doing in the world. Studying theology has completely changed my life and the way I perceive the world.

It was definitely encouraging to see guys that weren’t timid about sharing their beliefs. Grateful for a great weekend with them. Looking forward to some of them coming down to join me here on the Plains next year.

• Be an excellent student. Collegiate level education is an incredible blessing. Despite being raised in a culture where college is the norm, very few people in the world ever get the opportunity to attend a university. Take advantage of the blessing you’ve been given. Don’t waste it. Go to class. Study well. Study hard. Cushion your GPA early on with your core classes. There’s no telling what you might be able to do with what you learn at school in the future. What you learn in class may one day help you be a blessing to many people.
• Invest in people. Meet people. Freshman year can be really intimidating when you’re in classes of 200+ and you don’t know a single person. Introduce yourself to people. I know it sounds crazy, but almost everyone in that auditorium is just as nervous as you are. If you meet someone and invest in them for a whole semester, you’d be surprised at how much of an impact you can be. Don’t be one of those people who go to class and are “in the zone” all day completely ignoring the people God has purposely placed in their path. Think of it this way, God has you in each particular class with those specific people for a reason. Don’t miss the opportunity to minister to them.
• Serve in a local church. This one is huge for me. Over the last couple of years I have come to learn the power of the local church. God established the church to be a group of Believers functioning as a community within a community. It is truly a beautiful thing to see the Body of Christ working well. I’ve seen God’s love manifest in the way His people love and serve one another and minister to the community. The church is alive and well and there is incredible potential for the future. News flash: The church isn’t about you. Contrary to cultural belief, the church exists for us to serve one another. It’s not a place where we go to be served. Too many college students think it’s about them. They go to the most hip church where they can be entertained for an hour per week and then leave. Others honestly go simply because the college ministry is offering free food and they just want to eat for free. Don’t be like that. SERVE THE CHURCH. Use your gifts and abilities to build up the church. Play music. Teach a Bible study. Take care of kids in the nursery. Build a deck for someone in the community. Don’t be a spiritual leech who simply sucks the church’s lifeblood. BUILD IT UP.
• Consider getting involved in a para-church ministry. I hesitate making this a universal piece of advice, but to me this was hugely important in my own life. The reason I’m hesitant is because para-church ministries are often full of unbiblical teaching and sacrilegious hype. However, if you can find one with sound teaching and sincere worship then I would definitely advise getting involved. In my own experience, this altered my entire perspective on Christianity. Gain a perspective of the global Church. I began to grasp what the Church looks like on a bigger scale. I began to realize that people of other denominations were my brothers and sisters in Christ. (I knew this before theologically, but I really began to sense that we were “on the same team”.) It opened my eyes to many of the differences between denominations and I grew to appreciate the diversity within the Body of Christ. Everybody brings something to the table. We all can learn from each other, even if we learn what not to do. Gain a global perspective. This also began to open my eyes to a world around me that I never really knew was there…the world outside of America. (Again, I knew it was there but I never really knew it was there.) I never knew about human slavery and sex-trafficking. I never knew that extreme poverty is a huge global issue. I never really knew how many orphans there are in the world. I never knew people don’t have access to clean water. On top of all that: I never knew I could do anything about any of those things. Praise God for the work of Grace Campus Ministries in my life. They shook my concept of Christianity up and they opened my eyes to the Lord’s call to the nations. I’m forever changed.
• Be wise. As cliche’ as that sounds, it’s HUGE. Make friends with people who will press you forward in your walk with God. There’s enough resistance coming from every other direction. Don’t be ignorant about your weaknesses. Establish accountability. Take measures to prevent you from falling into sin.
• Be a man. Protect the women in your life. Don’t let them date dudes who you know are going to hurt them or use them. Let them know you care and make sure your ‘presence’ is known by the guys they date. Don’t be a jerk, be a man. Also, don’t be afraid to confront your brothers in Christ but know that you are subjected to their accountability as well.
• Seek counsel. One of my favorite things about the last couple years of my life has been meeting with men wiser than me to learn from them. I’ve benefited SO much from hours spent listening to guys talk about their marriages, careers, churches, ministries, etc. There is so much to be learned. Get a mentor. Meet consistently. Meet with upperclassmen to talk.
• Take advantage of your spare time. Believe it or not, you have a lot of spare time as a college student. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, but I promise it’s there if you really think about it. Don’t waste all your time watching TV, playing video games, etc. Spend your time wisely. Study your Bible. Read a book. Study theology. Listen to sermon podcasts while you’re driving back home from school. Have deep conversations with your buddies on the porch. Share your story with someone over coffee. Fellowship with friends and foreign exchange students over a meal. Just don’t waste your time!
• Don’t chase girls your freshman year. There’s no point. Everybody’s so caught up in trying to find their place between sororities and church-hopping. Wait until sophomore year when there’s a little more stability. Seriously, you would not believe how much people (both guys and girls) change over the course of a year. It’s insane. I’m not saying don’t get to know girls or go on dates. Just let everything settle down and fall into place before you start freaking out over not having a girlfriend.
• Pray like a mad man. This is something I wish I would have been doing from before I ever got to school. Prayer is so important. It reminds us of who we are in relation to God. It keeps us humble. It helps us remember we are incapable of doing anything good on our own. Pray for your campus. Pray for your classmates. Pray for your church. Pray for your future spouse. Pray for your perspective. Pray against the Enemy. Pray with your friends. Pray alone. Just pray! I’ve found that it’s good for me to sometimes “go off the radar” for a little bit and just disappear. Turn off your phone. Go somewhere private (I like going into the woods or by a river). It’s changed me. The most intimate moments I’ve ever had with the Lord have been in moments of silence and solitude in communion with the Lord through prayer.
• Know who you are before you get to college. College is an AWFUL place to ‘find yourself’. If you wait to ‘find yourself’ in college, sadly you will. You will ‘find yourself’ a deprave individual stuck in a mess you can’t get out of. You will ‘find yourself’ trapped in a pit of sin and despair. Soon enough you will ‘find yourself’ so hardened by the sin in your life that you won’t care at all about the things of God. Four years later, by God’s grace, you will ‘find yourself’ having wasted your college years. Otherwise you may spend the rest of your life ‘finding yourself’ a product of your sinful father, Adam. Don’t try to ‘find yourself”; Jesus has found you. Live that way. That’s your identity. Preach it to yourself everyday.
• Dream big. Too often God gives us these incredible dreams to do great things for His kingdom and we write them off. We do this for multiple reasons. I feel like one of the big reasons is because we live in a materialistic society. In order to be successful in our society, one must be monetarily prosperous. We have to realize that the abundant life God promises those who follow him doesn’t mean a million dollars. He offers true satisfaction and peace when we are faithful to follow His voice. We can find our happiness in fulfilling our calling. God blesses those who are faithful to His calling. Pursue your God-given dreams! Your dreams derive from your passions. God has ordained the passions he gave your for His purposes. Use them for His glory!
• Run from religion. Religion is the opposite of true discipleship. It is empty rituals instead of true communion with God. It is head knowledge only and no heart change. It is good works and not grace-based. It is self-help and not utter dependence. It is shallow gifts and not deep-seeded love. It is self-righteous not humbling. It leads to death and despair not life, hope, and peace. Religion kills.