Blog - Philly Christian Students

Philly Christian Students is a place where it’s normal to be a Christian…

…where it’s normal to love the Lord Jesus and to read the Bible. Every believer should have such a place; in fact, every believer NEEDS such a place. Here’s why.

Two Ways of Living

Many passages in the New Testament make it clear that believers in Christ Jesus should have a living that is distinct from that of unbelievers. The apostle Peter writes, “According to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all your manner of life” (1 Pet. 1:15). To be holy implies being set apart from everything to God. Being holy, or set apart, applies not only to our conduct outwardly but also to the inward source of our living—a living according to God’s holy nature.

A Proclamation of Peace

The whole world aches for peace.

War is rampant on the earth, and where there is no war, societies are filled with civil and political strife. Yet the believers in Christ may echo the Lord’s own proclamation of peace to a world in conflict—a peace that anyone can experience, a peace that can descend upon any situation, a peace that is beyond human understanding.

This peace does not come from victory in war; it does not come from new legislation or judicial action; and it will not arise from demonstrations, protests, or from the ascendancy of any political ideology.

This peace is Christ Himself.

The Scripture

“For He Himself [Christ] is our peace, who has made us both [the Jews and the Gentiles] one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” (Ephesians 2:14-17)

In First Place

At the beginning of a new year, many people reevaluate their priorities, recalibrate their goals, and make resolutions for self-improvement. Setting priorities means deciding what comes first, and we naturally make this determination according to what is most important to us.

Suppose it’s Sunday morning and you’re debating whether to show up at church. There’s a football game to watch in the afternoon, or maybe there’s dinner with friends in the evening. But there’s also a paper due on Monday and you need to reserve some time to work on it. What do you do?

Many times in our experience, “first” doesn’t mean that Sunday morning services, morning quiet time with the Lord, and Bible studies are scheduled before anything else and are untouchable. Rather, “first” often means that our time for the Lord is the first thing we carve out of our schedule to make room for our studies, work, social life, sleep, time at the gym…and so on.

The Bible makes some striking statements about our priorities as believers—about what comes first for a Christian—and it’s worthwhile to take some time early in the new year to prayerfully consider them.

How to Be Useful to the Lord

Congratulations to everyone that completed our Winter Break Reading Challenge to read Witness Lee’s book, How to Be Useful to the Lord, in five weeks! In addition to the spiritual benefit received, all the students that completed the challenge earned a $25 discount on registration for the Spring Retreat.

The Lord wants to use all those whom He has redeemed for the fulfillment of His purpose. However, this requires us to be willing to open our being to Him and allow Him to work within us.

Here is a sampling of what we enjoyed from the reading:

Chapter 1
“I enjoyed that when we have a heart that wants to be used by the Lord, that is His work in us. It’s the Lord’s grace that we can have such a heart for Him and we should realize that this is not a small matter. Another part that stood out to me was about ‘paying the price.’ In the reading it says the reason the Lord is not back yet is because the price we are willing to pay is too small. The Lord wants us to give up EVERYTHING and follow Him. When we do that, that is when we will be able to receive a revelation from Him.” (Phoebe T.)

On Prayer

In times of extreme distress, many people—even those who might not ordinarily do so—turn to God in prayer. On December 2nd, as a young couple opened fire on an office Christmas party in San Bernardino, killing 14 and wounding many others, several people trapped in the building texted loved ones with a request: “Pray for us.” And “outside the building,” one report said, “evacuated workers bowed their heads and held hands. They prayed.”

It is normal for Christians to pray at such times. On the day of the San Bernardino attack, many people said, tweeted, or wrote that their “thoughts and prayers” were with those affected—voicing their support for them.

Others, however, publicly expressed contempt for Christians who prayed for the victims, their families, and their coworkers. One publication stated that prayer is “an ineffective strategy” and even said that prayer is “useless.” A prominent newspaper ran the headline “God Isn’t Fixing This.” An avowed atheist simply said, “Stop praying.”

As believers, our connection in Christ is outside the realm of politics; the political context of what is mentioned above is therefore irrelevant.

Take Time to Give Thanks

As Thanksgiving approaches, where are your thoughts? We may be focused on many different things—food, family, football, Friday deals—but what about our Father? As a society, we take the 4th Thursday in November off but seem to forget the cause; as Christians, we ought to lead the way in giving thanks to God!

On November 1st, mysteriously, overnight, the distinctive oranges, yellows, and browns of the “fall” candy on the shelves of the local supermarket have been replaced with the telltale reds and greens, silver, and gold that signal the start of the Christmas shopping season. Santa and his elves, reindeer, sleighs, and snowmen are piping through the store’s sound system even though we’re still in short sleeves and the trees have yet to drop their leaves. Didn’t we skip something?

Perhaps it’s understandable—after all, there’s no money to be made from marketing contentment, from being satisfied with what we already have. But the Bible tells believers—actually, commands us—“Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes. 5:18). The world is trending in a certain direction—the apostle Paul, itemizing the characteristics of men in the last days of this age, includes “ungrateful” in the list (2 Tim. 3:2). As Christians, we are exhorted to stand against this trend: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).

Overflow from Our Fall Retreat

Within God’s people—whether among the Israelites of the Old Testament or among today’s believers—there is an aspiration to be revived. Six centuries before Christ, the prophet Habakkuk wrote, “O Jehovah, revive Your work / In the midst of the years” (Hab. 3:2). The apostle Paul indicates that not only God’s people but even all creation is looking forward to the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose (Eph. 3:9), writing in Romans 8:19 that “the anxious watching of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God.”

At our Fall Retreat at Harvey Cedars, we were encouraged to seek this kind of revival—something that affects not only our personal spiritual life but also meets God’s need for men to cooperate with Him for His purpose and brings the Lord Jesus back!

Here is some of our enjoyment and appreciation:

I really appreciated the big picture view presented in the retreat regarding the need for a new revival. We talked about it from both a personal and communal point of view. As believers in Christ, we are all members of His body, and the three central points of the retreat gave a strong focus on how we can become more one with the Triune God. I pray that we can become overcomers in this constantly changing world and that we can really strive to reach the highest peak of the divine revelation, become a God-man, and satisfy the need for shepherding and being shepherded. (Brian, Villanova University)

Five More Reasons to Read the Bible

God is inexhaustibly rich, and His word is an expression of who He is. That’s why, although we posted Five Reasons to Read the Bible earlier this semester, we’re continuing here with five more reasons to read the Bible.

6. For enlivening: Sometimes we may feel full of spiritual life and have no problem loving and seeking the Lord. Other times we find ourselves in spiritual doldrums, adrift and struggling to go on. When we’re in such down situations, we can turn to God’s word for a breath of spiritual life. Psalm 119:50 says, “This is my comfort in my affliction, / That Your word has revived me and given me life.” Second Corinthians 3:6 tells us that there are two ways in which we can take God’s word: “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” We can come to the Bible as a book of precepts—rules and regulations—or we can approach it with an attitude of seeking after God. When we do the latter, we are enlivened: the Spirit gives life!

7. For washing: If you’re a believer, then you should know that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7). But Ephesians 5:26 speaks of an additional washing, telling us that Christ is preparing the church as His bride by “cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” As we read the Bible, the water of life in the word works within us to cleanse away every defect in our fallen, natural life and transform us to Christ’s glorious image (see v. 27).

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2019 Fall College Retreat

A Place Where It’s Normal to Be a Christian