College Training! (part 1)

So last week I went off to the distant land of Ohio for the College Training on "A Man of God" based on 1 and 2 Timothy.  It was really good.  I got to see some old teammates, Marvin and E.J., as well as meet quite a number of people because I was so kindly chosen to do a filming project.  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing most of the time while I was filming but it's okay.  I think it turned out rather well all in all.  I pretty much filmed a bunch of interviews of the college students on what they enjoyed of the training.  I even got one in French!  Of course doing such interviews requires me to hunt down students and ask them if they are willing to be in front of a camera to talk for 3-5 minutes.  I had to use my master convincing skills in order to persuade them to step in front of the camera.  However it is very hard to do that when you are going up to someone whom you have never met.  It being less than a year since moving out to the Midwest, I definitely don't know that many of the students but luckily my dear teammates were there to help me (I should bake them cookies in order to thank them).  Not to mention that it helped my roommates for the week were from Canada so I enlisted their help to get the Montreal and Toronto students to do some interviews.  It was great.

Now you might be wondering what in the world is the College Training.  It is a week long excursion into the depths of Ohio (really it's just Fairborn but "Fairborn, OH" sounds less dramatic than "the depths of Ohio")  where college students gather to enjoy the Lord.  This year the topic was on "A Man of God" which is a particular phrase in the New Testament to describe Timothy.  Why is such a phrase significant?  Well if you consider that Timothy was a young person between the ages 16-25 years old, it is quite impressive that Paul the Apostle would call him a man of God.  A man of God is one who partakes of God's life and thus being one with God in His life and nature and thereby expressing him.  Sounds impressive no?  Well this was Timothy.  I find it rather encouraging that someone so young would be called a man of God which means there is hope for the rest of us!  Did you know that in the Old Testament only five people were referred to as men of God?  They were Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and David.  In the New Testament only one person was called a man of God, Timothy.  So...don't you want to be a man of God?!

Now of course your next question would be how do you become a man of God...well young grasshopper there are some basic qualifications of a man of God and those are: (1) an exercised spirit (2) a good conscience (3) a pure heart (4) an unfeigned faith (5) a proper humanity.

So starting out with (1) an exercised spirit, first things first do you know that you have human spirit?  If not then you must read 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  There you go, now you know that you have a human spirit.  So what must you with you spirit?  Well you know with your body you can use it to move around which you can categorize as exercise and with your soul (or in other words your psychology...your mind, emotion, will) you also use that everyday which can also be categorized as exercising it right?  Therefore one concludes that your spirit should also be exercised in some way.  So in John 4:24 it says, "God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness," which shows you why you need to use your spirit, but how do you actually use your spirit?  Well a few ways are to call on the name of the Lord (O Lord Jesus!), pray at all times and in every place, hold a good conscience (meaning there are no offenses between you and God as well as between you and man), and fan into flame the indwelling gift of God (meaning don't put it out).  What does this all result in?  Exercising your spirit will result in you living a life of godliness, which is the a living that is the expression of God.  Timothy was charged to live this way by Paul, "exercise yourself unto godliness" in 1 Timothy 4:7 so the same charge is being spoken to us today.  Exercise yourself unto godliness by exercising your spirit to live Christ in your daily life.  All it takes to start off is just by calling on the name of the Lord wherever you are and in whatever you are doing.

Now what does it mean to have (2) a good conscience?  First of all what is the conscience and what does it do?  The conscience is one of the functions of your spirit that enables man to differentiate between right and wrong, to know what God justifies and what He condemns and to represent God in ruling over us.  God comes to us by touching our conscience as I'm sure many of you have experienced because it is the leading part of our spirit.  So how do you obtain a good conscience and not only that but a pure conscience?  A good conscience is one that is without offense and a pure conscience is one that is without any mixture.  Should your conscience be tainted with offense either between you and God or between you and man then the only way to take care of it is by confessing the offense and being cleansed by the blood of the Lord.  If we confess then the Lord is faithful and righteousness to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  Don't forget to take care of any offense you have with people!  Otherwise your conscience still won't be without offense.  With all that taken care of, you are able to have open communication, open fellowship with the Lord and people without any sort of barrier.  This is the way to keep a good conscience and a pure conscience.  All this will result in your growth in the divine life, a maintained fellowship with God and with other believers, and will safeguard your Christians faith and life.

END!  Well for now anyway...I'll finish up later.