Are you Affected?

Trying to follow Jesus as a college student is not easy. You live, work, and go to class in a climate that is very similar to most mission fields.

Vast majority of people living lives of rebellion against God? Check.

People openly hostile to the gospel of Jesus and those who wish to share it? Check.

Temptation around every corner? Check.

Those in authority resistant to the gospel message? Check.

It isn't easy, but instead of thinking about the difficult spiritual climate of a college campus and how it negatively affects you let me force you to face a different question.

You see all of the above things affecting those you live, work, and go to class with every day, how much does their spiritual state affect you?

In Isaiah 5, God describes a people very similar to most that you encounter on the Blackburn campus.

He describes them as partiers in verse 11:

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

As moral relativists in verse 20:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

As arrogant self-made gods in verse 21:

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight!

Finally, God describes them as those who have no room for God in their lives in verse 12:

They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands.

Sound familiar? My guess you have met people who live for a party (rise early in the morning for strong drink / tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them), people who don't believe in absolute morality (call evil good and good evil), people who feel as though they are smart enough to not need the "crutch" of God (wise in their own eyes), and those who simply have no desire to acknowledge, let alone worship, God (do not regard the deeds of the Lord).

God describes the end result of those people's lives in verse 15:

Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.

They will be humbled eternally in hell. So, does that affect you?

Every day you wake up in the same dorm, go to the same classes, and work with people who are living in open rebellion against God. They are all doomed to spend eternity apart from God in punishment for their rebellion.

Does it bother you?

Pray that today the Spirit will begin to move in your life to make the sinfulness and the end result of your lost classmates affect you. Pray that you will be so affected you will be moved to warn them and share with them the love of Jesus Christ.

Pray that you will be affected.