Do you believe that university life is about more than classes, assignments, studying and weekends? Are you interested in finding more meaning and purpose in your life? Do you enjoy listening to and sharing ideas with others? Then, please join our weekly Bible discussion group.

Campus Bible Talk meets every Monday during the school year (except during holidays and during Reading Week Breaks) at Athabasca Hall, Heritage Lounge, at 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Moving Forward

On Monday, September 12, we looked at the topic of "Moving Forward."  By discussing different examples from the Bible we saw how moving forward means growing in maturity, putting away childish ways as we grow up and we increase our knowledge.  Moving forward also means overcoming obstacles, and we will definitely meet numerous obstacles in our lives.  Finally, moving forward means looking forward, keeping our eyes on godly goals and pursuing them until we achieve them.


Please find below the notes from our discussion.
September 12, 2011
Moving Forward
Opening Question: What has been something that has motivated you to move on in different situations your life?
Many times the motivation for our actions is a strong sense of commitment, a promise we may have done to ourselves or our family members, the love for a dear one, etc. etc.
The beginning of a school year is usually a time when we close one page or perhaps one chapter of our lives and we start another one.  Whether it is your first year in your program or your second or third year, you have new goals for this school year as you are trying to move forward in your life and in your career.
What does the Bible teach us about moving forward?
1.         Moving Forward Means Growing up in Maturity
In 1 Corinthians 13:11, we read: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
What do we read in this verse? 
Children know little and they act in that way.  We were all children at one point in our life and we can remember stories of things we did that now we know better, because we have grown up and we have learned things we did not know in the past.  When we become men or women, meaning when we grew up, we became mature and with maturity in age usually comes wisdom, to know what to do in our lives.
Moving forward in this sense means to move forward in maturity, in wisdom, to grown in knowledge about the world and about our actions and interactions with people in all kinds of situations.  This applies also to our relationship with God.  The more knowledge we have about God, the more we will trust Him, the more we will put our faith on Him, the more we will rely on God to help us with whatever we need in our lives.
What does this verse tell us?
In Romans 12:2, we read: 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
As we grow up in our maturity, the Bible teaches that we should not be like the pattern of this world – where the people are selfish, wild, unwilling to help or to share and overall wicked.  We need to renew our mind and learn the new, true things that the Bible teaches us about the world and about God.  In this way we can understand what the will of God is and how good, pleasing and perfect it is.
2.         Moving Forward Means Growing up in Overcoming Obstacles
We have often met obstacles in our life and if you have not, you definitely will in the future.  We may not have the option of choosing when obstacles appear in our life, but we always have the choice of how to react when they happen.  We can chose to either give up and stop trying to achieve whatever we have purposed in our life or we can change something in our approach and try a different way to achieve our goal.
In Matthew 17:14-20, we see a situation when the disciples of Jesus could not overcome an obstacle.  They could not heal a sick man with seizures.  We read in these verses: 14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.  15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.  16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”  17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”  18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.  19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”  20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
What is Jesus teaching here?
If we have faith in God, he will help us to overcome obstacles in our lives.  We will not be able to do things that are not natural, like flying, but in our career life, our family live, our spiritual life, if we have faith in God, we will be able to overcome all obstacles.
3.         Moving Forward Means Looking Forward
An athlete running in a race needs to look forward, to keep his eyes toward the finish line, not to look behind at how much he has covered or where the competitors are.  When we begging something in our life, whether it is a new chapter in school or a new relationship with someone or with God, we need to stop leaving and looking to the past and keep our eyes toward the future.  We cannot change the past, but we can use its lessons and our experiences to make better, wiser choices in the future.
In Luke 9:61-62, we see a situation when someone is willing to follow Jesus, but first he wants to put the things in order with his family: 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”  62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
The reply that Jesus gives needs some explanation to be understood properly.  A man plowing the field needs to see forward, in order to make sure the line is straight in the ground as he plows it.  If he looks back, the line is not straight and his job is not done properly.  Jesus is saying that looking back in the past may not allow someone to look forward, because he may see things in the past that he may not want to give up – because following Jesus we need to give up of those things that we may have done in the past, but which are not in agreement with the teachings of God – or they may some things that resemble obstacles, failures and disappointments. 
However, Jesus is saying that whoever is willing to look forward, is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
In Philippians 3:12-15, we read: 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
If we press toward the goal – eternal life – we have something we keep our eyes upon and a great motivation to move forward even when we are in a difficult situation.
Conclusions
If we grow up in our maturity, if we trust in God that with His help we can overcome all obstacles and we keep our eyes forward, we will be able to move forward with our lives.




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