Thomas Strong, vice president of spiritual formation and student life for NOBTS, kicked off the fall slate of chapel services on by challenging students to walk daily with Christ.
This semester’s chapel services will primarily feature faculty speakers, and messages will focus on various attributes of God listed throughout Scripture.
In the first chapel service after the official start of the academic year at Convocation, Strong noted how wonderful it is when NOBTS students, staff and faculty gather together for worship.
“I think by now you would agree there is something special that happens about being in a place where we can worship God together,” Strong said during the service on Thursday, Aug. 22.
“I trust that you’ve had that moment, in the midst of a lot of stuff going on, just to be able to say 'God it really is all about you.'"
Strong began message his with a story about a young child seeing communion bread and wanting “a taste of Jesus,” which he encouraged the students never to settle for.
“God has never desired that we simply get a taste of Jesus, instead He wants us to embrace Jesus with all of our lives,” he said.
“One of the harsh realities of being in an education setting is the simple reality that you’re never going to be in a place that you’ve arrived. There’s always going to be more to learn. There’s always going to be more to study and more to do.
“Likewise, as we walk with Christ on a daily basis, we discover that daily in His graciousness He reveals Himself to us ... and likewise we should become more and more daily like Him. But the reality we recognize is until we meet Him face to face it is a journey that we’re on.”
Speaking out of Philippians 3, Strong exhorted students to follow the example of Paul in his complete devotion to Christ.
As a new semester gets underway, Strong challenged students to live with three things in mind:
He encouraged students to make a commitment to follow Christ until the end of their lives, not just during their educational journey.
“Paul is saying, I just want to run well,” Strong said. “I want to finish the course. I want to make sure that I don’t just start well, but I finish well.
“Let’s be people this semester, let’s all of us make a decision this semester for the rest of our lives, that we’re not going to settle with less. With just a taste of Jesus.
“But instead let’s make a commitment that we want to surrender all for Him.”
NOBTS chapel is held every Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. CST. It can be watched live on Facebook and YouTube. A full schedule of the semester’s chapel speakers is available here.
