Made New in Christ
First year was pretty cool. I’ve been blessed and loved by God in more ways than I can keep track of, so I’ll just talk about 3 of them in this reflection.
1. Getting Saved
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
Romans 9:16
I grew up in a Christian home, went to church, and claimed to be a Christian all my life. But the way I lived didn’t reflect this at all. I believed God existed, but had no faith, love for Him, or a relationship with Him. In short, I was like the people Jesus talks about in Matthew 7:21–23.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matthew 7:21–23
This changed after starting school. It wasn’t just taking my faith more seriously; it was God saving me, giving me new life, and making me into a new creation. Throughout my first term, He opened my eyes to my spiritually dead state and for the first time in my life, I felt desperate for God and truly believed I needed Him.
I actually used to lean more towards the side of having free will in my salvation. But now, I am fully convinced of God’s complete sovereignty. I would never have turned from my sin if God didn’t draw me to Him. Even the desire to seek Him was not from myself but from God.
Coming to CCF and finding myself in a new community of true Christians was and still is an amazing blessing, and was definitely something that God worked through. But ultimately, my salvation was God’s work and God’s alone.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:24–25
2. Frosh Cell
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:26–28
When I was first told about Frosh Cell by some people I knew from Waterloo, I thought it was going to be a one-off event as an introduction for the first years. So for the first half of Fall term, I didn’t really see the point of FC; it felt like just a second day of CCF. I also didn’t know as many people in my year, which fueled this mentality more. But after the Fall Retreat, I started to see the importance of being closer with my year, and I began to enjoy FC a lot more.
Near the end of the term, the leaders at the time started to look for new leaders for the next term of FC. Some of them actually campaigned pretty hard and I was one of many who were asked to consider leading in the Winter term. But besides wanting to see our year get closer, I didn’t actually have a lot of reasons for wanting to lead. In the end, I didn’t put too much thought into it and just signed up.
In the weeks afterwards, I started to have some doubts about whether or not it was actually a good decision. How was I supposed to know if it was God’s will for me to do this? How could I know if I was being called to lead or if it was just something I had some interest in? I had prayed about this, hoping for a sign like Gideon, something that would outright tell me what to do, but didn’t find anything.
In the last week of my DG that term, my DG leader John gave me a book titled “Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung. It really convicted me of how I was looking at my decision: God gives us wisdom through the Bible for a reason, and it isn’t to try to find a miraculous sign to help us make every little decision in our lives. I knew that we’re called to serve each other, FC needed leaders, and that God equips the called; I really didn’t need more. Looking back now, I am incredibly thankful that God pushed me to make this decision.
In actually leading, I was both nervous and excited about the Bible studies. I had tried and failed to lead discussions in my old fellowship back in high school, so I had plenty of first-hand experience with bad studies. On the other hand, my perspective on Bible studies had almost completely changed after the Bible studies we had in first term, and I was excited to try to share some of the newfound passion I had for reading God’s Word.
Of course, how a Bible study goes isn’t just dependent on the leader and participants, but on God being present. It’s not just about gaining a better intellectual understanding of God, but also about growing closer to Him, and having a greater desire for Him. With this in mind, I’m so thankful to have heard from other first years that they enjoyed the studies because of their growing understanding and passion for God’s Word.
I also loved going through the passages (all of which I had not read in a long time), both in our prestudies and the actual Bible studies. In particular, our study on Philippians 4:4–13 came at a great time for me, when I was the most stressed and worried about my job search. Learning about God’s peace and being able to be content in every situation was a huge blessing.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7
3. DG
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
My discipleship group was massively influential on my spiritual walk and I would highly recommend joining one. Being intentional with checking in on your faiths with a close group of brothers or sisters is so important and is something that isn’t usually there just from small groups.
I joined my DG in September with basically zero knowledge of what to expect. At that point, I knew that accountability was something that would be helpful for me, but I was still hesitant to actually be vulnerable, especially with a new group of people. I’m so thankful that God pushed me past this initial discomfort and led me to the groups that I spent 8 months in total with.
One way that I grew from my DG was by being pushed in my faith and what I believed. I remember hearing another member (Sam) talk about what he was reading for his devotions recently and reciting parts of the passage. I could clearly see his passion for what he was reading, and I remember myself trying to recall the last time I had read the Bible and when the last time I had gotten so much from reading.
One of the biggest wake-up moments for me in my faith was when John shared a video of a sermon with us: Paul Washer — Shocking Message (highly recommend giving it a listen if you haven’t!).
An hour of Paul Washer completely dismantling what I believed about my faith really struck something inside me. While my first reaction was still to defend myself, I thank God that eventually, I was humbled enough to take in what he was saying and see my sin.
My DG also helped me build good spiritual disciplines. To give an idea of what my habits for reading the Bible were like before university, my Bible used to literally have a layer of dust on it while sitting on my desk, going untouched for months at a time.
But my DG helped to completely change how I saw reading the Bible. I saw how some of the guys would be able to bring up verses by memory. I saw how they talked about the passages with reverence and fervor, which was something that I hadn’t ever seen from someone around my age before. Not only did I realize how much I needed to spend time in the Word, but I also realized that I wanted to spend time in the Word!
It wasn’t a change overnight; I struggled to read consistently for a couple of months, all the while praying with my DG for discipline and for the desire to seek God. Eventually, around the end of first term, I broke through and began to consistently read and take notes in the morning, something that I’ve been doing since.
Another area that I grew in with my DG was putting to death sin. In the past, the way I viewed my habitual sin had me on a path towards Hell. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but at the end of the day, I thought it didn’t actually matter. I thought that since I had “faith”, I was forgiven no matter what. I even looked at the passage that specifically condemns this type of thinking as a way to justify myself! Romans 6:1–2 says:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
I used to see the first part and think, “Well Paul’s saying that we shouldn’t keep sinning, but technically, we could”. This was another massive point of change for me. The way John talked about sin was something I didn’t remember hearing before. It was made clear to me that the path I was on only had one destination: death.
I struggled with my DG on this for essentially the entire first term. Weekly accountability was something I never had before and was a massive help for me. Going through verses each week to encourage each other was also new to me. But maybe the most helpful thing was being serious with it, not sweeping things under the rug, but making sure we knew the severity of our sin.
Again, it wasn’t an overnight change. It took months of failing and struggling, but going into Winter term, God delivered me from sin that I had struggled with for years. And to be clear, for both putting to death sin and building good disciplines, the DG was more than just a secular support group with some Christianity sprinkled in. God truly worked in all of our lives. It’s only through God’s strength that I gained the desire to seek Him through the Bible. It’s only through God’s grace that He turned me from my sin.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17
In all, God has been good and faithful. The title of this is “Made New in Christ,” but of course, being made new is a continuous process of being conformed to Jesus. I’m excited to see where He leads me and how He grows me in my next year!
