PART 1 – HONOR

Living well….and finishing well, is the main goal of every level-headed person I know. Several of my friends have bucket lists and are fortunate enough to have the means to accomplish the items on that list, one by one. Given the brevity of life, we are more than encouraged to get the most out of life and there is nothing wrong or ungodly about giving it your best.

The Word of God being preached.

Each year around this time, the air is filled with pontificating Commencement Speeches.

Each year around this time, comes the obligatory attack on prayer and God, by an entirely humanistic, secular, godless world.

Each year around this time, high schools and colleges would have politicians and “celebrity” commencement speakers who fill our departing graduates with such ungodly garbage, that it is amazing even 10% of them leave college with a Biblical Worldview.

Each year one would be hard-pressed to find an invited speaker who gives a message of the real hope and encouragement, which lasts a lifetime.

The Lord Himself showed us how to live in these times. His Word is so rich and powerful, they need no explanation! So here is the “speech” you will never hear during Commencement Exercises in 2010:

CONCERNING THE DIFFICULT TIMES AHEAD:

“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”  James 1:3-4

CONCERNING STRENGTH IN DIFFICULT TIMES:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.  Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do”.  Joshua 1: 7-8

CONCERNING WISDOM IN DIFFICULT TIMES:

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” Colossians 4:5-6

CONCERNING ATTITUDES OF A CHRISTIAN:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8

CONCERNING YOUR REACTION TO TRIALS AS A CHRISTIAN:

“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  Hebrews 12:10-11

CONCERNING PLANS THAT DO NOT COME FROM GOD:

“Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”  How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.  What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”  Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil”. James 4: 13-16

CONCERNING YOUR WALK WITH GOD THROUGH CHRIST:

“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do”. Psalm 1: 1-3

CONCERNING THE LOVE OF MONEY IN GOD’S ECONOMY:

“Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” Hebrews 13:5 

CONCERNING YOUR LOVE OF GOD:

“Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise Wisdom and Discipline” Proverbs 1:7

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”. Mark 12:30

You would not hear these exhortations on any campus of any great or small American school/college. You may not even hear the Word of God proclaimed in some so-called “Christian” schools.

However, these timeless Truths never change. They are for us all.

by Bernie Lutchman

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.