The Open Bible Bulletin - February, 2023

At NBBI we believe God’s Word holds the answers for life’s greatest challenges. This is why we host Encounter Teen Retreats. We want young people to Encounter the living God

through His inspired Word. Over two weekends, hundreds of teens will con-

verge on our campus for a weekend of fun, food and fellowship. They will also have the opportunity to hear the lifechanging message of the Gospel and be challenged to live for Christ. Our students will personally invest in these teens’ lives, and our desire is that they will leave forever-changed.

Plan on joining us for a fun, actionpacked weekend. To learn more, visit our website at nbbi.ca/encounter.

Brent Finchum Speaker

Brent Finchum is the South-East Regional Coordinator for Word of Life. He and his wife Stacy, and their four children live in Birmingham, Alabama. Through his ministry, he is involved in training ministry leaders and helping them implement strategic, discipleship efforts within their local church. Brent also leads a team of

2ND SEMESTER CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Below is a calendar of our events for the rest of this school year. Please post it somewhere as a reminder to pray for us. You may wish to join us for some of these events as well.

Module 4 classes

Men for God Rally

Freshman Banquet

Exam Day

Module 5 classes

Encounter, First Youth Retreat

March Break

Exam Day

Encounter, Second Youth Retreat

Module 6 classes

College for a Day

Spring Banquet & Program

Exam Preparation Days

NBBI 2023 Youth Retreats February 24-26 March 31-April 2

For those in Grades 7-12

nbbi.ca/encounter

ministry coaches serving alongside local churches throughout the southeast region of the United States. Over the past decade of serving churches, Brent has had the opportunity to minister to thousands of students and leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad. Through his ministry, he endeavours to challenge young people to become wholly-devoted followers of Christ. Brent’s aspiration is to see this generation rise up and lead a movement that will wake up the church and change the world as we know it.

FAMILY FILE

Homegoings

FOCUS

BY MATTHEW LITTLE

January 16 - February 10

January 27-28

February 10

February 13

February 14 - March 27

February 24 - 26

March 3 - 19

March 28

March 31-Apr 2

March 29 - April 25

April 6-8

April 15

April 26, 28

Exam Days April 27, 29 & May 1

Conference Preparation May 2-4

Spring Bible Conference May 5-7

Graduation May 7

Stephen James Gushee, who attended NBBI from 1970 to 1972, went to be with his Lord and Saviour on October 25, 2022. Please pray for his wife Florence (Hall, ’72), their children, Benjamin (Reina) Gushee and Kristina (Brian) Webb, and their extended families.

John “Jack” Edward Hyland, who attended NBBI from 1969 to 1971, was promoted to Glory on December 3, 2022. Please pray for his wife of 51 years, Pauline “Lee”.

Reclaiming Biblical Servanthood

Sometimes biblical words or concepts need to be rescued. The passage of time has subjected them to human revisionists who would like to modify biblical truth to fit their fancies. This doesn’t happen overnight, but takes place as believers become spiritually sloppy and fail to safeguard biblical truth the way they should (2 Timothy 1:14). An example of this would be the careless way in which our current Christian culture has approached the biblical teaching on sin. Sin is a failure to meet the holy, righteous standard of God. It is rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7) and a transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). The result is separation from God and the judgement of God upon the sinner’s life (Romans 6:23). However, recent years have paved the way for less offensive approaches to this biblical doctrine. Many see sin as nothing more than a failure to live up to your potential. On the scale of human effort, it amounts to under-performing. Such pandering to man’s moral sensibilities and wading in the unbiblical waters of human ideology have left us to believe that we simply need renovation

(do better) rather than regeneration (John 3:3). We live in a day when such a word must be rescued and pulled from the mud and the mire in which it is found.

Another example would be that of surrender and servanthood to Jesus. The former is what Jesus called His disciples to and yet the term has been stripped of all of its true meaning. When Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” He was not simply saying to His disciples, “Hey let’s keep in touch and hang out once in awhile.” This was not a call to casual friendship or occasional get-togethers but a life-altering, all-consuming, never-looking-back approach to following Jesus. However, the church seems to have redefined surrender as meaning you can live your life for you as long as you take Jesus along for the ride. Such biblical truth needs to be rescued from the chains of our materialistic, narcissistic culture.

The final example provided is that of servanthood and, it is to this topic that we will turn the rest of our attention. I call Luke 17:7-10 “The Forgotten Passage on Servanthood”. It is forgotten because it presents an idea of servanthood that seems too extreme, too demanding and quite frankly “repulsive” to the average

savvy, sophisticated and worldly Christian. In it lies the great principles of servanthood and the key to unlock a biblicallysound approach to labouring for Jesus. I would encourage you to read the passage and prayerfully meditate upon these principles. It needs to be stated that the Master in the story is, no doubt, Jesus, while

Continued on page 2

DAY

For cover photo story, see FIELD REPORT on page 2

PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE

BY MATTHEW LITTLE

the servant is you and me. Here are three principles to help us refocus our thoughts on biblical servanthood.

First, Jesus suggests to us that serving is the gateway to increasing our faith. In Luke 17:5, “…the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith.” In response to their heartfelt cry Jesus tells the story of a servant who is busy labouring for his master. A growing faith is a faith that’s going. Studying the great doctrines of the Word of God is necessary and can most certainly expand your knowledge of the truth but nothing increases our faith like rolling up our sleeves and living those truths out in a practical way.

Second, serving Christ is not motivated by human reward but divine duty (Luke 17:10b). The servant in the story is ploughing the fields and feeding the cattle (verse 7). After he comes in from a long day’s work he doesn’t sit down to eat

FIELD REPORT

BY ANN GERARDI

My Summer in Newfoundland

If there is one thing I always look forward to throughout the year, it is spending my summer in ministry with Child Evangelism Fellowship in Maine. But this past year I found myself being led in a different direction. I didn’t know where but I did know, that due to COVID restrictions and my desire to return to NBBI for my Junior year, I would not be returning to Maine over the summer. About twenty-four hours after I came to this conclusion, One Hope Canada gave a presentation during chapel regarding their camp ministries across Canada. One specific need stuck out to me. On Saturday, June 18th, I flew to St. John’s, Newfoundland to serve with Russell (’82) and Lori (Crossman, ’83) Smith, the directors of New Found Life Bible Camp.

New Found Life Bible Camp’s main ministry is day camp. These run from 9am to 4pm and consist of games, memory verses, a missionary story, and a Bible lesson. This year, we held four weeks of day

but prepares the meal for the master. Not once in the story does the servant receive any commendation. He is not praised, applauded, given a trophy or fed superficial words to boost his self-confidence. Luke 17:9 says, “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?” Some may say, “What do I get out of this?” Job 11:6b says, “…Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquities deserveth.” If you served Jesus faithfully 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 10 lifetimes you will not have scratched the surface of the great debt that you owe to God. As you labour for Jesus, remember you are doing what the master commands of you but it is much less than He should require.

Third, the servant of God is never indispensable. Luke 17:10 says, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” The text

camp, two themed weeks, a sports week, and a soccer week. We also held various VBSs and Backyard Bible clubs around St. John’s and we ended the summer with a weekend teen retreat. Although we don’t know if any decisions were made for Christ, we reached a total of 104 children and 23 teens.

reminds us that, after a lifetime of doing what we have been commanded, we are still “unprofitable” servants. The word “unprofitable” means “worthless or less than nothings”. This is not speaking of our personal worth to God, for we are loved by God in Christ. However, our labours, as plenteous as they may be, do not make God our debtor. God rewards us not because our efforts deserve it but because He is gracious and merciful. In fact, Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that any profitable and good thing that flows from our lives is, “…according to the power that worketh in us.” True servanthood begins with a genuine sense of unworthiness.

Do not have high thoughts of yourself or hard thoughts about God. You are simply doing what God has commanded, but what an honour it is to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords (Revelation 17:14).

CHRISTMAS BANQUET & PROGRAM

My favorite week was definitely the training and orientation week. We had five teenagers, some of whom had never even attended camp before, join us as junior staff! It was both amazing and encouraging to watch them grow and mature.

Scripture tells us that we were created to worship God and that was highlighted for me this summer. The natural beauty of Newfoundland with its jagged

and rocky coastline, richly colored landscape, and deep, vibrant oceans certainly gave me cause to worship God. But it was when I stood and watched the precious little ones playing soccer, eating lunch, or sitting (semi) quietly listening to the Gospel message that all I could do was worship our great God. He cares for every single soul and desires that they come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

CHAPEL SPEAKERS

January 31-February 3

....... John Romano Child Evangelism Fellowship