Freshman Week by J. Randal Matheny

In a phone conversation some weeks ago with Jim Brown, Admissions Director at Freed-Hardeman University, he mentioned that one of the greatest challenges for incoming freshmen is time management.

Indeed, time is of the essence for a positive and successful college experience.

Here are my best ten tips for making the best use of your time in college.

1. Don't skip class. The class is the main event of college study. Here, teacher and student have their maximum opportunity to pursue learning. See the class period as the real reason you're at college.

2. Review class notes often, soon after the class. Weekly reviews will help you to retain the information needed and avoid last minute cramming for tests.

3. Plan ahead. Late-night stints to finish research papers and reports won't garner many good grades. Do assigned readings early, and pace yourself in getting assignments done.

4. Be on time. For class, with assignments and papers, for appointments, with deadlines. Punctuality keeps you on top of your schedule and your life.

5. Prioritize and balance your schedule. Put study and classwork up front. Fit in service and social clubs and other recreational activities behind your main task. Buy and use a week-at-glance planner.

6. Know what's expected. The class syllabus starts you off well, and tips from the professor and even former students will give you a good idea of his expectations and approach.

7. Choose your friends carefully. They will either encourage you in your studies or hinder your progress. Your roommate may be a key figure as well.

8. Choose your associations well. By that, I mean clubs and groups. Go for the professional groups in your area of study, the religious clubs that will encourage your spirituality. College is a time of great fun, and it should be, but why pay tens of thousands of dollars for just a good time?

9. Take advantage of advisors and mentors. In many universities, especially Christian institutions, so many good people are cheering for your success. The advisor's job is to help you overcome the challenges. Often, teachers are looking for capable students to take under their wing and mentor for future service. Search them out, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

10. Keep the end in view. When you walk across the graduating stage, what kind of record do you want to have left behind? The way you use your time today will determine your college history tomorrow, as well as future opportunities for employment, service, and success.

Lots of time management tips are out there, but the main issue is self-discipline. Mom and Dad are no longer standing over to prod and remind. If you didn't learn how to pace yourself at home, get up at certain hours, sleep at a decent time, you now have the challenge of using your time responsibly.

Self-discipline can be learned. It is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). As we crucify self and allow the Spirit of God to work in our life, we will produce the self-control needed for the tasks ahead.

That means Moses' prayer is also appropriate in this context. "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psa. 90:12 ESV).

It may seem there is so much time to do things. Numbering our days means, among other things, recognizing that the minutes are ticking and what needs to be done should be done as soon as possible.

No matter how old you are, Paul's words apply to all of us:

"Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Rom. 13:11-14).

Time is the currency of life. Spend it well.

by A. A. Neale

There's a lot of difference between the young and the old. I came up with a few items that distinguish the two groups. You might even want to add to this list.

• The young are in a hurry to do it all. The old want it all to slow down.

• The young are fired up. The old are trying to keep the flame lit.

• The young want it now. The old are holding out for tomorrow.

• The young don't want to hear about the good old days. The old shake their heads at these wild and wacky times.

• The young want to make more money. The old are looking for a cheaper place to buy their prescription medicine.

• The young's hormones are off the charts. The old are taking hormone pills.

• The young are climbing the walls. The old are propping up the fat and flab.

For all those differences and more, the young and old are both human beings subject to the same principles that govern this old world. Sometimes the old, through lumps and dumps, have gotten a better sight of those principles than when they were younger.

What does an old man have to say to the young? Here's a few things, for starters.

• Be a saver; be a giver.

• Follow good examples; outstrip your examples' goodness.

• Save sex for marriage; make marriage the place for sex.

• The world doesn't owe you a thing; owe no one nothing, except love.

• Plan your life; today is all you've got.

• Say something significant; babble with the babies.

• Be what you claim; admit you're not what you should be.

• See the little guy, especially your kids; be the little guy.

• Down is easy and quick; up is the long, hard row.

• Don't take no for an answer; know when to say no.

All this in the spirit of Proverbs 1:8,9. "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."

by H. Leo Boles*

Much trouble and worry come about because we didn't know -— didn't think. Many know and preach, but don't practice. The following is the results of a questionnaire from successful men.

I Wish I Had Known:

1. What I was to make my life's work.

2. That my health after thirty years of age depended largely upon what I ate before reaching the age of twenty-one.

3. How to take care of money.

4. The commercial asset of going neatly and sensibly dressed.

5. That habits are hard to change after twenty-one years.

6. A harvest depends upon the seed sown.

7. Things worthwhile require time, patience, and work.

8. That I can't get something for nothing.

9. That the world will give me what I deserve.

10. That by the sweat of my brow I must earn my bread.

11. That a thorough education brings the best of everything.

12. That honesty is the best policy for right.

13. The value of truth in everything.

14. The folly of not taking the advice of older people.

15. What it really means to parents to rear their son.

16. What hardships and disappointment leaving home against parent's will brings.

17. More of the Bible.

18. The value of the opportunity of serving my fellow-man.

19. That Jesus is with me always.

20. That God's relationship to me is as good as that of a shepherd to his sheep.

*Chapel Talk by H. Leo Boles at David Lipscomb College, Spring, 1928. Taken from A Word Fitly Spoken, by John D. Cox.

by J. Randal Matheny

A novel I'm reading portrays the main character as having been devastated by the death of his son because of cancer. He becomes suicidal, not finding rhyme or reason in the world for the suffering that exists.

Habakkuk is not far from that character. His questions are even larger, even tougher. But instead of thinking of putting a gun in his mouth, the prophet puts his questions to God.

"O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save?" (Hab. 1:2, ESV). Habakkuk is desperate for an answer, but doesn't give up calling on the Lord. In fact, he knows that the only place he can get an answer to his doubts and questions is with the Lord.

The prophet's big Problem is violence. Not natural disaster, but man-to-man cruelty and oppression. He uses the word six times in his small book (1.2, 3, 9, 2:8, 17 [twice]).

Habakkuk has a hard time with the Lord's first answer, that he will punish Judah at the hands of the Babylonians. That leads to a second round of questions. How can a just God send such impious pagans against his own people?

Though the Lord answers that he will also punish the punishers for their own wrong-doing, the essence of Habakkuk's lesson lies in 2:4: "Behold, his soul [like the Babylonians] is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith."

God's person must do right, in spite of all the questionings, doubts, gaps of understanding, and horror at the wrong in the world. The righteous one will hold on to the justice of God, who, at the right time and in the right way, will settle accounts. The evil ones will be cut off, but those who keep their faith in God's plan will find life that survives the violence of this world.

Regardless of what happens, then, "I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. 3:19a).

Habakkuk's conversation with the Lord becomes my own. God has answered, and all will be right with the world when he gets through with it. I believe him, and I'll hang in there until we come out to the other side.

by Emmett Smith

The past week's headlines have featured numerous stories about Judge Roy Moore, the Alabama Supreme Court's Chief Justice. While the main thrust of the major media has been the so-called "separation of church and state", the actual point of conflict is the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and the failure of Federal Judges and the Supreme Court itself to adhere to Constitutional guidelines. The trend throughout my lifetime and before has been, that if what the Constitution says limits what these folks want to accomplish, well, just "interpret" the document differently.

Thus the plain words of the text are said to have taken on completely new meaning. Such rulings as Roe v. Wade and the recent ruling against Texas' anti-sodomy law have been the result. However, the Constitution is not the only document being re-interpreted to suit peoples' fancy. The Bible is subject to similar tactics, and they're by no means new. The evil one has always hated the truth and has exerted great effort to adulterate it. It's really easy to do, because only a slight, nearly unnoticeable change is all that's necessary to change the truth into a lie.

Paul wrote in Romans chapter one that certain ones had, "changed the truth of God into a lie", and that this had resulted in what can only be described as homosexual behaviors (Rom. 1:24-27). Of course many other evils are also inevitable when God's truth is perverted, but isn't it interesting that the exact same thing is happening now? A large ad in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette touted a "Universalist Church of Christ", and went into some detail in explaining how the Biblical doctrine of hell was incorrect, and that Jesus' sacrifice was for everyone, regardless of their behavior.

It should be obvious that if we reject the Bible's authority in one area, we are really being hypocritical in insisting that any of its teachings are valid. But it seems that many don't bother to give it that much thought. And of course that's just the way the evil one wants it to be.

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).