Crossroads

Kent Brindley

Description

The religious authorities on campus are convinced that true Christianity is addressed best in repentance and personal living. The students of Crossroads University are convinced that true Christianity is best represented in acceptance and support of ones neighbor. Can the two very different worlds meet on one middle ground?

Sujets

• Christianisme

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462402427
• Langue: English

Extrait

CROSSROADS
KENT BRINDLEY
 


 
Copyright © 2012 Kent Brindley
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0241-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0242-7 (e)
 
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 7/13/2012
CONTENTS
For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh and eyes and pride of life- is not of the Father but of the world 1  
Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanliness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies… 2  
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 23  
For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. 4  
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him 5  
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting… 6  
Judge not lest you be judged. 7  
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love 8  
“The time for his departure has come. He has fought the good fight and finished the race.” 9  
ENDNOTES  
 
 
 
F or family who has been placed in my life to help motivate me in my Christian calling of personal responsibility for my own shortcomings; and my friends who have motivated me toward the Christian values and virtues of acceptance, “Thank you” can only say so much.
 
For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh and eyes and pride of life- is not of the Father but of the world 1  
T he unusually frigid winds that mid-October afternoon would have normally sent students and staff alike scurrying for the nearest cover in search of warmth. However, the peculiar cold snap falling over Madison, Ohio was almost laughably appropriate for the air in the middle of the traditional Crossroads University. The local campus chaplain, an amiable if stern minister, Father Robert De Guile, stood beneath the bell tower, beating his bible against his open palm and gesturing violently at student passerby. Most students generally congregated his weekly messages and regarded him with a sense of respect. Now, students and even some members of the faculty flocked around the sideshow spectacle in the middle of campus to mock and challenge the man whom they usually genuinely respected for the reason that, for 358 days of the year, they realized that they had his respect and understanding in all that they went through.
However, all of his respect, care, and understanding could not dismiss his drastic role reversal for one week each year. For that annual week, spurred into action by righteous indignation and a few realizations about the behavior plaguing the youngest generation, Robert De Guile left the chapel on a mission in the middle of campus to be frankly honest with his students. His students, in turn, responded with frank honesty about their opinions of his “fire-and-brimstone” approach to theology. An avalanche of angry and emotional calls and responses was the result. The administration affectionately referred to this annual event as “Accountability Week” and stood behind the cause with their full support. The students called it something else altogether and dreaded “Accountability Week” for the fact that it brought out the least reasonable behavior in not only the minister but their fellow classmates as well. De Guile was trying desperately to make himself heard over the hoots and hollers of the students, vaguely aware that he was widely regarded as the sideshow freak of the week by the students who normally flocked to his sermons out of respect. As he gestured at the crowd while condemning the “death of the body through smoking,” he wound up with a face full of the damnable smoke from a group of students looking to prove a point. De Guile coughed and wheezed in the fog and picked up a new list of complaint where he had initially left off.
“You students go to your classes all week and choose to leave God at home; even as you swallow the empty philosophy of your professors…” he bellowed.
The faculty, though being at the traditional Crossroads University, cheered at the recognition and jeered at the intended message behind it, successfully outhollering the one-man lynch mob standing before them.
“…You go out to your weekend parties with your alcohol, your (hack, hack, wheeze) smoking, and your random relationships. You leave God at home then too, even as He is replaced by your local sports teams…”
Now, it was the student athletes’ turn to interrupt the proceedings in a fit of whoops and hollers that was torn between being proud of the recognition and disagreeing with the gist of Father De Guile’s message.
“…Students of Crossroads University, this is not a message of hatred; it is a wake-up call that Your Lord and Savior cannot be restricted to Sundays!”
Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanliness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies… 2  
B rian Joseph sat on a grassy knoll, a bit out of Father De Guile’s eye-line. From his perch, he was witnessing the same performance and hearing the same message as everyone else; and though he took particular exception to its delivery, he just wasn’t in the mood to participate in the circus sideshow designed to make a blatant mockery out of a man whom the students all knew in their hearts that they could trust to deliver an honest message. The third-year student merely lit a cigarette to calm his own nerves rather than as an affront to the minister’s message and reclined on the hillside directly behind the female object of his attention.
Katie Willis, the sorority president and reigning member of the dance team, took a long swig of water from a beer bottle that had been recycled from a weekend party. Still, it was apparent that she had more in mind than to recline on the hill just outside of Father De Guile’s vision and nourish herself. Every time De Guile bellowed about reckless alcohol consumption, Katie mistook it as her cue to raise the bottle in a toast and drain some of its new contents. Brian wanted to say something to her; he always wanted to say something to her. He and Katie were pretty close as friends, it was true. Still, when the subject turned to theological truth, there were other subjects that he would rather raise with any woman. For all of the work that Brian was doing trying to come up with a suitable icebreaker before telling Katie that it was not the best idea to be drinking in public as a personal affront to a minister whom she could normally at least feign respect for, however, she did the work for Brian and shattered the silent distance between them.
“Crazy week we’ve got ahead.” She observed, twirling her blonde locks on a finger of her free hand as she took another swig of water from the offending bottle.
Brian, having known Katie since middle school, had the perfect response. It was a suave, debonair one-liner to reveal interest in his friend’s words without revealing too much interest in her just yet.
“Yeah;” he murmured, puffing away on the cig if only to puff away some excess frustration at the preacher’s message and the antics of his classmates, “Crazy week; same as every year.”
Katie could only nod and pull her clothes even tighter around her body.
“The weather’s getting colder.” Brian observed, adjusting his own jacket.
“Uh-huh.” Katie conceded.
Instantly, the opportunity to spring into action hit Brian like a stroke of genius and he proceeded to offer his jacket to gracious friend. Even as she accepted the jacket, Brian wanted to do more. As was usually the case, it occurred to him at the last minute that doing more would only lead to more trouble than it was worth and he satisfied himself in settling back to enjoy what remained of the show. Between Father De Guile’s rampant tirades and the shouting match that answered him, this really was the most entertainment that was about to find the traditional campus of Crossroads University. Brian did all that he could to conceal a smile at the antics of the adults around him, failed miserably, and puffed away a few stray nerves on a new cig stick. The message of the week, the antics of his fellow “Christians,” Katie; it was just too much stress for Brian to strain against without his smoking habit.
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 23  
F ather De Guile, while not slowing down in his annual less-than-