well doc let's um let's talk about I mean you teach taught college students I teach college
students who've been teach them a lot longer than than I have 38 years wow that's amazing no 39
years so let's say you're talking to the college student now all the way up to someone maybe in
their late twenties alright and we're talking about Christian college Christians yep okay you
know they're facing today there are different challenges and temptations today perhaps that
I didn't have you know back in the 80s that you didn't have you know decade before that
now let's talk about kind of things that you might recommend for some folks like that looked
what are some things now that you're 73 years old what would you say to a person in their early to
late 20s okay a Christian two things immediately come to mind if I could say one thing to college
students young adults it would it's easy it would be this be faithful in your daily quiet times but
quiet times I mean Tim when you get away from the noise the busyness of the world and other
people and activities and that was just you and the Lord quite temps consist of two times things
pouring out your heart to God in prayer and then secondly taking a little bit of time to read and
study God's Word nourish your soul on God's Word the my quiet times or the single most important
part of my day the most important part of my day is not spending time with my wife it's not
preaching on Sunday it's not preparing lectures it's not teaching my students in class it's not
counseling students in my office it's important as all that is the most important thing I do
every day is tablet lord I am not fit to walk into it class and deal with students until I've
had time with the Lord after that everything goes downhill and importance in my life and
difference with you know different anybody cultivate your relationship or by prayer
and really feeding nourishing your soul on God's worth and that's where God turned my whole life
around when I got back from the military duty in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War I was
just so lukewarm so dissatisfied with life and my then girlfriend now wife asked what's wrong with
your where's your interest in spiritual things go would you seal for the Lord I said so I can
put my finger right on it I'm so irregular daddy prayer I'm so unfaithful and reading the Bible
and she asked another question what are you gonna do about it I was so desperate I got a 15 minutes
early in the morning and a vote at that time couple minutes of prayer a couple minutes then
15 13 14 minutes reading study and three verses of the scripture I was consistent going through
the book of the thieves wife II don't know had a store somewhere and that's where God began to give
me a little bit of joy a little bit of growing hunger for His Word and it just continued I just
kept at it that's where the Lord turned my whole life around is in my daily cuties there's nothing
more important than that in my life are thinking somebody else's life the other thing I would say
is to young people do not invent the wheel it's already been invented stand on the shoulders of
older people or further down the path of life than you and now let me be precise if I can go
back to college when I met my wife if I knew then what I know now we would have done one
thing differently rather than jump it off in deep water and thrashing around learn how to
swim romantically we would have found an older couple at the two things we want good relations
happy marriage we would have ambled ourselves and put ourself under them that older couple
are decades down the path of romance that she and I just started out on they've already made their
mistakes they know what works and what doesn't work they've got it together now they could
have taken us by the hand and sped up our learning curve they could have taught us briefly was taking
them decades to find out don't invent the wheel when you start dating somebody don't jump off in
deep water years 22 years ago Dustin Cana in my office the day before he graduated from Moody and
he said my thing and I have done everything right in our Leisha now asking what do you mean by that
he said just what I see it as boyfriend/girlfriend his fiancee we've not made one mistake for example
and expressing our affection physically basically for one another not once have we gone too far not
once if we exceeded proper boundaries and what you said that I became queen with him as good
a courtship as my wife and I had we can't say we did everything correctly so I said Dustin had you
guys do that how'd you do everything right he said don't you know and I asked you know what
did it remind me year-and-a-half ago I came into your office and I said I have a friend as the man
I'm going to leave the relationship corrected but I'm not sure no he'll do you have any advice for
one hour you gave me suggestions that you said came from things you did wrong and things you
did right I made careful notes after my meeting with you I went to my girlfriend I said I've
been offered these suggestions will you cooperate and help me implement these in our friendship she
said not so fast let's discuss these we discussed your suggestions that you came in an hour and at
the end she said I like these suggestions I'll help you implement we followed the advice you
gave me in 60 minutes and as a result we've done everything right so don't do romance by yourself
it is too hard today my wife and I have a good marriage it didn't have to take so long to get
there we didn't have to make all these mistakes I learned from the mistakes of others well I was
kind of on Thursdays and I tell the students a wise man is not one who done make mistakes in
fact he doesn't exist he learns from this mistake so I've amassed a lot of wisdom for my stupidity
displayed in the past so the two things that I would suggest is young people don't hesitate to
be faithful in meeting God in prayer and reading his word cultivate your relationship with him and
then latch on to an older man if you're a young man latch on to an older woman in fact what is
choice two three say let the older women teach the younger women my wife has her day off on Wednesday
for 22 years I've said sue please give me your day off and I have her calm down the Moody Bible
Institute and helps me with young women she makes herself available for young women who are looking
for the input of an older woman in her life and it brings tune in the office she helps him you were
dating couples engaged couples married couples who are struggling she's a huge help to me the
best teacher of women is women hmm what's up let me ask you about prayer okay what would you just
your personal practice I'm gonna change hands here so your your practice in prayer how long
do you pray for every day on average yeah okay all Unser that question let me say it's not a matter
of quantity it's a matter of quality I think God would prepare prepare pretty five minutes
of earnest concentrated prayer to thirty minutes when my mind's wandering I'm having a hard time
staying on course and so I don't think it's a matter of how many minutes but to answer your
question probably thirty minutes in the morning when I when I go in to pray what I do is I get
it Moody Bible Institute about 4:30 5 o'clock in the morning and the first thing I do is I go into
a dark empty classroom and I just walk around and I talked to God in prayer and I'll say things like
lord I hope you appreciate how challenging this is you can see me you can hear me but I can't see you
I can't perceive you with any of my senses God the only thing that tells me you're in this room this
empty room with me is your work that's it there's not a scientist there's not a machine that can
prove disprove your presence one thing tells me you're here and that's it your work and I believe
that your word represents reality it tells me the way things are okay I'm a man of faith now with
that answered prayer we can encourage conviction with my condition that you're here and your word
is true I'm gonna pour my heart to you if you're not here I'm a food I'm like I'm not gonna fool
myself I'm wasting my time but I do believe you're here and on that on that condition now I want to
tell you what's on my heart and I get into it with the Lord and I've learned to be and I encourage my
students to be respectfully aggressive with the Almighty when I'm struggling and these promise
tell God look palms out hey hands up palms out I need I need your peace I need your strength right
now and you promised that in your word now if you meant that and I'm desperate had your
peace your help tell me please explain to me how that's not going to happen I'm gonna hold you to
your word your word is like a contract your word tells me how I can expect you to respond and they
treat me okay I know what it says you promised me peace you promised me help I'm here to get it now
you take all the time you wanted to give it to me but it's common that's where faith comes in
you expect what the Bible says to become a reality in your life but it may not be overnight oh wait
I think one thing I can do is wait you know when I was in grad school I prayed an average of two
hours a day and it's like it just went by so quickly you get married and it's like alright
I don't really have two hours yeah now yeah and and now you know I'm 58 years old but I'll be
honest with you last two or three years it's not been like it was before you know before I just
felt like the only clothes times with the Lord and intimacy and enjoyed prayer I don't enjoy prayer
now it's just it's been really dry I've tried some different stuff you know like rather than
actually uttering the word sometimes what I'll do is I'll just imagine what the answer what my
request looks like answered and then I take a snapshot of it and send that to the Lord in my
mind you know I mean he knows what I'm asking for but you ever experienced times like that in
prayer where he is just like oh I just hate it I just well I hate me the prayer is the hardest
discipline in the Christian life it doesn't come easy to me and I found myself disliking in their
times when I just make myself do it because it's commanded and I need it and the one of the best
things I have going for me are problems when they drive me to the feet of God and I know I'm in over
my head I need help the Lord's gonna reach down and pull my bacon out of the fire I'm done for
so anything that drives my feet of God where it makes me desperate to get his help that's one of
the best things I've got going for do I like it no but that's what I need does designed a place
for us at his feet needy humble pleading with him for help issues that we're not wise enough
to stay there we get up and walk away so guy will use prods problems trials temptation to drive us
there to that place that he's designed for now if we become prudent we learn to stay there so
he doesn't have to use all these problems do it to bring us there but we're like the disciples
they weren't especially keen students that's why I said how long was Doug there with you guys well
hey thank you so much for sharing this wisdom with us yeah thanks for joining me I believe the best
news one can receive is the message that we can have peace with God through the person of Jesus
for a few decades I've been committed to spreading that message using historical evidence for the
resurrection of Jesus and learning how to approach the Gospels as they were intended my objective is
to be authentic even when my research leads me to conclusions that don't always agree with some
of my evangelical colleagues that gets me into trouble sometimes but intellectual integrity
is very important to me of course this doesn't mean that I'm always correct few are correct in
everything they believe and I don't have any illusion that I'm an exception still I strive
toward honest research with a commitment to follow the evidence wherever it leads and I'll share with
you the conclusions at which I arrived would you consider supporting our ministry we now have a
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