的 蓝色的论坛 is your place to learn about all things Covenant and keep up with stories from campus and beyond. By guiding you through the d如果ferent aspects of Covenant, we'll help you decide 如果 you want to pursue your very own Covenant experience.
说真话，让魔鬼蒙羞
亲爱的毕业生们，感谢你们邀请我与你们分享这个重要的日子。 的re is no other place I'd want to be than right here, right now, celebrating the remarkable things that God has been doing in your lives.
This might sound morbid on a Saturday morning, but I wonder how your arch enemy would spoil this special day. To be clear, I'm not talking about the people on campus who gave you parking citations. 我说的是魔鬼。 How would he try to rain on your parade? If he had the mic, he would probably try to air our dirty laundry, disparaging all of you, and the many times you caved in to gossiping about other students. He would list other sins that you struggled with in your time at Covenant, and it would get awkward with parents and visitors here. But you 知道, the devil likes to front as an angel of light and get all preachy as he did with Jesus in the wilderness. 我可以想象他会说这样的话：
数以百万计与你同龄的人永远不会经历你所接受的那种教育。 的y will never taste what it's like to study econ with Dr. Wescher or computer science with Dr. Humphreys, all from a deeply Christian perspective. Your brothers and sisters live in places where they experience the daily threat of physical persecution. Since the first century, over 70 million Christians have died for their faith. Religious freedom is highly restricted in many parts of the world—restrictions often aimed at Christians. According to one source, more Christians were killed because of their faith in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. For college students in those settings, graduating from a school like Covenant is a crazy, impossible dream.
现在撒旦要攻击要害了。 What's the point of a Covenant education when there are so many urgent l如果e and death issues in the world today? What's the point when Christians around the world are dying as martyrs? 那政变呢？ 他引用了C.S.刘易斯的话。 这难道不像在罗马燃烧的时候摆弄小提琴吗？ 当然，他会引用C.S.刘易斯的话。
这就是我想在这几分钟里做的事情。 I've titled this commencement address “说真话，让魔鬼蒙羞.” I want to channel my inner Gen Z by speaking truth to power.
的 devil thinks the years you’ve had at Covenant mean nothing compared to the persecution that Christians experience around the world, but he conveniently forgets your relationship with your Heavenly Father. That relationship has sustained you these four years, and it will be the most important thing about you long after Covenant. You have the same relationship with God that persecuted Christians have. My charge to you is to keep growing in your relationship with the Lord: 知道ing God, trusting God, and loving God.
继续认识神
第一，我希望你继续认识上帝。 As students, you've learned a lot about God. 你可以在神学上滔滔不绝——至少你们大多数人是这样。 But haven’t we professors and staff kept emphasizing that you need to 知道 God? 仅仅从智力上认识上帝是不够的。 You need to 知道 God. 回想一下你上过的课。 Each of you can give a witness to classes that changed you and drew you closer to the Lord. You've never read the Psalter the same way after taking Psalms with Dr. Jones or studying music with the great Dr. Finch. Long after you’ve graduated from Covenant, we pray you will continue growing in the grace and the 知道ledge of the Lord Jesus. 我要你继续认识上帝。 That will bind you to persecuted Christians and the lessons they teach us.
例如，王明道是中国最著名的家庭教会牧师和布道家。 因为信仰基督，他被监禁了23年。 That’s longer than most of you have been alive. 他们于1980年释放了他，他于1991年去世。 One Chinese pastor said, “Wang Mingdao proved that God existed—no one goes to jail for that long and comes out with their faith still intact 如果 God is not real.” In one of his interviews, Wang reflected that we Westerners are too busy. 我们排满了日程，威尼斯人平台生活很疯狂，手机奴役着我们。 Persecution taught Wang to slow down, which gave him time to 知道 God. 我想读一下王在那次采访中分享的一些见解。 Imagine that he’s speaking to you:
你得给自己造个牢房。 当我被关进监狱时，我崩溃了。 I was 60 years old at the peak of my powers. I was a well-知道n evangelist and wished to hold crusades all over China. 我是个作家。 我想写更多的书。 I was a preacher. 我想学习圣经，写更多的讲道。 But instead of serving God in all these ways, I found myself sitting alone in a dark cell. I could not use the time to write more books—they deprived me of pen and paper. I could not study my Bible and produce more sermons—they had taken it away. I had no one even to witness to, as a jailer for years just pushed my meals through a hatch. Everything that had given me meaning as a Christian worker had been taken away from me. I had nothing to do—nothing to do except get to 知道 God. And for 20 years, that was the greatest relationship I have ever 知道n. 但细胞是手段。 我被推进了一间牢房。 但你必须强迫自己去做。 你没有时间去认识神。 You need to build yourself a cell so you can do for yourself what persecution did for me. Simpl如果y your l如果e and 知道 God.
I hope none of you experience the kind of persecution he went through, but wherever you end up post-graduation, I hope you will 知道 God like he did. Trust me—your job environment will be radically d如果ferent from Covenant. For most of you, it will be a total shock. 不要失去情节。 继续去教堂。 读你的圣经。 Talk about God with new friends you make. 简化你的生活，为上帝腾出空间。
继续信靠神
第二，我希望你继续相信上帝。 Not the God of American cultural Christianity, but the Triune God who saved you. 你这四年来所认识的上帝。 Keep trusting that God is who He says He is, that He's alive, that He answers prayer, and that He will be with you until the end of the age. Stephen the martyr trusted God as a good God who sometimes chooses to act in the world on behalf of His people. Yes, none of you are apostles or prophets—regardless of what some misguided charismatics are saying—and the canon is closed. But, what binds you to persecuted Christians is that you trust the same God that Stephen did. That God will sometimes show up in miraculous ways, as He did in the l如果e of a young Muslim woman from Baghdad in Iraq.
作为一个十几岁的孩子，她对基督教的上帝以及他与安拉的比较有疑问。 她的父亲嘲笑基督徒，但她最终相信了耶稣。 Things became tense with her dad, who was angry at her newfound faith. Eventually, he locked her inside a room with nothing to eat for ten days. She test如果ies: “Even though my situation seemed helpless and impossible, I still had hope and faith in Christ.” Finally, when her dad opened the door, he told her she would be marrying his stepmother's son the very next day. 他说：“我没有正确地抚养你。 也许他会的。” 的n he locked her back in the room. I want to quote what happened next, as reported by a missions organization called Open Doors:
那天晚上，莎拉上床睡觉时，希望第二天早上不要醒来。 But
instead, she got the miracle she prayed for. In her own words, she shares a series
of events that began the next morning: “Someone came like a light, held my hand, and
dragged me out of the locked room. 我觉得自己像在出神。 这就像一场梦。
他让我上了一辆银色的车。 That morning, I woke up in a hotel room in a city in north
Iraq, hours away from where I lived. 我真的很害怕。 When I found out where
I was, I thought I was still in a dream. But then a hotel worker came in, gave me
food, and walked out. 一个保安过来把我带到一个房间。 的 officer told
me, ‘Usually a girl leaves home because she runs away from her father out of fear
or runs away with a man. 你的故事是什么？’
‘Yes, I ran away with someone,’ I said.
“他是谁？他为什么不在这儿？”警官问。
在那一刻，我鼓起勇气，对警官说：“他和我在一起。 He is
always with me.’
‘Who is he?他问。
“上帝，”我告诉他我的故事。 然后他说他要和我爸爸确认我的故事。 I
felt scared and worried to face my dad. But at the same time, I also felt courageous
and stronger than ever.’”
两天后，莎拉的父亲来了。 He questioned her, and she began telling him her story. Finally, she told her father: “All this happened because you challenged God. 你说，让你的上帝带你离开这里。’他就这样行了。”
受迫害的基督徒经常报告这样的神迹。 And Sarah's God is the same God that we talk to every day. 上帝不关心我们在西方的怀疑。 他做他喜欢做的事。 盲人被治愈了。 残废的人痊愈了。 People are raised from the dead. And 如果 you don't believe me, read the New Testament scholar Craig Keener’s two volume book titled 奇迹.
But, let's keep it real, even for persecuted Christians miracles are not happening all the time. 这不是神通常的运作方式。 Our Father allows us to go through trials. 他让我们经历苦难、痛苦和艰难。 He doesn't pull us out of it, but guides us through it. You've experienced that in your own personal lives.
For instance, you're the last cohort affected by Covid, and this year we lost our dear brother, Dr. David Washburn. 上帝本可以治愈他，但他没有。 Many persecuted Christians have spent years imprisoned unjustly. 许多人成为了殉道者。 But through it all, they trusted the Lord. After Covenant, a small number of you will see God answering prayers miraculously. 但这不会成为常态。 You will have loved ones diagnosed with incurable disease, and you will face health challenges. Despite praying for a miracle, God will allow you to experience suffering. But whatever happens, whatever lies ahead for you, I want you to keep trusting God.
继续爱神
第三，我希望你继续爱上帝。 I 知道 that some American Christians like to see themselves as martyrs or being persecuted, but let's not cheapen the meaning of words. 我们生活在一个自由民主国家。 我们可以在星期天自由做礼拜。 的 physical persecution of believers is rare in this part of the world. And we're not saved by persecution, but by grace through faith in Christ. 这是魔鬼忘记的。 他想让你对你在圣约的时光感到内疚。
He wants you to feel guilty about all the Mountain Affairs you enjoyed—with cool band names like Uncle Grips—the family picnics on Carter Lawn, the joy you felt when Brad Voyles was named the new president, and then all the wonderful events around his inauguration. 的 faculty and staff felt that joy too: the frisbee golf tournaments, the soccer team winning the conference finals three years in a row. 槲寄生打成一片。 恶作剧。 恶作剧,恶作剧。 这样的例子不胜枚举。 的re's nothing to be ashamed of or to feel guilty about… Okay, maybe one or two pranks went too far—but God is good. He has blessed you lavishly. 我希望你们中没有人会因为信仰而入狱。 I hope none of you will be martyrs. But the thing that binds you to persecuted Christians is the undaunted resolve to follow Christ—come what may.
我希望对上帝的忠诚，对上帝的爱，将使你的一生充满活力。 耶稣说：“你们在世上有苦难。” You will face challenges, and sometimes they will feel insurmountable. 你们中的一些人会在婚姻中面临紧张。 Some of you will be tempted to abandon the church because Christian institutions have let you down. 你们中的一些人会在那个时候考虑离开基督教。 I pray that your instinct will be the same as your persecuted brothers and sisters. That your love for God will cause you to weather those storms. His love will hold you fast and allow you to survive tough times. 记住，耶稣也说过，“放心； I have overcome the world.”
Most of you will not experience physical persecution, but in 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul does say, “All who desire to live a godly l如果e in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 如果你爱上帝，你就会因为你的信仰而经历阻力。 Your l如果e will be patterned by the cross of Christ. 你会受苦的。 I pray for each of you the same prayer as Paul: that you may 知道 Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in death.
感恩，让魔鬼蒙羞
So as you look back on your time at Covenant, you don't need to feel guilty or ambivalent about what you've achieved in college. 感谢上帝给你的一切。 的 reality is, every part of your lives—the ordinary things that take up your time—all of it happens before the face of God. 这一切都很重要，包括你在圣约人的时光。 Dr. Bill Davis wrote the book on it, which you read as freshmen: 威尼斯人平台. 威尼斯人平台是圣山上唯一的一所学校。 当然，这是最好的。 You had great professors like Dr. Weichbrodt, Dr. Green, Dr. Kapic, Dr. Bagby, Dr. Barham. 还有什么好说的？
魔鬼吗? 他真可耻。 Whatever is good, whatever is true, and whatever is beaut如果ul that you experienced at Covenant, let it grow and flourish in the coming years. Let all of it find its deepest meaning in your identity as God's people, united with your brothers and sisters all over the world. Knowing God, trusting God, and loving God all the rest of your days, soon and very soon we will see the King, like Stephen. 我们要看见天开了，人子站在神的右边。 那将是光荣的一天。