I have been meeting with Christians on Campus for about three years. During these years my relationship with the Lord has grown more than all the other years of my life combined. It is wonderful to meet with other students who love the Lord and want to give themselves to pursue and gain Christ.
Background: I received the Lord personally when I was 13 years old while I was attending a camp for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I had grown up in a family that attended church meetings and I was interested in the Lord. After that experience I was on fire for the Lord and pursued Him with several classmates, but I was discouraged from being “too much” and eventually I had no companions in the Lord and very little real fellowship. Throughout my high school years I began to drift away from the Lord and this continued into my first college year. I dropped out of school to pursue other interests and eventually became full occupied with the things of this world.
Meeting Christians on Campus: After several years I decided to take my parents advice to return to college and I began to take classes at a local junior college in Dallas. I got a few credits under my belt and applied to UT Austin for full time study in biology. After about a year I began to feel more and more restless. During my year and a half at junior college, and in my first four semesters at UT I made straight A's and felt like I had many friends. Despite this I still felt like something was missing. I was beginning to have a turn to the Lord so I decided to attend a local denomination. Even though I immediately joined the choir and tried to participate I felt like I was an outsider - I had made no new friends and it didn't seem like anyone cared. Added to this was the fact that there was almost no focus on the Bible and the Lord Jesus. Dissappointed, I gave up and quit attending the meetings. I was still very much involved in many worldly activites. Sometimes I would become very desperate and pray to the Lord to “lead me to some Christian brothers and sisters,” but at the same time I was ashamed of my living and would not openly seek Christian fellowship.
One day in October of 1994 I was approached on campus by two students who were preaching the gospel. I stopped to talk with them and they asked me about my situation and if I had ever recieved the Lord. When I had assured them that I had received the Lord they asked if I would like to meet for fellowship on a regular basis. I told them that I had been praying for this. We began to meet soon afterward. Within the first 20 minutes of our meeting I knew that these brothers knew the Bible better than anyone with whom I had ever spoken. Unlike most Christians who had merely given their opinion about certain parts of the Bible, these brothers interpreted the Word by the Word - giving me verse references for everything they shared. I was impressed and continued to meet weekly. As we continued I felt like for the first time the Bible was being opened up to me - they began to show me the Lord in every part of the Word. More than this, however, is that they began to help me have a personal, intimate, daily contact with the Lord. At one point they asked me if I had ever “enjoyed the Lord.” I had never heard these words put together in my life, but they helped me realize that the Lord desires man not so much to study about Him, but to receive and enjoy Him as man's full supply.
Enjoying the Lord: I have at this point been meeting with Christians on Campus for three years and these have been the best three years of my life. I have enjoyed meeting in small groups, the campus meetings, Bible studies, as well as outings and conferences. The focus of Christians on Campus is truly to enjoy the Lord and pursue Him to the fullest. I never knew that He could be so enjoyable and fulfilling. I feel like my experience is that of the seeker in the Song of Songs: I pursue Him because “His love is better than wine.” He is more enjoyable than any other thing I was pursuing in the world.I have never felt closer to the Lord. I am now, by the Lord's leading, pursuing a Ph D in molecular biology, but the Lord is the center and focus of my life. I love Him and His church!
B. W.
— Irving, TX
