ERIK’S GRADUATION CHARGE
JUNE 6, 2008
Wisdom
Erik, You are called to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, we exhort you to guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life….
Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother; for they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. Let not mercy and truth forsake you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him; and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge….
Character and Doctrine
I Timothy 4:12
Erik, Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity….
Watch your life and your doctrine closely…For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all.
We strongly urge you, lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and all reverence.
Be a faithful man of God, be a man after God’s own heart. We encourage you to be blameless, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous.
We exhort you to have a good testimony among those who are outside and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness; Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.
You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you.
God’s Love
Erik, God has loved you with an Everlasting love. And underneath you are the Everlasting Arms. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
He who did not spare His own son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him, freely give us all things.
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Erik, we remind you that you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Erik, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Let the peace of God rule in your heart and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
