TBI Class of 09' Commencement

Well... this is it.. The BIG day! Today we will graduate the Texas Bible institute class of 2009! WOW! I'm continually amazed at God's goodness, especially within the student body. To be able to watch a group of hundreds of young people come and consecrate 9 months of their life unto God. A season to prepare them for all other seasons. A stage in their life that trains them for any stage they may stand ON in their life. I've watched them grow, learn, praise, worship, serve, minister, lead, love, forgive, endure trials, stretch their faith, experience miracles... I've watched them become the Men and Women of God that HE created them to be. I MARVEL at what God has done in, for and through them. Many people go through their lives just wishing and hoping they could see or experience a miracle. I have had the privilege of witnessing the MANY miracles of what is a TBI student. I am eternally grateful.

  Not only have I witnessed, but I have also had the honor of being a part of their lives. To have been able to sow, impact, affect, minister to, encourage them in anyway has been by the Grace of God. I am humbled to have been used by Him in their lives. All glory and honor is HIS! I can't help but feel like a proud Pop in this situation. And yet another one of the greatest things about it all is that not only have I had the opportunity to impart what I have into them, but their lives have blessed me more than they will probably ever know! I have learned from THEM!

What AMAZING caliber of Men and Women of God are the Texas Bible Institute students!

So now I have the bitter/sweet.... celebration/challenge of releasing them into their next season. Some will stay and serve along side us (which I am more excited about than a years supply of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.) I look forward to being able to continue a cultivation of what has been taking place in their lives over the past 9 months. Some will move on to college, trade school, ministry, the workplace. But I KNOW that God will continue to do AMAZING things with ALL of them!

Philippians 1:6- being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (NLT)

I'm confident in God and His ability to continue to grow the EVER-LIVING seeds of His Word in their lives. His Word NEVER returns void. It ALWAYS accomplishes what it was sent out to do! God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. Hath he said it and will he not do it? Or hath he spoke it and will he not make it good?

 

-To all TBI students (and truly to any born again believer)-

The seed of the Word of God has been sown into your lives. It is now your choice to be the fertile soil that Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 13. Be the soil that brings forth a harvest of all that was sown and invested into your lives. I believe you will! I look forward to hearing MANY testimonies down the road of how God used you in RIDICULOUS, HAD TO BE GOD, OUTRAGEOUS ways! So do tell.

Philippians 1:3-6

³ Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. ⁴ Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, ⁵ for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. ⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

I'm proud of you, I believe in you and I love you!

Your partner in spreading the Good News-

Stephen