Fall Weekly Schedule

Campus Reach

[In front of Lecture Hall] Mondays 8pm - 9pm

Join us as we engage students with a witness for eternity!

Open Bible Fellowship

[In the Den] Mondays 9pm - 10pm
Join us for a message from the Bible and open forum for any of your Bible questions!

Prayer Walk & Campus Reach & Sports

[Starting from Starbucks] Saturdays 10am - 1pm

Join us as we prayer over the campus, engage students with thoughts from God & enjoy fellowship around sports or coffee!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us or any other staff members. The Verticalink staff is here for you!

Bryan Ackerman & Kyle Benoit
Verticalink Staff Advisors

Bryan
(410) 991-4923

Bryan.Ackerman@gmail.com

Kyle

(410) 569-5662

KyleSBenoit@gmail.com

Knowledge or Wisdom? - Bryan Ackerman

Isaiah 28:9 - Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?

A new semester here at Towson University! And with the new year comes new friends, new roommates, and of course…new teachers and classes. I think we can all agree that we'll certainly learn plenty of knowledge over this next year. This'll come from studying and teachers, and Hey! We might even enjoy some it!...But is that all there is for us? Simply extra information loaded into our brains?

The Apostle Paul writes of these desires in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he says that people will gather to themselves teachers because of their itching ears. Again, there is nothing wrong with gaining knowledge but the beginning of that verse declares the too oft precursor to these desires, which is not enduring sound doctrine and turning away from the truth. Are we sacrificing the sweet deepness of God's well of life for physics equations and philosophical inadequacies? Is there something more than the knowledge the world and the university would have us to know?

Psalm 51:6 states what God desires for us: Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. God wants us to know truth and possess wisdom in more than our minds; He wants to fill our hearts. And this is the knowledge that God would have us base our lives upon: To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins (Luke 1:77). Christ is our salvation and our liberty from sins and the bondage therewith!

What do we do? How do we attain unto more than what we see and more than what we are taught? The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding (Proverbs 9:10). We look to God for who He is, the One who loves us, who cares for us, who is always waiting to be gracious unto us. And knowledge and learning about Him and His Word is what gives us true understanding of life and reality…something deeper and more central to our beings than simply reasoning and philosophy.

This semester, in addition to learning your class material, in all of that getting, get wisdom (Proverbs 4:7).

James 1:5 - If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. We simply ask God for an outpouring of His wisdom and understanding, seeking Him, and we will find wisdom, we will find Him. Find God this semester and I promise (and so does He!) you will not regret it!

Bryan Ackerman

Dare to be Free

Recently, I returned from a two week long missions trip in Africa. I had an incredible time visiting Zambia for a week then Uganda for a week. Admittedly, I went there witha heart of desperation. Desperate for hope, desperate for purpose and direction, desperate for God. I was unable to articulate to the Lord what I needed, but I begged Him to exercise His omniscience and omnipotence in identifying and healing what was troubling my heart.

Daily I gathered to hear the Word of God with the believers assembled in Zambia then Uganda. However, just as daily I felt this incredibly oppressive weight upon me. I prayed and begged God for delieverance from this constant pressure looming over me like a black cloud.

Then, Easter morning after service finished, I was rereading some of the verses that were just preached upon in Ephesians 2. Verses 1-2 jumped off the page.

And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

The prince of the power of the air! Satan. The black cloud I had been under was oppression from Satan! The simple realization itself brought a measure of release, but the verses also revealed a condition I no longer had to live under as a child of God.

Romans 8:2 says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Ephesians 2:4-7 continues with the privileges we are now granted to experience and appropriate in our lives through faith as free children of the Lord: God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses (willful rebellions against God), made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Suddenly, I faced a choice, which the Lord repeatedly placed before me, to believe His Word by faith or to submit to my oppressive circumstances empowered by Satan, the Father of Lies. The Lord graciously gave me the courage to step out in faith and believe the promises He outlined in Ephesians 2:4-7.

Daily during the trip and continually now that I have arrived home, this choice remains before me: step out in faith and believe God loves me or submit to a lie from Satan that I'm worthless. Satan hates us and he hates God, so he would love for all of us who are true believers in Christ to think we are worthless. The troubling part can be that he has so much material to work with in this sinful human race. Our lives are stained by failures, weaknesses, and distrust, so when Satan speaks to us perhaps through a co-worker or fellow student or a professor, it is often easy to agree with it because we know our imperfect selves. However, God knows our imperfections as well, and He loves us anyway. So, we can simply bring the failures, weaknesses or faithless distrust to Him and believe what He says we are in His eyes, which is victorious in Christ, perfect in Christ, and loved forever unconditionally by Christ (Romans 8). So, step out in faith and dare to believe Him for the incredible life He has available to you through Christ.

In Christ with you all,

Lisa Watson

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.

To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

And our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

The Father's full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure.

His power has no boundary known unto men.

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,

He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

Annie Johnson Flint

Jesus - Liar, Lunatic or Loving Lord?

Bryan Ackerman

Matt 27:42 - He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

As Easter approaches, we see the news, magazines, and public discussion become abuzz around this person of Jesus Christ. What is this holiday all about? Is it true? Is Jesus who he said he was?

Was he a liar? Jesus said that he was the son of God, that he was one with the Father (God). That's a pretty lofty assertion. How does the testimony of those who were with him hold up? All of his close disciples, who were with him constantly, all died tortuous deaths for identifying with and proclaiming Christ as Lord. If you were with such a man, and you knew that he was a fake, that his miracles were anything but, that he wasn't really raised from the dead, would you promote the religion, even unto death? Why would you die for something you knew to be a lie, without any hope of an afterlife?

Was he a lunatic? Maybe Jesus was a good man, and we can learn some things from his teachings. Well, we would be hard pressed to adhere to a man who called himself the son of God and claimed to do miracles. Maybe he was just a plain crazy. But could a crazy man do the things that he did? Raising people from the dead? Feeding 12,000 (men, women and children) with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish? Restoring sight to the blind? And these stories of Christ's life didn't just come from one story or person, but four separate Gospels record the same actions as seen from different eyewitnesses.

What if he actually was Lord? If Jesus Christ was not a liar, and he was not a lunatic, the only other explanation is that he really was who he said he was. God, almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, descended into human form. Why? Easter is why. On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem. It had been roughly 3 and a half years since he began preaching and teaching across Israel. After celebrating the Jewish Passover with his disciples, he was delivered over to the Romans to be crucified.

Being God, Jesus had the power to free himself from the cross. Knowing all things, he knew the soldiers were coming for him when he was praying in the garden. It would have been a very simple escape out of the back of that garden away from Jerusalem. But Christ's prayer, "Not my will, but thine be done" (speaking to God in heaven), showed his resolve.

The perfect, righteous, and just God needed a perfect, willing sacrifice to accept and satisfy the payment of sin that was on all of our accounts. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and all of us have sinned and fallen short of the level of this perfect God (Romans 3:23). Therefore, only perfection could pay the price for us, and clear the account. Christ came to do that.

He who believes on Christ will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The purpose of Easter is Jesus dying on a cross and (literally) paying for our sins. He was crucified on Good Friday, lain in a tomb, which was sealed and guarded. Easter Sunday, the stone was removed, and Christ was not there, for he is risen (Matthew 28:6). Jesus chose this, because He really loves us. He was tortured and crucified because He doesn't want us to be slaves any longer.

He's not just a Lord who has come to control and command your life. He is a Lord who has come to set you free. Free from the slavery we have all been under. Free from sin's oppressive power, free from addictions, free from loneliness, free from ours, our family's, our friends' expectations. All it takes is a moment of belief, and Christ's resurrection and freedom from death will be yours for eternity.

God Has Ears

There has been a lot going on in my life recently - trials and challenges, but above it all, I hear God's voice still asking me, "Do you trust Me?"

As an earnest servant of Christ and child of the Living God, everything in me wants to honestly answer that question with a resounding, "YES!" However, I find myself identifying rather with the words of David from Psalm 25, "Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain." (vs 16-18a).

The words of David, the man God said was after His own heart (Acts 13:22), struck a chord in my own heart as I continued in the Psalms to find an answer to my pain. I arrived at Psalm 34:17: "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears."

Those words overwhelmed me. The Lord hears.

You mean, You hear me when I'm hurting and asking for deliverance, Lord? You hear me?

"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears...[He] is close to those who are of a broken heart and...are crushed with sorrow..." Psalm 34:17-18 (Amplified)

Really, Lord? was my question.

He led me to Psalm 139 - another psalm of David. It is a psalm I have read many times, but I read it in a fresh way this time when I reached verse 16.

"Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they were all written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them."

The days fashioned for me? You mean, You created these days for me? And You knew what was going to happen all along, Lord? Before it even happened? I asked.

Yes. Came the comforting reply.

Some could say here, "If you knew, Lord, then why did You allow it to happen?"

And I would say in reply, because He loves you. Because He has a plan for you that is so much greater than our finite minds could ever begin to comprehend. He knew my days before there was even such a thing as a day. His eyes were on my life before I was even conceived. That means they were on yours, too.

Does He love me? It sure seems like it to me.

Does He care about me? I'm more convinced now than I was before - and it's because of my trouble and pain, which brought me to the end of myself and caused me to cry out to the Lord from a broken heart for an answer.

Considering this, let's return to the Lord's first question to me, "Do you trust Me?"

My pain isn't gone and my trouble hasn't ceased, but I know my Lord and Maker's heart a bit better. So I can answer, "I'm learning to trust You, Lord," and I sense He is satisfied.

We are all going to have times when we are incredibly overwhelmed and feel like one more thing is going to push us over the edge. Our natural instinct is to run away from the situation to find relief. But, I would challenge and encourage you, rather than to run away, run to the Lord and run to His Word.

The Gospel of John starts with:

"In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him,

and without Him,

nothing was made that was made." (vs 1-3)

These verses bring us back to Psalm 139. God knew me in the beginning - before time began.

And the Word, which is Jesus Christ, was there in the beginning, too, ordaining the chapters and circumstances of each person's, especially each believer's, life.

So take Him at His Word. Seek Him in His Word. Trust Him because He hears you crying out. He's the only One who's had a plan and known your life all along.

In Christ,

Lisa Watson

Fellowship & Go

Counting Days

Greetings to Towson U. Look for Verticalink on campus, and ask us what we are all about!

I am thinking this morning about numbering. The Bible speaks of numbering our days. This is not random numbering, such as the jerseys on a sports team. Nor is it scale numbering, like, on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate today.

This is linear counting. Each of our days is precious, and we should count them all. It is not to say that we should know which day, numerically, we are in. It also is not suggesting that we are counting down our days, for no one knows how many days there are left on earth.

This is counting, in the context of reckoning. We are encouraged to think enough of our day that we would assign it, so to speak, a number. This day does have a particular number, and God knows what that number is. We do not know the exact number, but we should live as though we know it is numbered.

On a linear numbering system, there are no repeats. We do not get to do a day over again. Thus, we make the most of this day with God. We learn to focus and pay attention as the Creator of the universe fashions our day in perfection.

Some have said that we should live as if this is the first day of the rest of our lives. I suppose that is good if we have learned nothing on the previous days, but most of us, I hope, have learned much. The second part of the verse in Psalms 90:12 says that walking in wisdom is the result of numbering our days. Wisdom from above is a great and valuable commodity. There are few that truly walk in it.

Well, I know that in my own life, I need to focus and receive the day as if it were made for me. Otherwise, I waste it away into a great loss. I think we are all the same in this respect.

Enjoy your day today. It is fashioned in perfection for you!

Pastor Rick Knight

Director

Verticalink International