Reflection Options  

Journal  (reflect on one or more of these questions)

• Scripture tells us to consider the fruit of a teacher’s life in thinking about what we learn from them. What do you know about your professors personal lives? How does their way of thinking impact the way they live?  Journal about teachers you feel confident following and teachers you question following because of their life choices.

• Read a few scriptures and at least one of the media articles.  Make up a “test” that you can use to help you discern the truth or error of content you are taught in class.  

• Journal about a time you accepted something a teacher or professor said as true, but later found to be false or to have more error in it than you originally saw.  How can that experience help you as you move forward?

Quote Interaction (Interact by agreeing, disagreeing or otherwise engaging with the quote/quotes)

• If you want the truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, “a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

• When we look at the ungodly, we are not to hate them – but to pity them, mourn over them, and pray for them.  Nor have we any right to boast over them; for, by nature, and of ourselves, we are no better than they. (John Newton)

• A new Decalogue has been adopted by some of our day, the first words of which reads, “Thou shalt not disagree,” and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins, “Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything.” It is now the accepted thing to talk over religious differences in public with the understanding that no one will try to convert another or point out errors in his belief. Imagine Moses agreeing to take part in a panel discussion with Israel over the golden calf; or Elijah engaging in a gentlemanly dialogue with the prophets of Baal. Or try to picture Jesus seeking a meeting of minds with the Pharisees to iron out differences. The blessing of God is promised to the peacemaker, but the religious negotiator had better watch his step. Darkness and light can never be brought together by talk. Some things are not negotiable.  (A.W. Tozer)

• Although Christians cannot cherish religious pluralism, they must tolerate it… By tolerance I mean allowing other people to hold and to defend their own religious convictions. Tolerance does not mean that everyone has to agree with everyone else. That would not be tolerance at all. The word tolerance itself assumes disagreement, that there is something that must be tolerated. Tolerance thus applies to persons, but not to their errors. It does not require me to endorse your worldview. If you are not a Christian, I do not endorse your worldview. In the context of a friendship I will even try to talk you out of it… Yet it carries out these arguments with humility and civility. (Philip Graham Ryken)

• Education in itself without moral correction does little except to produce clever sinners. (Melvin Tinker)

Reading and Reflection from the book, Shaping The Journey of Emerging Adults: 

• Read “Value Shifts” (pp. 33-36).  How have these various shifts affected the conversations you have in the classroom or on the University campus?  How have they muddied the waters for you in discerning truth as it comes in the form of course content?

• Read, “Choosing an Eternal Legacy” (pp. 220-221).  Read about Dr. Ted Ward as a professor. How does the way he lived his life provide a means of validating his teaching?  If a professor has a life we admire, does that automatically mean that he or she is teaching truth?  How do the two interact in helping us discern?