“For he loves thee too little who loves along with thee anything else that he does not love for thy sake, O Love, who dost burn forever and art never quenched.”
–St. Augustine (St. Augustine’s Confessions, Book X)
So, the Lord has brought me to a secular school. This is the second semester at Greenville Technical College. The environment is completely different than any other school setting that I have been in. However, the Lord has still been working in my life and using this school to teach me about Him in probably a more significant way than at a Christian college. It has truly been amazing. The Lord has given me opportunities to witness and even be a light for Him in a class setting.
Recently, the Lord gave me an incredible to proclaim Himself to those who do not favor Him all that much. I am taking philosophy this semester. One advantage that Christians have in philosophy is that we have wicked men in Christianity’s history that God has gripped and turned around for His use. These men like St. Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas 
were men of high thought and men whom the world admires for their views of God. We were discussing and contrasting St Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle when we got on the topic of how the earth got here. Aristotle taught that that there were only two explanations for our earth. Since everything in life has a reason and purpose for its happening, either 1) everything has an infinite regression (meaning that there is no beginning to time) or that 2) some larger, greater Being brought us to existence. Aristotle annulled the first explanation because of how ludicrous the idea was. There were too many things that did not match up for that to be true. Depending on the first reason to be false, he assumed that there must be a great Being that has begun time and would then be called the Prime Mover and triggered everything into existence which would then be called the First Cause (due to the understanding of Cause and Effect).
After mentioning this, I spoke up and asked that if this were true and that there was such a Being…One who is vast in wisdom and strength to have created such an incredible universe and time, would not our next logical step be to through our complete trust and hope into the power of that Being. Dumb-founded, he was silent and then tried to explain that we are so finite in being that we must only be able to come up with what we can and figure out what we can from our point of view and then continued teaching about Aristotle. I raised my hand again and asked that if there were such a God with such wisdom to know time forward and backward (literally) and to create matter and throw it into motion to create our universe as we have it, who in the world are we to merely trust in our own logic alone. It was quiet for a good bit of time and then he finally spoke up. He soon changed the subject and went back to other things that Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas disagreed on. It was really neat to see how the Lord works through us to proclaim His Word. Looking back, I can only say that the Lord gave me the words to say.
I hope that you all were encouraged by this and not bored too much. I leave with you a verse that came to mind after class and every day that I go to class. It is found in Mark 13:9-13. It reads:
But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
You may not necessarily be beaten, but rest in Him for your words and love Him. Keep on.
In Him,
Josh