If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! — Matthew 7:11 ESV
We asked. On every day of every week of the school year just passed, we asked the Lord to show his favor on the work of Bethlehem College and Seminary. We prayed individually. We prayed as a leadership team. We prayed with the staff and faculty. We prayed with the students. We prayed with generous contributors. We trusted unwaveringly our Heavenly Father to remain faithful in his promises, even when in the last weeks of the school year we still remained substantially shy of what we regarded as our need — the full funding of The Serious Joy Scholarships for the year.
Our need was supplied.
May he be praised! By his grace, our college and seminary students were once again able to each receive $10,000 in scholarship support that kept their tuition remarkably low—about $8,000 a year. Those who graduated in May launched into life, ministry, vocation, and citizenship without an onerous burden of federal student loan debt.
What manner of provision is this?
As I pondered this amazing new manifestation of God’s glory, I asked myself, “What would Pastor John Piper have to say of such astonishingly dependable provision?” The question landed me at this episode of Look at The Book in which our Chancellor’s glorious scribbling over Philippians 4:18–20, exposes how God himself answers this question through his servant Paul.
During the 2023-24 school year
We immersed more college students in the Great Books in light of the Greatest Book for the sake of the Great Commission.
We deployed a world-class seminary faculty and engaged a crack company of faithful pastors to equip men to treasure our Sovereign God and Sacred Book for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
We rallied devoted adults to delight in discipleship amid the demands of daily life who committed their evening to earnest theological study.
Most of all, we marshaled these students, their professors, the staff that supports them, members of two governing churches, 14 other apprentice-supervising churches, 658 alumni, 659 Pastors Conference-attending pastors, and a community of 544 generous contributors to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. And we encouraged them all to appreciate and share that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
The Giver has been faithful. So, we here issue a receipt of praise and thanksgiving for these good things—all expected, but none presumed. These good things are ours by virtue of God’s steadfast faithfulness and by what he has stirred in the hearts of so many for his glory and our joy.
Here we go, again.
When I was but a wee lad a school year seemed an eternity. Now, one flies by as if it were but a few days. As we wrapped up the 2023-24 school year, I was just as awestruck by the tsunami of generosity that surged in support of The Serious Joy Scholarship.
Our needs were faithfully supplied by our gracious God via the affections he stirred in your heart and others.
My eternal friends, he has grafted us all to a truly good work here at Bethlehem College and Seminary. I have the privilege of seeing it, first-hand, every day. Let us then heed the exhortation of the Apostle Paul:
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will
reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9 ESV
A new school year has now begun! We thank God for your ongoing help in completing this act of grace.
Rick Segal is Vice-President of Advancement and a Lecturer in History and Political Philosophy