We all Bear Witness

We are a couple weeks out from torrey and the memory of Wednesday night may be waning for some of us. If you don’t remember at all or weren’t there the entire student body of Biola had just finished singing “Heaven fall down” and during a mid-worship prayer the sky literally tore open with a spectacular show of lightning. I have a buddy on event services and he said that it was almost directly overhead for him. Now it’s debatable whether or not there was a 1x1 correlation of our praise did in fact open up the sky. I personally believe it did for a few reasons. I also want to share some implications of what God may be doing with the Biola student body. The first piece of evidence is timing and safety. We had just finished singing Heaven fall down, and while many have commented on the obvious connection to the chorus I also want to take note of the opening verse. It goes “Open our eyes, Lord, let us see

All that You are, all that You mean

Open our ears, Lord, let us hear

All that You are, be loud and clear

Please be near” And indeed God spoke and his presence met us right where we were. The bolt traveled across the entire field without hurting anyone or leaving any major damage in it’s wake. This is a miracle in and of itself. The lightning struck right when the name of Jesus was uttered. The odds of the band choosing that song, at that time, and that specific prayer being uttered are astronomical. (which is short for saying a very high number that I don’t want to take the time to figure out.) But how perfectly it worked out was nothing short of the work of God.

The second piece of evidence is circumstantial. Few students know this but our brothers and sisters at UCLA have been praying for us for some time. Back in march during a prayer night with Revive (Biolas intercession team) a vision was received that God would “purify the lawn.” Flushing that out it is that the hearts at Biola would be purified on the lawn. Now this was long before any of the torrey staff found out we would be having the conference on the lawn. Also when we look at a meteorology map of the storm it was centered right around Biola. So if it was God (which I believe it was) what could he be saying? Now I have no ability of making any absolute declaration, but I do have a guess taking into account what I know of Biola, what I know of God, the topic of James Smith’s message that night, and an interpretation of the march vision.

Starting with an interpretation is that God desires to once again reclaim and purify the hearts and minds of students at Biola. The missional purpose of the founders like RA Torrey was to convince our minds so well of the truths of God that it would compel us to shape the world we are in. Now we are all an educated bunch, and talking to many of you, most of us have a huge heart for people. However we tend to not respond in Christ’s call to action, I being among the worst of the complacent. We are like whitewashed tombs, and we look nice, saying the right things; but do we allow ourselves to be transformed by God through action? This is why there is such a large outrage from a portion of our community saying thing like “Biola isn’t a loving place” “I feel condemned at Biola” “There are so many hypocrites on my floor.” That night James Smith dropped a truth bomb that blew up on Facebook “We can’t think our way to doing.” That is the heart of it. If we are not being compelled by our classes and experience to engage in radical (for our culture) discipleship and community then you are doing Biola wrong. Hell you are doing Christianity wrong and you did not understand Wednesday night. God calls us to produce fruit and I believe Wednesday night he was calling to us, prodding us to produce fruit that would be worthy of his bride. I appeal to you brothers and sisters, let us hear from James “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror.” Those who have ears let them hear. If God is speaking, and I believe he is indeed “opening our ears” for the reasons I said above, we would be foolish to not listen. Let’s lovingly begin to serve one another, and let us begin to assist each other in producing fruit, for this is his call to us, and we all bear witness to it.

Who Am I?

Hi reader! I figure that if you are going to spend time reading my thoughts you mind as well know who I am. The question “who am I?” can be a difficult one. It stunts many, paralyzing them from continuing to grow into flourishing human beings. College for almost everyone is designed to be a time to “find yourself” but the trend for many is that instead of discovering who they are, they discover what brings them joy. Drinking, Sex, Partying, etc are all typologies of community in a distorted fashion, but they do not yield an answer to who someone is at their core. What defines a man is what he does, but that does not tell us who that man is.

I can only speak as to who I am. I cannot answer that question for anyone else, but only say people are more then action. I have searched for the answer to that question for several years. As a Christian I let God not only tell me who I am, but also to direct my lives mission. Who am I? My name is Evan Krippner.

Evan is a welsh version of the name John. John is a Hebrew name which means God is Gracious. God has been incredibly gracious in my life and I am a testament to his goodness. I grew up in a Christian home but never recognized a relationship with Jesus as my own. I became a Christian in High School, but since then I have continuously drifted into sin of various types. Yet God in his mercy has still pursued me, and has shown his unconditional love towards me. Evan in the Greek is shorthand for the word Evangelos, which translated means good messenger. This is the purpose that God has tasked me with. I will continue to preach and shout of his goodness.

My last name is Krippner and this is the name I choose to go by. Krippner is a German name that simply means “a man from Kripp.” God has labeled my identity with my first name. He has put his mark on me. But I am only a messenger, and once more a mere man. I choose to go by Krippner because what should be important about me is not any grandiose mission, but I hope people see nothing in me but Christ. I am a man with a mission from the town of Kripp. That’s who I am. That’s what this blog is about. And that’s why my name is Krippner.