Dear RU Nation

MANUFACTURE RECALL:  Here at Adversity University, we have come to EXPECT bad things to happen for the good reason of glorifying God in all we do and say.  It has become our expectation that whatever could go wrong…should go wrong! And for that we glorify Him.  So it came as no surprise when our new awards vendor called and RECALLED our recently received name badges that had been on backorder for so long.   The claim was “faulty glue” on the first 1,000 of 5,000 received.  We have no way of knowing which ones went out that were faulty; but if you have name badges with pins falling off relatively easily, please do two things.  First – call us for replacement badges.  We are expecting a new shipment (to come within next few days) which will meet our product quality expectations.  Secondly -  glorify God with us in being chosen by Him to endure difficulty through a another “pop quiz” at Adversity University.

2010 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE:  Adversity University XI.  Mark your calendars for September 27-30, 2010, for another exciting RU international conference! You won’t want to miss this year’s crucial teaching.  As we develop our ministries through seasons of change and times of disappointment, we want to clearly pronounce that the only successful form of ministry is and always will be an expression of the fruit of the Spirit – love.  Join us this year for “The Way IS Agape”. Experiencing, enjoying, and understanding God’s agape love is the “first love” that we ought to never leave as our ministries become taxed with difficulty.  Directors, this is the year to bring you students and leaders , more so than any other; for your love for them can only be matched by the love they could bestow upon others on His behalf.  Nearly 100 educational sessions on effective outreach (evangelism), in-reach (discipleship), up-reach (worship) and down-reach (Spiritual empowerment) will be offered.

REFORMERS UNANIMOUS SCHOOLS OF DISCIPLESHIP—MAJOR OPPORTUNITY!  We thank the Lord for the churches who have helped us influence more people with the curriculum of RU by opening their very own discipleship homes patterned after our program in Rockford, Illinois.  If your church is interested in a ministry such as this for your community, we are here to help.  Whether you need help with your business model, ideas for finding affordable housing, staff training or advice, we stand by to stand with you.

Not every chapter can be blessed with what God has given North Love Baptist Church and its RU headquarters.  Our beautiful facilities and trained staff and teaching grant your students an opportunity to experience residential discipleship with a quality that is hard to duplicate anywhere—to God be the glory!  As well, we are fortunate to be able to do so at a price much lower than secular or social treatment.  Though we cannot afford to be a completely free program like others who operate out of apartments or houses using limited staff, we also understand we also cannot possibly offer help to every single person RU reaches with the current size of the headquarters’ facilities.  This has allowed us to be blessed to send students to churches who stand in the gap with their smaller, but still effective discipleship houses.  Personally, I think there could be an RU patterned home in every state in America and every one of them could be kept full!  That’s how great the need is for our low cost option or other’s no cost option.

With that said, we still want the Rockford RU to remain the first option for your student’s intense discipleship.  We feel strongly in our residency discipleship program’s success rate.  We are pleased to report our program success has grown even more effective over the course of the last 18 months.  Our recent survey of grads or parents of grads reports increase of those experiencing victory in Christ over their addiction from 82% to 87%.  Equally high numbers (plus or minus a few percentage points) report being faithful to church and in a right relationship with their family.  God has been so good to these grads who have continued in the things that they have learned.

*****With the opening of the new ladies’ home, allowing us to move our graduate program into the Mulberry facility, Rockford can now open more beds for both men and women and reduce our overall operating costs.  This is a much needed relief for us and also gives us the ability to offer something we have wished for so long.  For those chapters or churches who love or prefer the Rockford Schools of Discipleship and would like to send someone here for FREE, I have a new funding system that will allow each chapter that qualifies to have a FREE scholarship to the men’s and women’s home (that’s two scholarships) available to them at all times.  That’s right FREE!  If you are interested in this, please email me at weneedu@reformu.com or call me personally to discuss.  I will only be offering twenty church scholarships.  We already have two churches who have qualified and have students attending for free right now!  Call my secretary, Beth, at extension 100 and tell her you’re interested in the Church Scholarship Program for more details*******

WOMAN’S PROGRAM LAUNCH:  After 18 months of reconstruction, our men’s schools of discipleship have nearly completed our R.U.T.H. Home.  As with any church-based building project, we have faced many difficult circumstances and much resistance.  Through it all, our testimonies remained strong and God’s glory and many miracles were enjoyed.  We thank God for these hard working men who worked this project at less than one third of every bid we had.  Though our men had to work through capital raising slowdowns and city and architect squabbling, their abilities and resolve have saved tens of thousands of dollars. This good stewardship has been blessed by God in many ways.  Effective April 1^st, we will begin taking applicants for this new home and have decided to increase our occupancy from 25 girls to 40 as God provides.  With a recent graduation bringing us down to 20 girls, we are going to use a limited time special to help us fill this beautiful building with precious and needy ladies.  Please be advised that we are offering a 50% scholarship to the first 20 applicants who screen successfully for our program.  If there is anyone in your RU ministry, church or family who has needs or has contemplated entering our program, now is the time to make every effort to get them here.  We hope this offer will be met with the enthusiasm necessary to stimulate your students to give residency discipleship a legitimate part of their lives for long lasting benefit.

Have a wonderful day IN the Lord!
Steven Curington
Watch our Friday Night Class Live at 7 p.m. tonight!  Click Here

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Christianity without Christ is Boring!

II Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

The other day my wife and I were discussing the alarming rate at which we have noticed people dropping out of ministry and even out of local churches altogether. There are many excuses that people give for the dropout rate; however, I believe that much of it boils down to the fact that people are sick of “going through the motions” of a dead religion. How frustrating it is to try and start a car when the tank is on empty or trying to use a flashlight with the wrong type of battery. We need more people around to show them that Jesus Christ is alive! They need to realize the power of God living within them!

I would rather be a Christian than anything I know. Being able to live the very life of Jesus Christ on earth, right here and right now, and tap into the limitless resources of his Deity to accomplish only those purposes designed by almighty God is the most exciting life anyone can live.

It is exciting to work in a ministry that exposes the hidden life to so many different kinds of people, especially those that participate in one of our conferences, or listen to a tape or a book that explains this hidden life in Christ. At first, the hearer is often bewildered by what they hear, and many times it seems to go right over their head. Then slowly, they come to a moment of truth where it becomes so obviously clear. You can watch their faces as if the proverbial light bulb came on. They begin to see the truths of the crucified Christian life and realize how profound they are; yet simple, thus making them simply profound.

Paul expressed a grave concern to the church at Corinthians regarding this process of understanding the crucified Christian life. He even called it a fear that he had. The context of 2 Corinthians 11, Paul had just compared the church to a virgin, soon to be presented as a bride to her Redeemer, yet he was reminded of how the first woman, Eve, was deceived by a tempter, and led astray from walking with God to knowing about God.

II Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear (alarmed that it would happen again), lest by any means (no limit to gain a result), as the serpent beguiled Eve (to adapt temptation to a person’s character or circumstances) through his subtilty (trickery), so your mind should be corrupted (your thoughts should be perverted) from the simplicity that is in Christ (a single hearted devotedness to Him).

Paul was anxiously concerned that nothing in their lives should detract from the simplicity that was in Christ. That simplicity is found in Galatians 2:20, particularly in the phrase, “yet not I” I am also inclined that many Christians today believe they can have a relationship with the Lord by what they do for Him in the local church. Their mind has been “perverted”, that is to have an intended meaning altered, misrepresented, and corrupted. When the mind is corrupt, it is manifested by the affections being alienated from the proper object and the soul is filled with its own purposes and desires. The end result is our heart is alienated from not only the Source but the power gained from that Source. We’ll never have a relationship with Him because of what we do; we’ll only have a relationship with Him because of what He did. I also witness those who minister to people with the idea that they’re a good Christian if they do “these things” and the Christian life/discipleship is based on an outward appearance instead of an inward relationship. The utmost need in every ministry and in every outreach and in every denomination is to rediscover the Lord Jesus Christ and the Person of His indwelling Presence within the believer.

Today we can encounter the living, risen Lord who shares His life with us on our way to Heaven … so that He may accomplish through us what He began to do in His own physical body 2,000 years ago. What a fantastic privilege! Today allow that phrase ring in your heart, “yet not I” and experience the abundant life instead of a redundant life.

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One of the great dilemmas that we have in Christianity today is that too many people are content with knowing the words of God (memorization) without understanding them. They can tell you all the Bible stories and quote all the Scriptures to you, but they have absolutely no concept of what God is talking about. Knowledge you can get on your own, but understanding you can only get from God. Simply knowing what Bible says is not enough to successfully navigate through life. The devil knows the Bible. He can quote it. He quoted Scripture to the Lord Jesus in the temptation, but does he understand it? No. And neither will we apart from God. If we could understand God, His ways, and His word apart from Him, we would have reason to be proud. God makes it clear to us that no understanding that we have in spiritual matters is innate within ourselves. We are hopelessly and helplessly ignorant, so that He gets all the honor and glory and praise.

Proverbs 1:5 says, “A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.” The phrase, “wise counsel” is actually a nautical term that carries the idea of “managing the ropes.” If you have previously heard the expression “learning the ropes,” this is where it comes from. When a sailor would go to sea, one of the first things they would teach him was how to tie different knots, how to raise and lower the sails, how to secure the boat to a dock. If you knew the ropes, you could do almost anything on the ship. You could take advantage of the wind to speed your progress through the water. You could navigate away from storms and dangerous reefs. A person with good understanding from God knows the ropes.

When I was about ten years old, someone gave me a scale model of a three-masted schooner to build. It was wood. I began constructing it per the instructions that came with it. I built the body of the ship and put the masts down in it, and then tried to set the sails up. The model came with a whole bunch of string for the ropes. It did not just have one little rope that went to each sail. Each sail had many ropes, and there were multiple sails. I had strings going here and strings going there. I ended up giving up. I had a model ship all right, but it was a three-masted schooner without ropes. If you are going to make it through life without shipwrecking your life, your marriage, your parent-child relationships, your business relationship, your relationship with God, your relationship with your neighbors, your brothers and sisters in Christ, and your siblings; if you hope to live life without shipwreck, God says, “You need My understanding to learn the ropes.”

I want to learn the ropes. I want to learn to navigate through this treacherous life that we live. I want to be able to navigate the ship of my life successfully, not just for myself, but for others. I have children. I have grandchildren. I have a congregation full of people. I must set the right example for them. I take my responsibilities seriously. The same God Who gave understanding to Solomon will give it to you and me! We have a responsibility to live our lives in such a way in our sphere of influence that when people look at us they are going to see us as God’s servants. We need to recognize that the opportunities and privileges that God has given to us are not of our own making or something that we can be proud of, but we need to in humility recognize and acknowledge it is all of Him. Then, we need to be serious about this matter of our responsibility to others. We are an influence for either good or evil to everyone we know. God has placed us strategically in this world, in this culture, in this generation, so that we can make a personal, spiritual, and eternal difference in people’s lives. But, it will not take place apart from divine understanding. Learn the ropes and sail the seas successfully.

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Avis, the car rental company, has a motto, “We Try Harder”. In the natural world in which we live, “trying harder” is commendable, as well as effective. However, in the spiritual realm, “trying harder” is actually lamentable.

Trying harder will defeat the Christian every time – in due time. I vividly remember talking to a person who disagreed with me on the above point. The pastor later told me this individual seemed to disagree quite often. In fact, he would use such an opportunity to vent his anger. This obviously was a Christian using “flesh techniques” when trying to convince others of his beliefs. Next, there was a lady who seemed to be devout, active in church, followed the rules, even a leader in that church, yet she too was questioning the activity I referred to as the “flesh”. The man with the negative patterns is obvious, but we are prone to assume that the woman with the positive patterns has actions that are derived from the Spirit. Yet the Bible reminds us people can do “marvelous works” apart from vital union with Christ (Matthew 7:22).

There are three enemies identified in the Bible that we need to recognize and battle if we are to live the Hidden Life – Christ living IN us. These three enemies are the world, Satan, and the flesh. No doubt, most Christians realize the need to be armed against Satan and the sin of this world. They understand who and what they are. However, most Christians do not understand nor how to identify “flesh.” Many times, they think of “flesh” as skin or their body. This obviously is a stumbling block to really getting a grasp on one of the top three enemies to the Christ – life. Flesh is also very different from the “old man”. The old man is the unregenerate human spirit. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him. . .” Romans 6:6. (Therefore, it is out of the picture.) Yet Paul said the flesh remains as an enemy: “For I know that in me (that is, IN MY FLESH) dwelleth no good thing . . .” (Romans 7:18).

Your “flesh” can be defined as your “body, mind, will, and emotions under the influence of anything other than Christ.” The flesh can also be defined as “personal techniques for meeting your own perceived needs, apart from Christ.” This does not mean the action has to be defiant toward God. Walking after the flesh is simply relying on your own abilities instead of the resources of God. Do not think of the flesh as something that you naturally find repulsive. It may be very attractive and even look spiritual. I think a good synonym of the word flesh is “self-sufficiency”. We somehow think that we must have abilities so that God can use them to bless others and glorify Himself. This is not true! The flesh will often connect itself to our talents, appearances, education, wealth, upbringing, and countless other things. This is how we begin to depend on ourselves rather that depend on God. We learn to rely on “flesh” to get us through or ahead in life.

Therefore, my abilities often become liabilities. I have personally ran bus routes, preached persuasive sermons, provided for my family, pacified bad behavior, patriotically participated as a citizen, and many other countless things “in the flesh.” Though I have a long way to go, I am learning God’s purpose in my life is to bring me to the place where I totally rest in Him and His sufficiency. Understanding the flesh and what it looks like has brought me closer to this goal that God has for me. I now know that “we try harder” should be replaced with “He never fails.”

Learn to identify, recognize, and fight these three enemies. Nothing will rob you more in this life than self-sufficiency. It is deceptive and wrong. The Christian life is not about “me becoming a better me.” Any time I place myself in the equation as part of the solution, I am displacing Christ. This is the battle that the “flesh” often wins, and we as Christians, don’t even recognize it! Remember…it’s not me, it’s He!

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Proverbs 17:7
“Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.”

A favorite pastime of my childhood was the go-cart tracks. Recently, I was with a friend in his outside garage and saw some old mini-bikes and go-carts. I remembered as a pre-teen picking what I thought was the fastest car of the bunch. The race was on! Soon thereafter, I was in line with 12 cars anxiously awaiting the green light. What I did not know, was that each car had a governor on it. The governor adjusted the speed that it would go. I was the “chosen one” for this particular race. My governor was maxed out, causing my car to barely move. Ready, set, go…go…go! I put the pedal to the metal and soon realized I was going nowhere fast! Have you ever thought that way about a circumstance in your life? Proverbs 17 has two areas on which each of us should contemplate in this new year.

Twice in this chapter of Proverbs, you see the word “excellent.” In both instances, God is teaching us that He wants the Christian to excel to excellence.

The word excellent means distinguished for superior attainments. It comes from the root word excel. In the midst of the New Year and developing new habits, there are two areas that Solomon (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) declares that we as followers of Christ should excel to excellence:

The first area is found in the verse above when we are taught that our speech should be excellent. This does not mean that we should try to impress people with flattering or fancy words. During my freshman year of college, our chancellor preached a message on the English language and it’s beauty. I have seen degradation in the use of words and sentence structure even in my short lifetime. The chat rooms, social sites, and other tech savvy tools are only making matters worse.

Be careful about using slang while conversing with people. Slang is not a way of speech that is superior to everyone else. Even if the whole world talks slang, Christians should not be a people who talk slang. If the whole world takes that which God declares as holy and abuses it, we should not be a people who make jest of that which is holy. Going further into this thought, let’s also be careful about talking dirty or inappropriately. Christians should not be the ones who tell the dirty or off-color jokes. We should not listen to them either. Our way of talking should cause others to take notice of how we are appropriate in all our conversations. Recently I was following a famous football quarterback on twitter until, after a few tweets, I realized I was following someone who would influence my mind not away from foolishness but towards it. I quickly found the “unfollow” button.

The second area we see the word “excellent” in this chapter is in verse 27. This time God teaches us that we should have an excellent spirit. In other words, our spirit should excel in a direction. That direction should not be towards our soul (Mind, Will, Emotions), but towards the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us. As Christians, we should not be people who are always “down in the dumps”. We should not be people who always complain about external stimuli. We should be a people who are on topside all the time; even when hard times come. This is a spirit that is excellent. Our spirit should be such that others recognize our spirit for its excellence.

I ask you, have you excelled to excellence in the areas of your speech and spirit? Make it two of your check points in 2010…

Don’t settle for going nowhere fast, but strive that you may excel to the point of excellence!

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Good morning! I pray that you have spent some time with your Savior already this morning and approach this blog with an open heart and mind. I believe God has a wonderful truth to share with us and then for us to apply to our lives today.

This past Friday I was driving from Rockford to a small city in northwestern Michigan called Wellston. I was asked by their pastor to come to their church and present the ministry of RU and preach the three services on Sunday. During the seven hour drive, I had a lot of time to think and meditate. During this time I found myself in the midst of a spiritual warfare, Satan was constantly bringing to my memory an event that transpired over 25 years ago in my life when I was yet a teenager and had made a bad choice which hurt my testimony and the cause of Christ. When this occurred in my life, I immediately went to my pastor (also my father) and confessed my sin and got things right with God.

For over 25 years I really have never thought that much about it until this trip to northern Michigan where I was going to share the awesome ministry of RU and preach the wonderful Word of God. Satan was buffeting my mind with the thought, “How can you stand in front of those people and represent RU and then preach the Bible to them?” He went on to say to me, “You should just turn around go back home, call the preacher and tell him something came up and you wouldn’t be able to make it.” I realized I was in a fight with the evil one. My immediate thought was that God was going to bless our meeting and much fruit would be gained for the kingdom of God. Obviously the devil did not want this to transpire – thus the attack.

As these thoughts crossed my mind, I would immediately cast them down and meditate on the Word of God. I prayed that God would give me guidance and comfort in this time of extreme spiritual warfare, which was not only going to affect me but the whole congregation at the church in Wellston.

When I arrived at Wellston, I checked into my hotel room and contacted the pastor that I had arrived. Then I immediately went to the Word of God. I had left off my Bible reading that morning with Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Therefore I began reading chapter eleven and, in verse three, God so graciously gave me my answer. It says “…and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” The Holy Spirit told me that my past event was a tree that God and I had cut down together when I acknowledged my sin and confessed it to Him and He so faithfully forgave me. I realized this fallen tree had no life left in it thus it had no power over me anymore.

The Holy Spirit ministered unto me by telling me that, yes, this tree once was alive and powerful but by the grace of God it was cut down over 25 years ago and had no power or influence over my life. He went on to comfort me by telling me to stop looking at this dead tree, step over it by the power of God, get on with my life, present the RU ministry and preach the Word of God like I had never done before. This is exactly what I did and, my friends, God showed up in Wellston, Michigan this past weekend! Many hearts were touched and many decisions for God were made.

What about the fallen trees in your life? You may say, “There are things I can’t change!” OK, it happened…so what? Go on and serve God. So the tree fell. What are you going to do, make a memorial out of it? Are you going to talk about it the rest of your life? We cannot allow the fallen trees in our life keep us from doing what God wants us to do.

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