John Brown University students participated in Spiritual Emphasis Week, taking place from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7, by hearing from Chapel guest speaker, the Rev. Curtiss Smith. Throughout the week, Smith delivered messages on spiritual growth and maturity. Every semester, Spiritual Emphasis Week offers an additional chapel service on Wednesday that works along an adjusted class schedule so that all of JBU can attend the service.
On Sept. 5, Smith opened up his time at JBU by teaching from 1 Corinthians 1:2-5, Paul’s opening lines to the church in Corinth. He based his message around the idea of Spiritual maturity and reminded students of the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit. He encouraged students to apply Paul’s words to grow more in the power of the Holy Spirit, and their own spiritual maturity.
Additionally, students also got to hear from Rev. Smith at a special Wednesday chapel where he continued his lesson on spiritual maturity from Mark 5:1-9, the story of Jesus casting out the evil spirit named Legion. Smith used this passage to stress to students the importance of putting one’s faith in the Holy Spirit and the freedom that comes with it. Finally on Sept. 7, Smith closed out Spiritual Emphasis Week by teaching from Ephesians 6:10-13. His message focused on the armor of God and encouraged students to take on that armor in their own spiritual lives.
Smith’s lessons on spiritual growth and maturity serve as a refreshing reminder of the purpose of Spiritual Emphasis Week for the broader student body. The practice of Spiritual Emphasis Week has grown and changed over the years at JBU, yet, it still gets at the core of what our founder intended when he began his own biblical conferences at the school every year. To begin each year, John Brown would hold a Bible conference, where he invited speakers to come and prepare students for the year ahead. These conferences were designed to remind students, as Chaplain Keith Jagger puts it “[That] we are more than our bodies or our situations. We are spiritual people with a greater meaning to life than humanity often remembers.”
When asked what he hopes students take away from this week, Jagger said, “This week, I hope students walked away with exactly what God wanted for each to hear. God’s message is often different for each of us and shows the power of God to meet us each where we need.”
Photo by Maria Fernanda Chinchilla