Spiritual Life

Sean Moore certainly had his finger on the pulse of his Chapel audience Monday when he talked about the words on everyone’s lips these days: “Please, God, make the pandemic go away.” That’s not the proper prayer, Moore said. We should not just say we have faith — we must live it. “God shouldn’t have to read off His resume, shouldn’t have to go through all the things that He has done for people over the years for us to trust Him,” Moore said.

Jodi Hickerson of Mission Church in Ventura, Calif., has a way of making what happened 2,000 years incredibly relevant to today. Monday at Chapel, she broke down in detail how Jesus forgave Peter denying Him three times and, instead, made him the leader of His church. “Shame has a powerful enemy, and that is the grace of God,” she said.

The GCU community was shaken last week by the death of senior Jarod Lovekamp. After hearing from numerous students about the positive impact Jarod had on their lives, Dr. Joshua Greever of the College of Theology wrote an open letter in the interest of encouraging and consoling them.

No matter what’s happening in the world, not even after the events of the last seven months, we should trust in God and not worry about a thing. That was Brian Kruckenberg’s Chapel message Monday as he challenged the audience to truly live by that principle. “We have to put our hope and our faith and our trust in Jesus,” he said.

Chapel returned to its usual campus setting Monday, but GCU President Brian Mueller wanted to make it clear that a year like no other deserves a special response: He expects this academic year to be the best of his 13 at the University. “God is really clear throughout Scripture that He wants us to take action,” Mueller said.

We’ve heard a lot about fear over the years. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was famous for saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But in his online Chapel talk, Terry Mackey of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church reminded us that we have nothing to fear as long as we trust in God and know His Word.

Following God’s plan for you usually isn’t easy, but it’s for your good and His glory, Noe Garcia declared in the Chapel video released Monday. The Pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church pointed to his own experience and said, “As I look back, I recognize that God was breaking me of me.”

The making of the annual Canyon Worship album, with 10 songs entirely by GCU students, is always an interesting story. But this year it got a little too interesting — when the pandemic hit last spring, two tracks had yet to be recorded. But they scrambled and pulled it together, and once again it’s a masterpiece that, most importantly, honors God through music.

While quarantining in New York during the height of the pandemic, Associated Students of GCU President Dylan Mahoney said it was easy to look out at the world, see nothing but death and destruction, and grow pessimistic about the school year. But he now knows that God is using this time to isolate His children, teach them and strengthen them for the road ahead.

Just as most ground classes are online for the first three weeks of the semester, so is Chapel. But Dr. Tim Griffin, Vice President of Student Affairs, Dean of Students and University Pastor, was looking ahead to the students’ return later this month as he kicked off the new semester of Chapel services with a talk about how Jesus’ example can be applied to campus unity.