Let me begin by saying thank you to those of you that use The Brink Leader's Pack to lead your group of twentysomethings in Bible study.

We work hard to produce curriculum that is grammatically and biblically accurate, so you can trust what you're using to teach. However, we made a mistake in the Winter 2010-11 Brink Leader's Guide, in week 1 (titled "Miraculously Common"). 

In the Learn section, under point #4, we made the statement (referring to Elijah) that reads "He was the last of the Old Testament prophets." As you know, Elijah was not the last Old Testament prophet, although he is considered by many to be a very prominent one.

I apologize for the mistake and any confusion this error may have caused. This is simply something that we missed in the editing process.

Thank you again, for using The Brink Leader's Pack, and please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Grace and peace,
Jacob Riggs
Associate Editor

Here's the question:

Should Christians be involved in social justice? Why or why not? Is there any danger in taking it too far?

Winner of the book will be notified by email. The contest closes on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 12:00 PM CST. How will we decide which answer is the "best," you say? By "best" we mean which answer we feel is most biblical. You can respond right in the comments section.

Find out more about Yancey's book here, which was released October 19, 2010.

Good luck!

Jacob: You've been at this for 14 years. You've put out nine albums. How has the industry changed since the early days of 1996-1998?

Bebo: Oh wow. Man it has changed a whole lot. Not just on my personal landscape but on just the music landscape in general. Obviously it changes stylistically because people's tastes change as they grow. My musical tastes have changed too.

Jacob: iTunes has really changed the way people buy music.

Bebo: Right.

Jacob: How is your mentality different in writing since customers can pick and choose what songs they like or don't like instead of buying an entire album? Is the art of writing an album gone?

Bebo: That's a great question. And if it is, which part of me believes it may be on a wavered slide, even if it's not already gone, it makes me sad. I value in a dramatic way the art of writing an album. Certainly a song is what first captures you, but it's like one chapter in a book. You can have a really great chapter in a book that's moving but until you hear the whole story I feel like you're missing out on something. That's the way I feel about music and the way I feel about making records. I don't think it's gone entirely. I think that definitely on a mass level—and the truth is, maybe this hasn't changed that much except for the fact that songs are most accessible. Although you can buy songs individually on iTunes, people have always been drawn to "the song." When I was in elementary school, we listened to the Top 40 on the radio. You heard "the song" and you just had to buy the whole record in order to get "the song." You know? But when I started really falling in love with music is when I started really falling in love with entire records and realizing there could be a journey in a record and an entire story being told in a record. So, for me as a fan of music, that's what I enjoy and love the most. But I'm as guilty as anybody, if you can use that word, of sometimes just loving one song and not necessarily always needing to have the whole album and the whole record. So, long answer short, I don't think the art of writing a record is gone but I do think it is very different now than it used to be and I think there's a much smaller minority that really still looks at it that way, especially in the context of the business side of music. You know, I think labels very much look at records as not a collection of songs anymore but a collection of two or three singles that have a group of songs built around them. That's not the way I see it but I may well be in the minority. I don't know that I'm in the minority of real music fans but I think I am in the minority in terms of the mass that listens to music. 

Jacob: Along those same lines, the way that we communicate now is so different than it was back five, 10 years ago, and so it's kind of encouraging for, like, a small band who does a unique sound but it doesn't sound like Leeland so there's no label out there that's going to be signing them any time soon. But you know, they've got the software on their Mac and they can record themselves and then they can put it on their Facebook page and everybody can listen to it. How do you think that changes the music industry?

Bebo: The music industry has changed so dramatically in the years that - I mean, when I first started playing music there were, I didn't even have a cell phone. I didn't even have a pager. You know? Like when we - this is going to sound crazy - but when I was touring back then, you know, if I went out with a runner to go run an errand or somebody dropped me off at a mall to, you know, just go buy basic needs that, you know, because I'd been out on the road for a few months at a time, I had to go to a pay phone to call my road manager at a land line in an office in a theatre that we might be playing in and hope that they happened to be there. You know, that's kind of how dramatically things change. And then I was way on the cutting edge when I got a pager and I could actually page somebody.

You were really on the cutting edge when you could actually do the text page where you called somebody and told them what you wanted and they typed it in and they sent it to somebody's pager. You know what I mean? Like - it was a crazy - like an operator, that's who did it. All that to say that in and of itself it's changed - technology has come a long way in really just about a decade and a half. I mean, it's pretty amazing how quickly it's changed. The way that I see that it's changed, I think you're right. I think that it has changed for the better in a lot of ways, to me, especially for bands who may be smaller and don't have quite the audience or the stage necessarily that some of the larger bands have, but I think one of the main ways that's changed, I mean, it seems for me, is that when I first started playing music, I mean, I was one of the few Christian acts that really toured nonstop. You know, not because I thought, "Wow, this is a good marketing strategy," but because that's all I knew. You know, I thought, "Well, I've got an independent record," it was 1996, "How are people going to hear this if I don't get out and play songs for people?"

Jacob: Right.

Bebo: You know what I mean? And so I spent 250 days a year on a road for the first seven or eight years of playing music.

Jacob: Oh wow.

Bebo: As a single guy in my twenties, that was a blast and it was fun. The thing is, now it kind of seems to me that markets, every market that you go to, is inundated with people that are touring, and everybody is out - I mean, back in the day me and people like Jars of Clay and Caedmon's Call and random independent bands from back then were the only people that really - we were all playing - just come out of college, so we were all touring and playing music and that's kind of what we did, and it was kind of nonstop.  There were definitely Christian concert tours back then but they were kind of small - not small, but they were very segmented. Just, you know, they would do 20, 30 cities in the spring and 20, 30 cities in the fall and that was kind of it for them and, anyway, long and short is that I feel like everybody tours now, everybody plays music. I feel like people are, consumers are - and I use that word loosely, consumers. I mean, fans are almost over-saturated with music at this point, you know, because it's accessible on every level, so sometimes that can be a little bit difficult, and truth be told, I don't want to spend quite as much time on the road as I used to as a 36-year-old who has a wife and two kids at home. You know, I certainly love being home as much as I can be. So, for me personally, I love the idea that it has offered me a new avenue to connect with an audience without having to be before them in person, you know, and that's what things like iTunes and Facebook and, you know, the avenues online and what technology has sort of afforded us. So, all that - a very, very long answer.  Obviously you can weed out most of it, but the bottom line is that I think the opportunities are amazing in terms of being able to connect with people because of technology but it also means that people are, I mean, listeners are really over-saturated with music, to me at this point, and so things can all start to sound the same so I think it requires you being, having a very unique platform to really connect with people at this point on a musical level. So I think it's important to be true to what you do and really kind of be unique, if that makes any sense, more than ever. 

Be sure to check out Bebo's music on his website http://bebonorman.com or on iTunes (of course).

Jacob Riggs is editor of The Brink magazine. http://twitter.com/jacobriggs

This is the second part of things to keep in mind when looking for God's will. (I'm thinking there will probably be four parts to this.) The first part was that God's will does not contradict the Bible. (For part one, copy and paste this URL: http://thebrinkonline.com/articles/read/how-to-know-gods-will-part-1.)

The second important thing to remember is to listen to the Spirit of God.

After the following introductory thoughts, I tried to make the rest of this piece flow like a conversation where I anticipate a question that might come to your mind. Feel free to ask more questions in the comments section and I'll do my best to find an answer for you.

I didn't hear much about the Holy Spirit growing up. I think some Christians have been scared to talk about Him in fear of being labeled something they didn't want to be. So as a result, He gets neglected. Or at least our understanding of His role in our life does.

But if we want to understand the Bible and the nature of God, we have to understand the significance the Holy Spirit plays in the story of God. And if you want to know God's will (essentially, hear Him), then it would greatly benefit you to know and at least partly understand one of the main methods in which God speaks.

Does the Spirit know what God's will is?

Emphatically, yes!

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. He went on to say that no one understands the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Other than Scripture and nature, the only way we can know what God is thinking is to listen to the Spirit of God. If you want to know God's will, listen to the Spirit, because the Spirit knows what God's will is for you.

How does the Spirit speak?

I have a caveat and then an example. The caveat is that in the same way God's will does not contradict the Bible, the Holy Spirit does not either. In fact, I have had experiences when the Holy Spirit spoke to me through a passage of Scripture. Someone was reading a passage, and the Spirit of God "said" to me, "This is what I want you to get right now." So yes it was the Spirit speaking to me, but He used the Scripture to tell me exactly what He wanted me to know. It was an unexplainable, incredible experience.

This caveat reminds me—if and when the Spirit of God speaks to you about the will of God, test it. If you want to know whether or not it was God's Spirit and not indigestion or a different spirit (evil spirits are real, and they can speak), test what the spirit said with what the Bible says. If it contradicts the Bible, you did not hear from God's Spirit, but something else (1 John 4:1).

The example I'm about to give is not necessarily the only way God's Spirit can speak (see Isaiah 30:27 for a time when God spoke loudly). It's just the way God has chosen to speak to me.

In 1 Kings, God spoke to the prophet Elijah. God had told Elijah to stand on a mountain so he could observe what was about to happen. He witnessed a wind that broke rocks into pieces, an earthquake, and a fire. The text says the Lord was not in any of those things. But then after the fire Elijah heard a "still small voice." That voice was the way in which God spoke to Elijah.

I think the Spirit still speaks in this way today—quietly.

How should someone go about hearing the Spirit speak quietly?

There's two parts to this answer. The first is you have to be quiet to hear something quiet.

I heard a speaker one time that had a real gift at using different volume levels in his presentation. He would get louder or softer depending on the moment or what he was saying. As I listened, I noticed something interesting about how the crowd reacted to his volume changes. The louder he got, the more rustling you could hear in the audience. But the softer he got, the softer everyone else got. You could hear a pin drop during his pauses. That's because if you wanted to hear what he had to say, you had to be completely silent in order to hear him at that moment.

I think listening to the Spirit works in the same way. Sometimes our lives are very, very loud and it takes the Spirit doing something very loud just to get our attention. Other times, we are very reflective and meditative and quiet, and the Spirit simply whispers to us.

If there is so much going on in your life that you never think about what the Spirit of God is saying to you, your life is too loud. Too noisy. Too busy. You need to unplug. Don't use your iPod for a week. Stay offline. Don't check email. Don't text. Sit in silence for 5 minutes without saying a word. Add 1 minute to that time each day.

The first part of the answer is you have to learn how to be quiet in order to hear something quiet.

The second part of the answer is you have to be close to someone to hear them whisper.

The Scripture says draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4:8a). God has gone to great lengths for us to be able to know Him and hear Him. He reveals Himself through (1) creation, (2) Jesus, (3) the Bible, and (4) His Spirit. These things are all available to you. Now it's up to you to respond to what God has done. If you want to know God's will, you need to listen to the Spirit. And if you want to listen to the Spirit, you need to draw near to Him.

How does someone "draw near to God?"

The same text I referenced above goes on to say that we should cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. We are sinners and "double-minded" people (James 4:8b). This is how we draw near to God: we confess our sins and repent of them.

If sin is a blockade that keeps us from God, it is incredibly foolish to think God would show us His will when there is sin in our lives! It's not that God doesn't want to tell you, it's that you have chosen to cover your ears!

The Spirit of God cannot speak to someone who has put a barrier between that person and Himself. And if you want to hear the Spirit tell you God's will, you have to be incredibly close to Him.

The good news is that if you have accepted Christ, then you have the Spirit of God in you. And the Spirit is always looking to tell you things about Christ (1 Corinthians 2:12). In fact, sometimes He speaks in ways you wouldn't have thought—we would think a God so powerful as our God would choose to speak in an earthquake instead of a still small voice.

 Is there anything else?

The last thing I have to say in how we interact with the Spirit of God to find out His will is to ask Him. Ask Him.

Ask God to tell you.

Matthew 7:7 says if you ask it will be given to you. And if you seek, you will find it. If you knock, it will be opened to you.

Another point of advice is to literally verbalize what you are asking God. Don't just "ask it in your heart." There is something about saying things aloud when talking to God.

If you have a specific decision in mind, simply say aloud, "God, what do You want me to do about ______?" If you want to know whether or not God wants you to date a guy named Charlie, say, "God, do You want me to date Charlie?" Take whatever situation you are in and adapt it to the question.

If you want to know what God's will is for your life, you've got to get plugged into one of the main sources through which He speaks—His Spirit.

Jacob Riggs is Editor of The Brink. Contact him at twitter.com/jacobriggs.

It's good to want to know God's will. It means you're concerned about what He wants with your life. That's a really great thing.

It's sometimes tough to know what God's will is. However, I don't think it has to be. I'm not saying it's simple black and white. I'm just saying it's not as mysterious as we might think.

I haven't had a ton of experiences with looking for God's will (I'm only 24). But the few that I've had have been memorable and impactful. I hope you find this beneficial.

So here's the first part of this and what I think is a very important component a lot of people overlook in finding God's will.

God's will does not contradict the Bible.

Nope. Not one bit.

We can know this because of what the Bible claims to be. Second Timothy says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So, if all of the Bible is inspired by God, how could we think God would do or be something different than what He Himself wrote?

The only way I can figure this would make sense would be if God changed somehow. You and I have opinions and we argue them. But sometimes we change our opinions based upon an experience we have or some new information we receive. Well, God already knows all. First John 3:20 says God knows everything. Since His knowledge is without end, His "opinion" will never change based upon a new influx of information or a new experience.

And since God is the same "yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), He is the same today as He was when He inspired the Bible a few thousand years ago. The Bible will not contradict God. God's will will not go against what the Bible says.

Let me unpack this a bit with a few examples and try to make it applicable.

If you are married to a woman who is faithful to you but is starting to get on your nerves, it will never be God's will for you to divorce her. Never. Happy, unhappy, getting your needs met or not, it will never be God's will for people who are faithful to each other to divorce one another. We can know this because of the way the Bible speaks of marriage and divorce, and God does not contradict His Word (Matthew 5:32).

Here's another example.

If your taxes are increased by the government, it is not God's will for you to get around that, even if you are using the money for a good cause. I don't care if you're taking the money and using it to help save starving children in Africa. It is not God's will for you to cheat the government of your money, even if they are taking "too much." Why is this true? Because of how Paul said for us to deal with the government in Romans 13, and what Jesus said about our relationship with the State (Matthew 22:21). And since God's will does not contradict His Word, we know it is not God's will for us to do these things. 

One last example.

Let's suppose I got a job offer. My wife would not like to work some day and this job pays enough where she woudn't have to. But the job is directly linked with obtaining money in an illegal fashion. And I'm aware of it before I take the job. This is an easy decision for me. Because, well, the job would force me to be dishonest, and that would go against what the Bible teaches about honest gain and hard work (Proverbs 13:11). Lynsey and I would not have to deliberate on this decision because God is not honored by dishonest gain based on what the Bible says, and God's will does not contradict the Bible. 

Let me wrap this up.

If you're faced with a decision, the first thing you've got to do is ask yourself, "Does the Bible address this issue in any way?" Then, use honest discernment with the help of the Holy Spirit and ask, "Does this decision contradict what the Bible says?"

If the decision goes against the Bible, it is not God's will for you to proceed.

David and I will be discussing this on this week's podcast.

We look forward to reading what you think!

Brink: Tell us a little about your upbringing.

Tim: People are sometimes surprised to know that I was home-schooled. Actually, all of the kids in my family were [home-schooled]. I think it made us closer and learn to appreciate each other more. We're all very close friends and I think this was a large part of that. 

Brink: Could you tell us a little about the time you received Christ?

Tim: When I was six years old, I recognized that I was a sinner and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior because He died for my sins. 

Brink: I've read that your parents are missionaries. Where are they ministering and how long have they been serving?

Tim: My parents moved to the Philippines in 1985 when my dad started a being a missionary there. I was born in 1987 there. My family lived there until 1990. Through his ministry he's trained national evangelists who are over there. About 40-something of them run medical clinics and churches over there. We also have an orphanage with 50 orphans.

Brink: Where is the most difficult stadium to play?

Tim:  The Swamp for a visiting player

Brink: What is on your iPod?

Tim: Kenny Chesney, Tom Petty, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond

Brink: If you were on a desert island and could take only 3 movies, what would they be?

Tim: Braveheart, The Shawshank Redemption, Remember the Titans

Brink: Superman or Batman?

Tim: Superman

Brink: So I hear Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas.

Tim: Ha ha, I've heard that one—some of them can be pretty funny.

Brink: What are you reading right now?

Tim: Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength.

Brink: How do you stay grounded?

Tim: I am fortunate to have family members, coaches and teammates around who can help me stay focused on the right things for us to be successful. For me, every day includes four things: God, family, academics and football, in that order.

Brink: You have such a great testimony. To what do you attribute you keeping your faith in Christ while being in the public eye?

Tim: Because of my faith, I receive a lot of requests to speak to different organizations (Tim has received 200+ since arriving at UF from different religious groups, youth groups and school across the Southeast). I like to do as many as I can. This past summer I had the opportunity to speak at the state prison in Union County. I got to get up and preach. The people there don't have a lot to look forward to or a positive outlook on things. I told them everyone looks at you like you are nothing and I told them that they are no different than I am except they made a bad choice and that doesn't make them any worse of a person and God doesn't love them any less. I let them know because of their actions there are consequences, but God wants them to go to heaven. There were people in there for all sorts of things like murder, homicide and drug lords. I saw these guys break down and cry. I gave them an invitation to accept Jesus Christ and change the way they were living. In the two prisons I spoke at, 195 guys came forward. I held their hands and prayed with them. The security guys told them they weren't allowed to get close to me, but I wasn't worried about it. I felt like I was doing what God wanted me to do so it was safe.

Brink: The majority of young adults leave the church after they get out of high school and attend a secular university. What do you think could be done to remedy this?

Tim: Religion can be something that is a matter of personal choice so I don't think it's a question of remedying this situation.

Brink: What do you think is the biggest obstacle Christians face in trying to share their faith?

Tim: I can't speak for everyone but each person has their own opinions how their faith should be shared and can choose to express themselves in different ways. I try to work hard to share my faith with others.

Brink: What do you want to be doing in 20 years?

Tim: The Philippines are pretty special to me. Every year in high school up until college I'd be part of a group my dad would take there. After football, I'd like to be involved again in that in some way. It is a great experience. We go into medical clinics, hospitals, prisons, market places and schools. You preach and help out. We go to the orphanage and a lot of things like that. It's a great experience. I love going every year and I can't wait until I go back. I'm looking at trying to go back this upcoming Spring Break, but it is definitely in my plans for after football. When you come back, you're grateful for everything that God's given you and you see how blessed you are.

This interview originally appeared in the pilot issue of The Brink magazine in the Fall of 2008.

He just does not understand why I would rather text him than call him. He'll call me and leave a voice mail. I eventually check it and text him back. He texts me back and says, "Call me." So I finally call him. He asks me a question like "Are you and Lynsey (my wife) coming to dinner Sunday?"

I'm thinking, "Why didn't you just text me that question?"

He's thinking, "Why don't you just answer your phone?"

We just don't get each other sometimes.

My dad and grandpa are different too. Dad spent a lot of time trying to explain to my grandpa that just because he was talking to someone long distance didn't mean he had to talk louder. I don't think my dad's explanation really worked.

My dad and my grandpa didn't get each other sometimes.

Generations are different.

I read this morning in Psalm 119:90 that "the faithfulness of God is extended to every generation."

God extends His faithfulness to every generation, yes, but the part that really stuck out to me was that every generation can understand the faithfulness of God. Twentysomethings get the faithfulness of God. So does Gen X. So do the Baby Boomers. So do those who came through the depression.

My brother Josh once video-taped my grandpa praying. They were on a farm in Missouri where it hadn't rained in a long time. The farm needed rain or else they were going to lose their crops. So grandpa and some others (including my dad and brother) went to the farm to pray for rain.

Josh zoomed in on grandpa as he was praying. His face was so intense. The funny thing is, I don't remember him asking God for rain. All I remember him praying was thanksgiving to God for His faithfulness. He gave God thanks becaue He had always provided for them and he knew God was still God and that He would not turn His back on His people. He was overjoyed at the faithfulness of God. That was his prayer.

I really don't know anything at all about farming other than you need water. But I understood what grandpa meant when he prayed and thanked God for His faithfulness. I got it. There were 2 or 3 generations between grandpa and I, and I still knew exactly what he was talking about.

Psalm 119:90 is exactly how you bridge the gap between twentysomethings and older generations--by focusing on God. Everyone connects with the attributes He has because everyone has an intrinsic desire for the things of God--holiness, faith, truth, love, mercy, faithfulness, justice, purity.

God is the bridge in the generation gap.