Over twenty years ago, Christians on Campus Bible Study changed the course of my life. I had just moved to Austin, TX, to begin a graduate program at UT. I had been a believer in Christ for many years, and had been freshly baptized in the Gulf of Mexico on my way to Texas. So I was looking for an opportunity to join myself to some other Christians who were having a Bible study.

Within 24 hours after landing at the university, I saw a table on the campus with a sign that said, “Bible Study – Sign Up Here.” This was the UT club called Christians on Campus. I began to meet with some of the brothers for a weekly Bible study which was covering the book of First Corinthians. After 2 or 3 weeks we were in chapter 2, and when verse 14 was read, I was so struck by the word “soulish.” The verse reads like this: “But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually.” I suddenly realized, “That’s me! I don’t know the things of the Spirit of God!” I had been trying to read the Bible on my own for years, and though I knew it was important, I could not understand why it was the Word of God. I could not understand what it was trying to convey. It seemed like a bunch of parables and stories and history of the Jews. But why is this the Word of God? And that word “soulish,” what is that? I had never seen that word in my entire life. So I asked the brothers what that word “soulish” meant. This led to a lengthy opening of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and I was helped to see that man has a spirit, a soul, and a body (which has become flesh because of the fall)–1 Thessalonians 5:23. And when we have a living that is governed by the lusts in our flesh, then we are “fleshy” (1 Corinthians 3:1). When we have a living that is governed by our soul, our psychological being with the reasonings in our mind or the feelings in our emotions, then we are soulish (v. 2:14). But when we, as born again Christians, have a living that is governed by Christ in our spirit, then we are spiritual (v. 2:15). By simply asking about that one word “soulish,” I saw, for the first time in my life that I had a spirit, a human spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11), that I could exercise at any time to contact the Lord who is Spirit (John 4:24). That discovery was the greatest discovery of my Christian life, changing the course of my life, and it all began by me asking about that very unfamiliar word–soulish! Many thanks to Christians on Campus at The University of Texas at Austin!