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The Value of Corporate Fasting
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” — Joel 2:12-17 (ESV)
Fasting for Jesus' Presence
Monday, August 19, 2019
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”
— Mark 2:18-20, ESV
When was the last time you went to a wedding? What do you remember most? Who were the people getting married? Who were the other guests?
Weddings are feasts and celebrations. We hope that the weddings we attend are ones that involve people we love and fully support in their unions. We hope that we can celebrate with the bride and groom wholeheartedly. But, even in the cases where we may have mixed feelings, the wedding is still always a celebration and a feast. The planning takes months, and food and drink are in abundance. It would be strange and even inappropriate to refuse to eat at a wedding. It would either show disrespect for the hospitality given or grave disapproval of the union of the two people.
God’s Promise to Revive Those Who Turn to Him
Sunday, August 18, 2019God’s love towards us is intense and illogical. The demonstration of God ‘SO’ loving His world was on full display when Jesus, the sinless son of God, paid the ultimate penalty of sin on behalf of a willfully disobedient humanity condemned to death. The life-giving blood of Jesus is offered freely to anyone who wants to be saved and restored to an intimate relationship with God.
Around 750 years before Jesus, a young prophet named Hosea was called to enact God’s unrequited love for the nation of Israel. Hosea’s humiliating assignment was to live out in real life the role of a jilted lover. God’s outrageous command to this righteous prophet was to wed Gomer, a common prostitute. The marriage was filled with pain. Hosea had to love his wife through her wanton adulterous living. God is portrayed through Hosea as a faithful husband who is deeply wounded and betrayed but remains committed to Gomer despite her cheating. Gomer represents the nation of Israel.
Nehemiah’s Plea
Saturday, August 17, 2019And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name…” — Nehemiah 1:2b-11 (ESV)
Whom Will God Revive?
Friday, August 16, 2019
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” — Isaiah 57:15
Isaiah saw that God’s people, the Israelites, had strayed far from God. They were living in disobedience to His will. They had turned their backs on God’s ways and had adopted their surrounding culture’s practices. In this chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, God bluntly expressed his anger toward His people, calling them witch’s children, sons of adulterers and prostitutes, reminding them of their child sacrifices and pagan worship. God’s holiness could not ignore their wickedness. Their self-centered behavior, not unlike our modern culture, did not escape His sight or His judgement. God was angry!
by sarah camp
“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
– 2 Chronicles 7: 13, 14
One small hand slipped into mine. A second stealthy hand claimed my other hand. The young girls tugged me along the dirt path through the village, between small homes. Prayers and songs drifted from doorways. Cell phones served as our flashlights, guiding my steps only; the girls were sure-footed as they pulled and nudged me along. From the sky, heavy with darkness, stars erupted. They dangled so seemingly low amid the lengthwise haze of the Milky Way I wondered if I might disentangle a hand, reach up, and snatch one, just one, drop it my pocket, to remember a sacred night in Vunibao, Fiji.
Cities Conference Features James K.A. Smith, Vince Vitale
by catherine elvy, staff writer
At the Christian Union Cities Conference, scholar James K.A. Smith challenged young professionals to reflect upon whether they are pursuing faithful service or self-serving aggrandizement. Ambitions can propel believers to fulfill spiritual callings or throttle them into idolatrous practices, he said.
Students, Christian Union Faculty Appreciate Ministry Center
by tom campisi
When the Christian Union Center at Columbia University was dedicated last fall, the ministry’s Founder and CEO, Matt Bennett, said “generations of influential students, faculty, and alumni will be emboldened and equipped to carry revival and cultural reformation to the university and the world.”
The impact of the building was felt immediately; the consensus among the ministry’s faculty was that “God is at work in the new ministry center.” Within a few days, Christian Union was able to engage more new students than in the previous year of ministry. At the close of the recent academic year, Ministry Fellow Ava Ligh said the Christian Union Center was a blessing that enabled students to experience a greater sense of community and provided a wonderful place to seek the Lord, study the Word, and grow together.
Opeyemi and Prudil Appreciated Comradery, Mentoring
Two recent Princeton University graduates, a computer science major and an electrical engineering major, are eager and prepared for the integration of faith and vocation.
Moyin Opeyemi ’19 and Bryan Prudil ’19 each credited their participation in a Christian Union Bible course with giving them confidence to be salt and light in the workforce. Opeyemi (computer science) is an associate product manager at Uber in San Francisco, while Prudil (electrical engineering) is a systems engineer at Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona.
Ministry Director Mentors Penn Football Players
by catherine elvy, staff writer
Since fall 2017, Christian Union Ministry Director Tucker Else has been steadily gaining ground in his outreach to Quaker athletes, especially to members of the football team. Given their hectic training and academic schedules, Else offers flexible discipleship sessions to players.
“Time is such a commodity,” said Else. “It’s pretty easy for these guys to live and sleep football and academics.”
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