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Harvard University

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

Greetings from Cambridge!

I have had the privilege of watching a lot of senior skits through the years, but the underclassmen who impersonated their beloved senior friends the other day were truly next level. In several scenes and for fifteen minutes their silly lines and exaggerated gestures wonderfully captured each person’s personalities and idiosyncrasies.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Greetings from Cambridge!

The pace has quickened as we have crossed the marker into April and lean into the final lap. What an unusual and challenging race! When we gathered in the fall, only the senior class had logged more than one (normal) semester on campus. Student leaders, recognizing the need to gather and build a community, majored in hospitality and friendship. They prayed to reclaim what was lost. They believed God for growth – depth and breadth. They were determined to make the most of the time (Eph. 5:15-17).

“Today revealed to me even more that (this) is the community that I prayed and cried for when I first came to Christ. Getting to see it in full force today brought me so much joy. So thank you.” - Winter Retreat Evaluation

Gloria Winter Retreat 2022

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Greetings from Cambridge!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” - Paul to the Church in Rome (Rom 15:13 ESV)

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Greetings from Cambridge!

The middle watch is past! Another year Dawns on the human race with hope and fear: The last has gone with mingled sigh and song, To join for ever its ancestral throng; And time reveals, As past it steals, The potent hand of God, the Everlasting, Guiding the sun, with all his blazing peers, And filling up the measure of our years, Until Messiah, Prince, to judgment hasting, Shall roll the darkness from this world of sin, And bid a bright eternity begin. — Unknown

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

On behalf of all of the staff and students involved in CU Gloria, thank you for your partnership in 2021 and a blessed New Year.

“Everything from quarks to quasars, butterflies to brain cells, was created so that you and I might delight in the display of divine glory. We alone can glorify God by rejoicing in the beauty of His creative handiwork and relishing the splendor of His revelation in the Person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ.” —Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Founder of The Veritas Forum; Editor/Co-Author of Finding God (at/Beyond) Harvard

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

In the Apostle Paul’s closing exhortation in his letter to the church in Philippi, he shared a final imperative. He told them to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise” [Phil. 4:8 ESV]. This is no small challenge in a society convulsed with hard news. This plea follows his equally challenging instruction to give thanks in all circumstances as we wrestle with anxiety and frame and express heartfelt prayers to God. I can't think of a more practical chapter in the scriptures to bolster our mental health. It has been a joy to compare notes with students who have had their young(er) worlds turned upside down for nearly two years. As I share this update and reflect on the quote I shared from KMK, I must confess that I feel the need to engage with this prescription once again!

“A person who rejects Christ may choose to say that I do not accept it, he may not choose to say there is not enough evidence.” -Simon Greenleaf, Founding Faculty Member, Harvard Law School

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Greenleaf’s Testimony of the Evangelists is one of a thousand such apologetic works from lawyers, literary scholars, philosophers, and theologians who have argued for through the ages the veracity of the teachings of Jesus and eyewitness testimonies of his earliest followers. Last month I mentioned the stunning ‘Christ hymn’ in Philippians, chapter 2 (see also John 1:1-18; Colossians 1:15-20). As I say to students all of the time, the descriptions of the nature and person of Jesus in the New Testament are crazy talk unless we can support and defend them. The onus is on us to do our homework and to keep an open mind.

“The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.” -Phillips Brooks, Harvard Class of 1855

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

With a wonderful play on words, Phillips Brooks captured both the glory of being made in God’s image and the humbling, life-altering pursuit of knowing God. This week in our Bible courses in the second chapter of Philippians, we will encounter the jaw-dropping ‘Christ Hymn.’ This brush with greatness not only describes the nature and character of the Messiah, but as the grizzled Apostle Paul contends in the remainder of his letter that Jesus’ example had become the standard for us: the cruciform life.

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” - 1:3-5 (ESV)

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Thank you for your continued support and investment in what the Lord is doing on Harvard’s campus through Christian Union Gloria. By God’s grace and your prayers, we had a wonderful pre-retreat, where the upperclassmen students were able to reconnect in-person after a long time apart. Our times in worship and the Word were a delight, and the students came back to campus ready to welcome the incoming class of 2025 into Christian community.

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” - Philippians 1:21-26 - Psalms 85:4-7 (ESV)

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

Thank you for staying connected by praying for the ministry through the summer. We have enjoyed a very fruitful summer season at Harvard, marked by the weekly Exodus Bible study, as well as the nightly student-led Prayer Corps. We are very excited for the fall semester, which will begin shortly in a few weeks. As we start to turn our attention to the fall semester, when the entire ministry will be studying together the Epistle to the Philippians, we ask you to join us in thanking God and in praying for the following: