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The most recent articles, videos, blog entries, and more that have been added to ChristianUnion.org.
The Gallup organization published a poll this year on institutions and the level of confidence Americans have in them. Some of their findings:
The list of institutions surveyed goes well beyond these few but the trend is similar – that we trust our institutions less as being capable, in our best interests, and as foundational to our societal well-being. While the Gallup poll does not break this down by faith commitment, I would be surprised if there was much difference between those of faith and those not of faith.
| 2018 | 2009 | 2000 | |
| Church/organized religion | 38% | 52% | 56% |
| Supreme Court | 37% | 39% | 47% |
| Congress | 11% | 17% | 24% |
| Big Business | 25% | 16% | 29% |
| Newspapers | 23% | 25% | 37% |
The list of institutions surveyed goes well beyond these few but the trend is similar – that we trust our institutions less as being capable, in our best interests, and as foundational to our societal well-being. While the Gallup poll does not break this down by faith commitment, I would be surprised if there was much difference between those of faith and those not of faith.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Truly Good NewsI have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4 (ESV)
The late, legendary CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite became known as “the most trusted man in America” from his desk at the evening news. After years of reporting on the Vietnam war, Cronkite travelled there himself in early 1968. After witnessing intense combat and interviewing military officials on the ground, Cronkite gave a special report to the American people, labeling the war “stalemate.” That moment, called “The Cronkite moment,” is referenced by some historians and journalists as one of the most influential in news media’s history. They believe when Cronkite’s attitude changed about the war, America’s began to as well. One trusted man’s words held that much weight.
Warm greetings from Palo Alto,
As a novice parent trying to figure out how to raise three young children (and making many more mistakes than I thought I would!), I often find myself saying inside my head, “What matters most in my relationship with my kids is that I love them, and that they know it.” Until recently, I found myself focusing on that first element: that I love my kids. After all, that’s the element in my control, right?
As a novice parent trying to figure out how to raise three young children (and making many more mistakes than I thought I would!), I often find myself saying inside my head, “What matters most in my relationship with my kids is that I love them, and that they know it.” Until recently, I found myself focusing on that first element: that I love my kids. After all, that’s the element in my control, right?
Friends See Benefit of Investing in Christian Union
Dean and Dianne Tanella, long-time financial partners with Christian Union, hosted a gathering with key people from their professional and personal networks to learn more about the work of the ministry. Amongst the attendees were Kurt and Danita Parker. Kurt is the senior minister of Harborside Christian Church in Safety Harbor, Florida. Through the Tanellas’ initiative, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, a simple evening of fellowship helped to launch a beautiful relationship between Harborside Christian Church and Christian Union.Freshman Campaigns Kick into High Gear
by Sarah CampThe academic year is already underway at Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Classes begin at Brown, Columbia, and Harvard next week, and in two weeks at Princeton and Dartmouth. In late September, Stanford students will begin their classes. In the meantime, members of the Class of 2022 are arriving by the thousands—excited, nervous, and, in the first few weeks of college life, as open to Christian friendships as they may ever be.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Witnessing in Exile"Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service."
Daniel 1:3-5 (ESV)
In many ways, we Western Christians living in a post-Christian context, can relate to Daniel and company, who found themselves in exile following King Nebuchadnezzar’s hostile takeover of Jerusalem. Like Israel’s life in exile, the world around us is shifting ever so quickly; often times we’re left feeling a bit dizzy as we wonder how we should live in a culture that is so different from us—a culture and society that has different values, hopes and dreams from our own. So how should we live? How should we engage with the cultural context in which we find ourselves?
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Renewed in the Image of the WordIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. … No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
John 1:1-2, 14, 18 (ESV)
The devil’s persistent strategy is to take the good things God has made, corrupt them, and use them against God and His creation. The deceiver used the Garden of Eden against Adam and Eve. He still uses food, sex, ambition, friendship, authority, rest, work, and every other good creation of God in a desperate attempt to counteract the purposes of God. He is doing the same with media.
by Teal McGarvey Wojcicki & Nick Nowalk
“We are unknown, we knowers, to ourselves.”
“O God, I pray you to let me know my self.”[1]
John Calvin famously began his magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion with this incredible claim: “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” In opening this way, Calvin indicated not only that Christians knowing their identity as human beings is of critical importance, but also that such knowledge is indelibly bound up with God’s identity.
In pursuing a uniquely Christian understanding of human identity, there are two familiar extremes that we must avoid.
“We are unknown, we knowers, to ourselves.”
“O God, I pray you to let me know my self.”[1]
John Calvin famously began his magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion with this incredible claim: “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” In opening this way, Calvin indicated not only that Christians knowing their identity as human beings is of critical importance, but also that such knowledge is indelibly bound up with God’s identity.
In pursuing a uniquely Christian understanding of human identity, there are two familiar extremes that we must avoid.
Monday, August 27, 2018
First of All, Pray“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:1-4
“First of all,” Paul tells Timothy, in his charge to him to “wage the good warfare” (1 Tim 1:18), you should pray “for all people.” This we generally understand; most of us have a list of people for whom we pray. My list includes family members, coworkers, people in my church, friends, missionaries, and those I know have current needs. Sometimes it includes a person with a heartbreaking story that’s making the rounds of social media on the internet. Too rarely does it include the people that Paul singles out here for intercession. Yes, we are to pray for “all people”, but I think Paul knows we will naturally remember to pray for those close to us. Instead, he reminds us to also, and specifically, pray for “kings and all who are in high positions.”
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Which Way Are You Leaning?“Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.”
2 Kings 18:21 (ESV)
“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.”
Psalm 146:3-4 (ESV)
Trusting in Egypt. The invitation for King Hezekiah to consider the "pain points" of depending upon Egypt is not spoken by a prophet or other trusted source. Rather, this is high-pressure rhetoric from a conniving Assyrian official. He is deeming it folly for Judah’s king to find security anywhere else save under Assyria’s wings. He’s saying, “wise up and pay the 'protection fee' to a government power who can truly deliver you!"
