In our Psalms and Prayer night to kick off the spring quarter on Sunday, we feasted on the epic Psalm 18. We would commend the entire psalm to you! But for now, here are just the first few verses to whet your appetite:
“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him…” Psalm 103.15-17
There are glimmers of hope. It is still winter in Philadelphia as I write this– and this week is particularly wintry– but there is the promise of renewal. It is in these almost-but-not-yet days of spring that a day of 32° and snow is followed by a day of 65° and sun. Maybe that is appropriate for Lent: it is a season of lament, but the hope of Easter morning is on the horizon. It is most definitely winter, but spring is coming! Praise God for His lovingkindness to us. We are incredibly creaturely, undeniably mortal, and yet His steadfast love is eternal, and He is leading us to dwell in His presence forever. That is the ultimate hope to which all other hopes point. As we press on to that day, please pray for:
A student asked me two weeks ago, “How should I read the Bible?” “Read it as a story,” I said, “read it as the story of God becoming the story of God’s people.”
As Christians, the story of God changes everything. Jesus has a way of shifting our life-script and changing the way our story reads. Joy, hope, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and love act as subjects of newly formed sentences. Page after page, we find ourselves in paragraphs of new life. It is Jesus, the Author of Life, rewriting our story and empowering us to deal with the other subjects– sadness, anxiety, distress, and evil– that seek to override our script.
Do you believe that God can do another great work in NYC? Please enjoy this newly written article about the true story of an amazing revival in NYC. One of history’s greatest spiritual revivals began in 1857 in downtown Manhattan, with just one solitary, faithful businessman. It grew rapidly and spread around the world with tremendous and lasting impact. You can read this inspiring new telling of the Businessmen’s Revival on Christian Union’s Day and Night website, https://www.dayandnight.org/businessmens_revival.
Princeton Student Organizes Multi-Campus Prayer Event
By Anne Kerhoulas, Staff Writer
Students across Christian Union campuses mobilized to craft a ministry-wide night of prayer, interceding into the wee hours of the morning around topics like repentance, evangelism, leadership, and putting on the full armor of God.
David Brooks Makes a Compelling Case
In this deep dive into family life over the past century, David Brooks argues that families—both adults and children—thrive when they are deeply interconnected to either extended family or forged families like neighbors or church communities. Brooks explains how our nation's current battle against loneliness, overwork, economic struggles, and even mental illness can all be traced back to the disintegration of family and living in a support system.
Determining the Value of Every Life
“For decades, now our culture has been asking a question: what, or who, determines the value of human life?” This short video from The Village Church explores the topic of abortion, how our culture conceives of human life, how political preferences shape it, and, ultimately, what God says about it.
The Seeking God Lifestyle and Other Steps
By Dr. Chuck Hetzler
How can a follower of Christ contribute to a nationwide revitalization of Christianity?
There are 330 million people living in the United States with 231million identifying as Christians. As one voice in such a large multitude, David slaying Goliath can seem like a walk in the park compared to you and I contributing to another Great Awakening in America.
A Yale Student’s Lenten Reflection
Editor’s note: The following article was reprinted with permission from The Yale Logos, a student-led Christian Journal.
By Raquel Sequeira, Yale ’21
“Die to live.”
The words had been running through my head since before Lent—since before I moved back to New Haven to finally start my senior year. After a gap semester spent living at home, I prayed for guidance into spring and tried to be genuinely open to whatever God might ask of me.
Humans, Animals, and Machines in the Age of Biotechnology: A Conversation with Stanford Professor William Hurlbut
Are humans, as some maintain, ‘just another ordinary animal species’? What role will technology, and the cultural ideas that guide them, play in shaping our future? How do these questions relate to our destiny, individual and collectively, as a species made in the image of God?
Princeton Alumnus Is Concerned by Decision
Ryan T. Anderson knew his book would be controversial in some circles. When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment provided a robust scientific, philosophical, medical, and legal examination of our nation’s rapidly changing understanding of transgenderism as soon as it was released a little over three years ago. A Princeton alumnus ('04) and speaker for Christian Union events, Anderson earned his Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.
Cultural Changes Are Reshaping the Landscape
Religious freedom is an expectation and reality in our country, but with radical legislative changes and a major shift in the cultural understanding of identity, religious freedom may be evaporating before our eyes. In this article from Gospel Coalition Australia, Akos Balogh examines the cultural changes that are quickly reshaping the freedom of the church in the west.
University of Pennsylvania
Ethan is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and he has been involved in Christian Union since his freshman year. Arriving on campus as a self-described young Christian, the ministry encouraged and challenged him to deepen his faith."I understand so much more of who God is, but I have still so much more to learn and that just would not have been possible without God working through Christian Union." -Ethan Chaffee, University of Pennsylvania '20In this Student Spotlight video, Ethan describes the impact Christian Union has had on his walk with the Lord throughout the past four years.
To learn more about Christian Union Martus at the University of Pennsylvania, click here.
CU Ministry Fellow at Stanford Helps Shed Light on Crisis
By Kelly Parks, Staff Writer
Anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation are some of the mental health challenges that can plague college students during their academic careers. The stress of COVID-19 and growing academic pressures have left some students more depressed and anxious than ever before. As of today, one out of every four college students in the United States has contemplated ending their life.
1820 Revival Transformed Providence, Brown University
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
This academic year will mark the 200th anniversary of a revival that forever changed the religious landscape of Providence, Rhode Island, and left a profound impact on the students at Brown University.
“The Hand of God was visible everywhere,” wrote author Mark S. Schantz, describing the city’s 1820 revival.
CU Gloria Provides Vital Resources During Harvard Break
By Anne Kerhoulas, Staff Writer
As Harvard transitioned from the fall semester into a long break, CU Gloria provided spiritual encouragement and community for students through “Winter Workshops” and book groups. Though winter break is a welcome change of pace after a semester of long days and intense studying, this time away from community that often lacks structure can also become a lonely time in which students struggle in their faith.
Missing the Most Important One
By Dr. Chuck Hetzler
The revelations of Ravi Zacharias’ failures have invited a host of questions to discern how such destructive sins could have occurred. Seeking answers, Christians have primarily probed RZIM from an organizational perspective.
The Importance of Developing Young Christian Leaders
As this article from the Gospel Coalition argues, Christian college students typically arrive on campus with a flimsy understanding of their faith. Though it is easy to think that growing up in the church with parents who are believers and participating in a youth ministry is enough to form young adults into Christians with a basic understanding of scripture and doctrine, as Randall Greenwald argues, it usually is not.
Sternklar ’22 Has a Passion For Prayer, International Justice
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
Athena Sternklar wants to change the world through a career focused on international policy and humanitarian aid.
The political science major, who transferred to Columbia University in the fall, took a hiatus from college a few years back to travel abroad and volunteer in refugee camps in Greece, Serbia, and Jordan. She came to Columbia via Montgomery Community College in her hometown of Rockville, Maryland.
How Can We Engage Them with the Good News?
Who is Generation Z? Yes, they are the individuals who were born between the early ’90s and mid-2010s, but for Christian Union, they represent one of our primary mission fields.
