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Christian Union: The Magazine
September 9, 2020
Life's Deepest Questions; Prayer and the Pandemic; Love What's Near; A Protestant Apocalypse? A Full-Brain Faith: Neuroscience and Spiritual Growth; We Dare Not Ignore The Devil and more, in this issue of Christian Union's bi-monthly email brief.
 
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"For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness."
— Ezekiel 34:11-1

 

Life's Deepest Questions

By Vince Vitale
From YouTube
01 vincevIn this Christian Union Gloria outreach Leadership Lecture Series talk at Harvard, Vince Vitale, from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, offers insights on origin, meaning, morality, and destiny as they relate to the person of Christ. Student Q&A is featured at the end.

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Prayer and the Pandemic

By Eileen Scott
From Christian Union
Slack. Zoom. Pray. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the University of Pennsylvania moved classes online, members of CU Martus, Christian Union’s ministry on campus, swiftly leveraged digital and social media tools to create a sacred space for remaining close to God and each other.

Leo Chen ’22 and Bianca Altamirano ’22, student leaders with CU Martus, launched a 24/7 online prayer gathering that lasted six weeks. As a result, students from around the nation were able to come together regularly and intercede for their campus, their city (Philadelphia), and their country.

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Love What's Near

By Trevin Wax
From The Gospel Coalition
03 wax“Our generation is prone to radicalism without follow-through,” Kevin DeYoung writes. “We want to change the world and we have never changed a diaper.”

This quote has stuck with me for more than 10 years now. I’ve thought of it multiple times as life has chastened some of my youthful passion for seeing massive transformations in the culture or the church.

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A Protestant Apocalypse?

By Carl R. Trueman
From First Things
On numerous occasions over the last six months I have heard or seen COVID’s effect on churches described as “apocalyptic.” Frequently, the word has been used in its improper but colloquial sense of “catastrophic” or “disastrous,” referring to the chaos it has created for worship services or the damage it has done to budgets. Sometimes, however, it has also been used in its correct sense, to refer to the way COVID has revealed things previously hidden: for example, the fact that some government officials consider casinos and pet grooming more important than worship services, or that the relationship of state power to ecclesiastical authority is highly contested even within many churches.

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A Full-Brain Faith: Neuroscience and Spiritual Growth

By  Tom Nelson
From Made to Flourish

For centuries as a Western culture, we have overemphasized certain parts of our brains and underemphasized others. This has led to an impoverished “change framework,” emphasizing the brain’s rational world and deemphasizing the brain’s relational world. Many of us have been taught that if we individually just think right cognitively, if we possess the right biblical information, agree to the most sound doctrinal formulations, then we as individuals will experience transformation, take on the character of Christ, and grow to spiritual maturity. While having sound doctrine is essential, more is needed in our ongoing spiritual formation and transformation — both whole-brain and whole-life discipleship.

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We Dare Not Ignore The Devil

By Jon Bloom
From Desiring God
05 bloomWhat do we think of what God has to say about the existence and activity of devils in Scripture? How seriously do we take what he says — not just in creed but in deed? How much does a conscious awareness of spiritual warfare functionally factor into our daily life? How does it affect how we pray? How does it inform the ways we see our areas of chronic temptation, fears, family dynamics, church conflicts, physical and mental illnesses, inhibited gospel fruitfulness, geopolitical events? What kinds of strategic spiritual action do we take in response to these things?

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Prayer Requests


UNIVERSITY  MINISTRIES
Please pray for our ministry faculty and student leaders as they connect with first-years this fall semester. Much of our campus ministry will be done virutally this fall, so pray for Christ-centered relationship building with the first-year students. Pray that this difficult time would produce much fruit and that many would come to know the Lord through our ministries.

CITY MINISTRIES
Pray for God’s will to be done for all His people in NYC in a season of such uncertainty. This is a tumultuous time in the city between COVID ramifications and an alarming spike in crime. Pray for protection and encouragement for the Church, and unity and mutual edification amongst all our Christian networks in the city. Please pray for the sustainability of churches and ministries like CU New York to remain a vital lifeline for Christian professionals in this very difficult and lonely terrain.

DAY & NIGHT

Please join us as we are Seeking God in September. Pray with us and thousands of believers for these three areas: Christian Repentance, National Healing, and Fearless Faith. Your unified prayers make a tremendous impact.

Talk Back

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