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Christian Union
Christian Union: The Magazine
December 9, 2020
Rethinking Missions and Missionaries; The Case for Vocational Singleness; Nine Nonobvious Ways to Have Deeper Conversations; Walk in the Light. Expose the Darkness.; Everything Changes When Christ Appears; The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and more, in this issue of Christian Union's bi-monthly email brief.
 
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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. 
—  Isaiah 40:4

 

Rethinking Missions and Missionaries

By Lorri Bentch
From YouTube
lorriEven among Christians, the idea that people should be sent as missionaries around the world is becoming increasingly questioned. Is it possible to do missions with integrity and honoring other cultures? Should we even try? In this recent Christian Union leadership lecture series at Harvard, Lorri Bentch explores these questions and more as we take an honest and hopeful look at global missions today.

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The Case for Vocational Singleness

By Pieter Valk
From Christianity Today
Every Christ-follower is invited to serve their neighbor, but God calls a small and mighty band of Christians to permanently leverage their singleness for kingdom work. For the first 1500 years of the church, many Christians prayerfully asked the Lord whether he was calling them to Christian marriage or to vocational singleness for the sake of the kingdom. What if Christians today once again discerned this question with God? And what if some or even many of them accepted a call to committed singleness and lived that calling to help heal their communities with undivided attention?

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Nine Nonobvious Ways to Have Deeper Conversations

By David Brooks
From The New York Times
conversationsAfter all we’ve been through this year, wouldn’t it be nice, even during a distanced holiday season, to be able to talk about this whole experience with others, in a deep, satisfying way? To help, I’ve put together a list of nonobvious lessons for how to have better conversations, which I’ve learned from people wiser than myself.

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Walk in the Light. Expose the Darkness.

By Chuck Hetzler
From Christian Union Day and Night
Should we bend with the culture or stand against it? And how does this decision affect our witness to non-believers? This week we are praying that we as American Christians will “walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

I am afraid that one of the reasons why we as American Christians have tolerated sin in our lives is because we hope that we can win more souls that way. We believe we can persuade non-Christians to follow Christ if they think we’re “normal” and “like them.” And we presume that we will repel non-believers if we’re too “holy” and different in our lifestyle and beliefs. There's tension here, isn’t there?

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Everything Changes When Christ Appears

By Adam Johnson
From Center for Christianity Culture and the Arts
adventThe Advent Project is part of Biola University's Center for Christianity Culture and the Arts. It offers artistically rich advent devotionals that utilize the arts to broaden our imaginations during advent—the season in which we remember the incarnation and anticipate the return of King Jesus. This devotional responds to Isaiah 40:4 and considers the life trajectory of the Christian.

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The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

By Matt Chandler
From YouTube
Pastor Matt Chandler preaches on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how scripture teaches that they still exist and ought to be pursued by the church today.

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Prayer Requests


UNIVERSITY  MINISTRIES
Please join us in praying for our students as they end their semester. Pray for endurance and joy as they prepare for finals. Pray that this advent season would comfort and encourage them in personal ways, and pray that they would continue to grow in their love and devotion to Christ over their Christmas breaks.

CITY MINISTRIES
Please continue to pray for peace and safety in NYC. We just hosted a retreat for Christian leaders in the city this past weekend. Pray that God raises them up with boldness and love to bring transformation to their respective fields of work. Also, please pray for our upcoming salon on Faith and Law with Acting General Counsel of the OATH office, Olga Statz.

DAY & NIGHT

Pray about joining 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting for 2021. Pray that thousands of Christians would join for these 21 days to seek God for our nation and for ourselves. Pray for miraculous answers to prayers and for renewed strength to live out our faith with effectiveness and joy.

Talk Back

Thank God for the way that his Church throughout the nation embraced repentance and prayer through CU Day and Night’s "Seeking God in September" and "The Return" and "Prayer March" in Washington D.C. Pray for the Lord to work these ideals into American Christians even more until we are fully alive for Christ.