March 25, 2015
"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things were created by him and for him" — Col 1:16
The Drop Box
By Madison Peace From The Federalist
A poignant, profoundly moving new documentary "tells the story of 'The Drop Box,' where image-conscious South Koreans leave disabled babies to a welcoming pastor and his family." Read More Here >
March 11, 2015
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. — 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Renaissance: the Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times
By Dr. Os Guinness From New York City Christian Union
On January 13, 2015, acclaimed author and social critic Dr. Os Guinness was the special guest speaker at the January New York City Christian Union Forum. Watch the video here >
March 5, 2015
Why Harvard is Anything But Godless
Many Harvard professors and students are oblivious to the level of religious devotion that exists at their university. In fact, most people, Harvard affiliated or not, are unaware of the profound faith that can be found on campus, erroneously considering the school to be fairly “irreligious.” However, according to Stephen G. Mackereth – a talented new writer for The Harvard Crimson, and a Christian Union ministry member – Harvard is anything but godless. Mackereth highlights his own faith experiences at Harvard and explains how this precipitated a close relationship with God. “Though I came from an Anglican family, it was here that the old creeds and old hymns to God in the Highest first really came to life for me. Since then, I have been an active member of the Christian student community on campus,” he writes.March 1, 2015
Dartmouth Student Leads 24-Hour Prayer Time
On October 31, students at Dartmouth united their Christian peers to pray without ceasing for 24 hours.The effort was led by Zachary Schmidt '15, who is active with Christian Union's leadership development ministry at Dartmouth and possesses a profound devotion to Christ and a passion for living a life of prayer.Schmidt, who transferred to Dartmouth as a junior from the U.S. Naval Academy, helped organize a 24-hour concert of prayer, which both encouraged students to seek God wholeheartedly and also united the body of Christ on campus."We saw [this prayer initiative] as a great way to get the whole Christian community involved and united in one body to glorify the Lord," said Schmidt.February 23, 2015
Making Sense of True Paradoxes
Christian Union: The Magazine recently interviewed David Skeel, the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania. A speaker at Veritas Forums on various college campuses, Skeel is the author of several books on law. He recently wrote his first apologetics book, True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World.How would you define apologetics?At bottom, I think the Apostle Peter defined apologetics best, at least for Christians, when he admonished his readers to "always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). That's how I see apologetics, as trying to explain why I believe Christianity is true, especially for those who think an ancient religion like Christianity can't possibly make sense of the complexities of our contemporary world.February 22, 2015
Mwangi Thuita '17 Has a Passion for Serving
The Community Service Team with Christian Union at Cornell is working to share the Gospel in Ithaca, New York, and their acts of service are conveying what words alone cannot.The team serves the university's neighboring community through a variety of volunteer works, quietly modeling Christ's compassion for all people."Our students formed the Community Service Team because they wanted tangible ways to communicate the love of Christ," said Anna Shea, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Cornell. "They want others to experience, through their actions, that Jesus is alive—not just on the Cornell campus, but throughout Ithaca as well."February 21, 2015
Scholar Exhorts Attendees at Harvard Catholic Center Event
Exercising the constitutional right to "authentic worship" at Harvard was heralded this fall with a lecture from noted scholar Father Peter Stravinskas.The Harvard Catholic Center sponsored the event, entitled "Give Me Freedom (Religious) or Give Me Death." Stravinskas, editor of The Catholic Answer magazine and books such as The Catholic Response and The Catholic Church and the Bible, exhorted attendees to refute the bifurcation of religious freedom by a secular culture.Stravinskas spoke about how society is seeking to replace authentic Christian worship and expression with a more politically correct and passive version of religion.The right to assemble is tolerated, but the freedom to live out your faith with actionable belief and works is disallowed.February 20, 2015
Cornell Alumnus Joe Holland Challenges Students to Walk by Faith
For believers, God's calling is not an isolated event. Rather, it often plays out as part of an amazing personal movement.Activist, attorney, and football legend Joe Holland offered that spiritual insight during an appearance on October 16 at his alma mater of Cornell University. The All-American football player spoke about the stages of fulfilling a divine commission during a public lecture in Friends Hall."It's not just something that happens, and that's the end," said Holland, Cornell '78, MA '79, Harvard Law '82. "It's a movement that God executes in your life."February 19, 2015
Considering Nietzsche and Jesus of Nazareth
by Jesse PetersonAt the risk of an absurd reductionism, I'd like to propose an audacious thesis: that in Western history there have been only two distinct ethical philosophies. Every other ethic ultimately falls under the banner of one of these two. The two stances are represented by two teachers: Friedrich Nietzsche and Jesus of Nazareth. Their fundamental disagreement? What it means to be human, and what it means to love. The Ethics of Nature There could hardly have been a more fitting philosopher to follow on the heels of Darwin's mid-19th-century discoveries than Nietzsche. Nietzsche translated into ethical-prescriptive terms ("ought") what for Darwin had merely been biological-historical description ("is"). Darwin's "survival of the fittest" in the war of nature became Nietzsche's "will to power":February 18, 2015
The Lambs help students grow in grace and truth.
by Sarah Camp, Contributing EditorFrom marriage to ministry, Angela (Cornell, BA '99) and Allen (Cornell, BS '00 and MEng'01) Lamb know a good thing when they find it. For example, they met during their freshman year at Cornell and married during the summer between their junior and senior years. Allen was already a Christian when he met Angela; Angela came to faith in Christ at Cornell thanks in part to a suitemate who shared her faith.The young couple were led to follows Christ's ethos in college as they pursued integrity in courtship and dating, and fidelity in marriage. A supportive community and God's great grace helped them navigate their student years.February 15, 2015
Day Thirty-Five Devotional
My three teenage daughters, much like the college students I know, live in a state of almost constant sleep deprivation due to the pressure of extracurricular activities and academics. Breaks in the schedule, such as the one we just had over Christmas, provide welcome opportunities to catch up on sleep. Slumber is perhaps more desired than anything under the Christmas tree!We know our bodies need rest, and anyone who has battled insomnia knows that a good night’s sleep is a blessing from the Lord. But we’ve also all experienced that too much sleep can make us lethargic and dull. Spiritual sleepiness is the counterpart to the physical manifestation, and Scripture is full of warnings against it, such as: “awake, O Sleeper!” (Ephesians 5:14), “wake up from your slumber!” (Romans 13:11), and “wake up from your drunken stupor” (1 Corinthians 15:34). In Revelation 3, in the word to the church in Sardis, this sobering judgment is given by the angel:February 12, 2015
Penn Student Seeks to Establish Peer Counseling
Roy Lan cares about people.From assisting in cancer research and volunteering for the welfare of children, to participating in model UN at the University of Pennsylvania, the breadth of his compassion is evident. This semester, Lan is extending a helping hand even further as he spearheads a new organization that seeks to come alongside students that struggle to care for themselves.As a response to the several suicides at Penn in the last year and a half, Lan is working to establish a student-run peer counseling organization for undergraduates. And he credits Christian Union's ministry at Penn with helping him develop the leadership skills needed to form the new organization.February 10, 2015
A Devotional from the 40 Days Initiative
Day 30“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them...” - Matthew 6:1 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.” - Matthew 6:5 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites...” - Matthew 6:16February 10, 2015
In the face of increasingly distressing forms of secularity in our culture, Christianity appears to be making a resurgence, growing stronger and becoming more widespread across the U.S. According to a new Pew Research Study, 73 percent of American adults believe Jesus was born to a virgin, and 65 percent believe the full Christmas story. This is encouraging news, and a stark contrast to the 14 percent of U.S. adults who do not believe either of these elements.
January 29, 2015
Wall Street Journal Article Shows How Christians Can Positively Engage the Culture Around Them
Author Eric Metaxas wrote an exceptionally popular article for the Wall Street Journal concerning God, faith, and science in 2014. Since its publication, the article has gained traction in both Christian and scientific circles, attracting both critics and advocates alike. Metaxas supports the idea that scientific research increasingly points to the existence of a universal creator, drawing attention to recent findings that exemplify exactly how unlikely it is that a series of random events led to creation as we know it. He writes:January 27, 2015
A Devotional from the 40 Days Initiative
Day 16“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17In the fall of 1740, Harvard College tutor Daniel Rogers was eager to learn of an impending visit to the New England colonies by Anglican clergyman and transatlantic revivalist, the Reverend George Whitefield.A 1725 graduate of Harvard College, Rogers was anticipating appointment to a pastoral position with Boston’s New North Church when he first had opportunity to hear Whitefield preach. Although raised in a Congregational home and familiar with the orthodoxy common to the “New England Way,” Rogers had not personally entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ despite his familiarity with Christian doctrine.January 23, 2015
Day Twelve Devotional
During this season of seeking God in prayer and fasting, having extra time to meditate on the Holy Scriptures provides great strengthening. Given the worth of the Bible, it's important that our trust in its teachings not be undermined, which is why it is helpful to take a brief look at the controversial subject of "slavery" in the New Testament. A cursory reading of the New Testament could lead someone to believe that New World Slavery, as we experienced in American history, is acceptable practice for the Christian, yet other passages in the New Testament seem to condemn the practice. How do we reconcile this?December 30, 2014
Seeking God & Building Bridges
Princeton alumnus, Cambridge University MPhil, and current California Berkeley PhD student Dave Kurz grew up in a Christian home, but faith was not the center of his life until he went to college and began attending Christian Union bible courses. Hear how these experiences helped shape his beliefs and led him to earnestly seek God.
December 4, 2014
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever — 1 Chronicles 16:34
Bearing God's Name in Vain
By Nick Nowalk From ChristianUnion.org
Earlier in 2014, Christian Union Teaching Fellow Nick Nowalk delivered a plenary presentation at the Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action, on perhaps the least understood of the ten commandments. Watch the video (45:26) or listen to the audio.Read More >
Sixth Court Sanity
By R. R. RenoFrom First Things
It was a relief to read the measured, intelligent analysis of Judge Jeffrey Sutton. He wrote the majority opinion for a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel. It determined that state laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman do not violate the U.S. Constitution.Read More >
Religion in China - Cracks in the Atheist Edifice
From The Economist
The Rapid Spread of Christianity is Forcing an Official Rethink on Religion. The coastal city of Wenzhou is sometimes called China’s Jerusalem. Ringed by mountains and far from the capital, Beijing, it has long been a haven for a religion that China’s Communist leaders view with deep unease: Christianity.Read More >
Seeking God
From ChristianUnion.org
One of Christian Union's distinctives is its emphasis on a seeking God lifestyle. Learn more about the process of drawing close to God.Read More >
Multiplying Sorrows: the Folly of Idolatry
By Scott Jones From ChristianUnion.org
What do you most often wake up thinking about? When your head hits the pillow at night, where do your thoughts most often go? Such questions are helpful in identifying idols in our lives. As pastor and author Tim Keller so skillfully reminds us, what we most desire in life...Read More >
Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity
By Larry Alex Taunton From The Atlantic
When a Christian foundation interviewed college nonbelievers about how and why they left religion, surprising themes emerged.Read More >
You are Invited to Attend the NYC 2014 Benefit Event, Honoring Professor Robert P. George
From ChristianUnion.org
At the New York City Benefit Event on December 9, Christian Union will celebrate all that God is doing in students' lives at eight strategic universities and will present the Christian Leader of the Year Award to Robert P. George.
Please join us for an inspiring evening.Learn More >
Prayer Requests
Pray for the ongoing discussion of sex and spirituality at Harvard. The Christian Union faculty have spent the last two weeks addressing a wide range of topics relating to sexuality and have seen the students grow in a deeper understanding of the Gospel.
Pray for students at Dartmouth who are in the midst of their final exams. Also pray for students to continue to pursue a lifestyle of seeking God during the upcoming five-week break between quarters.
Praise the Lord for stirring up students at Brown to seek Him and for the evidence of their developing community — please pray that this would continue.
November 19, 2014
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. — Psalm 103:8-12
A Video Interview with Norm Miller
By Matt Bennett From ChristianUnion.org
At the Christian Union Benefit Event and Celebration in October, in Dallas, Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller was honored as the Texas Christian Leader of the Year. In this video (length 31:16), Norm is interviewed during the event by Christian Union's president.Watch now >
Earlybird Ticket Deadline for NYC Benefit Event Today
From ChristianUnion.org
You are invited to join us in New York City for the second of two 2014 Christian Union Benefit Events and Celebrations. The event will be in New York on December 9th, and tickets are still available. Young adult prices are available as well. Come to celebrate God's work and greatness, and hear from honoree Prof. Robert P. George, who will be honored during the event.Read More >
