New Hope 4 Justice Kicks Off!

Question(s) of the bi-week: in Scripture, God clearly inclines Himself toward orphans, widows, aliens and the poor.  But these are not just ‘the other folks’; God is also talking about us.  Where do you see proof of this in His Word?  How does this change how you view ‘the other folks’?  How does this change how you view yourself?

*****

What a great evening spent with Kim (Dr. Ferguson, if you’re nasty!), brainstorming & talking into formation the New Hope 4 Justice reading group!   Through our readings, discussions and prayer times, we hope to:

• (1) gain a deeper understanding of “justice” as God sees it,
• (2) align our hearts more closely with His so that we may mirror His image more accurately in our individual & corporate lives, and
• (3) provide a stronger foundation of support & prayer for NHF’s individual & corporate activities.

New Themelios Available

Themelios is a journal published by the Gospel Coalition. Volume 34 Issue 1 is now available for your reading pleasure.

Faith & Culture Devotional

Here’s a little something interesting, called “A Faith and Culture Devotional,” containing readings in Bible & Theology, History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, Art, and Contemporary Culture.  Contributors to the book include Randy Alcorn, Kerby Anderson, Ray Bohlin, Walter Bradley, James Scott Bell, Francis Collins, William Lane Craig, John Eldredge, Keith Getty, Chris Gilbert, Sandra Glahn, Guillermo Gonzalez, Fred Harburg, Frederica Matthewes Green, Gary Habermas, Arch Hart, Bruce Herman, Walter Kaiser, Greg Koukl, Joy Jordan Lake, Catherine Larson, Rick Larson, JP Moreland, John Mark Reynolds, Hans Rookmaaker, Hugh Ross, Jody Hassett, Sanchez, R.C. Sproul, Sam Storms, Michael Strauss, Charles Thaxton, Drew Trotter, Catherine Hart Weber, James Emory White, Dallas Willard, Philip Yancey, Kelly Monroe Kullberg, and Lael Arrington.

More details from the Zondervan website after the jump …

Neuroscience and The Gospel

A recent study published in the April issue of Psychological Science features experiments on moral self-regulation. The results are interesting. Here’s a summary of one of the experiments:

In the first experiment, participants were asked to write a self-relevant story using words that referred to either their positive or negative traits.  After finishing, they were told that the research lab was interested in supporting social awareness and usually asks participants if they would like to make a small donation to the charity of their choice. Participants were told they could write down the charity and the amount they wanted to donate (note, they were not aware of any link between the story they wrote and the charity donation).  The result: participants who used positive words about themselves in their stories donated one fifth as much money as those who used negative words.  A follow-up experiment verified these results.

How does the Gospel inform your reading of these results? Does it help explain these results or should it, in theory, place Christians in a different category?

The “Perspectives” Line-Up

“Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” has started at New Hope with all the Greek catering platters, clip-art and computer sound effects one could ever hope for!  The next two classes (January 25 and February 1) are still free for anyone and everyone to come and try out.  After that, we encourage you to register as at least an Audit student, and join us on this wonderful semester-long adventure.  

This course is not about how WE are to be missionaries.  Rather, it’s about how and why GOD is a missionary God.  And if we choose to love and follow Him, and if we profess Him as our God as well, we’ve got to get on-board His Gospel train!  If you’d like more information about the course and how to become a regular “Perspectives” student, please feel free to get in touch with Jen C. and/or Grace C.  If you’d like to sit in on some of the lectures, we invite you to do so — ANY glimpse you get into God’s true heart will bless you and draw you closer to Him.  Lecture topics and guest lecturers are listed after the jump (and will continue to be updated, so check back often!).  We look forward to pursuing God with you, dear brothers and sisters!

Bible + Google = Accordance 8 [Mac only]

Greek? Hebrew? no problem!

I was looking around for some Bible study software and came across a heavy duty piece of programming, Accordance 8.  This bad boy offers a comprehensive collection of Bible translations, commentaries, maps, and other reference materials that scale all the way up to texts in the original Greek and Hebrew.  The full blown package is great for the theologian, but there are packages for those of us that don’t absolutely need to have the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The basic package starts at $50 but can quickly reach several hundred dollars, depending on the add-ons you purchase. Not necessarily cheap (as in FREE), but I’m not doing justice to the functionality of the product. Read a comprehensive review of the software here.

Should I get it?

Re-Thinking the Presence of God

A note from our brother, Raimund:

In our current Bible study, at the end of the chapter on God’s presence, the author lists 4 points about how to bring God’s presence into our lives (p65-66).  The approach Don Whitney suggests to find the presence of God is primarily a mental approach of meditating on God’s presence.

I have been re-thinking this approach to God lately.  What if we pursue God’s presence in our lives by simply living a life of faith first and then meditating on it, in that order?  I think it would help us tremendously in bringing Scripture into our lives as the living Word of God.