Christian Resources, Winter 2021

WANDER IN WONDER

Take a winter walk.  Notice the sights and sounds around you.  Pray.

 

LISTEN & LEARN

Join the free, lecture and cultural arts January Series from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI from January 6, 2021 to January 22, 2021. In its 34th year, this leading series is completely virtual in 2021. Check out these national speakers and their books, including Andy Crouch, Tara Westover...

Registration is required but free in order to receive the link for each presentation. All presentations are live at 12:30 to 1:30 EST. You can also listen anytime that day; then the link times out.

Go to: calvin.edu/january Click: Register

WATCH The 2019/2020 story of Jesus, free on YouTube:  The Chosen.  Season One.  All 8 Full Episodes
Watch for more in 2021 @ Crestview, facilitated by Loel McIntosh.

NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE STUDY GUIDES
Looking for a blend of readable but scholarly background information and discussion questions for yourself or your Bible study group?  Why not use the eBook series in Hoopla from your public library,  
N. T. Wright FOR EVERYONE BIBLE STUDY GUIDE SERIES.

Here’s how it works.   If you have a library card for the MidPointe Library System in Butler County, OH, create a free Hoopla account from their website.  Download the app on your device. Then search and download the guide that interests you.

READ 

Christianity Today’s 2021 Book Awards, “Our picks for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” December 14, 2020

LOCAL CHRISTIAN RADIO

93.3.  WAKW

93.7   WFCJ

104.3 WNLT

Contact the Adult Christian Team @ Crestview Church to learn more.

Parenting at Christmas

Our lives take surprising turns.  We don't know what lies ahead.  This is especially true in parenting.

We idealize what having a baby will be like.  A couple starts down that road.  Sometimes birth is textbook easy.  Sometimes parenting begins as a prolonged, expensive, frustrating bout with infertility.  Sometimes tears flow over a miscarriage or stillbirth.  Eventually, miraculously a child is born and joins our family.

We relate to the Christmas story of a young couple, Mary and Joseph, traveling while pregnant.  Conditions were difficult as the couple broke cultural norms.  The trip was risky and lodging was hard to find.  Jesus, their firstborn son was born in Bethlehem, far from home.  They learned to trust God and one another even as shepherds, angels, and magi arrived to rejoice over their son's birth.  

Parenting stretched their faith, as it does ours.  As parents, we act out of love and with courage when called upon.  Jesus was delivered in a stable in a strange city.   (Lk 2:7)  Shortly thereafter the new family fled to Egypt to escape Herod's threat to kill their son, seen as a threat to the throne.  (Matt. 2:13).  During his teen years, the couple panicked when Jesus went missing after celebrating Passover in Jerusalem.  (Lk 2:40-42)  Ultimately, Mary suffered grievously as she watched her son die as a criminal on a Roman cross.  

We mature and change through learning to love a new life.  As demands are made upon us, we learn to sacrifice and serve, to persevere and  provide.  We serve as safety nets when life circumstances endanger our beloved children.  

Why?  When we create new life and watch over a child, we experience blessing.  Our days as parents are filled with deep joy and rich memories which dispel the fear.  Faith in the future with God wins out.

Take a moment to listen to  Mary Did You Know.  Voxtave feat. Mark Lowry. Nov. 4, 2016

Practice Thanksgiving

What matters most to you?  What core values undergird your daily choices?  What gives meaning to your life?  Give thanks for those very important people, places, events, experiences, and ideals.  They counter the alarms that ring in your head and in our stressful world. 

Keep a gratitude journal.  Practice writing 3 things you observe or experience each day, that you are glad about.  Anything that causes you to pause and appreciate, smile, laugh over, or delight in like a beautiful sunset or an affirming conversation.

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  Phil 4:8

Yes, we all experience stressors in our lives: the Covid-19 pandemic, disputed elections, holiday cautions, unemployment, illness, broken relationships...  Perhaps jotting nightly in a stress journal would prove helpful as a first step in managing stress?  What crisis, heartache, discord, need, or unsolved problem is weighing on you now?  Will you release it to God who loves you unconditionally?  He knows what to do.  He is mighty to save.  His timing is perfect. 

"Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."  I Pet. 5:7

Hope Emerges from Struggle

Look up to see the maple's red leaves against the blue sky.  Look up to see the shining stars against the black velvet night.  

God spoke the world into existence.  He is bigger than any rocky problem you are facing today.  Keep reminding yourself of that truth. 

Admittedly life can get sad and scary.  When Humpty Dumpty falls from the wall,  life gets messy.  We wonder how and who will put it back together again.  

That's when we need to pull back, slow down, and simplify.  

Cleaning a closet is a process.  Pulling everything out to reorganize, produces piles of stuff everywhere, at first.  Carry on.  Do the next thing.  Wash the walls, patch and paint, choose thoughtfully what goes back in.  Select the stuff that needs to be donated or trashed.  Because as we all know, we can easily become bogged down with old stuff that no longer fits our present life.

Pursuing healing change in habits and relationships is harder still.  Sometimes we need help to make these monumental course corrections.  Ask.  Do the hard work.  Seek abundant life starting now, right where you are.  Jesus promises his presence, power, and peace, no matter how messy the process. 

"And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew. 28.20   

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Changing Plans on Rainy Days

The beauty of a rainy day is that you can ease up just a bit.  Slowing down to listen to rain pattering on the roof or watching drops slide down window glass is soothing somehow.  Making a favorite hot drink to sip improves the moment.  Be aware.  Be present.  Be receptive to God.  Listen.

Sometimes we Americans rush into the day, believing that productivity and performance matter most.  What can I check off my To-Do-List?  Daily goals help to move us forward, but we need not be bound by them.  

Sometimes changing plans free us to be somewhere unexpected with someone unknown. How open are we to the hand of God rearranging our schedules and our lives? 

• Do we complain at our treatment as did Elijah after battling the prophets of Baal?
• Do we refuse the mission and run like Jonah?  
• Do we submit like Mary, mother of Jesus?  
• Do we stop on the road like Paul to discard the life of persecutor to become the evangelist?  

What does embracing God's mission look like for you in this time of global pandemic?  When nations spin information and struggle to provide food, shelter, education, and jobs, what does your neighbor need from you today?  

Could you sit and listen to someone's doubts and fears?  Could you pray, call, send a card, or share a word of encouragement or forgiveness?  Do the people in your world need laughter or a helping hand or something else entirely?

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance."  1 Pet. 1.2

"... though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Pet. 1.6

Fall Gardening

 

Dedicated to Janet.

It is good to be outdoors in the sunshine, doing good work among plants.  Gardens can be peaceful places of quiet and beauty.  Wearing old, comfortable garb is one of the perks.  You may rearrange pots and plants to create a new look in a familiar space.  Creativity springs to life.  Perhaps you'll be inspired to pull out paper and paints?

Forget the techno stress of the printer that no longer prints.  Absorb beauty.  Look skyward for soaring hawks. Listen to chirping crickets and woodpeckers. Watch squirrels dash about hiding nuts. Exhale stress.  Inhale peace.  

If you're the type who likes thrills and mysteries, gardening is what you want.  There is the surprise skunk sauntering along the patio at dusk.  There are deer tracks by missing blossoms.  If you prefer a challenging workout, try digging up a stump with shovel and hatchet or cutting down a hillside of weeds gone wild.  Build physical stamina and perseverance; gardeners are hearty folk after all.

In these autumn months, don't miss out on the joys of gardening:  burying bulbs around the yard, trimming trees, and the like.  

We are made in God's image.  God was the original gardener.  Let's follow his example, abide in him, and be fruitful this fall.

"And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed."  Gen. 2:8

Following Jesus: Resources

So growing up in Christ is one of your longings, but you’re not exactly sure how to get started or how to get back on track.

Start Reading.
Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. Henri J. M. Nouwen. 2019.
Dutch-born Catholic priest, Nouwen lived the scholar’s life of teaching at Harvard and later a servant’s life to an adult with mental disabilities in Toronto’s L’Arche community. Based on a Lenten lecture series, Nouwen encourages us to become peaceful, joyful people who rediscover how to love as Jesus does.

Go Deeper.
A Shelter in the Time of Storm. Paul David Tripp. 2015. 52 meditations on Psalm 27, a psalm of trouble and worship. Start meditating on scripture. Fill your mind with God’s truth and grace.

Pray More.
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. Timothy Keller. 2014.
Become a person who prays. Your prayers will become more personal and powerful as you practice. Because Keller carried the weight of church leadership and faced the personal trial of cancer, he is an experienced guide in practicing prayer.

Get Grounded.
Register for a 6 week foundational theology course at Crestview, starting October 11 - November 15, 2020 at Crestview. Participants receive a copy of Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know by Wayne Grudem. 2005.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect Romans 12:2

Contact Adult Education Team members at Crestview to learn more.
Beth Tumbleson. 9/22/20