Here's a neat opportunity to take a graduate level bible class for a low cost:

Beginning tomorrow night, Dr. John Harrison’s graduate class “Preaching the Parables of Jesus” will be open to the public from 7:30pm-9pm. Over the next 6 weeks on Tuesday evenings, Dr. Harrison will be focusing on these well-loved teachings of Jesus and will provide new and valuable insight that can be used when teaching and preaching from these texts. Anyone interested is welcome: ministers, Bible class teachers, church leaders, etc. Cost is just $40 inclusive of all 6 weeks and can be paid in cash, check, or credit card. Please email Josh Bailey (josh.bailey@oc.edu) with any questions or call 405-425-5389.

I want to share a blog post with you from a church planter in Vancouver, Washington who is likely dying of cancer. I find his testimony and the reflections he makes about Christian hope to be spot on. I hope you will be blessed by his thoughts.

May God be gracious to us and bless us 
   and make his face to shine upon us, 
                         Selah

that your way may be known on earth, 
   your saving power among all nations. 
Let the peoples praise you, O God; 
   let all the peoples praise you!

  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, 
   for you judge the peoples with equity 
   and guide the nations upon earth. 
                         Selah

Let the peoples praise you, O God; 
   let all the peoples praise you!

  The earth has yielded its increase; 
   God, our God, shall bless us. 
God shall bless us; 
   let all the ends of the earth fear him!

The Supreme Court's landmark decision legalizing abortion in America was delivered on January 22, 1973. Many churches observe a "Sanctity of Life" Sunday every year in observance of this landmark case, and they use it as a reminder that because of the Christian confession that life begins at conception, abortion should be prohibited.

In thinking through this issue, I found the following article by Dr. Albert Mohler helpful. He writes:

"Abortion is now America’s most common surgical procedure performed on adults. As many as one out of three women will have at least one abortion. In some American neighborhoods, the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births. Most Americans will pay little attention to the 38th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to arrange the killing of the unborn life within her. Since that decision was handed down, more than 50 million babies have been aborted, at a rate of over 3,000 each day. One of the most chilling aspects of all this is the sense of normalcy in American life. Abortion statistics pile up from year to year, and each report gets filed. Moral sentiment on the issue of abortion has shifted discernibly in recent years, as ultrasound images and other technologies deliver unquestionable proof that the unborn child is just that — a child. Nevertheless, the larger picture of abortion in America is basically unchanged.

Richard Gaffin, WTJ 38.3 (1975), 299:

How many believers today understand themselves with the apostle as those “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor 10:11)?

How many experience that they are members of God’s eschatological kingdom not only at hand but already present?

How many grasp with some perception of its vast implications that in the interim between the resurrection and return of Christ the existence of the church in the world is determined by the overlapping tension between this age and the age to come?

Richard Gaffin, JETS 41.4 (1998), 585:

How many believers today recognize that the present work of the Spirit within the Church and in their lives is of one piece with God’s great work of restoring the entire creation, begun in sending his Son “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) and to be consummated at his return?

How many Christians grasp that in union with Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the Christian life in its entirety is essentially and necessarily resurrection life?

How many comprehend that in terms of Paul’s fundamental anthropological distinction between “the inner” and “outer man” (2 Cor 4:16), between “heart” and “body,” believers at the core of their being will never be any more resurrected than they already are?

Richard Gaffin, By Faith, Not by Sight (2006), 75:

Are you ready to be Courageous?

Here in the education ministry at Alameda, we're gearing up for an exciting Courageous Men's Weekend and churchwide viewing of the powerful movie Courageous coming up in February! We will reveal more details about that very soon. In the mean time, I invite everyone to be in prayer for our Courageous Men's Weekend and for the lives that will be impacted and sharpened through this great event.

To get ready for our event, the Resource Center is offering five different resources that complement our upcoming churchwide Courageous movie viewing and Courageous Men's Weekend. All these resources are being offered "at-cost" for $10 and note that there are resources for both men and women: 

7 PM (MIDWEEK SERVICE):

"Emanating Emmanuel: The Light of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures"

Led by Dr. Charles Rix in Room 186 

As we look to Jesus—Emmanuel: God With Us—it is helpful to remember that Jesus came into a social, political, economic, and religious context. He appeared in the flow of a long and tortured relationship between God and "God's chosen people." He lived as a divine manifestation of the heart of God towards the marginalized. He interacted and taught among the many conflicted faces of the Hebrew faith, and he challenged the tyranny of "empire" with a kingdom that was "not of this world." Our study of "Emanating Emmanuel" prepares us to see the world into which Jesus came. The class will enable us to see with greater clarity the heart of God as manifest in the Hebrew scriptures and enable us to understand the world into which Jesus came to show us the Father.

Hi, friends!

Every year, Christianity Today magazine puts out its "best of" reading list for Christian book titles published in the previous year. They just released their newest list and I thought I'd share it with you:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/january/2012-book-awards.html

The title are broken down by categories, which makes it easy to see what titles you might be interested in by category.

Here's hoping that 2012 will reward you with some time now and then to read a good book.

Peace,

Matt

P.S. There are only two copies of The Story left in the Resource Center. If you still want a copy of this great daily bible reading resource, grab your copy this Sunday!

From time to time I'm asked about apologetics, the branch of theology which concerns itself with the defense of the Christian faith. Usually people who ask me about it are interested in good books to read in order to learn to better defend their faith. As a rule, I have a "handful" of five great apologetics ministries that I will point people towards. These ministries publish a variety of good books, podcasts, and video instructions that I think will usually benefit people.

In no particular order, here they are:

• Reasonable Faith with William Lane Craig
• Stand to Reason with Greg Koukl
• Risen Jesus with Mike Licona
• Ravi Zacharias International Ministries with Ravi Zacharias
• The Biologos Forum

Tis' the season for BIble reading plans to start appearing! I hope you'll consider how you'll make God's word a bigger part of your life in the coming year...

There are a number of great reading plans. Many of these assembled here are from Justin Taylor, a vice president of editorial at Crossway publishing. Many of our own bible reading plans at Alameda can be accessed here.

• Matthew Dowling's blog
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