New Covenant Fellowship - Glendora, Calif.

bible
Verse of the Month
Philippians 4:19:

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Commentary
The Trinity for the Rest of Us

Guess what?

There’s a book out there that makes sense of the Trinity Doctrine for laymen. Darrell Johnson, a preaching instructor at Fuller Theological Seminary, has given us a concise (104 pages), readable, yet doctrinally sound exposition of a core Christian belief – the Trinity.

Experiencing The Trinity keeps the average reader in view. I like that Johnson begins with relentless common sense. “Of course the Trinity isn’t simple,” Johnson concedes. It was a product of nearly three centuries of reflection on the effort to explain who and what Jesus Christ was and how he related to God the Father and they both to the Holy Spirit.

What a task! Johnson quotes C.S. Lewis: “If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier…We are dealing with fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he does not have any facts to bother about.”

Christians in Strange Places is a series of interviews and reflections by actor, writer and producer Alan Doshna and his friends.

Emma Darwin, wife of botanist and Origin of Species author Charles Darwin, has been the subject of of some interest in recent times. The upcoming film Creation, starring Jennifer Connelly as Emma (pictured), is based on a biography of her husband entitled Annie's Box.

More recently and locally, their marriage was dramatized in an original play by William S. Leavengood entitled Charley and Emma for the The Blank Theatre Company Living Room Series, at 6500 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

A Christian woman, Emma appeared as the emotional and spiritual centerpiece in the play, providing the needed support for her husband, in spite of her own uncertainty in troubled times. His conflicts with the scientific and religious communities, his own crisis of faith, a genetic weakness in his family which lead to several premature deaths as well as his own illness, were some of the burdens she had to bear. Even so, her faith and committment provided a bedrock for their family.

***

Steve McQueen, epitome of 1960s movie cool for roles such as Bullitt and the motorcycling Yank in “The Great Escape,” died of cancer. That much is known. What is not usually told is that he died with a Bible open on his chest. “One memory that continually blesses me,” writes Daniel Southern in The Message of Leadership, “is that of Steve McQueen sitting in the balcony of a California church drinking up every word of the Gospel as he carefully followed along in his Bible.”

That’s a great image. The church was most probably Hollywood Presbyterian on the very edge of tinsel-town not far from the famous Capitol Records building. According to Southern, the great actor was convinced by his quiet but humble Christian flight instructor - who never nagged him about faith and belief issues - that Christianity must have something. It does. It everlastingly does.

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"He Has a Hammer." Born-again Christian Noel Paul Stookey was "Paul" - the tall one - in the sensationally popular folk group Peter, Paul and Mary - just back in the public eye after the recent death of Mary Travers. Church pastors will remember many brides walking up the aisle to the tune of Paul Stookey's 1980s hit "There is Love." His wife is chaplain at a university.

Of course for those who were there in the early 1960s, there was always something more than a little spiritual about the trio's best work. Their signature hit with the words "I'd hammer out justice...I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land" was a pop anthem at the August 1963 March on Washington where the trio shared the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King.

Sermon
Stewardship, or 'How Much Is Your Church Really Worth?'

January was Stewardship Month in many churches, so here we are asking the question – What did we learn about the subject of giving to a church?

Ministers today are fond of saying that Stewardship involves our whole life, and that is true. Stewardship has been defined as the wise management of resources, or, in Christian terms, organizing our lives for God’s purposes. But it also involves money, and churches should never be afraid to say so.

Ah, money! What a subject. Especially now, when the proposed US budget weighs in at 3.8 trillion. Money was a subject Jesus raised constantly...