New Covenant Fellowship - Glendora, Calif.

bible
Verse of the Month
Galatians 5:15-17:

¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

N.T. Wright
Commentary
10 Trends Shaping 2012

Speaking at Fuller Seminary’s Sacramento campus on December 1, 2011, Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright (pictured) outlined ten trends that are shaping and will continue to reorder the world in which Christians have to live, preach and teach the Gospel.

Here they are, with a few of my own sources added in.

It's the Master...

A review of Dick Van Dyke's recent bio ("My Lucky Life in and out of Show Business") in the intellectually attuned Christian publication "Books and Culture" reveals comedian Dick Van Dyke as an actively involved member of Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and as a Sunday school teacher in a Dutch Reformed Church while appearing on Broadway.

The reviewer was surprised that such heavy hitters as theologians Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer appear in Dick's account.

Alcohol and smoking were both conquered in turn and he was loyal to his wife till her death at age 76. "All you need is love" was and is his main Christian credo and surely Van Dyke's love for his craft shines through in almost everything he attempted for lo these many years.

***

Bob Wieland

Called "Mr. Inspiration" by President Reagan, Bob Wieland lost his legs in Vietnam helping another solider to the helicopter.

Almost left for dead in 1969 he rebounded to learn to walk on his hands – and did he ever walk. He crossed America on his hands in three years, eight months and six days.

A sought-after motivational speaker, he told Coach Harry Sneider "The best Vitamin in the world is Vitamin B-I-B-L-E." He's still at it, power-biking across the country as we write, advertising the cause of the vets and the physically challenged.

2012
Sermon
Christians and Money

Ah, money!

What a subject. Especially now, when the proposed US budget deficit weighs in at 3.8 trillion.

Money was a subject Jesus referenced constantly – treasure in the field, the widow’s two copper coins, “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Jesus spoke about missing silver pieces, the hunt for precious pearls, vineyards, servants and masters, generous fathers and cruel debtors, day laborers looking for work, etc.

January is Stewardship Month in many churches. So how do we address the sometimes thorny subject of giving to a church or Christian ministry?