GroshLink

As I mentioned yesterday with my post Starting 2012 Ahead: Overview, our family desires to be good stewards of our time on the mission field by focusing on equipping for outreach and being engaged in outreach instead of fund development. I know that many of our sponsors agree that significant conversations with students, emerging scholars, faculty, and health care professions is where our time and energy should be directed. To assist you in directing your prayers, here is our December Prayer Calendar. Please feel free to distribute among friends, family, small groups, local congregations, prayer ministries, etc. For those in South Central PA, please mark your calendar so you don't miss the upcoming special events:

• 12/12 InterVarsity Breakfast: When it is always winter and never really Christmas
  • Robert Ives, retired from the pastorate (pastor emeritus of Grantham Brethren in Christ Church) and from teaching at Messiah College.
  • 6:30 am, Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church, Elizabethtown, PA

• 2/13-16 Christian Author Series: "After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World is Shaken"
  • Kent Annan, Haiti Partners
  • 2/13 (6 pm, Elizabethtown Public Library, Elizabethtown, PA): Kick-off to a series which will focus upon campuses in South Central PA. "After Shock"/"Helping Haiti" 1/4 page invitation. "After Shock"/"Helping Haiti" 8.5 x 11 poster.

• 2/19 Christian Scholar Series: Embracing Grace 
  • Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University, Chicago, IL
  • Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church, Elizabethtown, PA

• 3/15, A Night with the Inklings: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship dessert & Christian Scholars gathering
  • David C. Downing, R. W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College & author of several books on C.S. Lewis. 
  • David will speak on the interaction between the fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien AND the fruit/value of conversation among Christian Scholars
  • Doors open at 6:30 pm. Program begins at 7 pm.
  • Acorn Farms, Mount Joy, PA

12/16/2011: Updated with "After Shock"/"Helping Haiti" Materials.

In order to start 2012 ahead of the game finanically and focus on outreach instead of fundraising, I'm beginning a ministry update series which will run periodically through the end of the calendar year.

The below material is taken from our December email update. If you are not on this list, but desire to receive our monthly email, please let us know.

If you desire to give a year end gift and/or join the regular support team, on-line giving is available here.

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What is your Favorite Meal of the Day?

2nd Breakfast

The younger two wake me up early, which means that I have a breakfast sometime during the 6th hour. As such I'm ready to eat by mid-morning. I truly enjoy this time of grazing, which reveals my Hobbit nature ;) By-the-way, have you been following my Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series?

Eariler posts in the Monday Question Series: What's in a name?, Bringing back 1990's?, Favorite Holiday?

. . . Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. . . .

Lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world,
grant them eternal rest. . . .

Probably non-traditional, but I'm beginning Advent by reflecting upon Dies irae (Mozart's Requiem, English translation posted here). I am inspired by the hope- and joy-filled performance by a spontaneously formed choir and orchestra called RMP (Resistenza Musicale Permanente - Permanent Musical Resistance), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-1hDQpNz5s. I read that this occured at a huge gathering against the exploitation of women (Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 2/3/2011). 

On Monday, December 12, Tom will host a breakfast with Robert Ives, Ph.D. (Ecclesiastical History, Manchester University, England). 

When it is always winter and never really Christmas: Jesus' birth and the Harried Christmas Racket.
Monday, December 12, 6:30 am
Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church, Elizabethtown, PA

RSVP by Thursday, December 8 on the Facebook event page or by contacting the Groshes.

The program will also include student testimonies and an invitation to invest in the work to which God has called Tom & Theresa Grosh IV as part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Abstract:

CS Lewis had a long dislike for what he called "Xmas", the secular part of Christmas, the buying of gifts and the sending of cards, which he called a distraction from celebrating the birth of Jesus in a manger. But there are other sides to his view of the real Christmas. In the years following World War II, many Americans would send Lewis food packages at Christmas. Those he was always thankful for, and he would share the food with friends at the college. And then, of course, there are the scenes in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' where it is always winter and never Christmas, until Aslan returns, and Father Christmas arrives. How shall we put all this together?

In case you're not already familiar with our speaker: Bob is retired from the pastorate (pastor emeritus of Grantham Brethren in Christ Church) and from teaching at Messiah College. As a pastor, speaker, and teacher, he has given significant attention to the work of C.S. Lewis.

By God's grace, Bob moved from church goer to follower of Christ through InterVarsity's ministry at Drexel. While attending Fuller Seminary, he worked as an InterVarsity staff person and met Nancy (his wife) at Campus by the Sea (an InterVarsity camp). To return to the student world some of what it had given him, Bob has spent his years of ministry in the context of higher education. He served students at Boston's Park Street Church, Philadelphia's 10th Presbyterian Church, and the Campus Church at Messiah College. In addition, Bob has been a great encouragement to our labors in South Central PA. What a joy to partner across the generations of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's ministry. To God be the glory!

PS. If you're in the area, please mark your calendar for Thursday, March 15, 6:30 pm, Acorn Farms, when we'll host an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship dessert and Christian Scholars gathering with David C. Downing, Ph.D., R. W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College & author of several books on C.S. Lewis. You may remember David launched our Christian Author Series at Elizabethtown Public Library by speaking on his newly released novel Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel (2010).

Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” -- Ruth 4:9-12

A Scripture text which shouted out to me while writing Finding Calcutta: Where am I now? Is this my calling? for the Emerging Scholars Network Blog -- based on a Sunday School which explored Mary Poplin's Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service (InterVarsity Press. 2008). Reminded of it as we celebrate and live daily a life of Thanksgiving. To God be the glory!

"Now you are in for it at last, Bilbo Baggins," he said to himself. "You went and put your foot right in it that night of the party, and now you have got to pull it out and pay for it! Dear me, what a fool I was and am!"

Let's consider the dragon as metaphor. As such have you ever faced a situation where you could relate to Bilbo Baggins? One second thought, maybe we shouldn't consider the dragon a metaphor. Maybe we view the Middle-earth as a little too extraordinary.

Earlier posts: Bedtime Hobbit Reading, Sticking to the Path, launch, Barrel-riders, Gollum. 

To begin what Lord willing will neither be a Black Friday nor a consumeristic pre-Christmas frenzy for your family. May today be instead a day of rest and light focused upon the Person of Christ and the Kingdom of God. To God be the glory!

As we prepare for Thanksgiving and live a life of thanksgiving every day . . .

To God be the glory!

Yes, the Advent Conspiracy, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IN0W3gjnNE, is once again afoot in our house. How about yours? Ready for Sunday, November 27 . . . 

At Friday dinner I shared with my family my passion for our focus to be upon giving thanks to God the Father for His good gifts (AND great gift of His Son followed by the Holy Spirit within each follower of Christ in the amazing Body of Christ) not only during Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany BUT each and every day. I shared how countercultural this will be at school, in relationship to the media (internet, TV, radio, etc), and in some ways to our very core. We prayed for a heart of thankfulness and praise. We invite you to pray for us and join with us.

On Saturday, a friend passed along Il Divo - Amazing Grace / RUS, http://vimeo.com/2021830, as an encouragement to our family. We share the excellent gift with you. To God be the glory!

.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. -- Acts 4:32-35 

A Scripture text which shouted out to me while writing for the Emerging Scholars Network Blog on Mary Poplin's Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service (InterVarsity Press. 2008). The text continues to be a key part of how I understand small and large groups of the people of God. To God be the glory!

If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that I've shared a lot of thoughts on the current situation at State College. This is an attempt to collate the material (with some editing) in one place. More thoughts brewing. Future posts will focus on particular topics, e.g.,

• Legacy, subject of my most recent Emerging Scholars Network Blog post Finding Calcutta: What is my Legacy? (11/17/2011).
• The confusion of "post-Christians" when attempting to define good and evil AND address the mixed presence of good and evil.
• What's the cost of truthtelling and how do we discern what is true?

11/17/2011

Mayor Ravenstahl calls for Franco Harris to quit as Pittsburgh Promise board chairman: Another hard to read announcement. Praying for the board's decision. Comments after I hear news of the board's decision. Note: Saleem Ghubril, founder of the Pittsburgh Project, is now the executive director of Pittsburgh Promise. Some of my friends from 'da Burgh will remember several retreats and urban plunges which were in partnership with Pittsburgh Project. Several friends and acquaintances are still on staff. Theresa and I love receiving their updates. Keep them coming :)

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My co-adventurer in The Hobbit or There and Back Again has two favorite moments from the book. As with Bilbo in his conversation with Smaug, barrel-riding came to the top, but riddles with Gollum came in a close second! 

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down. -- J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit: or There and Back Again. Revised Edition. Ballantine Books. 1994, 77-78).

Do you remember the answer to the riddle? I'll give you as much time as you need, even if it's until Andy Serkis' reprise as Gollum.

Earlier posts: Bedtime Hobbit Reading, Bedtime Hobbit Reading: Sticking to the Path, Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series launch, Friday Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series: Barrel-riders.

The other day Eden visited the eye doctor and her eyes are doing well. She continues to practice closing her left eye and is making great progress, so much so that she was eager to show her eye doctor. Eden's eye doctor found her eyes to be "very healthy" and her vision stable. As such she does not need to go back to eye patching and she does not need to go back to her eye doctor for six months. To God be the glory!

Pray for continued healing. Pray for perseverance with practising the closing of her left eye. As you may remember, Eden receives eye drops every two hours to moisten her eye and she received glasses when she was 2.5 years old.

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:14-16 NIV).

As I posted on Facebook with regard to the Rock Center with Brian Williams - Jerry Sandusky to Bob Costas in exclusive 'Rock Center' interview . . .

Hard to listen to. Hard to watch. After his interview of Sandusky, Bob Costas mentioned the confusion felt by fans/alumni who know that Joe Paterno & Penn State's football program have blessed many. Good and evil mix in such astounding ways. Accountability and confession over a decade ago, coming from a number of sources, would have changed the present Penn State campus in so many ways!

As my pastor shared on Sunday:

1. Nothing is ever completely hidden [even if one's lifetime, there is judgment beyond]. 
2. Guard the entrance of your mind [a point I found convicting].
3. Flee evil desires [Amen! May it be so in my life!].
4. Let us live as people of the Light [To God be the glory!]. Join me in yearning for, crying out for, & living lives aligned with the new heavens & new earth.

A compilation of my various postings on the situation at Penn State University coming . . .

Fascinating piece on how new credit card technology makes it easier to buy and steal in the mall. At the end of the piece there is hope for those how carry credit cards on Black Friday (which is just around the corner!), http://youtu.be/bUz6oe6AlFs. . . .

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love.Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. -- Romans 12:1-13

A Scripture text which shouted out to while writing for the Emerging Scholars Network Blog on Mary Poplin's Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service (InterVarsity Press. 2008). To God be the glory!

My co-adventurer in The Hobbit or There and Back Again has two favorite moments from the book. As with Bilbo in his conversation with Smaug, barrel-riding came to the top:

I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. . . .

I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. . . .

I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me. . . .

I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider.' -- J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit: or There and Back Again. Revised Edition. Ballantine Books. 1994, p. 221).

But I agree with Smaug, let's not let our imagination get away :)

Earlier posts: Bedtime Hobbit Reading, Bedtime Hobbit Reading: Sticking to the Path, Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series launch.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats -- the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill -- The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it -- and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained--well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. -- J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit: or There and Back Again. Revised Edition. Ballantine Books. 1994, 1-2).

Seeking to pull together a Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series¹ to bring attention to some highlights of my most recent journey, accompanied by one of my girls (with whom I'm opening The Lord of the Rings). Tune back tomorrow for the beginning of the regular Bedtime Hobbit Reading Series :)

¹Earlier posts: Bedtime Hobbit Reading and Bedtime Hobbit Reading: Sticking to the Path.

• Introduction
  • Salt, light for a different world.
  • Agents of godly change, kingdom builders
  • Investment of millions of dollars, but what has it accomplished?
    • On the face of it, not much . . . on the balance, a flop . . . the business model has failed . . . it hasn't delivered and yet it keeps asking for money.
    • When faced with the idealism of the young to give their lives, what do we tell them? How do we guide them?
      • The dominant ways are almost entirely wrong. They not only do not, but cannot work. They undermine what Christians hold to be true.
  • Outline
    • Summary of three leading Christian paradigms
    • Challenges we face as all three misconstrue the fundamental challenge of our time
    • Sketch a new paradigm
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“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” - Deitrich Bonhoeffer. Cost of Discipleship

As a seminary student (Evangelical), parent, and one who equips followers of Christ in their vocation, I've been reflecting on "Our Mission to Theological Educate," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKPxZVoQo_0 (Timothy Tennent, President of Asbury Seminary, 9/11/2011 Convocation). I encourage you to do likewise, becoming deep, thick, and different with the people of God.

At a recent Penn State Hershey Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA social, we gathered into groups and chatted through a list of questions. I really enjoyed the time, so I'm passing along the experience to you . . . more questions coming :)

Do you know what you name means?

Thomas means twin.

I came across a site with lots of name info. If you're interested swing by: http://www.behindthename.com. The link for Thomas is http://www.behindthename.com/name/thomas :)

For more on naming, check out my recent Emerging Scholars Network blog post, Finding Calcutta: Jesus’ Call to Us – “Follow Me.”