Pray for Harvard Law
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Greetings from Harvard Law School!
In this monthly email, I'd love to share with you a recent article written about Christian Union Gloria Law to give you encouragement and inspiration that your support is changing lives at Harvard Law School.
Greetings from Harvard Law School!
If you’ve ever visited Harvard, any time during the year, you can go on a guided tour of the campus led at times by current students. One of the stops on the tour is the famous “John Harvard” statue in Harvard Yard. The question is then asked if anyone knows the “3 LIES” of the John Harvard statue with the inscription of “Founder” and the date 1638. This was highlighted in a well known scene in the film, The Social Network, when some men were being tested on this very question in the dead of winter. The three lies that they are referring to are these:
“And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city...” - Jonah 4:11.
You know Jonah, right? It’s the little, little book between Obadiah and Micah, that chronicles a chapter in the life of a very reluctant prophet by the same name. When you think about the story, it doesn’t reflect well upon its supposed author. But those short four chapters hold great insight into so many great themes: the character of God, justice and mercy, missions, calling, and so on.
When Harvard was first founded in 1636, one of its central bylaws was written as follows:
"Let every student be earnestly pressed to consider well that the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ who is eternal life--and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning."
In 1993, when evangelist Billy Graham asked Harvard’s president, Derek Bok, what the greatest struggle his students dealt with at the college, Bok quickly responded, “Living with emptiness.”
“The cost of salvation for us–nothing. The cost of faith–everything.”
This gospel truth dropped on our students this semester as we are studying through Genesis (which the students requested). For the past few weeks, we have been digging deep into and wrestling with the life of Abraham, from chapters 12-23. We have tracked the evolving relationship between Yahweh and Abraham, with a special focus on what we learn of who God is and what He is like. It gives us a very special view into the foundation of God’s redemptive narrative that ultimately helps us understand the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we really know the gospel–both cognitively and experientially– it transforms us, setting us free to become the image-bearers of our Creator.
God is on the move at Harvard Law! Thank you for your support and prayers. Since the start of the academic year, I have been holding weekly mentoring meetings, Bible courses, leadership lecture series, and great conversations with law school students who are seeking more of Christ in their lives.
Confusing?
Messed up?
Scary?
How about the word, extraordinary? Would you use that word to describe the reality that we are in right now? We find ourselves isolated and quarantined while we see life as we once knew it morphing in front of our very eyes. Our world is changing or, at least, it’s different in this season—introverts are flourishing in isolation, while extroverts are struggling; people are reconnecting with long lost friends virtually, while we are separated from our … friends. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve stopped watching the nightly news program because I don’t want to hear these words again — “Another record-breaking number of deaths in the last 24 hours…” But that’s the reality that we are living in currently.
‘Keep it simple, stupid’ was something I had never heard before I took a preaching class at seminary. I’m not sure if it qualifies to be one of the true “great” preaching mantras, or leadership mantras, but it gets its point across. Dr. Haddon Robinson, my preaching professor, used to say to us homiletical plebes, things like, “If it’s foggy in the pulpit, it’s cloudy in the pews!”, or “If you can’t say it in 25 minutes, you won’t know how to say it in 45.”