Christian faculty and staff gathering on Zoom on July 22 - Letters Five - Ten from Brother Lawrence

We'll do 2 more meetings (last meeting will be 7/29) and then take a short break before the fall term. To wrap up Practicing the Presence, we'll discuss a few selections from Letters 5-10. 

Choose a book to discuss in Fall 2020 

It's that time again to think about what we'll read and discuss during the Fall 2020 term. Click the link to indicate how strongly you prefer each of the 5 books listed. 

Noon gathering 

Join us on 7/22 at 12:00 PM when we'll go through the Letters Five - Ten from Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God. We'll seek advice from one who, while maintaining a degree of isolation in his order, never lacked for companionship with God. 

You can find the work at no cost in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It's also available for free at Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive among other locations. I also formatted the Christian Classics Ethereal Library version in outline form to make the text easier to follow. 

The Zoom information is:

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) 

At our last Zoom meeting, we talked about the abundance of God's presence, and Bill Keel shared this quotation from CS Lewis: "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased" (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses). 

Speaker survey 

Are you interested in being a resource to organizations looking for Christian professionals to speak? I've been asked by some ministers if group members can speak on topics of applying faith to life. I know some of us currently speak to groups, so if you'd like to make yourself available for speaking, click the link here and provide contact information and your topic of interest. 

On 7/22:

  • 1822. Gregor Mendel was born. The Austrian monk discovered the laws of biological inheritance.
  • 1900. Chang Shen (Blind Chang) was martyred. The former alcoholic, thief, gambler, and gang member who had divorced his wife and forced his daughter into prostitution became a Christian and began preaching and gaining converts in the areas where he had lived his former life. He readily stepped forward during the Boxer Rebellion when the Boxers took 50 Christians hostage and demanded Chang Shen's surrender in exchange for their lives. He turned himself over to martyrdom.
  • 1945. Youth for Christ International was founded. Its first evangelist was Billy Graham.

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