From rshadian@hawaii.edu Mon Dec 9 19:22:10 1996 Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 19:20:00 -1000 From: Ritchard Shadian To: Chi Alpha Subject: The Brotherly, Volume FA96, Issue 8 ### # # ### # ### ## # # # ### ####### ###### ###### ####### ## ## ####### ###### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ###### ####### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ####### ##### ## ## ## ###### ####### ##### ## ## ## ####### ###### ## ## ## ###### ####### ###### ## ### ## ## ## ## ###### ## ## ## ## ## ## ###### ### ####### ## ## ###### ## ## ## ####### ## ## ###### ### _ THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I AT MANOA CHI ALPHA CHAPTER ______________________________________________________________________________ DECEMBER 9, 1996 VOLUME FA96 ISSUE NO. 8 ______________________________________________________________________________ I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 ******************************************************************************* It's beginning to look a lot like the end of the year. Cold weather and hard tests. We have so much in store for us in the next couple of weeks. Forgive my lack of humor in this issue; I'm afraid that crunch time has had a negative effect on my creativity. By the way, this is going to be the last Brotherly issue for this semester. They will start coming again shortly after the beginning of Spring '97. If you want me to remove you from next semester's mailing list, let me know. ----------------- | ANNOUNCEMENTS | ----------------- FAREWELL AND ADIEU ------------------ Here's the latest on the Chi Alpha Bye-bye Banquet. It will be on Friday night, 6:30 pm, at the Philip Paulo Italian Restaurant on Beretania Avenue. For those who need rides, meet at Chi Alpha Corner at 6:00 pm. Note that this is meant to be a semi-formal affair, so dress kind of nice. TAKE ME TO THE WELL! -------------------- Have any of the following thoughts crossed your mind during finals week: "I wish there was a quieter or cooler place to study." "Am I the only one with a Friday final? My neighbors are so inconsiderate." "I'm gonna need some prayer for this one." "Is there somewhere I can study with other Christian students?" "An espresso sounds really nice right now." If so, hop on over to Jacob's Well. The Baptist Student Union, on the corner of University and Vancouver Drive (across the street from the BusAd building), will be open Sunday Dec 15 through Thursday Dec 19, from 9pm to 1am for all students. They provide quiet study rooms and free coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks to assist you in your late night cram sessions. CHI ALPHA OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK ------------------------------ For those of you who are staying here during the holidays, there will be Chi Alpha general meetings over the winter recess, however long that turns out to be. Meetings will still be Fridays at 7:00 pm, but will be meeting at the Hope Chapel Honolulu church office, University Square suite #215. University Square is on the corner of University and King, and the office is in the left wing of the second floor. MAKING PLANS ------------ There will be a temporary hiatus in the planning meetings during the break. The next one will be on January 6, 1997, 7:00 pm, at the Hope Chapel Honolulu office. Thereafter they will continue every other week at the regular time and place (Fridays, 6:00pm, Kuykendall 210). CORPORATE CHILD SPONSORSHIP --------------------------- Compassion International is a Christian organization devoted to feeding the hungry and sharing the word of God to poor families in nations worldwide. Chi Alpha has decided to sponsor a child through them. Our child is a 6-year-old girl from Ethiopia named Tigist Testaye. For only a couple dollars a month, you can help this child grow up strong with a love of God. If you wish to assist please contact Gaby. (Her email address is canaguby@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu). The more people we have committed to this cause, the more support we can offer Tigist. BORN IN THE MONTH WHICH GIVES BIRTH TO THE YEAR ----------------------------------------------- Lisa 1/17 Flover 1/27 _______________________________________________________________________________ ------------ | FEATURES | ------------ COST OF DISCIPLESHIP Excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship" commenting on the story of the rich young ruler in Matt. 19:16-22 : If, as we read our Bibles, we heard Jesus speaking to us in this way today, we should probably try to argue ourselves out of it like this: "It is true that the demand of Jesus is definite enough, but I have to remember that He never expects us to take his command legalistically. What He really wants me to have is faith"....Jesus may have said, "sell thy goods," but He meant "Do not let it be a matter of consequence to you that you have outward prosperity; rather keep your goods quietly, having them as if you had them not. Let not your heart be in your goods"-- We are excusing ourselves from single- minded obedience to the word of Jesus on the pretext of legalism and a supposed preference for an obedience "in faith". The difference between ourselves and the rich young man is that he was not allowed to solace his regrets by saying:"never mind what Jesus says, I can still hold onto my riches, but in a spirit of inner detachment. Despite my inadequacy I can take comfort in the thought that God has forgiven me my sins and can have fellowship with Christ in faith." But he went away sorrowful. Because he could not obey, he could not believe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME FORWARDED EXHORTATIONS You can know all the secrets to the Christian life, but if you are not closely intimate in your relationship to God, it doesn't mean anything. You can believe God can do anything and is all powerful, but if your relationship is lagging, you'll never see it. You can know God wants to use you in His mighty ways all over the world, but if you are as close to God as Cambodia is to Florida, you are going to be benched on the church pew the rest of your days. You will never find your significance outside of your relationship with God. If church is the only time you come in contact with God, then you probably aren't going to be who God wants you be. There is so much cleansing that God wants to do in our lives that can never happen if we don't get next to Him. It is not the will of God for you to have the same sinful thought patterns, for you to be constantly tormented by the same torments over and over, it isn't God's will that you be in bondage to bad habits or to anything that isn't Him. There is nothing aside from Him. Get into the discipline of spending time with God. He has so much to share with you. He wants to be your best friend. What do you want? ################################################################# "The sixth deadly sin is named by the Church _acedia_ or _sloth_. In the world it calls itself tolerance; but in hell it is called despair. It is the accomplice of the other sins and their worst punishment. It is the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, and remains alive only because there is nothing it would die for. Dorothy Sayers, _The Whimsical Christian_ (New York: Macmillan, 1978), pp.175-176 _______________________________________________________________________________ Until the next wave of issues, let me bid you a fond farewell, for a short time. Of course, I'm not opposed to someone producing a winter issue. If you want to do this, let me know. In Christ, Ritchard (rshadian@Hawaii.Edu) ============================================================================== Mailing list address: chi_alpha@Hawaii.Edu World Wide Web page: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rshadian/chialpha/homepage.html