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Family Notes - 7/28/2010
Edward Fudge
07/29/2010 - Trust Among Leadership | Book Notes | Quotable | Upcoming Schedule


The New Testament Church
Edward Fudge
07/25/2010 - An Advent Christian pastor writes, "I keep hearing from fellow ministers that we need to become a first-century or New Testament church. Does not the New Testament show the first-century churches to be just as fraught with problems as churches today?"


What Is Saving Faith? (2)
Edward Fudge
07/20/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What is saving faith? What does it look like? Why is it important?"


What Is Saving Faith? (1)
Edward Fudge
07/18/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What is saving faith? What does it look like? Why is it important?"


Texas Gospel Partners Needed This Weekend
Edward Fudge
07/17/2010 - This weekend is critical in Texas as Costco Wholesale Stores test two new Christian books in their Texas stores and decide whether to expand them to their stores nationwide. The books are THE DIVINE RESCUE (by me), and TALKING BACK TO GOD (by our friend Lynn Anderson).


Family Notes - 7/15/2010
Edward Fudge
07/15/2010 - Why Share Christ With People of Other Faiths? | Grace Digest on 'The Divine Rescue' | Extraordinary Faith | Highest Regard for Scripture | That 'Pause in the End of the World'


Today and Psalm 90
Edward Fudge
07/13/2010 - Today, as my personal life-clock registers the end of Year 66 and the beginning of Year 67, I can still hear "Brother [A.J. 'Jack'] Rollings," my favorite teacher at Athens (Ala.) Bible School, quoting Psalm 90:12. The verse is a prayer: "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." I have not always done that as I should, but I have never forgotten the prayer. Following are some of my meanderings with Moses as I reflect on Psalm 90.


The Pause in the End of the World
Edward Fudge
07/11/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber reacts to a recent column: "This line caught my attention, 'during this pause in the End of the world . . . .' With all that is happening what insights might you offer? I've always thought the Lord could come back in my lifetime."


Family Notes - 7/8/2010
Edward Fudge
07/08/2010 - Welcome, Mosab, to USA | Christ Entered Once | Tip of the Iceberg


Speaking God's Forgiveness
Edward Fudge
07/06/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber asks if is right to confess our sins to another human being, and whether a believer who hears our confession can speak forgiveness in the name of Christ.


The Divine Rescue Now in Costco Stores in Texas
Edward Fudge
07/01/2010 - We are happy to announce that THE DIVINE RESCUE is now in Costco discount stores throughout Texas. This is the perfect opportunity to buy in quantity at a good discount -- for gifts, classes, reading circles or discussion groups! (Your purchases in Texas will also encourage Costco to place this book in its stores nationwide.)


Book Notes - 6/29/2010
Edward Fudge
06/29/2010 - Following are my brief comments concerning some recent books in which I think you might have an interest. All are available through www.amazon.com as well as from the publishers.


Family Contentions
Edward Fudge
06/27/2010 - Three gracEmail subscribers in different states share a similar problem. All three were taught from childhood that theirs was the only true church and that their subgroup within it was the faithful remnant. God has since shown them his grace in Jesus Christ and they have rejected the sectarian spirit. Each now faces hostility and perhaps rejection from family-members whose dogmatism and Bible knowledge are in inverse proportion. One subscriber is pressured by parents; another by grown siblings; the third by a spouse. All seek advice and encouragement.


Family Notes - 6/24/2010
Edward Fudge
06/24/2010 - St. Matthew's UMC Houston | Cessation Logic Critiqued | Authentic Community | Jesus 'Is' | 'The Divine Rescue' at Lifeway


Encouragement to a Seeker - 2
Edward Fudge
06/22/2010 - A friend who is not yet a Christian but who is joyfully seeking after God tells me of budding faith and of happy anticipation in the spiritual journey. Can I say anything to encourage?"


Encouragement to a Seeker - 1
Edward Fudge
06/20/2010 - A friend who is not yet a Christian but who is joyfully seeking after God tells me of budding faith and of happy anticipation in the spiritual journey. Can I say anything to encourage?"


Family Notes - 6/18/2010
Edward Fudge
06/18/2010 - St. Matthews UMC, Houston | Palestinian Christians in Holy Land | Jesus 'Is' | 'The Divine Rescue' in Family Christian Bookstores


Moral Choices and Maturity
Edward Fudge
06/15/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber asks my thoughts concerning his church group whose leaders give detailed "advice" to the members regarding whom they may date, when, how often and so forth. The subscriber sometimes disagrees with such advice, but then he feels guilty and unspiritual.


Back to the Future
Edward Fudge
06/13/2010 - When I began writing this gracEmail, I thought it might interest only subscribers who share my own spiritual heritage in the Churches of Christ ("CoCs"). These are an association of autonomous congregations who, lacking any sort of institutional superstructure, accomplish a great deal of good nonetheless. One of three major tribes who descended from the 19th-century "Restoration Movement" ("RM") led by Barton W. Stone and the Campbells (father and son Thomas and Alexander), the CoCs traditionally tended toward isolationism and sometimes even aloofness.


God's Garden
Edward Fudge
06/11/2010 - As the Northern Hemisphere moves into Summer this month, an ancient metaphor for messianic blessing comes vividly to mind. "For as the earth brings forth its sprouts," God tells his prophet Isaiah, "and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations" (Isaiah 61:11). The good news of God's divine rescue is spreading throughout the world, drawing believers into faith communities that practice what is just and right.


Family Notes - 6/8/2010
Edward Fudge
06/08/2010 - Tennessee Ministry | Preacher Sought in Mississippi | God the Source of Being | Please Tell Your Friends! | Quotable | Subscriber's Reaction to New Book


Rejecting God's Love
Edward Fudge
06/06/2010 - A gracEmail subscriber, having read in previous gracEmails that Jesus made peace between God and the entire world, asks whether anyone can reject God's love and the reconciliation resulting from it.


God's Love Experienced
Edward Fudge
06/03/2010 - God loved human beings so much that he gave his one-and-only Son to bring our alienated world back to himself (John 3:16). That Son, whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth, also loved us so much that he laid down his life to restore us to healthy relationship with the Father (John 10:17-18). By his life and death, Jesus brought into being an objective reality that did not exist before -- a state of friendship between God and the estranged world. The gospel is the good news of this restored relationship between the Creator and his human creatures everywhere. Just as the Father loved us before he gave his Son, the Son restored our friendship with the Father before we heard about it or believed that it was true.


God Loved Like This
Edward Fudge
06/01/2010 - John 3:16 is perhaps the most memorized verse in the Bible. It begins with the familiar phrase: "For God so loved the world . . . ." The Greek word translated "so" can express both manner ("this is how God loved the world") and degree ("God loved the world this much"). God shows his love in many other ways, of course, but this is the supreme demonstration of God's love for human beings made in his image -- that he gave his Son to bring us back to himself. Whenever New Testament writers mention God's love, they most often tie it to the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. And the more we examine this expression of divine love, the greater we appreciate the extent of the Father's love for his wayward and needy children.


God's Flag Was Still There
Edward Fudge
05/30/2010 - This Monday, May 31, 2010 is Memorial Day here in the United States of America. Regardless of our antipathy to any particular conflict or even to war in general, on this national day of remembrance we honor the sacrifices of the fallen, the injured, and the families of them all. On Monday, patriotic music will fill the air. Some songs will highlight our country's natural beauty, others the virtues of its diverse and often dissonant people. Our national anthem recounts the heroics and horrors of battle, including the observation that "the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."