Graduate Christian Fellowship

How to find Mr. Right? (Happy Valentine’s Day!) By Hermeneutical Hon The Bible is a story about how God was seeking a bride for his son, says David Pawson. The Bible is the longest and greatest love letter in history.... The marriage motif is a significant thread from John 2-4. In John 2, Jesus kicks off his public ministry at a wedding in Cana by performing his first miraculous sign of changing water into wine. Wine in the Old Testament is a symbol of joy and abundance. Jesus invites his followers into a joyous celebration. Later in the Gospels, Jesus announces that wine is the symbol of his blood. He would be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29). In John 3, John the Baptist explains his role as a messenger of the Messiah: 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less. Johnny B is the wingman and the best man who points to the groovy bridegroom (Hey, I’m a product of the 60s and 70s). John 4:4 states that Jesus had to go through Samaria." Jesus stops at Jacob's well and sends his disciples into town to buy food. It doesn’t take 12 guys to buy lunch for 13. Simply, Jesus doesn’t want them around. Then a Samaritan woman comes to the well. In the Old Testament, some of the patriarchs met their wives at a well, e.g., Jacob met Rachel and Moses met his future wife. The scene in John 4 is setting up for a "marriage." Jesus asks the Samaritan woman to call her husband. But she expresses that she had no husband. Jesus knows that she had five husbands and she currently lives with a man who is not her husband. Five husbands and one man make six. In this narrative, Jesus becomes the seventh man to woo her. The number seven in the Bible is the number of completion or perfection. A traditional interpretation is that the Samaritan was a loose woman in explaining her multiple marriages. But only a man could give approval for a divorce at that time. Another explanation for the myriad of marriages is that the men used and discarded her. Jesus will not mistreat or exploit her. He is the only man who can offer her true love, satisfaction, and fulfillment: 13 Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the church is his Bride.

Historical Hon on the First Thanksgiving 1621 Eel & Turnips: An Authentic Thanksgiving Meal!!! Every food we associate with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner was not on the menu of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, according to historian R. Tracy McKenzie. ...Continue reading

Register for our virtual grad retreat today! The cost of the retreat will increase from $15 to $20 after today!! See link below for more details and registration. https://www.nycgradintervarsity.org/grad-fall-retreat.html Reposted from @ivgrad_nyc

Registration is open for our (virtual) fall retreat! Details here: https://www.nycgradintervarsity.org/grad-fall-retreat.html

Reposted from @ivgrad_nyc . . Save the date! Our fall retreat this semester will be virtual. More info will be made available on our website soon so be sure to come back and check it out.... #longingforrevival #longingforwholeness #retreat #nyc #IVgradnyc #intervarsity #christian #gradstudent #academia #gradschool #digitalministry #newnormal #moretocome #savethedate

Repost from @ivgrad_nyc . . . Welcome to our graduate student #instagram for Metro NYC area! Our Graduate Christian Fellowship provide spaces for graduate students, post-docs, fellows and faculty to encounter God, grow in friendships and community, and learn more about how the Christian faith is relevant to every aspect of our lives, including our studies and professions.... To know more about our ministry, follow us here and check our our website (link in bio) to connect with us! . . . #letsconnect #wereallinthistogether #IVgrad #nyc #IVgradnyc #intervarsity #christian #gradstudent #academia #gradschool #longingforrevival #everycorner #everycampus

Historical Hon on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn When you have a writer’s block struggling to compose coherent ideas on your computer, imagine if you have to do that research paper, thesis, or the little paper called the dissertation without a computer, internet, or even paper & pen. Imagine also you must write while doing menial, hard labor. You must compose and remember everything in your head. You may think that it can’t be done. But that’s how the writer Aleksandr Solzhenits...Continue reading

Historical Hon on Mabel Ping-Hua Lee Columbia alumna Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (1896/7-1966) was the first Chinese woman to receive a PhD in economics in the US in 1921. Along with many other female advocates for suffrage, she is honored this week in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the women’s right to vote when the states ratified the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. Check out the website [Our Story 100] www.ourstory100.com to learn about these courageous suffragette...Continue reading