The marriage of Nael and Manar al-Najjar was forged in sugar.

Mr. Najjar grew up working in his family’s Baghdad sweet shop. When he proposed, three months after meeting his future wife at a family wedding, he traveled six hours to her hometown, carrying 15 boxes of confections: baklava, kenafeh and Turkish delights.

The couple settled in Baghdad, opened a bakery and started a family. As Catholics, though, they faced discrimination and threats of violence. When those threats turned deadly, they fled and sought asylum in America.

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"We're going to kill you," the note slipped under their door said. For Iraqi Christians whose church had just been attacked, it was no idle threat. https://t.co/X5nTDjnIOa

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) November 26, 2018

If seminary students and others want to dive into studying Hebrew, that’s wonderful, says the Rev. Matthew Richard Schlimm.

But he believes that just getting into the wading pool with that language leads to deeper understanding of the Old Testament.

Schlimm, a United Methodist elder and professor of Old Testament at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, is the author of the new book “70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know.”

Even understanding that fraction of the Old Testament’s original language can make a big difference, Schlimm maintains. In his book, he sweetens the deal by providing lots of historical and cultural background, as well as theological commentary.

“My hope is that I’m giving students of the Bible a new tool so that they spot new things in the biblical texts,” Schlimm, 41, said by phone from Iowa. “Being able to access the depth that Hebrew brings is a huge gift.”

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Advice to Christians: Learn a little Hebrew #UMChttps://t.co/UT2Qjoa0N4 pic.twitter.com/itotvI5QDu

— Rio Texas (@RioTxAC) November 21, 2018

The new app, available for iOS and Android, includes an introduction to Advent written by Bishop Sarah, who was installed as the 133rd Bishop of London at St Paul’s Cathedral on 12th May.

Bishop Sarah writes that:

“During St Paul’s Cathedral’s dramatic Advent service, a procession moves from darkness to light, mirrored by music and words, reflecting hope and despair. To appreciate the light and hope, you need to wait in the darkness. Advent is a time to be still in the midst of our busy lives. We should make space in the darkness to appreciate the light, and to find time to focus on hope.”

The app also includes a short daily Advent meditation, suitable for Christians or people on the edges of faith who wish to make the most of the season. SPCK’s most recent app, for Thy Kingdom Come 2018, was recently selected as App of the Year at the Premier Digital Awards 2018.

SPCK..[recently] released research from ComRes showing that 92% of British adults are aware of Advent, and 39% expect to do something to celebrate it….

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Bishop of London launches new app to help people get the most out of Advent https://t.co/ztyplaoQhq

— St Michaels Enfield (@stmichaelsgh) November 25, 2018

Bill: It’s easy to let evangelism take a back seat. Many churches are content shuffling sheep and luring switchers to their fold rather than catching Jesus’ Luke 15 burden for lost sheep and pursuing and penetrating lostness. On the whole, we have lost the lostness of the lost. Evangelism by and large is not a passion. It is an afterthought or a hiccup rather than the heartbeat of most churches.

We need to be awakened afresh to the beauty, power, and truth of the gospel and invite the Lord to ignite the fires of evangelism.

We need to wake up to the cultural moment we find ourselves in. It can’t be business as usual. James Emory White says, “If you build it, they won’t come!” We are now planting churches and scattering gospel seed in increasingly Post-Christian soil.

With the rise of the Nones and Dones, evangelism must involve gracious and patient explanations and powerful demonstrations of the good news.

Some of our inherited evangelism paradigms don’t serve us well in this moment we find ourselves in. We need to ditch reductionist sales pitch approaches to evangelism.

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My new article, 'Preoccupied with Love: Lifting High Evangelism Again' – An interview with Bill Hogg. "The love of God is a grand missionary motive – Paul tells us he was compelled by love."https://t.co/fqww1zOdNN

— Ed Stetzer (@edstetzer) November 27, 2018

As Baltimore was convulsed by protests in 2015 over the death of a young black man in police custody, a handful of people in the eastern US city started worrying about a related issue: food.

Thousands of demonstrators thronged the coastal city’s streets to protest the death of Freddie Gray, forcing shops and schools in some neighborhoods to close – creating sudden food deserts, particularly for many people without a vehicle.

“People didn’t have access to food,” said Darriel Harris, a Baptist preacher, noting that many in the impoverished community where the protests hit hardest ate hand to mouth, relying on convenience stores or school lunches.

“If you’re getting your food from school or if you’re getting your food from the corner stores, and then the schools and the corner stores close – then how can you eat? It became a huge issue,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In response, Mr. Harris and two others quickly began to organize, drawing on contacts who had access to farms in nearby states and bringing supplies into affected neighborhoods to distribute via a local church, one of several groups doing so.

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https://t.co/NXJq0OdqMd

— G. Jeffrey MacDonald (@gjmacdonald) November 27, 2018

The Bishop of Manchester is launching the first diocese-wide Bishop’s Mission Order on 29 November, 7.30pm at St Bride’s Church in Old Trafford. The Order will establish the Antioch Network in Manchester, which will create a network of new, small worshipping communities, with the aim of bringing more young people to faith, particularly in deprived and ethnically diverse areas.

The project will build on proven models of creating new worshipping communities in parts of the diocese over the last few years. In some exciting developments, small churches have been created where people have come to faith and been baptised, lives have been changed, and the local community has been blessed.

The Antioch Network aims to create 16 small churches (people not buildings) over six years in the poorest areas and those that currently have the lowest church attendance. The churches will typically be on estates and in communities of deprivation, some ethnically diverse and others mainly White British.

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The Anglican Diocese Tasmania notes the tabling in Parliament today of the Burial and Cremation Amendment Bill 2018.

“We acknowledge that the Government has responded to some of the community feedback, especially by not shifting the responsibility for the maintenance of monuments from families to cemetery managers,” said The Right Revd Dr Richard Condie, Anglican Bishop of Tasmania.

“However, the Bill still assumes that the life of a cemetery will be for at least 100 years after the last burial. This is contrary to the submissions of the Anglican Church and the Local Government Association of Tasmania, who thought that 30 years would be sufficient.

“The costs for maintaining cemeteries for this period of time (which is double the length of the longest other jurisdiction in Australia) will need to be borne by families in future burials.

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Lift up, we beseech thee, O Christ, our hearts and our spirits above the false show of things, above fear and melancholy, above laziness and despair, above selfishness and covetousness, above custom and fashion, up to the everlasting truth and order that thou art; that so we may live joyfully and freely, in the faith and trust that thou art our King and our Saviour, our example and our judge, and that as long as we are loyal to thee all will be well with us in this world, and in all worlds to come.

–Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber.

–Psalm 121:1-3