Good evening, class!

@eonniechan23, @vinchie.x14388, @cooperpilgrim, @kopiko-blanca, @bordagul, @ivan51204, @matthewice, @luis-24, @rhea-rec, @lengaj-6, @fangyurhsu, @dianarose302005, @raymond-yasis, @afacewithstory, and @peytpolwan10-jsh.

I want to remind you of your reading assignment, reading response, and digital engagement.

Reading Assignment

We are now entering week 4 in your reading assignment. Your first assigned reading was taken from Part 1, Chapter 1 of John MacArthur's book, Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically, pages 3 to 17.

The second reading assignment is about the relationship between covenant theology and biblical counseling, covered in these four articles:

• Why Change Begins with God’s Covenant

• Biblical Anthropology and the Idea of Covenant

• The Covenant of Works and the Tragedy of the Fall

• The Covenant of Grace

The third reading assignment is about the relationship between progressive sanctification and biblical counseling, covered in these three articles:

• The Dynamic Heart and the Work of Grace

• Progressive Nearness

• Battlefield of Grace

As for your reading assignment for this week, we will be going back to MacArthur's book, Part 3, Chapter 8, Developing a Helping Relationship with Counselees by Wayne Mack, pages 101 to 113.

Reading Response

Check your syllabus for the format of your reading response. It contains three sections:

• Reflect on the most insightful/impactful point for your own life and/or ministry. Support it with a 3-5 sentence quote from the text and cite the page number in parentheses.

• Based on your reflection points, what are the applications for your life and/or ministry? Be specific. What specific ways of thinking or behavior need to change, or what should you start doing in light of your reflection point?

• Write down any questions or disagreements you have about what the author said.

Before publishing your RR, you can email me for editorial purposes. However, if you are confident that your material is free from plagiarism and AI generation, you can publish it directly on the Tentmaker's Hive tribe. You have to subscribe first before publishing your content.

Digital Engagement

As you can see in your syllabus, there is a sentence in the course description that I added:

Furthermore, this course explores the integration of blockchain technology for documentation and digital engagement on a decentralized platform.

However, I missed including it in the grading system, and that is why I am updating our syllabus to include digital engagement. This will cover 10% of your final grade.

Every week, I will post a link on MSTeams directing you to articles that you have to read, and comment afterwards. Your comment does not need to be long. Two to three sentences are enough. The total number of your comments for the whole semester will determine your score. See the table below:

So far, I already published two links on MS Teams for your digital engagement, and this will be the third link. For your easy access, I would like to provide again the links below:

• Summing up Our First Session in Biblical Counseling

There are three articles. The first one is very short, less than 700 words, and it will take you 4 minutes to read it.

• Second Session

Except for The Covenant of Grace, which you need to spend 20 minutes on, the first three articles are all short, less than a 5-minute read.

• Third Session

We have three articles, which are relatively longer compared to the first ones. However, 8 to 10 minutes will do to complete each article.

Don't wait to pile up your reading assignment. The earlier you accomplish them, the better your performance will be in this course for this semester.

Grace and peace!