Gospel.com Blog

Two Testaments. Over sixty books. Hundreds of chapters. Tens of thousands of verses. Hundreds of thousands of words. It’s a book full of wisdom and full of truth.

Christians have been trying to sort through the myriad claims made about it, and from it, in order to discern how to live for thousands of years. It’s a book that changes you.

From an outside observer, the Bible might just be a collection of stories. But, of course, we at Gospel.com think it’s far more than that. The Bible is the history of God’s people. It’s the way in which we know about Jesus Christ. And it has been consistently backed up by history and practice. It’s a book that is scrutinized with both critically focused and franticly searching eyes.

Personally, I’ve spent more time writing, talking and thinking about this book than anything on this earth. It’s simply a fascinating book. And ever so challenging. But most importantly, it shows me how God has worked and is working on this earth.

Pretty much every resource and page in the gospel.com community has something to do with the Bible, but this week we’re focusing on the Bible itself. There are plenty of links to resources to get started with in the header above. You can also check out more at our Bible topic page.

And of course you can always read the full text of the bible in more translations than anywhere else on the internet at The BibleGateway.

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has a new website! It’s definitely worth visiting, especially if you are not familiar with Ravi’s apologetics ministry. Ravi has put up a short welcome video that introduces the site and describes his ministry, followed by a list of links to popular content like the A Slice of Infinity daily devotional and the Just Thinking audio broadcast.

While you’re there, be sure to take a look at a sample chapter and discussion guide from Ravi’s latest book, The End of Reason, a response to prominent atheist Sam Harris’ recent critiques of Christianity.

Do you know what today is? Most of you know probably know that it’s Mother’s Day. But while it’s always a good idea to celebrate mom, today has a special theological significance for Christians—it’s Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter. It marks the time two thousand years ago when the Holy Spirit came down (in fulfillment of a promise by Jesus) to live within Christ-followers. Here’s the account as it’s told in the Bible:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

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This Sunday is Mother’s Day in the U.S.—the perfect opportunity for you to tell mom that you appreciate all that she’s done for you. Sure, she always nagged at you to eat your veggies and wash your hands before dinner, but thousands of changed diapers, dozens of trips to the children’s doctor when you got sick, and all the time and money spent raising you gives her the right. Here are a few items to help you think about your mother, and motherhood in general, this Mother’s Day:

• Revive Our Hearts has a five-part radio series about motherhood, much of it discussing the value of motherhood. If you’ve ever been tempted to think of motherhood as a lesser calling for women, be sure to check out No, Not Just a Mother, The Value of Motherhood, and Mother and Wife: Dueling Roles.
• Winning at Home has a lot of good articles and radio shows about parenthood and related family topics, but this Mother’s Day, take a look at Mom’s Big Four, a tribute to moms and the underappreciated advice they were always giving you when you were a kid. On a different note, the essay Dad’s Out of the Picture calls attention to the challenges of single motherhood, and encourages us to notice and lend a hand to the single mothers in our communities.
• Joe Stowell has a great devotional message up today called Thank God for Mothers, in which he encourages us to—you guessed it—give thanks for mom. Be sure to read the discussion points at the end, where Joe challenges us to be thankful even if a broken relationship or grief makes Mother’s Day more painful than joyful.

Even if you aren’t able to be with your mother this Sunday for some reason, it’s worth considering these words about motherhood, and the important role that mom played in our lives. So pick up the phone, set aside any lingering grievances you might have for at least one day, give mom a call, and tell her how much she means to you!

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Last week brought us the second entry in the summer blockbuster sweepstakes and a solid slate of releases. This week, the pace doesn’t slack off even though it’s not up to last week. And the checkered flag goes to…… Speed Racer!

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Amidst the destruction and continuing fallout from Cyclone Nargis there is a tremendous need not only for support (if you’re looking for a place to give, try International Aid) but news.

One of our gospel.com community members is Mission Network News, which is a news outlet that offers a missions-focused take on the news. From their about page:

Mission Network News is a mission news service dedicated to keeping Christians informed on evangelical mission activity around the world; in doing so we hope to educate and motivate Christians to prayer, participation, and support of missionary work to help further the Great Commission.

They’re currently covering the Cyclone Nargis catastrophe and have been updating as much as possible. You can read all of their Hurricane related articles here.

From their report today called Ministry encourages churches in Myanmar response:

Global Advance’s David Shibley notes one prospect: “The government is being resistant to aid. However, this does give opportunity for some mission groups that are already on the ground there to be very significantly used.” There are some agencies with projects in the hard-hit areas that will be able to make use of an already-established distribution network.

By now, you’ve probably read reports about the massive cyclone that has left thousands dead and many more missing in Burma. Mission Network News reports:

The death toll could rise to over tens of thousands in Myanmar after a cyclone struck early Saturday, according to government sources. State radio says 22-thousand have died and thousands more are missing.

Some news sources report that the government’s response thus far has been slow or lacking. The road systems are not in good shape and communications are essentially down.

It is predicted that the cyclone may have the largest death toll since the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia which killed 181,000 people in its path. “Obviously hundreds of thousands of lives are being terribly impacted, having lost their bamboo homes and watching their family members die. It’s been horribly devastating,” said Gospel for Asia’s K.P. Yohannan.

It’s difficult to fathom that much death and destruction. And it’s all too easy to chalk it up as another “other side of the world” crisis that doesn’t affect us, and move on to the next headline. But when disasters like this strike, there is tremendous opportunity and need for a Christlike response. Among the many ministries and organizations already responding to the crisis are two from the Gospel.com community:

• Gospel for Asia, which has converted its Bible college in Rangoon into a makeshift shelter for refugees and survivors. They set up the shelter after the local police station was destroyed; it’s currently providing shelter to over 80 people, plus 70 children from a nearby orphanage that was destroyed.
• International Aid, which has a lot of experience responding to crises like this, is calling for financial help in organizing a large-scale relief effort.

In addition to these ministries, organizations such as the Red Cross are already reacting to the situation. Consider whether you can help out by supporting one of these relief efforts—and be sure to put the entire situation at the top of your prayer list. If and when we hear of other ministries in our community getting involved with relief efforts, we’ll note them here.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

When the worst movie released on a given week is merely an uninspired romantic comedy starring Patrick Dempsey, you’re not doing too bad.

Leading the pack, of course, is the much-anticipated Iron Man, a comic book superhero PG-13 adaptation starring Robert Downey, Jr. Michael Brunk was wholly won over. “If Iron Man is any indication of what we can expect this summer,” he says, “I think we’re in for a great time.”

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The Navigators celebrate their 75th year of ministry this year! They serve in over 100 countries with the goal of creating new disciples of Jesus Christ. 4000 people of 64 nationalities comprise the Navigators.

Impressive numbers don’t equal spiritual success though. The Navigators are still around because of their heartfelt mission and devotion to strategically influence people for Christ across a broad range of people. For more on this read their direction page and their mission page.

I really like the story of how their ministry got started:

The ministry of The Navigators began in the 1930’s through the call of God to a young Californian blue-collared worker, Dawson Trotman. Dawson caught a vision to teach discipleship principles he found fruitful in his own life. He began to teach high school students and local Sunday school classes. Then in 1933, he and his friends began to extend their work among sailors in the U.S. Navy.

Dawon taught sailor Les Spencer the principles of Christian growth. They spent many hours together praying, studying the Bible, and memorizing Scripture. When one of Spencer’s shipmates asked him the secret of his changed life, Spencer brought the man to Trotman. “Teach him what you taught me,” Spencer said. “You teach him!” Trotman responded. And that was the beginning of The Navigators.

Spencer did teach the sailor, and soon the two men were meeting with others. Eventually, 125 men on their ship, the U.S.S. West Virginia, were growing in Christ and actively sharing their faith.

Read more about it here.

If you’re looking for more information on The Navigators, you can check them out on the web in a few different places:

US site

UK site

Canadian site

Since 1952, The National Day of Prayer has been a day set aside for the citizens of the United States to come together to pray regardless of their faith. Today is a great reminder for Christians of what they’re to do every day, which is to be in communion with God through prayer.

The following video from the National Day of Prayer Task Force’s website is of Tony Dungy talking about prayer:

The gospel.com community has a number of ministries that have posted prayer calendars. If you’re looking for somebody to pray for today (and in the future), try these ministry prayer calendars:

Mission Possible

Nurses Christian Fellowship International

Arab World Ministries

Life Action Revival Ministries