Gospel.com Blog

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

Two high-profile PG-13 comedies make their bow this week… and neither is likely to demonstrate legs at the boxoffice, in spite of the star power attached. (more…)

Dan Merchant is an ordinary guy… as ordinary as a guy can be, that is, if you’ve spent several years working in TV production, put everything you own in hock to make your own movie, spent months walking around the country with inflammatory and contradictory bumper stickers pasted onto your coveralls, and then assembled it all into a powerful, moving, insightful, often hilarious, and yet somehow good-hearted skewering of the religious debates that have gripped America’s politics for the last two or three decades.

If Dan Merchant’s Lord, Save Us From Your Followers gets much exposure, Bill Maher’s Religulous—which has now slipped to this fall’s release schedule—is going to look quite petty by comparison.

Merchant has created a fine, fine documentary—one that looks deeply at the human cost of sectarian and partisan squabbling—the band arguing, as it were, while passengers are drowning (to borrow Titanic as a metaphor). The Church, it seems, has come to care more for causes than for actual people, and Merchant is here to try to get the band to start playing music once again.

Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright talks with Merchant about what the Church is doing wrong… and the tools it has to do things very, very right.

Presenting information in a different way can do wonders for our understanding of it. People just learn in different ways. For me, seeing ideas side by side can provide the clarity I need to order them in my mind.

Uplook Ministries has a number of charts and introductions to some of the books of the bible that you can find here. I found this side by side comparison of the Gospels interesting.

Click on the image to see the full version (PDF):

It’s easy to get numb to the facts and figures coming out of Myanmar, but we need to continue to pray for the situation. Here’s a current report from Mission Network News:

Myanmar has booted a team of medics, citing no need for their services. Aid agencies have warned of the threat of an outbreak of disease that could decimate Nargis survivors.

That concern has increased as the government has closed refugee camps and ordered people back to their villages. As more people return to rebuild their shattered lives, aid workers are trying to implement village-level systems that can offer rudimentary care and stave off the potential for epidemic outbreaks.

Such a shift in the rebuilding of the medical infrastructure means villagers will have to rely more heavily on mobile clinics and local workers.

International Aid’s Milton Amayun says, “We have shipped six clinics to a partner that works within Myanmar, especially in the disaster area. They also work with displaced people along the Thai border.”

The mobile clinics contain everything you would find in a doctor’s office. It is a good start because the basics are there, although in finite supply. Getting replacement supplies will be tricky. Amayun says the issue is complicated by communications isolation. “We don’t have internet in Myanmar. Cell phones are confiscated before you go into the disaster areas.”

Read more here and be sure to pray.

For most students in the U.S., school is finally out, and summer is in full swing. If you’re a college student who just graduated, it’s time to settle down somewhere, find a good job, and join the ranks of productive society… unless, that is, you’ve got grad school in your future. In that case, you’re already starting to gear up to head back into the halls of academia in a few months.

Grad school is a different beast than college, as you probably know—and especially if you attended a Christian college and are accustomed to regular chapel services and other religious services to help you keep the faith. Some of those resources are still available to you at grad school, but the pressures of a typical graduate program are uniquely challenging, spiritually and emotionally. You’ll need all the spiritual help you can get—and fortunately InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries is there to lend a hand.

They’ve got some great resources to help you get ready for grad school, and to survive it once it begins. Here are a few:

• Intellectual Formation’s Impact on Spiritual Formation — the process of graduate education has a profound impact on your spiritual life. Here’s how to make that impact a positive one.
• Seven Habits of the Highly Effective Christian Graduate Student — you’re a Christian, you’re a grad student. What do you need to know to live well?
• Starting a Fellowship for Christian Graduate Students — are you interested in starting a fellowship group for Christian graduate students on your campus? Don’t know where to begin? Try taking these initial steps.

I’d especially encourage you to check out that last resource; I can attest from my own time in grad school that a good graduate Christian fellowship can be extremely helpful in keeping your spiritual life on track amidst all the papers, lectures, and late nights studying. Now’s a good time to start thinking about these things, since you’ll have a lot on your mind when the semester starts. There much more to InterVarsity’s academic ministries, but those are good places to start as you count down the days to grad school!

(Photo taken by Flickr user Plutor)

It’s a situation that seemingly keeps getting worse. Mission Network News has an update on the ongoing catastrophe in Myanmar:

Myanmar’s junta government has been quietly evicting cyclone survivors from shelters and shutting down refugee camps. They’re sending the people home for “reconstruction,” but there’s nothing left in most villages.

The government has now imposed martial law in many areas of the delta affected by the cyclone, and some local officials are being accused of abusing their authority.

Donor organizations are still NOT allowed into the villages affected. They are allowed to deliver supplies to an SPDC (Burma Army)-controlled warehouse in township areas where who knows what is happening with the supplies donated. There are growing concerns that the government is merely stockpiling the supplies and issuing propaganda showing distribution.

Vision Beyond Borders’ Patrick Klein says in order to get aid to these areas, “There’s a list. For that village, you have to be on that list; you have to be approved by the village leaders. If it’s not (on the list), you’re turned back, and any supplies you’ve brought for the cyclone victims will be confiscated by the government. I don’t know how our friends are getting on those lists, but they are going in with a team.”

Read the whole thing. And here’s another article on Post-Storm Problems. Continue to pray for Myanmar, they’re going through a lot.

Don’t we all.

Sometimes reading the bible in a systematic way can be difficult. It’s far easier to just pick and choose and never study the bible. On occasion, I know that I’ve benefited from a guided approach. Luckily, the internet is making those guides even easier to access with places like Into Thy Word, which has a dearth of helpful information for you.

This is what they have to say about their studies:

These curriculums have been carefully exegetically prepared with careful steadfast inductive analysis and word studies of God’s most precious Word. We do not add anything to God’s Word that is not already there nor do we take away insights and ideas that are not there.

This landing page is a good place to start to see all the studies they have available. And if you’re looking for a place to jump in, Matthew is always a good place to start.

[the picture is from flickr.com user crunklygill]

You probably don’t need yet another blog to add to your online reading list, but here’s one worth taking a look at: Max Frazier of Village Schools of the Bible has started up a new blog called Christianity for Today. Max posts about once a week with a well-thought-out essay about topics ranging from theology (see his post on understanding the concept of the Trinity) to current events (see his insights into natural disasters and tragedy). All in all, a good addition to your feed reader.

And while we’re talking about Village Schools, they’ve got a great collection of Bible studies that you can get to from their homepage (look for Bible Studies in the lefthand menu bar). Their studies each walk through a different book of the Bible, and they’ve chosen some interesting and often overlooked Bible books to study: see their studies on Judges and Hosea, for instance, in addition to studies of better-known books like Genesis and Revelation. Summer’s a great time to pick a Bible book and explore what it has to say—give it a try!

XXXChurch has joined the Gospel.com community!

If you’re not familiar with XXXChurch’s unique ministry, you owe it to yourself to take a look. As you might guess from their name, XXXChurch (“the #1 Christian porn site”) is all about ministering to consumers—and creators—of pornography. Whoever you are, whatever your situation, XXXChurch wants to help you break free of the destructive trap of pornography. They’re not here to lecture about about something you probably already know (that pornography hurts your life and relationships)—they want to give you the tools to break the habit or help a friend or spouse do the same.

There’s a lot to see on their website. For starters, you might try some of these links:

• One of the things that sets XXXChurch apart from a lot of pornography ministries is that XXXChurch focuses a lot of resources on reaching out to the producers and actors who make pornography. That means heading out to porn industry conventions and elsewhere to bring a message of freedom straight to the industry. Read about their ministry to the porn industry.
• That said, there’s plenty of material to help the everyone person who wants to break away from porn. Teenagers, parents, pastors, husbands and wives… it doesn’t matter who you are, XXXChurch can help you find freedom.
• XXXChurch hosts many events throughout the year to help you and your community understand the dangers of porn. From church events to live debates, take a look at what they’re doing and how you can get involved.
• Their prayer wall is a place where you can post your thoughts and ask for help and support from the community.

There’s a lot more to the ministry, but those links should give you a good overview of what they’re about.

It’s Father’s Day—a special day set aside for showing some appreciation for good ol’ dad. Fathers have a unique and critical role to play in raising their kids and helping their families keep on track spiritually. Take a few minutes today to reflect on the ways that your father has contributed to your life (and if your relationship with dad is less than perfect, there’s no better time to take steps to mend it!). And if you’re a father, today you get to bask in your families’ praise… but it’s also a good opportunity to think hard about your role in the family and how you can do an even better job of being a father.

We’ve gathered a few Father’s Day links to inspire you today:

• Over at Revive Our Hearts Radio, Nancy Leigh DeMoss has a moving broadcast about the importance of honoring your father, from a daughter’s perspective in particular.
• Dads, no matter how good (or bad) a job you’ve done at fatherhood so far, there’s always room for improvement. Winning at Home has a number of great articles and resources about fatherhood: ask yourself the Three Questions for Fathers and see how you’re doing. See also A Wise Dad’s Big Tent, about what to do when you commit a parenting blunder with your kids; and there’s plenty more good parenting and family advice at the Winning at Home Answers section of the site.
• Psychology for Living has numerous articles about cultivating healthy family relationships. As you think on the challenge of parenting, take a look at Ten Ways You Can Shape a Child’s Life and The Emotionally Healthy Family.
• RBC Ministries’s Answers to Tough Questions has a lot of solid advice for encouraging healthy spiritual growth in your family and relationships—see in particular the section on parent-child relationships.

So dads—sit back, relax, and enjoy being the star of the show this Father’s Day… and give some thought about how you’re going to be an even better father this year than you have been in the past. And don’t forget to say thanks to your father!