Gospel.com Blog

Those of us in the United States will celebrate Thanksgiving in just a few days. Unlike Christmas or Easter, Thanksgiving isn’t a commemoration of a specific Biblical event—but it’s a holiday with an obvious link to the Christian call to give thanks in all things.

We’ve got a number of Thanksgiving resources to share this week, but it makes sense to start with the very basics of the Thanksgiving holiday: when was it started? Why do we celebrate it today?

The Christian History Institute explains the history of Thanksgiving. If you thought the idea of a Thanksgiving holiday started with the Pilgrims in New England, you might be surprised to learn that the famous Pilgrims-and-Indians feast was not technically the first Thanksgiving holiday!

That covers the historical fact of Thanksgiving—but why do we still celebrate this holiday today, hundreds of years after the events of the first Thanksgiving? Max Frazier’s essay Why Celebrate Thanksgiving? A Study in Psalm 100 explores the importance of gratitude, and the value of the Thanksgiving holiday.

So even as you plan out your Thanksgiving get-togethers and short vacation from work, take a few moments to read up on the “when” and “why” of Thanksgiving.

[image by Ben Franske under a Creative Commons license]

Back in January, InterVarsity reported on a panel discussion held at the University of Washington where the participants responded to the question, If Christians would listen, what would you say?:

Three atheists, one agnostic and one Christian volunteered for a panel discussion to consider the question, “If Christians would listen, what would you say?” Well, they did have a lot to say—and the InterVarsity students who sponsored the event humbly listened. The honest dialogue turned into a riveting evening that engaged the hearts and minds of believers and non-believers—to the benefit of all.

Often Christians are perceived as being close-minded and judgmental, especially on certain topics.

The panel said some sobering things like, “Where are the real Christians who live out what Jesus taught?” You can read the full story at StudentSoul.org. Student Soul is a division of InterVarsity’s web ministry devoted to bringing readers and writers together for conversation about faith, real relationships and and life on college campuses.

Is anger a sin? The standard Christian answer is that there are two types of anger: “good” anger, which is used for positive purposes, and “bad” anger, which is sinful. But in his latest Nehemiah Notes article, Blaine Smith argues that this isn’t necessarily a Biblical way to understand anger:

Scripture, though, never makes this distinction, which ignores the nature of human motivation. Pride and hurt feelings can run as deeply in righteous indignation as in any other type of anger. Anger is the same emotion, whether evoked by a righteous concern or a dishonorable one. I frankly wish we would throw the term righteous indignation out of our Christian vocabulary; far too much self-righteousness is encouraged by it.

So what does the Bible say about anger—is it a sin or not? Read the full article to learn Smith’s perspective.

Over a year ago, Village Schools of the Bible Principal Max Frazier, started blogging his musings on the Gospel of John. He completed a similar project on Revelation a year ago. Here’s the table of contents for the project.

This excerpt is from his June 22-28 entry focusing on the Economy. It’s good food for thought no matter what the economic climate may be:

Is there any good news on the horizon? Absolutely…Jesus is coming! Yet I realize that all of us are affected by a declining economy. Giving in many churches is dramatically lower than in past years. Many of you in business are feeling the ramifications of higher energy prices and a lowered consumer confidence. Those of you who are in nonprofit organizations or in missions already know that support raising has become more difficult. I know in our ministry – Village Schools of the Bible – we are seeing some decline in overall giving. If all we looked at were dollars and cents, then we would all be fearful, not only for the future, but also for the present. Yet our future and our present is not predicated upon what the oil-futures market does, or what the hedge-funds say about corn and soybeans, or what the value of the dollar is against …well, you name the currency of your choice. Our hope and our future is based upon this absolute reality…Jesus is coming! And so we cling dearly to that truth. It is our lifeline in the midst of a world of change…at times chaotic change.

Read the rest.

How should Christians approach the question of Creation and evolution? It’s a controversy that’s been going strong for many years, and the recent flurry of books by prominent atheist thinkers has once again put the spotlight on Christianity’s relationship to science. Is it possible for Christian to embrace evolution and related theories, or does our faith compel us to reject them?

There are (at least) two ministries in the Gospel.com community that tackle this question. Interesting (and perhaps frustratingly, if you were hoping for any easy answer to the “evolution question”) they come to different conclusions. It’s well worth reading through what both have to say as you ponder the question:

• Answers in Genesis is a major creationist ministry that has published many articles about the importance of believing in a literal creation story. There are dozens of essays there you could read, but you might start with What should a Christian think about evolution?, which lays out the case for rejecting evolution.
• On the other side of the fence is Scibel, which believes (as Answers in Genesis does) that science and Christianity are not incompatible, although Scibel comes to different conclusions. They’re dedicated to challenging myths about the faith/science relationship. They argue that it’s a myth that Christians can’t believe in evolution and have other essays on topics like the historicity of Adam and Eve and whether Christians should take the Bible “literally”.

These two ministries have different answers to the question of evolution and Christianity, but they’re both fighting to show that Christianity is not incompatible with serious science. And whatever side of the issue you identify with, it’s never a bad thing to read through different perspectives!

How much do you know about the women in Jesus’ genealogy? While many Bible studies focus on the famous men in Jesus’ line of ancestry—most prominently the Israelite king David—it turns out that there the Bible records the lives of many interesting and sometime even scandalous women in Jesus’ family tree.

Jonalyn Fincher (of Soulation) outlines some of these women’s lives in a recent blog post, and ponders what each one tells us about God and faith.

One can draw great satisfaction from a busy life. It’s comforting being able to go to sleep every night knowing that you spent your day doing lots of stuff. But what happens when that busyness transitions into something unhealthy? What happens when working diligently turns into workaholism?

What happens when you stop taking time to love people because that would take too much time from your work?

An article by Acts-International titled Beware of the Barrenness of a Busy Life explores why people flock to busyness, and what affect that mindset can have on our spiritual and emotional lives:

Whatever the cause, if the over-active person sits still for long, his or her inner pain of not feeling okay begins to rise to consciousness. He or she then feels empty, bored, lonely, tired, depressed, or restless. To quieten this pain, he or she just keeps busy, busy, busy.

One escapes his or her pain by becoming an alcoholic. Another, a workaholic. In God’s sight there’s no difference.

One of the most important lessons in life for every individual to learn and teach his or her children is this: One’s worth as a person is never dependent on his or her performance—good or bad. Every person is worthwhile because he or she has been created by God in his image, and loved fully and unconditionally by him.

The rest of the article is at the ACTS International site.

[photo by flickr user freebird4]

What is poverty? What does it mean to live in poverty—who does it affect? Is poverty “just” a lack of money, or is it something bigger (and harder to solve)? Is American poverty different than poverty in other parts of the world? And what are Christians called to do in response?

Several prominent urban ministry leaders have put together a short series of videos that explore the difficult question of poverty. Here’s the first video, which asks the question What is poverty?

UrbanMinistry.org links to several other videos in the series. They’ll challenge your understanding of what poverty is and how Christians ought to respond to it!

Mission Network News reported this week on the situation in Orissa. Many organizations are having to think of creative ways to help out in the midst of the conflict.

The violence in Orissa has been affecting the distribution of Bibles in India, according to the World Bible Translation Center. The increasing distribution difficulties have forced WBTC to rethink their strategy and begin work underground.

“There has never been a time like this in Orissa, and even in other parts of India,” says “Samson” of WBTC. The “time” Samson speaks of is one of persecution and upheaval. Christians have been under attack by Hindu extremists since August, many forced to stand by as their houses and possessions burn, including their Bibles. Even a WBTC worker was martyred last month at the hands of these extremists.

Clearly, the need for Bibles is great in Orissa. WBTC plans to distribute 66,000 Bibles to the 30 districts of Orissa in due time. “That is the least that we can do right now,” says Samson.

However, this will have to be done a little more quietly it was previously. Outside distributers are being chased away now, so the only people that be given this responsibility are those native to the area. These evangelists are doing what they can, but they have been beaten, tortured and even killed for their work.

The request for Bibles has been overwhelming. In one district of Orissa, 10,000 Bibles were requested.

Read more at their site.

There are thousands of different topics here at Gospel.com, but one of the things people seem most interested in is the vast collection of devotionals—short, easy-to-read reflections on the Christian faith to help us start the day on the right foot. Here’s a review of some of our favorites:

• The classics: few devotionals have stood the test of time as well as those by Oswald Chambers, A.W. Tozer, and Charles Spurgeon. If you’re interested in trying a new devotional, why not start with one of the classics?
• On a more modern note, three of the most enduringly popular daily devotionals at Gospel.com are Our Daily Bread, Daily Wisdom, and Daily Encounter. Back to the Bible’s collection of devotionals is noteworthy too.
• If you want to listen to your daily devotional (via podcast or an online stream), take a look through our list of audio devotionals.
• Some people prefer to just read Scripture as their daily devotional. If you’re such a person, you’re in luck: there are a lot of different Bible reading plans to help you work your way slowly but surely through the Bible (or parts thereof).

All of these and more are listed at the Devotionals page—so have fun exploring around until you find the devotional that’s just right for you.