Gospel.com Blog

Two new sites from Fireproof ministries are now live! Fireproof is the ministry behind XXX Church and they launched a few new sites in the past month.

The first is for their church out in the heart of Las Vegas called Strip Church. Recently, a number of the people from Fireproof moved out there to start this church on the Las Vegas strip. You can already read stories of how they’re reaching out and bringing the light of Christ to a city that so often revels in its own depravity.

The second site is for Fireproof Serve. If you’ve ever wanted to be involved in the ministries of Fireproof, this site is for you. Here you can read about the impact their ministry is having and sign up to go on a trip yourself. Activities range from handing out water and Bibles to thirsty people, to praying and talking with real people with real problems. All they ask is that you come ready to serve. If you even have an inkling of interest, head over and read more about the experience.

When’s the last time you heard a sermon preached about the book of Nahum?

It isn’t too surprising that Nahum isn’t exactly a regularly-occurring character in most sermons and Bible studies. For one thing, the book of Nahum is extremely short—it’s only three chapters long. But more challenging than its brevity is its subject matter: the book of Nahum is essentially a prophetic poem predicting destruction for the wicked Assyrian capital city of Ninevah.

The book of Nahum describes in vivid and sometime disturbing detail the fate of a mighty empire whose cruelty and mistreatment of its subjects was legendary. It’s a cry to God to administer justice to a powerful enemy that Israel cannot defeat or escape on her own:

O king of Assyria, your shepherds [c] slumber;
your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.

Nothing can heal your wound;
your injury is fatal.
Everyone who hears the news about you
claps his hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?

It makes for an interesting read—but how could anyone today relate to any of this?

In his book A History of Prophecy in Israel, Joseph Blenkinsopp suggests that to really understand the spiritual impact of the book of Nahum, we have to remember what this prophecy meant to its original audience:

The tone of these poems will not easily find sympathetic resonance in the mind of the modern reader, or at least the modern reader who has not suffered under such conditions as the Assyrians imposed on their subject provinces. But it may help to recall that what was at stake for the poet and his audience was the reality of divine power and the possibility of justice in the world of international affairs. (p. 123)

Nahum’s prophecy, then, was a promise that Israel’s oppressor would not escape God’s justice—and beyond that, it’s a reminder for all readers that God takes note of His people’s suffering, and that when God acts, not even the most powerful human forces in the world can stand against Him.

That’s a message that might not resonate strongly with many Western Christians today; few of us have experienced the brutality that Israel did under Assyrian conquest. But for brothers and sisters in the persecuted church around the globe, Nahum’s assurance that God is ultimately in control of human politics and empires is a powerful one.

Have you ever watched as someone you loved—a friend, a child, a spouse—made choices you knew were foolish and wrong? From your perspective, you could clearly see that their decisions would end in disaster, but they refused to listen and insisted on doing it their way?

If you’ve ever been heartbroken by a wayward loved one, you’ll find a lot to relate to in the book of Hosea. It’s a short book—easily readable in a single sitting—but Hosea is packed with insight into God’s character and love for us. It tells the story of a man stung by his wife’s repeated adultery and betrayal, but who actively seeks her out and forgives her long after even the most patient person would’ve given up on her.

Hosea’s life, and relationship with his straying wife, is a living metaphor for God and his love for his people. Hosea’s story is interspersed with poetic statements of alternating anger and love from God to Israel. The mingled anger at Israel’s rejection and promises of forgiveness if they would repent make for an emotionally powerful reading.

If you’ve never read Hosea, take a look—you might be surprised how interesting it is. In it, we learn all sorts of things about God’s love for us, like:

• God is hurt when we choose to reject Him and follow our own ways. His love for us is like a father’s for his children—our actions may hurt and anger Him, but he never stops loving us.
• God uses the natural consequences of sinful behavior to point people back to Him. He doesn’t force us to obey Him—He wants us to see the error of our ways and come back to him of our own accord.
• God stands ready to welcome you back no matter how far you’ve strayed from Him.

Hosea closes with a beautiful call to repentance and promise of forgiveness:

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God.
Your sins have been your downfall!

Take words with you
and return to the LORD.
Say to him:
“Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
 
“I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.

See also an excellent short devotional that draws from the book of Hosea.

What if your home was decimated and no one was concerned with rebuilding it?

What if instead of your home, it was God’s home?

Haggai is an extremely short book about an extremely important task: rebuilding the Temple. After the Babylonian exile, God’s people were allowed to return to their homeland by the Persian king Cyrus. They immediately set to laying the Temple foundation and reconstructing their houses, but for one reason or another they neglected to finish the Temple.

Many years passed before God finally spoke to his people through the prophet Haggai.

From chapter 1 verses 4-6:

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

He continues in verses 9-11:

“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

After that, God’s people hurried over the next five years to finish the Temple, and as a result God’s blessing returned to them.

We know very little about Haggai other than that he was willing to be used by God in a time when many weren’t. Take a few minutes and read this inspiring book of the Bible.

[The above image of Haggai is from a sculpture at the Sienna Chapel.]

What springs to mind when you think of Old Testament prophets? Famous names like Samuel, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Isaiah probably stand out—they certainly play a key role in the history of Israel, and in their prophecies, judgments, and calls for repentance can be found many pointers to the eventual birth and saving work of Jesus Christ.

But these oft-quoted heavy-hitters weren’t the only prophets in the Bible. In fact, there’s a large group of ancient preachers whose stories have always lived in the shadow of the so-called “major prophets” like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Some of these “minor prophets” spoke of love and forgiveness; others of justice and repentance; all burned with a desire to see God’s people brought back into a relationship with their Creator.

There are twelve minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habkkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malach. How many of those names do you recognize? If you can’t remember what these prophets did, don’t feel bad! This week we’ll be looking at some of these fascinating characters. To start with, here are some overviews of these prophets, and why their ministries were anything but “minor”:

• Which prophet’s name meant “wrestler”? Which prophet was married to a prostitute? Which was famously swallowed by a whale? Uplook Ministries has a helpful two-part introduction to the minor prophets. It includes a map to show you where each of the minor prophets lived, and a short paragraph with some interesting facts about each.
• Here’s another overview of the minor prophets from a Jewish perspective. This summary talks a bit more about the historical context in which these prophets delivered their messages.
• The Bible books about the minor prophets tend to be short—some just a few chapters long—so why not try reading a few of them this week? Joel, Nahum, and Habakkuk are brief and representative. As you can see, many of their prophecies are poetic calls for justice and repentance, usually (but not always) directed at Israel.

[Painting of Elijah by Antonio Cifrondi.]

Those that have participated in guided prayer know how fulfilling it can be. It gives a structure to your scattered thoughts and emotions and helps you offer your day to God.

Examen.me is a new site that walks you through a number of these prayers (also called examens). What makes the site interesting is that it allows you to keep a fully searchable (and fully secure) journal. As you walk through the different questions, you can type out your thoughts and prayers for later review. It’s always fascinating to see how God faithfully answers prayer throughout the months and years.

Want to explore the site a bit before you sign up? You can try it without the journal feature here.

It’s John Calvin’s 500th birthday! Well, it isn’t exactly his birthday quite yet (that doesn’t happen until July 10 this year). But that hasn’t stopped a lot of people from celebrating the hugely influential theologian’s life and work—there are conferences engaging Calvin’s legacy scheduled all throughout the year.

You don’t have to adhere to Calvinist theology to acknowledge the enormous significance of Calvin’s contributions to church history. Calvinism continues to be an important influence in Christainity today; Time Magazine recently noted its resurgence in evangelical circles. In honor of Calvin, then, here are a few links to help you get in on the celebration this year:

• Not surprisingly, Calvin College in Grand Rapids has an extremely comprehensive list of Calvin-related conferences taking place in 2009. They’re taking place all over the world, from Tokyo to Calvin College’s own backyard in Michigan.
• Perhaps the biggest Calvin celebration this year is the Calvin Quicentenniary, a conference and tour that visits most of the major locations relevant to Calvin’s life and ministry, and which features talks by a wide range of Calvin scholars. Have room in your schedule to visit Geneva, Switzerland this July?
• Even if you’re not participating in the big Calvin conference just mentioned, the Calvin 500 Blog is posting daily about all manner of Calvin-related events, trivia, and discussion.
• If you aren’t familiar with John Calvin or his teachings, there’s a good overview of his life and theology at the Christain History Institute. The Wikipedia entries for John Calvin and Calvinism have more detailed information if you’re interested.
• Calvin’s most important written work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, is available online for free at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, if you really want to delve into Calvin’s ideas.
• Not every Christian adheres to Calvinist theology, of course. The main theological branch of Christianity that is generally set in opposition to Calvinism is Arminianism. Googling around the web will turn up a lot of different (and strongly-held) opinions about the two strains of theology; for a neutral perspective, start with Wikipedia’s entry on the ongoing Calvinism/Arminianism debate.

Calvin’s birthday might not be the flashiest event in church history, but it’s an important one. Take advantage of this anniversary to learn a bit more about one of the church’s most famous scholars!

Grief is a terrible, personal experience—everybody goes through it at some point in their life, but it must be processed by each person individually, personally, and privately. Your experience of grief is different than mine, and vice versa.

Grief has been on my mind this week. Not because I’m grieving myself right now, but because two prominent online writers have been chronicling with heart-wrenching openness their experiences with death, loss, and grief. Both accounts are worth reading, and highlight the ways that one’s spiritual worldview affects the way you process the unspeakable pain of losing a loved one.

The first is a series of articles by Meghan O’Rourke (a critic at Slate) journaling her experience of grief after the death of her mother. O’Rourke’s essays are fascinating and moving. While she doesn’t spell out all her religious befiefs, she seems to be writing from a generally agnostic perspective.

The second such account can be found in the ongoing blogging of Amy Welborn, a popular Catholic blogger whose husband died unexpectedly earlier this year. I’m amazed at Welborn’s ability to write so eloquently and publicly about such a painful experience, but I’m glad she’s doing so: her accounts of her family relationships, church interactions, and personal faith in the aftermath of her husband’s death are profoundly insightful. Her account is spread across many blog posts, but many of them can be found here. See in particular her post about what it means for her to “give something up” for Lent after her loss, and another about learning when and how to share “the cross you bear” with others.

Both accounts are worth reading, and as Ross Douthat recently pointed out, they make for interesting counterparts: one approaching death from a secular perspective, the other from the perspective of Christian faith. As Lent continues, and as we think and pray about the grief, loss, death, and hope that marked Easter, it seems appropriate to ponder these things.

(For more resources to help you through grief and loss, see the grief page at Gospel.com.)

What does good leadership look like? For most Christians, “Christian leadership” is something practiced by the pastor and church staff. But there are many opportunities in everyday life where leadership is called for—and it may be that you, whether you’re a trained church minister or just an average Joe, are the one called to step forward and lead.

I was prompted to think about this sort of everyday leadership while browsing through the StudentSoul.org site. In an article called The Making of a Leader, Bob Fryling talks about the many different character qualities that go into being an effective leader—maybe the leader of a local Bible study, or of a discussion group, or of the local church baseball team.

As it turns out, there’s more about leadership at StudentSoul, and it applies not just to student groups but to anyone who’s ever called to take any sort of leadership role:

• You’re asking me to be a leader? If we’re honest with ourselves, all of us have made mistakes or have flaws that make us less-than-perfect leaders. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be effective, Christlike leaders when the situation calls for it.
• Should you say yes or no to leading? Ever been asked to take charge of a project or group, and wondered whether or not to commit? This article walks through the questions you should think through before saying either “yes” or “no.”
• Choosing new leaders: does your Bible study or student group work to cultivate future leaders? Here’s what to look for in potential leaders.
• The high cost of leadership: thoughts on the real challenges of any leadership role, and what you need to know before you step forward.

What’s interesting about all this discussion of leadership is how applicable these leadership qualities are to any Christian. You may not have a full-time job as a leader, but chances are you’ll be called on to lead at some point in your life—maybe even for just a short time. If you’ve given some thought to the qualities of a strong Christian leader, you’ll be ready to say “yes” when the opportunity and need arises.

Have you given something up for Lent? We’ve talked a bit about the common practice of choosing something in your life—a habit, a particular type of food, etc.—and voluntarily foregoing it during the weeks leading up to Easter.

Among my own circle of acquaintances, two things seem to come up frequently as things to give up during Lent: unhealthy food (soda, fast food, etc.) and television.

I’ll leave the food topic alone for now (and I should note that not everything people choose to give up for Lent needs to be “bad” or unhealthy); but the practice of giving up TV is something I’ve also seen written about a lot online. (And feel free to substitute another entertainment medium—your iPod, video games, online video, etc.—for “television.”)

Most of us have from time to time had the feeling that we invest too much of our lives in passive entertainment, to the detriment of our spiritual and personal growth. If the idea of going cold-turkey on your TV sounds weirdly intriguing, here are a few resources to help you think it through:

• Revive Our Hearts has a standing 30-day TV-free challenge that encourages Christians to turn off the TV for a month and observe the resulting effects on their personal lives. You can sign up for daily emails and read a number of helpful articles at the challenge website; and they also host a great series of radio shows about bringing your family’s television under control.
• Al Menconi has written extensively about the challenge of keeping TV-watching and passive entertainment balanced healthily in your family life. For starters, read his list of 10 steps to control TV in your home, and see his many articles about how entertainment affects us.

If you read through these resources, you’ll notice something important about them: the point of these efforts is not to arbitrarily cut TV out of your life, or to feel holier-than-thou because you don’t watch American Idol, or to rob your life of fun. It’s not about banning TV in your house forever, or making you feel guilty for watching your favorite show. It’s about becoming more aware of the way you use your time throughout each day and week.

It’s an experiment you can try any time of the year, not just during Lent. How about it?