Gospel.com Blog

Today is the National Day of Prayer for the United States. The NDP was officially created in 1952 as a way to encourage religious groups to pray for their country. For Christians, The National Day of Prayer Task Force was organized to help organize and guide NDP efforts throughout the USA.

From their mission statement:

The National Day of Prayer Task Force’s mission is to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, mobilizing the Christian community to intercede for America and its leadership in the seven centers of power: Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church and Family.

They’re doing events throughout the day in various places and venues; head over to their site to see what’s going on around the country.

And if you can’t make it out to one of the public events, Tangle has a virtual prayer wall where they’re inviting people to join them for the National Day of Prayer.

Probably the easiest way to participate is to just take some time today to personally pray for your country. Regardless of your feelings on government and its relation to religion in the United States, the citizens of the US need prayer just as much as the rest of the world. Whether it be for health, wisdom, peace or to find Christ in the midst of it all, today is as good a day as any to come to God with our requests and thanks.

Looking to publish your world-changing Christian book? Getting published in today’s economic climate isn’t easy, and the Christian publishing world certainly isn’t immune to such challenges.

Writer and humorist James Watkins has recently written two essays with advice for Christians looking to get their work published. One offers advice for dealing with prospective agents—since the Christian market lacks a major accrediting organization, it falls to authors to do extra homework in finding an agent.

The second piece talks about various questions and issues surrounding self-publishing and print-on-demand, an alternate-publishing route that is rising in popularity due to services like Lulu.

All good advice that can help you steer clear of a few potential pitfalls as you look for a publisher for that Great American Novel or timeless theological tome!

Every missionary has stories to tell. They are stories that make you think, make you laugh and make you realize that there’s more going on in this world than what we see with our eyes.

Here’s a great one coming to us from Mission Network News, Piracy staved off by timely Band-aids:

Rather than risk a run-in with pirates and lose an entire cargo, more ships are opting to go around the Cape of Good Hope instead of the Suez Canal.

…

Ministries are not exempt from the situation. Africa Inland Mission ships vital supplies to their teams using these lanes.

Here’s the story as it unfolded: AIM’s Mark Wilson was still learning the ropes in his new ministry as Logistics Coordinator for AIM’s U.S. Headquarters, when a call came offering a supply of free Band-aids. Not thinking much of it, he gladly accepted the offer. “I am always looking for ways to fill ocean containers,” said Wilson. “I realized my mistake when the second UPS truck full of Band-aids arrived.”

“In packing the next ocean container [full of valuable equipment], I had room left over after everything was packed—I saw my opportunity to get rid of some Band-aids and filled the empty space in the back of the container.”

Later, they got word that pirates did board a ship and break into one of AIM’s containers. Upon finding the Band-aids used to fill extra space in it, they went on to the next container, leaving AIM’s equipment untouched.

God had a purpose for using those many Band-aids to protect AIM’s vital supplies. Keep praying for protection for ministries shipping resources.

“I stand amazed at the faithfulness of God,” says Wilson, “even in what I would consider my mistakes.”

Do you have any favorite stories from the mission field? Have you heard any good ones?

With summer and the end of the school year on the not-too-distant horizon, a lot of college students have one exciting and intimidating thought on their minds: graduate school. In a few months, plenty of graduates will be put the college life behind them and embark into the most challenging phase of their academic careers yet.

Over at InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries site, Bob Trube has written up a useful primer for graduate students called seven habits of the highly effective Christian graduate student. As any grad student will tell you, the academic environment of graduate school poses a lot of unique challenges to students accustomed to life at a college or university, so it’s always a good idea to go in aware of the stresses your personal and spiritual life might face. If you’re headed to grad school in the fall, or if you think grad school is somewhere in your future, take a look at this advice.