Gospel.com Blog

The word “martyr” has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years. It’s most commonly mentioned in reference to terrorism, since terrorist groups often describe suicide bombers or slain militants as martyrs.

Occasionally, one hears of Christians, Buddhists, or adherents of other religions being martyred—typically when they’re killed by an oppressive government or angry mob because of their faith. Nearly every major religion throughout history can point to martyrs who have died rather than abandon their beliefs.

But what does it really mean, theologically speaking, to be a martyr?

A new article at Answers in Genesis delves into the topic of martyrdom, and concludes that martyrdom means something different for Christians than it does for other religions. In the days of the early Christian church, martyrdom meant something more specific than the modern idea of “somebody who dies because of their beliefs.” What makes Christian martyrdom different than, say, Buddhist or Hindu martyrdom?

The article draws on the famous story of the martyrdom of Stephen, so you might want to familiarize yourself with that Bible passage before diving into the essay.

Every year, Muslims around the world celebrate a month of intentional and rigid fasting called Ramadan. From sun up to sun down, they fast from anything considered not of good nature or considered excessive: eating, drinking, smoking, sex, etc. If you’re interested in knowing more, you can read more about Ramadan on wikipedia.

World Christian ministries publishes a prayer guide for Christians to follow along during the month of Ramadan. It attempts to educate Christians about worldwide Islamic culture and gives them ways in which to pray for Muslims.

Mission Network News is distributing the book this year. They recently published an article about the prayer calendar and Ramadan.

Here’s an excerpt:

“It [World Christian's 30-Days Muslim Prayer Guide] literally takes you around the world introducing you to various countries, regions, people groups and even issues that are facing the Islamic culture today,” said Greg Yoder, executive director of MNN.

Yoder believes this guide is one of the best resources available for average Christians to gain information and understanding of the Islamic culture. The booklet is mostly centered around Ramadan.

“World Christian has put together this booklet that will help you pray each day, at the same time Muslims are praying,” said Yoder. “The twist is this: we’re encouraging Christians to pray that many of these Muslims will turn to Christ.”

You can order the book through Mission Network News. Even if you don’t, consider spending some time praying for our Islamic neighbors during Ramadan this year.

Fallen and Flawed recently asked twelve bloggers to summarize the Gospel in 10 words or less. While the exercise is intentionally provocative, summarizing your faith in 10 paltry words does force you to examine the fundamentals of your beliefs.

Here are three of my favorites from the resulting list:

• “Whole world sorted, put right, made friends again through Christ.” Andrew Jones [Tall Skinny Kiwi]
• “Christ died for our sins, was raised and is Lord.” Trevin Wax [Kingdom People] quoting Martin Luther.
• “Be sick. Be loved.” Jon Acuff [Stuff Christians Like]

And here’s my humble addition:

“Grace and peace proffered in the loving name of Jesus.”

What about you? How would you summarize the Gospel in 10 words or less?

What do you make of the New Testament command to pray continually?

The King James Version is even more evocative in its wording: “Pray without ceasing.” Clearly, we aren’t mean to physically pray 24 hours per day. But the standard explanation I’ve heard—that this verse means we should have a “prayerful attitude” throughout the day—always struck me as sidestepping some of the force of the command.

So what should prayer look like in the life of a Christian? One of the best examinations of Christian prayer that I’ve come across is at the Bible Prayer Fellowship, in their free 12-part guide to prayer. They’ve put the full text of the study—a leader’s guide and an accompanying student workbook—online. While it’s written to be used in a small group study environment, the relatively short length of each day’s material actually would make them quite workable as a daily personal devotion.

So if you, like me, have often wondered how to make prayer a more central part of your life, take a look. And if you have a fresh perspective on what it means to “pray without ceasing,” please share your thoughts below!

Adventures in Missions recently held a photography contest. Its goal: to find pictures that capture “a soul, a moment, a place and a ministry.”

The resulting photos are stunning slices of humanity from around the world. There are pictures of babies and baptisms; prayers and outstretched hands; landscapes and cityscapes; and moments of intense spirituality. The net effect provides a wonderful glimpse into the life of a missionary.

Here’s my favorite photo from the set:

You can see all the winners at the Mission Photo Contest Final Winners blog post or at the Adventures in Missions Flickr site.

The Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Community Church is underway! The summit’s goal is to develop authentic leaders within the church, and it presents an impressive and varied array of speakers: Bill Hybels, Tony Blair, Bono, Carly Fiorina, and more.

The best places to keep up with what’s happening there are probably the official summit Facebook page and Twitter feed. Out of Ur is liveblogging from the summit, as are Tony Morgan and Justin Wise. Even if you weren’t able to attend, you can still get a good feel for the summit from these posts and writeups.

Reflecting on Sony’s recent announcement of e-readers to compete with the Kindle, Mart De Haan wonders whether or not moving our Bibles to digital devices is a good idea:

But here’s what I’m really interested in. As I continue to find Bible software enormously helpful in doing research, and even though online searches provide far more information that I could get from most of my paper books, I sometimes wonder whether I’ve lost some of the “personal relationship” with my Bible.

Obviously, we here at Gospel.com believe that the Bible and Biblical resources can and should have a place in the digital world. But should digital resources replace print versions? I’m not so sure myself. There’s something about holding a weighty mass of paper in my hands that connects to me spiritually.

What do you think? Do you think that Bibles inherently need to be physical? Or do you welcome the availability of God’s word on your iPhone, Kindle, laptop, etc.? How does having a digital Bible change your Bible Study habits?

This week marks the anniversary of what everyone can agree was a troubling moment in world history: the atomic bombing of Japan. Tomorrow marks the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, followed three days later by the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing.

This morning, looking for a Christian perspective on this anniversary, I pulled up an essay by Al Mohler reflecting on the spiritual and moral questions raised by the atomic bombings. Mohler offers some opinions that could be debated, but his closing point resonates strongly:

The 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing should serve as a catalyst for Christian reflection on the morality of warfare, the reality of human sinfulness, the frailty of human wisdom, and the burden of history. For all these things, we will give an answer. Until then, we must do the very best with what we have, what we know, and what we face.

Endless ink has been spilled over the morality and necessity of the atomic bombings, and many essays have been written about what a Christian attitude toward war should look like. As an American Christian, I find the atomic bombings to be a particularly difficult moral question even decades after the fact: on the one hand, it’s impossible not to view the ending of World War 2 as a morally good outcome; but I’m unable to say that even such a good outcome makes the bombings themselves morally good. Can something be both morally necessary and morally evil? (I’ve read quite a bit about the final days of World War 2, and the book that captures most harshly and vividly the moral bleakness of the war—the European war, but it’s certainly relevant to the Pacific war as well—is Max Hasting’s Armageddon. Hastings was interviewed at Christianity Today on the topic.)

So as Mohler says, perhaps the most appropriate response at this point is for Christians to simply keep asking the difficult questions raised by this, and other, morally upsetting moments in history. (I recommend this essay/study guide on different Christian attitudes toward war if you really want to delve into the topic, perhaps in a small group discussion.)

The Washington Post recently reported on six Franciscan friars who decided to take a 300-mile walk:

The pilgrimage was the idea of four young friars just finishing their training in Chicago and working toward taking lifelong vows. Seeking to emulate the wanderings of their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, they wanted to journey together as a fraternity, ministering to one another and to strangers, while depending on God for every meal and place to sleep. [...]

They tried to live by the ascetic rules Jesus laid out for his 12 disciples: “Take nothing for the journey — no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.” The less they brought, they reasoned, the more room they could leave for God. [...]

Some rules, however, had to be made on the fly. They had agreed not to carry any money, but just minutes into their first day, strangers were pressing dollar bills into their hands. So they made a pact to spend what they received each day on food, often high-protein Clif bars, and to give the rest to the needy.

The WaPo has a slideshow of pictures of the friars’ journey. You can also track the frairs’ trip through the Friarwalk blog. And there’s more commentary on the story at GetReligion.

According to these reports, the friars were often stopped by people who wanted to share problems and concerns. Simply by being visible and open to these conversations, the friars became a kind of walking confessional. Food, money and shelter were given freely to them; despite their meager supplies, none of them went hungry or was hurt in the course of the journey.

Any kind of spiritual discipline is like that: it’s usually something incredibly simple, like not eating for a time, or praying for an hour, or walking from point A to point B… but while they’re simple acts in themselves, God can build them into something extraordinary. Fasting brings us to question our relationship to food and to God. Time spent in prayer brings us to radically reassess our life priorities. Not every skipped meal or hour of silence will pulsate with spiritual insight, but it’s these simple acts of devotion from which God produces fruit in our lives.

Would you ever take a trip like the friars’ journey? Have you seen God do something extraordinary that began as a simple act of spiritual discipline?

Did you watch the Watchmen earlier this year? The much-discussed film version of Alan Moore’s graphic novel came out on DVD recently. As is the case with many new releases, the filmmakers took advantage of the DVD format to release a longer “director’s cut” version of the film. Over at Past the Popcorn, film critic Greg Wright reviews the Watchmen director’s cut.

We haven’t given a shout-out to Past the Popcorn recently, but they continue to host solid discussions of movies and the people who make them. Their extensive interview with the screenwriter of Knowing digs into the spiritual symbolism in that Alex Proyas film; and they keep a close critical eye on new DVD releases as well.