Gospel.com Blog

When you read the story of Easter (see yesterday’s post to read it if you’re not familiar with it), what most stands out to you?

The story of Jesus’ betrayal, death, and resurrection is of course packed with interesting and important elements. But what always jumps out at me is the fascinating array of characters who populate this Easter drama. It’s the people of Easter who make the story come alive—and who add to it the ring of authenticity that you wouldn’t get if it were just another moral fable.

Think about the heroes and villains of the Easter story, and you’ll see that this isn’t the black-and-white morality tale you might expect if it were a piece of comforting religious fiction. Instead, we see a cast of very human characters reacting to the presence of Jesus—the story’s only perfectly good character. Some of the “heroes” don’t behave quite as heroically as they should—think of Jesus’ disciples falling asleep in the Garden, or of Peter disowning Christ rather than risk being associated with him. And the villains aren’t exactly brilliant, cackling evil masterminds—think of weak-willed Pilate, guilt-wracked Judas, and the religious leaders terrified that Jesus’ message will erode their own power and influence.

One of the most vivid ways to get to know the characters of Easter is through The Twelve Voices of Easter, an online audio drama from Back to the Bible that lets each of the twelve characters of Easter speak for him or herself. If you’ve read the Easter so many times that it’s started to lose its punch, this is a great way to approach the events of Holy Week from a different angle—with six days left before Easter Sunday, you could listen to two “voices” per day and be done on the big day. Most of the famous Easter characters are present in the drama (Judas, Pilate, Mary Magdalene), but also some of Easter’s less-well-known players, like the centurion and Cleopas.

I fire up the Twelve Voices every year during Holy Week because they shed some extra light on the human hopes, fears, and motivations that run through Easter week. While the Easter story is primarily about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it’s also the story of ordinary people tainted by sin. They’re everyday sinners like you and me—they’re not diabolically evil; but almost everyone in the Easter story is flawed and broken. Everyone here, hero or villain, needs the salvation Jesus offers. Their presence in the story reminds us that Jesus’ sacrificial death wasn’t carried out just to save humanity on an abstract, cosmic level: Jesus died for the everyday sinners right there around him. The cowardly disciples; the foolish mob; the scheming religious leaders. You and me.

We’ll close off this week’s focus on devotionals with a quick look at some good audio devotionals—daily devotionals that you can listen to via a podcast or online radio stream. Some of us find it easier to listen to Bible verses and devotionals read out loud, rather than reading them. If that describes you, see if one of these devotionals appeals:

• Just Thinking is a daily fifteen-minute message broadcast by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. If your local radio station plays it, you can tune in there, or you can subscribe to the MP3 podcast feed. The RZIM ministry takes a fairly intellectual approach to faith and Christianity; in their own words, Just Thinking explores “issues such as life’s meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”
• If fifteen minutes is a bit too much to fit into your daily schedule, you can go the short, inspirational route with the Bible Minute with Woodrow Kroll. It’s one of many programs by Back to the Bible, and aims to start off your day with a short but meaningful Bible reflection. Here’s a list of the different ways you can tune in.
• We’ve mentioned RBC Ministries’ popular Our Daily Bread devotional already this week. But it’s not the only audio devotional they’ve got—Daily Strength is another excellent choice. Each day you’ll hear a short reflection about issues that confront us in our daily lives. One nice touch is that each message closes with several life-application questions to get you thinking about how the words you’ve heard apply to your situation. As with the other devotionals here, you can get the audio in a variety of ways, but it’s probably easiest to just subscribe to the podcast feed.
• The Words of Hope daily devotional is another good short devotional—each short reflection is based around a particular Bible passage and closes with a prayer you can use to get your day started on the right foot. You can listen at their website or grab the podcast feed.
• Last but not least, if you prefer to spend your devotional time just reading the Bible (without any additional commentary or devotional), the Bible Gateway has several audio Bibles you can listen to. If you stop by the Bible Gateway each day to read a Bible passage (perhaps using one of the reading plans), check at the top of the passage you’re reading for the “audio” button. If there’s audio available for the Bible version you’re reading, you can listen to it right there on the Bible Gateway.

There are plenty more devotionals (in text, audio, and pretty much every format you can imagine) to discover if you explore around the Gospel.com community. Hopefully, at least one of the devotionals we’ve mentioned this week caught your eye. Have fun exploring all these devotionals, and we’ll see you next week as we look ahead to Easter!

There are two new audio sermons online at the Soulation audio library:

• God Is Your Hero by Dale Fincher, which takes a fresh look at the David vs. Goliath story and CS Lewis’ Narnia tales, and talks about what it means to have God as your hero.
• How the World Is In Us by Dale and his wife Jonalyn, which explains why human beings are “spiritual amphibians”—we live in two different worlds, the physical world and the spiritual world. Sound strange? Listen as Dale and Jonalyn talk about the need to understand both aspects of our existence.

If you haven’t listened to one of Dale or Jonalyn’s messages, it’s well worth giving one a try—they have a unique and humorous way of taking seemingly abstract concepts and showing what they mean for your everyday life.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has an interview with Mindy Meier. Mindy has been doing campus ministry for quite some time and has recently compiled answers to some of the most questions she is frequently asked in a new book called Sex and Dating.

From the online interview:

Many InterVarsity chapters seize the opportunity to schedule special events around Valentines Day. “If you’re ever going to have a talk on sex and dating, or on relationships, it’s certainly an appropriate time to do that,” Mindy said. Through television, music, and movies, students are bombarded by sexually charged messages. “They need to hear a Christian voice and a positive presentation of sexuality from God’s point of view,” she added.
…
Although a lot of the questions, and the answers, have stayed the same over the past 20 years, there are some new ones that relate to technological innovations, for instance. “No one was meeting marriage partners on the internet 20 years ago,” she said. “That presents new issues.”

People who are matched by computer often have amazing compatibility. But that only goes so far, because relationships still take work. “It’s always merging two personalities, and that’s challenging,” she observed. But when inevitable problems surface the internet isn’t necessarily to blame. “Any two people that try to put together a relationship are going to run into some bumps in the road.”

Valentines Day is an important day on campus, because college students are interested in love and relationships. InterVarsity staff help students focus on healthy relationships that can stand the test of time.

The full audio interview is interesting as she attempts a few quick answers about topics like, “How do you know if you should get married to the person you’re dating?” She offers the advice that you don’t marry a person you marry a family. Ask yourself the question, Do I want to spend 50% of my Christmases with these people? A fact that not everyone thinks of before marriage.

Sex and Dating is available now through InterVarsity Press. You can read the table of contents and excerpts form the book here.

Do you find the Bible confusing to read? Why is the world’s most-read book so difficult to read and understand? Soulation has just posted some new audio resources to help you out. Listen to Jonalyn Fincher talk about how to read the Bible (part 1, 2, and 3). She starts by highlighting some of the common mistakes that people (Christians and non-Christians alike) make when reading the Bible, and goes on to give some solid advice for reading the Bible wisely.

And while we’re talking about the Soulation ministry, take a look at a recent Wall Street Journal article—about the “does God exist?” debate and the state of apologetics today—in which Jonalyn is mentioned:

Defenders of the faith are drawing crowds of thousands in person as well. Next month, the Southern Evangelical Seminary will host a National Conference on Christian Apologetics, which will include a special segment for teens. Younger people are some of the most avid consumers of apologetics texts, according to Christian author Jonalyn Fincher, who speaks to college and high-school groups regularly. She says that in the 20th century, Christians often reacted to science’s attacks on religion by “running away from culture.” But in recent years more Christians have begun to take the attitude, “If our God is the God of truth, what are we afraid of?”

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, another apologetics ministry in the Gospel.com community, gets a mention as well.

We’re taking this week to highlight resources from our Gospel.com community on family, and today we’re looking at resources about children. Children are the building blocks of family. When they’re present they drive everything from finances to play. Our heavenly father calls us to raise up those He has entrusted to us in His ways. A task that, hopefully, no one has to take on completely by themselves.

Psychology for Living has published a few articles on kids that parents might find interesting:

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder outlines the types and diagnosis of AD/HD in children.

When Children Lie to You tries to get at why they lie and what to do about it.

Lastly, this is an article about the difference between loving your children and them experiencing it called Why Love Is Not Enough.

Psychology for Living attempts to provide biblical solutions to “human problems through literature, radio, the world-wide web, training seminars and counseling.”
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Have you ever wondered how to respond to the increasing pluralism in today’s society? Just Thinking is a daily listener-supported radio show that comes out of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. The program “seek[s] to explore issues such as life’s meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”

If you’re interested, you can find their complete archives online here. Or, search for a station near you using this page.

Recently they did a series called The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society. This presentation was formed from a series of talks by Itinerant team member Stuart McAllister, who is filling in for Ravi Zacharias. He focuses on Christian responses to an increasingly pluralistic world, and outlines how we need to begin interacting with the cultures and religions around us. His call is for Christians seek to understand the world they live in so that our defense of the gospel can be relevant. In his mind, there is far more happening on this earth than what we see from our own limited world-view.

The presentation is broken into five different parts. These links will take you to a page where you can select how you would like to listen to the broadcast:

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

“The radio outreach of RZIM is a listener supported ministry that powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. The programs seek to explore issues such as life’s meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”

Last September, hundreds of people gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend the Internet Evangelism Conference 2007—all there to learn about how to do effective online ministry. Conference workshops covered topics like evangelism in Second Life, managing volunteers in an online ministry, writing effectively for the web, and lots more.

If you weren’t able to attend the conference, you’re in luck—videos from several of the workshops are now online for you to watch. They include workshops by David Bruce of Hollywood Jesus, Robby Richardson of Gospel Communications, and five others.

In addition to those videos, audio from several other conference workshops is available over at the Internet Ministry Conference blog. There’s lots of material to watch and listen to, so see what looks interesting and check it out! And if you like what you see/hear, the next Internet Ministry Conference is slated for October 2008!

Forget the ten lords-a-leaping and five golden rings—this Christmas, listen to the twelve voices of Christmas! The Twelve Voices of Christmas is an audio drama that tells the story of the first Christmas from twelve different perspectives, from the angel Gabriel to the tyrant Herod to the Wise Men. You can listen to each story in MP3 format, or read a text transcript.

Twelve Voices was written by Woodrow Kroll of Back to the Bible. If you enjoy this Christmas drama, be sure to also tune in to his daily Back to the Bible radio program, where he and co-host Tami Weissert delve into a different Bible study topic each day of the week.