Gospel.com Blog

Lifetime Guarantee’s weekly program is now available via podcast! Lifetime Guarantee is the ministry of Bill and Anabel Gillham and aims to help you “see yourself as God sees you and live as He intended.” (Our friends at Soulation might call that “being appropriately human.”)

To that end, Lifetime Guarantee has quite a few resources worth checking out in addition to the weekly podcast: there’s a daily devotional (that you can subscribe to via email if you like) and weekly article series that touches on topics ranging from dealing with worry to learning from failure. That’s a lot of useful information already, but they’ve got yet more spiritual development resources if you want to explore the site further.

It’s the oldest question in the book: how can God allow suffering? Over the centuries, Christians have turned to the Bible and found answers to this dilemma; but the persistence of the question suggests that on some level, we’re just not able to wrap our minds around God’s reasons for allowing evil and suffering. We can firmly believe in God’s goodness and love, and yet still find our faith deeply challenged when tragedy strikes our own lives.

William Stuntz, a professor at Harvard, can speak about this with authority—because nine years ago, his life went from “normal” to “nightmare” in the course of just a few harrowing months.

From a crippling injury to chronic, constant pain to relationship breakdowns and finally to a cancer diagnosis, Stuntz has experienced suffering… and he’s written down some of his observations about living through suffering while believing in Jesus Christ. In his essay, he talks about some of the misconceptions Christians have about the purpose and nature of suffering. Here’s one of his points:

Christians err when we imagine that God is supposed to heal all our diseases. That is not promised to us, not in this life. More the opposite: Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” — not “might have,” but “will have.” But while God does not offer to take my cancer or my pain away, He offers something even better: that good will come from those illnesses, and that the good will be larger than the suffering it redeems. Romans 8:28 says that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.” Cancer and chronic pain remain ugly, killing things, enemies of all who love life and beauty. But try as they might, those enemies do not get the last word. Our pain is not empty; we do not suffer in vain. When life strikes hard blows, what we do has value. God sees to it. That is an enormous mercy.

It’s an excellent essay, and makes a good companion read alongside Jim Watkins’ recent writings about suffering, which we highlighted last week.

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.

Christians talk a lot about “shaping culture” and “having an impact on society.” What springs to mind when you hear those phrases? I tend to think of Christians trying to spread evangelistic or moral messages through entertainment or politics. Those are certainly major places where Christians can live out their values—but there’s a more mundane, perhaps even more important, place where we are called to live out our faith: the business world.

From the Enron scandal a decade ago to the recent economic crisis, it’s clear that Christlike values are as needed in the business community as they are in any other aspect of life. At the Lausanne World Pulse site, John Terrill addresses this in A Revolution of Vocation, which argues that the church should do a better job of equipping and supporting Christians who are called into business:

We desperately need to recover the sacredness of a calling to business. The Church must continue to renounce the sacred/secular divide that has beleaguered Christian communities for too long. As A.W. Tozer rightly notes in The Pursuit of God, far too many Christians get snared in this trap: “They cannot get a satisfactory adjustment between the claims of the two worlds…. Their strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their joy taken from them.” And I might add that their impact in the world is severely constrained.

Christ followers serving in business, law, healthcare, the arts, media, government, and every other profession need to experience in tangible ways the Church’s blessing of their Christ-honoring work in companies, law firms, clinics, studios, press rooms, and congressional chambers.

Terrill thinks the church has much to say about the role of business within a community, and that in today’s globally interconnected economy, business is a means of doing Christ’s work in the world.

It’s a challenging and helpful read, especially if you or someone you know is a professional trying to figure out how their profession relates to their Christian faith. Terrill’s is a fairly high-level approach; for more ground-level articles about living out your faith in your day-to-day job, see this collection of essays about Christianity in the workplace from Discipleship Tools.

How about you? Do you feel your church supports you in your career? Do you feel called to your profession? Do you have a sense of how your job fits into the big picture of your Christian life?

What are your spiritual gifts… and how are you using them? The newest issue of Uplook Magazine is out and available for download (PDF), and it’s all about the idea of spiritual gifts—God-given talents we’re all given and charged with using in Christ’s service.

Writers like Sam Thorpe, Robert McClurkin, and W.H. Burnett all chime in with essays on different aspects of spiritual gifts. Thorpe’s essay challenges us to consider the way in which we use our spiritual gifts, and Burnett asks an interesting question I hadn’t considered before: is it possible to acquire a temporary spiritual gift, a spiritual talent meant to be used for a specific time and purpose?

It’s an interesting topic that applies to all Christians, whether or not you consider yourself “gifted,” so read through the issue and see what you think. And if you’d like to explore your spiritual gifts further, you might also check out this series of essays about spiritual gifts, which include a spiritual gifts inventory to help you discern where your own gifts lie; as well as two articles by Blaine Smith which discuss understanding your gifts and discerning where you can best use them.

One of the most pervasive critiques of the Christian faith is the charge that it’s nothing more than a “psychological crutch.” Is God an invention of the mind, a fantasy we’ve imagined into being to give our lives some sense of meaning and purpose? Is belief in God something for the weak—a childish gullibility, a way of avoiding reality?

Amy Orr-Ewing tackles this question head-on in her essay Is Believing in God a Psychological Crutch? She traces the “psychological crutch” charge back to Freud, and offers a Christian response:

From [Freud's] perspective, God is merely a creation of the human mind, a projection emanating from human need and desire rather than a distinct reality or being that exists independently of the human mind. Freud’s notion of God acting as an idealized father figure for humans, providing a cushion from the harshness of the real world and a comforting friend in the midst of life’s troubles, reduces God to a human construct. Indeed, for Freud, God is made in humanity’s own image and is the “ultimate wish-fulfillment”; God does not actually exist but is merely the creation of humanity’s imagination and desire for a loving father figure.

How might a Christian respond to this? Can God really be explained away so easily by one aspect of psychology?

Read the full article, which is excerpted from Orr-Ewing’s upcoming book Is Belief in God Irrational? If you find this essay interesting, you can read the entire first chapter of the book over at InterVarsity Press.

Lastly, there are plenty more essays addressing the topics of faith, doubt, and apologetics at the Just Thinking archives. Don’t run from doubt and questions—take some time to see how Christian thinkers and writers are responding to tough questions about Christianity!

Have you ever doubted the truth of Christianity?

If you’ve never had a single doubt, you’re either the holiest person alive, or you’re not being completely honest. Whether you’re a longtime Christian who is troubled by doubts about your faith or somebody curious about Christianity but unsure if its claims are true, be assured that asking tough questions about God and the Bible is a healthy activity. When we ask honest questions and keep our ears and minds open to receive the answers, our faith is strengthened.

But knowing that doubt is normal doesn’t answer your questions, does it? Below are some resources from around the Gospel.com community that talk about questioning faith and experiencing doubt. Browse through these links, and you’ll soon see that you’re not the only person who’s asked tough questions about Christianity!

• Questioning Faith: Got questions about the Christian faith? Questioning Faith is an ongoing discussion about faith that tries to answer the tough questions about God and Christianity. Browse through their discussion archives to see the different topics they’ve addressed.
• Where is God? Dealing with Depression and Doubt: This discussion from Revive Our Hearts Radio looks at the doubt experienced by one of the most respected figures in the Bible: King David.
• Tough Questions (And Some Answers): Faith Facts takes a look at some of the most common challenges to Christianity—questions like How do I know the Bible is true? and How can God let bad things happen?

We’ll note other resources about faith and doubt as the week goes on. For now, let’s close with a short clip about the value of doubt from Questioning Faith:

Without doubt there could be no real faith. Indeed, Christianity is a religion that speaks openly of the kind of doubts and questions you mention. Adam and Eve started us out with matters of doubt and unbelief. Sarah doubted God as did Job and the psalmist—repeatedly so. Jesus responded to his disciples’ doubts, most notably Peter and Thomas. Paul offers more than hints of his own doubts, but he also speaks of the incredible sense of confidence that comes by exercising faith.

So go forth… and ask your tough questions!

Back to the Bible is running a survey contest that can net you a trip to Israel with Woodrow Kroll! The survey, from the Center for Bible Engagement, is gathering information about how people deal with temptation in their daily lives, and how that affects their spiritual growth.

The survey has been extended for a few days, but the deadline is almost here—you’ve got until this Sunday, September 7, to take the survey and enter to win the trip to Israel. The Back to the Bible website has the full contest rules and details.

Ever wondered why you are here on earth, or what the purpose of your life is? According to a new essay by media expert Al Menconi, you’re searching for answers to life’s four basic questions—questions that every person asks at some point in their life. What are they? Menconi lists them in the article:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. Where am I going? and
4. What is true?

In his essay, Menconi outlines the Bible’s answers to those four questions—and using a recent example from his life, he explains how seemingly innocuous things like the entertainment we imbibe can lead us astray as we look for those answers. Read the full article, and if you find it helpful, take a look through the Al Menconi Ministries website and read hundreds of other essays about faith, everyday life, and the messages (good and bad) that we absorb from the culture around us.

Ever find yourself troubled by spiritual questions you’re not sure how to answer? Questions like:

• How persistent should we be in praying to God—if a prayer isn’t answered, should we keep praying, or interpret God’s apparent silence as a “no”?

• How can we distinguish between God’s will for our lives, and our own personal desires?
• Is God a matchmaker? Is there a specific person singled out to be my spouse?

Chances are you’ve asked yourself at least one of these questions in the course of your life. They’re the sort of questions Christians are sometimes good at carefully stepping around without really addressing the spiritual issues behind them. But for years, Blaine Smith of Nehemiah Ministries has been posting his “Nehemiah Notes” essays, which deal with difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the Christian life. Blaine started his ministry as a way to help the many Christians he encountered who were seriously confused about understanding God’s will for their lives, and over the years he has written about a huge variety of topics. There’s a massive archive of Nehemiah Notes essays—over 100 in all. New essays are posted every other week.

That’s a lot of reading material, and if you find it helpful, you might also take a look at some of Blaine’s books, which address topics ranging from marriage to overcoming shyness. (I’ve read a couple of his books myself and found them quite helpful.)

Blaine’s ministry also calls to mind another organization in the Gospel.com community—Bruce Narramore’s Psychology for Living website. Bruce has also written a large number of essays addressing tough questions, with a special focus on relationships and emotional issues. Both ministries are well worth exploring; both have a lot of content to help you get through the spiritual and personal questions you’re bound to bump into in the course of everyday life.