Gospel.com Blog

Depending on when you ask me there’s a good chance I’d call myself a runner. There are times when I wear the label proudly, but there are times when it’s been months since I’ve accelerated beyond a brisk walk. Catch me then and you’ll get an extensive and meandering litany of excuses.

Running, like most physical activity, is habit based. For the most part, the more regularly you work out, the more you want to do it. After all, staying in shape is much easier than getting into shape.

The devotional over at Our Daily Bread today is about our spiritual routines. Just as we can get into healthy physical activities like running, we can get into healthy spiritual routines like setting aside time to pray or praise God:

Summer can also be a dangerous time of breaking good habits. Certain routines are good. They increase our efficiency and ensure that important things get done. After all, we need to have fixed times and places for certain things or the world would be chaotic. Creation is designed to operate on schedule, and, as part of it, so are we. We need food and sleep at regular intervals.

We sometimes hear legitimate warnings about allowing routines to turn into ruts. But the Bible indicates that having set times for certain things is good. David indicated that morning was the right time for him to praise God and ask for His direction (Ps. 5:3; 143:8). And Daniel prayed three times a day, and not even the threat of death made him change his routine (Dan. 6:10).

While enjoying carefree days, we must not become careless about spending time with God. Savoring spiritual sustenance is a routine for all seasons.

Read the entire devotional at odb.org.

Where in your daily routine does time with God fall? If you don’t have a habit of praying to God at a certain time, how might you develop one?

We all know that life can be discouraging. Like everyone else, I’ve been through times when it seemed that everything was going wrong. In those moments it would have been easy to rationalize throwing in the towel and walking away from the situation; but whenever I managed to stay and work through the situation, it proved to be a life-changing event. There’s something about standing up in the face of adversity that tests and strengthens our character in profound ways.

This devotional from Daily Encounter urges us to follow the advice of Paul and to never waver in our diligence to the Gospel. Much like the famous Churchhill quotation to “never, never, never…give in,” we need to stick to our convictions in the good and bad times:

It was during World War II when Great Britain’s back was against the wall defending herself against seemingly overwhelming odds with the unrelenting onslaught of Hitler’s military might, and the unyielding bombing by the German Luftwaffe.

Winston Churchill was asked to address the students at Harrow School, the school I believe that Churchill himself had attended as a student. The following is the speech that he gave that day:

“Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

When it came to never giving up Churchill certainly practiced what he preached. His determined leadership helped win the war against Germany. And when it comes to God’s work, let us all be like the Apostle Paul who said about his work for God: “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others] and so we never give up.”

Is your life characterized by this resolution? When life’s challenges feel overwhelming, what helps you to hold your ground and resist the urge to give up and walk away?

Lillian Kwon writes in a recent Christian Post article about the ways that Claremont School of Theology is partnering with colleges from other faiths. Their goal is to create a multi-faith seminary.

Understandably, this has some Christian leaders taken aback. Here’s a portion of the article; you can read the whole thing to get a few dissenting opinions on Claremont’s plan:

Claremont’s president, the Rev. Jerry Campbell, announced Wednesday that the seminary will be partnering with Jewish and Islamic schools to offer clerical training to students of various faiths. Students will be trained in their own religious traditions as well as gain understanding of other faiths through shared classes with the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Islamic Center of Southern California. Eventually, the seminary plans to expand its training to include Hinduism and Buddhism, among others.

The new consortium of graduate schools, which is believed to be the first of its kind, is being launched to essentially better prepare students for the multi-religious world they are living in.

But a multi-religious environment isn’t anything new, said Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative watchdog that monitors mainline denominations.

Christians have had to deal with such an environment for the past 2,000 years and Christianity has stuck to its truth claims amid the diversity, he noted during Mohler’s radio program.

“If they are to be faithful to the Gospel then they should be accepting the multi-religious environment as a challenge rather than trying to accommodate it or succumb to it,” Tooley commented.

While I think that Claremont’s reasoning for partnering with other schools is a little theologically shaky, the end result could be interesting. Keeping one’s faith intact in a setting like this would require a deep understanding of and commitment to one’s Christian faith. I have a hunch that Christian students at this school will find themselves articulating their faith to outsiders nearly every day.

Also, a World Religions class in this environment could be excellent; instead of one professor attempting to accurately describe many different religions, spiritual leaders from those religion could come in to teach. As a consequence, Christian students might leave with a much better understanding of the intricacies of preaching the Gospel to adherents of those religions.

What do you think? Assuming the Christian arm of the seminary is orthodox, do you think there’s value in a multi-faith seminary?

A recent survey found that 90% of evangelicals in the NAE are okay with contraception. These days it’s probably not the most surprising survey result, but I can’t help but wonder how the results would have been 50 years ago around when the Pill first hit the streets in the US.

Here’s an excerpt from the Christian Post article:

The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches in the United States, released a report Tuesday showing that nearly 90 percent approve of contraception.

Several leaders, however, expressed opposition to drugs or procedures that terminate a pregnancy once conception has taken place.

“Most associate evangelicals with Catholics in their steady leadership in pro-life advocacy, and rightly so,” said Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, in a statement. “But it may come as a surprise that unlike the Catholic church, we are open to contraception.”

Evangelicals in the pews hold similar views. A 2009 poll conducted by the NAE in partnership with Gallup, Inc., found that at least 90 percent of evangelicals say hormonal/barrier methods of contraception are morally acceptable for adults.

Surveyed leaders in the most recent poll said the purpose of sex is not limited to procreation but it extends to the consummation and expression of love within marriage.

Read the rest of the article at christianpost.com.

Whenever the question of contraception is raised in the context of Christian faith, I think of organizations like Quiverfull. One of their basic beliefs is that using contraception is taking control away from God and therefore wrong. It’s interesting to contrast Quiverfull’s theology with results from the NAE surveys. Both sides argue from the Bible. Both come to very different conclusions.

What do you think? Would you side with the majority of the NAE respondents or do you hold to a different view?

Has God ever asked you to step out in faith?

There are times in our lives when we need to trust that God has our best interests in mind. Maybe God’s been telling you to take a new job, end a relationship, or do something else equally daunting. Whatever it may be, when God asks us to do something, we’re called to obey… even if we don’t fully understand why.

In this Today devotional, Jang Ho Park describes an obedient posture as one that readily uses the words, “because you say so.” When we say those four words to God, we admit that while we might not understand why he’s asking us to do something, we’re willing to trust that God has a reason:

Jesus told Simon to row out to deep water and cast his nets. Why would Jesus do that? Jesus wanted to make a strong disciple of Simon. Simon had already heard the words of Jesus and may have experienced a change in his heart. But he may also have had doubts about Jesus. In response to Jesus’ command, Simon said, “Because you say so, I will let down the nets.” And what happened? They caught so many fish that their nets nearly broke and they filled two boats to overflowing!

Those little words “because you say so” are powerful, for they capture the response of obedient faith. Like Simon, we need to listen to Jesus, and we need to trust him when he calls us to cast our nets in faith, even if it’s a strain to do so. Though fatigue, hunger, or other discomfort may make it difficult, we need to follow when he calls. He is the Lord!

Is God calling you to do something that you don’t want to do? What would it take for you to respond with the words “because you say so?”

Have you ever been in a situation with no good resolution, feeling like God had abandoned you?

Sometimes we find ourselves in over our heads. Our natural inclination is to try to dig ourselves out, but sometimes we find that there’s no right way to do so. We can keep trying to dig ourselves out… or we can wait patiently for God to help us.

At Strength for the Journey, Joe Stowell describes the process of waiting patiently for God. It’s not an easy thing to do. But it could be, as in the story of king David, that God has already planned our deliverance:

King David understood this. He knew that he was to be the next king of Israel. Rather than staging a dramatic takeover, he faithfully served in the army and played his harp in the palace to soothe King Saul’s stress. Things were going great until Saul developed an insane jealousy that drove him to try to kill David. When David was being hunted by Saul, he found himself in a cold cave crying out to God, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2 NASB).

Like David, when we feel that God has forgotten us we are prone to plan our own escape. We say, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll—no, that won’t work. Here’s what I’ll do—no, I don’t think that will work either.” It’s the total despair of seeming to be locked in with no apparent way out.

Take courage. God already knows how He is going to deliver you. In fact, He is in the business of making ways of escape! Peter assures us, “the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials” (2 Peter 2:9). So you can count on it: When you are faithful and patient through trouble, God will, in His time, exercise options of deliverance that are far beyond what you ever dreamed!

Have you ever been in a situation in which you needed to rely on God in faith that he would deliver you?

Do you view your Christian faith as a precious object to be preserved, kept carefully out of any situation that will challenge it? Chuck Swindoll relates an amusing anecdote from Oliver Cromwell’s reign to make a point about the true purpose of faith:

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating they reported: “The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners.”

To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: “Good! We’ll melt down the saints and put them in circulation!”

That brief but direct order states the essence of the practical goal of authentic Christianity. Not rows of silver saints crammed into the corners of cathedrals, but melted saints circulating through the mainstream of humanity. Where life transpires in the raw.

Swindoll goes on to describe the life of a “melted saint”—it means means living a God-honoring life amid the questions, challenges, and temptations of “real life.”

Is your Christian faith kept “safe and sound,” hoarded in isolation from the world? Or do you freely “spend” grace and love on those around you?

The Freakonomics blog posted a fascinating email from someone who finds social situations to be much easier when they fake Christianity. Here’s an excerpt from the post We Pretend We Are Christians:

We are agnostics living deep in the heart of Texas and our family fakes Christianity for social reasons. It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.

It seemed silly but it’s all very serious business down here. We don’t go to church or teach or children one belief is “right” over another. We expose them to every kind of belief and trust that they will one day settle in to their very own spirituality. However, for the sake of friends and neighbors, we pretend we are Christians. We try not to lie but rather not to disclose unnecessary information. As the children are getting older, this isn’t so easy for them and an outing is probably eminent.

We are not the only ones. We have found a few other fakers out there.

Read the entire Freakonomics post. The comments after the post are filled with other people sharing their experiences faking religion or political leanings in order to smooth over social situations.

I’ve spent much of my life around Christians and in work environments steeped in Christianity. But recently I moved to a city with a very diverse religious landscape. It’s interesting to see how differently religion is discussed here. When religion is mentioned, it’s broached very carefully and tentatively so as to not offend anyone.

In some ways I miss the more direct openness of other places, but observing these extremely cautious conversations about religion has shown me how quickly Christians can create a situation in which it’s easier for other people to hide their convictions than to boldly state their opposing viewpoint.

Have you ever found yourself faking or omitting your own perspective when a touchy theological or cultural issue comes up in conversation? How do you make sure that people who don’t share your beliefs still feel comfortable around you?

[HT: Experimental Theology.]

In 1 Samuel chapter 3, God calls out to Samuel in the night. Confused, the boy runs to Eli, his master, and asks him what he wanted. Eli tells Samuel he didn’t call him and sends him back to bed. The episode repeats itself two more times, but the third time, Eli tells Samuel to answer the voice, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” Samuel obeys and God reveals what is going to happen to Eli’s family.

Sometimes in life the last thing we want to do is listen to God. We get confused by his voice, or we’d much rather listen to the world’s advice. Despite our wayward ways, God patiently calls out to us, and as we see in this devotional from Lutheran Hour Ministries, God is the only one who speaks real truth to us:

God continues to speak to His children through His Word, the Bible. But, at certain moments in our lives, we may turn a deaf ear. Instead of listening to the voice of God, we listen to the voice of the world. God wants to build a personal and intimate spiritual bridge between Him and us. I have experienced God’s intimate love during my lowliness. Learning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to hear the voice of God through His Word will transform you.

God’s Word is life itself. Through it we find the eternal message of salvation won for each of us through the saving work of Jesus Christ. Yes, God talks to us and calls us to a life of devoted service and obedience.

Read the entire devotional at lhm.org.

Have you ever clearly heard God? Does the idea of responding to God by saying “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” scare you?

Technology choices seem limitless these days. I get a little embarrassed when I realize how many gadgets I have laying about and how many social networks I belong to. Granted, they’re all designed to enhance my life and work… but sometimes it can get overwhelming. Is this friend on Facebook or Twitter? Can I text them or should I call? Do I need an iPad, or just want one?

As more and more devices and technologies compete for our attention and free time, I think we need to be more discerning about which ones we do and don’t participate in.

What technologies have you decided not to use because of your faith? Have you given up anything because you found it was interfering with your relationship with God?