Gospel.com Blog

In the 1930’s Helen Baugh hosted a dinner where the gospel of Christ was presented in a loving and relaxed manner to other women, after that first meeting the women asked if they could come back again the next week. The weekly meetings took off and soon Stonecroft Ministries was born. From those humble beginnings the ministry branched out to include Christian bookstores, tracts, and bible studies. Currently there are Stonecroft Ministries’ bible studies in sixty-three countries around the world!

Here are some informative pages from their web site:

An interesting set of videos about people’s perceptions of Christians from Stonecroft media.

Stonecroft daily news.

The main page for Stonecroft Ministries’ small groups. If you’re interested in joining a Stonecroft group they have a location finder here.

Main page for Stonecroft bible studies.

Stonecroft Ministries, “is a non-denominational organization that equips women to impact their communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, providing resources to enable women to connect with God, each other, and their communities.”

Three new Just Thinking essays have been added to the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries site. Like the other articles in the Just Thinking archives, they offer insights on different aspects of Christian living:

• Tiny Beginnings by Alison Thomas, offering some new thoughts on the parable of the mustard seed (see Matthew 13 for the parable).
• The Test of Trust by Margaret Manning, which talks about what it means to truly “trust in the Lord with all your heart,” as Christians are encouraged to do in Proverbs 3:5-6.
• Our Disappointments Matter to God by Ravi Zacharias, about finding a positive perspective on the failures and disappointments that plague us at points in our lives. Ravi argues that even our most bitter experiences can be used by God to bring us closer to Him.

Despite daily news of conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hotspots, we don’t hear much about the chaplains serving with the troops. What’s it like being a chaplain on the frontlines today? How do chaplains cope with the awfulness of war, without losing their faith? What advice would they give to soldiers heading out to war… or who are being deployed for the second or third time?

It’s Chaplain Appreciation Month over at the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, and they’ve put these and many other questions to chaplain Mark Fairbrother. If you or a loved one is heading out to the frontlines soon, or if you just want to get a glimpse at what a chaplain’s life is like, read the interview.

What does the Sabbath mean to you? Is it just another part of the weekend, a time to relax before heading back to work on Monday morning? Is it just like Saturday, except for a brief church service in the morning?

There’s more to Sabbath observance than just going to church on Sunday, as an article at the Navigators website explains. Sarah MacDonald and Jay Sivits wrote a detailed, practical guide to observing the Sabbath to help you tap into the full significance of the “day of rest.” If you’ve never walked through the symbolism and meaning of the Sabbath day, take a few minutes to read through their guide–you’ll be surprised at the significance of the Sabbath as God intended it.

Who was Jesus? Why should you pay attention to his teachings, or believe his claim to be the Son of God? Why is his life and death so important for us today? Delve Into Jesus is one of the newest ministries to join the Gospelcom Ministry Alliance, and their ministry is focused on one thing: helping you get to know Jesus! All these questions and more are explored at the ministry’s new website.

There’s a lot of good content tucked away on the site, but if you’re just starting, you might start with what they call their “discovery paths”–an excellent series of essays that will walk you through what we know about Jesus and the basic concepts of the Christian faith. You might then stop by the discussion forums or ask a question about Jesus or Christianity that you haven’t seen answered on the site.

Does God still speak to us today? Does it seem to you that God is silent in your life? Maybe what you need is a change in perspective! In a new column at the Online Pulpit, Gerry Koning shares a story about an unexpected encounter with God’s voice. It was an experience that reminded him that God’s voice doesn’t always take the form of a dramatic boom of thunder or a miraculous event–God can use even the seemingly likely people to communicate a message of hope and grace.

Is it possible to bear a Christian witness while engaged in a terrible and violent activity like war? With thousands of soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq and elsewhere, this isn’t just an academic question. In an article at the Officer’s Christian Fellowship, Tom Hemingway asks some extremely tough questions:

How well do you reflect the Gospel in the pain-filled eyes of a frightened seven-year-old girl whose grandparents you just helped kill?

This is not merely a rhetorical question. I had to rip the answer from myself one day in 1965 as I stared into those terrible eyes at a devastated village in Viet Nam.

Moral dilemmas are by no means the private territory of men at war. However, wars do provide acute crises in moral and ethical decision-making.

Hemingway talks about his experiences as a Marine in the Vietnam War, and how a Christian who’s been called to serve in the military should understand war, grief, and God’s love for all people. He challenges soldiers who are Christians to think differently and Biblically about the tasks they are called to do. If you or somebody you know is facing these tough questions in the Middle East or elsewhere, Hemingway’s essay provides plenty of fodder for reflection and discussion.

Has life ever hit you with an unwanted interruption–or disruption–that messed up your plans and sent you back to Square One?

For author Blaine Smith, that disruption came in the form of a computer crash that wiped out much of the book he was writing, forcing him to start over from scratch. But once he’d gotten over his initial frustration, Blaine made a surprising realization: what he considered a terrible setback turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

How so? Read Blaine’s latest Nehemiah Notes column, in which he talks about the ways that God sometimes uses unwanted “interruptions” to benefit our lives, and how to distinguish these blessings in disguise from genuine disruptions.

Jonalyn Fincher, of the Soulation apologetics ministry, has recently published two new articles:

• The Curse of Eden at Radiant Magazine, about what she calls the “woman curse” in Genesis. Was the Genesis curse the beginning of the gender wars? Are men and women cursed to continually struggle for dominance over each other–and is there any way out of that curse?
• Tipping Toward the Trinity at Fullfill.org, about the question of loyalty. Can Christians devote themselves entirely to Christ while also giving their loyalty to a country or church? With the relationship between church and state regularly debated today, it’s a challenge for Christians to re-evaluate where their true loyalties lie.

After you’ve read the above articles, stop by Soulation website and learn more about the ministry work of Jonalyn and her husband Dale.

No figure in all of history has been the subject of more questioning. Millions of people claim not only to know who Jesus is, but also to have a relationship with him. Who is he, and how does one find the hope and purpose in life that he offers? Watch Who is Jesus? to find out–it’s a free 22-minute video from International Bible Society that will introduce you to the Jesus of the Bible.