I pay pretty close attention to how you read this site. I want to know what you want, what interests you, what excites you. That doesn't mean The Gospel Coalition's editors and bloggers will publish just anything that grabs your attention. In that case every article would include a cat video, Tim Tebow picture, and Love Wins review. But we do want to be responsive to the way you seek encouragement and exhortation to serve Jesus Christ with faithfulness and love.

Reading this list is like looking in the mirror. These 10-plus articles reflect your passions, your desires, and your fears. What do they say about us? How well do they explain the year of our Lord, 2011? Do our priorities match God's priorities? That's a question we want to continue asking ourselves as writers, so together we can love God and our neighbors with renewed zeal in 2012.

10.) What Does It Look Like to Receive the New Testament for the First Time? by Justin Taylor

If you love the gospel, this video featuring the Kimyal Tribe in West Papua, Indonesia, will make your heart skip a beat.

9.) Twitter Slander by Justin Taylor

Seminary presidents should not jokingly liken Acts 29 pastors to porn-watching Osama bin Laden. The year 2011 introduced us to several controversies either originating in Twitter or stoked by this growing social media platform.

8.) It Was Not Wicked for the Lord to Take Our Son by Lisa Blanco

Perhaps no pain compares to losing your child. Blanco, a young mother, offered a faith-filled, biblical perspective on this heart-wrenching experience.

7.) Grieving, Rejoicing that Osama bin Laden Is Dead by Christopher Morgan

Bin Laden's death has topped many lists recalling the top stories of 2011. Professor Morgan watched night-time scenes of celebration across American and reflected the next morning on a Christian response to the terrorist's demise.

6.) Why Youth Stay in Church When They Grow Up by Jon Nielson

During our time together at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, I came to know Nielson as an exemplary pastor for high school students. His insight, rooted in experience and God's Word, helps pastors and parents align their priorities in youth ministry.

5.) Pray for Sayed Musa: Afghan Christian Set to Be Hanged within Days? by Justin Taylor

Mercifully this story did not end with the Musa's martyrdom. But a similar case in Iran later this year reminds us that in many dark corners of the world, Christians understand the full weight of Jesus' words in John 15:20: "'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

4.) Dude, Where's Your Bride? by Kevin DeYoung

DeYoung admonished single men, "Stop looking for play dates and-unless God is calling you to greater service through singleness-start looking for a wife." Tens of thousands of women responded: Amen!

3.) Beware Romantic Pornography by Betsy Hart

Who knew Sleepless in Seattle still keeps Christians up at night? Love them or hate them, romantic comedies have profoundly shaped our expectations for relationships.

2.) Parenting 001 by Kevin DeYoung

Love Jesus, love your kids. DeYoung wants to simplify parenting. Apparently he's not the only one who's tried the parenting theories and returned to basics.

1.) Rob Bell: Universalist? by Justin Taylor

Half this list would have been occupied by the ubiquitous, bespectacled Rob Bell. But that would have been a boring, so I've included several articles in this same slot. We may never see another publishing phenomenon like Love Wins, with CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, and many other outlets looking in on a largely blog-based debate over theology. Several others articles continued to shape the conversation over historic doctrine, before and after the book was published.

• God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of 'Love Wins' by Kevin DeYoung

• Two Thoughts on the Rob Bell Brouhaha by Kevin DeYoung

• To Hell with Hell by Kevin DeYoung

• MSNBC: Martin Bashir's Interview with Rob Bell by Justin Taylor

The world waits anxiously as the leadership transition unfolds in North Korea. It's premature to suppose that the death of Kim Jong-il guarantees improvement or hope for the oppressed people of that totalitarian nation. Uncertainty and regime change inside a violent leadership culture could result in tragic consequences for ordinary citizens.

In a recent column for The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof gave us a glimpse into the world of North Korea. He describes "The Loudspeaker," a radio mounted on the wall of every North Korean home that randomly vomits propaganda on North Koreans. "In his first golf outing," it shrieks, "Comrade Kim Jong-il shoots five holes-in-one!" The speaker recounts robotic answers to questions from two North Korean schoolgirls and the horrific story of a husband asking and receiving permission to execute his wife, who raised questions about Kim Jong-il's womanizing.

By now, we've probably all seen the video and photos of North Korean citizens weeping and tearing at their clothes and hair in agony at news of their infallible leader's death. We ask what could possess people who suffer under such harsh conditions, such deep poverty, such rank abuse to mourn the death of their oppressor. But this is nothing new.

There were similar levels of unimaginable cruelty in Germany during the Third Reich, as well as in China under Mao and the Soviet Union under Stalin. The 20th century learned the lessons of the industrial revolution and created vast government machines of oppression. Ordinary citizens terrorized their friends and neighbors, buying into propaganda that told them such cruelty served of the invincible demi-gods who led their state.

Unfortunately, the collapse of North Korea would not be the end of totalitarianism. Many other nations, such as Cuba, hover near the border of this description. As political philosopher Hannah Arendt has said, "It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past." Dictators and despots will continue to learn from their predecessors and build bureaucratic machines of terror and oppression.

But only for a time.

Oppression Will Cease

The fact remains that a day is coming when in Jesus' name, "all oppression will cease." Even the oppression of totalitarians in North Korea.

North Korea is a glaring reminder of the brokenness of the world and the great evil that we are capable of carrying out. Machinized terror, systematic oppression, gulags, prison camps, and propaganda are all the product of a God-given imagination running horribly awry. Under the weight of that corrupted imagination the world groans in weariness. North Korea's rulers have drained the resources of a starving nation, pouring every dollar they could into the military, which stands as both a tool of oppression against their people and as bared fangs to the world that looks on in disgust. Yet that power is somehow cosmically undone by the birth of a child in a stable in Bethlehem.

As Placide de Cappeau de Roquemaure phrased it so brilliantly in his hymn "O Holy Night":

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
As yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Sin's entrance sent the world careening towards destruction, creating a rift between heaven and earth that required sacrifices, temples, and veils to protect us from the furious heat of God's holiness. The Christ child's entrance into the world set the two on a collision course once again, with the promise that the babe in the straw would reconcile them all, destroying death and sin in the process.

Cannot Defeat the Gospel

I can't help but think of Herod as we imagine North Korea at Christmas. The isolation of their people and the brutal persecution of Christians is like the murderous response of that other king when he heard of the birth of the Messiah. Like the later attempts by Roman emperors---indeed, all those made by despots throughout history---every attempt to crush the gospel has and will continue to fail. Christians in North Korea need our prayers and whatever help we can provide.

Jesus taught us to pray "on earth as in heaven," inviting us to look at the world through the hope-filled promise of reconciliation. It's through those eyes that we should look to North Korea, or Iran, or any other populace suffering under the crushing thumb of dictators. There is nothing so liberating as the news that we have a better King and an eternal hope. In spite of their screeching protestations, every tyrant's days are numbered. A King was born in Bethlehem who will one day bring justice and peace.

Merry Christmas, North Korea. We love you and we're praying for you. May the wondrous announcement of the birth of the One True King take root in your people, spreading a fearless hope in your hearts as you face the uncertain days ahead.

No doubt America's church leaders are as concerned as anyone else about the grave news emerging from the European financial crisis. It threatens a disruption so serious that every economy in the world would be damaged. But pastors may naturally ask what, if anything, it all has to do with their work as the spiritual leaders of God's people.

I don't think pastors are called to become experts in international finance. However, I do think the European crisis intersects with the daily work of stewarding the mysteries of God and equipping the saints for discipleship in the American context.

One of the most important callings of the pastor is to equip the saints in discerning and carrying out the various callings God has for them in every aspect of their lives, including as members of their civil communities. And thinking Christianly about our daily calling to be good citizens in our homes, workplaces, and communities actually provides unique insight into the financial crisis and what we, as ordinary citizens, can do to make a productive contribution to the good of our neighbors and nation.

Moral and Theological Foundations

Looking at the European crisis, let's start with some simple economic knowledge and work our way back to moral and theological foundations. The immediate cause of the crisis was a broad constellation of bad policies that reward irresponsible behavior. For example, when European banks buy debt from European governments, they're exempted from rules requiring them to backstop the debt with some assets in case of default. Naturally, banks all across Europe have responded by buying lots of European government debt, even when they knew it was likely to default. So now, if one or more countries go bankrupt, the whole European financial system will suffer severe and unpredictable disruptions.

But how did Europe get to the point where so much of its financial policy and behavior is so irresponsible? And how did nations like Greece get to the point where voters won't let them make the necessary reforms even in the face of catastrophe? That's a longer story.

A historically unprecedented phenomenon has been unfolding---in Europe for the past five centuries, in America for the past two, and more recently everywhere across the globe except sub-Sarahan Africa. That phenomenon is explosive economic growth. After millennia of basically stagnant wealth levels from the earliest recorded history forward, God's world is at last beginning to flourish economically.

Just in the past two decades, the percentage of the population in the developing world that lives in dire poverty (less than $1 a day) has been cut in half. Contemplate that for a moment.

This economic flourishing was originally produced by a confluence of factors, the most important of which was Christianity. Late medieval Christianity developed an increasing emphasis on universal human dignity and (consequently) the intrinsic goodness of economic activity. The Reformation dramatically expanded these trends and added critical new dimensions---especially the idea that your daily work is a calling from God and the primary way God makes human civilizations flourish.

All this culminated in cultures that made productivity---improving the lives of others by responding to their authentic needs---central to both individual and national identity. Scriptural treatment of this topic is extensive. Everything from the image of God to the Trinity to the prophets and parables is implicated in understanding productivity.

Christians believe human beings are made in the image of a Father who creates from nothing; this explains why human work creates wealth rather than just moving it around. Christians believe in a divine Son who joined in mystical union with temporal and material humanity. Material activities like economic work are not separate from, and inferior to, "spiritual" activities. And Christians believe in a Spirit who liberates us from selfishness; this explains why life works best when people orient their daily lives around serving others.

The problem is, too many Europeans now take wealth for granted. Some have forgotten where it came from---productive work---and feel like they're entitled to it by birthright. More to the point, the people and institutions in authority have irresponsibly indulged this attitude (for various reasons, such as vote-buying) and have thereby anointed it as culturally accepted.

Where this happens, economics is reduced to the purely material. If the proper economic goal for individuals is to enjoy leisure rather than to be productive, then of course voters should demand endless, unsustainable entitlement programs. If the fundamental purpose of business is to make money rather than to serve customers, then of course businesses should game the system to enrich themselves---and nations can try to get rich by playing games with the money supply.

The idea that policy should encourage financial rewards for productivity, and culture should set the expectation of productive work from all who are able, simply makes no sense in this context. Once you forget the Creator, you quickly forget that wealth needs to be created.

American Asset

Where does America stand in all this? Our finances are not nearly as bad as, say Greece's. But they're not nearly as good as Germany's. And, like Europe, we've been punishing productivity and playing games with the money supply. Not to mention continuing unsustainable entitlements, housing market shenanigans, irrational subsidies, and naïveté about destructive programs.

But America has a hidden economic asset that not even Germany has: churches full every Sunday with people ready to hear what God has to say.

Again, I don't think pastors should pretend to be experts on international finance, or try to handle political and policy questions beyond their knowledge. What they can do is equip people to discern the calling of God to productive work.

Imagine pulpits across America clearly and consistently preaching:

• God is calling you to spend every day making the lives of others better through productive work in your home, workplace, and community.
• God is calling you to be a spiritual leader who gracefully sets that expectation for others---because everyone made in God's image is called to productivity---and for our nation.

Productivity is a critically essential component of both discipleship and good citizenship. In the long term it is the only protection against both pietistic subjectivism in our churches and also economic collapse in our nation.

"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.' --- Matthew 2:13

For many centuries Egyptians have been proud that when God's Son needed refuge, he came to their land for shelter and security.

Today, as the bright sunshine of the Arab Spring is being overshadowed by darkening clouds of the Arab Fall, many Christians and moderate Muslims are seeking to flee from Egypt for freedom.

You will undoubtedly have heard that the Islamists have made significant gains in the recent first round of parliamentary elections. This was expected but has, nevertheless, discouraged many who made great efforts to vote and somehow hoped that the non-Islamist candidates and parties would have made greater gains. Nonetheless, many believe that the next two rounds of elections will not be as favorable for the Islamists. A host of smaller parties are joining forces to counteract the Islamist takeover.

Many wonder why the Islamist parties have gotten a majority of the votes. Here are a couple possible possible reasons:

• The recent Egyptian revolution was against the oppression of President Mubarak's regime, so it is logical that people would want to vote for those who were most oppressed by the former government.
• A more convincing argument is that the Islamists have campaigned on only one issue: restoring Egypt to God's laws. Since Egyptians are some of the most religious people in the world, this platform has tremendous appeal with the masses that trust these leaders to provide them with a decent life and help them get to heaven.

Before you claim that this is naïve, think of how keen Christians in your country are to vote for a Christian candidate!

God at Work

Rather than focus on the many economic, social, political, cultural, and religious problems that Egyptians are struggling with, I want to share with you some remarkable news of unprecedented breakthroughs for the gospel.

• My wife, Rebecca, began ministering 29 years ago with an unknown Coptic priest who was serving the despised and neglected garbage collectors of Cairo. On November 11 the largest prayer meeting in the history of the Middle East took place at the Garbage Village's Cave Church complex when more than 50,000 people from all denominations and all walks of life met to pray for Egypt. We are hearing dozens of stories of healings and spiritual transformation that took place among those who attended this 12-hour event or even among those who watched it on satellite TV. With all the sanctified imagination she could muster, Rebecca could not have conceived such an event when she first began ministering with Father Simon.
• During the recent fighting in the vicinity of Liberation Square, the nearby hospital was damaged. Kasr El Doubara Evangelical Church, which is also nearby, established a "hospital" on its premises that was manned, among others, by Salafist and Muslim Brotherhood doctors and nurses. This event as picked up by the media, and Islamists told media in interviews how welcome and loved they felt serving in that church hospital.
• I recently attended the opening service for a church around the corner from my home. This is the first time since the 1950s that a Protestant church has opened in the suburb where I live.
• Last month the Bible Society bought a shop in the Giza district of Cairo (which has 7 million inhabitants and 115 churches). We are renovating it as a Bible bookshop, the first in Giza.
• Last week we finished rebuilding the roof of the new Bible Society national distribution center and are hoping it will be in operation by the summer.
• The objective of our "Rebuild Egypt" campaign was "To flood Egypt with God's Word." We began with highlighting biblical values that resonated with the aspirations of the Egyptian youth. As the situation in Egypt has progressed and regressed, we have become increasingly more focused on equipping the church, seeking to encourage and assure people not to fear the future, but to trust in the Lord.

In the opening service of the new church close to us, the pastor preached on 1 John 4:18, "perfect love casts out fear." True believers should not fear. The best antidote to fear, he said, is love. We do not fear those we love. So the solution is to love those we fear. What a message for Christians in Egypt today!

Editor's note: London-based blogger Adrian Warnock shares his perspective on the troubling events in the UK. More details of the emerging situation and further Christian responses to these events are available on http://adrianwarnock.com.

We have seen inner-city riots before. As these events began they initially seemed to be following a similar pattern. The trigger was a fatal shooting by police during an arrest. To understand why such an event could trigger a riot, it is important to understand two things. First, in the UK regular police do not carry guns, and as a result deaths by police shooting is very uncommon here. Such deaths by their unusual nature often make the national news. Second, the death happened in Tottenham, an area of London in which many youths feel angry with the police. A peaceful vigil outside the local police station then triggered a violent reaction and rioting.

The first night of riots was localized in Tottenham but rather extreme in its nature. The devastation—the like of which some are saying has not been seen since World War II—has shocked the nation. But the events since then have angered and upset us even more. In an unprecedented manner disorder spread the following day, initially to nearby Enfield, where the church I attend is based, then to other parts of London and to other cities in the nation.

The disturbances have tended to be caused by groups of 20 to 200 youths rather than mass mobs, making policing more challenging. There appears to be no political or racial motivation; instead, wanton looting has been the characteristic. Shops are broken into, robbed, and in some cases burnt to the ground. In many cases shop owners will have seen their livelihoods built up over decades disappear.

Different Hope

How are Christians responding? There is a strong call to prayer. But as Oliver Cromwell used to say to his troops, we must trust in God and keep our gunpowder dry. Many have been reaching out to offer help with clear-up operations. This is also a time to reach out with compassion to neighbors who may be very worried at this time. It is also an opportunity to reach out to local officials and for communities to rally together.

Our nation has sought to marginalize the church. In these troubled days, doors are opening up for the gospel in word and deed, and there is a renewed openness for the voice of the church to be heard. In addition to obviously praying for peace, please pray that many churches will use the increased openness we are seeing to forge healthy relationships with local government and to care for those around us. Many people are feeling shaken by the way a tiny minority of people are behaving in our usually peaceful nation. The difference Christian hope makes at a time like this is palpable. May many reach out to God at this time and that Christians will rightly represent Jesus to our nation.

Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images

Justice is a fickle word. The way we often use it, you’d think that it’s more malleable than it actually is. We often use it in a way that fits our cause. For our enemies, the word is used more severely. For ourselves, well, we’d like a little Christian grace along with it.

In the case of prison rapes, we—even Christians—often use the word justice corruptly.

In the July issue of Reason, Lovisa Stannow wonders why the government is doing so little to end sexual assault in prison. She reports that the U.S. Department of Justice’s study of the number of inmates who are sexually abused concluded that at least 216,600 inmates were victimized in 2008 alone. Surprisingly, however,

[M]ost of the perpetrators were not other prisoners but staff members—corrections officials whose job it is to keep inmates safe. On average, each victim was abused between three and five times over the course of the year. The vast majority were too fearful of reprisals to seek help or file a formal complaint (emphasis mine).

That’s around 600 assault victims a day with authorities chiefly responsible. Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003, but implementation has been slow, according to Stannow, for reasons that aren’t clear.

I’m not sure about all of Stannow’s conclusions, but I'm not surprised that prison rape is low on the list of social ills we want to eradicate. Take for instance, the fact that prison rape is a common punchline. A Los Angeles Times article by Ezra Klein from March 2008 made the case that since we often joke about prison rape, it’s hard to take the problem seriously. These snickers range from the common “don’t drop the soap” quips to California attorney general Bill Lockyer, who in 2001 jokingly day-dreamed out loud about wanting to escort Enron’s Ken Lay “to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.’”

We might not actually approve prison rape, but as Klein points out, "it doesn't exactly concern us, and occasionally, we take a perverse satisfaction in its existence.”

Perverse, indeed.

As Christians, we should love and fight for justice. Prison rape is a wicked and perverse consequence that we should not delight in, nor joke about. The Bible explains that God gives human government responsibility to distribute justice and punish those who commit evil. We should find no satisfaction in returning evil for evil.

Preying on the Weak

Our snickering supposes that rape happens to the worst of criminals. But the fact is that the victims are often juveniles, women, and the weakest of prisoners. Take for instance the story of Jan Lastocy:

While serving time for attempted embezzlement in a Michigan prison in 1998, Lastocy was raped. Not once, not twice, but several times a week for seven months. The rapist was an officer who supervised her at a prison warehouse.

Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship, catalysts for the Prison Rape Elimination Act, have been on the front line of this discussion for years. You can read the most recent statements by Prison Fellowship vice president Pat Nolan on the Departments of Justice’s proposed prison rape standards. Colson has said elsewhere:

Prison rape affects more than just prisoners; it punishes people who never set foot inside a prison. For example, AIDS, which is now five-times more prevalent inside prison walls than outside, is a deadly plague that infected inmates will spread once they leave prison. And once released, many inmate-victims visit all the rage and humiliation male rape victims suffer on innocent people--usually women--in a misguided effort to win back a sense of manhood.

Christians delight in perfect justice, not when it is abused. And those who wink at what disgraces humans and dishonors God should repent. May we love our neighbor and enemy by praying that this abuse stops and that those in positions to make changes do so swiftly.

“Yes, there is a lack of dignity in what has happened to [Congressman Anthony] Weiner—but only because what was meant to be private became public.” That’s from Andrew Sullivan, the Daily Dish, who is attempting to curb our reaction against online activity that many of us, not only Christians, would call sin. Sullivan wants to us to believe such behavior is actually “a vital part of the human experience that we call 'play.’"

As I finished Sullivan’s article, I sat stunned. This is how he concludes:

From Angry Birds to anonymous chat rooms to World of Warcraft to Chatroulette or Grindr or OKCupid, this is a safe zone for unsafe things by virtual people. That's why we call it play. It is often a balance to work or lack of work. It is not the end of civilization. It is, in fact, the mark of one.

It’s not that Sullivan thinks adultery and illegitimacy is perfectly acceptable. He just doesn’t think pornography, sex chat rooms, and online flirting by married men falls in that category. He argues, "[I]f a married man [masturbates] to porn, I don’t think we should consider him an adulterer.” He goes on to say, “Ditto if someone 'kills' real-people-acting-as-avatars on World of Warcraft.”

Did you catch that reasoning? If we are going to call watching porn adultery, then killing avatars is murder. This logic cannot possibly hold. The amount of abuse women receive, sexually and physically, to produce this pornography is horrifying. Watching a staged gang-rape of a woman by four men is heinous and unspeakably wicked. The fact that Sullivan can call this industry "playful," as if it were Dungeons and Dragons, is simply irresponsible, absurd, and morally reprehensible.

But Sullivan continues:

What if he is just playing at wooing or preening with online strangers or fans but with no real intent to, you know, have sexual relations with any of them? In the grand scheme of social ills, these do not rank high on my list. The real-virtual distinction is a meaningful one (emphasis mine).

Sullivan's flippant tone is stunning. And yet he must offer relief to many when he says the virtual world is safe for flirting, fantasizing, fornicating, killing, or anything else we want to do. Problem is, this “real-virtual distinction” Sullivan makes doesn’t exist.

Ask a wife if she’s comfortable with her husband staring at a surgically enhanced woman having rough sex. Will she be comforted with Sullivan’s “real-virtual distinction”? No, she's probably already experienced what recent studies have confirmed. Husbands hooked on porn lose interest in their real-life wives.

Or ask the same woman whether she’s pleased with her husband typing words to women online that he’s never said to her. If she just realized this is merely “play” and, as Sullivan explains, truly the “mark of a civilization,” then would she not be devastated when her husband complains he's bored, because she doesn’t say the exciting, playful things the paid sex worker purrs over the phone?

If Sullivan is right, then why have so many expressed sympathy for Weiner's wife? Would she be wrong for feeling the sting of betrayal? Or would this response betray an uncivilized sense of "play" in the internet age?

The online sex industry offers cheap-and-easy passion. You don’t work for the attention and thrill you receive. How that is the mark of a civilization, I’m not sure.

Sullivan’s point doesn’t make sense of reality. Of course our virtual habits have consequences in the "real world." Just ask any online-gambling addict. As if what we see with our eyes and invest with our emotions and passions cease to matter once we log off.

As humans we act from motive. Or to say it like Jesus, “For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt. 15:19). Weiner may not have violated his marriage with his body, but he has dishonored God and disgraced his wife with his heart. “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). This is no light thing.

Sullivan gives us a little insight into how he can draw such shocking conclusions. He says,

I tend . . . to think that human nature is so flawed that a sane moral life cannot and should not insist on constant perfection/abstinence, but constant attention to morality, to conscience, and to what human beings can reasonably expect to achieve (emphasis mine).

This is a new morality, accustomed to these strange times. We’ve relieved ourselves from accountability to God, who cast a pall over our perfectly civilized play. Now we’ve set our standards to a level that “human beings can reasonably expect to achieve.” And just who is the judge of what is “reasonable” for our standard of morality? Her name is Bambi, but you’ll have to pay $0.99/minute to talk to her.

The March 21 issue of Towers, published by The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, includes an interview with Don Carson, president and co-founder of The Gospel Coalition. He talks with managing editor Aaron Cline Hanbury about why he sees himself as more of a pastor than a professor. He also explains how he ended up training pastors in the United States rather than serving as a pastor himself in Canada.

Whatever title you give him, though, Carson explains what truly defines him:

What drives me, in fact, is not first and foremost what label is attached to me functionally, but the gospel itself. In other words, as highly as I want to emphasize the local church and pastoral ministry—and pastoral ministry primarily being ministry of the Word—the presupposition behind all that is the non-negotiability and importance of the gospel. So I’m happy to say I think of myself primarily as a pastor, but fundamentally, I’m a gospel-person.

Read the rest of the interview and the whole issue of Towers, which explores the relationship between the church and the seminary.

With the rest of the world I have been watching footage of the devastation in Japan with my hands over my mouth. Videos and pictures have shown us the awful destruction and only make us wonder at how many lives are lost or now impoverished in ways beyond our ability to comprehend. Maybe you felt the same, but my prayers have only been groanings, hoping the Holy Spirit can give content to the needs I haven’t been able to articulate for Japan.

Two days ago, my wife rushed into my office and asked, “Do you think Keiko is alright?” Keiko Takahashi is a Japanese woman who was in our small group at church before she left less than a year ago to go work with Michael Oh at Christ Bible Seminary in Nagoya, Japan. After some investigation by email and Facebook, we found out she was fine, but working tirelessly, as you can imagine. I emailed Keiko to see if she could provide information on how the disaster is affecting Christians, local churches, and missionaries. Basically, I just wanted some information to help inform our prayers.

God’s Faithful Presence

Keiko’s response was thick with an awareness that God is present in Japan and that his providence, however mysterious, is good. But there are efforts, dark and spiritual, sowing the seeds of disorder, confusion, and anxiety. “When this kind of massive confusion occurs, some malice spirits spread dark malicious rumors," she writes. "Evil demagogues on the Internet stir up the dark human desire, normally hidden at the bed of the original sin.”

Thankfully, the majority of Japanese people seem to be trusting the official reports from the authorities about the nuclear plants, aftershocks, and power outages. In fact, Keiko remarks the Japanese people have submitted to the authorities with orderliness and patience. She writes:

Even in the total power outage, nobody robs shops or rapes or anything, except for those who are normally committing such crimes. . . . There are no riots where we have to line up for several hours in the train station waiting to get into a packed-full train cart. They answer to the interviewer, "Compared to those who died or survived the tsunami, this long line is nothing. We want to help them by saving our electricity consumption for them."

Let’s be thankful to God for this unusual order during a time of such devastation. There seems to be a common grace from God to the Japanese people that, as Keiko puts it, “They know that the power of love overcomes their sense of inconvenience to the extent of suffering.” But she reminds us, “Christianity must show far beyond.” Our love and kindness, Keiko writes, must be rooted in our faith in the atoning cross of Jesus, so that our acts of mercy will give honor to the “God who created and gives unceasing mercies and comforts.”

A Far Greater Struggle

In a nation with such a small Christian minority, the pressure Keiko endures from unbelieving family members is common to Christian workers in Japan. She explains:

My unbelieving family say in "love" that I should leave Japan for the United States because I have some contacts there. They assume that our goal for life is to physically preserve ourselves. But we know that our true goal is to die to the idol of self-preservation, and to be raised into God's preservation, which is destined to victory.

She explains that what her family “cannot understand or accept is the fact that I see and taste the happiness that is given through the atoning cross of Christ. I came to Japan to die to all my self-dignity to live for Christ who loves to rescue his enemies, who alone can make me filled with all that I could hope for and far more.”

Kieko and her co-workers hear stories of “those who were swallowed by fast, dirty waters, yet never lost hope in the deadly struggle to survive for their loved ones.” But she knows that there is a far greater struggle, an eternal one, that compels her to stay in Japan. She explains:

Yet as we pray with missionaries from John Piper's Bethlehem Baptist Church, we vividly see that even those spectacular survivors still do not know anything about the far more dreadful struggle they must deal with at the end of their lives here on earth, which will be final.

Pray for Christians, who, like Keiko describes it, “shine by showing our full confidence in Christ.”

Devastated 'Rengo' Christians

Portions of Keiko’s email were especially heart breaking. One in particular was her report of the “Rengo” Christians. She writes:

Among those killed [were the] many churches planted by the missionaries sent by the same denomination as John Piper's denomination, called "Rengo" in Japanese. Their church planting efforts have been predominantly focused on these east coast areas that were just swept all away!!!

According to Keiko, biblical Christianity thrived in these eastern regions that were devastated by the tsunami waves. She writes, “People in this area have been traditionally known for poverty and enduring patience due to the severe weather. [They were] well prepared for the God of all mercies and comforts (2 Cor 1).” They were “precious believers” in a country that is less than 0.2 percent Christian.

She asks, without doubting God’s goodness or perfect wisdom, “Why does God do this?” Along with rebuilding churches and ministering to mourning communities, Christians in Japan will be faced with similar questions. Pray for wisdom and clarity.

How Can American Christians Help?

Keiko is clear that it’s not yet the time for material and human resource help. There is simply too much “traffic confusion and congestion due to the scheduled power outage in downtown Tokyo and because of the shattered roads in the areas hit.” But there are “460, 000 survivors who lost everything in a few minutes, including their loved ones, and are impoverished in every possible sense.” So as we wait and pray, let’s pray that when the time comes to help, the means will be ready and effective.

The deep need in Japan from American Christians is prayer. Keiko writes, “Please pray and encourage us to fight a good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith until the Lord makes us home with him.” She is keenly aware that there will be temptations on every side in this fight for faithfulness. She reminds us, “I cannot choose to die to my flesh at all by myself, but only by the Spirit and by the power of his divine grace and his perfect righteousness. That is why prayer counts so much.”

The challenge for Christian workers is the significant biblical illiteracy in Japan. “Most Japanese people,” Keiko explains, “have never heard of the true meaning of God’s grace given through the cross of his Son.” So especially now, when some are offering false hope or claiming apocalyptical doom, many “cannot tell the Spirit from the spirits of evil cults, which are out to be the wolves in sheep skins. So we should not just send Bibles and tracts to the survivors at refugee shelters.”

The temptation, then, is for Christian to labor in their own strength. But let’s pray that they believe and act on what Keiko articulates so clearly:

We sow and water but God is the one who actually brings them to growth, not to death. . . . We shine by showing them our full confidence in Christ, not on our character or our wisdom or even our faith, etc., but in our conviction that there is no sin that he cannot atone for his own pleasure. We must reflect such miraculous generosity of God solely by the living Spirit.

That is why our and your prayer counts so significantly. It makes so much theological sense to pray and express our dependency on him who sanctifies us and saves the lost beyond our imagination.

Pray for the suffering and the mourning. Pray for local church communities to be faithful lights of the gospel. Pray that the hope of God’s grace in Christ will rest upon many hearts in Japan over the coming months.

Today marks the beginning of National Collections Week for Operation Christmas Child (OCC)—the annual evangelistic project of Samaritan's Purse. Each year an estimated 75,000 churches participate in this program, which sends millions of shoeboxes worldwide to needy children in underdeveloped countries. Last year, more than 8 million children in more than 100 countries received a shoebox full of school supplies, toys, candy, and an evangelistic booklet, "The Greatest Gift of All."

If you are not familiar with OCC, here is how it works. Participants pack a shoebox full of goodies. Some families choose to include a photo and a short note. These shoeboxes are then shipped all over the world, where they are distributed at one of the 65,000 sites along with an hour-long gospel presentation. This massive undertaking involves an incredible amount of volunteers and coordination, making it perhaps one of the largest annual evangelistic efforts coming out of the developed world. About 5.5 million of the gifts come out of the United States, while 2.7 million gifts come from other sending countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Since its beginning, OCC has stayed true to its mission: "To demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ."

Children in Veracruz, Mexico, learn about 'The Greatest Journey.'

I've always thought the shoebox thing was a great idea. My kids have a blast being a part of it, and I am blown away by how many people get involved each year. But I have always wondered just how effective it actually is as an evangelist tool. Does it really result in children understanding the gospel and becoming followers of Christ? Or is it more about Santa and getting a Christmas present? Before you call me a Scrooge, I realize this gift serves as an introduction to Christianity for most of the recipients, and you often need to plant a seed. But I have always hoped that more could be done. I was particularly encouraged today to learn that OCC is doing more. In addition to the shoeboxes, they now focus on continuing discipleship for these children through local churches. They have introduced The Greatest Journey as a teacher-led discipleship program aimed at helping kids better understand the gospel and mature into faithful followers of Christ. This is more than just a short pamphlet. It is includes a New Testament and a full-color, 12-lesson study guide (preview) focusing on who Jesus Christ is, what it means to follow him, and how the gospel changes a person's life. This material has already been printed in 28 languages, and right now more than 30,000 teachers in 50 countries are being trained to walk children through the program (gallery) as a part of their local church.

While the shoebox is a great introduction or touching point for many kids—even serving as a remarkable barrier-breaker for bringing Christianity into some difficult-to-reach areas of the world—I believe this discipleship program will be an amazing addition to this evangelistic effort.

If you would like to find out where to drop off your shoebox or how your church can become involved with The Greatest Journey, please visit the drop-off map locator.