Desiring God Blog : Posts by Seth Magnuson

“50 miles from Chernobyl”—that’s the location of our friends at In Lumine Media who are producing some really great resources for the Russian-speaking world (free downloads below). Recently we posted an article about how Desiring God connected with this ministry back in 2006 and why we continue to be excited about the work they're doing.

Jake Knotts, In Lumine’s founder, describes their mission:

Our goal is to create and distribute resources in the Russian and Ukrainian languages that are gospel-based and Christ-centered to provide an alternative to the moralistic and prosperity-driven books. . . . We want to see people know Jesus more, love him more and live for his glory, and we wa…

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J. D. Greear, Lead pastor of the Summit Church and author of Breaking the Islam Code, says:

Every church has got to make a decision whether or not it’s going to be a seed that exists for itself or whether it's going to be a seed planted in the ground that dies [to be a blessing for the nations].

He recently recorded a helpful and challenging video while traveling to the largest unreached island in the world.

Also, at our National Conference this year, J. D. participated in a discussion with Thabiti Anyabwile entitled "Loving Our Muslim Neighbors."

You're invited to Story '10 December 28-31 in Orlando!

Story’10 is a multigenerational gathering of people passionate about God’s glory among the nations.

Pioneers is bringing cross-cultural workers together who serve in some of the most challenging places on earth. They will tell their stories and provide practical steps for engaging the unreached next door or around the world. Breakout topics range from children at risk to business as mission to reproducible church planting. Devotionals, small-groups and worship are all designed to help you find your place in God’s redemptive story.

• Group discount: bring 5 friends, you come free
• Student discount for teens and college students
• Childre…

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We recently observed the 9th anniversary of 9/11. The anniversary came in the midst of threats by a Florida pastor to burn the Qur’an, and a national debate on whether a mosque should be built near Ground Zero.

There are somewhere between 3-7 million Muslims in the US (and over 130,000 in the Twin Cities). Muslims are not "over there" in other parts of the world. They are our next-door neighbors. They are our co-workers and they are our classmates. We cannot ignore them, as the news all too often reminds us.

We know that Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations, yet many Christians are afraid to go to Muslims. We know that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to …

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The crisis in Haiti has taken a backseat to news of Arizona’s immigration reform and the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. But for many the situation in Haiti continues to be a daily struggle for survival. The UN estimates that there are still 1.3-1.9 million people living on the streets or tent cities in Haiti.

What about the spiritual situation in Haiti? We have heard from many of our partners who are helping in the recovery and caring for people physically that God is indeed moving in mighty ways. One such partner wrote us last week to tell us that since the earthquake an estimated 15,000 people in their church network have chosen to follow Christ as their Savior. He says,

The testi…

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Thank you to all who have supported the Haitian Creole “For Your Joy” Project. I wanted to bring you a quick status update.

We are progressing on the translation and design of this new resource. I've included a picture of the proposed cover on the right.

We have been amazed and humbled by the response from ministries working in Haiti that have already requested this resource. We currently have requests for 48,600 of the proposed 100,000 booklets from a variety of different organizations ministering in Haiti.

Nearly every organization we talked with has told us of the overwhelming spiritual hunger they are witnessing in Haiti right now. Sadly there are very few God-centered gospel resou…

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We are encouraged that many people coming to the Pastors Conference next week are already stuffing an extra bag with old books to bless a seminary in Kenya. This is a note to let you know of a special opportunity to refill that extra bag for the trip home.

Throughout the conference, DG’s International Outreach team will be in the Exhibition Hall/Bookstore, prepared to sit down and talk with you about any connections you have with missions and church-planting efforts outside the United States.

We will be ready, right then and there, to send cases of DG resources home with you, as long as you promise to get them overseas in the next 6 months. This is a great opportunity to stock…

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I recently watched Malatya, a documentary released earlier this year about the first modern martyrs of the Turkish Church.

A little over two years ago in Malatya, Turkey three men, Necati Aydin and Uğur Yuksel (two of the first Turkish Christian converts from Islam), along with Tilmann Geske (a German Christian living in Turkey), were tied up, tortured with butcher knives, and murdered in their own office at a Christian publishing house.

The Malatya film gives gritty, realistic, unassuming access into the lives of the widows and families, as well as into the church-body that is still grieving in Turkey.

This very small community of Turkish Christians has been thrust into a national …

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With 300 million internet users in China and millions more worldwide, the Chinese language has now become the number one language on the internet. In order to provide more Christ-exalting resources for Chinese speakers, Desiring God’s International Outreach is ramping up our translating efforts and getting more and more sermons and articles into Chinese.

We're looking for volunteer translators who have the passion and ability to translate from English to Mandarin Chinese (simplified characters).

In order to ensure consistent quality, we've established an application procedure for serving as a volunteer translator for this project. This includes filling out an application and tran…

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We began the third day of our China vision trip by viewing some of the historical and cultural sites of this amazing nation. It has been a joy to learn about this great land, its history, and its people.

We started off at Tiananmen Square (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace), the symbolic center of the nation. We then journeyed north to the massive gate-laden compound called the Forbidden City, which served as the home of China’s emperors from the 1400’s to the 1920’s. (The last emperor of China abdicated in 1912, but was allowed to live there until 1924.)  

In the evening, we continued our crash course on the current state of Christianity in China, fellowshipping and learni…

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