Dying for Christ

Just keep in mind, that magical thinking is contrary to Christian doctrine. There is no "easy ticket" by misusing a technicality, and you cannot "force God" to do something because you performed certain acts or rituals or whatever.

Simplified: it's the intention what counts. It's not what you do, but how you do it. Remember the story when a poor widow sincerely donated a small amount of money, and a guy donated a large sum just to show off to others? Jesus said about them, that God values the smaller donation of the widow much more, because of the intention of those two people.

Similarly, if you really devote your life to preach in a dangerous location because you care for those people, and get persecuted is (I think) valued much more than just going there to "trick God" to give you a "free ticket".

This above was written from a kind of "sola fide" point of view, so there might be people who disagree, but I doubt that there is any serious Christian denomination which teaches that you can trick God to reward you, by performing some acts or some rituals without doing it "from you heart" (it might sound cheesy, but I can't find a better formulation)

This is an interesting place to bring up calling.

Living out a prosperous life as a Christian is not the prosperity gospel. The "Prosperity Gospel" is a teaching that those who "truly follow Christ" will become wealthy (or healthy, or some other beneficial state). The Gospel only promises to meet our needs and that really only spiritually, there are plenty of examples of people who are very devout Christians who have struggled to just get their "daily bread." I see the traditional meaning of "Prosperity Gospel" to be a misread.

However, the way it's used here seems to be more of a "is it wrong to be prosperous and a Christian." To this I must say Absolutely not, but be careful. Wealth can be an impediment to faith, but it does not have to be.

Many people are called to a life of ministry, or to put themselves in danger in order to spread the gospel. However, not all are called to this. Many are called to live more ordinary lives as programmers, doctors, teachers, garbage men, or any other vocation. We can serve Christ just as well in our mundane ordinary jobs and lives as missionaries and pastors and other "vocational ministry" type positions.

Again: not everyone is called to vocational ministry. This does not mean we should not be ready to lay down our lives for Christ if the need arises, but it also means we shouldn't foolishly throw ourselves into bad situations unprepared (there are times when this is called for, but those times are rare). Missionaries who go to closed or otherwise dangerous countries should be properly trained for the dangers they may face (there are groups here in the US that help train you on how to deal with being a hostage or other dangerous situation, not sure about other countries).

Caleb covers the more spiritual side of "laying down your life." But I think we really should be reminded that we aren't all called to go do something dangerous outside our daily lives. We need Christians who are teachers, doctors, programmers and in every other walk of life. We need these for many reasons here are a few:

• There are people in those professions who need to hear the gospel
• Most jobs provide a valuable service to their company or the public at large
• Churches and missions ventures need funding, one way we can all participate is by giving to our churches and other missionaries.
• If we were all called to be martyrs there would be no one left to carry on Christ's work.