Feb 18, 2020 | Apologetics
As you may know, because of improved technology anyone can publish a book today. Writers are no longer dependent on all powerful book publishers to to get their books in print, or face limited shelf space to get it purchased. Publishing is a tough business, so publishers rarely take a risk on first timers, like me, so self-publishing is our only option. I found out the hard way that not all self-publishers are created equal, and the first one I picked delivered a book that wasn’t acceptable. So I decided I would not promote it, and hired another self-publishing company with a catchy name, Dog Ear Publishing. I spoke to the owner a couple times, liked him, and decided to move forward with them. Because of my inexperience, it took longer than I would have liked, but most things do.
So here it is, with a much more professional presentation. The content is the same, and I think as persuasive as ever! Of course you would expect me to say that. It can currently be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and I’d be interested to see if you think it’s as persuasive as I do. I know my kids do! They grew up experiencing the persuasion. You can read a bit more about the inspiration and content at The Book.
Feb 13, 2020 | Explanatory Power
When I pray in the morning it seems that I always start praising God for revealing himself to us in creation, Scripture, and Christ. Each means of God revealing himself to us astounds and flabbergasts me in its own way. I have a hard time conveying just how grateful I am to him for making himself so real to me, to us, to his people. It is impossible for me to believe in the alternatives to our biblical Creator God. Whenever I doubt, and every psychologically healthy person does, I just look at creation, and marvel: Our God is real! I will briefly deal with Scripture and Christ in following posts, and show why my reaction to those modes of God’s revelation is the same. (more…)
Feb 8, 2020 | Culture
I rarely get political here because my passion is to defend the veracity of the Christian faith, as I have to my children all their lives, and to rest of my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I feel I must in this case get political because I’m weary of left-wing, progressive, liberal (whatever) Christians thinking they stand in some politically transcendent place where they can condemn their conservative brethren for their moral profligacy of supporting President Trump. I was driven to write by a recent piece at Christianity Today by Scott McKnight, although I’ve encountered many such screeds directed at people like me, and the rest of Evangelical Trump supporters. (more…)
Feb 7, 2020 | Apologetics
In my previous post I argued that the transformed life of converted sinners is a profound defense of the truth of the Christian faith. We can’t see God, like the wind, but the evidence of his reality, like the wind, can be seen in the effects of his Spirit in the lives of his people. I mentioned that Romans 12 gives us an explanation as to how this works itself out in practice, and will explain that here. Paul spent 11 chapters giving us a detailed explanation about the meaning of redemptive history, then transitions with a declaration of the mind-blowing (in modern parlance) nature of it all (11:33-36). Then he transitions to how we are to live in light of it all:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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Feb 1, 2020 | Apologetics
I was praying recently, and said something to God like, it’s difficult to believe what we can’t see, but . . . . I can’t help but believe it! And for many of the reasons I argue here. Then something different came to mind, an apologetic I don’t believe I have ever appealed to: changed lives. Evangelical Christians, a description I embrace for myself, are familiar with Christians using their testimony as a means of sharing the reality of their faith with others. I’ve always shied away from this as an apologetic, as a defense for the truth of Christianity, because it seems subjective, and I want to root that defense in the objective, in things that are real and substantive, like evidence, Scripture, history, archaeology, logic, philosophy, etc. What came to my mind is a saying of Jesus from John 3, and I realized just how powerful is the evidence God has given us for his existence and spiritual reality in the lives of his people:
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
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