Learning From the Best

     As I mentioned last week, on Saturday, October 4th, we had the privilege to hear both Josh and Sean McDowell speak at a Heroic Truth Conference. The amount of knowledge and wisdom they both had was incredible. Sean spoke a lot on what is truth and how our culture tries to change the definition of truth. Josh spoke on how we know the Bible is true. He talked about how there are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament. What is mind-boggling is that the chance of just eight of those prophecies being fulfilled is the same as filling the state of Texas two feet deep with quarters, marking one of them, and having a blindfolded person find the marked quarter on his or her first try. What Josh also mentioned that is incredible is how there are thousands of Biblical manuscripts (a few of which he has and showed us) that have been found dating back to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century AD. What is neat about that is what those manuscripts say match what is written in the Bibles we have today. What was written not long after the life of Jesus has not been changed over hundreds of years. Also, the fact that there are thousands of Biblical manuscripts dating back to the first few centuries is important because to test the validity of historic works or literature, you must go by the time span from when they were written to when the earliest copy of them were found and also the number of copies that have been found. Here is how the New Testament compares to other great historical works:

      As you can see, the New Testament blows all others out of the water. After going to the Heroic Truth Conference I feel like I have a much better grasp on the validity of the Bible and what Biblical truth is. However, there is so much more to know and I am excited to continue learning by reading some of Josh and Sean's books. 

      One other thing that I want to share this week is how I was impacted by a Louie Giglio sermon called "The Dash" that I recently listened to. If you don't know, Louie Giglio is on of my favorite pastors and I love listening to his podcasts. The one that I listened to this week challenged me in so many ways that I couldn't help sharing part of it with you. Here it is: 

     I wanted to begin today by bringing us back around this little, precious window called life. And I want to ask you today, what do you want your life to be about? Do you want to have said in that day (when we die) I wish I had cared less about what people thought. I wish I really hadn’t cared so much about what my neighbors thought about me going and telling them about Jesus.  I was so concerned that they were going to think I was an idiot, think I was a freak or some kind of bizarre Christian nut job. I wish I hadn’t spent all my money… on stuff. I wish I had looked into the eyes of Jesus more and gained the courage that he has to walk out in life in the highs, in the lows, in the good, in the bad, in the darkness, and in the light, and say you know what, it is hard right now but Jesus is greater. And this little life I’ve got, I’m going to proclaim that Jesus is alive and that my hope is in someone who has conquered death, hell, and the grave. I’m not going to be a complainer in this life. I’m not going to be beat down by my circumstances. I’m not going to be dragged under by the undertow of negativity and all the heartbreak of this world and seep into depression and denial and numb myself and go on autopilot and comatose living. I’m going to rise up out of that and say you know what, I’ve only got a certain number of heartbeats and maybe it is a hard life and maybe it is a broken world and maybe it’s not all adding up the way I thought it was but I do know Jesus, so in this life I’m going proclaim Jesus because I know there is eternity coming and I want in that eternity to have the reward of saying in life, I proclaimed Jesus… because this life determines everything about eternity. I don’t want to say God put me on a platform, he gave me opportunity, he gave me a chance, he gave me connections, he gave me conversations, he put me in rooms with people that I didn’t know, he gave me little moments to give a two minute answer. I’m so glad now that I didn’t bite my tongue, that I didn’t back down, that I wasn’t afraid, that I didn’t say well you know I just didn’t want to upset anybody. I’m so glad that I proclaimed Jesus with my life. I’m so glad that I talked about the things that really matter. I’m so glad that I invested in the kingdom because this life set the tone for eternity. And now it’s forever and I can’t go back. I can’t undo it. I can’t rewind. I can’t say please give me one more chance. So I just want to leave us with that tonight. Can we just maybe ask God over these next few weeks to awaken us to the reality of heaven, to awaken us to the reality of hell, to awaken us to the reality of eternity? To blow us up out of the little bunker of this world and to live lives that matter for him.

     That is my prayer. I don't want to live a life focused on myself and focused on things of this world because this life is too short and I don't want to waste it. It's all I've got and there is no going back. That is so easy to say but so hard to do. My sinful nature always brings me back to being concerned about what people think, or how much stuff I have, or whether or not I'm comfortable. I don't live radically abandoned to Jesus, but I pray that by God's grace I can get there. Hope that challenges you as well. 

Thanks for reading!