The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004)
I am continually on the search for great books. And when I hear of something that is potentially a quality resource, I’m usually quick to grab a copy and read it. Over the years, I have built an extensive library of such volumes, and utilize them frequently, and recommend them to others.
Not long ago, I was listening to some older episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, Every Thought Captive — which is the creation of three current professors at my alma mater, Ozark Christian College, in Joplin, Missouri. In one episode, they made a passing comment about a book that a couple of them have used as a textbook in their classes, remarking that it was the best resource they had found on this particular topic. Of course, I was immediately intrigued.
So I went to Amazon and found myself a copy of The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus. And I have not been disappointed. This book lays out the logical and historical evidences for the resurrection accounts given to us in the New Testament, and they do so in a clear and concise manner that is easy to read and comprehend. They also don’t get caught up in “side issues,” such as the reliability of Scripture and others. These are important topics, and certainly play a part in the discussion, but are topics that can pull the attention away from the discussion at hand. Authors Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona avoid that as much as possible.
The book approaches the evidence from a couple of different directions, from both the proponents point of view, as well as the perspective of the skeptic, answering his questions and opposing theories. Both are equally well crafted and provide excellent information for Christians to use, adding strength to their testimony of Jesus to others.
I find The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus to be both refreshingly new, and timelessly solid. It’s an incredible addition to my library. I highly recommend this book for just about any Christian who wants to become better at sharing their faith in Jesus and the power of his resurrection.
If you are interested in picking up a copy, you can find it on Amazon.
Habits. We all have them. Good and bad. Many of the bad habits we work hard to break, or at least reduce their influence in our lives. And we often set goals to build better habits into our lives in place of them. They are a key part of our lives, either way. And one of the most foundational spiritual habits that we can develop is hanging out with God.
Do you have what many people call a “quiet time” with God? I have never really liked that term. I always seem to associate “quiet time” with my mom wanting me to calm down so she could have some quiet. So she would send me off to be quiet for a while with a book or something.
Later, as I grew in my faith, I kept hearing people talk about “quiet times.” Frankly, that never appealed to me because of that association I had in my mind. When I later learned to call it something else, a whole new aspect of my relationship with God was opened up to me. I started to call it, “hanging out with God.”
After all, that’s what I do with my friends. That’s what I do with people from our church. That’s a big part of my life, really. I hang out with others. And because of that, those relationships are deepened and richer as a result. So why wouldn’t that work in my relationship with God?
It does.
For the past few months, spiritual disciplines have been heavy in my thoughts. There are several reasons for this, I think, and examining this has led me to make some stronger choices in this area of my life.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused me to pause and think. After all, I have had a little more time since so much of our culture has shut down or been restricted in some way because of this virus.
On top of that, I have been preaching a sermon series for the last several weeks called Spiritual Makeover: Becoming Who God Created You To Be. In this series, I have been looking at several disciplines and characteristics that God wants to develop in our lives to more fully become who he has designed us to be. The characteristics are quality he instill in us, but the disciplines are more of the part we play in the process.
And when you add to this equation the time I spent in Colorado last month with several other ministers, digging into this very idea, and these very disciplines, you can begin to see why this has been dominating my thoughts so much.
And because it has been so much on my mind, there have been some changes in the way I approach many of these areas. I have improved myself in many ways, and have seen some significant growth in some areas. Other areas are already stronger, and these have received more of an encouragement booster in my life to continue on as I am. Either way, I have been seeing some encouraging growth in my life for several weeks now, and I hope that it is evident to those who are watching.
The past few weeks have been pretty quiet around here because of the quarantine. Along with most of you, I’m learning to live with the major disruption to my life and routine because of the coronavirus.
When this all started, I think we all expected it to be kind of like the other virus fears we’ve experienced, like SARS, or H1N1 from a few years ago. No one could have foreseen the complete devastation that would result from this new virus, and the disruptions to our lives.
This thing has caused several major changes in our culture and our world, from food and toilet paper shortages, to economic problems and unemployment on a national and global level. And it has had an impact on a personal level for us all, too. We’ve learned a new reality: social distancing… Quarantine…
From where I sit in the middle of America, we are moving into our fourth week of this. And we have a couple of weeks yet to go, at the very least. That could extend pretty easily if this virus doesn’t slow down.
My emotions have been a roller coaster. One minute, I’m confident that this will be over soon, and we can get back to normal — maybe a new normal, but still normal. The next minute, I feel like cowering under my desk, in abject fear that this is the worst thing that could ever happen. And my perspective shifts like this multiple times a day, it seems.
Yet through it all, I have learned a few things. And these are things that I have to hold on to tightly, so that I don’t completely lose my perspective on this whole thing.
New Years Resolutions have never been something I have invested myself into. First, I never really saw much point. And second, when I did try, I usually failed at keeping them pretty quickly. My approach over the years has been more goal oriented, and not resolution oriented. Mostly.
Several years ago, I stumbled across the idea of choosing a single word to live by for the year. This has been a paradigm shift in my thinking in a lot of ways, and for several reasons. Let me give you a glimpse into my thought process.
I usually start thinking about this in October. That’s the time of year that I go to Colorado for a retreat called Wilderness. That’s where I review my Life Plan in detail and examine what God has been dong in my life closely to see how I can take further steps forward in the coming year. That week in the mountains is kind of my “spiritual fiscal” year. It’s a critical time for my spiritual and personal growth.
And that’s when I start asking God for a concept to focus on for the coming year. The past three years, I have used words that were all similar in how they were impacting my life: “present,” “unhurried,” and “balance.” Those all held similar goals and strategies for my life, and I feel like God taught me a lot over those years. (Here’s a list that provides an overview of all the words I have selected since 2011.)
A Kingdom imagination is a necessary ingredient for a fullness of life. I have come to believe that over the past few weeks. And I have been challenged to increase my Kingdom imagination to more and more awareness of what God may be doing around me.
One of the first things I have learned about living with a Kingdom imagination has been to live with expectancy. God is doing a lot of things around me, within me, and through me, and I have been learning to look forward to those things with a sense of urgent expectancy, waiting to see what he’s doing as he reveals it.
As I have been waiting with that sense of expectancy, I have sense my heart being awakened in new and deeper ways.
God has given me gifts and talents and passions. He’s given you the same things, gifts and talents and passions. What I have seen in my life is that I have grown accustomed to the way I have been doing things, and have let my excitement for those things slip a little. Those things that used to excite me and make my pulse race have grown commonplace and mundane.
I didn’t intend for this to happen, but it did anyway. And to be honest, it bothers me. A lot.
Recently, God has been helping me reignite my Kingdom imagination. My perspective has become clouded over the years, and I see mostly what I want to see, and not what God sees. He has been helping me clear that perspective so that I can see more how he sees.
Regaining a Kingdom imagination… I know that sounds a bit vague. It’s a little undefined and cloudy. But I think that’s a perfect description of how my vision has been for the last few years.
Not my physical vision. That’s cloudy enough that I need glasses, and bifocals at that, to see clearly what I’m doing most of the time. No, I’m talking about my spiritual vision. I’m talking about that perspective that can only come from God, to see the world around me, not only with a worldview that is biblical, but to actually see things as God sees them… At least as much as I can.
A few weeks ago, I was challenged with this idea while I was at Wilderness, a Christ In Youth retreat. In that moment, when this concept was introduced to me, I was challenged specifically to reimagine what God could do in the lives of my family. And I have been catching a glimpse of that new vision ever since.
God has shown me that he has a bigger plan for my family than I do, and also a bigger plan for my own life than I do. That has kind of caught me off guard.
I mean, I intellectually know that to be true, but somehow, I have allowed myself to forget that fact. I have forgotten that God is the one that wants to direct my paths, and not me. That has been a tough and bitter pill for me to swallow, because my pride wants to be in control. And because my pride doesn’t even want to admit that God needed to nudge that reminder into my head. My pride tends to get in the way a lot these days.
