I chose the following from August of 2009 for my Lord's Day post:
I walked into a Christian book store for the very first time early in 1982, browsed the shelves for a little while and wound up buying a book that peeked my interest. It was Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. God had already been working upon my heart and my mind even as I had just finished reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book Denial Of Death by Ernest Becker that made a good case against religion (general non-fiction 1974), and also Eric Hoffer's small classic The True Believer that was a powerful work against anyone that believed anything passionately. I had torn the Denial Of Death in half so that I could carry some of it with me until I had completed reading it.
Then came Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It wasn't McDowell's intellect that effected me, nor even the truths in the book, for many could have read it and not been affected. It certainly was not my decision to believe, for I might have fallen for any powerful philosophy at the time. I was a man with a void in my life. Were there were any true purposes in this life? I was altruistic, or so I thought. It hadn't been that long since I volunteered and phoned an entire community of Democrats in support of Edward Kennedy's Pennsylvania primary campaign.
God then took a layer of veil off of my eyes. I had a glimpse of His majesty and I saw my purpose in life to become one more person to bathe in the sin cleansing blood of Calvary. Had I known then the long path that I would have to take to even understand the gospel I would have been severely discouraged. If I knew today my specific limitations and the errors in my thinking I might be very saddened but not discouraged, for I now more fully understand that we indeed are pilgrims. His promises are true or I would not have made it this far.
This may sound naive but when I see an elderly person, feeble and wrinkled, a person who was young and attractive at one time, it consoles me greatly, for though I see the reality of a quickly passing life, I also see and understand what Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy... "...for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."
Take a peek at your watch. You cannot stop what that second hand, moving before your eyes, represents. Do you have arguments against God or even His existence? There is hope, and that hope is that the veil over your eyes can be lifted, and in Him who is willing to do so, for He turns no one away who has desired this!
I walked into a Christian book store for the very first time early in 1982, browsed the shelves for a little while and wound up buying a book that peeked my interest. It was Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. God had already been working upon my heart and my mind even as I had just finished reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book Denial Of Death by Ernest Becker that made a good case against religion (general non-fiction 1974), and also Eric Hoffer's small classic The True Believer that was a powerful work against anyone that believed anything passionately. I had torn the Denial Of Death in half so that I could carry some of it with me until I had completed reading it.
Then came Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It wasn't McDowell's intellect that effected me, nor even the truths in the book, for many could have read it and not been affected. It certainly was not my decision to believe, for I might have fallen for any powerful philosophy at the time. I was a man with a void in my life. Were there were any true purposes in this life? I was altruistic, or so I thought. It hadn't been that long since I volunteered and phoned an entire community of Democrats in support of Edward Kennedy's Pennsylvania primary campaign.
God then took a layer of veil off of my eyes. I had a glimpse of His majesty and I saw my purpose in life to become one more person to bathe in the sin cleansing blood of Calvary. Had I known then the long path that I would have to take to even understand the gospel I would have been severely discouraged. If I knew today my specific limitations and the errors in my thinking I might be very saddened but not discouraged, for I now more fully understand that we indeed are pilgrims. His promises are true or I would not have made it this far.
This may sound naive but when I see an elderly person, feeble and wrinkled, a person who was young and attractive at one time, it consoles me greatly, for though I see the reality of a quickly passing life, I also see and understand what Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy... "...for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."
Take a peek at your watch. You cannot stop what that second hand, moving before your eyes, represents. Do you have arguments against God or even His existence? There is hope, and that hope is that the veil over your eyes can be lifted, and in Him who is willing to do so, for He turns no one away who has desired this!
