In Defense of the Christian Faith

Welcome to another addition of Inspiring Story, where the goal is to provide you with a testimony that will encourage you, build up your faith, and demonstrate the power of God. He does exist, and He makes it perfectly clear, many times in our day-to-day lives. Today, I would like to share a few testimonies that I came across randomly (actually, that's not true -- I believe that the Lord led me to them as I was searching for a story this week), but they blessed me so much that I just had to share with my readers. This is the testimony of what God is doing through Heidi Baker and her ministry, Iris Ministries, in Mosambique, Africa. The first, is an interview that CBN did with Heidi. I was deeply encouraged by this one... And here is an amazing testimony of blind eyes seeing: "...One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.... Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and [yet] he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heare...

Have you ever heard someone say that they won't believe in God because it is based on "blind faith"? Or maybe they say, "I believe in science -- that which is testable, observable, and repeatable." In other words, they only believe in what they can see. Many times, even when we know the evidence for Christianity, this phrase can stump Christians. So how do we answer this assertion? The answer is found in the very Scripture which the skeptics use to say that faith is blind: Hebrews 11:1. Let's take a look at it for a moment: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...." Does this mean that Christians believe in what they can't see? After all, the skeptics will say, "We can't see God." However, if we examine this passage more closely, we can see that this is not what is implied at all. What Hebrews 11 is asserting is that there is substance to faith. It is not just some "blind faith,...

Christians are "traders," not "traitors." BIG difference! A traitor defects to enemy lines, but a "trader" trades in what he wants for something else. Likewise, as Christians, we trade what we want -- our desires -- for God's will. We put aside self and follow Him. That is the subject of this video. Enjoy! "[N]evertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." ~ Luke 22:42

I am reposting this to coincide with a post done today by my good friend, Jay. Please visit his site when you are through reading this post. Thanks. "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." ~ 3 John 1:2 There are three aspects to this Scripture: 1) Prosperity - financial, including the outward appearance of it (i.e. nice clothes, good job, big house, etc.; in short, blessings), 2) Health -- physical, and 3) Soul - spiritual Now let's elaborate on that. For point 1, most people will shut their ear immediately, because they don't believe in the "prosperity" movement. Why? People have this misconception that prosperity is an evil thing; they think that to be rich is to be proud, and to be proud is to go against God's command to be humble. The problem is that they don't stop to think that being humble does NOT mean that we have to be poor! Jesus said, "Blessed are the...

A few months ago, I received a free book entitled Clay In the Potter’s Hand , courtesy of Christian Aid . This book details the life of Dorothy Sun, a Chinese Christian in Communist China during the reign of Mao Tzedong. It chronicles her life before, during, and after the Communist takeover of China. I found Dorothy’s autobiography to be a remarkable account of what life is like for Christians in China – then, and now. The book is divided into three parts. In Part one, entitled “Chosen,” Dorothy talks about how God chose her and how her parents influenced her. Dorothy was born to devout Christians David Chang and Miriam Nieh. Her father served in various diplomatic capacities; initiated a Christian newspaper; and founded Self-Governing, Self-Supporting, and Self-Propagating Indigenous Evangelism in China (also known as Three-Self), enabling him to be involved in the indigenous house church movement in China. He also wrote a book on the Christian meanings of the Chinese character...

Last week, after thinking about what Alice said in her Word For Wednesday, I decided to do a little reading in Job. I began reading in the middle of the Book of Job to hear Job's side of the story right before his friend Elihu starts speaking the truth to him - this was the friend who actually had some wisdom, unlike the other three friends! Here are my observations... It is obvious to all that Job was going through a huge trial. He had lost everything that he had held dear, and was now fighting for his life, literally. Job's despair is very apparent throughout the discourse in the Book of Job.  But there is another point that is quite evident, as well: Job believed that God was testing him. Job 23:10 states, "But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." This is not entirely true. While it is true that we come out of our trials purified "as gold" if we hold fast to the Word of God through it, it is not true that ...

Recently, I have been going through a hard season in my life. The storms have been raging. But there are several things which have greatly encouraged me. For this week's WFW, I wanted to share some of these with you, in the hope that it will encourage you, too. My friend, Alice, wrote a post last week that seems to sum up my feelings lately; this post has greatly comforted me, and I would encourage everyone who is struggling today to go check it out (Thanks, Alice, for the encouragement!). Another friend said to me recently -- and I am saying this in agreement -- in times like these, I am so glad that I am on the Rock! That is the place where the Anchor holds us and our house does not fall, where we are not moved by all the turmoil around us! There is one thing that came to my mind amidst all the turmoil that was a great source of hope: the words of a song. They are so simple, yet so profound and so true (song posted below lyrics): "Sorrow will last for the night. But hop...

Welcome to the Inspiring Story link party! If this is your first time participating, be sure to check out the rules and detail for this meme here . To kick off the now bi-weekly meme, I would like to share an amazing story that I found via Mini Missions Magazine . This is a testimony from P.G. Vargis, of Indian Evangelical Team . I found it to be truly inspiring, and it also poses quite a challenge to us as Christians. Be sure to let me know what you think! ------------ THE TRAIN CAME BACK In the early 70’s when we were pioneer missionaries in Katra, in the Himalayan Mountains of Kashmir it was a hard and difficult life, often filled with hunger and poverty. One day I was returning to Katra with an orphan boy. Our train arrived in Delhi railway station at about 3:00 PM and I was to catch the train (Jhelum Express) to Jammu from Delhi at 9:00 PM, and then go by bus from Jammu to Katra, our mission station. After the train arrived in Delhi , I took things easy since there ...

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." ~ Isaiah 40: 28-31 I took the above picture last year when we went to Six Flags. Everytime I see this picture, I think of a song by Francesca Battistelli which says, "I'm letting go of the life I've planned for me/ and my dreams/ I'm loosing control of my destiny/ it feels like I'm falling and that's what it's like to believe/I'm letting go/ I'm giving into Your gravity/ knowing You are holding me." :D All jokes aside, though, this does p...

Today is my first time joining in a meme called " Smile Sunday ." I'm going to try my hand at this, while still staying within the borders of this blog's topic, apologetics. I do hope you will all find it interesting, and hopefully, encouraging. Let me know what you think! Here it goes... I once heard a little story that went something like this: There once was a big building in the city. If someone were to be passing by this particular building, here is what he would see: On one side, someone had graffitied [Is that even a word? I guess it is now!] these words: "God is dead ~ Nietzsche." A classic saying, is it not? Apparently, someone didn't think so; on the other side was graffitied, "Nietzsche is dead ~ God." :D So why does this make me smile? Well, obviously, the joke is kind of funny on it's own. But seriously, Nietzsche thought that he had a better way than God. So did Hitler. So did Mussolini. The Communists thought that to win t...

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Lately, I've been hanging out a lot in 2 Corinthians, particularly in chapter 4. As you know, we've been talking about grace. I have not touched on this yet, but grace actually has to do with the glory of God (and this is part of what I will talk about today). But I learned something about the glory of God that I found to be very encouraging. I hope it will encourage my readers as well... let me know what you think! If you remember, we've been learning that grace is strength and that we get this strength from the Word of God. So what does all ...

Here's the latest installment to my story. Hope you all like it... let me know what you think. And be sure to check out the rest of the story. Oh, and I did come up with a name for it -- "Finally Home." Enjoy! --------- The beautiful purple and orange sunset was a tranquil sight at the end of a long day. The soft sand beneath bare feet and the gently rolling tides made this the perfect place to get away after a hard day. Sitting on a protruding rock at the edge of the lake, Natalie closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh, salty air. "This is heaven," she thought, "No problems, no one to bother me... just PEACE." Replaying the day's events was not an option that Natalie wanted to take for it had been a circus of a day... Caring for more patients than usual... avoiding co-worker Bob who was prying for information... driving out to lunch only to remember that she had left it at work and driving back only to be bothered by Bob again... trying to a...

Hi, everybody! I'm FINALLY back... I hope these long spirts of no blogging will become less and less frequent. Right now, though, it's gonna be a little slow... I will try my best to update you all as often as possible, but life is busy. (And I apologize to Jean for missing last weeks Word For Wednesday.) Thank you for your patience and understanding. Have you ever noticed how just a small change can make a world of difference? The other day, I replaced my bedroom curtains; I've had them ever since I can remember. There was nothing wrong with them; they were just old. Time for a replacement. My mother had been wanting to put up some new curtains for a while. We talked about a few options, and my mother found something that would work; but we never got around to implementing the plan. I had merely tucked away the curtains to be put up at some other time. (What a procrastinator I am!) Over the weekend, we finally put the curtains up... Aren't they lovely? I couldn...

Ever had one of those days when there is just SOOO much to do? This week has been rather crazy for me; with a deadline coming up, today found me running around in circles in a frenzy -- How was I going to get all of this done? Sometimes, there seems to be no end to the problems. I know what you're thinking... we've all had those days, haven't we? Often, when this happens, it is easy to lose sight of God and focus "me" and "my" problems. So after my "escapade," I was all stressed out, BUT everything went well; I made it through (and yes, that means I will have more blogging time , I hope)! At the end of the day, I found myself thanking God; I found myself thinking that, although I messed up, God is so merciful to help me. I was reminded of this verse, so I wanted to offer it as an encouragement... 2 Timothy 2:10-13 "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus w...

God is so good! I tend to have a difficult time posting inspiring stories for this meme, not because it is hard to find stories, but because I don't always have the time to edit them or write them up in my own words. Every time that I am running late or I think that I might not have a story for the week, I just happen to find one. And you know that I try to post only the best of the best. ;) Here's one that I found on Dawn's blog , and I think it's amazing. It just goes to show that when ordinary people have "the God kind of faith," great things will happen as God moves. So without further ado, here is today's Inspiring Story... (Note: I apologize for the formatting; I have tried to space it, but it won't budge... GRRRR!) ---------------------- Approximately 10 years ago, on a freezing July night, the cold, hard, truth hit me like a freight train. NO ONE WAS COMING TO MY RESCUE. On our bedroom floor, my wife was giving birth to our son, he’d come so ...

In previous WFWs, we've been talking about fearing the Lord and what that involves. One thing that I have noticed is that trust goes hand-in-hand with fearing the Lord. Hence, today, I'd like to focus on one of my favorite Scriptures... 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your anxieties on Him for He cares for YOU.” Sometimes, a situation may seem too small to bother God with, but we should always remember that God cares about the little things, too. He said that He cares about the sparrows, so how much more does He care for us? At other times a situation may be too big for us, but with God nothing is impossible. When things go wrong or seem too overwhelming, this Scripture reminds us to give it to God, and let Him take care of it; He will work it out because He cares for YOU. Romans 8:37 states, "Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Therefore, if a situation seems overwhelming, we "overwhelmingly conquer" through Him, as ...

Today's Inspiring Story is short and light-hearted (to a certain extent), but there is still a good lesson to be learned, so I wanted to share it with you all. This story was related by Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest Church (founded by Lester Sumerall). I have related it in my own words for your reading pleasure... It was an "ordinary" day (if you can call a day in the life of Lester Sumerall "ordinary"). Lester Sumerall was in his room, when suddenly everything began to shake! Lester recognized the shaking as the presence of the devil, so he stood up on his bed and began to command him to leave in Jesus Name. Everything was shaking so violently, that his bed, which had been in the corner of the room, landed in the room's center! As Lester continued to command the demon to leave, the room became calm and the shaking stopped! At this point in the story, Rod Parsley stopped and said, "Most of you would have stopped right there and written a book...