Chapter 11, He Changed My Life

   Chapter 11 is the story of how Jesus changed Josh's life. He quoted Thomas Aquinas, "There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning." As a teen, Josh wanted to be happy and to have meaning in his life. He wanted answers to the questions, "Who am I?" "Why in the world am I here?" "Where am I going?" He wanted to be free. Not to do anything he wanted, but to do what he knew he should. He wrote that freedom is, "to have the power to do what you know you ought to do." Most people don't have that power. It only comes through trusting in Jesus!
   Josh first went to church to find meaning in life, but was sorely disappointed, since he went to a ritualistic church.
   Next, he sought prestige and ran for freshman class president and won. "It was neat knowing everyone on campus, having every one say, 'Hi, Josh', making the decisions, spending the university's money, the student's money, to get speakers I wanted. It was great, but it wore off like everything else I had tried."  Again, he was disillusioned. Others thought he was happy, but he was miserable. He was very sincere about finding the truth, meaning and a purpose in life.
    Then he noticed a small group of students and 2 faculty members who were very different than the others. They were happy and loving. They lived what they professed. They had what Josh wanted! So, he asked a young lady what made them different. She answered, "Jesus Christ". He said, "Oh, for God's sake, don't give me that garbage. I'm fed up with religion; I'm fed up with the Church; I'm fed up with the Bible. Don't give me that garbage about religion." He certainly had a low opinion of the "Church", but she said, "I didn't say religion, I said Jesus Christ." He didn't know the difference before. Many people today don't know the difference either. He wrote, "religion is humans trying to work their way to God through good works. Christianity is God coming to men and women through Jesus Christ offering them a relationship with Himself."
   Josh mentioned a person who said, "Anyone who walks into a church becomes a Christian." Josh asked, "Does walking into a garage make you a car?"
   His new Christian friends challenged him to examine the claims of Christ intellectually. So he did in order to refute their faith. His problem was that in his mind he discovered that it was true instead. His will would not accept it until he was so miserable he had to pray and accept Jesus as his personal Savior.
   It took him some time, but he began to experience changes in his life in a few months. He had an auto accident and his dad visited him. He explained that he'd hated his dad with a passion because he was a drunk who beat his wife and shamed his sons. Yet, when his dad visited him, he told his dad that he loved him because Jesus changed him. 45 minutes later his dad trusted Jesus as his Savior!
   In the last paragraph Josh offers a prayer to use in trusting Jesus as your Savior.
   "Perhaps the prayer I prayed will help you;" "Lord Jesus, I need you. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Right this moment I trust you as Savior and Lord. Make me the type of person you created me to be. In Christ's name. Amen."

Sincerely,
Rick

Chapter 10 - Isn't There Some Other Way"

   Josh began by relating a question from a student at the University of Texas who asked, "Why is Jesus the only way to a relationship with God?" Josh answered that most people don't realize that God is not only loving, but also just and holy! He is just and MUST follow through with the penalty for sin-death. He is perfectly holy (without sin) and cannot allow sin in His presence! He cannot forgive until the sin is paid for and the payment recognized as being on the sinner's behalf. That begins the relationship with God - When the sinner admits his/her sin and accepts that Jesus died in his/her place, and recognizes Him as Ruler of the sinner's life - the desire to obey Him and His word - the Bible.
   God may personify love, but love is something God does. He also judges, lives in holiness, and hates sin.
   Jesus died for us individually, but He also died to satisfy God's justice - "The soul that sins, it shall die!" He died that death in our place - for us.
   To illustrate what God did for us, Josh wrote of a young lady who was given a ticket for speeding. She plead "Guilty", before the judge who fined her $100. He, then, took off his robe, went down in front  and paid her fine. He was her father, but he had to follow the law. Yet, because he loved her, he paid her fine. That's what God did for us through Jesus' death on the cross.
   "Why couldn't God just forgive?" Because the debt HAD to be paid before He could forgive. Josh argued that there is always a payment for forgiveness. It doesn't matter what the offense is, forgiveness must be paid for. Whether a lamp is broken or a speeding law is broken, or one is a rebel against God - wanting to do things my way - not God's way. A payment must be made to be able to forgive.
   If a child broke a lamp and parents forgive, they must take the loss or buy a new lamp. Forgiveness must be paid for - there is NO other way!

Sincerely,
Rick

Will the real Messiah please stand up?

   I am sorry for not posting for 2 months or so, but our computer was down and in the "shop" for that time.

   The fulfilled prophecy in Jesus' life proves His Messiahship and Sonship. Jesus referred to them many times. He taught the disciples after His resurrection.(Luke 24:27) "And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." Some other references are: Luke 24:44, John 5:46, and 8:56.
   The apostles referred to several references, too. Acts 3:18, 17:2-3. I Cor 15:3-4. Josh wrote, "In the Old Testament there are 60 major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in 1 person, Jesus Christ. It is helpful to look at all these predictions fulfilled in Christ as His address. You've probably never realized how important the details of your name and address are - and yet these details set you apart from the four billion other people who also inhabit this planet."
   Josh wrote that the chance of 1 man fulfilling only 48 of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157th power. The prophecies were all given at least 400 years before their fulfillment in Christ. Those who doubt it must admit they were given at least 150 years before, since they are included in the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was written around 150-200 BC.
   God made sure that no one could fill the prophecies on his own.
   Josh wrote, "Certainly God was writing an 'address' in history that only the Messiah could fulfill. There have been approximately 40 major claims by men to be the Jewish Messiah. But only one - Jesus Christ - appealed to fulfilled prophecy to substantiate His claims, and only His credentials back up those claims."
   In Genesis the Messiah was prophesied to be born of the "seed of a woman". All people are born of the seed of the man, but Jesus was born of a virgin when God intervened. The Messiah must be of the line of King David; His hands and feet would be pierced; He'd be born of a virgin; He'd be born in Bethlehem; He'd be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver, which would be thrown on the floor and used to buy a potters' field; He'd be crucified.
   Josh wrote, "The precise lineage; the place, time and manner of birth; people's reactions, the betrayal; the manner of death. these are just a fragment of the hundreds of details that made up the 'address' to identify God's Son, the Messiah, the Savior of the world."
   Josh closed the chapter by dealing with 2 objections to Christ fulfilling these prophecies. He quoted Peter W. Stoner from his book, saying that the chance of 1 man fulfilling 8 prophecies is equal to covering Texas 2 feet deep with silver dollars and mark one. Then tell a blind man to find that 1 marked dollar. That equals the chance that 1 man could fulfill 8 prophecies - There were 300 + prophecies about Christ!
   Josh closed with, "Why did God go to all this trouble? I believe He wanted Jesus Christ to have all the credentials He needed when He came into the world. Yet the most exciting thing about Jesus Christ is that He came to change lives. He alone proved correct the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that described His coming. And He alone can fulfill the greatest prophecy of all for those who will accept it - the promise of new life: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you....Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
   I believe that with all the things happening in our world today, Jesus will come for His church soon! No date setting will prove to be correct, but He could come any time. PLEASE, If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior (Messiah), do so today before Christ comes and it is too late to avoid the coming tribulation period of 7 years! Confess that you're a sinner and believe that Jesus died on that cross for you, Ask Him to come in and control your life - be your Lord!

Sincerely,
Rick

Chapter 8 Can You Keep A Good Man Down? (continued)

   Josh wrote next about "The Swoon Theory". He easily proved it untrue. A man whipped and crucified and a spear thrust into His side as was done to Christ could in no way present himself as risen from the dead and inspired his followers to courageously and enthusiastically preach that he was resurrected! It would never happen.
   The next theory Josh mentioned was "The Body Was Stolen". He wrote that the disciples who were hiding "for fear of the Jews" would not have been brave enough to challenge the Roman guards to take the body from the tomb; let alone to preach fearlessly that He was alive from the dead!
   Josh also dealt with the thought that the authorities moved the body. If they'd moved it they would have shown where it was! He wrote, "Why didn't they recover the corpse, put it on a cart, and wheel it through the center of Jerusalem? Such an action would certainly have destroyed Christianity."
   The last topic Josh covered in this chapter is "Evidence for the Resurrection". He quoted several history professors about the overwhelming evidence there is to prove the resurrection of Christ. Professor Thomas Arnold was quoted, "I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." He also quoted English scholar Brooke Foss Westcott who said, "Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it."
   He quoted another lawyer, Frank Morrison, who "set out to refute the evidence for the resurrection. He thought that the life of Jesus was one of the most beautiful lives ever lived, but when it came to the resurrection he thought someone had come along and tacked a myth onto the story of Jesus. He planned to write an account of the last few days of Jesus. He would of course disregard the resurrection. He figured that an intelligent, rational apprroach to Jesus would completely discount His resurrection. However, upon approaching the facts with his legal background and training, he had to change his mind. He eventually wrote a best-seller, "Who Moved the Stone?". The first chapter was titled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." and the rest of the chapters deal decisively with the evidence for Christ's resurrection."
   Josh closed the chapter with this paragraph. "What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb? After examining the evidence from a judicial perspective, Lord Darling, former Chief justice of England, concluded that 'There exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.'"

Sincerely,
Rick

"Can You Keep A Good Man Down?"

   Josh started off chapter 8 with a question a student at the University of Uruguay asked him, "Why can't you refute Christianity?" His answer, in the book, was, "After more than 700 hours of studying this subject and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I came to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon people, or it is the most important fact of history."
   He posed the question, "Is Christianity valid?" He said it is a question of history - Not philosophy. So he listed a number of historical facts about Jesus and asked, "Did the resurrection actually happen?"
   He, then, wrote about the customs of burial; including how the Jews wrapped the body with cloths and covered them with a plaster of spices that dried solid making a cocoon. This cocoon was left intact in the tomb when Christ arose! That seems to be why the 2 disciples believed when they went to the tomb to see if it was true that the body was gone. He mentioned how a 2 ton rock was pried to cover the opening and a Roman guard placed before it to keep the disciples from stealing the body. These soldiers were under threat of death if they allowed the tomb to be robbed. Read it in Matt. 28, Luke 24, John 20:1-10.
   He wrote about the empty tomb next. If Jesus' body wasn't missing, all the authorities would have to do was to parade it through the streets and the new sect called "The Way" which became Christianity would have been stopped right then.
   The witnesses which numbered over 500 said that Jesus showed Himself to them by "Many infallible proofs". The fact that the empty tomb had been confirmed even by His enemies and His many appearances to them for 40 days gave the disciples confidence to preach His resurrection with faith and conviction.
   Josh quoted Paul L. Maier, "If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy, or archaeology that would disprove this statement."
   The Roman soldiers said the tomb was empty. The women said it was empty and the men who went to see for themselves found it empty. With that many witnesses we can be sure the tomb was empty! No one ever showed the body of Jesus to prove that He was still dead! But He arose from the dead! He is alive!
   It is impossible to believe that the women, disciples, and the Roman guard were all at the wrong tomb! Remember - they all said the tomb was empty. The Jewish authorities would certainly have corrected that mistake! Why didn't the authorities just show the body in the correct tomb? The answer is because Jesus arose from the dead and lives again! Praise His Name!
   With all the evidence in favor of the resurrection of Christ and NONE opposed, why is it so hard for people to believe that it's true? There may be questions in the minds of people and opposing opinions but there is NO evidence against Christ's resurrection.
   Why don't you believe in Jesus now, as God's Son, Who died in your place to pay your debt of sin so you can believe and go to heaven with Him when you die!
   "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved."

Sincerely,
Rick

"Did You Hear What Happened to Saul?"

   Josh started chapter 7 with a story about a friend who spoke at several universities. When he arrived at one, he was surprised to find out that he was scheduled to debate with the "University Athiest". The philosophy professor was very antagonistic to Christianity.  Josh's friend, Jack, was to speak first. "He discussed various proofs for the resurrection of Jesus, the conversion of the Apostle Paul, and then gave his personal testimony about how Christ had changed his life when he was a university student."
   When the professor spoke he was very nervous. Since "He couldn't refute the evidence of the resurrection or Jack's personal testimony," he turned to the subject of the Apostle Paul's radical conversion to Christianity. "He used the line of argument that 'people can often be so psychologically involved in what they're combating that they end up embracing it.'" At that point Jack said, "You'd better be careful, sir, or you're liable to become a Christian."
   Josh wrote that one of Christianity's most powerful testimonies is the testimony of the Apostle Paul. He was called Saul of Tarsus and, at least, one of the most ferocious opponents of Christianity. He was a "Hebrew of the Hebrews", zealous for the Mosaic law. He was taught by Gamaliel, one of the foremost teachers of the law. He called himself a "Pharisee of the Pharisees" and spoke of his zeal to persecute the infant Church.(Phil 3:3-9, Gal 1:14)
   Paul was no dummy. He knew many of the writers of his day, including philosophers and poets. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians (believers of "The Way") when Christ appeared to him and asked him why he was persecuting Christ. Paul asked what Christ wanted him to do and never sought to arrest any more believers, but started teaching the doctrine he was trying to destroy! (Acts 9:1-31) In I Cor 9:1 He compared Christ's appearance to him with Christ's postresurrection appearances among the apostles (also in 15:8). Paul felt that he had to preach the gospel. (ICor9:16)
   Josh continued, "We might not know all the details, chronology, or psychology of what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus, but we do know this: it radically affected every area of his life."
   Josh mentioned that the "Encyclopedia Britannica" called Paul "...an intolerant, bitter, persecuting, religious bigot - proud and tempermental" before he met Christ. After Christ they described him as, "...patient, kind, enduring, and self-sacrificing."
   After his conversion Paul could"...now understand that Christ's death on the cross, which appeared to be a curse of God and a deplorable ending of someone's life, was actually God through Christ reconciling the world to Himself." (Gal 3:13, II Cor 5:21) "Instead of defeat, the death of Christ was a great victory, being capped by the resurrection. The cross was no longer a 'stumbling block', but the essence of God's messianic redemption."
   "Paul's missionary preaching can be summarized as 'explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead...This Jesus Whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, ' he said." (Acts 17:3) He originally didn't like Gentiles, but after he met Christ he became a missionary to the Gentiles. He also went from fighting the Church to being one of the most important writers of the New Testament Church.
   Josh quoted Elias Andrews as commenting, "Many have found in the radical transformation of this 'pharisee of the pharisees' the most convincing evidence of the truth and the power of the religion to which he was converted, as well as the ultimate worth and place of the person of Christ." And Paul died a martyr for Christ.
   Josh closed chapter 7 with a story about 2 professors who were going to destroy the basis of the Christian faith, but both men "became ardent followers of Jesus". They wanted to prove that the resurrection of Christ and the conversion of Paul to Christ were both deceptions, but the truth they found proved that both were true. Paul suffered for Christ for 25 years. (IICor 11:23-33) May God bless you with the same truth and understanding.

Sincerely,
Rick
  

What Good Is A Dead Messiah?

   In chapter 6 Josh wrote about the "dream" of both the disciples and the nation of Israel. The "dream" was that One would come Who would free them from Rome and be their King. They based their "dream" on Old Testament prophecies, but did not take note of the parts that said He would suffer and die. The nation, in Christ's time, wanted deliverence as soon as possible. Rome had limited their freedom for more than a generation and they wanted to be free.
   Josh wrote that that was "...why the cross was so incomprehensible to (the disciples)." He quoted several sources who wrote about the same topic. One, A. B. Bruce wrote, "The grave communications by Jesus about being crucified were not at all welcomed by His disciples(Luke 9:22)." Bruce continued, There "...seems to have been the hope that He had taken too gloomy a view of the situation, and that His apprehensions would turn out groundless...a crucified Christ was a scandal and a contradiction to the apostles; quite as much as it continued to be to the majority of the Jewish people after the Lord had ascended to glory."
   The responses of the disciples to Christ's statements about His coming death were never in agreement with Him. They were looking for that King Who would bring in the Kingdom and give them freedom from Rome.
   When Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered because that wasn't in their plan. Then, shortly after Christ's crucifixion, the same men became fearless preachers that Christ was, indeed, the Messiah, Saviour and Lord! What changed their minds? What changed their lives so dramatically? It was the resurrection! They saw Christ, alive! One at a time, few at a time, some at once, and over 500 at one time saw Christ, alive "...by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."(Acts 1:3) It certainly wasn't any kind of hallucination! They changed because they actually saw Jesus, risen from death and were instructed by Him to go and teach the world!(Acts 1:8) Let us believe and go and do likewise!

Sincerely,
Rick