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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

Why I Believe the Bible #02 (The Bible Calls Us to Test It)

BIbleBefore I ever set out to learn about the Bible and Jesus and Christ, I had a very cynical view of Christianity.  To me, Christians were a bunch of people filled with blind and unfounded faith in a series of myths created by man to control them.  Then something happened.  One verse happened.  I would have said I stumbled upon it, but I now know in hindsight that God led me to it.  That verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:21.  It says:

“Test everything.  Hold on to the good.” [1 Thessalonians 5:21]

Nestled snuggly between verses about not quenching the Holy Spirit or despising prophecies and abstaining from every form of evil were seven words that forever changed the course of my life.  Here was a belief system which I assumed was based on a blind leap of faith, and instead God says, “Challenge Me!  Put me to the test!”  Indeed, we serve a big God and he, and his book, have withstood that test for thousands upon thousands of years.

It was not the verse that led me to Christ, but God used it to jumpstart the process.  Verses like 1 Thessalonians and 1 John 4:1:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. [1 John 4:1]

They challenged what I thought Christianity was and invited me to “test everything.”  That process has led me to a deeper and more sustainable faith.  That process is what God used to draw me to himself.  In short, one of the reasons I believe the Bible is because it calls us to test it, and it passes with flying colors every single time!

Return to the Why I Believe The Bible index page.

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