12.1- Enjoyed seeing the life story of Lee Strobel last night on my computer.

12.1-

Enjoyed seeing the life story of Lee Strobel last night on my computer.

He had been an atheist all of his life.  His marriage and family life was not going too well.  He had much success as a journalist, but in life not so much.  He was angry and not to easy to live with.  He had addiction issues and when he came home to his wife and daughter, five, she was afraid of him and headed out of the room where he was to her own room.

His wife was invited to a Bible study with a woman friend and she became a follower of Jesus.  He was concerned about how this would effect their lives.  She suggested to him that he study Christianity for himself since he was an atheist.  He took up the challenge.  First for a weekend he studied.  Then he took a two year deep dive into the historical documents that are the foundation of Christianity.

All the barriers to faith started to fall down when he did a real study and investigation.  He found that there was more historical evidence for the life and death of Jesus Christ than many other historical figure.  The difference in Christians came regarding their belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 

This required a deeper dive and some examination of their claims.  He came to believe from the evidence that it would take more faith for him to maintain his atheism than to drop his resistance and open His heart to faith in Jesus.  He believed in Jesus resurrection.  He received Jesus as His leader.  He was baptized and started to follow Jesus.  His daughter saw big changes in her dad and instead of being afraid of him, she wanted to be with him.

Lee found that Jesus changed his heart from a hard hearted rock heart to a soft heart of love and grace.  Day by day he found he was being changed from inside out.  His marriage was changing to be totally different.  His children are now grown and both his son and daughter are strong Jesus following adults and all their lives are very different because of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Larry Wishard

11.13.19

Acts 13.

³² And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, ³³ that God has fulfilled this promise ^[h]to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today i have begotten You.’ ³⁴ As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and ^[i]sure blessings of David.’ ³⁵ Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘You will not ^[j]allow Your ^[k]Holy One to ^[l]undergo decay.’ ³⁶ For David, after he had ^[m]served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and ^[n]underwent decay; ³⁷ but He whom God raised did not ^[o]undergo decay. ³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through ^[p]Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹ and ^[q]through Him everyone who believes is ^[r]freed ^[s]from all things, from which you could not be ^[t]freed ^[u]through the Law of Moses. ⁴⁰ Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:

⁴¹ ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and ^[v]perish;
For I am accomplishing a work in your days,
A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’”

⁴² As ^[w]Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these ^[x]things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. ⁴³ Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing ^[y]proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

Paul Turns to the Gentiles

⁴⁴ The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of ^[z]the Lord. ⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were ^[aa]blaspheming. ⁴⁶ Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us,

‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles,
That You may ^[ab]bring salvation to the end of the earth.’”

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of ^[ac]the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. ⁴⁹ And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. ⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the ^[ad]devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their ^[ae]district. ⁵¹ But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. ⁵² And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.