Hello friends. If you have not read the book or seen its movie, “Heaven is for real” please do watch it. Here’s the book https://a.co/d/gt0fmuj
And movie trailer
When I was brought back by the supernatural hand of God over 14 years ago, I had so removed myself from the church community that I had no idea what to do. I was like Moses in the outskirts for a long time and set on living out my life outside the church and God. Then the “burning bush” encounter happened to me out of nowhere in one of my daily errands just like that of Moses’ story in Exodus 3.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%203&version=NIV;VOICE
Soon after, I discovered the book “Heaven is for real” in a Target store’s book section. This book made a huge impact on me. The little boy who visited Heaven was near age 4 which was the age of my son, Evan at that time. Reading this book was the fuel that I needed to obey God’s voice again and to go back to the church community.
I recently saw an interview with the boy and he is now age 25. He is married, and about to be a dad soon. Here is the interview with Colten Burpo. It’s a great interview with information about his life with the notoriety. I’m so happy to hear that he didn’t fall away from the pressures of his fame.
As I was scrolling through the “Maybe God” podcast, I saw that Dr James Tour was a guest. He’s the professor who presented last month at Princeton University. Oh what a great interview! He goes on and on about the science behind biology/chemistry and origins of life. But it’s worth hearing it even if most things go over your head. After 15 minutes or so, he starts talking about personal stories and how he got involved in defending the faith in secular academic institutions. It’s only been recently that he became a public defender of the Christian faith – I told you that these individuals are called Christian apologists (I’m not sure why, there must be a Latin root to this word).
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maybe-god/id1329159271?i=1000681767557
I just discovered a new podcast called “eX-skeptic”. I look forward to hearing more from their guests. I just heard one from another super smart scientist who became a believer after ten years of searching and asking good questions. Dr. Michael Houts received his PhD from MIT and is a nuclear engineer and scientist. Here is his interview:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ex-skeptic/id1534623418?i=1000687409077
About
“eX-skeptic is a story-driven, conversational podcast that helps listeners understand why people dismiss or believe in God and Christianity. Interviewing one former atheist or skeptic each show, host Jana Harmon encourages both Christians and skeptics to consider what motivates thoughtful, intelligent people to move from disbelief to belief.
www.exskeptic.org”
I am blown away by the number of very talented, smart, successful academics and scientists who are emerging right now to defend the Christian faith. It’s extraordinary. Praise the Lord Jesus! We have more smart and courageous defenders of our faith in higher education. Yay! 😀
If you have young people in your life who struggle with the origins of life narrative being taught in schools, please share these podcasts with them. I’ve never had this conflict since in my public education in the 80s, I remember my science teachers sharing two theories about life’s origin – one was Creationism and the other was Darwinism. I remember they taught it as a theory and they also taught us what a theory is; basically it is not a fact since it’s not proven.
Even if like me, you don’t struggle with the idea of life being originated by God. Nevertheless, you need to understand why you believe the Bible and what it teaches. Why? Because you will falter and fall victim to other doctrines that are out there and sometimes very similar sounding to our Christian beliefs. That’s what happened to me in my first corporate job. Due to overcrowding I shared a cubicle for about six months with a nice looking, smart, kind, and friendly supervisor who respectably challenged my Christian faith and beliefs. He wasn’t trying to be a jerk. He just didn’t believe or respect the traditional teachings of the church and the Bible. Yes, he won all our debates. I felt so dumb. Here is a good article on five good reasons why we should learn Christian apologetics and teach them to our children too.
https://crossexamined.org/5-important-reasons-christians-should-study-apologetics/
I’m a big fan of Lee Stroebel and his books. He is another fantastic Christian apologist. Here is an interview with Lee Stroebel about his new project on the supernatural. I appreciate his mind as an investigative journalist to carefully examine and analyze stories about the supernatural. If you want to hear more about his latest work, please listen to this interview:
“In this gripping episode, best-selling author and investigative journalist Lee Strobel sits down with Billy Hallowell and Jen Lilley to unpack his most personal and provocative project yet—Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World. Strobel, known for The Case for Christ, brings his legal mind and journalistic rigor to topics many believers shy away from—yet are desperate to understand.”
I’m sure many of you have read the tragic news about the tourist helicopter that crashed recently into NYC’s Hudson River. The news stories mentioned about a “Jesus nut” in the helicopter crash and the origin of that phrase during Vietnam War. Please read this brief news article explaining what a “Jesus nut” is.
I’m sharing this article so that if you are not saved yet, please call out to Jesus whenever you’re facing a life and death emergency. Just say “Save me Jesus!” I have told my kids since childhood to call out to Jesus in a life and death emergency; not Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Allah, or even me. It has to be the name of Jesus. Jesus will come and save you supernaturally, and either take you straight to heaven or spare your life so that you can live and tell others about Him.
I was listening to an interview once of an American veteran in WWII. His military unit was involved with the invasion into Normandy, called D-Day in June 1944. He was an old man during the interview. He said with a shaky voice that there were so many soldiers who got shot and were dying on the beaches. He said that many of them were crying and calling out for their moms while laying there and dying. These soldiers are probably ages 18-20. After hearing that story, I realized that I need to tell my children that they have to call out Jesus, not me. You really should tell your children and grandchildren to do the same. Tell them to cry out and say “Save me Jesus!” Then afterwards if they can, to call you so you can pray and organize prayer teams.
I didn’t have praying parents growing up. They were decent and responsible parents but they didn’t attend church nor offered us prayers. Looking back this is the only thing that I would have greatly appreciated if we all went to church together and made a community in there. It would have been a great source of comfort and support if I saw that they were praying for me, especially during the tumultuous teen and young adult years.
Millennial parents, many of your oldest children are entering their teen years now. Please heed my story and get back to church and into a community group where you can receive and give prayers for one another. Please stop being so busy with things that don’t matter. Please do differently than what you have been passed down by tradition and the world. As you can see I am pleading in behalf of your children and grandchildren to do this for them. It’s not about you; it’s for your descendants. Here’s a detailed report and guide from Axis ministry for parents on the Gen Alphas.
https://axis.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Axis-Parent-Guide-Gen-Alpha.pdf
I came across this USA Today’s Easter special edition if you want to check it out. I haven’t looked into it yet but scrolling through, it looks great. It’s so wonderful to see a non-religious magazine doing a special Christian edition for Easter. Praise God!
https://usatodayspecial-va.newsmemory.com/
Please check out Life Surge event. They are touring all over the USA. This event reminds me of Tony Robbins-type of motivational event but tickets are a lot cheaper. Many event speakers are Christian speakers and teachers that I have been learning from in last 14 years.
I hope you know how remarkable this moment is. I’m not sure what’s happening but I’ve only experienced our ‘Team Jesus’ barely getting by and mostly losing and getting ridiculed. It’ll be so nice to experience some winning seasons…please let’s not mess this up. Be humble and kind if our ‘Team Jesus’ starts winning a lot. Stay holy and pure in your heart too. That only comes by daily prayer and daily hearing/reading God’s word in the Holy Bible and obedience/repentance.
You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), but with the precious blood of the Anointed, who was like a perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (VOICE)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%201&version=VOICE
Journal of Faith 