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Why I Am a Christian · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast, the show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm an author, ghostwriter, and college prof.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me on this episode.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, happy Easter.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Sunday, April the 12th, 2020, and of course this is Easter Sunday.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this episode's going to be quite different than what you normally hear on this show for a couple of reasons.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is that I don't think I've ever released an episode on a Sunday.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is definitely a first for me.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're listening to this later on, it's not going to obviously make any difference because people don't always listen to episodes on the day that they're released.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: At least I don't do that for shows that I listen to.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's kind of different in that respect, although it probably doesn't make that much difference in the long run.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But much more important is that this episode is different because I'm going to be talking about my faith on this episode.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not something that I really talk about a lot on this podcast.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've got a friend who is a very dedicated Christian, and I am as well.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And recently he said, How come you don't talk about your faith that much on your podcast or in your weekly newsletter or on your blog and those kinds of things?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, honestly, it's because my podcast and my blog, you know, those are things where I talk about principles of writing, principles of communication, and so forth.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, you know, my faith doesn't intersect with those things a lot as far as me trying to add value to people in terms of teaching writing and teaching content creation and communication and all those things.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't like to beat people over the head with my faith or with my Christianity or with my beliefs.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I believe if those things come up in conversation, that's fantastic, but I'm here to first and foremost in my business to add value to other people by helping them to uh to grow their business.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as I said in the intro, to grow their business, amplify their authority, and increase their impact through the power of writing.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, that's my mission.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can enter into conversations about faith and related things like that through those things, and if they come up naturally in conversations, that's fantastic.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But first and foremost, that's what I'm here to do is add value to you in your business through helping to teach and train you about writing and communication.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that being said, though, um, I do want to take this episode and talk about my faith because this is Easter Sunday, and because this is an element of my life that's really important to me.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if this episode is not your cup of tea, that's totally cool.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can delete this from your podcast feed.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to listen to it, and you can move right along to the next episode, which will be much more writing focused.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: However, all that being said, I do think it's important when you consume someone's content, when you read their books, read their blog or newsletter, or listen to their podcast, or whatever it is that you consume that they produce, I think it's always great to know something about that person and where they're coming from.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And on this episode, I want to share with you where I'm coming from as far as my faith and my belief in Jesus and the Bible and Christianity and all those kinds of things.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And also just because it's Easter, uh, how this actually came about, this episode was that I send a weekly email to my uh subscriber list, and I was just talking about, hey, here's some reasons why why I'm a person of faith.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm a Christian.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't normally use that content on the podcast, although sometimes I do, but I got it done and I thought, hey, you know what?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna do a podcast on this and throw this material out there on the show.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, with all that said, this episode's gonna be a little different.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Before I get into some specific reasons why I'm a Christian and some reasons for my personal faith, I want to set some context for you that I think will help you to see where I'm coming from.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was involved in church from a very young age.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I accepted Christ and I was baptized at a summer church camp when I was 12 years old.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before that, I was always involved in church.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even from, I mean, gosh, from as a little, little kid, I was always involved in church.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, as a kid, church was basically my whole life.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not just my spiritual life, but also it was most of what my social life was.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: All my close friends, we all grew up in the same small church in southern Missouri.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was a place called Pleasant Hill Christian Church, and man, I have some great memories of those people.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just a really, really wonderful, small congregation out in the country.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've got so many relatives buried in the graveyard that's next to that church.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this place has been a really important part of my life, uh, particularly uh as I when I was a kid up through my teenage years.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at that church, I I led worship.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I learned to speak up front by preaching sermons.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was very active in our youth group.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, as I said, church was my whole life.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: After high school, I went to a Christian college, and then after I got out of college, I later became a worship pastor.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point in my life, I was in my early 20s, and you could probably say that I was a poster child for the kind of young man that every church would say, hey, he's one of our own.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, here's a kid who grew up in our church, he went to a Christian college, then he went into vocational ministry, he became a pastor, and man, we're really proud to call him one of our own.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then something happened in my late 20s.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh a worship pastor at a church in northern Illinois, a medium-sized church, a very active church, and was having a great time in my ministry there.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was also um a seminary student working on my first master's degree.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: This was an MDiv degree, you know, this was like a big ministry uh master's degree.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was doing all those things very publicly, you know, in relationship to my faith, internally I was having major struggles with my faith.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you could probably say that my faith crashed and burned in my late 20s.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can't really think of a better way to describe it other than it just flamed out and it was mostly no longer there.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I went through this process of starting to question everything that I believed about God, about the Bible, about Jesus, about the church, and nothing faith-wise made sense to me anymore.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this crisis of faith lasted for several years.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine my internal struggle since I was still a pastor of a growing vibrant worship ministry.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was leading all these volunteers, dozens of people in my ministry.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was also, you know, in seminary studying for my Master of Divinity degree.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And outwardly, because of those roles, I had to project a confidence and a faith, you know, externally, that I no longer possessed inside of myself.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like a fraud.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like someone who was just playing this role and that I was, in a way, living a lie.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that sounds kind of dramatic and maybe a little bit grandiose, but that was my experience during that those few years in my life where I was really going through this.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: What I didn't realize at the time was that this was a normal experience for a lot of Christians.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: That a lot of Christians go through this kind of experience in their faith where the things that they were taught as a kid, the things that they grew up believing, they they no longer are holding on to, and maybe they're questioning those things and no longer believe them in the same way that they did whenever they were whenever they were kids.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize that that was something a lot of people experience because nobody really talks about it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're supposed to be this dedicated Christian, and especially if you're a pastor, I mean, that is a taboo thing to just publicly say, oh, by the way, I'm really questioning all these beliefs.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really questioning all these things that maybe I'm publicly teaching.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you do that, not only do you potentially come across as a fake or a fraud or some kind of charlatan spiritually, if you're a pastor, that also greatly endangers your role and your livelihood.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there's definitely this impulse among ministry people to not talk about your doubts publicly, to not breathe a word of that to anybody because you're going to endanger not just your social network, you know, but also your livelihood and potentially your family and all that stuff.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can see, I was really internally conflicted because I was going through this period of doubt and this very uh very much a period of drought in my own spiritual life and and questioning things while externally having to hold on to these positions.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Up until that point in my life, I would say that my faith was mainly borrowed, and I had just simply accepted what other people had taught me.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: My faith was not truly my own.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was not something that I really had had to fight for or had to go through these difficulties and challenges to really fight for in my life.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was just something that others had given to me and I had never really questioned it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I found that if I was going to have a faith that I had truly found on my own or truly discovered on my own, then I had to lose my old immature version from my youth.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now that doesn't mean I was concocting my faith or that I was the one to discover all these truths.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I mean.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what I do mean is that everybody has to find their own way into the faith.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you're doing it alone, but everybody has to go through this process of really making your faith your own.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be something that you just borrow.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be something that you truly have worked through, that you truly own yourself.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some people listening to this will not understand anything that I'm saying because you've always believed, you've never had doubts, you've never had questions, you've never struggled in your faith, you've always just your faith has always been there.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, then man, that's that's awesome.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to say that's truly a gift if you've never had to really wrestle for that and your faith is truly your own, and you've never had these dark, intense periods of doubt and questioning.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Others of you who are listening are just going, yes, I totally relate to what you're saying.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're going through this kind of a period yourself and can relate to everything that I'm saying.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, regardless, let's let's kind of move on in this journey so this episode is not like 48 hours long.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, over the next few years, during this period in my life, I went on a journey to figure out what it was that I truly believed.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: There were several books that were really helpful to me, and because I'm an Enneagram 5, and if you don't know what the Enneagram is, go back and listen to the episode that I did with Teresa McCloy.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what number it was offhand, but you can just get on my blog and search for uh Teresa McCloy Enneagram and you'll find that episode.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: She's an expert, and it was a really, really good episode because she shared a lot of cool stuff.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But what it means when you're in Enneagram 5, and the Enneagram is a personality assessment, what that means is that you approach the world as an investigator.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: You approach the world through facts and data and statistics primarily.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the way I have always thought about my own faith is uh I don't approach my faith emotionally, I approach it intellectually.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just how I tend to see the world, I guess.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So during this period of doubt and really uh of this kind of faith challenge in my life, there were several books that I read that made a huge difference to me.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of them, ironically, was a book that I read in seminary.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually assigned by one of my professors.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's ironic that a place where I was going to strengthen my faith and my ministry leadership actually gave me some tools that helped me in my own doubts during that period.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's actually a testament to the professors at this school.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this was actually Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, Illinois.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the professor was John Castelline.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what class it was.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a few of you who are listening might even know who John Castelline is, but he was a very formative person for me in my faith.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it occurs to me I probably should tell him this.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've ever shared this story with him, so I should definitely do that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: But we had to read a book called The Myth of Certainty for one of his classes, and it was by an author named Daniel Taylor.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the book basically talks about how certainty in our faith is a myth.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: There is no such thing as certainty.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And anyone who says, I'm certain that there's a God, or I am certain that the Bible is true, that's really kind of a myth.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, how can you be 100% certain that God is there when you can't see God?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So really it's a matter of faith.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of belief and accepting those beliefs and accepting that faith.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a matter of like factual certainty that God is there.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever he talks about the myth of certainty in this book, it's basically accepting the fact that you cannot have total certainty in your life, but rather make an informed decision about your faith based on the evidence.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's exactly what I did is uh as I went through that book and other books like The Case for Christ and The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel, both of which are excellent, phenomenal books, I just came to understand that, hey, you know what?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to be certain.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to be a hundred percent uh certain that all this data and all these facts are true.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I began to let go of this need to be total to have total certainty, to have total complete knowledge.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I kind of let go of this need to be this investigator of faith and to try and have everything figured out.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that that had really gripped me in in my earlier years, which was that I've got to have this figured out, I've got to investigate and and I've got to be sure and certain.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: When I let go of that, actually life got a lot easier.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: When I let go of the need to be certain in my faith and to have this unshakable faith that is based on this rock solid evidence, and I'm a hundred percent sure this is all true.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I let go of the need to be certain and the need to be a hundred percent accurate and everything, um my faith just got a lot better.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know any other way to describe it except I could now truly believe and I could truly have faith in addition to the evidence.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it was in that period where I kind of began to find my way back home.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm doing a really terrible and horrible job explaining all this, but hopefully at least part of this is is coming through.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: As I'm recording this, it's almost 1 a.m.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had not planned on recording this as a podcast episode, but I thought, you know, there's probably somebody out there that this is gonna help.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So despite my uh incredible ineffectiveness in telling you this story, I hope that this does bless somebody out there and that it at least one person that this helps.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So gradually through this process, through letting go of the through letting go of this need to have absolute certainty in my faith, I found my way back to the center of my personal faith.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: My faith was stronger, it was more confident, and it was a lot more joyful than it ever had been before.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that's the way it remains today.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now I realize that there is a whole spectrum of people who listen to this podcast.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Umbe you're a strong, devoted Christian who's never struggled with your faith.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a Christian who who's practicing your faith.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you go to church and you're involved in Christian things, you read Christian books and you watch Christian movies and listen to Christian music and all that stuff, uh, which is all great, by the way.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you, but you're struggling in your faith.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: You you're struggling with your belief.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're investigating the Christian faith and you're not sure what you believe.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're somebody who's been burned by the church and you want nothing to do with Jesus, God, the Bible, or Christianity.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't know what to believe at all.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're totally confused by all this, and you don't you're so paralyzed by indecision you have no idea what to do.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you follow a completely different faith than Christianity, such as Buddhism, Judaism, or Islam or something else.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: No matter where you are on that spectrum, I know two things about you.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: There are two things I know about you for certain.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is I know that I appreciate and value you as a person.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely do.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if we agree, it doesn't matter who you are, I know I appreciate you and I value you as a person.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you believe something different than me, faith-wise, I don't devalue you.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I value you on the same level as I value myself.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing that I know about you is that it's okay if we disagree.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay if we don't see eye to eye.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay if we don't see things the exact same way, faith-wise or spiritual-wise or Christianity-wise.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can disagree and we can still be friends.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a good friend of mine named Dan Murphy recently, actually.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Dan, if you're listening to this, shout out to you.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had this really stimulating conversation about how today in culture, a lot of people cannot agree to disagree.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a culture that's very polarized, that's very divided.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of people on both sides of the fence, or whatever, however many sides of the fence you think there are, that they think that in order for them to be friends with somebody, they have to agree with that person.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a totally false way to look at reality.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a horrible way to go about determining your friendships and relationships.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you think that somebody has to agree with you or you have to agree with them to be friends with them, man, you're gonna have a pretty small group of friends.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my goodness, my wife and I, we've been married for it'll be 24 years this June.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things we disagree on.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh just literally just yet yesterday or a couple days ago, we had a very heated discussion about how both of us are looking at this whole pandemic, this whole COVID-19 thing, a little bit differently.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a lot differently.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: We both have different perspectives on it, and we to be honest with you, we have different levels of um, I would say, worry about it.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, my goodness, if if if I if I don't even agree on everything with my wife, how in the world would I expect to agree with anyone else on everything?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just not going to be possible.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, all that being said, no matter who you are, no matter where you are in your faith spectrum, I appreciate you, I value you, and it's okay if we don't agree on everything.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just glad that you're here listening.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now that I've given you all that backstory, I want to take a few moments and I want to share five reasons why I'm a Christian.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So today on this Easter Sunday, I hope that this encourages you in your faith, or at the very least, I hope that it inspires you to learn more about the Christian faith for yourself.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you get nothing else out of this, at least you'll find out more about where I'm coming from as a Christian and as someone who wants to add value to your life, regardless of whether you agree with me on these spiritual things.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so let's dive in.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was a real oh my gosh, this that was almost 20 minutes.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't intend for it to be that long, but um I did have a couple energy drinks today, so maybe that explains part of my um enthusiasm for this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's dive in here.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to just talk really briefly about five reasons why I'm a Christian.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I believe there has to be an intelligent designer.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I believe there has to be an intelligent designer.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think the most basic observation that we can make as human beings is to look around and realize that the universe exists.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: How did the universe get here?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: How did everything that we see actually get here?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: How did the earth form?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: How did we form as human beings?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that we are intelligent beings who are self-aware?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: How did all that stuff happen?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think no matter what you believe about the Big Bang or evolution or any other theories of human origins, there has to be what is called a first mover.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: There has to be an intelligent designer of some type that set the universe in motion along with all the laws of physics that govern the laws of the universe, that govern the way particles and material interacts with itself.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the reason why I cannot intellectually commit to an atheistic point of view.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: If there's no God, if there's no intelligent designer, if there's no force out there that is somehow in control of the universe or setting things in motion at the very least, if there's none of those things, then how do we explain the existence of matter?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: How do we explain things like the Big Bang if the Big Bang is true?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: How do you explain matter organizing itself into a structured universe?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: How do you explain all the complicated laws of physics that govern life in the universe?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the crux of the faith issue for me.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: A huge reason why I'm a Christian is that the universe has to have an architect.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: There has to be a first mover that set all these things in motion.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody out there somewhere had to create the universe.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: It had to create, at least, at the very least, the infinitesimally small particle that was at the source of the Big Bang, you know, if you believe in the Big Bang Theory.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the universe had to have an architect, and out of all the options of faith available, you know, out of all the the worldwide religions and Options that we have for faith.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: What makes the most sense to me is the God that's described in the Bible.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: That seems to best match what I see in observable reality.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to get a little bit more detailed about some other faith elements, but this is really the crux of the matter for me, is that there to for me there has to be an intelligent designer.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look at all the options out there, the faith system that makes the most sense to me is the God of the Christian Bible.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And really that's that's the heart of the matter for me.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes sense to me.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And because I approach all this from I don't want to say an intellectual point of view, because I don't mean that other people are anti-intellectual or not intellectual.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But because I look at all this from a facts and data standpoint to a degree, this is why I love having discussions with people who don't agree with my viewpoint.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to learn.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if there are if there are kinks in my arguments, if there are things that I need to learn, uh if there are points where I'm wrong, then man, I want to know about those things.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to see how I can make my faith stronger.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to understand reality on a deeper level.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to understand the nature of the universe.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to understand physics.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to understand science and all those things at a deeper level.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because those things are not the enemy of faith.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Those things strengthen my faith.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: They truly do.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, reason number one is that there has to be an intelligent designer.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hang on one second, let me grab a drink.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, I'm back.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I probably am not even going to edit that out.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like one o'clock in the morning and I'm probably need to go to bed.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just going to leave that right in there.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, reason number two why I'm a Christian is that the evidence for Jesus' resurrection is compelling and it requires a response.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Jesus is a historically verifiable event that it has to be reckoned with.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that cannot be ignored.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, would people throughout history, including some of Jesus' own followers who knew the truth firsthand of the resurrection, would they have died for a lie if the resurrection was not an event that happened?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think they would have.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think they would have.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any sense to me.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that people were people were willing to die for this lie, that they would go out and they would get into these dangerous situations and they would spread the gospel, if it was based on a lie, that doesn't make any sense to me.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one among many arguments for the the veracity of the resurrection.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now I mentioned before that I'm an Enneagram V, and the way that I experience the world is through investigation and facts.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look at the historical evidence, it suggests to me that the resurrection was a truly miraculous event.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then we have to decide whether to accept or reject Jesus' claims about himself.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, if the resurrection is true, what do you do with that?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make a decision about was Jesus who he said he was?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Was he truly the Son of God?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Was he truly a deity?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Was he truly both God and man?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have to confront those facts if the resurrection did actually happen.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the data, I mean if you just objectively look at what history tells us and all the evidence, to me it seems pretty clear that the resurrection actually did happen.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is the way I approach my faith.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: If there was no evidence for the resurrection, I wouldn't believe it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But because there is evidence there, then I believe that it was an actual, historically verifiable event.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then what do we do with it?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do want to say this, okay?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping all this in mind, there are some Christians who will use this kind of evidence-based apologetics as a way to confront people or even harass people about the truth of the Bible.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they'll they'll say, hey, here's the truth of the Bible, here's all this data, here's all this historical evidence, da-da-da.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna come and we're gonna beat you over the head with it.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't believe how we believe, you're stupid, you're ignorant, and we're just gonna harass you, and we're gonna we're gonna take this posture of we're so intellectually superior, and we're gonna do debates where we're and not that there's anything wrong with debates, I'm not saying that, but but some Christians do take this approach, it's like a very debate-centered approach to their faith, where we're going to argue you into submission.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna argue you into the faith.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that most people are argued into the faith.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think there is a relational element there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it amazes me sometimes how some of those people who take that kind of approach, some, not all, that some of those people preach a gospel of love and grace in a way that is unloving and ungraceful.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that to me is like the ultimate irony.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're gonna come and we're gonna preach the gospel to you.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a gospel filled with grace and love and it's gonna fill your life with joy and peace, but we're gonna do it in a way that is not peaceful, it's not joyful, it's not loving, and it's not graceful.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and then they wonder why people don't respond to the gospel.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, I wonder why.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've had experience with Christians like that who like to beat people over the head with facts and data and with arguments and with all this kind of confrontational posturing, I hope that you'll accept my apology because that's not a very Christ-like way to relate with people who are honestly seeking the truth.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the great ironies of the Bible is that when it comes to the people who Jesus was harsh with, you know, oftentimes what what we see in the modern church is we we see people who are really, really harsh with non-believers.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you don't believe the way we believe, we're gonna go out and we're gonna, you know, we're going to harass you, we're going to be very confrontational, we're gonna we're gonna interact with the world in a very mean and hateful way.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was actually the total opposite of that.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: When it came to people who who we would call, you know, sinners and pagans and people who were outside the faith and doing sometimes doing very uh immoral things and that kind of stuff, Jesus was compassionate with those people.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: He reached out to those people.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the New Testament tells us that Jesus loved to spend time with those people.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved people who were far away from God.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: He absolutely loved hanging around with those people.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what I think is so funny and ironic is that Jesus reserved his harshest words for people who were the religious leaders, for the ones who were hypocritical with their faith, who would do external things to show how religious and spiritual they were.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: But internally, you know, at one time Jesus even told the religious leaders that, hey, you're like whitewashed tombs.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: You look pretty on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm, of course, paraphrasing there.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's important to keep in mind that when we share what we believe about here, I'm talking to Christians, by the way, when we share what we believe about our faith, what we believe is the truth, what we believe is historically verifiable evidence, man, it's so important to do that in a grace-filled, patient, loving, and kind way.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is so critical and so important.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, back to the main point of this point number two, man, this is going on way longer than I thought, but hey, that's okay.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say that the evidence for the resurrection is compelling and it requires a response, I don't mean that as a challenge, but I mean that as an invitation.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not a person of faith, or maybe you were a person of faith and you're not now, but you're thinking of some reasons to come back to the faith, I want to invite you into a conversation about what that means and how you might respond to that.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in the gospel, yeah in the gospels in the New Testament, whenever you see Jesus interacting with people who are seeking the truth, Jesus has conversations.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus invites people.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus dialogues with people.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get down and whack his finger in their face and say, shame on you for acting that way, shame on you for believing.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: He invites people into conversations.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and he wants to dialogue with people and um is inviting them into something greater.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that mean that's a good lesson for us.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good lesson for me as I interact with people who are outside of my Christian faith, is I want to be winsome and warm and encouraging and and to invite people into those conversations.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here's how I approach my business, just kind of as kind of as an FYI, is I would hope that I do my business so well, that I am that I am so reliable with my work, that I do such good work for clients, I hope that because of that, that I have earned a hearing with my clients and with my friends and colleagues and with people who are who are not a part of the Christian faith.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: If I have done poor work, if I have been late with my work consistently, if I have done something unscrupulous or dishonest, or I have been mean spirited or had a bad attitude with people, then I have abandoned my right to get a hearing for my faith.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that if you're a Christian, you should be doing excellent work.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: You should do your work on time, you should do it well, you should charge a fair price, you should not try to, you know, pull one over on people.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: And my goodness, and this is a huge pet peeve of mine, is Christians who are asking for discounts from other Christians all the time.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I that's happened to me a lot the past couple years, where many times in the um I can't speak for anybody else, but I've seen this happen many times.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the freelance community, people sort of just assume, oh, you know, if if it's one Christian to another, that means I can turn in my work late.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: That means I can be cheap.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: That means I can I can sort of, you know, poop on you a little bit and not treat you as well as I would a non-Christian, because, you know, we're kind of in the same inner circle and we're both Christians.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't think that should be the case at all.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you're a Christian doing work, you should do it well and you should treat people with excellence and treat people the right way.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, I'm off on a tangent.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's all good.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to point number three here.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably going to get some feedback from this episode.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is totally okay.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you have some feedback, let me know.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Point number three here, the third reason why I'm a Christian is that God answers prayer.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: God answers prayer.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not based on historical evidence, this is not based on, you know, like some historically verifiable data necessarily as far as my life.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is more of an experiential thing.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you this whenever I look at the evidence in my own life, in the lives of other people I trust, my personal experience is that God answers prayer.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't always answer prayer in the way that we hope, and he doesn't always do it even in our timelines.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't discount the many ways that I have experienced God's supernatural intervention in my life, sometimes in very bizarre and strange ways that are unexpected and that are undeniable.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now please know I don't just trust my feelings.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you should base your faith on feelings.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a very poor way to approach faith is just on how you feel about something.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about something as important as our faith and our eternal destiny, man, that's got to be based on something more than just how we feel in the moment.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: I put a lot more weight on evidence and facts and things that are verifiable.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And all I know is that there have been a lot of times in my life that weird things have happened in response to prayer.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Weird things have happened whenever God's people pray and people are healed, uh, strange things happen that are not explainable.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many different stories out there of all that stuff.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can just Google some of that stuff.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe don't, because you might come across some really strange stuff.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: But just feel free to ask me about those things.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and more than that, I would encourage you.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have a need in your life, just ask God.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Bible says you ask not, or the Bible says you have not because you ask not.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, man, I would just issue a simple challenge.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a need in your life, ask God about it sincerely and see how he responds.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: It it's really it could just be that simple sometimes.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go on to reason number four that I'm a Christian, and it's this people of faith have been a force for good in the world.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: People of faith have been a force for good in the world.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is a major reason why I'm a person of faith, why I believe in Jesus and why I'm a Christian.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, uh, I know that as soon as I say that, people will come back and say, Well, yeah, but God's people have also done a lot of damage in the world.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally agree with you.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are events in church history, there are events all over the place where people have done things in the name of God that are absolutely reprehensible.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: People have been killed, people have been slaughtered, there's been racism, there's been all kinds of awful, completely horrible things that have been done in the name of God.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that being said, it's also unfair to judge the whole church by its worst examples.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you take the church as a whole, if you take God's people as a whole, God's people have built hospitals, they fed the poor, they've advocated for the unborn, they've created amazing art, they've built great schools and universities.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God's people have done a lot of great things in the world, and the world is a better place because of the influence of the church overall, even in spite of the negative things that have been done in the name of God by bad people.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to surround yourself with winners.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to surround yourself with people who are making a positive difference in the world.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And even though there's lots of organizations in the world that have created all kinds of great change, I don't think anything comes close to all the positive change that God's people have done in the world in many, many different ways over the last 2,000 years.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you just look at the church through the lens of its social impact, I believe the church, God's people as a whole, is the most powerful force for positive change on planet Earth.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to the last item here on my list.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is reason number five that I'm a Christian, and that is simply that the principles in the Bible make me a better person.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of an extension of the last point.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible teaches principles such as self-control, love, peace, kindness, humility, generosity, and lots of other qualities that simply make you a better human being.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm generous, when I'm kind, whenever I'm loving, whenever I practice self-control and discipline, those qualities make me a better husband, a better father, a better business owner, a better artist, and a better citizen.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: My life is better, and people around me, their lives are better whenever I live out the character qualities that are taught in the Bible.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can immediately say, well, yeah, but those aren't the other the only the Bible isn't the only place where those things are taught.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's totally true.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I do find that when you take the teachings of the Bible as a whole and you just live them out.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you don't complicate it any other way, if you just say, I'm gonna do what the Bible teaches, I want to be the kind of um the kind of leader, I want to be the kind of uh person who has the right ethics and morality and the values.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you simply look at it on the level of what kind of person do I become when I follow the teachings of the Bible on the whole, well, you become um a leader in society.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: You become a person who is honest, you become a person who's hardworking, a person who saves, uh, and you become a person who invests.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: You you become a person that does a lot of good in the world.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And just looking at it on that simple level, okay, this is this has nothing really to do with faith or with evidence or with history.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a very simple level of hey, if you do what the Bible teaches, man, you end up being a pretty good person who does a lot of good in the world.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: So all these five things taken together, you know, as we're talking about things like intelligent design and evidence for faith and the resurrection, as we talk about how God answers prayer, as we talk about people of faith in the church being a force for good in the world and how following the Bible makes us a better person, all those things taken together for me compel me to be to live a Christian life.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: They compel me to lean into my faith as a Christian, they compel me to follow Jesus and to be a disciple of Jesus and to be learning more and to be doing more good in the world.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And my point with this podcast episode is not to convince you of anything.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to know, I just want you to know where I'm coming from as a person.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to know that just coming from strictly uh a standpoint of business and of writing and of creative work, I believe that God has called me to do this.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: And my first and foremost responsibility is to use the gifts and talents that God has given to me to honor Him and to serve you.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if I do that well, that means I have served you well.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And regardless of whether I have helped uh encourage or inspire you in your faith on any level today, just know that I believe that when I serve God well, whenever I honor God with my gifts and talents and with my business, that that helps you as well, too.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted you to know where I'm coming from, where my faith is uh and what my perspective on all that is.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: If nothing else, you've learned a few things about me today, and hopefully, you know, coming to a better understanding about each other, I think increases our empathy.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: It increases our appreciation for who people are.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: So no matter where you are on the spectrum of faith, whether you're a devoted Christian, whether you're um whether you're not a Christian at all, maybe you're an atheist, maybe you're um maybe you're Jewish, uh, maybe you're Muslim, maybe you're Buddhist, maybe you're maybe you don't even know what you are.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: No matter where you fall on that spectrum, know that I appreciate you.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you've listened to this, and if I can help you or serve you in any way, uh I'm always happy to do so.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that this episode has encouraged you to trust God wherever you are and to seek God's wisdom and his blessings and all that you do.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: No advertisements today.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna sign off here and say uh once again thanks for listening, and until next time, remember that your writing and your life has the power to change people's lives.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.