BOOKS!!!!

This last week my brother Rob and I had the opportunity to go and look through my dad's 30+ year library of books. A library filled with commentaries, Bible dictionaries, books on doctrines, books on spiritual growth, books on leadership, books on sex, books to lead studies - let me just say there were a lot of books. So I have been going through the books I chose from the collection and have begun to categorize. I have to admit, all of those books on my shelf do look impressive. But of course in the time of one week I haven't read through all of those books - but I will! That brings me to my point. My dad has spent 30+ years in the ministry. I am rounding 10 and my brother, well he's 5 years older than me so let's give him, 15. Nearly 70 years of ministry is within my immediate family. Looking at my dad's massive collection of books I can imagine thousands of hours he has spent reading and thousands my brother and I will spend reading. But what if this whole Jesus thing isn't what it is? And what I mean by that is, in the Christian faith we believe Jesus was a man who lived and died by the hands of the Jewish leaders and Romans (though this isn't really our faith because historical documents can prove this happened). Our Christian faith doesn't even begin when we claim that Jesus died on the cross (again historical), but oringinate when we claim that Jesus rose 3 days later from the grave by His own power, remained on earth for a period of 40 days where hundreds of witnesses saw Him, touched Him, ate with Him and watched Him ascend into heaven, and that He (Jesus) is going to come back for His followers. Now if all I believe in isn't the Truth - then my life has been worthless. Paul says, "Our faith is futile" or meaningless. All that I will read, all that my brother will read, all that my dad has read and all that we have done in our combined 70+ years of effort has been the biggest waste of our time. That is, if we are wrong. But flip the coin, if we are right, which I am convinced of as Paul declares all Christians should be, then those who don't have the hope of the Gospel of Jesus are in for a big eternal awakening. I don't want to live my life portrahing that I believe the Christian life is meaningless or worthless. I want to live my life and I want people to see that I am confident of this one thing - that I will see His face in glory when He says, "Well done my good and faithful servant!"