Shining a spotlight on what God is up to in the lives of our congregation, students, and staff. Email lauren@deerlakeumc.org if you're interested in sharing your story.

What are you reading/listening to right now that the congregation needs to know about? Where do you currently see God at work in your life?

Pastor Bobby’s message last Sunday (go here and watch the June 26 service if you haven’t already heard/seen it!) connected so well with my recent years of reading about discipleship from great Christian authors. Dallas Willard wrote in “The Divine Conspiracy” 20 years ago about how Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7 is a perfect description of what a committed disciple of Jesus looks like.  (Disclaimer: Only check out that book if you like logical and academic kinds of reading.)

The more recent book I found myself re-reading multiple times is “Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion,” by Rebecca McLaughlin.  This is probably the most helpful writing on contemporary challenges we and our desperately searching world face now and going forward.  Her excellent explanation of the scriptures is matched by intriguing insight and application to our time.  She shares her unusual life story throughout this excellent exploration of faith in Jesus as foundational to our view of reality.

Each of the 12 hard questions is a chapter.  Take a look at these questions and see if some are yours:

1. Aren’t We Better Off Without Religion?
2. Doesn’t Christianity Crush Diversity?
3. How Can You Say There’s Only One True Faith?
4. Doesn’t Religion Hinder Morality?
5. Doesn’t Religion Cause Violence?
6. How Can You Take the Bible Literally?
7. Hasn’t Science Disproved Christianity?
8. Doesn’t Christianity Denigrate Women?
9. Isn’t Christianity Homophobic?
10. Doesn’t the Bible Condone Slavery?
11. How Could a Loving God Condone So Much Suffering?
12. How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?

Wow.  How do you like those questions?  I have heard versions of them over the decades.  Many Christians have courageously raised these questions.  I was presented with an honest challenge (see question 3) a few years ago by a college-bound student at the end of our Central American mission work team trip.

She expressed she was struggling intellectually with believing that Jesus is the one true way for people of faith.  I thanked her for sharing her honest questions.  I began with assurance: all the hard questions in life have very satisfying philosophical explanations in Jesus Christ.  I asserted that, in fact, the Christian view is the only one that aligns with our reality.  Then we had a conversation that I hope pointed her in the right direction to continue her pursuit of truth.

As with this young adult, the biggest question is whether we really want to make the effort to pursue those answers.  One of last week’s VBS songs testifies: “When we ask, He cares; when we seek, He’s there.  When we knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, He opens up the door.”