Women of Intelligent Faith

Ratio Christi TV's Tony Gurule graciously interviewed us for the upcoming Women in Apologetics conference at Biola. Thanks Tony!! If you missed it, you can catch the video recordings here: Jade Turner on "Defending the Faith."  Laurie Stewart on "Love God with All Your Mind." Mary Jo Sharp on "Apologetics as Lifelong Discipleship and Evangelism."

[Composed by John Stewart] “Evangelism”—The practice of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ “Evangelist”—A person who proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ   As the sun rose this morning over the Andalusian Hills, after a good night’s sleep from a long journey, we are feeling refreshed and blessed to be in Spain to speak at a conference on evangelism.   Our friend Tim Robnett, who spent years with well-known evangelist Luis Palau (known as “the South American Billy Graham”), organized the conference and invited Laurie and me to speak. The conference consists of European and American evangelists, with people coming from as far away as Poland.   For us, this will be not only a time to teach and train Christian leaders, but to also find out about other ministries and see how we can come along side them, especially to help them reach university students and professionals with the Gospel. We also look forward to learning from their experiences so that we can develop the...

Earlier this year I was speaking at an Apologetics Conference and I asked the audience to raise their hands if they knew what apologetics was. Two hands went up. Two! And this was at an APOLOGETICS Conference! I put my presentation on pause and spent a few minutes explaining it.  Is it an Apology? No. Is it an Argument? No.  Is it an Answer? Yes.  As much as I like a good argument (being a lawyer would you expect otherwise?), I admit this is not the best explanation.  The word "apologetics" can be found in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  "Where is "apologetics" in this verse," you ask. I'm glad you asked. The key is the Greek word for "answer" here, apologia , which means to give a defense, a reason, an answer.  What kind of Answers are...

Sharing Christian Conciliation principles with Christian Lawyers in Indonesia.  

Have you heard the old adage--"It is more blessed to give than to receive"? That's how I feel having had the privilege of taking a stellar peacemaking team with me to Nigeria to teach lawyers and judges Christian Conciliation for a week long course, i.e. Conflict Coaching and Peacemaking. A big shout out to Anne Bachle Fifer, Scott Owen and Kevin Thornsberry! But we couldn't have done it without our Nigerian team on the ground. Thank you Paul, Favour, Josiah and Chika! Last time I was there was in 2014 when I taught about 125 lawyers and judges a week long Peacemaking Seminar. I had just about given up on returning to teach mediation when miraculously a class-A team fell into place. If you haven't read The Peacemaker by Ken Sande yet, I highly recommend it. It is the basis for our Christian Conciliation teaching. "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Matt. 5:9

December 5, 2016 [Note: This account is purposefully written as a long run-on, as it symbolizes the actual run-on adventure.] Just to summarize our wild day yesterday: after John and Scott finished preaching at their separate churches, we were to meet at the Jos airport to fly out only to discover our flight to Lagos had been cancelled. There is only 1 flight a day. So our gracious driver hit the road for a 4 1/2 hour drive to the capital of Abuja so we could catch another flight in time to make our international connect ions. While he conquered the road, I was on the phone booking the flights and searching for alternatives. The journey was harrowing as we drove fast, trying to avoid pot holes, other cars, motorcycles, and flying through the armed checkpoints even when they commanded that we stop. Amazingly the men with guns didn't pursue us. We arrived at the airport exhausted from the journey, feeling like we had been on a wild roller coaster for several hours. A diffe...

Christians like to point to the martyrdom of the first apostles as evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. [1]  They base their hypothesis on the premise that people don’t die for a lie they know to be false. People might die for a lie that they believe to be true, but not one they know to be false. This is persuasive evidence for the reliability of the testimony of the early eye witness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. In his book,  The Resurrection of Jesus , historian Michael R. Licona states this about Jesus’ disciples: After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publically proclaiming the risen Christ. [2] What do we know about the deaths of the first disciples of Jesus? Tradition holds that the apostles di...