Thanks to our friends at Holman Bible Publishers, we are giving away some copies of the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, designed to ground Christian students in the truths of Scripture by equipping them with thoughtful and practical responses to difficult and heartfelt challenges to core issues of faith and life.

To be eligible to win a copy of the paperback edition (1400+ pages in length), here's all you do:

• Send an email to: info@conversantlife.com
• Put "Free Bible" in the subject line of your email
• Tell us you want to be in the random drawing for a free copy

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The response to the release of the Apologetics Study Bible for Students has really been encouraging and overwhelming. I knew there was a pressing recognition of the need for apologetics in youth ministry, but I had no idea now much. I received this email from a youth pastor this week and was deeply moved by it. Check it out:

"I'm one of the youth leaders at our church, and I'm in between a couple of Sundays where I'm giving the message during the youth service. I'm taking the opportunity to introduce the students to apologetics, and the response so far has been more enthusiastic than I'd anticipated, which gladdens my heart to no end.

"At first I was simply happy to see the arrival of the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, but then God laid it on my heart to take action, so my wife and I are using a chunk of our tax refund to purchase 35 copies to give out to our youth during an upcoming Wednesday night function. In price shopping around the Internet, my wife discovvered a promotional video you did for the Bible at Lifeway.com. I'm going to show that video to the kids before unveiling the surprise.

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Last week, I took my wife away for an afternoon date. We watched the Book of Eli. After the movie, I spent the drive home trying to gather my thoughts about the whirlwind that is Denzel Washington, as Eli, on the big screen, a man of violence who longs for peace, a man who doesn’t “want any trouble,” but who brings trouble on all sorts of violent men, a man of simple faith in a world where nothing is simple, and faith isn’t even a memory. I spent some time processing why I was moved by this film.

Without seeking to be a spoiler, I want to mention two scenes that I think might be on my all-time favorite list:

1.    There is a scene where Eli prays over a meal. In normal circumstances, this sounds completely mundane, and unworthy of screen time. But in the ultra-barren landscape of a post-apocalyptic desert, both spiritually and verdantly, this scene almost brought me to tears. There was something so completely holy about a man, a man of violence and faith, teach a young girl, entirely post-christian, completely post-faith, how to pray to God. The prayer is one of astounding simplicity and gratitude. My own mealtime prayer carried greater weight that evening.

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A coupe of weeks ago I spoke at Snellville Baptist Church in Georgia. The youth pastor, Jody Shelton, is a friend of mine. Check out his brief blog about my visit there. You can listen for free to the three talks I gave: (1) Shattering the Myths of Evolution; (2) Understanding Intelligent Design; and (3) Why the New Testament Can Be Trusted.

Jody also gave a little shout-out for the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, which was just released last week. This Bible is revolutionary for students. I just received a message on Facebook from a fellow apologist, Lenny Esposito from Come Reason Ministries, who helped write some of the articles in the Study Bible. He received this note about the Bible from a brand new user:

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The Apologetics Study Bible for Students is here! The Bible shipped January 31, and now you can order from Amazon. This is something I've been working on for two years and I am absolutely thrilled about it.

The Apologetics Study Bible for Students will anchor younger Christians in the truths of Scripture by equipping them with thoughtful and practical responses for whenever the core issues of their faith and life are challenged.

Multiple research studies have shown that spiritual focus often weakens among teenagers as they head into the attention-dividing realm of young adulthood. Up to 66% of them leave church altogether. The Apologetics Study Bible for Students works against that trend by helping this audience begin to better articulate its beliefs.

 In Exodus 20, the very first of God's ten commandments is His declaration that we must "have no other gods", and right on the heels of that, we're warned against "graven images", which is a warning against fabricating gods out from our own creativity as representations of the true God. God warns against this, of course, because He knows that our attempts to represent God will always, mis-represent Him, as we can do none other than make God in our own image. If you'd like an example of this 're-shaping of God', you don't need to go to a new age bookstore, though you can find it there. Just jump over and check out the Conservative Bible Project, where God's character and truth is being reshaped according in the image of American political conservatism. Idols, it turns out, can thrive on the left AND the right.

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I had just finished preaching when a middle-aged chap walked up to me and said, “What’s with all the spiritual ‘God is in everything’ nonsense?” I responded, “Nonsense, huh? What do you mean?” He blurted out, “Just tell me what you believe? Are you a hippie or what?” Perceiving that there was no end to the Who-Wants-To-Be-a-Millionaire style game, I answered his million dollar question that I often resist, “ ‘Hippie,’ no. But ‘Christian mystic,’ yes.” As he began to walk away, he said, “Okay, never mind then. I don’t care what you have to say if that is what you believe.”

 

This wasn’t a first for me. I have become a little accustom to this kind of response. I often ask myself, “Am I just too abrasive? Or, what was that all about?” I have begun to realize that the problem is one of terminology.

I was there, but not present. I was oblivious. Like those vintage photos of Albert Einstein with his crazy hair, where he looks like the absent-minded professor, I was the absentee. I was solving my Pi. And when 3.141592 … is going around in your head, it’s hard to think about anything else. It drives you mad.

Here’s the story. I’m obsessive—spontaneous, and sometimes ready to combust. It’s part of what makes me good at what I do. But it’s a hazard. Because when I am not present, it seems that God isn’t either. I subtly ask God for help, but it’s superficial—I know it, and he certainly does. So, I have to be honest with myself, my friends, my family and with God. I have to be willing to say, “I’m burned out, and I need to refocus on the Infinite God, so that I can be present again.

I call my mom tonight, both to say hello, and to talk to her about her upcoming party in September. You see, she's turning 90, which means that she grew up in the great depression, married in the midst of the war, and raised my sister and I in the midst of Kennedy's assassination, Vietnam, and Watergate. She lost her first child at birth, and in the process nearly lost her life, leaving her without the capacity to bear children. It was because of this that my sister and I were adopted into the Dahlstrom family and heritage. Her husband's multiple childhood bouts with pneumonia would lead him to an early death, and my adopted sister would die at the age of 43, leaving only my mom and I for the past 14 years.

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