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Kicking off our show this week is my Canadian buddy, Wil Twynstra! Besides being incredibly funny, Wil is an amazing dad… so amazing that he just keeps having kids! As he puts it, “It’s like joining a club… FedEx rings the doorbell every so often and just drops off another kid at our house… they just keep showing up!”
As an involved parent, one of Wil’s favorite book series is the Berenstain Bears. He loves how the stories gently walk children through life’s potentially tough moments with tender familial care. Kids hear stories of Brother Bear’s first day of school or Sister Bear’s first trip to the dentist. By reading these great stories, Wil’s kids aren’t afraid of these moments when they encounter them in real life.
If only the Berenstains had continued writing these books for adults!
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be encouraged with titles like, “Mama and Papa Bear are Visited by the Taxman” or “Papa Bear Goes in for a Coloscopy”?
There’s a huge market there!
Wil says that he’d order a subscription to that… even if it came with another kid!
Next, my dear friend and mentor calls in from California – author, speaker, and film maker Ray Comfort. Ray has been so instrumental in my life across the years, challenging me to grow, making me laugh, and helping others to laugh at me!
His latest film, The Atheist Delusion, is absolutely incredible! Judging by the title, I thought he was coming out guns a-blazing, but the film and its message is actually quite gentle, especially in his argument for Intelligent Design and Creationism.
The funny thing is that the project’s roots are something of a mistake!
A while back, Ray was creating some promo material for his book, Made In Heaven. He saw a guy looking at it, turned on his video camera and started asking the shopper a few questions. Almost immediately, Ray learned that the guy was a devout Atheist, so Ray gave him a copy of the book. But first, Ray asked:
“Do you think that this book could have happened by accident? Could ink have fallen from the sky and made itself into words and page numbers? Could the book have made itself a spine and spontaneously formed its own cover? In other words, could this book make itself out of nothing?
“Absolutely not”, was the man’s reply.
“Well, switching topics a bit, do you know what DNA is?”
“Yes, Deoxyribonucleic Acid, of course.”
“Right. It’s basically our book of life. It’s our programming. It’s information on how our body makes our eyes, ears, skin, as well as everything about us – our personalities… everything! From the moment we are created, our programming is there in our DNA! Now, if anyone were to believe that my book could create itself out of nothing, we’d think they were an idiot… but what about someone who believes that DNA, at some point, had created itself?”
After thinking this concept through, he was transformed from an Atheist to a believer in God’s existence.
Ray found this amazing, so he went to the local universities and colleges in search for another “humble Atheist”… which is hard to find! But, over the course of a few days, he was able to interview a dozen or so hardened Atheists whose minds were changed when they realized that DNA couldn’t make itself. After realizing that something, or someone, intelligent must have designed us – and that someone is God, they were open to hearing the Gospel… God’s plan for humankind.
Think about this… every day, about 150,000 people around the world die.
That means that 54 million people each year pass into this great black hole, called “death”. But, that’s not the end. God has given us the answer to our fears of death within the Gospel.
That’s Ray’s message. He doesn’t tell people they need to join a church or ask for any of their money. He simply, gently, asks people to listen and open their hearts to God’s plan for us. Because where you will spend eternity is the most important thing that you ever will establish. It’s what gives you hope, even in life’s worst circumstances.
But, as Ray says:
“Hope is probably the most misunderstood word in the English language. ‘Hope’ is weak in the eyes of the world, like when someone is rooting for their favorite team and says, ‘I hope we win. I really do hope so.’ But, really, hope is what happens when you are standing on the edge of a plane 10,000 feet up without a parachute, but about to jump out of the plane. You are horrified beyond words, when someone suddenly hands you a parachute! Hope, now… give you life! It gives you joy and peace because you’ve got the parachute. The second you put your trust in that parachute, you are no longer terrified by what you face. You have hope that you are going to live because your trust and faith is in that parachute. And, when we face death, we have a parachute, we have a Savior. We have a hope that is an anchor to our souls (Hebrews 6:19). And, the second that we put our trust in Jesus Christ, the fear of death leaves us. The power of death goes because Jesus has ‘abolished death’ (2 Timothy 1:10).
“This is the greatest news that the world could ever hope to hear!”
That’s why Ray produced The Atheist Delusion, which has had 800,000 views on YouTube! This brings the total amount of views for Ray’s films up to over 42 million!
You can see them for yourself at FullyFreeFilms.com.
But, why would an Atheist watch Ray’s film, knowing that he wants to change their worldview? Maybe for no other reason than that they hate Ray?! Or, maybe they think he’s like a train wreck and they can’t keep their eyes off of him? He’s good either way, so long as they watch.