00:03:49.740Well, we had always kind of flirted with the idea of writing something together, but I didn't think it would be until after dad had finished this series,
00:03:56.900since he's had so much success with it in the past.
00:03:58.980But he came to me saying that he had an idea for me to co-author, offer my insights, and then also contribute prayers interspersed throughout the text.
00:04:10.420And so it was really interesting for me to see his process, you know, like right up front, because growing up, I mean, I always watched him on these projects.
00:04:24.580And it's funny, because I went away to college when you were writing your first book on Obama.
00:04:28.400And I remember I'm the first, and we're very close.
00:04:30.960And I was thinking, man, like, did my dad forget me?
00:04:35.200Because for like two months, like my first two months of college, I didn't hear from you.
00:04:54.240I was pregnant the whole time throughout the process.
00:04:56.400So, but he set, you know, great deadlines.
00:04:59.420And he's a machine when he writes, you know, and he does all the research himself, like all the editing.
00:05:04.980I mean, obviously we do have an editor as well, but he self edits multiple times.
00:05:09.920And so it really helped me as a writer and to be able to bounce feedback off of one another.
00:05:15.180You know, if you're writing something yourself, you're dealing with yourself and with the Holy Spirit.
00:05:20.000But when you have a partner, you think of things that you wouldn't have thought of before.
00:05:25.080You see things from a different angle.
00:05:26.480And so I think that really benefits the reader as well, because even though we write it in one voice, they're kind of getting several different angles on these different subjects.
00:05:35.060So obviously faith and theology is central to your family life.
00:05:39.780It sounds like growing up, which I'm guessing started with you and your wife.
00:05:44.060And even though you've written about your testimony, a lot of people may not know.
00:26:10.080It's also, you mentioned C.S. Lewis, the whole Lord, liar, lunatic laundry.
00:26:14.820Well, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
00:26:17.760And so if you believe in Jesus, you believe that Jesus said that, and he said that he is the only way, well, then you've only got really a few options.
00:27:25.360Maybe it's because of that body connection.
00:27:26.980Those who start to deny maybe the most controversial part of the gospel, that Jesus was raised from the dead, it ends up being kind of a slippery slope into the other doctrines of Christianity.
00:27:39.320Because as you said, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then, I mean, why believe anything else?
00:27:45.780But Allie, I never did understand, in all my skepticism, I don't understand what's so hard to believe.
00:27:51.680If you believe God can breathe the universe into existence, it's not too tough to resurrect us bodily.
00:27:59.160And if you don't believe God breathed the universe into existence and the multiverse, whatever it is, then you're kind of illogical because it couldn't have happened on its own.
00:28:12.680You repeatedly stress in the Resurrected Jesus that Christianity teaches that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and not one's good work.
00:28:22.460So we talked about it being by faith alone in Christ alone, but it's also not, okay, we earn it and Jesus kind of helps us or he's a part of our salvation.
00:28:34.920That also is hard for some professing Christians to grasp.
00:28:40.080Well, I would say because, first of all, it totally is so disrespectful to what Jesus did for us.
00:28:48.860I mean, and it actually kind of focuses us back on ourselves because for us to think that we could do anything to earn our salvation is, I mean, it's such a joke and it puts it back on us.
00:29:00.860It stresses that the power is on our hands.
00:29:02.940And I always think, I say this to myself repeatedly throughout the day, actually, that my weakness is my strength.
00:29:09.860And Jesus tells us, you know, I am the vine.
00:29:13.060You are the branches if you remain in me.
00:29:15.740But as part from me, you can do no thing.
00:29:18.260And he means you can do no good thing outside of me.
00:29:21.160That includes our salvation, of course.
00:29:23.700We have to take him at his word and we have to understand that.
00:29:26.540I mean, I think it's hard for people to believe because it is such good news.
00:29:33.660But that being said, we are not to just live our lives completely carelessly and, you know, doing things that he tells us clearly not to do because, oh, we're covered by grace.
00:29:44.880And I know that's something that's kind of swirling around the Christian community right now because of different, you know, musical artists who have been caught on camera doing things they shouldn't be doing.
00:29:53.860And so I do think that we do have to remember the gravity of what he did for us because unless we have that revelation, that realization, we won't be sober minded enough to say, okay, my life needs to bear the fruit that comes only from the true reality of understanding.
00:30:14.620Like, okay, his sacrifice was so much and I'm so undeserving and that's what produces the good fruit.
00:30:19.880But the good fruit is not what gets us into heaven.
00:31:20.700And then I later learned, he doesn't, he knows we can't, but it's to show us that standard, to show us our very need for him, that we're incapable of living to that standard.
00:31:30.840Now there's the other aspect, salvation is by faith alone, and we are declared righteous, called justification.
00:31:39.200That doesn't mean we're sin free from the point of conversion, but there's another thing that's important.
00:31:44.340And the sanctification process begins, the Holy Spirit indwells us, and we begin through the Holy Spirit and the spiritual disciplines becoming closer to the Holy Spirit, to be able to, or to be empowered to overcome sin on a daily basis.
00:31:58.900And so we do become more sanctified, more holy.
00:32:02.540I mean, not in my case, but I mean, you guys probably do.
00:32:05.600And so, but we never become sin free until we're glorified after we die.
00:32:28.720Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 is so clear on this.
00:32:31.420And whenever I read this passage, I'm always amazed at how much God through Paul emphasizes,
00:32:36.920you were saved by grace through faith, not of your own doing, not a result of works.
00:32:45.060He says it over and over again, so that no one may boast.
00:32:48.460But then in verse 10, he says, you were saved for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you may walk in them.
00:32:56.720So right there, he says, you're not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works.
00:33:02.160And people tend to confuse those things.
00:33:04.700And it's again, and that's great that you added that, because people, again, the smart, the people that think that Christians are intellectually deficient and don't think through things.
00:33:58.860It hits me in a different time in a different way, even though the words don't change.
00:34:03.100And one thing that got me, and this wasn't an epiphany or revelation, I'm sure I've thought it before, was how human and personal Paul is and what he, the struggles he went through.
00:34:15.980The Bible authors, not just Paul, describe their warts and all.
00:34:20.140They don't pretend to be perfect, which makes it more believable.
00:34:23.200It also makes it more relatable, according to terms, that we can relate to Paul because he went through all this stuff and he got mad.
00:34:57.860The question was if there's anything new that you learned, which just seems like, okay, you knew those things, but they just kind of re-taught you.
00:35:10.320Basically, essentially the same, but I really, in studying Paul's life and all these different struggles he's going through, I always saw him as such a serious, just kind of brash on most persons.
00:35:23.440It's just so like, okay, he's really trying to admonish everyone and correct them.
00:35:32.340But when we studied it so closely, you see the tenderness of him, and that is what I saw.
00:35:41.200And I know that I feel kind of in my spirit that that's essentially what Jesus also saw in him.
00:35:49.560I mean, obviously he loved him for all of his different dimensions of his character.
00:35:53.840But in the very last chapter of the book, because we rewrite it chronologically, we end with 2 Timothy.
00:36:00.340And it really, it brings me to tears every time I read it, because we know that this is probably the last letter he wrote in his lifetime.
00:36:08.700He knew he was about to be put to death.
00:36:10.360And we see that he's kind of looking back at his life, and he is just so grateful to God.
00:36:18.040I mean, that's what he ends on is such a high note.
00:36:23.200And then he's admonishing Timothy to do the same.
00:36:26.000And it's a beautiful picture of what Christ is telling all of us, that the same Holy Spirit who lived in Paul, this incredible apostle, is the one who lives in us.
00:36:34.860And we are called to think of ourselves as citizens of heaven, who he can use and will use the more of ourselves we give to him.
00:36:42.020So it really is just so touching and inspiring in that way.
00:36:46.240And that's what I saw differently looking at the scriptures so in depth through this process.
00:36:50.980It's amazing how differently you see it when you believe it to be true first.
00:36:57.780You mentioned that the fact that these writers show themselves, warts and all, and their sins makes it more believable.
00:37:07.040And the writers also show the difficult to comprehend things about God throughout scripture, which makes it more believable.
00:37:14.020Like, if this were a book that was just supposed to be PR for Christianity, no, you can, you only believe all this stuff because if it's true.
00:37:39.220Jesus made him profess his love for him three times afterwards.
00:37:42.820I mean, I think that's kind of cool the way.
00:37:45.400But I also think in addition to showing the humanity and the imperfections, this is what got me when I first was exposed to this stuff.
00:37:54.360The Bible, even though it was written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years in an Old Testament and a New Testament, it is so integrated.
00:38:03.360It's one connective story about God's creation and love and redemption for mankind that could not.
00:38:11.580If you read it, it is so bizarre how the same truths are sprinkled throughout the Bible in a way that could only have happened through a divine conspiracy, a divine author.
00:38:25.140Because these guys, we're talking over 1,500 years.
00:38:27.840They couldn't have gotten together unless they had a time machine.