Investigate
C.S. Lewis, the great English scholar, whose work is the backdrop for today's Narnia movies once stated, "As I considered this myself, I decided if my investigation led me to the conclusion that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic, I would then be a fool to follow him. But if I concluded He was Lord of the universe, I would be a fool of fools not to follow him."
The key word in his quote is the word "investigation"; to diligently search and reason so as to derive or come to a conclusion on a given subject. It's what we do every day as a student in class, an employee at work, or an athlete at practice, we want to investigate the merits without interference. So here is the ball...
All humans have three basic drives. They are Intellectual, Physical, and Spiritual. I call them drives but you could call them desires or mechanisms of satisfaction. They are what motive us or cause us to pursue things in life. Being that you are visiting this site demonstrates a drive for intellectual satisfaction. You have a child or student who is in need of basic elementary math development.
In general, most children pursue the physical drive with an extreme passion; whether in organized sports, ballet/dance, or just a neighborly game of hide-n-go seek. We love the doing!
There's a third drive though that you or your child may not be as actively pursuing and it is the spiritual. This is the one that I'd like to extend an offer to anyone interested.
If you would like to investigate the claims of Christianity in a casual, email-method environment, then I'll be willing to take 15 minutes each week over a four week period to answer your questions. Each week I'll send you a short (around 25 pages) note that covers topics such as:
- Is the Bible really the word of God?- If God is good and loving, how can he punish good people?- Is Jesus really who he claimed to be: the Son of God?- Is there only "one" way to know God?Then, one week after you've finished reading the material, you can email me with your questions. I'll provide a response and then send the next short material for you to read and respond with any questions. This will only be over a four week period and I'll limit the time to roughly 15 minutes (as if we were sitting at a lunch table). When the four weeks conclude, we will go our separate ways but at least you will had an easy opportunity to gain a better grasp of the claims of Jesus based on your own investigation.
Oh yeah, there's one more thing I'll do. Irregardless if after the four-week period you agree or disagree with the claims of Christianity, as a gift for just investigating, you will receive a free one-year subscription to SummerSchoolMath; all of the 1st - 5th grade printable worksheets for free.
You know, the church is a wonderful tool given by God to explore the teachings of Jesus. But even it at times can fail at helping a person to find purpose for living, freedom (the ability to do what they should do instead of the license to do what one wants to do), and the assurance of eternal life. If you sense that you're not getting this from your church (and yes, I'm a member of a church (Presbyterian) in Atlanta, GA), then let me encourage you to respond below and provide you a simple, non-pressured means to better understand how Christianity leads to purpose, freedom, and assurance.
Todd SmithermanSummerSchoolMath
