What have you done with this man? By DAVE MAYNARD
A Civil War general, lawyer, politician and atheist, Lew Wallace, set out on a 6-year mission to destroy & disparage Christianity. He wrote a book as a result of his very biased research. You may have heard of it. It’s a little book. It’s called “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ”. It became the best selling novel of the 19th century and is regarded as the most influential Christian book of that era (christianheritagefellowship.com/ben-hur-the-conversion-of-lew-wallace/).
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He said, “After 6 years given to the impartial investigation of Christianity as to its truth or falsity, I have come to the deliberate conclusion that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the Jews, the Savior of the world and my own personal Redeemer”. While writing the 2nd chapter of his book, he found himself on his knees, crying out, “My Lord and my God.” The evidence was so overwhelming.
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H.G. Wells, a science fiction writer & historian said, “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
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Napoleon, French general, politician, Emperor and also not a believer, said “I know men and I tell you Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of ourgenius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”
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Napoleon also said that while he was alive, men would die for him. But he could not believe that men would die for him after he died. And yet that is exactly what believers in Jesus were doing … dying for Jesus several hundred years after He died.
Albert Einstein, the 20th century’s most respected scientist said “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful … No one can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus.”
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James C. Hefley, the Christian writer, described Him admirably thus: “Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was 30, and then for 3 years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where He was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood.
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“While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went (through) the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying, and that was His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life. (Then) He (rose) from the dead.
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“Twenty centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.”
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My question is, “What have you done with this man?”
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You may say, “But all these people cited above lived in previous centuries.” Well then, here’s the story of a contemporary man. He was an atheist most of his life but he loved newspapers. So much so that he started his own local Chicago area newspaper at 12 years old. He had 200 subscribers, charged $0.20/month & it was 5 pages/week. Because he sold advertising, he always made a profit and ran it for 2 years. He lied about his age, got a newspaper job as a summer intern & held that for 5 years. He went to the 1st college in the USA to offer a journalism degree. He then got a Master’s in Law degree from Yale and became the legal editor at the Chicago Tribune.
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But without God, his morals were in the tank. He would lie to get a story and intentionally deceive people. He even destroyed a colleague’s career to scoop a story. His colleague was informed on his honeymoon that he had been fired. Even this didn’t bother him. There was also heavy drinking and carousing.
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He eventually married an agnostic woman. One day they moved into an apartment building. His wife formed a friendship with a woman downstairs, who was a Christian. Eventually, she was invited to Willow Creek Church. She found the sermons practical and absolutely loved the music. In the fall of 1973, she became a believer. He thought this was terrible and feared for their marriage. They almost got divorced but he found something very attractive about her changed life. He finally decided to accompany her to church. He did love the music but the pastor’s sermon on “Basic Christianity” was what intrigued him.
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So he took his legal and journalism training and decided to investigate Jesus of Nazareth. During this time, he came across some of the most brilliant legal minds in history who had become believers based on the evidence. It took 2 years of his life but at 30 years of age he became a believer in Jesus Christ. He realized that it took more faith to remain in his atheism than to become a believer. Turns out that his wife and some church ladies were praying Ezekiel 33:23 for him for 2 years. It says, “I will give him a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you…” His whole life changed. Many things happened after that.
Eventually he became a minister and decided to write a book about his investigation. Actually he wrote several books:
The Case For Christ
The Case For Faith
The Case For A Creator
The Case For The Real Jesus
The Case For Grace
Plus many, many others
I have read the above 5 mentioned books and they are GREAT! Today, he is one of Christianity’s leading apologists. In his testimony posted on washedred.com, he enthuses as follows: “I can’t imagine staying on the path I was on compared to the adventure and the fulfillment and the joy of following Jesus Christ.”
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His name is………Lee Strobel
(reference: https://poptop.hypermart.net/testls.html
Website….www.leestrobel.com)
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I ask again: What have you done with this man? This same man, Jesus, who conquered the grave and rose from the dead said that He is coming back again to settle all scores. Do you believe Him? Have you accepted Him as your Saviour and Lord? If you haven’t, now is the time to do so.
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For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard.
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ABOUT THE WRITER:
Dave Maynard is a fellow blogger from the United States and a retired CEO of his own advanced-materials tooling company. He has been an avid student of the Bible, with a special emphasis on apologetics (rationally defending the faith) since he gave his life to Christ in 1974. He has taught Christian adult-education since the mid 1990’s at two churches. He and his wife, Patti, have been married for 39 years. They have three sons, two daughters-in-law whom they prefer to call “daughters-in-love” and nine grandchildren. He has a website dedicated to answering knotty questions of faith (BSSSB-LLC.com). There he presents Bible studies for skeptics, seekers and believers.
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This article was originally posted on that site under the titles, “Blog#8 – Lives Changed By Whom? You’re Kidding? Seriously?” and “Blog#9 – A Newspaper Reporter”. This edited version is posted here with permission.
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You can also connect with me via my Facebook page (facebook.com/auntyedith), LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram. Jesus is Lord!
Excellent article! Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you so much. God’s grace with your ministry and evrything else.
nice article ma’am, continue touching lives
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing Edith Ohaja
I WILL GIVE HIM A NEW HEART AND PUT A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN YOU!. this part gave me the shivers.Our God is wonderful and has a way to show himself to everyone who seeks him
Thank you ma for sharing this inspiring piece with us
what an article!
Wonderful
Hmmmmm, God is really an awesome father. This is an inspirational story.
And evangelistic too. Bless you, Maryann!
Non-believers of Jesus Christ should accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour. We should never doubt the existence of God and we should practise his ways.
Jesus is the Way. follow him now and u will never remain the same. God bless u for this post.
Anything we do in life we should put God first because before we were conceived in our mothers womb he already knows our destiny and we can’t run away from it.
What have you done with this man is really intriguing. I am really without doubts that Jesus never fails. His life and personality surpassese other prominent figures. And a taste of Jesus is taste of peace and any good thing ever wished for.
What a great article, i am really inspired. You are my role model
God arrested this man when he was destroying Christianity. This God is an awesome father and worthy to be praised at all times.
Excellent article. Jesus just did what he did in 3 years but we’ve been here on this earth for many years and yet it is hard to record anything we’ve done for the kingdom of God. What have I done with the man called Jesus? Am I willing to do something credible for the man called Jesus? These are questions we should reflect on.
Answering that question, what have you done with this man?…
If one can think deeply about this, we will get to understand our purpose in life as Christians. We should do well to repay the favor christ has done for us by dying on the cross.
Our God is wonderful. His grace and glory lasts forever. We should all know our purpose in life and how we want to follow God. Knowing about Jesus is a very important so that we can understand the man we’re following. Nice article.
Excellent article ma. “I will give him a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you…” this is my daily prayer point for a particular friend of mine and I know God will answer me soon…… Thanks for sharing.
“Jesus be the center of it all
From beginning to end
It will always be,
It always been you Jesus”
This is the song that came to me while reading this,at the center of everything,is always going to be Jesus.No matter our level of knowledge,he reigns above all.
Christ has done much for us, his mercy is ever enduring and his grace is abundant. Therefore we must learn to preach his good deeds and not only preach it but also live it so people can emulate our lives. A very wonderful article, i am indeed wowed.
Its only a ful who doubts about God’s existence. He has been and will continue be to forever and ever. Thank you lord for giving us salvation. Thank you for the gifts of life. And thank you for making me know you.
I really don’t know what I feel right now, but I must confess that this article is wonderful. I must commend Dave Maynard for this lovely piece. Guess I’ll save this page, I’ll be needing one if not all of those Five aforementioned books. Thanks for sharing this Aunty.
This is really a fascinating story. Jesus has paid a price on the cross for our redemption. If we value this precious gift of his life. We have to make him our personal Lord and Savior.
Sometimes I wonder how one is comfortably an atheist. God lives. He is awesome and just by his words he can do and undo. Praise his name
Life without Christ is unimaginable, sometimes I wonder how it would have felt if I was born in the age of Ignorance when my forefathers used human heads to bury kings and blood of virgins to appease deities…how inhumane. Thank God for the gospel of salvation through the death of Christ, all this have become new and man has a better shot at eternal life.
Very great article ma, Flo said in his song “Twale”, “that only a fool will look into sky and said there is no God, only a blind man will look into sea and tell me that the fishes are a mistake. Even the babalawo can testify that there is only one Jehovah…” Whether or not you believe God existence, he still exist.
The glory of Jesus is so awesome, non can compare to him. What have you done with this man? the man who died for our sins, who loved us even before we loved him. You know, experiencing him is the best gift you can have, choose to love him. I’ve been blessed by this.
Most people will dispute the facts of his existence and brand themselves atheists. Jesus of Nazareth is real and I believe He has impacted mankind more than any Nobel Prize Winner, Pope, Imam, Grand Lama or President could ever do.
Jesus was, is and will always remain … “Only a fool says , there is no God”…
I pray that whosoever doubts the authenticity of Jesus will be put Right, and be made to experience His magnificent and undying love for mankind.
The greatest treasure ever gotten in life is this man called Jesus. Him in my life transformed me and brought light to my life.