peel and reveal their empty core

The Word for today:
Job 34:1 to 35:16

mark this:
...he multiplies words without knowledge. (Job 35:16)

There is a lot of multiplication of words without knowledge going on around us.

Our faith is based on the Bible's revelation of Jesus Christ. The Bible has stood firm, unchanging for thousands of years.

Many have tried to take it down, to topple it. Its detractors have come and gone. Not one of them has disproved a thing about scripture.

Scripture's view of man's lost, sinful nature has proven more and more obviously true: just open your newspaper, your internet, your window.

Scripture's prophecies have aligned before our very eyes. The central prophetic vision -- predicting in minutest detail the coming of the Messiah, the Savior from sin -- was exactly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Billions are devoted to him. He turned time and space and thought upside down.

If anyone (perhaps at school or from your neighborhood) assails you for your faith in Jesus and for reading your Bible, then here's what to do: be like Jesus and ask them a question or two (see note, below). Don't' go on the defensive, but put them on the defensive about what they believe.

Somebody might reply that they believe in nothing. That is a faith. Ask them how that's working out for them. Is it sustaining, inspiring?

Or maybe they say they believe in "science." Point out that God created science--the laws governing the physical universe. Then point out that man's "scientific" theories have changed about as often as the wind has changed direction. What was taken as scientific fact just years ago has proved laughable, embarrassing. "Science" is a moving target, but it's easy to shoot down.

The Bible stands tall, firm, never changing. And still they cannot shoot it down. Scripture, over time, makes monkeys out of its detractors.

Say so, with a calm voice and demeanor. Turn the tables on them. Ask them to prove their beliefs. Peel back the onion, layer by layer. It won't be long before your questioning will reveal an emptiness at the core of their beliefs.

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Note: In the gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus asked over 80 questions. He knew the truth. What he was looking for were their versions of it, in order to set the record straight.