Reconnect

Andy interviews Mary Eady, author of Letter to a Friend: Yoga, and staff member of TruthXchange.  Mary takes a strong stance that Christians should not partake in Yoga.  Listen to find out why!  Will you be persuaded?

Andy is in the process of turning his book, Contradict - They Can't All Be True, into an audio version.  Here's a sampling of the work in progress as he reads the first chapter.  The influence of Hinduism in the West with its connections to religious pluralism is addressed, which leads perfectly into next week's episode asking the question, "Is it OK for Christians to do yoga?"

I (Andy) have recently noticed, on the Contradict Facebook page I administer and on other pages, that most posts on homosexuality speak just the Law of God ( i.e. his standards, commands, and expectations). The Gospel is typically missing.  I took a photo of a gay wedding cake and then added the text, "Jesus died for this sin too!" off to the side of the image. With this single statement the Gospel is proclaimed, and at the same time homosexuality is still shown to be sinful.Jesus is the Savior of all adulterers. I am one of them. To clarify, in Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount", he defines adultery as any lust. He defines murder as hating anyone. Jesus essentially shows us that we all have broken God's Law, that we are all sinners in need of divine redemption. He provided that redemption through the shedding of his blood for our sins, through his life, death, burial, and resurrection. "To share or not to share?"  That is the question.  In this episode George shares why he chooses to abstain from sharing religious

Christian apologists typically favor a specific approach to defending the Christian faith.  These approaches, or methods, are numerous and each school of apologetics touts its top apologists as the best models to follow when training in apologetics.  It’s not uncommon to see advocates for certain schools of apologetics debate why their chosen method is superior.  J. Warner Wallace however argues that we don’t need to argue over which method is the best, but instead says we need to embrace and train in all of these various schools of apologetics.  He calls this training in Mixed Martial Apologetics!  Andy asks Wallace to name and explain some of the branches of Christian apologetics and when he thinks they are best utilized. Andy closes by sharing arguments he has heard against such a mix-bag approach to apologetics, asking Wallace to make a case for Mixed Martial Apologetics.  J. Warner Wallace is the author of Cold-Case Christianity and God’s Crime Scene.  Wallace’s many resources for training in Mixed

George shares his paper, "Qoheleth: The Search for Meaning in Life", with Andy.  Solomon's method for searching for meaning in life is one to consider. His conclusion is one we should all the more consider.  With such an endearing topic, Solomon truly is a preacher for our day.  George and Andy make some connections to how we can take Solomon's search for the meaning in life and use it as a tool to share the Gospel with those who are searching.  Read George's paper at www.andywrasman.com in the show notes for this episode.

Andy brings Reconnect listener and Contradict Movement members’ questions to the show to answer them with George and Wes.  1:53 – Responding to the claim that the Gospel of Barnabus is the true Bible that prophesies that Muhammad will be the Messiah.  16:47 – Does Contradict Movement espouse the doctrines of  “Lordship Salvation”?  24:07 – Responding to a post made by Mena Lee Grebin of Faithful Walk Healing Ministry.  She advocates that we must work to maintain our relationship with Jesus.  A Contradict follower, Nick, thinks Mena’s post is inserting our works into our salvation by her post.  In particular Nick wants to know the meaning of the Parable of the Ten Virgins which Mena uses in her post, which we read in full and respond to in its entirety.  46:25 – If we are following Christ, why are we still cursed?  49:50 – Does God’s standards apply to our everyday life or just spiritual life?  51:25 – Feedback from Kurt Calloway on Reconnect Episode 15!

Who is a Christian?  How do you become a Christian?  And how do you know for sure that you are a Christian?  If one is really a Christian, that person is really saved!  But how would you know for sure that you really are a Christian and that you really are saved?  In other words, where do you look for assurance that you are a Christian, that you are saved from eternal death?  Kevin DeYoung wrote an article for The Gospel Coalition entitled, "How Do I Know That I'm A Christian?"  He gave three signs that a person can use to have confidence that he or she is saved:1. The first sign is theological. You should have confidence if you believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God. 2.  The second sign is moral. You should have confidence if you live a righteous life.  3.  The third sign is social. You should have confidence if you love other Christians.  Andy, George, and Wes discuss these three signs that DeYoung offers using verses from 1 John that should serve to give us confidence and not condemnation.  All three of us

Few places have a local Christian newspaper.  Starting a Christian newspaper can be a very challenging yet rewarding ministry and hobby that can bring glory to the Lord in your local area. Chris Thompson started Life in His Hands Christian Newspaper from scratch.  He shares why he did it and how he did it. He shares two things he recommends everyone to do if starting a paper and two things not to do. He shares the price of printing his paper, distribution tips, and so much more. Potentially, you could even use Chris' layout for his paper and just update a few sections with local ads and replace a few of the local articles each week.  Maybe you are a writer, maybe you are a communications and media expert, maybe you are a graphic artist, maybe you are good at advertising and producing and sharing a product. Maybe this episode is intended for you. 

We should be evangelists first and apologists second.  When defending the Christian faith, we should always strive to incorporate the Gospel into our defense.  Why should we do this?  How can we do this?  Andy gives a brief explanation at the start of this episode, before reading an excerpt from his book Contradict - They Can't All be True to answer these questions, before running these concepts through in practice on Cross Defense, a radio show hosted by Rod Zwonitzer  on KFUO out of St. Louis, Missouri!  Enjoy.

Andy interviews Ken Chitwood about his article, "Building Bridges: Toward Constructing a Christian Foundation for Inter-Religious Relationships in the Shift from Religious Privilege to Spiritual Plurality"  The key points for inter-religious dialog that Ken suggests are: pay attention, find, and form, friendships, listen and learn, dine, dialog, and do together, discern, and witness to the worldview.  The article can be found linked within this episode's page at andywrasman.com. 

First Reconnect July Fourth Special!  Andy discusses the concept of "Christian Freedom" with Pastor Samwise Praetorius (Samuel Schuldheisz) by addressing the eucatastrophes of fairy stories and the Gospel connections that can be made with rock songs.  They both share their top three favorite rock songs to use to share the Gospel.  To see all the show links be sure to visit Episode 15 on the Reconnect Podcast feed at andywrasman.com. 

Two high school students discuss the similarities and differences between Hinduism and Christianity with Andy.  A slew of links are available on Episode 14's blog post at andywrasman.com.

God is big!  But is God too big to fit into one religion?  Andy discusses a bumper sticker that makes this claim with two colleagues, Theology teacher, Wes Bareford, and, Biology teacher, Ben Fisher.  Get a copy of the discussion guide we used for this episode at the andywrasman.com's Reconnect Episode 13 blog post. 

Andy found a bumper sticker at a New Age trinket shop in Ashville, NC.  The sticker reads, "In the end, there are three things that shall last, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love."  This statement comes from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:13 to be precise.  However, the sticker has no citation to the Bible verse, and faith, hope, and love are spelled using various religious symbols.  What do the makers of this sticker intend to convey stripping the Bible citation and incorporating all of these religious symbols?  Andy has created a dicussion guide for this episode, accessible at andywrasman.com . He uses this guide to discuss this sticker with two of his high school students. 

Andy saw a Morpheus meme that read, "What if I told you, you didn't have to dress a certain way to go to church." With a slew of Facebook comments on this image, Andy brings the feedback to Reconnect to discuss church attire with George. There were way too many topics, stories, and scenarios pertaining to church attire that were critiqued, questioned, and addressed to be able to give a brief summary description for this episode.  Just press PLAY.Go to andywrasman.com and look up Reconnect Episode 11 to see a replica of the meme that Andy created for Reconnect.

All too often religions are said to cause evil and to cause wars. The Crusades are often times mentioned to support this claim.  Andy interviews Stephen Puls, a Lutheran high school history teacher, who explains what the Crusades were, why they started, and what went wrong. In the second segment, they turn towards looking at the role of Atheism in connection with wars!  By the end of this episode, you'll have some great talking points whenever such an argument against religion arises.   And of course, the goal is to use these talking points to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some suggested ways of making this connection are also mentioned in this episode.

Have you seen the movie Footloose?  It's about a youth who just moved into a very strict Christian community where he is signaled out as a troublemaker, almost instantly because he didn't adhere to the "Christian" principles of the town.  He was essentially "shunned" because of it. That movie is based on real scenarioes that have occured for some poeple, becuase there are certainly Christian communities that stress certain rules and regulations amongst their members, such as don't drink, don't gamble, don't dance, don't be associated with known sinners, and etc.These religious expectations amongst some Christian circles have led many nonChristians who have interacted with such groups to assume that these rules are the norm amongst all Christians.  They have thus become Christian stereotypes.  Brett Shoemaker has made a list of ten Christian stereotypes that he hates.  Andy grills him to find out if these stereotypes are in fact things that Christians should uphold and obey as commands from God, or if these Ch

George and Andy, discuss a series of articles from Credo House entitled: 21 Things Christians Say to Hurt Their Credibility.  In this episode they have time to discuss three of these statements: 1. "You can't use the Bible to prove the Bible." 2.  "Good question.  I'll find the answer and get back to you." 3.  "One white lie will send you to hell for all eternity." Andy and George agree that some of these statements really do hurt the credibility of our Christian witness and should be avoided, but they come to disagree with at least one of these articles, because they think the statement is in fact Scriptural, thus should be spoken, but maybe there is a better way of presenting the truth to a nonbeliever. Other questions and topics emerge as they discuss these articles, such as: how do we know the Bible is the Word of God, how should we respond to questions we don't know the answers, is it possible for Christians to have all the answers to life's questions, what exactly is revealed to us in Scripture and why

Andy Wrasman received an email from an angry man who had encountered someone wearing a Contradict T-Shirt.  This gentlemen lets Andy know that the Messiah is prophesied to:A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9). This gentlemen explains that Jesus has not met any of these Messianic prophesies.  He goes onto to state that because the Bible claims that Jesus was born of a virgin, he cannot be of the line of David from his father's side, which he claims is required in Scipture.  He also states other ways in which Jesus contradicts the Hebrew Bible

Andy Wrasman, George Allen III, and Adam Stetson discuss how they came to use a Contradict poster for evangelism at University California Irvine.  What were their previous evangelism efforts?  Why did they decide the Contradict evangelism table method was their favorite? How do they use the poster to spring into sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? What tips do they have to share from their outings?  What are their most memorable encounters and relationships formed via their Contradict outings?  What do they appreciate the most about each others' personality and approach to sharing the Gospel?  Answering all of these questions, they hope to inspire and encourage you to consider a similar approach to sharing the Gospel in public spaces.  Tags/Keywords: Contradict, Coexist, Campus Evangelism, Contradict Movement