Evidence That Demands a Verdict

When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who saw something in me that I didn't see in myself ... she saw a young gal who needed a challenge to engage her active mind; she saw a potential writer in the thoughts that swirled in the chaos of my thoughts; she saw a productive future in the girl who spent as much time at the principal's office as she did at her desk. And more than seeing those things in me, she did something about it ... she took me under her wing and she encouraged me to read, to study, to write, to dream. I told someone just last week that if it hadn't been for that teacher, my life could have followed a much different path than it did, and I'm beyond grateful that she took the time to care about me and was willing to put forth the effort to reach me.

My teacher did many things to keep me focused, and one of those things was to make me write ... and write ... and write some more. She insisted that I write poetry and short stories and song lyrics and essays and research papers. While I don't remember the content of most of those writing assignments, I do remember one research paper quite well ... and part of the reason I remember it so clearly is because I adamantly protested the subject matter my teacher asked me to report on. She assigned me the task of arguing the validity of the claims made by Josh McDowell in his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict ... a book that addressed the historical proof for the trustworthiness of the Bible and offered historical evidence and supporting attestations concerning Jesus' claim to be God. At the time, I thought it was a ridiculous assignment, but my teacher wouldn't budge ... write a 30-page, double-spaced, footnoted paper about the truth of the Bible and Jesus. In a high school English class ... obviously, that was a lot of years ago and things have certainly changed in the education realm.

I can't recall the details of my paper, but I remember my conclusion quite well. Not only was the Bible true and accurate and supported by the events of history, Jesus was most definitely Who He said He was ... the one and only Son of God ... the healer of the sick ... the raiser of the dead ... the forgiver of sins. And ... and ... and ... not only was Jesus who He said He was ... He did what He said He would do ... He went to the cross for me, and He conquered death and the grave and rose on the third day. I remember my teacher asking me to present my findings before the class, and I remember begging her not to make me speak to the class. Just like with the writing of the paper, I got nowhere with her and ended up standing before my classmates talking about the Bible, Jesus and the resurrection. Maybe that was God's own foreshadowing of what He had planned for me, to call me to speak to countless groups about His Word and His Son.

One thing I distinctly recall from my class presentation is that I ended it by stating that every single person has to make a choice ... to come up with their own verdict ... concerning the validity of the Bible and the truth of Jesus Christ. Every person who has ever drawn a breath has had to determine what he or she would do with Jesus. I've been thinking today about evidence and courts and juries and that sort of thing, and I thought about a question I'm sure that many of you have read or heard before. If I was on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me? And the more I thought about that question, I couldn't help but think about how often we humans level verdicts against one another ... we declare guilt or innocence based on our interpretation of what we perceive as evidence that proves or disproves our often unwarranted judgments of our fellowman. And the more I thought about that premise, the more I came back to the question of there being enough evidence to convict me of being a devoted follower of my Lord.

It's so easy, Father, to become discouraged when others judge me based on how I look or how I feel or how I speak. Help me to focus on the only evidence and the only verdict that matters, God ... the evidence of You living in me, and my innocence declared by the blood of Your Son.