I cannot recommend highly enough Collin Hansen’s interview with historian and journalist Molly Worthen (watch or listen below). I listened to it this morning, and it is one of the most encouraging testimonies that I have ever heard. Worthen is a historian at the University of North Carolina and a journalist who has written extensively and sometimes critically of evangelicalism. In this interview, however, Worthen shares how she came to Christ last year after being a skeptic for virtually her whole life. It is really a remarkable story.
It is so easy to become cynical. Even for Christians, there is a powerful temptation to let the darkness of our time obscure the fact that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and that he is still doing it (1 Tim. 1:15). We let ourselves believe that some people are hard cases and that there is just no use trying. Guess what? The Lord specializes in hard cases. And truth be known, we are all hard cases.
This interview is a glorious reminder that the Lord’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1). The wind blows where it wishes. You can’t see where it comes from or where it is going, but you can see its effects. So it is with the Spirit (John 3:8). We can no more restrain the Spirit than we can grasp the wind with our hands. He will have his way. We can only marvel at the miracle of the new birth and pray that we might be a part of what God is doing in the world.
Praise the Lord for the labors of J.D. Greear, Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Richard Bauckham, and others. Praise the Lord for the relentless evangelistic spirit of the Summit Church. May their example light a fire in all our hearts to win the lost for Christ. May we be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).
Listen and share this one widely. You will be glad that you did.
And pray for our new sister in Christ.
