Contending for the Christian Worldview: 30 Days of Reflections on Faith, Culture and Apologetics

By Zak Schmoll

Take a 30 day journey through the Bible and reflect on what it means to be a Christian in modern society. This devotional will encourage you to consider the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zak Schmoll
• Release date: Jun 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310868788

Zak Schmoll

Zak Schmoll is the founder of Entering the Public Square, a blog founded on the sincere belief that every Christian should understand the importance of discussing Christianity in the marketplace of ideas. In a culture that is growing increasingly resistant to the truth of the Gospel, the need has never been greater.He completed his undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Statistics from the University of Vermont, graduating in 2013. While working full-time as a surplus lines underwriter, he decided to return to school and pursue a Master of Arts in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. He graduated in the spring of 2016.He will be enrolling in the PhD in Humanities program at Faulkner University in the fall of 2016.Schmoll spent many years as a journalist. While writing for Bleacher Report, his articles were read over one million times. He then decided to turn his attention to things of more eternal significance. Beginning in the summer of 2012, he began a journey through the Bible, one chapter at a time. Each day for approximately three years, he shared his journey through Scripture with anyone who would listen. In the fall of 2015, that journey came to an end, but all the posts are still available online at https://achapterperday.wordpress.com/.

Book preview

This devotional is based on works that I originally published on my personal blog entitled A Chapter Per Day (https://achapterperday.wordpress.com/). On July 23, 2012, I began taking one chapter of the Bible every day and writing a reflection about the people, places and events described until I finally came to the end of Revelation 22 on October 24, 2015.

Many of these posts have been revised before inclusion in this collection, and all verses are quoted from the English Standard Version in this book even though my blog originally used the King James Version.

An interesting thing happened as I was working through the Bible. I began to study apologetics largely because of a friend I met my senior year of college who began to ask difficult questions. Even though I had grown up in the church and understood the basics of what it meant to be a Christian, I had no idea how to begin explaining why it was to the reasonable to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

That led to some homework. I began to search for resources that I could use to answer these legitimately difficult questions. Naturally, the fruits of that research began to appear in my writing, and as I then began pursuing my Master of Arts in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University in 2014, apologetics became central to my work.

I encourage you to use this devotional in the way that I originally presented it on my blog. Read the entire chapter first to establish context. It is important to be in the Scripture first and foremost. My thoughts are only meant to help stimulate your mind and to cause you to think about important themes and issues. Do not use this devotional without a Bible.

I hope that this book provides you with encouragement and reminds you that we do not have to abandon our intellect in order to follow God. Rather, we are called to worship God with everything we have, and that includes our minds.

Zak Schmoll

Romans 12: A Full Commitment

Worldview is vital. I don’t really know how else to put it. In Romans 12, we find out a little bit of what it means to actually have a Christian worldview.

Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our minds are entirely renewed because we have become Christians. That implies a complete process. A Christian worldview does not only change our theology. It should change every area of our lives. It is not just another fact that we can throw into our minds like a piece of random trivia. Christianity is more than that. In fact, I would argue it is even more than a religion. It is a way of life, and as such it ought to infiltrate every area of our existence.

For example, consider going to work. It would be entirely inconsistent for me to profess to be a Christian on Sunday but then go to the office and act dishonestly. A consistent Christian worldview would not allow that type of behavior. Being a Christian ought to dictate how I operate in the workplace as well as at church.

Some people want to create a separation between the secular and the sacred. Certain things apply to our church lives, but they should not apply beyond those walls on days other than Sunday. That simply is not true for the Christian. Christianity is a bigger commitment than that. If we follow Christ, we cannot follow Him only on the days when