I was tired and sleepy as I was negotiating my exit on 465 in North Indianapolis... when I saw it. The car passed me and it grabbed me by the throat. I could see the car coming. It had a unique appearance. Almost every square inch of the car was covered with bumper stickers. It was a rolling billboard for ideas and causes that the driver wanted to market.

But one sticker caught my eye. I had never seen it before. "GOD IS PRETEND". Immediately I found my spirit on the defensive. How dare they insult that which is most dear to me? How can they say such a thing? Yet, their assertion was one with which they were comfortable. What evidence could I bring that the Unseen and Eternal God of the ages is at home in the universe and can be known? Oh sure, there is His unmistakable imprint in creation and I also have the speech of God and His magnificent and wonderful promises (2 Peter 1:4). But I was challenged to ask, "Am I following cleverly devised tales? Am I chasing a myth? Am I playing pretend?"

Then I experienced a wave of sadness for the world in which we live-a world that has by and large concluded there is no God and religious myths cause dissension and are void of any redeeming value for our society. I found the exit and went on to the day's meetings with Steve Saint.

Steve Saint is the son of missionary pilot Nate Saint who was murdered in a brutal attack with four other colleagues (including Jim Elliot) on the beaches of some remote place in Ecuador in the early 1950's. The story of their martyrdom and of the extraordinary resolve a few of these widows showed afterwards by going back into that very tribe and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ was recently retold in the movie "The End of the Spear" (http://www.endofthespear.com/). Steve went back and lived with the Waodani Tribe along the Ecuadorian Amazon. God moved and revealed Himself to these people and these folks formerly given to a culture of hostility, treachery, revenge and murder repented of their sin when they heard of Jesus Christ and came to place their faith in Him and were transformed. Many Waodani now follow God's carvings (marking along the jungle trail, i.e. The Word of God).

Steve rehearsed principles from God's Word about connecting with our world and laced his presentation that day with stories of God's incredible involvement in changing people's lives and the whole way of life of the Waodani people. By the first half hour in, I had forgotten about the bumper-sticker. I left with a full heart having spent the day with a man who has given his life to making Jesus Christ known in the world. All of us who give ourselves to the work have seen first hand the work of God in people's lives to bring transformation. Steve's stories encouraged my heart and gave me fresh resolve to go on. "God is pretend!"? Tell that to Steve Saint...and Eric Mounts...and a host of others who have found in Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. Our lives are marked by the change knowing Him has brought (2 Corinthians 5;17).

I believe it was E.J. Carnell who was lecturing on a campus in San Francisco. He was presenting them with the saving and transforming claims of Jesus Christ. He was interrupted by a heckler who was on the faculty of the institution and challenged him to a debate. The professor was dismissing the message and its value. Carnell accepted on condition. The heckling professor had to bring twenty people for whom atheism had radically transformed their lives and made them a better person and Carnell affirmed that he would bring twenty people who had come to know Jesus Christ as Savior (and been changed) to the debate as well. The debate never went down. Of course, Carnell's point was that the proof for the reality and existence of God is best shown in the power His saving message has over the lives of those who embrace Jesus Christ by faith.

Billy Graham answered his friend's query regarding the existence and proof of God with a simple mountain type quip, "Of course God exists. I just talked to Him this morning." There is a self authenticating assurance that comes with faith. We believe that we might understand. "Anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him." Hebrews 11:6. And oh how he cares and transforms those who savingly trust in Him. "Faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see." Hebrews 11:1

I drove back onto 465 and could not help thinking of the great contrast between the person driving that car with the bumper stickers and the day I had just experienced with Steve Saint. God shows Himself to those who yearn to see Him (John 14:21). I am choosing, and I invite you as well, to be numbered among those who believe in and experience God in the few days that we have to live on this earth. Jesus lives! He shows Himself to those who desire to know Him.

"The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." Psalm 14:1

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

"Let us then...rejoice that we see around us at every hand the decay of the institutions and instruments of power, see intimations of empires falling to pieces, money in total disarray, dictators and parliamentarians alike nonplussed by the confusion and conflicts which encompass them. For it is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been explored to no effect, when in the shivering cold the last faggot has been thrown on the fire and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out, it's then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure and firm. Then Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, then His light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness forever. So finding in everything only deception and nothingness, the soul is constrained to have recourse to God Himself and to rest content with Him." Malcolm Muggeridge