Lighthouse Faith

For former cold-case murder detective J. Warner Wallace, the horrific New Year's Day terror attack in New Orleans followed an age-old pattern of why people kill. He says of all the homicides he's worked, there are only three reasons why people commit crimes: sex, money, power. There's no fourth reason. And those three reasons fall into the larger bucket of Pride. Authorities say the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din-Jabbar, had been radicalized into a distorted view of Islam, and was inspired by the terror group Isis, a power obsessed group. But Wallace, a former atheist who used his forensic skills to try to debunk Christianity and came away a believer in Jesus, has a much more nuanced view on the nature of religion. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Wallace talks about his book, "The Truth In True Crime: What Investigating Death Teaches Us About The Meaning Of Life." Wallace says most religions, except for Christianity, are performance based; perform these rituals and services and God -or the world- will bless you. Even an atheistic worldview does this. However, that form of religion or belief falls prey to the greatest of deadly sins, pride. The only antidote to pride is humility, and humility is nothing anyone can achieve by works. And studies show, says Wallace, that humility leads not to the taking of life, but to human flourishing and the giving of life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Chosen is the widely popular television drama about the beginnings of Christianity. It is now in its fourth season, and no one is as surprised at its success than Amanda and Dallas Jenkins, the show's creators. They were skeptical of Angel Studio's crowd-funding business plan and thought they could raise at best $800; They ended up raising $10 million. But the career success has been accompanied by personal sadness with a chronically ill child. However, Amanda says, this has kept life and all its ups and downs in perspective- and that's God's plan. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Amanda Jenkins talks about her book, "God's Goodness For The Chosen", and explains how they learned that God allows success in our lives but that He allows struggles also to help us stay close to Him. For her, the bottom line is that "God is doing a new thing." That He is "drawing people around the world back to Himself." And that The Chosen is all part and parcel of that grand plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More than two thousand years ago God broke through the barrier separating sinful humanity from a Holy God and took on human flesh in the form of a tiny baby. Christianity says all of human history had been building to that monumental event that separated time. Why did God, the creator of the universe, decide to enter our world, not as an avenging angel, but as a vulnerable and innocent baby? It's because of love. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Pastor Max Lucado, best-selling author and preacher, talks about the true meaning of Christmas. That Christmas set into motion the life-altering cosmos calamity that closed the chasm between God and sinful man."Christmas", says Lucado, "begins what Easter celebrates." The two highest holy days of the Christain calendar are eternally linked. While Christmas has become much more commercialized with shopping and Santa taking center stage, it hasn't changed the reality that the peace and joy we talk about on Christmas cards and ad slogans, flows only from this one event, the birth of Jesus: "For God so loved the world!" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While religions of the world have some similarities, like the importance of family or mercy, Christianity makes a claim no other religion makes; that the founder of the faith is God in human form, Jesus. Every other religion tells followers, "this is the way to God." But Jesus says, "I am the way." Christianity says God has come to us. That means Christmas is all about the doctrine of the Incarnation, God taking on human flesh, born of a woman, entering into our world and the conditions under which we live, in order to save us from ourselves. The secular culture is very eager to have Christians pay more attention to superfluous trappings of the season, the glitz and glamour, rather than the real meaning of Christmas. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, explores what the Incarnation should mean to us, and why the Virgin Mary should be understood in the fullness of the gift she gave the world in saying "Yes" to God's invitation to be the mother of the Savior. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices