It is my third week of my first course as a doctoral student. Yay me! This week our discussion was on two chapters of a book titled, “Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective” by Robert Pazmino and four chapters of a book titled, “To Everyone An Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview” edited by Francis Beckwith, William Craig, and J.P. Moreland. The latter book is not specifically about education although you can apply it to that. This book is about apologetics. Apologetics is to defend one’s faith in order to bring people to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Out of the two books, I enjoyed reading this one. It flowed better and was easier to understand. This book happens to be a collection of essays in honor of Norman L. Geisler, an expert in Christian apologetics.

One of the most interesting sections focused on the relationship between Jesus and his family. During Jesus’ time, the society was patriarchal. Women did not take leadership roles and were not the center of the culture. Jesus changed all that when he spoke to women. Even some of his followers were women. Jesus also changed the definition of family when he said, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:48-50, NIV). Jesus was known to befriend known “sinners” and forgive their sins. He welcomed them as family. We must remember that even if we have a loving family, there are some in the world who do not. There are some who do leave their mother, father, sisters, and brothers for Christ. Our definition of family needs to be bigger than we suppose it to be, just as it was to Jesus. Blessings to you and yours.