Today on Kresta - March 31, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on March 31


4:00 – God Loves You and There's Nothing You Can Do about It
God's love comes to us through the Holy Spirit, but many people are confused about the role and work of this third person of the Trinity. David Mangan's experience of the sacrament of confirmation, when the Holy Spirit floods the soul, is typical: “I figured that God knew what He was doing, and the bishop knew what he was doing, but I wasn't sure that I knew what I was doing.” If you're wondering how to receive more of God's life and love through the action of the Holy Spirit, you want to hear this interview. The power Jesus promised his followers when he ascended to the Father is yours for the asking. Blending lively anecdotes, personal testimony and humor, the Dave shows us how to turn to God in expectant faith and open ourselves to the dynamite of the Holy Spirit.

5:00 – Sin: A History
What is sin? Is it simply wrongdoing? Why do its effects linger over time? In this sensitive, imaginative, and original work, Gary Anderson shows how changing conceptions of sin and forgiveness lay at the very heart of the biblical tradition. Spanning nearly two thousand years, he brilliantly demonstrates how sin, once conceived of as a physical burden, becomes, over time, eclipsed by economic metaphors. Transformed from a weight that an individual carried, sin becomes a debt that must be repaid in order to be redeemed in God’s eyes. We look at Sin: A History.

5:40 – A Case for the Divinity of Jesus: Examining the Earliest Evidence
Whether Jesus was really the Son of God or not is a central question for Christians--and one that has provoked heated debate since the time of Jesus' birth. Dean Overman examines the earliest Christian records to build a compelling case for the divinity of Jesus. Overman analyzes often-overlooked evidence from liturgies and letters written in the years immediately following Jesus' death--decades earlier than the Gnostic gospels or the New Testament gospels. Addressing questions raised by books such as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus and Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels, Overman presents powerful evidence from the earliest Christian communities that will be new for many modern Christians and builds a carefully reasoned case for Jesus truly being the Son of God.