He was nine years old and we were sitting in McDonald’s in Jasper, Alabama. The kids were in the play place and I think I was reading the Bible, preparing for a lesson. Out of the blue, nine-year-old Caleb sauntered up to the table where I was sitting. Sweaty and red-faced from running and jumping, he asked this unforgettable question: “Mama, we have hundreds of books on our bookshelves at home. How do we really know this one is different? How do we know this one was written by God?”
It’s the question we had to go home and research. I’d accepted the evidence long ago, but now, I had to have Apologetics Press and others, to help me solidify, from internal and external evidences, the faith of the most important little boy in the world.
But it was also the question that Caleb Colley has spent the rest of his life, thus far, answering. As his wife, Rebekah, said yesterday “It’s what he lives and breathes.” Caleb loves God and he’s so matter-of-fact about the bedrock of His faith. Confidence in the Word and our God’s ability to preserve it for our understanding today is grounded in the abundant evidence around him and he is constantly examining that evidence.
His new book, Nail This Down, is the product of the original question and the years of study in knowing its answer. This is the book that, studied beside the Book of Books, can lead a skeptic from unbelief to faith in God, His Word, and His Son. It can show that the kingdom is identifiable in our world today and that anyone can be part of that church and headed to heaven with God. It’s challenging and assuring. I’m hoping to spend time in this book, in a way that I rarely can afford to do…because this book can give me needed assurance.
And so we are full circle. The little boy who asked me the question that day in McDonald’s, is answering some for me through this volume. He’s long since left our home (and I will add, seeing him in a McDonald’s today would be a rare event.) We met in Mississippi earlier this week and his own sweet eight-year-old said “Mammy, can you just come home with us?” And Ellis, who’s five, cried and cried when we parted ways. Parting ways is always the hardest part of any visit. But our God is coming full circle all the time, and I’m so thankful that He’s bringing us all home together, in a place where there will be no parting.
He nailed that down at Calvary. It’s a blessed assurance.
(The book is available here: www.thecolleyhouse.org
…and it will also be at both Polishing the Pulpit venues.)