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Listen to Warwick and Kurt share on national radio about their bestselling book to date, Jesus: The Centre of It All.

Jesus: The Centre of It All was released late last year, has sold thousands of copies in the months since, and was featured on national radio just this week.

In an hour-long interview with popular Vision Christian Radio host Neil Johnson, Warwick Marsh and Kurt Mahlburg shared their inspiration behind the book, told stories from their own walks with Jesus, and encouraged Australians to take a second look at the most influential man in history.

The episode of 20Twenty — which aired on Thursday morning nationwide and is now available as a 40-minute podcast episode on Apple and Spotify — also featured live talkback calls from listeners curious about the topic.

“There is no greater figure in the history of all humanity than Jesus of Nazareth,” Neil declared in the interview’s opening sequence.

“Neither is there any hope for us as individuals or as families or as nations than this same Jesus. He stands way above all others as the most influential person who ever lived.”

Warwick and Kurt Share Their Faith Stories

During the first segment of the show, Warwick and Kurt shared with Neil how they came to faith in Jesus.

Warwick’s testimony involved a Billy Graham crusade and a 180-degree turn from radical, Marxist-inspired political activism. Kurt recounted his journey to faith through childhood church attendance, a curiosity in apologetics, and a life-changing revelation on a Christian camp.

In describing Jesus: The Centre of It All to listeners, both Warwick and Kurt emphasised the book’s use of stories to present the person of Jesus.

“Kurt and I are pretty fanatical about telling stories because we believe that the greatest storyteller that ever lived was Jesus,” Warwick explained.

Warwick went on to summarise his favourite story in the book — that of Dmitri, who started a house church in Soviet Russia and ended up in prison for his faith in Christ.

Every morning in his cell, Dmitri stood to attention at his bed and sang to Jesus, enduring mockery and insults from his fellow inmates. One day, Dmitri so infuriated the prison guards with his Christian witness that they dragged him away to execute him. However, they were dramatically stopped when all 900 prisoners suddenly stood to attention at their beds and rang out in unison the same tune Dmitri had sung for years.

“Within a year, [Dmitri] was released,” Warwick noted.

“And that is just an amazing story of the power of ‘Christ in You’,” Warwick concluded — which, he added, is the title of the book chapter in which Dmitri’s story appears.

Jesus: The Revelation of God

In the latter half of the show, a listener called Owen, hailing from Sarina in Queensland, called in with a question about how giving our lives over to Jesus influences our individual identity and personality.

Some great conversations ensued, with Kurt wrapping up the discussion reflecting on how, far from turning us into clones or copies of each other when we become believers, Jesus makes us more fully ourselves.

“When we surrender our lives to Jesus, put our faith in him, repent of our sins, and give ourselves over to him,” Kurt explained, “he helps each of us as individuals, really, fully become ourselves, and become the personality that he has crafted us to be.”

Kurt also shared a revelation about Jesus that changed his life: namely, realising that God is not just an idea, but a person with a personality — and that Jesus is the one who revealed God’s personality to us.

That was true in the gospels, in Jesus’ encounters with his disciples and various sinners and misfits — and it remains true for us today, Kurt clarified.

Jesus’ Influence in Australia’s History

During the final segment of the interview, the discussion turned to a topic covered in one of the book’s concluding chapters: the profound influence Jesus has had on the world, and on Western Civilisation in particular.

The discussion began with an obvious example demonstrating this truth. On the calendar we all use, 2024 is not just an arbitrary number, but a record of how many years have passed since Jesus lived.

Also touched on in the conversation was the influence of Christ and the leading role of Christians in founding universal education and healthcare, human rights, democracy and the rule of law, all of which first arose in Christian Europe and have since gone global.

“I don’t think you can understand Western Civilisation without reference to Jesus,” Kurt summarised.

Warwick highlighted the book he and Kurt previously co-authored, Great Southland Revival, which documents the strong Christian influence that can be seen in Australia’s history from the First Fleet right through to today.

“Australian history is just full of Christ,” Warwick remarked.

As examples, he pointed to the four crosses seen on the Australian flag, along with the declaration found in the preamble of the Constitution that Australians are a people “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God”.

Neil Johnson’s interview with Warwick and Kurt about their new book was wide-ranging, thought-provoking, deeply personal, and definitely worth a listen.

To buy your copy of Jesus: The Centre of It All, visit the Canberra Declaration online bookstore.

Listen to the full radio interview with Warwick and Kurt on Apple or Spotify.

Watch the official book launch below.

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Image courtesy of Vision Christian Radio.