Kiley has served on staff with Youth For Christ, Memphis Leadership Foundation, Urban Youth Initiative, been a rural and inner city youth pastor and now works with AreaOne Ministries and TechLifeLine Productions as its President. He played in several Christian rock bands and with Todd Agnew. Kiley graduated from Crichton College with a B.S. in Biblical Studies. He has spoken at churches, camps, graduations, conferences and many other events. He lives in Lakeland, TN with Rachel, his wife of fifteen years.
Books I'm Into
More Than A Carpenter - Josh McDowell This book changed my life. I have a stash and continue to give these out to many students seeking the facts on who Jesus is. A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken Rachel and I love this nonfiction story of a couple who love each other very deeply deeply. Their faith and love get them through world war two and tragedy.
Shadow of the Almighty - Jim Elliot This story never ceases to inspire me to live out my faith, regardless of what I am up against.
Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolken If you are a fan of fantasy like me, you probably also have this series on the top of your list.
Chronicles of Narnia/Space Trilogy - C.S. Lewis Lewis has written many books that have greatly affected my life. Some of my favorites include the fantasy series Chronicles of Narnia who many consider to be a rough analogy of the Christian faith. His Space Trilogy also ranks high as I love good science fiction.
Jesus Among Other Gods - Ravi Zacharias Ravi is one of my heroes. This is a great place to start if you are looking for a thorough overview of world religions and how they contrast with Christianity.
What Is A Christian?
There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.