To the Christian Rich - Trade NOW for THEN

^{But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.} 

^{Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry.} 

^{Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.} 

^{Woe to you when all men speak well of you,} 

^{for their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way.}

^{Jesus the LORD, Luke 6:24-26}

Think About the Work of God

"Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In my vain life I have seen everything."

Ecclesiastes 7:13-15a

Saved THROUGH Faith, Not BY It

Perhaps one of the trickier matters of the Protestant Reformation, and our own day, was/is how to speak of the role of faith in salvation. During the Reformation this was highlighted due to the debate over the nature of justification. In simplest terms, the Reformers taught that a person is not justified because of his or her faith. In other words, God does not reward one's faith with then what is their due, namely justification, leading to a complete salvation. Instead, God gives faith to a person as the instrument through with he or she receives the gift of justification, leading to a full salvation. Faith adds nothing to God's saving work. It receives it. There is nothing in me, or about me, that commends me to God; not even my faith. It is my faith, in that it has been given to me to possess. Since it has been given to me, then of course it wasn't produced by me, or found in me, apart from being given to me.

On the last day I will not appear before God having anything natural to me in which I can boast. God saves a person without regard to his or her works, or worth. The gift is a true gift, meaning a free one. Their is no payment in it. There are no wages dispensed. There is no reward about it.

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

"Men's ordinances cannot be observed 

together with the Word of God, 

because the former bind consciences and the latter looses them. 

The two things are as much opposed to each other 

as fire and water."

Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, page 96 in the Revell Edition

The Offense Is In Us

"Doctrinal truth should be preached always, openly, 
without compromise, and never dissembled or concealed. 
There is no offense in it; it is the staff of uprightness."

Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, page 95 in the Revell Edition

God is Bothering Me

"If you're not wrestling with certain doctrines in Scripture; 

if you say, 'There's nothing that bothers me about God,'

are you really reading the Bible?"

From a recent White Horse Inn podcast

The Bondage of the Will

I was honored to write the forward for this special edition of one of the real classic Christian texts. Time is well spent learning church history in general, and the untamed Martin Luther in particular. Five hundred years later, this book still matters. It's for sale here