Posts by Truth and Life

Martin Luther wrote the Smalcald Articles to summarize the doctrines of the Christian church.  In it he wrote the following. “We must consistently maintain this point:  God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and Sacraments.”  God summons us to gather around these words in worship…

In an article entitled “Never Lost Again” Francis Schaeffer says that once we have accepted Christ we can never again be lost because we have been sealed by the Spirit that now dwells within us. The Spirit plants a whole new divine life in us that is sealed for the day of redemption as Paul…

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.Psalm 56:3 So much is written on how to overcome fear and how to respond when visited by sudden panic attacks. I find it interesting when studying the commentaries on the above verse of David’s that he was the first to employ the words “I put…

Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2 The psalmist asks God to test and try him, knowing that it is possible that he might be deceiving himself. It is a prayer that God would help David become known to himself. By faith he is trusting in the loving kindness of…

Though we are born sinners we are being made saints who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jude 3 says, contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” based on the finished work of Christ. We are saved by grace, nothing added.  The apostle…

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.2 Timothy 4:3-4 The Apostle Paul wrote these words to young Timothy in 68AD, the year…

There is a saying that we are all human and we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves. The tragedy is that our sin is our problem and we fail to realize how pervasive it is. It has perverted our sense of reality to the extent that we think we can do something about it. Paul…

There has always been and will always be well-meaning church members that will balk at the idea of the free gift of salvation.  Such a gift requires something in return, does it not?   There was a group in the early Christian church called the “Judaizers,” who thought that way. “Judaizers” is a Greek word…

We are a people who have come to believe that we not only can gain access to anything, but we have a right to everything.  This has produced an anxious people, especially the young. Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation  describes the result—a people that believe they can be many places at once as…

I can actually remember reading by lamplight, doing my thing in an outdoor toilet; there were no telephones, experiences my greatgrandchildren can’t even imagine. The iPhone came in 2007. In all too many cases this is reality to them. I downloaded a recent interview with Dr.Groothuis regarding his book The Soul in Cyberspace, written back…