Salvation
Make the Bible Your Final Authority
I grew up in a church where the Bible wasn’t central. Both at home and in the pews, God’s Word wasn’t our primary source of truth.
After graduating from high school, I attended a “Christian” university in a nearby city. In one of my first classes called “Judeo-Christian Life and Thought,” the professor quietly but confidently proclaimed that “God was dead” and “the Bible was filled with many errors and historical myths.”
I ditched that college after a year and traveled to New Zealand where godly people taught me about the primacy of God’s Book–the Bible. Under their wise discipleship, I made it my “Book of books.”
Fifty-years later, God’s written Word is still my truth-seeking GPS in all things.
Make the Bible your final authority.
What I Learned from Martin Luther (Again)
I was born and raised a Lutheran. During confirmation classes, I laughed wildly at Martin Luther being tried by a “Diet of Worms.” (“Diet” meant “Council” and “Worms” was the city where the gathering took place.)
You get the drift of my teenage stupidity.
Five years hence, I learned two invaluable things from the German Reformer that I missed in confirmation class. Now fifty years later, I’m rediscovering the same two pillars of truth.
Here’s what I learned from Martin Luther (Again).
The Baptism Revival
In the closing chapter of my autobiography, One Small Life, I analyze the messages of Israel’s greatest prophets–Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Jeremiah prophesied during a time of terminal judgment. He focused on the negative–the sins of a “falling nation.” Isaiah preached repentance also, but in the the second half of his book he gloried in the positive–God’s revival power and Eternal Kingdom.
Both prophets remind me of the parable of the wheat and the weeds (tares). Jesus said both evil and revival would grow simultaneously during the last days. I write often about growing evil to incite us to prayer and action. But let’s focus today on the positive (wheat).
The Baptism Revival.