Tried With Fire

What everybody believes is not always what's actually true. Commonly held opinions are frequently just plain false. Often we are persuaded by authority and repetition rather than by evidence and reality. This tendency to accept what surrounds us makes it difficult to separate what we really know from what we just believe we know... How can people, for thousands of years, believe false assertions that are easily disproved? Answer: Individuals tend to accept ideas if people they know and respect state or believe those ideas. You need to be very clear about the foundations of your opinions. If you believe something only because another person - even a professor - told you it was so, then you should not view your understanding as rock solid... Search for evidence and don't be satisfied until you know the why. The authors of the above quote use Galileo as an example. For nearly 2000 years, everyone believed Aristotle's idea that objects fall at a rate proportional to their ...

This quote is from Spiritual Warfare: A Biblical and Balanced Perspective.  It certainly applies to the extremes that one finds in regard to that topic. But I think it can apply to more than just spiritual warfare. Living the Christian life is not merely about mastering one truth or even a set of principles. Rather, it is learning to think and act biblically. We must be reminded of certain truths frequently so that we don't become unbalanced or myopic in our view of the Christian life... Making a similar observation, Martin Luther once noted that Christians are often like a drunk trying to get on his horse. First, the drunk falls off one side, only to climb back up and fall off the other side. 1 For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and Newton's 3rd law doesn't just apply to physics. For every bad teaching, there is probably an opposite but equally bad teaching. If we're not careful, we'll be like Luther's drunk who never stays on th...

Martin Luther   by   Simonetta Carr, illustrations by Troy Howell, Reformation Heritage Books, 2016, 32 pages. For ages 7-12. I was wondering if Simonetta Carr would write a children's biography on Martin Luther, and she has! And it's just in time for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation next year. This book traces Luther's life from his student days to becoming a monk, his pivotal role in the Protestant Reformation, and the subsequent years until his death. The author demonstrates her skill, once again, in being able to take a well-known figure in church history and condense his story so that it is appealing and understandable to the target audience. Beautiful illustrations and photographs augment the text and add visual interest. The book also includes a "Did You Know?" section containing interesting facts, a timeline of Luther's life, and excerpts from his small catechism. I've reviewed some of the biographies in the  Christian Bi...

For your listening pleasure, this is 4th movement of Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 107, also known as the Reformation  Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn . The theme of this movement is taken from "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." This work was composed in 1830 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession .

It's my turn at Out of the Ordinary today in which I write about my favorite event of the Protestant Reformation,  Martin Luther's trial at the Diet of Worms, and a lesson from his example. Read the post  here . Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves - I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen. 

What does the phrase, "Here I stand", bring to mind? Martin Luther or a line from Frozen's hit song "Let It Go"? Well, how about both. Find out more here.

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?  Excerpt from a  letter  from Martin Luther to Philipp Melanchthon,  Letter no. 99, 1 August 152...

I've been considering my mortality. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I know of saints who are suffering from serious illness. But our lives are a vapor. However long God has given us is just an instant compared to eternity.  Here are some thoughts worth considering by John Flavel: 1. The believer's living time is his laboring time, but his dying time is his harvest time. 2. The believer's living time is his fighting time, but his dying time is his conquering and triumphing time. 3. The believer's living time is his tiresome and weary time, but his dying time is his resting and sleeping time. 4. The believer's living time is his waiting and longing time, but his dying time is his time of enjoying that for which he has wished and waited. Triumphing Over Sinful Fear by John Flavel, Reformation Heritage, pgs. 95-96. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still His kingdom is for...

We must make a great difference between God's word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound which flieth into the air, and soon vanisheth; but the word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, it is greater than death and hell, for it is the power of God, and remaineth everlastingly.  Therefore we ought diligently to learn God's word, and we must know certainly and believe that God Himself speaketh with us. Martin Luther, Words Old & New, Banner of Truth, page 70.