Joke of the Week: More Yogi Berra-isms
“90 percent of the game is half mental.”
“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I’m just ain’t hitting.”
“Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”
“We’re lost, but we’re making good time.”
“I usually take a two hour nap from 1 to 4.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
Time to get back in the Word.
Now that Labor Day is past and the fall equinox is just a week away, it’s time to get back into the Word. Saluda Press has three Bible study guides that will help you dig into the Bible. Are you looking for something that will help you in the many challenging situations you face? James: Practical Wisdom for Challenging Times will give you divine wisdom as you make your way through life. Do you struggle with questions of assurance? Study Paul’s
letter to the churches in Galatia
using Galatians: Freedom in Christ. Are you faced with troubles? Go through The Letters of Peter: Hope and Truth for Troubled Times.
Go to the page Buying My Books to purchase any of these study guides.
William Gurnall on the temptations we suffer from Satan
“Satan’s power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the saints. It is true, as it is said of the proud Assyrian, ‘he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so,’ Isa. 10:7; but it is in heart to destroy those he tempts. But no matter what he thinks, as Luther comforted himself, when told what had passed at the diet at Nuremberg against the Protestants, that ‘it was decreed one way there, but other wise in heaven;’ so for the saints’ comfort, the thoughts which God thinks to them are peace, while Satan’s are to ruin their graces, and destruction to their souls. And [God’s] counsel shall stand in spite of the devil….This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation.
Luther’s 95 Theses for 21st Century Christians
We continue with our study.
- Those who teach that contrition is not necessary on the part of those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges preach unchristian doctrine.
Luther observed that some indulgence sellers told their buyers that they didn’t need to repent or do acts of penance: they could release their own souls and those of their relatives and friends from purgatory with money alone. As far as I know, no one, Roman Catholic or Protestant, believes that today.
But the notion that repentance is not required is still alive and well in the 21st century, perhaps even more in the Protestant church than in Catholic churches. Some well-meaning but biblically ignorant people speak and act as though one can simply accept Jesus as Savior and Lord without any repentance. Consider our practice of evangelism. Campus Crusade (now Cru) produced a widely used evangelistic booklet, The Four Spiritual Laws. It contains no mention of repentance. Evangelism Explosion, another widely used program of personal evangelism, likewise does not mention repentance. Nor do our altar calls in church and evangelistic meetings. Many of us learned the need of repentance after we were saved, when God began to sanctify us.
Even worse, some large megachurches avoid mentioning sin entirely. They promote a gospel of self-affirmation and power for successful living. They entirely avoid mentioning our sin and the position of a sinner before God; and since there is no mention of sin, there certainly is no call to repentance. As Luther puts it, that is unchristian doctrine.