Reliable Truth

Are you building a strong foundation for your life? It is important to know that everyone is building a house with their life. We are constructing a strategy that we believe will best prepare us for the future. Yet no one is exempt from hardship or pain. The good news is that we can be prepared when they do come. Philip Yancey says the best way to prepare for the storms of life is to work on a str...

We are re-airing this popular episode by Richard's guest, Jerry Leachman of Leachman Ministries Scripture tells us that God always saves for Himself a remnant. What about you? What about me? Are you part of the remnant?   Jerry's message is a call to prayer, commitment to Christ and to have a deep, fervent love for our fellow man. Like Ambrose's Band of Brothers , come together and spu...

Today Richard's guest is Norman Jetmundsen, retired attorney and active member of The Center's Bible Studies. The faith of C.S. Lewis can be summed up in his own words: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” ― C.S. Lewis Norman Jetmundsen is a retired attorney and graduate of the University o...

What is the source of love? And what is belovedness? Belovedness engenders love. If you are actively cherished altruistically by another, despite all of your own shortcomings and feelings of loss and history, that spontaneously and inevitably creates the fruit of love. 1 John 4:9-10 tells us,  "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so t...

Today Richard's guest is Russell Levenson, author and retired Episcopal minister. Russ shares: The longer I live, I've found I'm still kind of turning things over to the Lordship of Christ. And that is tough. And that requires humility. What am I doing with my time? How am I interacting with others? Does my relationship with others speak of one who walks in Christ? Prayer is the central avenue God...

In Parts 1 and 2, we've been studying verses in the Bible that begin with this phrase, "Do not be deceived..." Why would God give us this warning? I believe it is because there are certain areas in our lives as human beings where we can easily be deceived. Our lives can easily be corrupted by false ideas. Today we'll study the last of the fourth of these verses - Galatians 6:7, ...

In honor of Memorial Day, we are re-airing this popular episode. Richard's guest is WWII Marine survivor Edgar Harrell, who shared his heroic survival story at one of our Men's Breakfasts in 2019. At the time, Sergeant Ed Harrell was the last surviving Marine of the  ⁠USS Indianapolis⁠ . Two years after speaking at our event, Harrell  ⁠passed away⁠  at the age of 96.  July 30, 1945: After...

Who or what gets your time? Someone shared with me that they once asked Coach Bear Bryant, "Coach, with all these national championships, is there anything you would've done differently?" He said, "Yeah, I missed my family." My friend said, "You mean you were so busy, you kind of missed them while you were working?" Coach Bryant answered, "No, I missed it.&qu...

Are the ideas that we adhere to true or false? There are four verses in the Bible that begin with this phrase, "do not be deceived." Three of these come from Paul, and one comes from James. They all have to do with developing false ideas. They are saying to make sure you're not being deceived into believing ideas that that are contrary to the teachings of Christ. His teaching is base...

Are we aware of the ideas we have about life? Can ideas be dangerous? We live in a culture that gives little thought to our ideas. And whether we are aware of it or not, we all live with a certain set of ideas. Jesus spoke this in Luke 11:33-36, “No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the la...

What are the covenants that are found in the Bible? Today we're discussing the covenants of both the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, there was limited access to God. The priests acted as mediators between God and the people. Because human beings inevitably failed to keep the law perfectly, animal sacrifices were required to atone for sin. And these sacrifices had to be r...

What does it mean for Christ, who is a part of the triune life of God, to make Himself known and present within the history of Israel? To speak about Jesus in the Old Testament raises all kinds of questions about His pre-existence. That's really a driving concern. Today we will discuss the ways in which the Old Testament patterns and figures for us what God will ultimately do in time in Christ...

Are you troubled with guilt? Can doing good things cleanse our hearts and give us the freedom we are searching for? No, the only way we can be forgiven is through the shed blood of Jesus for our sins. Some people hate the idea of the necessity to shed Christ's blood. But if you take out the theology of the cross, then Good Friday and the Easter message is meaningless. Looking in the book of Ge...

Why is Good Friday good? In this year's special message that Richard gives each year on Good Friday, he discusses Jesus' conversation with the two criminals The 3 hours of darkness that fell over the land The moment that Jesus finally died From Luke 23:39-43, we read: "One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself a...

What are you storing up for the future? In Bruce Wilkerson's book A Life God Rewards - Why Everything You Do Today Matters Forever , he tells of a week-long seminary class he taught on rewards in heaven. Every afternoon after the class, a special group of scholars met and debated every point. One day, a church historian from Romania asked the group, "What do the greats of church history s...

How can we understand the motive of our hearts? What about the motives of others' hearts? The apostle Paul spoke this wisdom in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” >>Watch on YouTub...

How does God reveal Himself in the Old Testament to us? And where does His Son Jesus peer through? John 1:18 tells us, "No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known." So Jesus, who is the Word, makes visible that which is not visible. We cannot see God in His essence. We would be consumed by that. But what is the Son's unique role...

How is the best way to respond to the storms of life when they come my way? And how can my response be pleasing to God? When most of us experience painful circumstances our response is, "How can I get this out of my life?" And, if you have something in your life that's causing you pain and suffering and you can get rid of it, then you should. But we're talking about things that w...

What questions do you have about evil? And most importantly, how does God address the problem of suffering and evil? We all will experience some degree of suffering in this lifetime. Some of you have probably already experienced some real suffering, because we're not immune to it. Even as believers, we are not immune to it. But it's important to know that there are no easy pat answers to t...

What is the purpose for the season of Lent? Jesus taught that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man, as a gift for us. The Sabbath creates rhythms that allow us to break away from the normal routines of life and work so that we can enter into worship and enter into praise. This rest is a kindness of God to humanity. It's not meant to be a burden. The practice of ob...

Do you look to God for guidance? Do you give much thought to His will for your life? If we don't seek God's will and guidance, why not? God invites us to ask for His guidance. However, to really grasp this, I must first ask this question - how does God really regard my life? What role does He desire to play in my life? Acts 17:24-26 tells us,  " The God who made the world and everythi...

How is the will of God working in our lives, even in the midst of deep suffering and pain? In our last episode we talked about living in God's moral will, which has to do with His design for our lives. Today we are discussing God's sovereign will. But if God is in control of everything, do humans really have free will? It's a good question. We're going to cover that in this episode...

What is the will of God for our lives and how do we find it? As you think back over your life, how many times do you remember saying the Lord's Prayer? Remember this part - "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done..." I often wonder, even in my own personal life, when we say The Lord's Prayer, are we just repeating it, or do we real...

How do we understand Jesus Christ in relationship to the Old Testament? Two points to remember about Jesus: We properly understand Jesus of Nazareth as the author of the Old Testament. He is the primary agent of writing and giving the scriptures of Israel. John 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jesus is the author. Not only is...

How important is truth in our society today? I've been reading  Truth Triumphs  by Bible teacher John McArthur, and have really gained some new insights into this, which kind of helped open the door to this study. MacArthur believes that all of life is about the truth. In fact, he believes it's the most important reality in the universe. Think about how the issue of truth is so important i...