Reliable Truth

Where do you find community? Do you feel isolated from others? Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist who taught at Stanford, and by the way was a Christian, says this: "There's nothing more detrimental to a person's life than isolation. There's no more destructive influence on physical and mental health than the isolation of you from me and us from them." Zimbardo believed a primary strategy of the evil...

Why is instruction important? The purpose of instruction is to help us understand the basis and foundation of our faith. Deuteronomy 5:32-33 gives us this wise instruction: "So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your...

As we start this new year, what kind of plans, thoughts and ideas have you been having? Have you made any resolutions. Two days ago I went to the gym early in the morning - usually only a few people there, but this day the parking lot was jam packed!​ ​Of course by mid-February things will probably be back to normal. My question to each of us today is, "Do​ we need to make any sort of resolutions...

Both CS Lewis and RC Sproul asked, "If you could boil down take Christian theology and boil it into one word, what would it be?" Love? Faith? They answered that the one word would be Grace . Grace is like a huge bank account and faith is the account number to get access to it. God provides the grace, and we respond to it with faith. Another way to look at it is to contrast 3 words and what they me...

What does God promise to those who hope in Him? Last week was an overview of chapters 1-39 of the book of Isaiah . Something occurs between chapter 39 and chapter 40 that is kind of seismic. It's like the car of the prophet Isaiah just shifted into a different gear. Chapter 40 describes where God is moving from judgement to redemption, pronouncing comfort and peace to His people: "Do you not know?...

How does Isaiah present the gospel? Early church fathers, interestingly enough, would refer to Isaiah as the fifth Gospel. I love that term. It would be Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Isaiah, right? Because Isaiah is a prophet, he prepares us for the gospel in ways that are pretty unique in the Bible. Isaiah points us to Christ. Then we can see our need for Christ - our need for the new coven...

Where do you look when you need help? Jesus boldly claims who He is in John chapter 10: "Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the Gate for the sheep. All who have come before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the Gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal an...

What Child is this? We sing the familiar song at Christmas, but who are we singing about? John 1:14 explains who this Child is to us. This is the scripture that I think so much of our Christian faith hangs on: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." - John 1:14 Jesus. The Word, who is the very being of God Himself, at one with the Father, the Instrument of creation, the beginning One, has take...

What kind of man or woman are you? Just after the 911 attack, I was in New York City. I've seen some real heroes to me from the New York City Fire Department. I remember their courage and selfless service to save lives - to give up their lives. I want you to open your hearts and really examine yourself. What kind of man or woman are you? Each one of us is called to lead in some fashion. Ask yourse...

What are two words that represent some of the most important issues in life? The two words are  light  and  truth.  Interestingly, in the Bible, Jesus Himself boldly claimed, "I am the Light" and "I am the Truth." In John 3:19-21, Jesus tells us,  "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil ha...

What are the two paths of life? A path of obedience to God and its blessings, and A path of disobedience to God which brings curses. The path of obedience to God is marked by the fear of the Lord. Well what is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is that all-encompassing idea that the Bible brings together this sense of awe and reverence and worship and fear, so that every facet of your life...

Is there anything out there that you would sell your house, your cars, your possessions - all that you had in order to get it? Today we discuss the second of two of Jesus' parables on the kingdom of heaven. In Paul David Tripp's book Redeeming Money , Tripp says that "the central message of these two parables is the incalculable value of the kingdom of God." So, what is the kingdom of God and how...

What do you treasure most in your life? When Jesus speaks in the Bible, there are a number of times He will say, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like..." and then He usually follows it with a parable. For the next two weeks we're discussing two of my favorite parables - "The Parable of Hidden Treasure" and The Pearl of Great Value." In Paul David Tripp's book Redeeming Money , Tripp says that "the centr...

Who is caring for the caregivers? Richard's guest is Phil Reddick leading our 3rd annual Caregiving Seminar, hosted by The Center's ministry  FinishWell , along with co-hosts  YBL  and  WBL Hear 3 perspectives on caregiving, coping with health issues, dementia, grieving, and how to prepare for your loved ones during this critical time. FinishWell is a ministry of The Center, and is led by Phil Red...

What is God's message to us in these days? Our guest Dr. Mark Gignilliat continues teaching in our study of Deuteronomy. God's call to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:1-5 still applies to us: "These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after the...

Do you remember what happened on November 22nd 1963? John F. Kennedy was assassinated on that day. C.S. Lewis also died on that day. For the last two years of his life, C.S. Lewis suffered from very poor health. He knew that death was at hand, and yet anticipated it with cheerfulness and peace. At one point he said, “If we really believe what we say we believe—if we really think that home is elsew...

How do we know that heaven is real? I think some of you know that my brother passed away back in May. He had been sick a long time. Then I turned 70 back in December, so I'm getting on in years. Now I'm reading Randy Alcorn's book Heaven . So this is a topic that I think is important and as we get into today's study I think you'll see why. Be encouraged by what the book of Hebrews tells us: "So wh...

Are you praying for God's protection over your life and for your loved ones? This is the last message in our 9-part series. I think it’s crucial that you ask God to protect your family, and for those of you who are married, to pray for your wife and your marriage. Marriage and family are truly under great attack. I really do think that one of the greatest ways that the Enemy can undermine the chur...

Are you anxious about the future? David Wells, who is quite the scholar, wrote a book about 15 years ago, called  Losing Our Virtue . And listen to what he says about this as we think about the future and the present. Wells says: “ The world today intrudes upon us as it never has before, and one of the surest indications of this is that the levels of anxiety have never been higher in peoples lives...

When a storm enters your life, what do you do? You know what I mean by storm, right? Something very difficult comes into your life. A hard circumstance. Adversity. How do I get it out of my life? Is there something I can do to deal with the storm? Sometimes to get out of trouble, people do things they shouldn’t do. But let’s look at the storms of life that are out of your control. A storm that cre...

What is our tendency when we become really satisfied? Often times we become complacent. We think we've got life figured out. We take it for granted. When we get to a point where we think we have everything we need, instead of being thankful to God, we start becoming arrogant. Once that arrogance starts creeping in, you are well on a path to forgetting Him. In Proverbs 30, Solomon asks God to keep...

Who is the greatest Christian in the world? 18th century theologian William Law beautifully answers this question, which is the theme of this episode: “Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?...” (And whenever we use the word saint, that means Christian.) “...It’s not who prays the most, or fasts the most. It’s not he who gives most alms, or who is most imminent for temperance, chas...

What does sacrifice mean? Is it a bad thing? To sacrifice is to forfeit something of great value to you, but you do it for something of even greater value. When you understand the worth of sacrifice, it changes everything. In the Christian life, to come to Christ, you’re forfeiting your life and your will for something of much greater value - and that is God’s will - His plan for your life. But mo...

What does total commitment mean to you? Whenever you truly commit to something or someone, you have to give up something in the process. In one sense you can see it as a sacrifice. This is where you forfeit something of great value for the sake of something of greater value. In our culture, the commitment we are most aware of is marriage. When a man proposes to a woman, he does so knowing he’s giv...

Does how we pray matter to God? In Part 1 we discussed these 2 principles: the importance of approaching God with humility, and praying with the right motive. Today we discuss the value of persistence in our prayer life. In Luke 18:1, it says we should not lose heart and give up. Though Jesus gives us no real explanation, it does appear that persistence is important for several reasons, one being...