Reliable Truth

Are moral choices just a matter of individual taste?  During the summer of 2008, the imminent Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith led a research team that conducted an in-depth interview with 230 young adults from across America. When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people couldn’t answer the question. Instead, they described problems that are not moral...

Why doesn’t God speak to us from Heaven in an audible voice? Why doesn’t He just speak and let His presence be known? I believe the primary reason is that if the infinite God of the universe regularly spoke to us from Heaven, we would be terrorized into loving and listening to Him. Such a direct and demonstrative communication would create a situation where God actually forced Himself on mankind....

Is there good reason to believe that the Bible is the Word of God? I am convinced that true faith has to have a foundation, and the stronger that foundation, the greater your faith will be. The Christian's faith is not blind faith. Blind faith is worthless, based only on certain conclusions but not on any evidence. Christianity is the only word religion where spiritual truth depends on the veracit...

Are science and religious beliefs at war with each other? There are three different ways that people see the relationship between science and God.  The first is the belief that science and faith are at war with each other. This is the approach that Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris take - that science has the edge in credibility because it’s about provable facts, and religion depends on faith. The se...

Is there credible evidence that shows that the Biblical story is in harmony with secular history? Unlike other religious literature, the Bible is not centered in a series of moral, spiritual, and liturgical teachings. The Bible centers around what God did in history and what He revealed in history. Peter Moore, the founder of Trinity Seminary said that Christianity is the only world religion to ma...

How do we know that the Bible is truly God’s written revelation? It’s a legitimate question. This question always seems to come up in our culture and in our world today, and it plagues the skeptical mind.  And how can such an ancient document have any relevance to modern life? As C.S. Lewis was on his search, he stated honestly, “ What I could not understand was how the life and death of someone e...

How well do we know ourselves? How well do we understand the deep longings of the heart? I believe that the better we know ourselves, the healthier we are and the better we can relate to others. Healthy people know themselves. Each one of us is searching for something, but sometimes we're just not sure what we're after. I contend that if we could peel back all the layers of our lives and get to th...

Where is God in the midst of our pain and our suffering? Is it possible that God has a much different view of pain than we do? In the book of I Corinthians, Paul tells us that the wisdom of God often appears to be foolishness to mankind.  I contend that often God’s greatest blessings are a result of the painful events of life. And the opposite of that is true as well - that often prosperity and co...

If there is a loving God, if He is kind and loving, why is there so much pain and evil and suffering in this life? Maybe this is not important to you. Maybe right now you’re at a point in your life where you’re kind of insulated from it, you haven’t had any big waves of difficulty come your way, but this question will be important to you one day, I predict. I had lunch Wednesday with a guy who, a...

In celebration of Father’s Day today, Richard‘s guest is Jeremiah Castille , University of Alabama football legend and All American, who went on to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos. Jeremiah has a heart for mentoring young people, and currently serves as the chaplain for the University of Alabama football team. Jeremiah gave this message to a large gathering of fathers and...

With Father's Day coming soon, I wanted to share this talk to fathers and daughters. I believe one of the most important responsibilities that we have as fathers is to teach our children to be wise - that when they leave our houses, they would possess great wisdom.  Proverbs 3 says, “Wisdom is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand and in...

The greater the power anything has for good, the greater the power it correspondingly has for evil. This is called the Principle of Double Effect . An example of this might be nuclear power. When you harness nuclear power, it can be used for such good in generating electricity for people's homes and for businesses. But when it's made into a bomb, it can be incredibly destructive.  Another applicat...

What does the farmer expect from the fruit trees he plants? To bear fruit, of course! Today I want to look at the parable of The Sower and the Seed, and it’s found in three of the Gospels. Today we'll study it from Matthew 13 .  The seed is God’s Word, and the soil is man’s heart. Who is the sower that sows the seed? It’s not God. It's you and me! We’re called and have been given the privilege to...

What is the role of truth in our lives?  I believe we must learn the importance of finding out what is true - because truth is paramount in the Christian faith. King David warns us in Psalm 15, of the importance of speaking the truth in our hearts. Healthy people are willing to confront the truth about themselves - and take appropriate action.  People who have the habit of not facing the truth, ha...

What has shaped your ideas about life and about God? Where did you get those ideas and beliefs? Where did you get the perspective that you bring into your life? If God came and spoke to us, I think He would tell us to listen to the words of Jesus. Listen to what He has to say to you, and about where you are in life. "But why should I listen to Him?" you might ask. What does He have to sa...

What is the object of life? And what are you hoping to achieve in this life? American Trappist monk, Thomas Merton said this, "If you really want to know a man - to know what's at the core of his being," he said, find out what he's living for now - in the present. Jesus gives us some good insight on this in one of my favorite parables, found in Luke 12. It's about a businessman who stores up treas...

How great is my desire to know God and to truly find Him as a living reality for my life? For many people, God is nothing more than a concept or a distant being that’s out there, but not One that's alive and that you can have a relationship with. Jeremiah 29:13-14 says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD..."  If this...

Today Richard joins Dr. Michael Easley of Michael Easley inContext to discuss Biblical Manhood in a Man-Hating World.  Dr. Easley’s experience in ministry spans four decades as a gifted Bible teacher and church leader. He was the 8th president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois  He shares a passion for ministry, heart for people, and love of God. Michael Easley inContext wants to help y...

HG Wells was one of the great historians to have ever lived. He was not a Christian nor a religious man, but in his book The Outline of History Wells concluded that Jesus was the most dominant figure in all of history.  How did Jesus do that? How did he become the most dominant figure in all of history? Not by power, prestige, influence nor outward appearance. He chose the path of humility. Watch...

Is the hope of Easter real?   11 Corinthians 4:16 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." The apostle Paul was saying that with the passage of time, if you don't have a strong, vibrant spiritual life, you cannot help but naturally lose hope. Most of us know that the body is dying. We also know that ev...

How can the events of Easter transform the heart? Let's consider the events that took place on that first Good Friday and that first Easter morning. If they actually happened as events of history, then they are the defining events In all of life; in all of history. As Blaise Pascal observed, apart from Jesus, His crucifixion, and His resurrection, we cannot know the meaning of life, of our dea...

When thinking about manhood or what really defines what a man is; what do you usually think of? Money? Success? Women? Today Richard joins Brett on The Brett Snodgrass Podcast to discuss what the true measure of a man really is! We talk about fear of failure and unnecessary shame that comes with being a man. We also discuss why fathers need to be teaching their sons about masculinity at a young ag...

I believe we have a tendency to live out the future in our imagination before it arrives. For many of us, our lives are truly out of sync with time because we’re always anticipating the future. We all are always trying to rearrange our lives around future expectations of happiness. Blaise Pascal says this : “ We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found...

You are what you remember. I believe that what we remember affects who we are and what we experience in this life. Many people are haunted or weighed down by baggage from the past. Others try to live in the future, thinking that when they get to a certain point later, then life will be full and complete. Either perspective makes their lives in the present miserable.  God designed us to live a full...

What is the value of living a humble life? Life for most of us is all about what we do and how successful we are. Yet in today’s culture and with the power of social media, we also want to be well-known and admired for it. This is called the “pride of life.” Humble people are grateful people. They recognize who deserves the credit for everything in their lives. In this message I dig into the issue...