"Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me." Psalm 103

Either we believe in the redeeming grace of God or we do not.

We are all teachers, preachers and "gospelers" of the truth about Jesus!

Following Jesus means signing away the rights to your own life. You sign on the bottom line & let him fill in the details. It means Jesus first. No conditions. No delays. No buts. No excuses.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders & the sin that so easily entangles & let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.

This is a short excerpt from the first Reformation Day message I preached 35 years ago at Immanuel Lutheran, Belvidere, IL

Hard times are here & more hard times are coming & we’d better get ready. That brings me to Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:16, “I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves.”

The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Until our hearts are made willing, we can read the Bible in the morning & listen to it all afternoon & still be unchanged in the evening. If we would be better people, we need better hearts.

For the believer, the moment of death brings him into the personal presence of Christ. For the unbeliever, death begins an experience of unending conscious punishment.

To love God’s Word means to commit yourself to making it the foundation of your life. This sort of love cannot happen by accident. It is a combination of desire plus diligence.