Posts with the category “a-confessional-life-daily-formation-in-the-biblical-truths-of-the-reformation”

I am glad that you have been enjoying the new devotional, and I have truly enjoyed writing it. It was easy for me to do while I was recovering from my surgery, but now that I’m fully back to work, I am finding it more difficult. I typically write in the evenings, and when I do that, I am not engaging with Dori. While she is still present, I need to focus on her and spend my time with her, taking a...  Read More

Pastor JD and Dori are currently traveling. Due to their travels, and JD actively caring for Dori, he is taking a pause on the Daily Devotional. The devotions will restart when he gets back into town. Thank you for your understanding and support of them during this time!Thank you for reading each day! We're so glad you're here!...  Read More

Together, the confessions agree that assurance is not found by searching feelings but by returning again and again to what God has said. The Word spoken by God becomes the anchor when everything else is shifting.  Read More

The Reformed confessions agree that God comforts His people through His Word. Suffering does not cancel His promises. It sends you back to them.  Read More

The Reformed confessions place sanctification squarely under the rule of Scripture. God sets His people apart by truth, and that truth is His Word.  Read More

The Reformed tradition binds hearing to doing. To know God's Word is to be accountable to it. Where there is true faith, there will be willing obedience.  Read More

The Reformed confessions treat preaching as God’s appointed means for proclaiming His Word to His people, not as mere religious talk.  Read More

The Reformers believed God is jealous for His glory and protective of His people. He regulates worship because false worship harms the soul.  Read More

The Reformers believed the church's job is proclamation, not production. The church guards what has been delivered, and does not manufacture new truth.  Read More

The Reformers did not despise tradition. They simply refused to grant it the final say.  Read More

The Reformers believed God spoke to be understood. They insisted the Bible must be in the people’s language so the church can read it, hear it preached, and be shaped by it.  Read More

To the Reformers, the preservation of Scripture is the proof that God intended His Word to remain the living rule of the Church until the end of time.  Read More

The Reformers read the Bible as one story with one Author. They refused to split God in two, as if the Old Testament revealed a harsher deity and the New a kinder one.  Read More

The Reformers insisted that the canon is not a list of books the church chose, but a defined deposit from God that the church simply recognized and received.  Read More

The Reformers taught that while the Bible has its depths, the message of the Gospel is presented at a level where any hungry soul can reach it.  Read More

The Reformed confessions remind us that we do not need to supplement God’s voice with shifting human philosophies to find the way of life. When God spoke, He spoke completely.  Read More

The Reformed confessions teach that Scripture is trustworthy because God is trustworthy. God does not misspeak. What God says is true, is true.  Read More

The Reformed confessions teach that the Spirit brings understanding to Scripture, not by adding new words, but by opening hearts to receive God’s Word. Scripture is complete. The Spirit’s role is to convince, illuminate, and confirm, not to innovate.  Read More

The Reformers did not teach that the Bible becomes God’s Word when the church approves it. The church receives Scripture because God has already spoken.  Read More

The Reformers believed men may counsel, but they may not rule where God has not ruled. Scripture binds the conscience because God made the conscience, and God alone has the right to command it, not church, council, or tradition.  Read More

Taken together, the confessions teach that the Bible is not a collection of pious opinions about God. It is God’s own Word given through human writers by the Holy Spirit, and therefore to be received as divine.  Read More

The Reformed confessions insist that the Bible’s authority rests entirely on God, who speaks in Scripture, not on any church’s approval. Therefore councils and traditions must be tested by Scripture, and faithful preaching carries authority only as it truly delivers God’s written Word.  Read More

The Reformers insisted that nature can humble and convict, but only Scripture reveals God’s will for salvation and preserves the church in the truth.  Read More

The Reformers insisted that before we can rightly know God’s will, worship Him faithfully, or obey Him rightly, we must hear Him speak.  Read More

The Reformers were not fighting for lifeless worship, but for worship governed by God’s Word rather than human preference. This recovery does not choke joy. It protects joy by re-centering worship on God’s glory in Christ, so doctrine is meant to end in adoration.  Read More

The Reformed confessions do not treat providence as a cold, mechanical decree. Providence means the world is upheld and governed by a Father, not by chance, from the smallest details to the greatest events. Nothing escapes His fatherly care, even when what He ordains is hard.  Read More

These confessions want believers confident that salvation rests on God’s mercy, while also making clear that the God who elects also sanctifies. Grace is the root. Holiness is the fruit.  Read More

The Reformed confessions insist on the Spirit’s full deity because salvation is not only planned by the Father and purchased by the Son. It must be applied to you by God Himself, the Holy Spirit.  Read More

The Reformed confessions insist on the Son’s full deity because the gospel collapses without it. Only God can save. Therefore the Savior must be God.  Read More

The Reformers wanted Christians to know God as Father, not as an employer who tolerates them, but as the One who loves, sends, and adopts.  Read More

The Reformers did not treat the Trinity as advanced doctrine for specialists. They treated it as the name of the God who saves.  Read More

God’s power is never raw force detached from His character. The almighty God acts with perfect holiness and wisdom, accomplishing all His holy purposes.  Read More

The Reformers believed God is never contained, never absent, and never limited to buildings or moments. Wherever you are, you are before Him.  Read More

The Reformed churches therefore confess a God who knows all things exhaustively and eternally, including every motive, every secret sin, every unspoken fear, and every future moment.  Read More

The Reformers believed God never becomes a different God, so His promises remain as constant as His character.  Read More

The Reformers believed God’s eternity means He is without beginning or end, so His promises do not weaken with time and His rule is never limited by it.  Read More

Put simply, God’s truthfulness is not a mood and not a phase. His promises are as steady as His character, because it is impossible for Him to lie.  Read More

The confessions are training you to interpret life through God’s character, not to interpret God’s character through life.  Read More

The Reformers believed God never misreads a moment, never misjudges a heart, and never second-guesses His purposes. What He ordains, He orders wisely, even when His ways are beyond tracing to us.  Read More

The Reformers believed Scripture teaches God truly reigns over all things. Nothing is aimless. Your sin remains your responsibility. But Your salvation is secure because God’s saving purpose in Christ does not fail.  Read More