About me

I was born and raised in Northern (Superior) Wisconsin about 80 miles from the Canadian border; and, yes it gets very cold there! At the young age of 32 I began to feel called into ministry. One night at a church dinner, my wife Judy and I sat at a table next to our district superintendent. In the course of our conversation, he said that he had a small church that needed someone to supply the pulpit until he could appoint a new pastor. My pastor suggested that maybe I could do that. I agreed, and two Sundays later, my wife and I drove to that small rural church. Little did we know that I would fill the pulpit in that church for thirteen years!

I have now been in the ministry for 35 years after also serving churches in Virginia and Maryland. I am currently retired...well, sort of. In my retirement, I am now serving as part-time Pastor of First Evangelical Covenant Church in Superior Wi. I began writing books about seven years ago, and still enjoy speaking and teaching when I can. My wife Judy passed away in 2021and I have since remarried to My wife Crystal.

I have a deep desire to help people grow in their faith and knowledge of God’s Word. My books are what I call a “Quest for Discipleship”. As I said, I am a published author and I have nineteen books which include my latest called "Tell Me, Show Me, Fill Me, Change Me"; "In It For Life"; “By His Hand”; “Show and Tell”; “The Promised Gift”; “Jars of Clay”; “The Kingdom of God”; “From the Pastor’s Desk”; “More From the Pastor’s Desk”; "T.E.A.M."; "Let Earth Receive Her King"; "Therefore" "Principles from Proverbs"; "God's Top ten"; "Prayer Changes Things", "5 R's of Revelation" and two "Renewed Faith" 90 day devotionals all by Life Ministries Publishing.

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

    Yesterday I listed the things that I said did not necessarily prove saving faith. Not that they can’t be a part of saving faith or the fruit of saving faith, but that they alone don’t prove anything. Today I will list the things that do show saving faith; things we can use to “test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.”

One, love for God.  Now you're talking about the heart because Romans 8:7 says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." The non-Christian resents God, rebels against God inside. But the regenerate mind is set to love the Lord with all heart, soul, mind and strength, his delight is in the excellencies of God; who is the first and highest affection of his renewed soul. God becomes his chief happiness. By the way, there's a great difference between such love for God and the selfish attitude that focuses only on my own happiness and sees God as a means to my end rather than as me to the end of glorifying Him. In fact, Jesus said, "If you love father, mother more than Me, you're not even My disciple." (Matthew 10:37) Do you love God, do you love His nature? Do you love His glory? Do you love His name? Do you love His kingdom? Do you love His holiness? Do you love His presence? Supreme love for God is decisive evidence of the true faith. Is your heart lifted when you sing His praises because you love Him?
Secondly, repentance from sin. The proper love for God must involve a hatred of sin. That's obvious. Who wouldn't understand that? If I loved somebody, you assume that my loving them means that I seek their well-being, right? If I said to you I love my wife but I could care less what happened to my wife, you'd question my love because true love seeks the highest good of its object. So if I say I love God then I will have to hate sin because sin offends God. Sin blasphemes God. Sin curses God. Sin seeks to destroy God and His work and His kingdom. Sin killed His Son. And if I say I love God but I tolerate sin, then you have every reason to question my love. I cannot love God without hating that which is set to destroy and disbelieve Him. Just read the Book of 1 John and you will understand the importance of this.
    So, true repentance involves confession, it involves turning from sin. Does sin appear to me as the evil and bitter thing it really is? Does conviction of sin in me increase as I walk with Christ? Do I hate it not merely because it ruins my own soul but because it is offensive to my God whom I love? Do I find myself grieved over my sin more than the sin of others? That's the mark of salvation, true saving faith...it loves God, it hates what God hates which is sin. Not people…Sin!
Thirdly, it manifests genuine humility. This obviously comes through in the Beatitudes, the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, those who in Matthew 18 are like a little child humble and dependent, those who are in self-denial, willing to take up their cross and follow Him. The Lord receives those who come with a broken and a contrite spirit. James says He gives grace to the humble. We must come as the prodigal son. You remember what He said in Luke 15, verse 21, He said, "Father, I am not worthy to be called Your Son." There's no pride, there's no ego about religious achievement, spiritual accomplishment but genuine humility.
Fourthly, there's a devotion to God's glory. True saving faith that manifests genuine salvation shows devotion to God's glory. Whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we are literally consumed with the glory of God. We do what we do because we want to glorify Him. Oh sure, we fail in all of these things but the direction of our life is in loving Him and knowing our unworthiness, and in all things giving to the glory to God.
Number five, continual prayer. Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon titled, "Hypocrites are deficient in the duty of prayer." It's true. Hypocrites may pray publicly because that's what hypocrites want to do is impress people, but they are deficient in the duty of personal prayer. A true believer with true saving faith has a personal prayer life which seeks communion with God.
Number six, another mark of saving faith is selfless love. John says if you don't love your neighbor, your brother or one in need, how are we to believe the love of God dwells in you? And also in 1 John 3 John says, "If you love God you'll love whom God loves." And we love Him and others because that's the response to Him loving us. John 13 says, "By this men know we're true disciples by our love for each other." Maybe we should  go back to 1st. Cor. 13 more often and review what love is…
Number seven, separation from the world. Paul told the Corinthians that we haven't received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God and John put it this way, "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." We cannot seek and desire the things the world desires and seek God at the same time. Jesus said, “you cannot serve two masters.”
    Again I say, we fail in all these areas but these are the direction of our lives. We aren't perfect. We haven't arrived. But we love God and want to love Him more. We hate sin and want to hate it more. We have a genuine humility and want more of it. We are devoted to God's glory. We have a prayer life that is private and personal. We have a love for others that comes from God and we find ourselves disassociated from the world as a general rule. We must live in the world and love the people of this world…the good the bad and the ugly…but we don’t think like the world, we don’t act like the world, and we certainly don’t believe anything of the world unless it comes from His Word!
    And then just two others, spiritual growth is another mark. If you're a true Christian you're going to be growing and that means you're going to spend time in God’s Word. You are going to desire to more and more about Him; whether through study times, books, tapes, or any other venue. Life produces itself. If you're alive you're going to grow, there's no other way. You'll improve, you'll increase, you'll grow because that’s what life does. The Spirit is going to move you from one level to the next. So when you look at your life, you see spiritual growth, you see the decreasing frequency of sin, the increasing pattern of righteousness and devotion to God.
    And then finally, obedient living. Every branch in me bears fruit...bears fruit, says John 15 and Ephesians 2:10 Paul says, "Look, you are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that you walk in them." That's obedience. We are saved unto the obedience of faith. Look at your life, do you see all those things, including selfless love, separation from the world, spiritual growth and obedience? If so, these are the evidence of a saving faith. These are the evidence of the Holy Spirit of God in your life! As for me I must look for fruit and nothing else! These things are the natural manifestation of saving faith.
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