Here I Stand

I’ll list five Christian apps and five secular apps:

These days, for Christian content, I generally use YouTube and Audible mostly. And I might use Bible Gateway for looking up Bible passages unless I’m offline. And most of the stuff from the Christian apps would be available through Google Chrome too.

I hardly ever played games on my phone. I generally do that on my PC. I do remember playing Angry Birds, but that was on my iPod Touch back around 2009ish.

If I had to delete them all apart from one, I think I’d hold onto YouTube. Being and older person, I have a tendency to sneer at everything in the 21st Century 😀. But I’d hate to be without YouTube. I find it strange that I never yearned for something like YouTube before it arrived. And I wasn’t initially very excited. But maybe as time went on, the content grew. So now, I can find any song and all sorts of resources. It’s great 😀.

This week I’m listening to a free book on Audible on the life of Martin Luther – Here I Stand – A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton. I read it years ago, but it feels fresh and new. On Audible, with my subscription, I only need to pay every two months to get a new book. But I can listen to lots of books that are included free – sometimes on a temporary basis. And it has lots of Christian books.

Also, I looked up YouTube, and it has lots of stuff on Luther. Here are four examples:

Even in 1970s Ireland, I was quite scared of the teaching that few people went straight to heaven. Our Roman Catholic outlook at that time was that purgatory was like hell, but you eventually got out. And then, in history class, I heard that Martin Luther studied the New Testament and discovered that you are saved by grace through faith. Everyone who believes goes straight to heaven. God does want you to love God and others, but you don’t earn salvation. It’s a gift.

Romans 5:1
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 2:7.8
⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

Luther sparked many debates. I never met anyone who sees him as some kind of a guru. He had his eccentricities. At that time both Roman Catholics and Protestants, including Martin Luther would have persecuted me because I’m a Baptist. And if I were a witch, the Baptists might have persecuted me. But I’m not a witch 😀. I don’t even own a broomstick.

Nowadays, you’ll get Roman Catholics who emphasize salvation by grace through faith. And you’ll get Protestants, including evangelicals, who stress the importance of living a godly life – No Holiness No Heaven. We should aim to live godly lives, but we’ll always fall short. When we commit our lives to Christ, we commit ourselves to being His students – we are learners. But we’ll be in heaven not because of what we do – but because of what Jesus has done in dying on the cross for us. He paid it all. We shouldn’t think in terms of his death simply removing barriers and giving us a “running chance” of getting to heaven on our own merits. And we shouldn’t think of faith as some kind of a trick to get us into heaven. Real faith will result in fruit. But the amount of fruit will vary. But a great teacher is committed to all of their students, both the weak and the strong.

John 10:27-28
²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
²⁸ And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Here’s a famous hymn that Luther wrote, and I added a song that reminds us of what Luther discovered – Jesus paid it all!