September 2026 Newsletter
Quotes of the month
You are not called upon to believe more than what the Scriptures teach.
Martin Luther, 1530
(Editor’s note: I took a Moody Bible Institute course on Martin Luther and found it very interesting and educational. Here is just a quick overview of Luther’s thoughts)
Martin Luther’s View on Belief and Scripture
Martin Luther’s theology was grounded in the principle that the Bible is the sole authority for Christian belief and practice. He rejected the idea that human tradition, church authority, or philosophical reasoning could override Scripture. In his famous 1530 statement, he declared
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God” This meant that if Scripture and sound reason did not support a teaching, he would not accept it, regardless of the opinion of church leaders.
Luther argued that one should not believe more than what the Scriptures teach. He believed that even the Church’s authority could be wrong if it contradicted Scripture, and that Scripture itself was the ultimate judge of truth.
For Luther, “plain reason” was not a separate source of truth but a tool to interpret and apply Scripture correctly.
He warned against letting human authority—such as the papacy or councils—stand above the Word of God, especially when those authorities contradicted each other.
In his First Principles of the Reformation, Luther emphasized that faith is a living, experiential gift from God, not something to be deduced from human reasoning alone.
He taught that salvation comes by grace through faith, and that believers are both free and servant-like in their relationship to God, guided by Scripture’s teaching.
Quotes of the month (tin’d)
I’m glad we are saved by grace and not by good works. Because I don’t want to sit in heaven and listen to everybody brag for eternity on how they got there.
D.L. Moody
When I consider the cross of Christ, how can anything that I do be called sacrifice.
Amy Carmichael
Success isn’t measured by what you own. It’s measured by the lives you touch and the difference you make.
Father Cedric Pisegna
If you are a stranger to prayer, you are a stranger to the greatest source of power known to human beings.
Billy Sunday
If you don’t do your part, don’t blame God.
Billy Sunday
Who was Billy Sunday?
William Ashley Sunday, known as Billy Sunday, was an American evangelist and former professional baseball outfielder, who rose from a childhood of poverty and time in an orphanage to become a major league player in the 1880s.
After a celebrated but modest baseball career, he experienced a dramatic religious conversion in 1886 and left the sport to join the YMCA and later worked under evangelist
J. Wilbur Chapman.
Ordained in 1903, Sunday became the nation’s most famous revivalist in the early 20th century, noted for his athletic, slang-filled preaching style and fervent moral reform campaigns, especially for Prohibition.
His revivals drew millions, influencing social policy and later evangelists, including Billy Graham, who began preaching after Billy Sunday.
Billy Sunday preached with extraordinary energy: running across the stage, jumping onto chairs, pounding the pulpit, using baseball metaphors, employing vivid and sometimes humorous language. He frequently acted out Biblical scenes and spoke in the
language of ordinary Americans rather than using formal theological terminology.
New Morning Prayers
Good morning, Lord!
Father, in the name of Jesus, I stand in awe of your presence.
Thank you, Jesus, for this new day.
Lead my thoughts,
guide my words,
and direct my steps.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
- - - - -
Thank you, Lord, for this new day.
Fill my heart with your peace,
my mind with your wisdom,
and my steps with your guidance.
Amen.
Daily Bread of Life website
Questions about The Sermon on the Mount
by Frank Paul
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3
I have struggled with Jesus’ opening of the Beatitudes for quite some time. The very first statement Jesus makes is “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Really, Jesus? The poor in spirit? It sounds weak, not actually committed to Jesus, someone who can’t seem to get it together. Right? Well, apparently not.
After much research, I found that Emmet Fox explained it the best. “Here in the very beginning, we have to take into account a point of great practical importance in the study of the Bible, namely, that it is written in a peculiar idiom of its own, and that terms and expressions, and sometimes even actual words, are used in the Bible in a sense that is distinctly different from that of everyday usage.
That is quite apart from the fact, for which we have also to be on the lookout, that certain English words have changed in meaning since the Bible was translated.
“To be poor in spirit does not in the least mean the thing we call ‘poor spirited’ nowadays. To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the wholehearted search for God. It means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought, your present views and prejudices, your present way of life, if necessary; to jettison, in fact, anything and everything that can stand in the way of your finding God.
“The poor in spirit have got rid of the love of money and property, of fear of public opinion, and of the disapproval of relatives or friends. They are no longer over awed by human authority, however august. They are no longer cocksure in their own opinions. They have come to see that their most cherished beliefs may have been and probably were mistaken, and that all their ideas and views of life may be false and in need of recasting. They are ready to start again at the very beginning and learn life anew.”
We see here again that we can’t just look at the Scripture on the surface, we must dig deeper into it to understand its truest and deepest meaning. The frustrating part for a lot of readers is they see the words “poor in spirit, meek, turn the other cheek” and think of today’s meanings and just stop there.
Remember, the English versions of the Bibles we are reading today were translated from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin; there are going to be some linguistic and semantic differences. God’s Word is worth the effort to dig into, it truly is; and the deeper you dig, the richer His Word becomes.
Hope this helps understand part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount a little bit better.
Servants
by Frank Paul
The word servant can sometimes bring to mind a negative connotation. “Oh, he or she is just the servant here,” but truth be told, without servants, necessary functions behind the scenes do not get done.
Being a servant begins with an attitude of thinking about others first. It is similar to the attitude of gratitude: you wake up in the morning and thank the Lord for waking you up in the morning.
David Brainerd, 1718–1747, an American missionary, wrote: “We should always look upon ourselves as God’s servants, placed in God’s world, to do His work; and accordingly labour faithfully for Him: not with a desire to grow rich and great, but to glorify God, and do all the good we possibly can.”
If you think about it, if there’s someone to serve, it certainly would be God and Jesus.
Jesus gave the clearest example of this calling. In Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45 He said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
The apostles continued this instruction. In 1 Peter 2:16, we are told to live as people who are free, not using freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God.
Paul also introduces himself in Philippians as a servant of Christ.
The ultimate demonstration of servanthood, humility, and love was when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in John 13:1–7.
Servanthood becomes real when we look for practical ways to help. You can serve in nursing homes by wheeling people to in-house church services, or by helping at hospice centers, at your local city’s food bank, your local city’s mission.
Being a servant is not a lowly position in life. Helping others can take your mind off your own problems, quite frankly, while you care for someone else. It is a privilege and an honor to help others, not a chore.
A servant’s life begins with gratitude, grows through humility, and becomes visible through love in action.
I’m not saying help others to the exclusion of helping yourself or your family, that’s not the point. First, you take care of home base. Once home base is taken care of though, there’s things you can do. Help someone out without asking for or expecting anything in return.
Jesus served all the way up to the end for us, the ultimate sacrifice.
Helping others is not a demeaning thing to do, and it can be in so many different ways. Use your imagination. The message of servanthood needs to get out, and it can just be you helping others that sets an example for others to do the same thing.
You can sit on your couch all day long thinking about what you should be doing or ways to help, but you need to get off the couch and get into action.
It’s a privilege to help other people, not a burden. Don’t overthink it, just do something. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised about how good you feel once the work is done.
(see the video entitled “Servants” on our website under the video tab)
NEWS NOTES
Now that I’m mostly retired from my 48 yearlong profession, I am available for speaking engagements, sermons at your local church, or Bible study. These can be live or Zoom.
The topics of my speaking engagements can be your choice, or I have a plethora of materials on my end I can speak about.
Plus, I’m spending more time generating video content for the Sowing Seeds for Jesus YouTube channel, which I’m excited to report has grown to over 9800 viewers in the last couple months.
We are in the process of creating a link on our website to contact me, but in the meantime, feel free to email me at frankpaul@thesowerofseeds.com to discuss availability and rates.
And if you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, please do
so. The more subscribers, the more it hits the algorithm of the YouTube channel media group and they in turn help us spread the Word.
Thank you.
(Disclaimer: What you are reading is all me, with the exception of some articles I include by other Christian authors, but I always give them credit and their own byline.
I enjoy writing and creating. So I use no AI writing assist programs, nor will I ever going forward. Thank you.)
copyright@TheSeedSower2026
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