Had the opportunity to take a couple of families from church turkey hunting a few weeks ago. These three young men are some of the neatest boys you will meet. All three scored their first birds and had a great time.

In 1517, a determined Bible professor named Martin Luther nailed a set of propositions upon a German church door for public debate. Little did he know that this list of concerns about the state of the church would not only set society on a course that would reshape the 16th century church, but also would change the course of Western civilization.

When the process of debating had run its course, five slogans emerged that summarized the basic theological beliefs of the Protestant church. These gems - The Five Solas - gave form to what it meant to be a believer in Jesus. They also helped churches stay on point in preaching why the Good News was good news. If you've never read the Five Solas, do yourself a favor and click here to read a short summary.

The fifth and final slogan of the Five Solas is Soli Deo Gloria: Glory to God alone! In trying to find some kind of theme for our family's blog, we thought this one was hard to beat. In an age where it's easy to put ourselves at the center of the universe, it's a great reminder that we were created by God, saved by God, we're sustained by God and one day our sinful and declining bodies will be glorified by God. If glory belongs to anyone, it's to Him, alone. Michael Horton said it best in his book, Putting Amazing Back into Grace:

The loss of God's centrality in the life of today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ, and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.

We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.

We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem, or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.

Soli Deo Gloria!