Posts from 2023 (Page 4)

The Creed – Summer School

The weather is getting hotter and graduation parties are showing up. It’s time for summer school where we take a quick look at the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism. This upcoming Sunday we will do something we do only once a year: Confess the Athanasian Creed in worship. The Athanasian one is the…

10 Commandments – Summer School

Graduations parties are being held and kids are getting out of school. It’s a great time for us to do some review as a congregation. For the next few weeks, we will be going over the six chief parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism in this “Summer School” newsletter series. The 10 Commandments are the…

No Other Plan

There’s a story that is told about Jesus on Ascension Day when Jesus arrived in heaven to the wild cheers and celebrations of all of heaven. As the party started to die down, the angels started to ask Jesus some questions. Gabriel stepped forward first and said, “Jesus, now that you have done all that…

Lime Jello and A Sink Full of Dishes

There is a story of two young children who decided that they were going to do something nice for their mom for Mothers’ Day. They thought and thought, and finally arrived on the perfect idea. They really appreciated how their mother kept them fed with delicious food, and so they decided they were going to…

God’s Economy

Dennis Maliq Barnes is a 16 year old high school student in New Orleans, LA. And he may be a world record holder. Even if he isn’t, Dennis certainly seems to be blessed. Dennis has a total of 9 million dollars offered to him in college scholarship money. The 16 year old has a 4.98…

I don’t like going to the doctor

I don’t really like going to the doctor. My doctor is a very nice person. Most of the time I don’t leave the doctor bruised or injured in any way. Most of what I don’t like about the doctor can be boiled down to one specific task of the doctor: diagnosis. Diagnosis is the process…

A deeper conversion

I heard someone use a term today that made me stop and think. Someone that I was talking to spoke of a time when the profoundness of their Christian faith reached a new level. They called this moment their “deeper conversion”. When I think about that as a category, I think about some times when…

Losing Our Wallets

I remember a song from the 1990’s that had the refrain, “Hope I never lose my wallet…” The song went through a list of the things that you could lose in this life: obviously your wallet, your hair, your direction, your mind, your sense, your youth, etc. The thing that the song doesn’t talk about…

Maundy

Not Monday. Not Mandy. Maundy. Taken from the Latin, “mandatum” = “to command.” The command? “Love one another as I have loved you.” The “I”? Jesus. Let that sink in. Love one another as Jesus has loved you. As Jesus has.  Stooping at the feet of His disciples and washing their feet. Praying for them…

Cutting off the ends of the roast

A young woman was hosting a dinner party for her friends with a pot roast being the centerpiece of the menu that evening. One of her friends enjoyed it so much that she asked for the recipe, and the young woman wrote it down for her. Upon looking over the recipe, her friend inquired, “Why…