In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom,… (Ezra 1:1) In today’s ...

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,     and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  (Isaiah 11:1) The verse above is a promise of hope to a people in crisis. The prophet has spoken to God’s people who have been attacked by enemies and will lose ...

I will not execute my fierce anger;    I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal,    the Holy One in your midst,    and I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9) While God is complex and not easily reduced to flat, one dimensional images, there are ...

“When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” 1 Kings 18:39 Sometimes a group of people experience something together and the result is a deepened sense of faith that God is at work among them. These experiences create a ...

He (King Rehoboam) disregarded the advice that the older men had given him 1and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, ‘My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’  ...

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6) This simple verse is one that we want everyone to remember It should flow off the tip of our tongues like water down a hill. Inside this little verse is the hope and dream of the God ...

But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. ...

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) When we hear words like this, it is easy to think that the focus of the message is on what we are ...

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’  (Exodus 3:4) We Lutherans are part of what we call a “sacramental” tradition. That means we believe that God can and does participate in the ...

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. ...