He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed.  (Luke 1:63) Zechariah (and his wife Elizabeth) is one of the characters on our Jesse Tree, so you may encounter him a couple of times this Advent. They are the unlikely parents ...

[Cyrus of Persia said], “Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord…” Ezra 1:3 A basic tenet of the Lutheran understanding of Christianity as that God can use ...

Sunday is the second week of Advent as we anticipate and prepare for the coming of Jesus.  We also continue to hear words from the Old Testament prophets who bring a call to change and words of hope to God’s people who haven’t gotten things right, but who continue to ...

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21 Life is full of choices – some of them easy and of little consequence like, “What should ...

Then God said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5) There is some debate about how we encounter God and who it is that God comes to. Does God come to a few based on ...

Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:28 Have you ever had a friend or family member with whom you had a messy relationship? You know the kind. Things are going well ...

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” (Genesis 2:18) Ask most people what God did when God saw that Adam was alone and they will talk about Eve. But first God started with animals. God ...

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in ...

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is the most amazing thing. Believe it or not (pun intended), everyone has some kind of faith. We all believe in something. And what we believe impacts what we see and what ...

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10) Perhaps it seems odd to you to think about Jesus (referred to in the verse above as “the pioneer of ...

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son… (Hebrews 1:1-2) When I was in seminary, we would have worship each day. The flow of the week meant we celebrated communion each ...

This week we finish our four-week series in the book of Psalms. We have touched the surface of some of the diversity in the book with praising God as well as low points of the writers, just as we experience in our own lives. This week our Psalmist has experienced ...