“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4) Depending where you are in life, you may hear this and say, “You have to be kidding! Do you know what has happened to me in the last week? How can you tell me to rejoice always?” We tend ...

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13) In general, Lutherans have heard a phrase like “work out your own salvation…” as heretical. It is our ...

I thank my God every time I remember you… It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the ...

When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” Acts 17:32 We live in a world of increasingly diverse people, religions, and ideas. In fact, the city in which we live is one of the 30 most diverse ...

He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. (Acts 16:34) The people in many congregations are doing some amazing things. It is especially true here where we host and serve at Soup ...

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; (Acts 9:13) While many of us know a lot about Saul, who we more commonly refer to as Paul – few of us give Ananias a second ...

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” ...

It is an odd thing for April Fools Day and Easter to fall on the same day. It isn’t unheard of – it has happened before and it will happen again. Because Easter is based on the date of the first full moon after the spring equinox, the date for ...

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) Life is fragile. As this post is being written, as a pastor this week I have been ...

Jesus answered Pilate, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above;” (John 16:11a) We hear platitudes all the time. People say things like, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” When someone dies tragically we hear, “Don’t be sad. They are ...