I love the changing of the seasons of nature, and I love living in a part of the country where all four seasons are fully manifested. In other words, our Fall is very Fall-ish, our Winter is very Winter-ish, our Spring is very Spring-ish, and our Summer is very Summer-ish. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Lutheran Church | Tagged 1 Peter 1, Alleluia, Atonement, Autumn, Christ, Christ is risen, cross of Christ, crucifixion, Empty Tomb, Everlasting Life, Faith, Fall, Fiddler On The Roof, First Peter, Forgiveness of Sins, Four Seasons, Grace and Truth, Grace of God, Hallelujah, Happiness and Tears, Jesus, Joy, Life and Death, Life of Christ, Light of Christ, Living Hope, Lord and Savior, Love of God, Messiah, Peace, Redeemer, Redemption, Resurrection, Risen Lord, Seasons of Life, Seasons of Nature, Shalom, Son of God, Son-rise, Son-set, Spring, Summer, Summertime, Sunrise, Sunset, Times and Seasons, Winter, Wintertime, Yeshua |
As we approach the holiest time of year for Christianity, I am thinking more about the absolute necessity of prayer for our Christian life. Basically, Christians believe that the human soul is literally made by God for connection and relationship with God. In addition, because so much of this world is set against the grace, truth and purposes of God, prayer is even more essential to strengthen and keep us in the faith, hope and love of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. So to that end, we hear the Apostle Paul sharing God’s Word about prayer in the biblical Letter to the Ephesians, writing as follows: Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Lutheran Church, Public Sphere | Tagged 1 Peter 4, Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, Christ the Victor, Christian Faith, Christianity, Confess Sins, Cosmic Powers, Easter Sunday, Ephesians 6, Ephesus, Fighting Battles, First Peter 4, God, Gospel of Christ, Grace of God, Happy Easter, Holy Bible, Holy Week, hospitality, Human Soul, James 5, Jesus Christ, Kindness, Laity and Clergy, Let Us Pray, Lord, Love, Messiah, once and for all, Palm Sunday, Petitions, Pray, Pray in the Spirit, Prayer, Redeemer King, Resurrection, Resurrection of our Lord, Savior, Spiritual Assault, Spiritual Attacks, Spiritual Victory, Spiritual Warfare, Supplications, Word and Sacrament, Word of God, Yeshua |
As I write this newsletter article, our nation has just seen a spike in anti-Semitic activity with a wave of bomb threats at Jewish community centers and desecration of Jewish cemeteries throughout the country, including right here in Milwaukee. And this comes after many years of growing anti-Semitism on college campuses throughout the USA as well, both among faculty and students alike. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Inter-Faith Relations, Lutheran Church, Public Sphere | Tagged All Peoples, Amazing Grace, anti-Semite, anti-Semitic, anti-Semitism, Bigotry, By His Wounds We Are Healed, Christ, Christianity, College Campuses, Desecration, ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Good News, Gospel, Hatred, Human Dignity, Isaiah 53, Jesus, Jewish Cemeteries, Jewish Community Centers, Jewish People, Jews and Christians, Judaism, Lord and Savior, Lord's Prayer, Lutheranism, Messiah, Messianic Jews, Redeemer, Resurrection, Salvation, Son of God, Temple, Universal Healer, Wondrous Love, Yeshua |
Saint Valentine is a Christian saint of the Third Century AD who is widely celebrated on February 14th and commonly associated with romantic love. Although not much of St. Valentine’s life is reliably known, it is highly agreed that St. Valentine was martyred and then buried on the Via Flaminia to the north of Rome in or around the year 273 AD. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Inter-Faith Relations, Lutheran Church | Tagged 1 John 3, 1 John 4, Agape, Almighty God, Birds and Bees, Christian Faith, Christian Marriage, Christian Martyr, Christian Persecution, Christianity, Church Universal, Emperor Claudius Gothicus, Emperor Claudius II, Engaged Couples, Eros, Evangelism, February 14, Greek, Happy Marriages, Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, John 15, Lord and Savior, Love, Ludus, Lutheran Church, My Valentine, New Testament, Pagan Emperor, Philautia, Philia, Pragma, Proselytism, Religious Conversion, Roman gods, Romance, Romantic Love, sacrificial love, Saint Valentine, Son of God, Tough Love, Valentine's Day, Yeshua, Your Valentine |
We have five Sundays in January for this Year of our Lord 2017, and after Epiphany (always January 6th) we observe the annual commemoration called Baptism of Our Lord Sunday that falls this year on Sunday January 8th. Although Jesus did not need baptism, because he was and is without sin, he nevertheless received baptism in order to properly fulfill all possible requirements of righteousness and religious faith. And as I contemplate the baptism of Jesus, I am led by the Spirit to contemplate the sacredness of water and our own baptismal covenant in, with and through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Lutheran Church, Public Sphere, Science & Religion | Tagged 2017, Baptism of Our Lord, Body of Christ, born again, Christ, Christian, Church, Clean Air, Clean Water, Covenant, cross of Christ, crucifixion, Death, Earth, Ecology, Environment, Epiphany, Faith, Global Warming, God, Grace of God, H2O, Happy New Year, Holy Baptism, Holy Spirit, Holy Water, Hope, Humanity, Jesus, Life, Light, Love of God, Lutheran, Matthew 28, Messiah, Nature, New Testament, religious faith, Resurrection, Righteousness, Romans 6, sacrament, Sacred Water, Salvation, Savior and Lord, Sin, Spiritual Life, Titus 3, Water Services, Water Sources, Word of God, Yeshua |
We live in a time of powerful forces seeking to separate people into demographic boxes. These forces want to define us as strictly this or that “kind” of person; and these forces want us to start defining ourselves according to these strictly defined categories as well. More and more, we see categorizing, labeling and dividing people as Male vs. Female, or White vs. Black vs. Brown, or Heterosexual vs. Homosexual, or whatever else you can think of. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Lutheran Church, Public Sphere | Tagged Advent, ALCU, Baptism, Baptized into Christ, Belonging, Children of God, Christmas, Christmastime, Democrat, Gay or Straight, Happy Christmas, Heterosexual and Homosexual, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Identity, Image of God, Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, Jew or Greek, Lord and Savior, Male and Female, Merry Christmas, Nativity, NRA, One in Christ Jesus, Only Begotten Son, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, racial bigotry, racial division, racism, Republican, Right to Life, Slave or Free, United in Christ, Yeshua |
When we were little children, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely positive lens. They could do nothing wrong in our eyes. Then we became adolescents, and we viewed our parents through an almost entirely negative lens. They could do virtually nothing right in our teenage eyes. And periodically in adolescence, teenagers will slip in and out of a childlike orientation toward their parents as they grow. However, if we had loving parents, we matured to later realize as adults that our parents are basically good and decent people despite their various imperfections. Continue Reading »
Posted in Devotional, Lutheran Church, Public Sphere | Tagged 2016 Presidential Election, American Heritage, American History, Citizenship in Heaven, cross of Christ, Democrat, Donald Trump, God of Jacob, Hillary Clinton, Hope, In God We Trust, Jesus Christ, John 17, Kingdom of God, Lord and Savior, Lutheran Church, Lutheranism, Nationalism, Patriotism, Philippians 3, Psalm 146, Republican, Salvation, United States of America, US Flag, US President, USA, Yeshua |
