St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth saying, "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2nd Corinthians 2:17). I, and all my brother pastors, get you when it comes to your sin. We...
This blog post today is personal, but I do believe it can apply to both pastors and laity alike. I have great joy in being the pastor of the saints of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tomball, Texas. I am not the pastor of any other church in Tomball, or in the great state of Texas. I am not...
God, through His servant St. Paul, spoke to the churches in Corinth saying, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" 91st Corinthians 13:13). The Lutheran Confession assert this verse saying, "Yet one is not to imagine a kind of faith that can...
Psalm 139 prays, "For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well." There are many times in life when we ask ourselves, "Who am I?" We ask this when we...
Pray God He would your neighbor bless as you yourself wish success. Have mercy Lord! This is the closing for Luther's verse on the 9th and 10th commandments in his hymn, These Are the Holy Ten Commands. What is the 9th Commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor's house. What does this...
Luke 11:24-26 says, "24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in...
The Augsburg Confession asserts the doctrine of repentance saying, "Our churches teach that those who have fallen after Baptism can receive forgiveness of sins whenever they are converted, and that the church ought to impart absolution to those who return to repentance. Properly speaking...
Today is the feast day of St. Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus, the God-bearer who was chosen by the Father to carry God in her womb for 9 months and be the Mother of God. One of the best known passages concerning St. Mary is the annunciation, the time in which St. Gabriel the Archangel came...
President Harrison, in his Little Book on Joy, says, "The Gospel of free forgiveness in Christ frees us to expect mistakes, forgive them, and to find the humor in them after the fact" (Little Book on Joy 69). We live as if everyone is always going to love us, improve their behavior, and...
The 8th Commandment declares, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in...