Today is the 501st anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. In the Treasury this morning, we are blessed by one of Luther's writings, taken from his sermons on the Gospel according to St. John, in which Luther preached saying, "Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the...
Have you ever asked that question, "Why God?" Why God, did you give me or my loved one cancer? Why God, did you get me fired from my job, or empty my retirement by destroying the economy? Why God, did you send that hurricane that destroyed so many people's lives? Why God, did you do this or...
St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote to the church in Rome writing, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." (Romans 3:28). To understand how we are justified, or declared righteous before our Heavenly Father, is necessary for everything. If we...
We have great comfort when we know how to find a place. It's a terrible feeling when you are lost and have no clue where you're going. It's a terrible time trying to figure our where to find something in a new store, a new school, a new town, and a new job. When you don't know where something...
Article 1 of the Augsburg Confession asserts, "We unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the decree of the Council of Nicaea, that there is one divine essence, which is called and which is truly God, and that there are three persons in this one divine essence, equal in power and alike...
The meditation for the Treasury today is by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In it he writes, "It is not we who build. Christ builds the church. No man builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols...
Yesterday in bible study, a question was asked, "How do we help someone who says, 'God hates me because life isn't going well for me. Everything that could go right is going wrong..'" How do we comfort someone who believes in their conscience that God hates them? How do we comfort ourselves when...
Anxiety or Panic Attacks are real things and are not fun. These attacks are intense periods of fear or feelings of doom developing over a very short time frame. For alot of the baptized, these anxiety attacks come when they desire to go to church. Many people avoid church for many reasons...
In the Treasury today, we read of the account of Jesus walking on water and St. Peter's humiliation. The text goes that Jesus sent the Apostles ahead of Him on a boat and Jesus catches up to them later, during the 4th watch of the night. Jesus didn't take another boat out to meet them, but...
The Treasury writing today is from C.F.W. Walther. He wrote, "A person may pretend to be a Christian while in reality he is not. As long as he is in this condition, he is quite content with his knowledge of the mere outlines of the Christian doctrines...However, the moment a person becomes a...