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TLH Hymn 188 “Hallelujah! Jesus Lives!”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING

Do you remember the last time you felt elated? If you’re an avid Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, it was probably this past February 7th, when “your” team won Superbowl LV. Maybe it was when you caught your largest-ever walleye or bagged a whitetail buck with Boone and Crockett record book antlers. Perhaps you felt elated simply if the Thanksgiving turkey you roasted turned out juicy instead of dry.

How odd it is that we feel exuberant over such relatively unimportant events, and yet may at times fail to feel even greater jubilation in connection with an event which is of infinite importance and eternal consequence for each us—the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning! It may be that we simply don’t clearly see and personally apprehend the significance of that Easter event to our own lives.Read More »TLH Hymn 188 “Hallelujah! Jesus Lives!”

TRUTH

GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT “What is truth?” So spoke Pontius Pilate. He was responding to Jesus’ declaration: “For this cause I was born, and… Read More »TRUTH

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS MARCH 2021

TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006

Date Hymns Reading Comments

Mar 1 TLH 333 Nahum 1:1-11 Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Assyria had brought an end to the northern kingdom of Israel. Judah was in trouble too, but Assyria’s end was coming.

Mar 2 TLH 487 Nahum 1:12-15 God would bring about Assyria’s destruction because of its wickedness, but also in order to preserve Judah for the eventual arrival of Jesus Christ.

Mar 3 TLH 659 (LSB 774) John 6:1-15 By the sign of the loaves and fish, the people recognized Jesus as someone great, but they didn’t catch on that He was there to feed their souls, not just their stomachs.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS MARCH 2021

The Great Maundy Thursday Disinformation Campaign

COVER STORY – MAUNDY THURSDAY

The devil had a dilemma. In the Lord’s Supper, God had just bequeathed to mankind a gift that held the potential to cripple the devil’s plans for mankind’s eternal destruction. Perhaps man didn’t yet realize the power of the gift, but Satan did, and he immediately set to work. What he needed was an ongoing disinformation campaign—obviously—since the truth would continually remind God’s children of the Gospel itself, and against that Gospel Satan knew he was powerless. So Satan initiated a disinformation “campaign of opposites.”

The first phase of his campaign was to promote the idea that what Jesus had instituted in the upper room on Maundy Thursday was not a gift but a requirement—not something God would do for man, but something man must do for God—Law, not Gospel. Anything but Gospel. And it worked, as even those who called themselves Christians came to regard this “Lord’s Supper” as something that they would offer to God as, at minimum, a partial payment for their sins, something they must do to pay down on their sin debt.Read More »The Great Maundy Thursday Disinformation Campaign

Union in Communion

DEVOTION—LORD’S SUPPER

A “Why is this night different from all others?” If you had grown up in a Jewish household, you would probably know the significance of this question. Each year, at each Passover, one of the children at the table would have asked this question of the head of the Passover meal.

On the night of His betrayal (Maundy Thursday), as the Lord Jesus celebrated the last Passover with His disciples, that question would take on a new and more important meaning. Sitting at the table with the disciples that night was the Passover Lamb of God. Soon His blood would be shed as He was punished for the sins of the world. Because of His shed blood, God passes over our sins and spares us from the eternal plague of hell that we deserved.Read More »Union in Communion

TLH Hymn 305 (LSB 636) “Soul, Adorn Thyself with Gladness”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING

As we come to receive the Lord’s Supper, what is it that is on our minds? Is it the meaning of the sacrament and the great blessing from God that it is to us? Is it the cares and troubles of life in this world?

It is probably both. We come to the Lord’s Supper because we believe in Jesus Christ and treasure this sacrament that He instituted for our blessing. We make an effort to put away sinful thoughts and troubling thoughts as we come to the altar to partake of it. But we are also sinners who live in a sinful world and are not always successful at putting away unworthy thoughts when we come to Communion.Read More »TLH Hymn 305 (LSB 636) “Soul, Adorn Thyself with Gladness”

Relief in Troubled Times— Worship the Lord!

GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

King David did not have a carefree life. He often wrote of sorrow, tears, and loneliness in his psalms. Those same psalms, nevertheless, reveal deep faith. Whatever the circumstances of his troubled times, however intense and prolonged, David trusted God.

David praised and thanked God in troubled times as well as on occasions of celebration. Giving thanks may be the last thing we feel like doing when something unpleasant comes our way. Focusing on how miserable we are, however, has never provided us with answers or solace, and it never will. Read More »Relief in Troubled Times— Worship the Lord!