GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT (For context, please read 1 Kings 17:1-16) Scripture says that Ahab was more evil than the kings before him and that he thought it was a trivial thing to walk… God Often Blesses Us in Unexpected Ways
STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the… A Window to the Unseen World
A SLICE OF LIFE IN THE CLC SNAPSHOTS OF CONGREGATIONS FROM AROUND THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSION Out in the northwest lake country of Minnesota, a summer tourist might well be charmed by the… St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Ponsford, Minnesota
“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS may 2017
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006
Date Verse Reading Comments
May 1 WS 727; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 You are already living to please God, but now I urge you to do it more and more,
LSB 697 for this is the will of God Who loves you.
May 2 TLH 603 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The dead will surely rise, and here are some details as to how it will happen.
What encouragement for us!
May 3 TLH 201 Mark 16:1-8 The women weren’t expecting Jesus to rise, but He did just as He said. So also we will
rise just as He has said.
May 4 WS 759 Mark 16:9-20 Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are additional proof for us that He lives again.“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS may 2017
Communication requires two things: a sender and a receiver. The most powerful transmitter in the world is worthless if no one turns on a radio, and all of the radios in the world are of little use if no one is broadcasting.
The same holds true with human interaction. Someone has to send, someone else has to receive. If either one is missing, communication fails. Wives tend to understand this, since husbands tend to have their “radios” turned off a lot. Kids too, for that matter. And yet wives and moms just keep transmitting . . . .
Why is this general topic so important? Because as Christians, you and I are in the communication business. That’s our job, that’s our calling, that’s our mission—and it ought to be our passion. When we listen to God’s Word, we are supposed to be the radios, receiving and actually hearing God’s message to us. But our life’s work is to be transmitters. In leaving us with His Great Commission, our Lord commanded us to center our lives upon the communication of the Gospel, which we all agree is the key to eternal life. The message we are to broadcast is very simple: Whoever believes that Jesus paid for the sins of the world through His sinless life and innocent death on the cross will be saved.
Understand that this is not part of our life’s work; this is our life.
It is the sum and substance. Failure in every other secular pursuit is as nothing if we but succeed in our calling to “go and make disciples” for Jesus Christ. You and I are supposed to be the “senders” of the information—the transmitters. If Christians fail in this critical mission, Gospel communication fails. No one is saved by what they don’t hear. If Gospel communication fails, it must never be the transmitters who fail. Our communication can take many forms. Our actions often speak louder than our words. But while our actions might make those around us curious, it is always and only the Word of God that can convert and save, for through that Word alone the Holy Spirit works.Jesus, the Good Shepherd
A SLICE OF LIFE IN THE CLC SNAPSHOTS OF CONGREGATIONS FROM AROUND THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSION Snow on the prairie often comes early—and sideways. Once it finally reaches the ground it keeps tumbling… St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church Bismarck, North Dakota
“Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.”
Genesis 8:4
What a joyful day of deliverance and hope. It had to have been a terrifying five months being tossed about in the torrential flood. For five months the angry hand of God was destroying every corruption of mankind together with every living thing that lived on dry land. Now at last the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. The fierce judgment of God was past, and the ark was now back on solid ground. It would be another seven months before Noah and the others could leave the ark and make a new life in the new world, but landing on solid ground gave them the promise and hope of the new life that lay ahead.
What does this have to do with Easter? Ask yourself why God identifies the specific day the ark landed. Is there anything special about the “seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month”? The Children of Israel left Egypt in the seventh month. Moses told Israel, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2) Every year after that they were to sacrifice the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of that month. Jesus and His disciples, together with all Israel, sacrificed and ate the Passover lamb according to the command on the fourteenth day, the Thursday of Holy Week. Count it out! Friday was the fifteenth, Saturday the sixteenth, and Easter Sunday—the day Christ rose from the dead—was the seventeenth day of the month. Yes, Jesus rose from the dead on the very same day that the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.A Day of Deliverance and Hope!
GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT Any Sunday School student worth his salt knows of the three men in the fiery furnace. They might even remember their names — Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego—and that these three… The Man In the Fire
STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations,… Christian Crosses are for Your Good
“I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!” (TWENTY-Sixth IN A SERIES) Pastors Answer Frequently-Asked Questions You will not find the word sacrament in the Bible. If you were to do a quick search in a concordance, the closest… “What is a sacrament, and how many are there?”
