Sin.
The Cross.
Darkness.
Sorrow.
Anguish.
Scourging.
Blood.
Crucifixion.
Death.
Asignificant number of modern American churches do not dwell on these themes—during Lent or at any other time. Instead, they try to avoid them. Such biblical elements are considered too negative for their members to hear, too much of a “downer.”
Snapshots of Congregations from Around the Church of the Lutheran Confession “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth”…
It is both arrogant and perverse to peer out into God’s universe looking for evidence that He does not exist, for the heavens declare His glory and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1), even to those who do not have His Word, or who reject it.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
American-German Theologian & Professor
(17 February 1842 – 9 January 1913)
One can say that what C.F.W. Walther was for dogmatics (the study of Bible doctrine) for the Lutheran church in North America, George Stoeckhardt was for exegesis (the translation and explanation of the Holy Scriptures). After coming to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1878, Stoeckhardt was originally a part-time lecturer in exegesis at Concordia Seminary and then for the last twenty-five years of his life he was a full-time professor at the seminary.
New Year Last August, a Yahoo News headline asked, “What Causes Plane Crashes?” My immediate reaction was “Gravity?” Can you think of anything else as reliable as gravity? Gravity is so universal in our experience…
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church was organized on March 9, 1962, by Christians desiring a church that faithfully taught the Word of God and practiced confessional Lutheranism. Hecla is a small town in northeastern South…
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006
Date Verse Reading Comments
Jan 2 TLH 123:1-4 Psalm 90:1-6 We have to admit that we are nothing next to God. What grace that He takes notice
of us at all!
Jan 3 TLH 123:5-6 Psalm 90:7-10 Even those sins we are not aware of are seen by the eyes of our God.
Jan 4 TLH 123:7-8 Psalm 90:11-17 The Lord’s forgiveness, compassion, and unfailing love shall bless us all our days.
Jan 5 TLH 134 John 3:1-4 Jesus revealed Himself as the One sent from God, and the miraculous signs confirmed it.
Jan 6 TLH 127; John 3:5-15 Salvation comes through Spirit-worked faith in Jesus.
LSB 401
“‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
(Revelation 22:20).
John was in exile, banished to the island of Patmos where he was isolated from the people he loved and prevented from preaching the Word of God to them.
Many of those whom he calls “my little children” were suffering terrible persecution. Some were fed to wild animals or slaughtered by gladiators, others were burned as human torches or crucified. Still others lost homes and businesses and wandered as fugitives, despised by all.
In such terrible times, one longs for and prays for deliverance. As the Children of Israel prayed for God’s deliverance from their cruel slavery in Egypt, so also John pleads with Christ, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
Advent
Hymn 64 is an Advent hymn. Advent is a “three tense” season: the past and the future unite in our present worship.
In the American Heritage Dictionary, the first part of the definition for the word advent is “The coming or arrival of something or someone that is important or worthy of note.” In the Advent part of the church calendar, we look back to the first Advent (coming) of Christ, His birth in Bethlehem, when God came to mankind as a man in order to redeem the world to Himself.
