Editor’s Note: After hearing Dr. Sumey’s presentation at our District Delegate Conference, we invited him to share a condensed version with our readers. We thank him… Read More »How Can Christians Help Those Struggling with Addiction?
But our family friend isn’t the only one who has given us the same Christmas gift every year. Our heavenly Father has too—for countless years! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”
(John 3:16).
Of course, we know that Jesus is not born as a Bethlehem Baby each and every year. Our annual Christmas celebration is a remembering of the first time God’s Gift was given, when Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).
That one-time, God-given Gift should remind each of us every year of what changes…and of what doesn’t change!Read More »God’s Gift Giving
This past summer a new entrance sign was erected for our CLC’s Immanuel Lutheran High School, College, and Seminary, 501 Grover Rd., Eau Claire, Wis.… Read More »New Entrance Sign at Immanuel Lutheran High School, College, and Seminary
Dependence is defined as the presence of three or more of the following**: Tolerance: Developing a tolerance to the substance/behavior such that more and more is… Read More »What is Addiction … and is It a Sin?
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever!” is a familiar prayer expressing our thankfulness to God for the food with which He has blessed us and reminding us to give thanks to God.
Such reminders are always in place because, quite frankly, we don’t always remember to return thanks to God. I am not just talking about thanking Him for food, but also for the countless blessings He graciously pours out upon us every day. Because of our forgetfulness and our tendency to take things for granted, we are apt to be like the nine lepers who, after being healed by Jesus, did not return to thank Him (see Luke 17:12-19). Lord, have mercy upon us for not thanking You as often as we ought!
The prayer “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” is found in a number of psalms (see psalms 106, 107, 118, and 136). Please take your Bible and read Psalm 136. Do you notice how many times the psalmist encourages his readers to give thanks to the Lord? Why is this? Is it perhaps because we need to be repeatedly reminded to give thanks to the Lord for all His goodness towards us?
A striking feature about this psalm is the refrain at the end of each verse. The worship leader would speak the first part of the verse, and the congregation would respond with “For His mercy endures forever.”
I am not just talking about thanking Him for food,
but also for the countless blessings He graciously
pours out upon us every day.
The sixteenth century Lutheran Reformation was a great gift from God, for through it God restored to us His greatest gifts. Our full and free Salvation in and through Jesus Christ had been put on the shelf by the Roman Catholic Church, which then substituted works that man himself had to accomplish, and God’s undeserved Grace had been shelved in favor of the notion that God infuses grace into man, enabling people to do His will and thus supposedly merit eternal life.
Those precious gifts were all but lost because God’s Word had been put away on a shelf and all but forgotten, being replaced by the teachings of men.Read More »Using the Reformation
MEDITATIONS ON JESUS’ SERMON ON THE MOUNT: MATTHEW CHAPTERS FIVE THROUGH SEVEN “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way… Read More »The Right Kind of Judging
There is none better to do mission work, to share the gospel
of the Savior with others,
than you and I.
“Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name” (Acts 9:13-14).
“…Him?!” Ananias saw an enemy of the Savior. But God saw one who would be a great witness to His love, grace, and forgiveness.
Ah, yes! Things had changed concerning Saul since the last time Ananias had heard of him—for now Saul was praying! He was no longer the rabid enemy of Christ and His people that he had been, but he was a “chosen vessel” of the Lord “to bear [His] name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (9:15).Read More »“…Him?!”
Since 1978 our country has officially recognized the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. The statute gives the following purpose for the day: “…to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer.”Read More »In Honor of Grandparents
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
(Hebrews 10:23)
In general, it is not a good practice to assume that something is true or acceptable! But when the writer to the Hebrews urges us to “hold fast the confession of our hope,”it is assumed that we know what is meant by ‘the confession of our hope.’ It is assumed because the ‘confession of our hope’ has been the very subject matter the Holy Spirit has been communicating for the nine chapters leading up to these words.
The purpose of Christian Education is Read More »Christian Education’s Ultimate Goal
