A Difficult Mission
NOTES FROM THE FIELD In this series, thoseinvolved with CLC foreign missions profile one aspect of our overseas endeavors. Working with our brethren in the Nigerian Church of the Lutheran Confession (NCLC), our fellowship made…
Visitation to Haiti
MISSION NEWSLETTER our CLC Board of Missions updates us with the latest news from various mission fields. This past May/June, Board of Missions chairman Joel Krafft and Missionary Todd Ohlmann made a trip to visit…
St. Stephen Lutheran Church of the San Francisco Peninsula—Mountain View, California
A SLICE OF LIFE IN THE CLC SNAPSHOTS OF CONGREGATIONS FROM AROUND THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSION This month’s unique “Slice of Life in the CLC” is the testament to God’s grace that is…
I Could Never Do That!
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT Publicly post ninety-five theses critical of the church’s money-making practice of indulgences. Question and eventually oppose the Pope himself. Stand before the Holy Roman Emperor and other powerful officials…
“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS September 2017
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006
Date Verse Reading Comments
Sept 1 TLH 483, LSB 749; Jeremiah 23:33-40 If prophets or preachers speak words that contradict what the Lord has already said, you know them to be false.
Sept 2 WS 758 Ezekiel 34:1-10 The shepherds of Israel failed to take care of the flock, but the Lord would not abandon His people. He would step in Himself to rescue His flock.
Sept 4 TLH 648, LSB 558 ; Ezekiel 34:11-16 The Lord Himself shepherds His people. He calls them, gathers them, tends them, and brings back the lost. What a Shepherd you have in Jesus!
Sept 5 TLH 485 Ezekiel 34:17-24 God’s people were being “trampled” by the strong, but they find peace and hope in David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, Who shepherds them to life eternal!
“Back to School”
COVER STORY – CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
It’s just a loaded, emotive phrase, isn’t it? “Back to school.” Individual reactions vary wildly, depending on your station in life and how you are wired. Kids who love school get excited, those that don’t, not so much. Some parents tend to hear the phrase with relief, others with a sense of regret, even guilt—“Where did the summer go? We should have carved out more family time.” Teachers get that old familiar knot in their stomachs and, like pretty much every other occasion in life, retailers hear cash registers.
“Back to school” also means something else.
To go “back” means that you first had to step away. Have you ever wondered how or why our current custom of summer vacation started? The standard answer is that it was agrarian-based; school went into recess for three months in the summer because children were needed on the farm. Anyone with any association to farming knows that obviously wasn’t the reason. The busiest times on the farm are planting and harvest (spring and fall) when kids are back in school.
Time to get Back to the Book (of Holy Scripture)
DEVOTION – BACK TO SCHOOL
“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.” (2 Timothy 3:14)
“Back to school” often means back to a more disciplined routine. “Back to school” means getting back to careful study. For many parents, it means reminding children repeatedly that homework needs to be done before opening the social or game apps on their phones. Sometimes “back to school” means that parents or grandparents need to scrub some of the rust and cobwebs out of their own brains so that they can give assistance to their children or grandchildren. These are all important parts of the process of preparing for and then living a successful life.
Christian Education—Hymn 630 “ Ye Parents, Hear What Jesus Taught”
A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING (TWENTY-SECOND IN A SERIES)
Contrary to the oft-repeated cant1 of collectivists, it does not “take a village” to raise a child; it takes parents. God entrusts parents—not society in general, not educational or governmental institutions, and not villages—with the responsibility of the proper upbringing of children. This responsibility is frequently enjoined upon parents throughout both Old and New Testaments. For example, “You shall teach them [God’s Words] to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 11:19) and “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)
The Gibeonite Deception
GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT “Then the men of Israel took some of their [the Gibeonites’] provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” (Joshua 9:14) After forty years of wilderness wanderings, the Israelites…
Faith’s Journey Ends in Our Homeland
STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims…