Audio Spokesman
A new addition to the Lutheran Spokesman website is Audio versions of each article. You will find them at the end of each article starting in this issue.
May 2015 Bread of Life
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; SC = Martin Luther’s Small Catechism; [ ] = Minor Festivals or commemorations in the Christian Church Year
May 1 John 6:1-14 PS 61
[St. Philip and St. James, Apostles]
Jesus strengthens Philip’s faith in His redeeming work using five loaves, two fish, and twelve baskets in the feeding of the five thousand.
May 2 Luke 18:1-8 SC Lord’s Prayer Address
Does God forsake His children? No, He hears each and every prayer of the faithful.
May 4 1 John 4:1-11 TLH 346
The great theological test question is “What do you
think of Jesus?”
To Rise from Sin
“. . . just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”
(Romans 6:4).
EASTER
is indeed a joyful time of the year as we celebrate the anniversary of our Savior’s resurrection. He who died for us rose again and lives forevermore! What greater joy for us than to know that our Redeemer lives! That joy comes from comprehending by faith the wonder of God’s love and the forgiveness that is ours in Christ Jesus. So we know a great sense of relief from guilt and we know peace and hope, but do we fully realize the power of the resurrection? Perhaps one’s first thought relating to the power of Jesus’ resurrection is that our mortal bodies too shall rise from the grave,
“I AM the Good Shepherd”
Twenty-three times in the Gospel of John we find “I AM” statements (in Greek, ego eimi). To seven of those are attached metaphors, including the passage in which our Lord states, “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11,14). Why did Jesus choose this word picture to describe Himself?
The land of Israel had a mostly agrarian population. Sheep herding had a long history in the region. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David had all spent time as shepherds.
ENTERING GOD’S REST
So I swore in My wrath,`They shall not enter My rest’” (Psa 95:11).
Please read Hebrews 4:1-10
It was a tragic story with which every Hebrew was familiar; how, at the brink of Canaan, the Israelites refused to go in. “Our enemies are too big,” they said, implying their God was too small. They wept, whimpered, and faithlessly wished, “If only we had died in this wilderness” (Numbers 14:2).
Furious at their constant rebellion, God granted their request. Instead of marching into Canaan, they spent forty years dying in the wilderness.
Why Can’t Non-members Serve as Sponsors at our Baby’s Baptism?
Before you ask who can serve as a sponsor for your child’s Baptism, there is another, more important question to consider: Should you have sponsors at all? The use of sponsors, or “Godparents,” is a church custom…
When God Fell On His Face
If God has a sense of humor, I can imagine He would have been chuckling over what occurred in the temple of the Philistines during the days of Samuel (1 Samuel 5:1-5). These enemies of…
Johannes Quenstedt
As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we take a brief look at the lives of some of the most influential and important Lutheran theologians. The foremost person of the Reformation was, of…
“Holding Up the Profs’ Hands”
HAPPENING AROUND THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN CONFESSION The title is not a misprint; it is an adaptation from a line of a well-known mission hymn: “You can be like faithful Aaron, Holding up the…
Peace Lutheran Church—Mission, South Dakota
Peace Lutheran Church of Mission, South Dakota is a unique congregation in the CLC in a number of ways. Although it began as did many of our CLC congregations, its subsequent history proved in a…