Give the Gift of Christmas
Does it seem harder each year to find just the right Christmas gift for the people on your list? You can’t repeat the great idea you had last year. Everything seems more expensive this time…
When Non-ChristiansOut-Christian the Christians
But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid;…
“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS NOVEMBER 2020
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006
Date Hymns Reading Comments
Nov 2 TLH 393 (LSB 713) 1 Kings 16:29-34 Things weren’t getting better in Israel. Enter Ahab, the worst of their kings to date. Even Joshua foretold that the Lord’s curse would be upon him (Joshua 6:26).
Nov 3 TLH 28 1 Kings 17:1-24 But the Lord is not asleep! To counteract Ahab, the worst of kings, God raised up Elijah, the greatest of prophets. How faithful and loving is our God toward His people!
Nov 4 TLH 612 Amos 1:1-15 The Lord not only had His eye on the sins of Israel, but also on the sins of the nations around her too. Their cruelty and wickedness would bring down judgment from God. The way of the wicked will perish.
A Dwelling Place Worth Dwelling On
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’”
(Revelation 21:3-4 ESV)
Life in a sin-broken world is hard enough.
We don’t need to make it any harder. Yet that’s exactly what we do whenever we allow God’s exciting words of promise to lie dormant and inactive in our hearts. When, for example, was the last time you spent any time contemplating the reality of heaven—not just in a general way, but really allowing yourself to think about, to get excited about, what your existence will be like in heaven? By God’s divine promise, heaven is your eternal future through faith in Jesus Christ. Put that promise to work. As Christians, we obviously believe that heaven is real, and that one day we will exist there, but we routinely rob ourselves of the everyday blessing of that reality.
Why would we ever neglect such a precious gift? For some it is the apparent absurdity of the thing. How could a sinner like me end up in a place like that? The answer, of course, is that Jesus made it so. He washed me, sanctified me. He earned the robe of righteousness with which I am covered.
Alert Against the Adversary
DEVOTION—THE CHRISTIAN’S FOE
Some of you might be familiar with the motion picture The Ghost and the Darkness. In the late 1800’s, the British Empire was trying to build a railroad across East Africa between Kenya and Uganda. One of the big obstacles they faced was a pair of man-eating lions. The lions would lurk in the tall grass near the work sites and camps, waiting for workers to be alone and vulnerable. One estimate says that these two lions killed 135 people. Would you want to work on that railroad or sleep in an unprotected camp, knowing what was waiting in the tall grass?
“Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” TLH 429, LSB 708
Martin Schalling’s (1532-1608) Lutheran roots were deep. A graduate of the University of Wittenberg where Luther had once taught, he had been a student of Luther’s dear friend Philip Melanchthon. He was also a close friend of Nicolaus Selnecker, one of the authors of the “Formula of Concord”. Surrounded by such “Reformation royalty,” Schalling was a teacher, a superintendent, and then a court preacher by 1576.
REMEMBER
Human beings, young and old, forget. We forget promises, events, names, and locations. Then, something happens to trigger a long-forgotten memory. It comes back to mind. How is it with God’s memory? In Psalm 25:6-7,…
Christian Faith is Never Alone
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one…
The Best Retirement Plan
BEST. JOB. EVER! Are you a young person pondering a career? Have you considered becoming a pastor or a Christian day school teacher? This twelve-part series is meant to coincide with the work of the …
The Adoptionism Error
ERROR’S ECHO In this series we take a look back at some of the most notorious errors and heresies that have threatened the church over the centuries, as well as the subtle (and not so…