I remember the first church I served as a student. They had a fund called the Emergency Fund and had about $100 in it. They told me I could use it at my discretion, provided I dispensed the money according to the conditions. So I said, "What are the conditions?" The...
If in reading the Bible you find justification for abusing, humiliating, disgracing, harming, or hurting, especially when it makes you feel better about yourself, you are absolutely wrong.
When I was in my late teens, I wanted to be a preacher. When I was in my late twenties, I wanted to be a good preacher. Now that I am older, I want more than anything else to be a Christian. To live simply, to love generously, to speak truthfully, to serve faithfully,...
I'm grateful for work more important than how I happen to feel about it on any given day.
Luther said, "Remember your baptism." How can people do that? In Luther's church, most of the baptisms were of infants. They were brought by their mothers and fathers and they were baptized. So how could they remember their baptisms? Luther knew that when they became...
The name bestowed upon Jesus is Lord, acknowledged in what may be the earliest form of the confession of faith among gentile Christians: Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9; Acts 2:36). Submission to the lordship of Christ, however, is not confined to the human realm; Christ is...
The realism of these sayings is simply that life consists of a series of seemingly small opportunities. Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with the queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More...
I am absolutely amazed that Joseph is the first person in the New Testament who learned how to read the Bible. Like Joseph, we are to read it through the spectacles of the grace and the goodness and the love of God. If in reading the Bible you find justification for...
The disciples have now experienced Christ in word (interpreting the Scriptures) and sacrament (the breaking of bread). There is no doubt that Luke is writing not only the story of Jesus but also that of the church which knows him in these ways. The importance of...
It is true the servant does not know what the master is doing, but that has its bright side. The servant doesn't take his work home with him. For him the day ends when he puts aside the shovel and the hoe. But sometimes the master is up all night, pacing and worrying....