Signs and wonders never have the convincing power moderns assign to them. The senses can be fooled which is precisely, I think, the nature and aim of the occult arts. They try to convince their witnesses of the power of the spirit or god behind the marvel. What is that power compared to the Lord’s? Pharoah’s heart was hardened, not softened by the display. God be praised Jesus gives his blessing to not those who see and believe but to those who have not seen and believed because he desires to be grasped by faith in the Word alone (John 20:29).

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Going to church is a chore, especially when better things are always presenting themselves to the imagination when you’re sitting, yet again, through another sermon that is stretching dangerously beyond the fifteen-minute threshold of your attention span. At home there’s Netflix. There’s yardwork to be done. You can unplug and not be stressed by being around other people, especially people as judgmental and hypocritical church goers. Why spend your precious free time on the weekend bogged down with formulaic sayings and archaic music that don’t move you to feel anything anymore?

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Enjoy this ten part series on the history of the church.

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How exactly does the Old Testament bring Jesus to us? There are three ways which every reader of the Old Testament must know. Christ can be proclaimed allegorically, typologically, and directly.

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A thesis is just that, a thesis. It’s a starting point of discussion and argument. It’s not the definitive statement on a matter, though it might make an important step in that direction. I’m not articulating the side of one group or another as much as I’m trying to sort through my own position. If you don’t agree with the thesis at least I hope you understand and sympathize with its spirit. We need to get into the habit of articulating a Christ centered anthropology for mankind in general and for ourselves individually. We might say that this is the burning question of our age. I think when the question is answered apart from Christ, or without enough attention given to what Christ has done for us, it leads to disastrous results.

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The characteristics of men, such as language, color, manners, etc., belonging to groups sharing a common culture and ancestry are accidental and not essential to their persons or their humanity.

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At Immanuel Lutheran Church and School you’ll find a gathering of gospel-hearers who are unashamed of showing reverence toward their merciful God. The way they pray, sing, and receive God’s gifts shows that their sanctuary is different from the world. It’s sacred. Because they are devoted to the “apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42) they are also certain of God’s kindness. They are forgiven. Therefore, they bow their heads, fold their hands, and bend their knees. As the Psalmist says, “With you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4).

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You are more than a collection of atoms and energy. You mean something. You matter, not because you invent meaning about yourself, but because God, in baptism, has promised you matter to him.

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If nothing is impossible for them—that is, if they think that nothing is impossible for them—they will teach their children that nothing is impossible for them, that men can be women and women men, that 2+2=5, love is love, and pride is a virtue.

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So let’s put the practice of online communion to the ‘use’ and ‘action’ test. We’re not denying that the pastor who is being recorded in his location is using the genuine Words of Institution. Nor are we denying the Word’s efficacy if and when it is used as Jesus intended. What exactly did Jesus intend? Here we must remember how the Lord’s Supper was first established and how Jesus distributed it.

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The world is wearing out, but God’s Word brings renewal and rebirth. Seek the Lord’s rejuvenation where he gives it, at church, surrounded by the saints, in Word and Sacrament.

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The world and false religions have their perspective and understanding. The Church has her own. Indeed, one of our chief blessings as Christians is a rich theology of the martyrs taught by God himself through his Word. It’s not a man-made doctrine that advocates violence against our neighbors or self-immolation for the sake of attention. From God’s inspired teaching, to be a martyr is to be one who bears witness.

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Jesus never promised numerical superiority in the world. He promised the church, as few or as numerous as she may be, will withstand the gates of hell (Matt. 16:18). When we invite people to church, we’re not trying to make Christianity successful by any worldly standard. We’re welcoming poor sinners into the spiritual combat against temptations, death, and the devil, the same enemies we struggle with until we enter in the Lord’s victory and rest on the day of resurrection.

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Dear saints, we have been richly blessed. Not only has Christ saved us from sin, death, and the power of the devil, he has abundantly given us worldly riches. The devil wants you to hoard it and keep it to yourself. He wants you to be afraid. In Christ there is no fear. You know that as he gives to you today, he’ll give to you tomorrow. That’s why the widow’s mites were so precious in the Lord’s sight. She gave fearlessly from faith (Luke 21:1-4).

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“For although they believe and know that the departed believers have already gone to their rest, nevertheless, because in the face of death there is great consternation and perturbation of the human mind, since the vision of the diviner wrath and the terror of divine judgment then touches and affects us more closely, and as it were dwells before our eyes, therefore we flee to God, seeking consolation in the Word and the Sacraments by reading, hearing, meditating, praying, believing, and hoping” (Examin, Part III, 268).

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These things are necessary to write now because a narrative is being weaved by the main stream media that draws a direct line of complicity between the rioters who stormed the capitol earlier this month and evangelical Christians who have said that God sent Trump to be our president. No doubt some “evangelical” teachers spoke untruths about God’s plan and purpose for Trump, but we shouldn’t deny the truth that the Lord gave us our leader for the past four years. Just as he gives us Joe Biden for the next four years.

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The magi heard the hints of the mystery from the inspired prophets, and they believed. They waited until the mystery of their salvation was signified by the rising of Judah’s star to their west. Then they loaded their animals and set out in search of their Lord, praying and hoping he would receive them as he had received the sons of Abraham when they approached the Lord in faith.

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This is what we owe God that cannot be given to men. Our fear, love, and trust. Our faith. Our undivided loyalty. Keep this straight in your minds and hearts, you love your governor’s person and the office into which your Lord has placed her. You do not love her word over the Lord’s. You’re obedient to those laws and orders that are consistent with God’s law. When the governing authorities tell you to sin, you must disobey. This isn’t rebellion. This is the hard fact of life in this world as a Christian, a life that stirs up the world’s strife and anger because we don’t go along just to get along.

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David was an outstanding king, and he really had his wallet and treasury full of money, his barns full of grain, his land full of all kinds of goods and provisions. In spite of all this he had to be a poor beggar spiritually, as he sings of himself…

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It’s good to use the “at the same time” language but be sure to understand if it is being used to describe either justification or sanctification. In justification the language is total. In sanctification, it is partial and incomplete. If we can do this, then the language is helpful and comforting. If not, then we confuse salvation, righteousness, and the place and purpose of good works in this life.

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