. . . Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
—2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV)
Don’t take candy from strangers. Don’t be fooled by cutesy or convenient slogans. It is a dangerous world, filled with those all too willing to scratch the itchy ears of men. For the devil will offer what you want to steal your soul. Don’t take candy from strangers, for some have been bewitched by the offer of Turkish Delight from a witch dressed as a beautiful white queen.
God’s gifts to us for our bodily and spiritual needs both flow from the cross. From the cross, we see Christ with the ultimate expression of compassion for you. Christ takes upon himself our concerns and needs and provides us in exchange the bodily and spiritual gifts, in the Great Exchange.
And then come to the altar together not to give a gift but to receive the gift your Father has prepared for you, that you both may be cleansed by the body and blood of Christ and live in and under the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees unto eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.
In the face of certain death, as he is about to be swallowed up by the deep, Peter implores that the Lord of life would depart from him.
The Fourth Sunday after Trinity Luke 6:36–42 ☩ IN NOMINE IESU ☩ Our Lord’s summary of the second table of the Law is not simply “Love your neighbor.” It is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “As yourself” is a command to empathy. The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto…
In Memoriam ☩ Henry Rahn John 3:16–18 ☩ In Nomine Iesu ☩ The world wants us to think that death is natural. It isn’t. Life is not a circle. It’s a straight line. We were created to live, and to live without end. We only die because of sin—the sin of Adam passed on from…
The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul Matthew 16:13–19 + IN NOMINE IESU + Some of you may be wondering why we as Lutherans are celebrated a feast for two saints. After all, it seems rather capital C Catholic. The Augsburg Confession, one of the chief documents that lays out what Lutherans believe, teach, and…
The First Sunday after Trinity Luke 16:19–31 + IN NOMINE IESU + We shouldn’t be surprised that there has never been a completely pure church, that there have been many who have been baptized and bore the Christian name, but who denied this name and their Baptism by their works. Christ Himself tells us this…
The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity John 3:1–17 + IN NOMINE IESU + If one is the loneliest number that you’ve ever known, then three is the loveliest. For if God is simply one, and He most certainly is one, but if He is only one, then He remains completely hidden to us. But…
Feast of Pentecost (Confirmation) John 14:23–31 + IN NOMINE IESU + No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. Flesh and blood do not, cannot, reveal this, but the Father in heaven can, and does. Every time men make confession, proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living…