First, let me say that we often feel uncomfortable confronting sin in others.  We know all too well our own sinfulness and our Lords command to not judge others (see Matthew 7:1).  Yet we are told to… 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and […]

  We have all built up nostalgic images of the idyllic Christmas that we remember from the past or the dream Christmas that we always hoped for.   But how about the memories of a past Christmas that didn’t quite meet expectations?   Do we remember those times or have they faded into the past to be […]

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until […]

2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays […]

Today, on the frontlines of the Coronavirus, are many medical personal, both men and women.  I suspect however that the vast majority of the nurses are female, risking their lives in the physical realm for others.  Yet, often the only thing we hear about women is what they are not allowed to do in the […]

I had knee surgery at Ft. McClellan. Alabama back in 1997. Later I came down on orders to move to Rose Barracks near Vilseck in Bavaria, Germany. This was a mechanized (they went to war in Bradley fighting vehicles) infantry unit and the standards for physical fitness were higher. As I trained up to meet […]

We are living through times like have not been seen for decades. To be sure, there have been pandemics in the past to include the Polio epidemic in the first half of the 18th century (1900’s), and the Black Death (Plague) which visited Europe and Asia in the 1300’s. Most recently we’ve seen the Ebola-virus […]

The year was 1992, April 29th. You all remember it as the day of the LA riots. I remember it as the day of my youngest son’s 4th birthday and the day of the Freetown Military Coup in Sierra Leone, West Africa. We were Bible Translation missionaries for Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT) there during 1990-93. […]

Is Hell real? Christ’s Descent into the place we commonly refer to today as “Hell” is referred to in the Apostles’ Creed and the Athanasian Creed.     We as Bible believing Lutherans have always believed in hell.  Martin Luther, in a sermon delivered in Torgau in 1533, stated that Christ descended into Hell.   The Formula of […]

Recently someone gave me an article entitled “Every Day’s a Bad Day; How Ecclesiastes Taught Me to Enjoy Life” by Carolyn Mahaney.  The author talks about the challenges we face living in a sinful world and claims that understanding the wisdom of the OT book rescued her from disillusionment, bitterness, bewilderment, and from being disheartened […]