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 their standards I developed an injury in…

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 run rampant in Africa. In fact, Susan…

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. By orders of the US embassy, everyone…

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 Concord (a Lutheran confession) states, “We believe…

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 by sin in the world.  This article…

Christianity’s Watershed Point A watershed is an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas. One example that often comes to mind is a continental divide, which is the biggest of all watersheds. In the USA there is a continental divide which goes through the Rocky Mountains and from which all rivers drain either east…

Humor in Review Humor has taken a turn for the worse these days. At times, we don’t even see just how raunchy, immoral and degrading the humor of our days has become. When my Ft. Wayne Seminary professor for Missions, Dr. Rev. Eugene Bunkowski, returned from Nigeria after being a missionary there for 20+ years, he would comment to us about this…

Standing Up for Righteousness When the Jews tried to trip Jesus up and discredit Him, He said:  18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show Me the tax money.”  So they brought Him a denarius.  20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”  21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”  And He said to…

This year, September 8 to 14th is national Suicide prevention week. Last year in June of 2018, the topic of suicide was one of the lead stories for the media. Of course, this was driven by the deaths of Fashion Designer Kate Spade (1962-2018) and Chef Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018). In recent memory another suicide that comes to mind is that of Comedian…

Many of us were raised on the King James Authorized Version (KJV) of the Bible or maybe even using the Revised Standard Version (RSV). We’ve probably all seen presentations trying to convince us which of these and others is the best translation to use. We’ve probably also all heard from some quarters that the KJV of the Bible is practically equal to…