May each quote pique your interest and help you to draw near to God. The Bible, James 4:8, tells us if we do so God will draw near to us.
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Sunday, May 12, 2019
“Then as I read St. Paul in context, true stewardship became clear. He uses grace to describe the collection in 2 Corinthians 8:6. The most significant word of the New Testament, grace, is used for collected money! That was shocking. St. Paul's words begin a complete revolution in my thinking about the Church and money or, I should say, the Church, money, and mercy.”
(Harrison, 142-143)
Note: This revolutionary moment comes from President and Pastor Harrison's past when he used to see stewardship as "Law, Law, Law."
Read 2 Corinthians 8:6 in context (2 Corinthians 8:1-7)
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Sunday, May 5, 2019
“Tithe: If you want to stand out from the crowd, give your money to a local congregation. Tithing slays the idol of wealth and forces you to rely on God’s sustaining gifts. The culture tells us to live beyond the amount on your paycheck. Tithing tells the culture that you are going to live by faith in God: 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also' (Matthew 6:21).”
(Sutton, 115-116)
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Sunday, April 28, 2019
“Many highly credentialed historians, including B.F. Westcott and Henry Morris, do not blush to call the resurrection of Christ the most certain fact in history, and this according to the established standards of historical verification.”*
(Paustian, 179)
* Paustian is citing Josh McDowel, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 327.
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Sunday, April 21, 2019
“Easter is the oldest and highest of all Christian festivals—the festivals of festivals, the feasts of feasts! On this day when Christ first stepped triumphantly from the ranks of the dead, all our waiting is declared to be awaiting that is already completed; Christ’s triumph makes all the waiting that follows in our lives of faith a building anchored on the foundation that was laid when He whom the builders rejected became the Cornerstone. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!”
(Bauman, 111)
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Sunday, April 14, 2019
“On the cross, when Jesus had not eaten or drunk for hours, His tongue actually felt His suffering. On the cross, the psalmist’s description of suffering was fulfilled by Jesus. His strength was dried up like a potsherd, a broken fragment of kiln-fired pottery; His mouth with thirsty and dry, His tongue sticking to His jaws and the roof of His mouth. His suffering, including His excruciating thirst, brought our redemption. And now He lives so that His tongue can proclaim through His Word and through those He sends the forgiveness He has won for all people.”
(Hemmer, 44)
Hemmer is teaching from Psalm 22:1-24, especially verse 15
Read Psalm 22
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Sunday, April 7, 2019
“Now, in the slaughtering and offering of lambs, Abel was reminded of the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, as Hebrews 4:11 testifies: ‘By faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain.’ of course, faith only looks to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Abel learned this from his father Adam and his mother Eve when they explained the meaning of the lambskin garments.”
(Herberger, Part One and Two, 241-42)
This week, and the last two, Herberger is teaching from Genesis 4:1-5
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Sunday, March 31, 2019
“Cain, the rich wheat-farmer, brought a splendid offering of the delicious fruits of the fields. This is the first sacrifice of which we read in Scripture. In this sacrifice, Cain was suppose to remember the Messiah and take comfort in Him with a fruitful, penitent heart. While sowing his seed, he was to ponder how his Lord Jesus would also be sowed in the earth, that is, suffer, die, be buried, and rise again, and be ‘the firstborn of the dead' (Col. 1:18), ‘the firstfruits' of God's acre (1 Cor. 15:20), the ‘breaker...before them’ (Micah 2:13) who would prepare for us the way to life through the tomb and through death. Indeed, Cain should have considered how Jesus would be 'the true bread from heaven’ (John 6:32) that feeds our soul to eternal life.”
(Herberger, Part One and Two, 240-41)
Last week, this week, and next week Herberger is teaching from Genesis 4:1-5
Read Colossians 1:18 1 Corinthians 15:20 Micah 2:13 John 6:32
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Sunday, March 24, 2019
“Eve called her second son Abel, that is, ‘vanity, transience, impermanence, hardship and toil’—the same word that the preacher Solomon uses five times in a row (Eccl. 1:2). This was because Eve was bitter from her birth pains. Here again we see what misery sin has wreaked.”
(Herberger, Part One and Two, 240)
This week, and the next two, Herberger is teaching from Genesis 4:1-5
Read Ecclesiastes 1:2 in context (Ecclesiastes 1:1-4)
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Sunday, March 17, 2019
“The Gospel loops and swirls in a heavenly helix through every stand of Lutheran DNA. It is in the blood. The word evangelical originated with the Lutheran Church. Lutherans claimed it first. In Germany, the Lutheran Church was historically called the Evangelische Kirche, the Evangelical (that is, Lutheran) Church. … Lutherans are evangelical in the historically sense of the term. Lutherans openly confess and proclaim the Gospel."
(Sutton, 13)
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Sunday, March 10, 2019
“At present one hears many voices depreciating the importance of doctrine for the life of the church. How hollow these sound if one brings to mind the experience of Christian believers of the past! The men of the early Christian church 'devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching' (Acts 2:42).1"
In his footnote Smits goes on to explain:
“1 They persevered in it, ‘they strongly adhered to it,’ as the Greek word expresses it.”
(Smit, ix)
Read Acts 2:42
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Sunday, March 3, 2019
“The most significant event in Christ’s exaltation is his resurrection from the dead. Christ arose to give evidence to all the world that he had won the victory as mankind’s perfect substitute. Because Jesus is God, it is impossible for death to hold him. And because death could not hold Jesus, believers have spiritual and eternal life in him.”
(Kuschel, 86)
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Sunday, February 24, 2019
“We are always to pray in Jesus’ name. ‘Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it’ (John 14:13-14). Therefore, we offer prayer trusting in Him and what He did for us, and we approach the Father on Jesus’ merits, not our own.”
(Rudnick, 65)
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Sunday, February 17, 2019
“As a pastor, I have been asked more than once, ‘Why does the Old Testament waste so much space on so many boring genealogies?’ ... But we should not dismiss these genealogies, they set the stories of the Bible in real space and real time with real people, emphasizing pedigree of historicity. They also remind us how God's love is active through the ages, from generation to generation. Each name in each genealogy is remembered and recorded by God because each name matters to God. Just like your name.”
(McIntosh, 33-35)
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Sunday, February 10, 2019
“This psalm flows from the Third Commandment; indeed, it is part of that commandment, for the command to honor the Sabbath is itself the command to hear and learn of God’s Word. Psalm 1 is also included in the Second and Third Petitions of the Lord's Prayer, for in these we pray for God's kingdom and His will, both of which are conveyed by His Word.”
(Luther, Reading, 16)
Read Psalm 1
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Sunday, February 3, 2019
“When Jesus taught, people were astonished. What was so different about His teaching? Jesus never cited sources. He never began His sermons with ‘Rabbi so-and-so said . . .’ In fact, He began a lot of sentences with, 'You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you,’ for His Word alone matters.”
(Portals of Prayer, No. 442, February 3)
Read Luke 4:31-37 Read Matthew 5:27-28 Read Psalm 71:1-6
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Sunday, January 27, 2019
“In the New Testament era, we are accustomed to expect the preaching of the Word to ‘make disciples,' as Jesus promised (Matthew 28:19, 20). Nevertheless, every preacher and every teacher of God’s truth must realize that some souls will be hardened by the proclamation of the Gospel even if the message is eloquently and beautifully stated, it may result in the hardening of unbelieving hearts rather than their conversion. We have no way of knowing whether the message will produce faith or only confirm unbelief. That is in God's hands; every messenger must be faithful in the proclamation of God’s truth.”
(Braun, 94-95)
Braun is teaching from Isaiah 6:10-11
Read Matthew 28:19-20
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Sunday, January 20, 2019
“This verse was the inspiration for the familiar hymn ‘Beautiful Savior.’ Jesus’ beauty was not a physical attractiveness, but his pure, sinless character and the beautiful words of truth, grace, and forgiveness that he spoke. Addressed to an earthly king, these words would be idle flattery. Addressed to Christ, they express true worship. Romans 9:5, which calls Christ “God over all, forever praised,” is probably a reference to this verse.”
(Brug, 187)
Burg is teaching from Psalm 45:2.
Note: The NKJV calls Psalm 45 "The Glories of the Messiah and His Bride”
Note: The song "Beautiful Savior” is on page 537 of The Lutheran Service Book
Note: “Beautiful Savior” can be download from hymnary.org (here)
Read Romans 9:5
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Sunday, January 13, 2019
“Babies may look as pure as spring water, but the source is polluted. A thousand physical rebirths cannot change that. But there is water that purifies, the water that brings with it God’s Spirit. As Ezekiel prophesied of the LORD: 'I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. . . . I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees' (36:25-27). The Spirit works the new birth through the water of Baptism."
(Baumler, 50-51)
Baumler is teaching from John 3:4-6
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Sunday, January 6, 2019
“As Christians, we confess that we sinners are ‘worthy' to commune because Jesus welcomes sinners who repent of their sins and believe His promise that He gave His life and shed His blood for their forgiveness.”
(Luther, 339)
Note: The Catechism suggests we read the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Matthew 22:1-14, and notice that it both welcomes us and provides a warning.
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