The Europeans have an expression: “All roads lead to Rome.” That expression came about because, for many centuries, Rome was the world’s main center of power. And back then, many of the major roads did lead to Rome. That’s what connected Rome to its Empire–its massive set of roadways, many of which still exist to […]
Prayers for the Dead: A Scriptural and Lutheran Worldview
September 6, 2014 by
Introduction The Scriptures teach us that a when a person dies, he immediately begins to experience eternity in one of two states: heaven or hell. The Christian experiences eternity as one filled with joy (heaven), although his body and soul are separated until his soul is reunited with a sinless, perfect, incorruptible body on the […]
Acts, Lesson 13: Persecution Begins From the State
September 4, 2014 by
Last week, we had a look into the church at Antioch, the first place where Christians were labelled with the disparaging term, “Christian,” one belonging to Christ. Today, we find such disparaging words grow into an even greater persecution. Martyrdom and Imprisonment Read Acts 12:1-5 Herod and his descendants, also called “Herod” ruled Judea […]
Matthew 16:21-28: Jesus Must Go Forth to Die
August 31, 2014 by
Whenever Jesus says that He must or has to do something, we should stop and take notice. In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus said, “He must go to Jerusalem and suffer a great deal from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that he must be killed and raised on the third day.” When […]
Acts, Lesson 12: Gentiles in the Church; the Gift of Prophecy
August 28, 2014 by
Peter and the Jewish Christians with him saw God giving the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles. That means that they were full-fledged members of Christ’s Church, the same as the ethnic Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah. But growth and change do not always take place smoothly and without incident, which our study […]
Acts, Lesson 11: Peter and Cornelius
August 19, 2014 by
Peter had raised Tabitha from the dead and stayed near where Tabitha lived. While in Joppa, Peter stayed with a tanner. It’s now that we hear the Church spreading to full-blown Gentiles (as opposed to Samaritans, which were a Semitic people with some Jewish ancestry). In this chapter of Acts, we see a new period […]
Making a Faithful Confession
August 18, 2014 by
Instead of an article that I normally write, I put in its place an article written by Pr. Matthew Harrison, assistant pastor at Village Lutheran Church in Ladue, Missouri and also Synod President of the LC-MS. This is a short article that he wrote about what we can do concerning the specific and targeted Christian […]
