Who, are what, is more significant, Christ or the Church? Who is to have the greater glory and honor? I know that’s a trick question. For if you are to honor Christ, you are also to honor His Bride, the Church. And when you honor His Church, you also honor the head of the Church, […]
Living Out the Faith in the Lutheran Church
August 20, 2012 by
By Pastor Rich Futrell All congregations and pastors in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pledge to uphold and follow the Lutheran Confessions. That’s a basic requirement of membership. And that’s also what separates us from all other Christian churches. At my ordination vows, I, as your pastor, vowed to “perform the duties of [my] office in […]
John 6:51-69: Taking in the Real Jesus
August 19, 2012 by
Jesus preaches a Word that is hard for His followers to hear. His followers are now a large crowd. They were the same group of 5,000 that Jesus had fed with five loaves and two fish. And they loved the Jesus who fed them with free food. They loved Jesus as their bread king. They […]
Revelation: Lesson 10: The Seven Signs, Parts 4-5
August 18, 2012 by
After the Apostle John observed heavenly worship, he saw Jesus, represented as a wounded but victorious lamb, receive a double-sided scroll with seven seals. Revelation then moves into four successive visions of each seal as Jesus breaks each one. Seal 1: Mary gives birth to Jesus. Satan tries to kill the infant Jesus but fails. […]
SOTHLC’s Pantokrator Painting is Now Finished
August 14, 2012 by
The second of two paintings that SOTHLC has commissioned to be painted is now complete: The Pantokrator. This is a painting of the Jesus as the “all powerful,” which is what pantokrator means in Greek. It represents Jesus returning in glory and power on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead. Like […]
Get Up and Eat: 1 Kings 19:1-8
August 12, 2012 by
“Get up and eat”: that was the buzzing alarm clock that awakened the Prophet Elijah as he slept under a broom tree. He had just come back from the magnificent victory at Mt. Carmel, where fire blazed down from heaven, and 450 prophets of Baal were put to the sword. What a heroic day for […]
Revelation: Lesson 9: The Seven Signs, Parts 2-3
August 11, 2012 by
After the Apostle John observed heavenly worship, he saw Jesus, represented as a wounded but victorious lamb, receive a scroll with seven seals. Revelation then moves into four successive visions of each seal that Jesus opens. Last week, we looked at the first seal, which depicted the cosmic battle between good and evil, between the […]
Will the Real “Sola Scriptura” Please Stand Up!
August 8, 2012 by
This is an excursus that our pastor wrote for a study on the New Testament epistle of Jude. Excursus: Will the Real “Sola Scriptura” Please Stand Up! To make his theological points, Jude liberally referred to parts of the Old Testament, which his readers viewed as authoritative. He called on such authority to show […]
Jude
August 7, 2012 by
Jude Author The author of this epistle simply identifies himself as “Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.” But who is he? First, Jude is a shortened form of “Judas.” Of course, we know of Judas Iscariot (of Kerioth). Yet, the New Testament mentions four other Judases. One was the Judas […]
