If you look at the Church with the eyes of your body, the Church can often be a despicable mess. Think of how one hymn describes her: “Though with a scornful wonder the world sees her oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed” (LSB 644, stanza 3). And that hymn doesn’t even mention the […]
The Relation between the Tree of Life and the Sacraments
October 16, 2014 by
The Two Trees Note: In this lesson, the translations from Genesis are your pastor’s. He has done this, hoping you can you get a better “feel” of the poetic language in the Hebrew text. Genesis 2:9: And YHWH, God, made sprout from the soil every tree that was pleasing to the eye and good for […]
Augsburg Confession, Article 24
August 4, 2014 by
AC XXIV: The Mass (Pt 1) Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. In fact, the Mass is retained among us and is celebrated with the greatest reverence. Almost all the customary ceremonies are also retained, except that German hymns, added for the instruction of the people, are interspersed here and there among […]
Augsburg Confession, Articles 22-23
July 20, 2014 by
AC XXII: Reception of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper The laity are given both forms of the Lord’s Supper because this practice is the Lord’s command, “Drink of it all of you (Matthew 26:27). Christ has clearly commanded that all should drink from the cup. So no one will quibble and say […]
Acts, Lesson 3: A glimpse into the earliest New-Covenant Church
June 4, 2014 by
In the last lesson, pastor taught that the “they” in Acts 2:1 referred to the entire Christian Church at the time: those before whom Peter spoke (Acts 1:15). And we find more confirmation that more than just the Apostles spoke in other languages. Read Acts 2:5-13 What brought the Jews to where the Christians were […]
Augsburg Confession, Articles 10-11: The Lord’s Supper and Private Confession
May 25, 2014 by
AC X: The Lord’s Supper Our churches teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present and are distributed to those who eat the Lord’s Supper [1 Corinthians 10:16]. They reject those who teach otherwise. Rome’s Response: The tenth article does not offend us, for it confesses that in the Eucharist, after the […]
Tradition in Christ’s Church, Part 2
May 20, 2014 by
This is our pastor’s newsletter article for June, 2014. In last month’s newsletter article, we learned that tradition is not a bad word. In truth, we learned the opposite: Tradition is a good word. However, what matters about tradition is whose tradition we are following. The Apostle Paul wrote to the congregation at Thessalonica: “So […]
Maundy Thursday Sermon
April 17, 2014 by
Today, we rarely use the word “mercy” in our everyday speech. But in the Church, it’s as common as the air we breathe. We pray in the liturgy: “Lord, have mercy on us.” When we do that, we echo the blind men who sought physical sight from Jesus in Matthew 9 and Luke 18. For […]
Understanding New-Covenant Worship as the Fulfillment of the Old
March 22, 2014 by
Worship before God gave Moses instructions on worship From the dawn of time, proper worship of God involved resting from work on the Sabbath day to hear God’s Word (Genesis 2:3). At first, that Word was proclaimed by word of mouth with no written Scriptures: Adam to Seth, Seth to Enosh, Enosh to Kenan, and […]
Luke 14:15-24: Receiving God’s Invitation
June 10, 2013 by
A good father provides for his family. He doesn’t do this by giving what he likes, or by doing what only happens to be convenient. No, he provides for his family by making sacrifices. The father sacrifices his time, pleasure, and personal preferences to provide for his wife and children. And from all that a […]
