PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST Most parents mean to do well for their children. Parents wish and dream great things for their children. Parents hope that their children will become more successful than they have been. To bring about success in life, most parents will do a good job of feeding the child a balanced, nutritious…
Job was a very rich man. He owned 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys. Besides that, he had a large family – seven sons and three daughters. In one awful day, Satan spearheaded the destruction of all of it. How would you respond to this? Job fell to the ground…
For many people today, the Lutheran label may not mean what it ought to mean. Much of Lutheranism, as observed on the world scene, is considerably liberal in its theology. A large number of Lutheran scholars do not accept the foundational premise that Dr. Martin Luther himself took for granted: the Bible is verbally inspired…
“You think you are so holy!” the man said sarcastically. “You are such a saint!” the woman said to her kind neighbor. These statements make reference to sainthood, but they are only figures of speech. They are not intended to suggest that the person is, or thinks he is, a true saint. November 1 each…
For Lutherans, October 31st is more than Halloween. It is also Reformation Day. October 31, 1517, is the day that Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses (statements) to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Why did he do this, and what happened because of it? The 95 Theses outlined what Luther believed were errors…
On September 29 each year, we observe the Festival of St. Michael & All Angels. This is a festival to highlight the work of God’s angels among us. It also gives us the opportunity to do some myth busting. Here are six myths about angels compared with what the Bible teaches. Myth #1: Angels were…
Ever wonder where our seven-day week comes from? After the sixth day of creation, the book of Genesis says, “[O]n the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it…
I’ve been reading The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. It chronicles the experiences of some of those who fought and lived through World War II. Brokaw identifies this as the greatest generation because of the values those individuals held, things like duty, honor, service, and commitment. Those are big words and important concepts. But I’m…
We Americans love our freedom, and we enjoy it to a degree experienced by few civilizations in history. We are free to believe what we want, say what we want, and write what we want. This is guaranteed to us in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. But no one (or almost no one)…
The Supreme Court ruling today means that no state can legally define marriage as only between one man and one woman. States must now officially declare that the union of two homosexuals is just as proper and natural as the union between heterosexuals. Even if the Bible did not define which unions are proper and…