Baptized Into Christ

Below is my newest newsletter article for April 2013. Jesus sinners doth receive. That’s been our hymn of the month and it’s the message of lent, the message of Holy Week, the message of the Cross, and the message of the church.   It’s been said before and it is worth repeating, if sinners weren’t allowed in Christ’s church, it would be empty.   The church is there for sinners. Consider those surrounding Jesus at the Last Supper; John, the beloved disciple, who wanted the place of power, authority, and glory in Jesus kingdom because he had desired personal glorification.   Thomas, who doubted the words of Jesus that He would rise from the dead, even after the other disciples told him that they had seen the resurrected Jesus.   Peter, who denied Jesus three times. And yet Jesus got down on His hands and knees to wash the feet of these sinners. Consider the thief on the cross, who knew that he deserved to die for his sins.   There was no do...

The following was my newsletter article that was published this past week.  Just thought I'd share it here too. “God’s peace be with you.” Before the service even begins we spend a few minutes greeting each other in God’s peace.   Is this just a holy howdy and a nice thing to do?    No, there’s more to it than that.   It’s an opportunity to show Christian love for one another, to give a hug to someone in the congregation who is hurting, to share joy with someone who has had something good happen.    St. Paul repeatedly instructs Christians to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26).   I somehow can’t see Iroquois county Lutherans resuming the exchange of a “holy kiss” with one another, but the idea behind the “holy kiss” continues.   After Christ’s resurrection, when he appeared before his disciples, Jesus said to His disciples “"Peace be with you....

Last week we celebrated national Lutheran Schools Week.  All over the country (in fact there are Lutheran Schools all over the world) Lutheran Schools had special events and did fun things like sports day, school spirit day, and the so on. But what makes Lutheran Schools so special?  Why are they worth the cost to a congregation?  Why not just assimilate our kids into the other schools? Here are just some of the reasons that Lutheran Schools are worth the cost. The most important job that parents have is raising their children in the Christian faith.  Obviously parents can raise their children as Christians without a Lutheran School, but the reality is that it is harder without the help that you can receive at a Lutheran School.  Instead of a curriculum that is entirely secular, your child gets to see all things through the lens of Christ.  Rather than children being left to pray on their own, they learn to pray with their teachers and other child...

It's been an ongoing phenomenon for years, the exercise gadget that is aimed at addressing one area of your body; The Thighmaster , the Ab Roller , and the list could go on.  These products promise results on a particular area of your body.  Thinner thighs, tigher abs, etc. The problem with this targeted approach is...it doesn't really work.  If you want six pack abs, you're going to have to eat a lean protein, lower calorie diet and exercise the other areas of your body to burn calories too.  If you want thinner thighs, you're going to have to ditch the doughnuts and hit the treadmill. Overall changes, exercising your entire body, changing what you are fueling your body with, those are the only ways to have the desired results; a targeted area without the changes simply won't produce the results. Its much the same in the church.  Take evangelism for example; If we want to have a congregation that is active in evangelism, we can't just focus on evangelism, b...

It's good to see that Yale researchers are finally learning what my confirmation students already know and what God's Word makes clear; Babies are born with a conscience, but they are also born sinful. Now I know that the researchers wouldn't put it that way, but if you read the transcript or watch the story that aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday you'll see that they discovered that babies pretty much come wired with knowing the basics of what is right and what is wrong.  They also discovered that the conscience (my word not theirs) of the baby is flawed. But like I said, my confirmation students (as well as anyone who has received even a half way decent instruction in the Christian faith) already know that we're born with a conscience because that fact has been made clear by God's Word. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law unto themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work ...

Recently the big news was that David Petraeus, the retired 4 Star General, former Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, director of the CIA, had hastily resigned after it was discovered that he had been having an affair. This is indeed a sad story, as it is always sad when a marriage is damaged by infidelity.  It is a tragic story for the wife of Petraeus. But what pricked my interest was the comments that I heard after the news broke. "The problem is that Americans have a prudish view of sexuality." "We need to be more like European and South American nations that simply expect for leaders to have a mistress.  After all, this is simply how men are wired.  We can't expect them not to have a mistress." "What's the big deal?  Clinton did the same thing and stayed in office." Sadly, the reason Petraeus had to retire wasn't because he had acted immorally or lowered his office by his behavior, but because in having an affair he might hav...

It was brought to my attention by some of my members that on Sunday a local pastor whose sermons are broadcast on the radio made the claim that Lutherans must be cannibals because we believe that in the Lord's Supper a person actually receives the body and blood of Jesus. So, is it true? Nope. We do believe, teach, and confess that in the Lord's Supper we truly receive the body and blood of Jesus.  However our confessions (confessions are statements of what we confess to be true) absolutely reject what this pastor was accusing us of. The funny thing is, this is hardly the first time that someone has accused Christians of cannibalism, but it used to always be from outside of the church that the charge came.  In the early days of Christianity it was common for Christians to be accused of cannibalism and of sexual deviancy.. It was apparently common knowledge that Christians drank wine when they met together, and that men kissed men and women kissed women in their gatherin...