Baptized Into Christ

Every pastor has experienced it.  Preparing a sermon, preparing to enter the pulpit to preach God's Word to God's people, but his thinking is clouded by hurtful words that still echo in his head. A member...a loved and trusted member of the church...said something deeply hurtful to the pastor.  Maybe the comment was about him personally.  Maybe it was about something the he does or doesn't do.  Perhaps, worst of all, it was said about his wife or family. Such comments are deeply hurtful.  I could give you personal examples, but I won't out of love and respect for the individuals involved and because it would be poor pastoral practice to do so. How can a pastor deliver God's Word in a faithful way in such a situation?  The temptation is to use the pulpit to vent about the situation or to "address" the thinking that led to such comments.  Or not to preach at all, because who wants to talk to people who have hurt you so deeply?  The temptation ...

I'm a very pragmatic guy in general. As a child, in math class I wanted to skip to giving the answer that I'd already figured out in my head rather than write down all of the steps that showed the teacher how I got to the answer.  To me, showing the steps was an enormous waste of time.  (But of course, the teacher was right in making me show my work, because if there was an error, he or she could show my how I arrived at the correct answer). In English class, I couldn't have cared less about verbs, nouns, and adverbs.  Why did I need to know about those things?  Why couldn't we just use the language? I'm a pragmatic person by nature, but I learned early on that pragmatism is poisonous for the church. "Whatever works" might be great for some areas of life, but for the church "whatever works" is dangerous and deadly. When we find pragmatism in the Bible, things do not go well.  Such as when... Sarah told Abraham to have a child with Hagar...

The only office of the church established by God in His Word is the Pastoral Office, yet today there are all kinds of different "professional church workers."  So what gives? Here's how the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod explains it. The Office of the Public Ministry - it is the divinely established of office referred to in Scripture as "shepherd," "elder," or "overseer." This term is equivalent to "the pastoral office." Within this of office are contained all the functions of the ministry of Word and sacrament in the church. Auxiliary Offices - These are offices established by the church. Those who are called to serve in them are authorized to perform certain of the function(s) of the office of the public ministry. These offices are "ministry" and they are "public," yet they are not the office of the public ministry. Rather, they are auxiliary to that ...

Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823-1883) isn't likely a name that you're familiar with (unless you attended a confessional Lutheran seminary), which is a shame because he is one of the most important figures in the history of Lutheranism in the United States. He stood firm for the faith while more popular individuals (like Samuel Simon Schmucker) wanted to dismiss and/or change the Augsburg Confession and other statements of faith so that they would fit in better with the thinking of the culture of his day. Krauth's message resonates today because there are still many who claim the title of "Lutheran" while undermining basic Lutheran teachings.  The battles that he fought (the authority of scripture, use of the sacraments, sound theology, etc.) are the same battles we face today. Below is one of the most famous quotes from Krauth and boy does it resonate today! When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages in its progress are alway...

A few years ago a commencement speaker made waves when he told graduates that they are not special.  It was a dose of honesty that many of us need to hear. As Christians, we need to hear "you're not special" because when Christians begin to believe that they are special, bad things happen.  When a Christian believes that he or she is special, things begin to be looked at in a skewed way.  God has established ways that He wants us to act and things He want us to do and it's really important to walk in those ways...for everyone except me of course, because I'm special. David thought that He was special and so instead of being on the front lines, leading his army, as he should have been, he was instead at home and got himself into trouble with Bathsheba.  And it all started with David thinking, "I'm special."  The son's of Eli thought that they were "special."  Therefore they exploited their positions and abused God's people fo...

I wrote this for the newsletter a few years back and recently came across it while in search of another article. I thought I'd share it here too. It is from May 2009. This past week I decided that it was time to do something about the dandelions.  I wasn't very concerned about the ones in the yard, but the ones in the nicely designed area with beautiful flowers surrounded by wood chips were really starting to bother me.  So I got some weed killer and sprayed them. I think I made them mad, because after a few days they hadn't died, but instead had multiplied!  I have to wonder, was it really herbicide or was it fertilizer that I sprayed on the weeds? So it was time to remove them the old fashioned way.  I got out the dandelion removal tool and got to work.  Pretty soon Timmy came along and asked what I was doing. "Pulling weeds," I responded. Timmy looked puzzled.  "Those aren't weeds, those are mommy flowers."  And to Timmy, they are mommy ...

There are a lot of false teachers in this world and there always have been.  One false teaching that Christians have always had to battle is the idea that once something comes to faith in Jesus, everything will go well for them.  There is an idea that as long as your faith is strong, God will give you health, wealth and happiness.  Even though Jesus told His disciples to "deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me," and Paul wasn't healed of the "thorn" in his flesh, but instead he was told "My grace is sufficient for you," there are still false teachers like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer who tell people that God's plan for them is physical and financial blessings in this life. Physical afflictions are not God's way of punish us, but a result of the fall into sin.  However, they can be used by God for His good because when you are weak, you must look to Christ for strength, just as St. Paul did.  I think that most Christians understand ...