Put Your Money to Work

I recall a conversation long ago with a young, up-and-coming entrepreneur. He was a new member of the parish I was serving (Anglican). We had been speaking about stewardship – money. His comment to me was straightforward: “You make it sound like a man can buy his way into the Kingdom of God.” My answer was equally clear: “Yes, you can. But the price might be everything you have.” That was many years ago, but my thoughts have not changed. In fact, time has only confirmed their truth......

Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?

We tell our children if they work hard and play by the rules, they’ll succeed in life. Jerks, cheaters, and thieves won’t. They’ll end up in the gutter. Or jail. Or worse.

But if you keep your hands out of the cookie jar, your zipper up, and do your best to walk the straight and narrow, you’ll be okay. God will reward you. You’ll be happy.

The good are Most Likely to Succeed.
The bad are Most Likely to Fail.

But we’re half-lying and half-truth-telling. Life is not nearly so predictably black and white.

There’s the sleazy, fork-tongued blowhard who’s a multimillionaire with a trophy wife, two beautiful children, and Bentley in his eight-car garage. And there’s the sweetest, salt-of-the-earth, virgin-until-her-wedding-night whose husband left her for another woman a few months after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Good things happen to bad people.
Bad things happen to good people.

When God Disappoints

In the tiny Bible-belt town where I grew up, tragedy brought people together. Friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers would go the extra mile for a family in need. House fire? They'd hold a community fundraiser. Funeral? Enough casseroles would pile up in the kitchen to feed an army.

When times were at their worst, these folks were at their best. 

And in that way, they seemed quite unlike the God many of them worshiped on Sunday.

When times are at their worst, many of us wonder, “Where the hell is God?” Because the evidence suggests he’s on a cruise to the Bahamas. Or sleeping off a hangover. Or too preoccupied with bigwig affairs to waste time on us peons. Wherever he is, he’s not where we desperately need him to be—here, with us...........

Our Sufficiency Is From God

When it comes to the knowledge of how one may stand before God and attain eternal life, that is truly not to be achieved by our work or power, nor to originate in our brain. In other things, those pertaining to this temporal life, you may glory in what you know, you may advance the teachings of reason, you may invent ideas of your own; for example: how to make shoes or clothes, how to govern a household, how to manage a herd. In such things exercise your mind to the best of your ability. Cloth or leather of this sort will permit itself to be stretched and cut according to the good pleasure of the tailor or shoemaker. But in spiritual matters, human reasoning certainly is not in order; other intelligence, other skill and power, are requisite here – something to be granted by God himself and revealed through his Word.

Religious Experts vs. the Cross: On Reading the Book of Job

Could Adam pray? Did he know who God is and what the Name of Jesus means? Did he understand the mystery of God among us? For a long time I thought about these questions. For a long time I was curious about how much of what I knew, Adam could know, and how much of what I understood, Adam could understand. But now I see that these were for me questions from “below,” questions that reflected more my anxiety and uncertainty than God’s love. God’s questions, the questions from “above” were, “Can you let Adam lead you into prayer? Can you believe that I am in deep communion with Adam and that his life is a prayer? Can you let Adam be a living prayer at your table? Can you see my face in the face of Adam?”...................

You Are Not White As Snow - Ash Wednesday

Hanging on to our sin is a terrible business. When it goes unconfessed, we usually try to double and triple down on it to keep it off the radar. Then we end up with far more than just the initial transgression we try to hide. And something happens to our conscience during our unholy charade. We stop feeling the weight of our sin. We are simply self-blinded to what we’ve done. And in the end, we tragically feel and see nothing........

Motherhood Is Physical—and So Is the Gospel

Central to Christianity is the conviction that our spirits and bodies are connected—that what happens to our bodies matters. We believe, proclaim, and practice that the God who made bodies took on a body and meets us still today in our bodies. We declare that the God who made the physical earth visited it in the flesh and is still entirely committed to nurturing his creation. Our good news is that, in the end, this Creator-God will not separate our souls from our bodies or his presence from the earth. For after his body was broken in death, he did not meet us in spirit but in resurrection. As the firstfruits of the new creation, Jesus is both our Savior and our future promise. God will not abandon but redeem our earth and bodies. He will make his permanent dwelling with us in the restored and recreated heavenly city on earth......

Offer Hope. Don't Peddle Fear

From hatred to apathy to fondness, a variety of emotional responses are evoked when the word “church” is mentioned to both believers and non-believers alike. It has served as both a scapegoat and symbol in a society that is both ever-changing and dependably tumultuous.
Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/offer-hope-dont-peddle-fear#EwcAvqhebqZUpL03.99

There’s a Difference Between Taking a Stand and ‘Causing Division'

In the post-election chaos and divisiveness, one thing has been clear to me: We put a lot of stock in our head of state. Perhaps too much.

Whether you’re celebrating, mourning or remaining ambivalent about our new president, you probably see it, too. On the far side of the continuum, thousands have been protesting Trump in unbridled outrage. On the other side, some have been responding radically with violence and racism................................

“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”

7 Things Christians Should Give Up To Reach Unchurched People

So you want your church to reach people who don’t go to church.

That’s wonderful because that’s basically the mission of the church: to share the love of Christ with the world in the hopes everyone will come into a relationship with Jesus.

The challenge is that unchurched people aren’t exactly flocking to most churches, and many Christians seem stumped as to why that is.......................

“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”

Stop Doing Good Works To God

By Martin Luther

You have often heard that we need not do good works to God, but to our neighbor. We cannot make God stronger nor richer by our works, but we can make our neighbor stronger and richer with them; he is in need of them, and hence they should be directed to him and not to God. This you have often heard and you have it now in your ears; I would to God, that it might come also into your hands and feet....................

“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”

To The Troubled In Conscience

This is a word to those with a troubled conscience. Those tormented by their failure to conquer that secret sin, or those who have screwed up so horrifically and publicly that they are in danger of losing all hope. When the good news of the gospel seems so distant in comparison with the deafening thunder of shame that cracks and wakes you up in the middle of the night (if you can find sleep at all.) And for those falling further into sin, against the still small voice of wisdom or the discordant harmony of warnings from friends and family....................................

“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”

Autoimmunity and the Heart Curved Inward

I am sick. That’s pretty much all I can tell you about it with any real confidence. For two years, a harvest of strange and debilitating medical maladies have continued to hurl wrenches into the functioning of my poor and puzzled body (I’ve detailed some of that elegant saga here and here). In my time not writing about being sick on Mockingbird, I slug from one doctor to the next, submit myself to pokes, prods, needles, and indelicate personal questions. Everyone agrees things aren’t right. Yet I am still without a clear diagnosis. There have been rabbit-hole-suspicions by many-a-medical professional, ranging from panic disorder to systemic candida to Crohn’s. But the most recent one is this: autoimmune disease.................................

“This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King. ”

— Grace Lutheran PSL

Does Courage Even Matter Anymore?

Who doesn’t want to be courageous? We love the stories of people who defied the odds. We taste the suspense. We feel the sweat and tears. We rejoice in the glory of triumph. As for us, we often feel inadequate in the face of such inspiration. We doubt we would ever have what it takes—even as we secretly long to play a significant role in such a story. Yet ironically, Christians are called to do just that: to be agents of change for good in the world. As Christianity is pushed further into the margins of society, it can be daunting to know how to navigate a strong Christian witness. Such a calling requires courage. We need to rediscover the lost art of being courageous.

This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King.

4 Things Jesus Never Said

In the history of human kind, few people have been as widely quoted as Jesus. Which also means few have been misquoted as often as Jesus. I don’t mean we quote verses incorrectly; rather we associate thoughts, opinions, words and phrases with Jesus and the Bible that actually may not be there.

Here are a few things I hear frequently hear that we may need to rethink …

This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King.

Interacting with the Scriptures

by Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mumme

With Gutenberg’s invention of movable type printing and waxing literacy especially among the urban population, Christian interaction with the Bible entered a new phase in the Reformation era. In this, Martin Luther played a direct hand, not only with his translation of the Bible, but also with his introductions to the various books of the Bible. Luther came to his task as translator..............

This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King.

Political Contrast

There is a deep shadow that lays across the first lines of Luke chapter 2, and it is a political one. Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome, the most powerful man in the world, opens the scene by commanding the entire world. Everyone must be registered. That is a politician with power. He casts a long shadow.

Politics is still that way. Elections and laws and policies and cable news and presidents flow on in a never-ending attention-grabbing stream. In 2016, we were fixated on the political process

This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King.

Law-Abiding Citizens

BY BRAD GRAY

Among the things that perturb me about modern Christianity is our residual clinging to a sort of “Christian-karma.” You’ve probably read this frustration from me before, but with some recent events in my own life, I feel as though Christians still just don’t get it. We want so much for our deeds and actions to matter that we’ve actually trivialized grace instead of personalized it. We’ve made the Christian life so conditional and provisional, qualitative and restrictive. We’ve degraded the relationship we’re supposed to have and called to have with the Lord Jesus into nothing more than a rigid life of “paying it back” and “balancing the scales.” We’ve crisscrossed the vertical and the horizontal, so that now the minor is majored, the petty is prominent, and the arbitrary is aggrandized. We coerce obedience through convictions instead of cultivate it by grace. We loft our goodness into perfectness so that it’s easier for us to condemn others and exonerate ourselves. We’re lost in karmic realities when we should be lost in cosmic grace.

Let me reiterate very clearly: Christianity isn’t a...............................

Why Person-First Language Matters

By Daniel Ross

I read it in news articles. I hear it on newscasts. I hear it walking on the street. I have even heard it used in churches. I see and hear it everywhere, and it makes me cringe —Every. Single. Time. What is it? It is people using a characteristic (usually a disability) to define who a person is. And it is wrong.

Now, I am no Social Justice Warrior. Nor am I a guy who is on the extreme edge of being politically correct. This is not about that. So please, hear me out before you tune me out.

How Our Minds Work

Our minds want to categorize everything. Chaos is...................................

The Old Testament Roots of Baptism: Part 2

This article does not necessarily reflect the options and beliefs of Grace Lutheran PSL but is listed to help us grow in our faith in Jesus the King.

BY DONAVON RILEY

God's Word, water, and the Spirit. Always when God creates and recreates, God's Word, water, and the Spirit are in play. Whether at the beginning of it all, or in the days of Noah, in the wilderness during the Exodus, or at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, and at the font today, God's Word, water, and the Spirit are at work, doing something to speak new life into existence.

Take for example, the Levite priests. Before they could enter the temple they had to wash themselves in a font of water, or a "laver of brass" as it's often translated. That is:

Make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. Put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and fill it with water. Aaron and his sons will use it for washing their hands and feet. Before they go into the tent of meeting, they must wash so that they will not die. Before they come near the altar to serve as priests and burn an offering by fire to the Lord, they will wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This will be a permanent law for him and his descendants for generations to come (Exodus 30:18-21).................................................

Read the rest at Christ Hold Fast