Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
All this week I have continued to be haunted by the massacre that took place in Orlando this past Sunday morning. Below is a letter that was sent out from our Bishop, Roger Gustafson that is a call to action.
“Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Central States Synod,
Yet one more lethal act of…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
In our Gospel story this week, Luke 7:36-8:3, we read about how Jesus had been invited to eat with Simon, the Pharisee. Now we are not exactly sure why Simon wanted to eat with Jesus, but we can be pretty sure that he wanted “get the scoop” on who Jesus really was.
Jesus had been traveling around…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
In our gospel story from last Sunday, Luke 7:1-10, we heard how Jesus healed the slave of a Roman centurion. Now, although, we always like to hear about how Jesus healed people, my guess is that many of the Jews that were present when Jesus healed this man might not have been too happy about it. I mean,…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
This Monday begins the “unofficial” start of summer. Officially, summer doesn’t start until June 20 this year, but for many decades now in this country, we unofficially recognize the start of summer on Memorial Day, and for many it is a day off of work and a great day to go have a picnic.
But Memorial…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
This Sunday, May 22, is Trinity Sunday. It is the one day in the whole church year in which we actually celebrate a church doctrine. Although we use the term “trinity” as though it was a word explained in scripture, the word is never found in scripture. The church made up this doctrine and actually created…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
This morning, shortly after I got up, a storm moved in. The wind was blowing so hard that the trees were bending over and limbs were falling off in our yard, and the sound was unbelievable. A few minutes later, it started pouring and hailing. Here in De Soto, we had hail the size of golf balls. I knew…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
It is hard for me to believe that the season of Easter is about to come to an end. I love the season of Easter. It is a time when we sing hymns like “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and we begin every worship time with the great Easter proclamation, “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!”…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
I can’t remember exactly where, but there is a phrase that I read once that has always stuck with me. In the article I was reading, the author made the comment that, “The Holy Spirit often leads us places we do not want to go.” At the time, I was bothered by the statement because I thought, well,…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
Our son and daughter-in-law celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary this past Tuesday. That morning, Jill and I received a text from them wondering if we would be interested in having dinner with our two grandchildren while they went out to dinner to celebrate. Well, you don’t have to ask us twice if…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
The world is filled with voices trying to grab our attention, isn’t it? There are voices that want us to believe that we should be fearful of those that are different than us. There are voices that proclaim that unless we believe a certain way or act a certain way that God will not love us. There are voices…