Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed couple of weeks.
Well, the trip Jill and I have been planning for over a year finally happened. As you may have noticed, you have not received a note from me over the past couple of weeks because, on November 1, Jill and I flew to Israel where we spent nine days traveling the country making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
Well, as I write this letter, Jill and I are just a couple of days away from getting on an airplane to fly to Israel. Yes, this is a trip we have dreamed about for years and we are finally going to visit the land that we have studied so much about and the land where so much of our faith is centered.
All…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
Today is the last Sunday in October, which means in the church calendar today is Reformation Sunday. For many Lutherans, it is kind of like our “national pride day.” We like to talk about how it was Luther who challenged the church of his day and sought…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
This past Tuesday morning, I attended a breakfast meeting in Kansas City, Kansas. This meeting was actually an annual fundraiser event for a ministry called Mosaic. Mosaic is a ministry that seeks to help the intellectually challenged. When I was a kid, we called these people “retarded.” In school, these…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
What an odd & depressing story! Right on the heels of our text from last week about how the landlord was going to put those “miserable wretches” of tenants to death, this week we hear a parable about a “king” who invites his people to his son’s…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
As you may or may
not know, Salem is in the beginning stages of launching our
stewardship campaign
to raise money for our annual operations budget and to fund an additional staff
person for three years plus renovate our sanctuary. It is called, One Campaign – Two Appeals.…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
What an odd & depressing story! Right on the heels of our text from last week about how the landlord was going to put those “miserable wretches” of tenants to death, this week we hear a parable about a “king” who invites his people to his son’s…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
Have you ever gone somewhere and as you arrived realized you were underdressed? You know, you wore jeans and a sweater and everyone else is wearing dress clothes. It can be embarrassing, but in today’s world, most people don’t get too upset about dress codes and most often are very understanding and…
Posted by dwhetter |
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
Jesus has been on a roll lately in this Gospel of Matthew and he has been using parables to try and teach not only his disciples, but also those religious leaders who have been challenging him. So, today, once again, he asks the Pharisees to listen to…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
We all have excuses for not being active in our faith, don’t we? I hear them a lot, “Oh, Pastor, sorry we weren’t there on Sunday, but the boys had a football game.” Most of the excuses can be summarized in a statement that literally means “Pastor, we won’t be able to help at that service…