Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you had a Merry Christmas.
Well first I want to thank my wife, Jill for helping me out the past couple of weeks. I hope you enjoyed her notes with news from Salem as much as I did. And secondly, I just want to say that I pray you all had a very blessed and merry Christmas.
I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week!
In our gospel text for this coming Sunday, John 15:9-17, Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (15:12). Jesus actually commands us to love. It sounds so simple “go love each other,” but to be honest, don’t you find this really hard to do? I mean, sometimes,…
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
In the Gospel of Mark, which will be our main Gospel that we read this year, this writer claims the good news of Jesus Christ begins with Jesus’ baptism. We read about that just a couple of weeks ago, then immediately after he was baptized, we are…
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
Once again this week, our gospel text begins with words of comfort from Jesus. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (15:9). What a beautiful statement and one that is intended to offer comfort, but then just a few verses…
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
As I mentioned last week, in the Gospel of John, which we read from often during the Season of Easter, Jesus uses powerful language to describe himself. Language that implied to the people of the first century that he was no ordinary man. No, according…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week!
I love this weather! The temperature is perfect these days. We are getting good amounts of rainfall. The flowers and trees are in full bloom and I can sit on my back deck and watch the birds and animals. I just love this time of year and now, in just about a week, Jill and I will begin planting our garden…
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
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul” Psalm 23:1-3). This is a verse that for most of us brings comfort and reassurance. Many read and recite this…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week!
I think I have shared this with you before, that my Grandpa Weinstein died right on my 13th birthday. Because of that, my birthday is always a bittersweet day because, although that was 43 years ago, I can still feel the pain that I felt when my mother came in my bedroom to tell me Grandpa had died.…
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
OK, I know Easter Sunday was two weeks ago, but in our readings, we are still reading about what happened on that first Easter Sunday. So, let me give you a little timeline of events here. First, early in the morning, according to all the Gospels,…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you had a blessed Easter and week!
I was watching the news this morning and two of the top stories didn’t have to interview real people to talk about the events that were being reported about. In both cases, instead of talking to a person, the reporter was able to show a video that was shot of each of the particular incidents and…