St. Paul says in Romans, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is...
Friends, Just a quick little quote from Luther to get your work week started, not in the stress of your merit, but in the comfort of Jesus' grace and mercy. Concerning the 5th petition, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," Luther says, "Thus this petition is really an...
This blog post is the first of many reviews of the Book, A Necessary Distinction, a discussion on Law and Gospel. I pray that it will be helpful in the continual dialogue on this doctrine that is vital to the proper understanding and application of Holy Scripture. Fun times. At first...
St. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth saying, "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2nd Corinthians 2:17). I, and all my brother pastors, get you when it comes to your sin. We...
Dr. Martin Luther, of blessed and holy memory, writes in Against the Heavenly Prophets saying, "I will here briefly recount these articles of the Christian Faith to which everyone is above all things to pay attention and hold fast. The first is the law of God, which is to be preached so...
The Ten Commandments command us to live a righteous life, a life in faith toward God and fervent love toward our neighbor. This command never goes away. It doesn't stop once we are baptized, nor does it's demand depart from us whenever we go to church. God demands perfect righteousness. The...
No one likes being disciplined. No child wakes up wanting to get a spanking, nor does a teenager want cellphone privileges taken away. No young adult wants to get fired, and the veteran at work doesn't desire to get yelled at for making the same mistakes over and over again. In short, no one...
The reading from the Treasury this morning for the New Testament is the parable of the sower. Jesus says, "And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the...
The Gospel according to St. Mark says, "6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate...