Only You Can Prevent Church Fires A few years ago in December, I visited my friend’s church. The service was beautiful, but when it came time for the sermon, the pastor spoke a long time and my attention waned. Suddenly, I heard him call out, “There’s a fire going on in here!” Thinking that
What makes the Lord’s Prayer different? See why God loves to hear you pray this prayer. by Rev. Paul Beisel If Lutherans followed the advice of Martin Luther, they would find themselves praying the Lord’s Prayer five times per day. Luther took prayer seriously. In the Small Catechism, he instructs Christians to pray the Lord’s
We sometimes hear people say, God told me to . . . But can we be certain that its really Him?
Fan into Flame draws to a close I read the article in the March Lutheran Witness about the Fan into Flame campaign coming to a close, and the numbers in it caught my attention. Nearly 67 million was raised. However, the sidebar states that only 53 million of that actually materialized in cash received. Nearly
by James Heine At its 34th biennial convention last June in Peoria, Ill., the LWML elected Kay Kreklau as its 17th president. A longtime member, Kreklau has served the LCMS auxiliary in a multitude of roles at the local, zone, district and national levels. As a member of a small North Dakota congregation, she has
Our Lord bids us to pray, but where do we start? by Gregg Hein It is bedtime. My younger children–ages 10, 8 and 5–have just finished jostling for position to brush and spit and complete the rest of the routine. The obligatory debate about whose room we’ll be praying in tonight is set-tled by my
by Rev. Dr. Jerald C. Joersz Q:Â In both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, we confess that Jesus “rose again” from the dead. English versions of the Bible also say in a few passages that Jesus rose again (e.g., Mark 8:31 and 1 Thess. 4:14). Doesn’t this imply that Jesus rose a second time? Why not
by Rev. Dr. Greg Wismar “The flowers in church today are given to the glory of God by . . .” For most churches, having a weekly display of flowers in the chancel is a virtual expectation. Hard-working flower committees (or altar guilds or chancel societies, depending on local custom) see to it that appropriately
The Lord is working through His people to build up the Church in the Dominican Republic.
A teacher by any other name . . . My brother Jerry and I were both Lutheran school principals. When I retired, I often substitute-taught at his school. I was teaching in a second-grade class when a little girl said, “That’s weird.” “What’s weird?” I asked. “It’s you and your brother,” she replied. “Well, it’s
Knowing how and what to pray can be difficult, but God has taken great pains to help us learn to pray.
by Rev. Joshua Hayes We believe that Christ “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” For 40 days after He rose from the dead, Christ appeared to the apostles and preached to them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). He was then “taken up into heaven and