Watch Yourself and Your Doctrine Closely
It’s easy as WELS pastors to read the first paragraph of Sunday’s gospel (Mt 7:15-29) and mentally check off this pericope as having no rebuke for us. Jesus urges his hearers to be constantly watching ...
It’s easy as WELS pastors to read the first paragraph of Sunday’s gospel (Mt 7:15-29) and mentally check off this pericope as having no rebuke for us. Jesus urges his hearers to be constantly watching ...
“Give what you command [O Lord], and then command whatever you will.” In St. Augustine’s Confessions, that was his memorable way of capturing this comforting scriptural truth: God himself effectively works in us to will ...
Volume 23, Number 5 Go Deep As you know by now, I’m a fan of simple preaching. I love Luther’s assessment of a good preacher: “He’s the best preacher who can teach in a plain, ...
What fears do you, like the two Marys in Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 28:1-10), bring with you to the tomb this Easter week? Perhaps never in our lifetimes has it been as easy to identify a ...
Volume 23, Number 4 What's the Point? I have a confession to make. I once attended Joel Osteen’s church. Okay, twice. I went twice. My wife and I lived in Houston, TX for a year, ...
Isn’t it quite stunning in Sunday’s gospel (John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39) that the only one besides Jesus who seems to see things clearly is a blind-from-birth beggar? The disciples see this blind beggar, but they ...
My sinful nature needs little nourishment to feed smug self-satisfaction, but an unbelieving world provides a smorgasbord. If it’s not another mass murderer semi-automatically butchering people, then it’s the drug deal gone bad with bullets ...
Volume 23, Number 3 Preaching to the Choir Biblically Illiterate In March 2018, The Wall Street Journal had to issue a correction. The previous day, a journalist had quoted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ...
In Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 3:13-17), it’s not hard to grasp why John would have sought to change Jesus’ mind about who would baptize whom. John had just finished confessing that he was not worthy to ...
Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 11:2-11) seems a strange choice for the Sunday historically known as Gaudete (Rejoice). As the curtain opens on Matthew 11, the scene before us is John languishing in Herod’s dungeon. Gaudete? Rejoice? ...