Everyday Lutherans

Recently I was watching a movie in which a large congregation was gathering together. The pastor within the congregation was speaking about the great work that the people were doing within the church.  Instead of going on and on, the pastor turned the microphone over to the leader of the new group.  The leader began speaking to the congregation about the work they were doing and how simple it was but then turned and said you need to be a part of it too.  God is calling you to do the same thing.  More people needed to join this movement and enjoy the same success and glory that they have enjoyed.  The inspiring speech was great, motivating and yet was so very scripted for the movie it was in. At first, I thought that this movie was great.  The Pastor was encouraging and growing leaders within the congregation gathering everyone to Jesus Christ.  This is what the church should be doing and helping people live out within their life.  The people were ...

There are many conversations and understandings that relate to the Lord's Supper.  Even at the time in which Jesus was sharing the meal with the disciples, they did not fully understand what Jesus was doing and what it all meant.  Truly the meal that they were gathered was a Jewish Seder, a meal that helps the Jewish people remember and be within the history that God saved them from their time in Egypt from slavery and led them to the promised land.  The people wanted to remember the vast power and strength that God displayed to the Jewish people and the Egyptian people. It was this meal that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples.  Yet as Jesus was leading them in this meal of remembrance, when it came to certain parts, he changed the meanings.   When Jesus spoke of the unleavened bread, the bread that was prepared hurriedly to sustain the Jewish people on their journey from Egypt without yeast that would normally cause bread to rise.  Jesus said: "This ...

When I have a question about something, one of the first things that I do is go to a search engine to find an answer.  My preferred one as of late has been Google.  Yet I know that there are other places to search for answers.  Within our modern time, Google or other search engines (Bing, Yahoo and really the list could go on) are the gurus that people go to for answers.  Whether it is finding a definition, explaining how to do something or even finding out the latest news.  One of the main reasons that we turn to this is because it is quick and the answers are generally the most sorted through by experts and others who have done what we are searching for.  Most of the time, thousands of results are found in less than one second. Yet when I want an answer about faith or even my relationship with God.  When I pray to God, I do not get an instant answer.  Something that satisifies my longing, calms my spirits or even gives me guidance to what I shou...

When I was a kid, I grew up thinking that God was this old man with a long white beard.  He sat on a big throne and had a lot of people who were singing around him.  But I was always afraid, I thought that God was one who looking out for the things that I was doing wrong.  Yet then Jesus would come and tell me things were going to be ok.  That God had been sitting on the throne for a long time but really he meant well and loved me.  As time went on my understanding of God grew, as it should because my relationship with God grew as well. I began to realize how that understanding of God was so true.  God wanted what was best for me and wanted me to realize the LOVE that He truly shared for me. Yet in my teen years, while your whole body and world seem to be put into this blender of reality and nothing seems to work out right.  You can also begin to wonder, doubt, and be down right frustrated with God.  For these two voices of God looking out for wha...

Within the Bible, the beginning says that God created the heavens and the earth along with that, God parted light from darkness. In the beginning….Here we are brought to the very beginning to understand how and why God created this universe and even you.  Within recent years, many have declared that the Big Bang Theory is the most probable theory of how the universe came into being.  However, these two theories then are not in opposition with one another but these two understandings of creation. Couldn’t God create this universe through the means of the Big Bang? What if God started the Big Bang and also created the various life forms within the world?  (How much time determines which theory but then again does time really matter in understanding the world compared to ones lifetime.) So what does that creation have to do with us?  EVERYTHING!! The creation is still happening all around us. Each year, we bear witness to the birth, life, death, and even resurrection wi...

Lutheranism 202 Reading the Augsburg Confession, we delve into the meaning of faith Martin Luther (1483-1546) didn’t intend to start a new church. A priest and a university professor, Luther believed there was only one Christian church. His study of the Bible and his personal faith experience led him to propose changes in the church’s teaching and practice, to re-form the church so it more clearly reflected the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone. This “reformation” was rejected by the leaders of the church in Rome, and Luther and his followers were excommunicated. A major part of this reformation movement was an emphasis on the living, life-giving word of God. Luther’s academic training was as a biblical scholar. He translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into German, the language of the people. He published sermons and commentaries to help communicate God’s word in ways that people could understand. Most of all, Luther encouraged people to rea...

The Lord’s Prayer is one of those all encompassing prayers that you can pray whenever you need to.  The prayer was taught to the disciples within the Garden of Gethsemane. However, the prayer is one that embraces Jewish teaching from many of the Old Testament books.  With Jesus giving this prayer to the disciples, we bear witness to full knowledge that Jesus holds of the teaching from God. Even the unique relationship that we have with God now, that he is present among us.  Within this great prayer, there is one line that I would like to focus on for this season.  “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” First, we should probably talk about the word trespasses.  We often think of it in the verb form: Enter the owner's land or property without permission.  Yet it is also a noun: A voluntary wrongful act against the person or property of another, especially. unlawful entry to a person's land or property without ...