By Ross Engel –
As a kid, summer family vacations almost always took us to the mountains. More often than not, we’d load up the station wagon and head for the Smoky Mountains, though there were a few summers when we made the long drive out to the Rockies. I’ve always enjoyed the thin air, hiking, and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.
By Caleb Keith –
It’s Tuesday evening. I am sitting in front of my computer trying to think of something meaningful to write for my blog tomorrow morning. The trouble is, I am finding it difficult to connect any topic on my mind right now to Jesus or the Gospel. However, as I sit here, I am reminded of the most recent episode of the Thinking Fellows that I posted last Friday on the doctrine of God’s two kingdoms. If you haven’t already, you should go check it out. That episode is a solid reminder that, while everything in our lives is impacted by the Gospel, not everything is directly related to it. In fact, much of the day-in, day-out of our lives happens in what’s referred to as the left-hand kingdom.
By Joel A. Hess –
Surely, this 4th of July has been one of saddest for me. It’s hard to get excited about the freedoms our country was founded upon as they are speedily being stolen from us by the current administration, aristocratic courts, and big businesses. The current forced cultural revolution looks exactly like the one imposed by the Chinese tyrant Mao Zedong. Leaders who come in the name of progress almost always leave the people they say they are helping dead.
By Scott Keith –
Today, we celebrate our independence. Today, we shoot fireworks into the air, dress in red, white, and blue, drink American beer, and try to remember what makes the 4th of July such a big deal. Today, I wonder why I’m no longer patriotic. Today, I look around me and wonder if those who are celebrating so intently even know why they celebrate. (Watch this at your own risk: FAIL – Americans Don’t Know Why We Celebrate 4th of July!) Today, I ask myself why I no longer feel free.
By Paul Koch –
Well here it is. Months of planning and work behind the scenes and today you get to let it all show, for today is Father’s Day. Today the restaurants are all booked up and the last minute details come together as we finally tell our dads how much we love them. Well okay, perhaps the restaurants aren’t booked and the plans aren’t that extravagant, but most dads that I know are fine with it. We know full well that as days of celebration, Father’s Day is a far cry from Mother’s Day. We know that it wasn’t even an established national holiday until Nixon signed it into law in 1977, some 60 years after Mothers’ Day.
By Bob Hiller –
I’m not a big fan of NASCAR. I don’t fancy Formula One Racing. It’s not that I don’t think those drivers are incredible, because I do. I would argue that racing is one of the most skilled and rigorous sports out there. I just didn’t grow up with it, so it’s not my thing. But the other day I was talking sports with a friend who told me all about his love for NASCAR and Indy Racing. He told me how his dad used to take him down to the race tracks and show him around the pits. He grew up on the roar of the engines, the smell of the exhaust, and the intensity of the race. He loved it, he said, because his father taught him to love it.
By Paul Koch –
Several times throughout my career I’ve had young people, both girls and guys, come to me in confidence and inquire about the morality or ethics of getting a tattoo. They have heard at some point that tattoos and the Christian faith are not compatible, or at least they are frowned upon. After all, don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? And usually the first question I ask them, before I show them my own tattoos, is “what do you want a tattoo of?” If they’re young, I encourage them to wait. After all, what you think is cool now is probably not really all that cool. But there are certain things, certain moments or life changing discoveries, that just might be worthy to get permanently tattooed on your body. And I think that the words of St. Paul in Galatians 2:15-24 is just such a discovery. If there was ever a revelation that we ought to take down to the tattoo parlor and engrave on our bodies, this is it.
By Joyce L. C. Keith –
My courageous wife, Joy (husband to Pappy, mom of three, and grandmother of one), has decided to join in the fray and weigh in with her own blog post this week. I love her little post. She originally entitled it “Wish, Hope, or Pray?” But, her post makes me think of that M. C. Hammer song, so I renamed it “That’s Why We Pray”! I hope you enjoy Joy’s contribution to The Jagged Word!
I am one of those people… I can walk up to anyone, anytime and start a conversation. One of my old bosses said that I have the “Gift of Gab,” but in a right way.
By Scott Keith –
Lately, I have been considering the implication of what it means to be called to be a Christian. Is it simply that Jesus has, through his life, death, and resurrection, set me free from sin, death, and the power of the Devil, and that is it? Is there nothing more? What I mean by asking those questions is that I think we underestimate our preoccupation with our need to do something. You and I need to feel active; we need to feel as though we have contributed in some fashion to the way God feels about us and treats us.
By Bob Hiller –
As a football fan, I would love to one day take my kids to see an NFL game. Watching the games on TV, you get the impression that these games are fast-paced, high energy games with thousands of fans rooting as one body for the victory of their team. To me, the idea of taking the Hiller clan to an NFL game is exhilarating: Sitting with my kids, decked out in Broncos gear, going nuts over huge plays and hard hits. The idea of the whole thing is awesome. But, the reality, I fear, would be a different story.
By Joel A. Hess –
Last week, I was blasting Bruce Springsteen as I drove to a hospital in a nearby town to visit a sister in the hospital. He was singing “Glory Days.” Do you know the song? If you don’t, I’ll bet you know the feeling
I had a friend was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
By Jaime Nava –
What Is An Internet Troll?
I remember sitting in a chatroom on AOL back in the day when AOL had chatrooms (Do they still? I don’t know). The computer would make its loud dial up squeals and the wide world of chatrooms was at my fingertips. You could pick a username of any stripe. You could join a plethora of chatrooms. I recall one occasion where I joined the French speaking room. I didn’t know French (and still don’t). I remember grabbing a shampoo bottle from the bathroom with the directions for washing one’s hair. It was in French. So I typed out the directions in this French chat room. People found themselves rather unhappy at my intrusion. It fueled my delight. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an internet troll.
By Ross Engel –
Struggling to speak, she quietly exhaled, “Pastor, I have shame and I have regrets.”
This past week, I was called to the home of an unchurched woman who is in the final stages of her life. She wanted to talk with a pastor before she breathed her last breath. I gladly went, not knowing what to expect.
By Paul Koch –
In the great movie Tombstone featuring Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer, during the shooting at the O.K. Corral, unarmed Ike Clanton rushes towards Wyatt Earp pleading with him to not shoot. As Earp’s brothers and Doc Holiday engage the rest of the gang, he grabs the shirtfront of Ike and yells “Get to fighting or get away!” In other words, engage in the battle, go down swinging (or in this case shooting), or get clear of the battlefield.
By Caleb Keith –
Galatians 3:23-29 and Galatians 4:1-7 are two pieces of the same story. While separated by a chapter division, these verses are not divided in their message. The theme of this section could be labeled “The Law and The Heir.” Throughout these verses, the Apostle Paul tells the story of prisoners who were slaves, set free, and adopted as sons made to be heirs, who now receive a full inheritance. The letter to the Churches in Galatia omits the Apostle Paul’s typical greeting.
By Paul Koch –
Many years ago, I experienced a sort of enlightenment of self-awareness. It was one of those moments when you find yourself in a position to be able to step back and examine yourself and make new assessments that will impact your life. It happened in our basic hermeneutics class at the seminary, where I struggled with our primary text, What Does This Mean? by Dr. Jim Voelz. Voelz asserts right out of the gate that it is impossible to achieve a truly neutral reading of a text.
By Caleb Keith –
Now that my spring semester has ended and summer break has officially begun, I can’t help but feel like a free man. Eighteen hours of my week have just been miraculously loosed, and it feels great. Now the question is, what do I do with all this free time? I’d love to say that I will spend my newly acquired time reading, writing, or even studying my Greek and Latin, but I know myself too well. More than likely, my free time will be filled up by the digital world.
By Scott Keith –
“If you are a manual laborer, you find that the Bible has been put into your workshop, into your hands, into your heart. It teaches and preaches how you should treat your neighbor. Just look at your tools––at your needle and thimble, your beer barrel, your goods, your scales or yardstick or measure––and you will read this statement inscribed on them. Everywhere you look, it stares at you. Nothing you handle everyday is so tiny that it does not continually tell you this, if you will only listen…. All this is continually crying out to you: ‘Friend, use me in your relations with your neighbor just as you would want your neighbor to use his property in relations to you.’”
By Bob Hiller –
This has been an overwhelming week for the ol’ Haymaker. I have begun serving a new congregation in beautiful San Diego County (Community Lutheran Church). Though I’ve been a pastor for the better part of a decade, I have found myself completely overwhelmed. I know it’s a pious cliché for pastors to say that their calling is too big for them, and that they have to rely on the Lord. But dude, I am in over my head. I am thrilled that the Lord has placed me in this new place. And I am completely overwhelmed.
By Paul Koch –
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
Those words are incredible! They are the words spoken by our crucified and risen Lord, words that speak to the result of his work. The result of his being born in that little town of Bethlehem. The result of driving out demons and healing the sick. The result of living faithfully under the Law of God, the result of cleansing the temple and teaching without hesitation. The result of the whipping and beating, the humiliation and the death on the cross. The result of the rest in the tomb and the resurrection on the third day. The result of his ascension to the right hand of the Father and the promise of his glorious return. “Behold I am making all things new.”
