Salvation

Baptized Bride

By Cindy Koch –

Look in the mirror, my daughter. What do you see? Can you see the beautiful girl that God created you to be? Do you see the white robe of righteousness that Christ put on you? Do you see a perfect and blameless life that lives inside of your heart? Probably not. You might see a familiar face that you remember looking back at you on both happy days and sad days. But she looks pretty normal. Maybe she doesn’t even look all that special. How could this girl in the mirror be the amazing bride that Christ loves?

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Why Do Good Things Happen To Bad People?

By Joel A. Hess –

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Answer: There are no good people! Is there a more common question asked by long-time church goers or sarcastic atheists? Holy Scripture makes it clear that there are no good people. I love John’s comment about Jesus at the end of chapter two of his gospel, “and Jesus needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” And of course, Paul demolishes anyone who thinks themselves good or righteous when he writes in the third chapter of his letter to the Romans, 

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Modern Prodigals

By Tim Winterstein –

This contains spoilers (of a 2005 film), so you may want to watch first and read after.

I had to wait until the end to see if it was worth it, but the answer is an unequivocal yes to L’Enfant (The Child).

I found it on Image Journal‘s “The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films,” which also brought Ordet to my attention. This is the first film by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne I’ve watched, but the others are now on my list.

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Even the Dogs 

By Paul Koch –

I will never forget the day I first walked into the great cathedral in Strasburg, France. I was a much younger man and quite impressionable, to be sure. But that building was a shock to the system. It wasn’t just the sights of the grand gothic architecture, or the massive stained glass rose window, or even the statues that seemed to peek out from every nook and cranny. No, it was a feeling that I was in the presence of something much greater, much bigger, much grander than myself.

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The Word is Near You

By Paul Koch –

Churches are strange things.

There has always been religion, always been a recognition of something beyond our experience, beyond what we actually feel and taste and hear in our lives. And the various religions of the world have tried to answer big questions of life and afterlife, good and evil. The Christian church confesses that the answer to those questions are not found in interpreting omens or through channeling spirits or tracking the stars or some such thing, but is found in a Word that has been given, a self-revelation of the Creator of the universe, given to guide and strengthen our faith. But churches are strange things. The way in which a church receives that Word, the way they confess the truth of that Word can be quite different from one place to the next.

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Congratulations, You Are Being Rescued… Please Do Not Resist

By Scott Keith –

Do you ever notice that Christians tend to treat their salvation like a participatory event? We act as if we had some hand in and that without our help, God will never be able to see it through to completion. We strut about as though we not only have something to be proud of but as if we deserve some heavenly credit. We wait, I think, for God to say thank you to us someday for all our hard work pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. In fact, we all seem rather disappointed that God has not reached down from heaven and patted us on the back already.

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Feed Them!

By Paul Koch –

Matthew 14:13-21 is a very familiar text for most of us. Even if you haven’t been going to church for too long, or even if you are brand new to the stories of Scripture, you’ve probably heard something along the way about the time Jesus fed over 5000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. In fact, it is because we are so familiar with this story that we tend to pass over some interesting and peculiar things. For instance, I think the crowd reacted strangely as it is recorded in this text. Usually after the crowd experiences a miracle of our Lord, especially one from which they physically benefitted, there was a reaction of being filled with awe or wonder. They would usually be giving thanks to God or praising our Lord, or something. But not here. In this miracle, the focus never shifted from our Lord, from His actions and words. The focus remained on one thing in particular – the compassion of our Lord.

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When Mountains Sing and Trees Clap Their Hands

By Paul Koch –

Water. Water is a commodity. It is a blessing from God that we so easily take for granted. Without thinking much about it, here in the United States of America we can go to practically any place from the richest luxury apartment complex to the ghettoes and slums of the cities and turn on tap water that is free of disease and pollution. You may not like the taste of it; it probably isn’t filtered by reverse osmoses, but it won’t kill you either. Water is necessary. It is crucial for survival. There are many areas around the globe that don’t have the luxury of clean water, where death and famine exist because water is difficult to find. And there is an unpredictability to water, a movement of it that is outside of our control. Try as we might, our ability to contain and disperse water is limited. We build damns and aqueducts and filtration systems, but sometimes all of that isn’t enough and we resort to praying for rain.

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Victory

By Paul Koch –

What an incredible week it was here at Grace Lutheran Church! A week of great stories, and games, and food, and songs, and fun. It was, of course, Vacation Bible School this past week and the theme was outstanding. This year we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the great Reformation of the church. Martin Luther is the center figure in that work, as we think of him standing before the Holy Roman Emperor confessing that he would not be moved from the Word of God.  Luther’s most famous hymn was “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” in which we sing, “Let this world’s tyrant rage; in battle we’ll engage. His might is doomed to fail; God’s judgement must prevail! One little word subdues him.” It was just that, that trust in God’s work that defined our VBS theme: A Mighty Fortress.

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Death and Life

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 2:15-21 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.

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Own Your Curse 

By Cindy Koch –

It was early in the morning; the pain was still dull and distant. I looked up at a quiet, blank celling considering the severity of this discomfort, but I knew it had only begun. Taking one last look around the dark and familiar room, I soaked in a moment of rest before it started up again. Inhale… exhale… Ouch. That tiny, soft sting took my breath away one more time. I gasped for a little more air as I felt something like a white-hot rock pressing harder and harder into my lower abdomen. Only two minutes had gone by. It was time to do something about this. 

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God at Work

By Paul Koch –

If a new convert to the faith or a curious onlooker happened to show up in church on Holy Trinity Sunday, when the congregation began to confess that beautiful, rhythmic and admittedly long Athanasian Creed, they would think we are a bunch of strange cult-like weirdos. Imagine if you had little to no introduction to the life of a church or the order of a worship service, and then one Sunday you show up you hear these people saying, “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.” I mean, I like it. it’s bold and straightforward. But you have to admit, in our politically correct culture hearing those words sounds a bit strange. Then we add to it that “we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” On and on it goes, and the casual church goer is thinking, what the heck is going on here? I thought I was going to church – not engage in a philosophical discussion about the nature of the Holy Trinity.

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The Isolated Pastor

By Bob Hiller –

Well, if my calculations are correct, by the time you read this blog (I am writing this on Tuesday night), the Golden State Warriors will be on the brink of completing their undefeated playoff run by sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers out of the NBA Finals. (Though, if you read my blog, you know my calculations are rarely correct…) Chances are that LeBron James will carry Cleveland to take one game. But I don’t think it will matter much. Golden State is stacked. The overindulgent signing of the great Kevin Durant in the off-season made the already incredible Warriors a near lock as this year’s champions. Handily winning every single playoff game may not make for great viewing, but it does make the Warriors rather impressive.

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God Makes A People

By Paul Koch –

Today is Pentecost. Perhaps you didn’t hear me; it is Pentecost! Aren’t you excited? Haven’t you been looking forward to this day ever since the celebration of Easter? The church marks this day on its calendar every year. It is the day we get out the red colors and tell the story of the tongues of fire and rushing wind as the Apostles began to preach in different languages to those in Jerusalem. It is a big celebration in the church. In fact, historically there were services for Pentecost Eve, Pentecost Day, Pentecost Monday and Pentecost Tuesday. It’s almost like another Christmas! But if you’re like me, you probably don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, you may know the story but why is Pentecost such a celebration? Or at least, why should it be?

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Once You Were Not A People…

 By Paul Koch –

Today is Mother’s Day, a day where everyone takes a moment to either give thanks to God for their mom, or thank their mom personally, or at least send some flowers. To be sure, mothers are worthy of a day of recognition. After all mothers tend to be incredible creatures of sacrifice and love. Mothers are nurturing and compassionate. They are given that unique role of giving and caring for new life. At the beginning of all things, after mankind’s fall into sin, the Lord promised that the offspring of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent. In Genesis chapter 3, we are told of the promise of Christ: a child born of Mary that would suffer, die, and rise to give us new life and hope. And so, Adam rightly names his wife “Eve” which means life. We are told that she is mother of all the living, and all women from that day forward bear the marks of life and hope.

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Her Name Was Death

By Cindy Koch –

In darkness, her eyelashes clumped together from new, stinging tears. Shivers prickled behind her ears. Her stomach twisted from disgust. She could feel the heavy breath of the man hiding next to her. But she couldn’t look at him. She cringed at every distressed sigh she heard from him. Silent, agonizing crouching in the shadows was all she could remember now.

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Hands Off!

By Cindy Koch –

No one likes to talk about it. I guess we risk sounding a little crazy or paranoid. The whispers in the shadows, the taunting voices heard only in our heads; but by now, we have learned to ignore the queasy prickles when he is near. Hidden in the chaos of our ordinary life, this powerful enemy fights to remain invisible. His strength is confusion. His weapon is doubt. His gift is shame. But his steps are silent, and we are never quite sure where he will show up next.

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