Salvation

White Elephants

By Ross Engel –

Have you ever gone to a Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange? You know, one of those deals where everyone brings a gift and then a game is played to select and steal gifts until they’re all gone? In my experience, people usually gravitate towards the big, oddly shaped, and cleverly wrapped packages. People will fight over one specific gift—stealing, trading, and hoping that what is inside is worth the effort. If you are a clever white elephant gifter, you can get rid of some terrific junk. One year, my parents had this giant pink ceramic piggy bank. It was a huge eye sore, but they wrapped it up nicely and watched as people fought over this heavy piece of junk, none of them knowing the “treasure” inside.

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Looking for Another

By Paul Koch –

We all know who John the Baptist was. We know that he was the great forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” He was that bridge between the Old Testament prophecies about the one who would come to execute justice and righteousness in the land. John not only baptized our Lord in the Jordan River but he saw the heavens tear open as the Spirit descended upon him like a dove. He was the one who pointed all who came to him, not to himself but to Jesus Christ and declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” John the Baptist has a featured place in all four of the Gospel accounts as he preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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Who Warned You?

By Paul Koch –

It happens every year. Every year the stores seem to explode with Christmas decorations and music and greetings of “Happy Holidays.” Every year we make plans and figure out what we want to get that specials someone in our lives. Every year we think about the traditions of our families, those we love and those we could do without. Every year, at least for us gathered here in our Lord’s church, we are greeted by the call of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare a way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” That’s right; every year we are greeted by John the Baptist. One thing we can be sure of when we hear from John the Baptist, his voice will definitely go against the grain. It is a harsh and bitter word that he speaks, and it stands out in contrast to the Christmas carols on the radio.

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Humble Yourself

By Ross Engel –

Darkness started to swirl around my eyes, my neck pounded, and quickly I tapped my hand twice against the arm that was firmly pressed against my neck. It had only taken a few seconds (less time than it took to read that last statement), but I was about to pass out. It was my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class and on that day, the lesson of the day was seven different submission chokes. In the three hours that followed, I watched, I learned, I practiced, was practiced on, and then I rolled (grappled). And in the midst of it all, I was humbled. It would be safe to say that I’ve been humbled over and over again with each class that I’ve attended!

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Joy for the World!

By Bob Hiller –

There is a strange and almost unnoticed verse in the beginning of Mark (1:13) I have grown to take great delight in. After Jesus is in the wilderness, overcoming the temptation from the devil, it says, “And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” Now, what in the world does that have to do with anything? Jesus sitting with the wild animals? I mean, I get the angels ministering to Him, but what’s with the animals? What does Jesus have to do with them? What do they have to do with Jesus?

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Weep For Yourself

By Paul Koch –

As a father of five, I have become quite good at the using the gift of discernment. For I have learned that discernment is most needed when we are faced with excuses; and none are better at excuses than children. Not that I blame them. In fact, I think it is just part of life, part of growing up, part of the process that we all go through. You see, we begin to learn early on that things don’t always work out the way we imagined they would. We don’t always follow through on what we promised to do, whether it was to clean our room or get the dishes done. We don’t always follow the golden rule and we fail to treat our siblings with the kindness and respect that we believe we deserve. When the failures in life happen, our instinct is to make an excuse as to why we failed. We get pretty good at making excuses and we can even begin to believe them if no one challenges them. But that is where I come in. Part of the gift I give to my children is to check their excuses. I see if they are focusing on the real issue or if they are just trying to find an easy way out.

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Airbrushing Beth Moore

By Bob Hiller –

The other day, I was scrolling down the old Facebook page, bypassing angry political comments and hilarious Biden memes, when an ad for an upcoming Beth Moore Women’s Study caught my eye. Such things are not foreign to my feed, as I look through a good deal of Bible study material and Facebook stalks my every internet move. At first, I didn’t think much of the ad. At second glance, something about the ad seemed strange to me. As Beth Moore stared back at me with her smart and pretty face, I noticed something strange about her photo. Beth Moore’s picture was airbrushed.

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Tearing Down the Wall

By Ross Engel –

In Berlin, Germany in 1987, former President Ronald Reagan emphatically declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” I was seven years old when that speech was given. I knew very little of the world, and even less about communism or the Cold War. What I did know was that, according to Rocky IV, Communism was bad and Russia was where the “bad guys” were. Darn you, Ivan Drago! Thanks to my Uncle, who had been stationed near “Checkpoint Charlie,” I also knew that the Berlin Wall divided Germany into two sections: free Germany and communist Germany.  When the wall fell in 1989, I, along with the rest of America, cheered.

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How You Should Vote

By Paul Koch –

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Allegiance. Allegiance to a republic that stands boldly as a great nation under God. Allegiance that binds us together as citizens of this great country. Left-wing, right-wing, Christian, Muslim, black, Hispanic, poor and rich we are all a part of the land of the free and the home of the brave. And this Tuesday we will once again take to the polls and the rest of the world will watch as we elect the next President of the United States. Once again, we are enduring a hotly contested race. Once again, we hear the charge that this is the nastiest year yet, most divisive, and most shameful all around. Perhaps it is. Perhaps this year really is the worst we’ve ever experienced. It is certainly the most expensive. Did you know that this year they’ve estimated that over 5 billion will be spent on the political campaigns?

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It’s Not About the Journey; it’s About the Destination

By Joel A. Hess –

How often have you been told by your wise friends, “It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey.” Or as one of the originators of many pseudo smart sayings, Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” It sounds comfy, right? The saying is supposed to elevate the challenges of life so they don’t seem meaningless. The saying highlights the now-ness of life hoping to get people to embrace it rather than unknown future.

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Guilty and Free

By Paul Koch –

Today in churches across this country, well at least in Lutheran churches (well, at least in some Lutheran churches), they are taking a moment to step aside from the normal flow of things to focus on an event in time 499 years ago in a little town in Germany. On All Hallows Eve in 1517, a young and energetic Augustinian monk and professor of theology named Martin Luther, nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg an invitation to debate on the topic of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. An indulgence was a way to reduce the amount of punishment one must undergo for their sins. In Luther’s day the church would sell them to fill the its coffers. So, Luther invites discussion on this issue by putting forward 95 theses that ought to be considered. Little did he know or expect at the time, but this simple act, this honest attempt to resolve a problem that had robbed so many of the sweet assurance of the Gospel, would prove to be the beginning of the great Reformation of the church.

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The Hell House

By Ross Engel –

All Hallows Eve is only a few days away. Costumed trick-or-treaters and late night revilers will soon be upon us! Be prepared! I have many fond memories of my childhood, dressing up to go trick-or-treating on Halloween and getting lots of free candy! I grew up in the 80s and back then my parents had a standing rule that we couldn’t eat any candy until we got home and they inspected it all. They meticulously checked our candy-filled plastic pumpkins for things that might be dangerous. Over the years, some really sick people have tried to hurt children by poisoning candy and there have even been instances of razors or nails imbedded in Halloween loot. We had great neighbors growing up though, and never had anything like that in our Halloween haul.

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Face Eating Zombies!

By Ross Engel –

My wife just introduced me to a new drug. It’s called: Flakka. Apparently Flakka turns you into a Zombie. And like Zombies, the people who take it have no idea what they’re doing. They stumble, moan, and are oblivious to the world around them. While on the drug, users have tried to run through glass doors. They’re impervious to pain. Jump off buildings. Run around naked. There is even a story about a young Florida man who police found eating someone’s face after he had murdered them.

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Saved by Works

By Jaime Nava –

I had the crazy awesome privilege to baptize my daughter recently. I love baptisms in general. When it is my own kid, I’m over the moon. We had a number of visitors from both sides of the family to witness. It was awesome. Some of the members of the family come from different denominational backgrounds. Some are Roman Catholic. Others are Non-Denominational. I think there may be a Pentecostal in there somewhere.

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The Dark Church

By Paul Koch –

Being a pastor affords me with some pretty unique experiences. I’ve been invited into the midst of people’s most tender moments. From the bedside of a dying father to the joy of a wedding day or the baptism of a newborn baby, I have found myself graciously allowed to share in such experiences.  These moments have certainly impacted me over the years; teaching me humility, kindness, and gentleness. But there are other experiences that come as part of this vocation. For instance, I spend a lot of time in a church building. Far more time than most people.

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Unnaturally Clean

By Jaime Nava –

“So natural, it would even deceive.” Filostrato spoke with passion in C. S. Lewis’ final novel in his space trilogy. To have aluminum trees that looked as real as an organic one, that would be magical in its own way. Once we discovered a way to clean the air chemically, we wouldn’t need organic trees anymore. We could create clean aluminum trees that looked real. We could move them wherever we wanted. What about the birds? Get rid of them too. “Consider again the improvement. No feathers dropped out, no nests, no eggs, no dirt.” He goes on to say that eliminating organic life is “simple hygiene.”

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