Ken finally talked his wife Sue into going to a baseball game with him. He was a baseball fanatic; she thought the whole thing was stupid and boring. For nine innings, Ken observed every detail of the game, while Sue scrolled through Facebook on her phone and looked up only occasionally. Finally, it […]
3144) Doing Your Duty (1/2) Read More »
The 1995 movie A Walk in the Clouds begins with scenes of a young married couple separated by war. He is in Europe fighting with the United States Army in World War II. She is back home going out with other men. The film shows him in the thick of the fighting but
3143) Reading What Has Been Written For Us Read More »
By Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), a German Lutheran pastor and professor of theology. He wrote dozens of books, including Sacred Meditations, a collection of 51 meditations published in 1606. This piece was taken from the chapter 38 of that book. ———————————— Consider the misery and brevity of this present life, so that you may
3142) The Brevity of Life Read More »
From The Lutheran Standard, June 5, 1979, page 29; author’s name withheld. A man died at the age of 85. He was one of those old and steady saints of the church. He had been a devoted husband, a good father, a beloved man in congregation and community, a school janitor, and a fellow with
3141) An Encouraging Word Read More »
Psalm 32:1-5: Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as
3140) Prayers of Confession Read More »
Above image: This is one of the earliest known images of Jesus, and it is of him as the Good Shepherd. Found in the catacombs of Rome, painted in the third century ************************* (…continued) The model for Bruce Olson’s ministry was, of course, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,
3139) Bruchko and Jesus (2/2) Read More »
Bruce Olson was born in Minneapolis in 1942. He grew up in the Lutheran church and learned in Sunday School how much Jesus loved him, that Jesus died for him on the cross, and, how important it was for him to believe in Jesus. He also learned that God wanted everybody
3138) Bruchko and Jesus (1/2) Read More »
Above: The Talents, 1908 by artist Eugène Burnand (1850-1921). ————————————- Matthew 25:14-30: (Jesus said), “It will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold (‘talents’ in older translations), to another two bags, and to another
3137) Doing God’s Business Read More »
Above: Richard Wurmbrand prison photo By Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001), Tortured for Christ, 1967, pages 11-13. Wurmbrand suffered much for his faith in Christ, first by the Nazi invasion of his homeland Romania, then by the Russians, and then by the Romanian communists. He would spend 13 years in prison for proclaiming Christ, was often tortured,
3136) A Jewish Atheist Finds Jesus Read More »
From Richard E. Simmons III in The True Measure of a Man, p. 69-70. Proverbs 3:13-14 — Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding; for wisdom is more profitable than silver, and yields better returns than gold. Ecclesiastes 7:29 — God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.
