For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 I've been a Lutheran all of...
“Jesus wept.” John 11:33 In middle-school years we had a Sunday School teacher, Tom, who would search for ways to relate to us. We would read different verses and he would relate what it meant to him or maybe some bit of trivia. One week he featured the...
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.” Hebrews 11:1 TLB Faith is something that has always created questions in my mind...
“Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” - Proverbs 12:19 Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie! If you act in truth then the order you produce is good, regardless of how it appears. Truth is the antidote to the suffering that...
“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” 2 Chronicles 15:7 I grew up in Marshfield, WI in the 50’s and 60’s. My parents owned a small cafe and worked tirelessly and did not have much. I was one of six children and I had a twin...
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I received Pastor John’s request to write a devotional for...
“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.” John 4:12 May 6, 2015 isn’t my son’s birthday, but I think of it as the day he was born. I honor this day because it’s the day he became his...
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” - Proverbs 22:6 My mother grew up in England and met my father who was serving there in the US Airforce. The story goes, he and his friend followed her and her friend...
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4 When I was growing up as a young child, my parents never told me, “life can be hard!&rdquo...
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you...