Pastor Elder McCantsHoly Cross Lutheran ChurchSan Antonio, TX Proverbs 17:22, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crush Spirit dries up the bones.”You may have read and heard this story: “There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and saw that she had only three hairs on her […]
John Kuhn Bleimaier War has been a fact of life ever since The Fall. Organized conflict between human beings is just another manifestation of our sinful nature. Recollect that in the Garden, before our ancestors decided to sample the forbidden fruit, everything was completely peaceful. Allow me to posit that if we all could completely […]
Roger Kovaciny 30 years ago Ukraine was a peacefully developing post-Soviet country. I was walking eastward [that’s important] toward our evening service across the bridge. I could have made it exactly on time … but as I passed it, right across the street there was a truck unloading into a shop. I wasn’t conducting the […]
Worldly safe places prioritize the individual and relegate the Word of God, not allowing it to bravely convict, condemn, and instruct. The values of outcomes-based equity do not square with the judgment of God upon the individual who deserves only wrath due to sin. Mercy is a gift, not a right or matter of human […]
How many Lutheran church workers made a formal vow to the Book of Concord, and then promptly start treating the Lutheran Confessions as moldy leftovers? If it lays out the divine teaching, then it can never be irrelevant—because the Scriptures are Christ’s eternal Word to be used. The issues we wrestle are not new and […]
The inability to live without the constant distraction of a TV is prevalent. On many of my visits to members or potential members I have to specifically ask for the TV to be turn off. It is taken for granted as an essential white noise for some—destroying attention span and silent reflection upon the Word […]
One of the main dividing lines in Christianity is over David’s state before God prior to his repentance. Lutherans have historically said he was living in sin without repentance, and therefore unbelieving. Those who have different theological convictions tend to lionize the man, underplaying the great sin of adultery and murder. But despite David being […]
The fight for language is the fundamental battle today—because the truth is obvious but not loved. Euphemistic language and mere legality do not change the fundamental situation. Babies do not become babies when they hit the air outside the womb. It does not take a scientist to recognize what makes a living person and how […]
by Joseph Beran, 2023 This book bluntly deals with the difficulties of a shrinking and fading church body—in this case the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. The first three chapters deal explicitly with the multiple downward trends evident and do not pull any punches. It is hard to disagree with the diagnosis. The deficiencies of this work […]
Are the expectations for a Lutheran pastor too low? Some are arguing for pastoral training to be less rigorous and more convenient. But being a faithful pastor is anything but easy. Sheep are to not just to survive materially but seek the pure wisdom and knowledge of God, especially in a world of difficult circumstances. […]
