The Three Cs

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Dt 8:3) Today was always my father's favorite day of the year. I am not so sure Dad loved turkey, and he wasn't much of an eater, but I am sure he loved his family. Few people love their families as much as my father loved his. And so he loved Thanksgiving Day, because that meant he certainly would get to spend more time with his family, that he would get to laugh with his family, and share again with his family.  Dad had a huge family, so thankfulness overflowed in his life. He had only one sister, Helen. And he had only three children: Me, Patty, and Michael. But he had so many more brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. I am not sure I can count them all, because if you knew Dad, you were part of his family, too. That is t...

This was one of the most unique assignments I have been given since coming to Concordia Theological Seminary. I was tasked with outlining the Salvation History of the Old Testament in 800 words or less, while hitting all of the major points, and introducing you and me into the story. I did miss one major event: the exile. But here is my entry ... in 800 words, on the nose. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and through that life, through that light ... He will send his messengers to herald His coming and to turn the hearts of all who long for the life we lost.  The genesis of John coupled with the conclusion of Malachi, which buttress in their own way, is a wonderful starting point to begin a conversation about where we are in Salvation History. Here, we see the past meeting the future. Here, we see that from the beginning, the Old Testament isn’t mere history; it isn’t just law; it really isn’t old; and it certain...

But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. (Deut. 13:9) I always struggle when I read all of the law: They can seem like such harsh words. Yes, they can be quite beautiful, too. Some of them even seem easy to obey: Laws like Deuteronomy 6:5 -- You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. That doesn't sound so onerous, does it? We love to love, don't we? Loving God, who created everything? Praise be to God! What a wondrous creation we live in. It's easy to love the God who gave us majestic mountains and spacious skies and amber waves of grain. Right? Then we hit Deuteronomy 13:9. You shall kill him, the Lord declares. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death. And then the people must join in. Stone the fool. Stone him. Kill him, the one who leads you astray, who leads you away from loving the Lord, your God, with...

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. I don't understand why people willfully reject the truth. We preach it to our children from the first day they can speak: Always tell the truth. Our courts make us swear, to God no less, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and we send people to jail for failing to do so. We know the consequences of untruth, of half truth, of white lies can be severe. People get hurt. So what exactly is truth? Socrates gave us a mouthful in defining it, when he said, "To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while t...

I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. I have always been fascinated by the illustrations of light in the Bible. You know, God is light, right? Evil hates the light, because it exposes our dark deeds. We turn away from the light of the Word that became flesh because we cherish our sinful pleasures. In darkness, we learn to indulge in our selfishness, in our passions, in our debauchery, in our drunkenness, eventually losing sight of real life in God, the life was the light of men (John 1:4). And so in today's reading I couldn't help but spend a lot of time here in chapter 26. But unlike some of my previous studies of light, I was captivated by Paul's account of his conversion. This is the third time in Acts of the Apostles we hear the story of Saul's journey to Damascus. The first time...

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives  forgiveness of sins through his name. Today's passage reminds me, you can't hear this message enough. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name. You caught that, right? Everyone! Not some believers. Everyone! As Peter reminds us through Luke's account of the early years after Pentecost, God has promised. He didn't just promise here. He promised Abraham (Gen. 15:6). More than that, Jesus himself promised.  Don't be afraid, just believe. Mark 5:36 I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. Mark 9:41 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one an...

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For  if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.  But the Scripture  imprisoned everything under sin, so that  the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given  to those who believe.  Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law,  imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! I really needed to hear this passage yesterday, and today, and I am sure tomorrow, too. It captures the amazing truth of the Word! Believe the good news: Jesus Christ is risen, the miracle of miracles! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Paul's letter to the Galatians is so incredibly important. Too often we get bogged down in the Law, which reminds us of our failures. We should read Galatians frequently because Paul spells out our salvation in such simple terms: We are saved by faith, not works! Je...

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? I have written about this passage recently. But today, I am not taking a course you might expect as the country debates the front-and-center issues of our day: homosexuality, same-sex marriage, over-the-counter birth control pills for children. Although these are important topics that Christians have been discussing for more than 2,000 years, we clearly aren't the first people living in a place consumed by immorality. The folks of Corinth, Greece, had, at one time, a temple with 1,000 sacred prostitutes serving in the name of religion. No doubt sexual immorality is as rampant today in our culture as idolatry, adultery, theft, greed, debauchery. But as I was exploring this passage, I couldn't get past the realization of Hosea 4 as it relates here. Hear the Word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land; "There is no faithfulness, no lov...

The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Acts 13:27 I can't imagine that if I had been alive 2,000 years ago I would have recognized Jesus either. He was, after all, a man, right? And God is, after all, the creator of the Universe, which today we understand is so big that we can't even begin to comprehend how big it really is. Think about this for a second. There is a website called Scale of the Universe that does a good job helping you begin to understand. Neptune is only 4.5 billion kilometers away. We are only 2 million light years from the Andromeda Galaxy. The known radius of the universe is only 14 gigaparsecs, which in simpler terms is only 14 times 3.3 billion light years, or 3.3 x 10 25 meters. And God came to us. And the Jews didn't recognize him. Honestly, that doesn't surprise me. Jesus looked like a regular guy. The God of the Univers...