Romans 13:8-14 It is fascinating now to look back on where my heart was three years ago at just this time. I would invite you to look back at your own ‘time capsules’: in journal entries or old sermons. In some ways it seems so distant. In other ways like yesterday. We were then still …
Tag: Romans
Suffering Producing Endurance … Producing Character … Producing Hope Which Does Not Disappoint
Romans 5:1-5 This familiar passage runs contrary to the way the world thinks, doesn’t it? What I mean to say is this. We tend to think of ‘suffering’ (or ‘tribulation,’ as another translation has it) as somehow the opposite of being ‘blessed.’ For who among us has not thought, spoken, prayed or overheard another speaking …
“Putting On The Armor of Light…”
Romans 13:8-14 It is now the moment to wake from sleep. Now. For the day is near. The time of darkness is coming to an end. And it is time to live like this is so. I have always loved both the promise and the inherent urgency of these words. Never mind that Paul’s sense …
Telling Time… Revisited
I’m recycling an old reflection now as I just returned from vacation. I hope these thoughts from a few years back are in some way still blessing to you… Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 Quite a few years ago now I accompanied a group of soon to be high school freshmen to Confirmation Camp at Augustana …
Ever ‘Reforming’: But Still Sharing the Gifts of God!
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Romans 3:19-28 John 8:31-36 This is so. I was 17 years old when the Lutheran church body I called home adopted a new hymnal: The Lutheran Book of Worship. I loved it. The liturgies were updated and lively, at least compared to what I had known before. More than this, though, I was …
Abounding in Hope
Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:4-13) I’ve had reason to think some about ‘hope’ in these last couple of days: both the kind we live …
Telling Time…
Matthew 24:36-44 Romans 13:11-14 Some years ago now I accompanied a group of soon to be high school freshmen to Confirmation Camp at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Years before we had learned the hard way the necessity of reserving their personal cell phone usage for free time once a day. Otherwise they would …