Take the Word of God "as it stands," as it is written, and be transformed by the Holy Spirit who works through that very Word in all his people.
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A Christian glories in the things of which other men are ashamed — in the cross and in his sufferings. For the world will not long endure the Word.
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As much as you are able, live in peace with all; spend time with those of humble circumstance. Be a blessing to your neighbor.
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Marriage, because it is God's institution, will be a difficult work, as the flesh will resist and rebel, as it always does against doing God's will.
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Love desires the best for its neighbor, even when one's neighbor does not desire the best for you, so one must pray for them even when they are not neighborly.
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Jesus allowed for believers and unbelievers alike in the church, so that both might be spared, believers from violent uprooting, and unbelievers an opportunity to believe.
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Each Christian has been given a calling, and with that calling a particular gift or gifts to fulfill the calling. These do not make her better or happier than another.
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God permits us to fail in order to make us seek him in his Word. Do not despair when things do not go your way. God is calling you.
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Paul does not put much emphasis on foretelling the future, but on the explanation of the Scriptures, so that there may be faith in the gospel.
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Love is virtue pure and precious. It neither utters, nor thinks any evil of its neighbor. It rather covers sin; not one sin, nor two, but a “multitude of sins.”
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Our worship and good works are to be done for Christ's sake, not because we think that we earn salvation through our deeds or piety.
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Good and bad happens to bad and so-called good people alike. The difference is how one responds, and why, and from where their peace comes.
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If salvation in Christ's light is to be brought about, all other righteousness in ourselves, sought outside of Christ with works, must be rejected.
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Christians are not to be ruled by their feelings or reasoning, for these are matters of their will. But God's will revealed through his Word transforms them.
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Simeon was not impressed by appearances and so, could bless Christ Jesus. If appearances are our motivation, we will not bless Jesus.
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Let us be clear; Luther is not saying that God rewards our works and obedience with salvation. God grants salvation through faith in his grace alone (Eph 2:8–9).
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Christians are priests, each and every one of them, and as priests, are to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. That sacrifice is self for the honor God.
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This section of John’s gospel is not in the earliest manuscripts. The story intrigues me, nonetheless. We wonder what Jesus wrote in the dirt. I like to imagine it was the name of a woman each of the accusers had secretly committed adultery with...
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To be sure, the precise meaning of today’s verse is that one who reads the Revelation to the church is blessed. The church is also blessed if they listen and obey.
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Christians should not curse—in the sense of wishing evil in a person's life. However, Christians are to censure and reprove evil in the hope of good.
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There is more to being persuaded than for a child to believe the Fourth Commandment. Another side of the persuasion is adults teaching it to the little ones.
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God allows suffering to guard against presumption, as example to others to repent, and as preparation for finding Christ, and keeping him.
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One must walk in God’s light; you cannot invent your own well lit pathway. God is the way, so we must walk in his truth. Many would spin God’s truth into their own brand of truth...
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Would you do things to brighten your standing with God? Then you would simply shine with your own dim, human qualities. The Christian, however, reflects a divine glory...
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Having Christ's Spirit within us, we are to love our neighbors so fully through that it seems as though we are indebted to love our them.
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When the scroll of life is opened, what will it say about you? How will it record your response to the great commandment? Will you have loved the Lord your God so much as to believe in him and take him at his word?
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Love of neighbor does not justify us to God. Faith in God does however, compel us to love our neighbor, and this is evidence of faith, and love of God.
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Faith embraces its vocation because it is freed to do so, because it trusts in another. The one who has faith, trusts in God instead of his or her own talents, work ethic, labor, or cunning.
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The light exposes the darkness of human reason, doctrine, and works, and displays our need of the grace and glory of he who is Light from Light, true God from true God.
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Should the created vaunt itself over the Creator? This logic follows downward. Next to the Father come father and mother, those whom God has put in charge.
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The magi may not have known who the newborn king truly was, but you and I are called to attend to our vocations, then think only how we may know Christ.
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If you will not do your job, it will be taken from you. Parenting is important, especially godly parenting. There is no difference between the old leaders of Israel...
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The gospel is not the light but the expression of that eternal Light that has risen upon us.
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Why does God promise such a great blessing as long life? How does it work out that his promise may come to pass? He does so by delivering the faithful from sin and its consequences.
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This video was recorded in 2021, just as I was packing up my old study to move it to St. Paul's in Salisbury, NC.
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Looming heartbreak had brought the disciples to the point of collapse, and so naturally, they were dead to the world when Jesus returned to them.
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Your beliefs, especially doctrine about Christ, must come from the Scriptures. Rest your faith on Christ as found in the Word alone.
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These traditions that we have learned from our parents (if only our parents in the church) are a great and lifelong blessing. Through these, God is faithful...
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Just as little as it lies in one’s power to be born and to receive natural existence, so little does it lie in his power to be without sin or to escape from it. He who created us must take it away.
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Most of us have encountered a willful child whom we conjectured would either not live a long life or would be the death of his parents. But there is more to being an obedient child than civil order.
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These verses urge us to honor those who do the principal work of ministry in congregations. But it is good counsel to think of our parents along these lines too.
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You can't wrap your mind around the Trinity. God is above the world and very different. We cannot imagine. So, God reveals himself and those with faith believe what he says about himself.
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We garner our initial knowledge of the Lord in the home. There, we learn how to honor our parents, and in so learning, we learn that we are not the center of all things.
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You can't wrap your mind around the Trinity. God is above the world and very different. We cannot imagine. So, God reveals himself and those with faith believe what he says about himself.
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Being obedient does not always make sense to us. This was especially the case when we were children. My father drove me crazy with his demands and discipline. He makes more sense to me now, some 50 years later.
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Because God is a righteous judge, things must be eventually different: the godly must have eternal good — and the wicked, on the other hand, must be punished forever. Otherwise, he would not be either righteous or God. So, we must keep faith in him despite wickedness and persecution and other troubles in this life.
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Being obedient does not always make sense to us. This was especially the case when we were children. My father drove me crazy with his demands and discipline. He makes more sense to me now, some 50 years later.
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"Whoever believes the Word, does not care who the person is that speaks the Word, and neither will he honor the Word for the sake of the person; but on the contrary, he honors the person because of the Word, and always subordinates the person to the Word."
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Frankly, things look practically dark. It is difficult to look at the world and think otherwise. Look at all the young people out there who did not learn enough sense from their parents...
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Had you been in Bethlehem on that night, you would have paid as little attention to Christ as they did; but since it is now made known who Christ is, you profess to serve him, but you would hardly have done it before. If you do nothing for the needy now, you would not have done it for Jesus and his family then.
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True holiness and enlightenment is that which receives its righteousness and revelation from the living Christ, rather than trying to squeeze piety and secrets from the dead husk of works and religion.
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Jesus was a natural man in every respect just as we are — the only difference that he was without a sinful nature. It should be therefore, a great comfort to us that Jesus took upon himself our nature and flesh.
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We are the workmanship of God, and have been created in Christ for good works. Though God’s grace saves us through faith in Christ Jesus, we are nonetheless, expected to bear fruit...
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What lovelier and more comforting message can be heard than that our sins are not ours any more, that they no more lie on us, but on the Lamb of God.
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“I will give up heating this year for God! He will respect me for that sacrifice and grant me entrance at heaven’s gates.” As some old friends of mine used to say mockingly, “Let me know how that works out for you.”
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What lovelier and more comforting message can be heard than that our sins are not ours any more, that they no more lie on us, but on the Lamb of God.
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Mothers and fathers are given a great honor; let them rise to the responsibility of that honor. Let them teach their children the commandments and the whole Word of God...
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In today's video, we discuss what kind of peace Simeon saw in the temple as he held the baby Jesus in his arms.
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The gospel is the final message of God, that which clearly directs people to Christ. So should we, like John the Baptist, direct people to Christ.
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Those who depend upon their works instead of their hope and faith in the great work of Christ Jesus have already bowed to the beast. In doing so, they have knelt before the dragon...
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In today's video, we discuss God's peace.
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"Preparing the way" is a metaphor for confronting people who need to repent. Preparing the way is proclamation of the law so that people do not depend upon themselves and their religion but trust in Christ alone.
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It is not easy to be a child. Nor is it easy to be followers of Christ, his church. One may, at first, imagine the difficulty lies in keeping the commandments—for who can do so with the slightest measure of perfection?
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In today's video, we discuss God's mercy for all people—even the ones we do not think deserve it.
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We must first tell the sinners how they can be liberated from their sins and perceive a merciful God. When they have been released from the power of an evil conscience, joy will naturally result.
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How ironic that we consider the Fourth Commandment while reading today’s gospel lesson. A woman in the crowd seeks to honor the mother of Jesus, and Jesus improves upon her blessing...
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It is not enough to put off the works of darkness. One must put on the armor of light by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We cannot imagine how something could be so; the Lord surely did not mean it that way. Perhaps it was just a man writing down his own thoughts that came to be considered The Holy Bible.
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In today's video, we discuss how we may have created obstacles for people not like us to hear the gospel.
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The gospel has not the least in common with the self-righteous. They want to become rich in works, but the gospel wills that they are to become poor.
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Even Jesus obeyed the commandment to honor his earthly parents, as well as his heavenly Father. Honoring one’s parents is an extension of the greatest commandment.
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In today's video, we discuss how God's ways and our ways are so different that his ways are incomprehensible to us, so he sends his Word to us to accomplish his ways in our lives.
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Christ is the Sun, the source of the spiritual day, from whom the gospel brightness shines throughout the world through the apostles' preaching.
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Feeling angry, arrogant, rebellious? Would you vent your frustrations on the Lord using insolent words? Of course not; you should not do so with your parents either.
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In today's video, we discuss how God has made Israel a lighthouse, a warning to the nations, and how his covenant with Israel for the nations is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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All is well because of the peace of the cross, the peace of God, the peace of conscience, Christian peace, is the work of God that gives eternal calm.
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The harvest begins at home. Knowing how the kingdom laborers will be limited, God orders matters efficiently from the outset. There are two workers assigned to each of us so that we may each be properly gathered into his harvest.
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In today's video, Wyclif and I discuss how Advent (and life) is a time for waiting patiently for our God.
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Let no one decide that he will be utterly careless and rest upon God, making no effort, no exertion, not even resorting to prayer. Prayer is trust in God.
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Peter failed to recognize what was happening in this singular event that showed him the glory of Christ Jesus.
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In today's video, we discuss how the mercy of God is extended to nations other than Israel—even to her enemies.
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To serve God is nothing else than to serve your neighbor in love, whether enemy or friend, or whether you can help in temporal or spiritual matters.
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Peter failed to recognize what was happening in this singular event that showed him the glory of Christ Jesus.
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In today's video, we discuss how the light of Christ Jesus cannot be contained and will at last, enlighten our lives, filling every dark corner of our lives, banishing the darkness of sin forever.
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The offense of doctrine may be the most beautiful religious ceremonies, the noblest works, so that only faith through the Spirit recognizes that it is all wrong.
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We have seen what Peter would do if left to his own reason. Religion and abandonment are the outcomes.
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Do you think that God cannot preserve in his care the souls of men so that they will never know how heaven and earth passed away? You are in God’s hands.
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You may think that Paul’s warning to the centurion was not inspired. Yet, see how it finds its way into Luke’s account, into the Scripture? There is great danger in not paying attention to biblical counsel.
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In today's video, we discuss how God will make peace among the nations—and among us.
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The coming of Christ will not be attended by drums and bugles and the like worldly pomp, but by spiritual power and grace.
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Does it seem to you that some time has passed since you have heard from the Lord? Or, on the other hand, does it seem like it was only moments ago that God spoke?
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In today's video, we discuss how God is faithful even when we are faithless.
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We are not waiting for a Messiah and Savior yet to come. We are waiting each Advent for the Messiah and Savior who has come and will come again.
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Who was hounded by the devil more than Jesus? Now ask yourself: who has ever prayed more? Knowing the need, Jesus modeled the life of prayer to his disciples.
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In today's video, we discuss that God has chosen to reveal himself through love and faithfulness.
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For the sake of gain, we rise from sleep and go to work. How much greater the need for us to awaken from our spiritual sleep, to engage the works of light.
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Look at all the trouble that Paul and Luke went to just to preach the gospel. This is the great mission of the church, and they undertook it with passion. We should receive the proclaimed gospel with a matched passion...
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In today's video, we discuss God's' constant kingdom and the shifting political powers of our nation and the world.
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There is no one so prepared for the judgment day as he who fears God and longs to be without sin. What do you fear? You are well prepared for that day.
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Troubles come and troubles go, but we must abide in the ship. We hear the Word on the Lord’s Day, but we should remember it and keep it throughout the week.
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In today's video, we discuss our own craving for glory, and how this can be overcome by recognizing God's marvelous works and giving him the glory.
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