I love Isaiah chapter 55. Yes the whole chapter. God, through Isaiah, talks about a variety of topics. If you have 10 minutes, I encourage you to open your Bible and read Isaiah 55. Read it slowly and absorb what God wants to share with you. In this article, I want to share one part…
If you go to CLC, you know my life has been a little stressful and heartbreaking the last two weeks. In 6 weeks, we will move my father from Wisconsin to Nevada to live with us. That also presents some challenges since our current home (a condo) won’t accommodate us comfortably or practically since it…
If you grew up in the church you learned about the shepherd boy David taking on the Philistine giant Goliath in Sunday School. That is where I first heard the story. There are some things we can learn from that story and apply to our lives today. David was the only one brave enough to…
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:33-34…
During the month of May, we are revisiting our congregation’s mission statement in our preaching. A mission statement is nothing more than a summary of what we believe and our stated goals. Most churches have a mission statement. Fewer churches know what their mission statement says. That is not the case at Community Lutheran Church….
On Palm Sunday (the day Jesus came to Jerusalem for the week of Passover) I preached on the word Christ. If you were with us, I said that we might have lost the plotline because this word remained untranslated in our English language Bibles. Why would translators translate every other word and not “Christ”? The…
Last week, I attended my last church council meeting for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. My term is coming to an end in July. Community Lutheran Church is a part of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and I am honored to serve on the church council for the national church body. In…
For me, the journey towards the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus involves humility. Why? Because he acts on our behalf. Jesus does something for us that we can’t do for ourselves. I can’t absolve myself of sin without the death and resurrection of Jesus. I need what he so graciously did for me….
Yesterday, we began the season of Lent. Lent is Latin for the word “spring.” As you may have guessed, the name has nothing to do with the actual church season. Lent is a time to prepare our hearts for the greatest miracle in human history: The Resurrection of Jesus. Lent can also be a time…
Let’s reflect on the Kingdom of God for a moment. Not the kingdom of humanity or governments or corporations or even small organizations. When Jesus the Son of God began his earthly ministry, he proclaimed, “The Kingdom of God is near.” Mark 1:15 Of course this makes sense, wherever the Son of God is, the…
