The Israelite God was different from all the other gods, thus, the worship of Yahweh differed from that of all other gods.
David finally found the truth that it was not his seed of kingship but the promise made to Abraham that made him holy. From that, David refused to be moved and wrote this Psalm by the necessity of the Spirit as the assurance of faith. The law never made a man holy, not even one as robust as David; yet faith did this great thing without lifting a finger.
Today, the longing for cultural Christianity on both the left and the right hearkens back to an older version of Christendom that was a mixed blessing for the church in the western world. The cultural mediation of Christian views on created order has certainly benefitted the civilization we’ve inherited. But the gospel itself isn’t something that can be reduced to cultural mediation either. Instead, the gospel as a message stands apart from all human accomplishments and achievements, no matter how beneficial they might be.

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Thanksgiving is never out of place for the Christian.
Luther understood that music is an exceptional teaching tool.
In the Bible, we meet the God who also does not prance around naked as a jaybird.
Symbols throw together a physical artifact we can see, hear, touch, taste, and/or smell, with a truth beyond the tangible.
To embrace our creatureliness is to affirm the truth that we were created to worship.
Strasbourg’s hymnals are especially relevant to American Lutherans because much of what we experience in our churches comes to us from Strasbourg.
This is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Your God is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places by Chad Bird (1517 Publishing, 2023).
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of these early Lutheran hymns – and their physical availability in hymnals – in the piety of common people living in Lutheran towns and territories.
This is an excerpt from “Encouragement for Motherhood, Devotional Writings on the Work of Christ” edited by Katie Koplin (1517 Publishing, 2024) available for purchase today.
C.S. Lewis, Grief, and the Holiday Season
The following poem was written by Tanner Olson to accompany 1517’s 2023 Advent Resources, The Clothing of the King. Advent begins this Sunday.
The joy of which Lewis speaks is a deep yearning of the soul not unlike the nostalgia we feel upon seeing a favorite childhood object once again.