1. FLAME uses Scripture and church history to argue that baptism is a gospel gift, not our work.
  2. This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the fifth installment of that series.
  3. There is comfort and joy that while one is now at rest from his labors, the Lord of the church continues to ensure that the good seed is sown, watered, and cared for.
  4. God has a plan for this world that he put into place from eternity, a plan that is carried out in Jesus Christ and promises unimaginably great blessings for believers.
  5. The Trinity is a handy shorthand for all that God has done to justify sinners.
  6. For Japan’s highly secularized elite, alienated by collapsing opportunity and the materialistic void left behind, Bach’s music was a balm.
  7. After the big, splashy, exciting day of Pentecost in Acts 2, church life faded into the ordinary life of ragtag sinners encountering the God of the cross coming to them in seemingly unawesome ways. What can we learn from this?
  8. That on Pentecost God’s Spirit should function through a dozen seeming inebriates should be no surprise when this same God saves through the ignominy of the cross.
  9. The relationship between faith and prayer or belief and worship is mutual. Faith produces prayer and prayer expresses faith.
  10. Just as the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, so we, through the working of the Holy Spirit, recognize our Lord in the Word and Sacraments.
  11. I trust that because of the gospel, God will continue to mend what I, in my sin, continue to break.
  12. 1517 would not exist without the leadership, friendship, and faithfulness of Pastor Ron Hodel.