God makes us pure saints by planting us back in the earth we imagined we needed to escape.
Salvation is not merely to be put in “safety” but to be put into Christ.
Bringing your family to church to receive “the one thing needful” (Luke 10:42) in Word and Sacrament honors and pleases God.

All Articles

This is the key to understanding missions and preaching: It is His mission, His message. Christ commissions only His Kingdom of God message to be preached, period. You are not at liberty.
Isaiah’s beautiful prophetic language describing the, “Coming of the Promised One,” is very familiar to us, but the challenge is always to determine to which coming of the Messiah Isaiah’s prophecy is pointing towards.
James takes the Jewish expectation and thoroughly baptizes it in the light of the fact of the Incarnation. Messiah has come.
It seems too good to be true, and yet it is the truest of all truths. This is our God. This God sees and chooses to trample our sins under his feet.
I can only disbelieve you or believe you. If I disbelieve you, I go on being a miserable bore.
Through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, you are not so much coming up with something to preach about as you are coming upon it.
The problem is not that we are unrepentant. The problem is our contrition is too small.
Instead of defining the true church in the way of the law, Augustine approaches the issue pastorally in the way of the gospel.
To pray that God’s name is hallowed among us is to pray for the continual proclamation of the gospel in truth and purity that we would hear the word about Christ crucified for sinners.
The real question we must ask about God’s will isn’t, “God, command us according to your will and we’ll do it,” but, “God, what are you willing to do for us who can’t do what you command?”
When I hear people describe the god they don’t believe in, no longer believe in, or can’t bring themselves to believe in, I often nod in agreement. Yes, as a follower of Jesus, I do not and would not believe in that god either.
We might not appreciate that God chooses to save us by his word alone, but our discomfort doesn’t make the promise any less effective.