Robert Kolb

Whether or not there be grand thoughts behind a text, it is guaranteed that behind each text the Holy Spirit is lying in wait, and He is trying to enter into conversation with you.

The gospel of Jesus’ coming out of death and the tomb alive so that we might be restored to our identity as God’s children establishes the most enduring reality there is.

Belonging to Christ means we have a place where we fit, a resting place where we are at peace because we know our Lord accepts us as His own.

The dream of what might have been or what could possibly become reality diverts us from the sober assessment and the joyful appreciation of what God is giving us in this hour and this place.

It is precisely from the cross that the glory of God shines most brightly into our lives, as dark and sinister as Golgotha appears from a sinful distance. Cross trumps crisis.

Because Jesus has set us free, we enjoy a freedom of movement in His world, under His grace, that loosens our tongues to sing His praise.

Our Advent anticipation of the coming of the Savior to liberate us from sin and its wage of death, from the condemnation of God’s Law and the wrath of a loving heavenly Father, is indeed a daring and defiant stance.

Thanksgiving utters a confession of dependence, an acknowledgement of the gift of something not earned or deserved.

Jesus’ "collection of masks" fits Him out for assorted occasions through which He comes into contact with His human creatures.

God seeks us out and desires to give us more than a friendly smile or an understanding look. He seeks us out to embrace us and converse with us.

Trust may risk, but trust produces a sense of assurance letting us rest easy and enjoy peace while it drives us to ventures which may seem dangerous but are possible to do because trust defies the dangers.

Forgiveness is ours, Luther continually proclaimed, because Christ has put His claim on our sins and taken them as His own to the Cross and into His tomb.

The homiletical task of diminishing and debilitating mistrust begins, at every part of preaching, with the preacher.

Undershepherds of our shepherd go rejoicing as sheep among the lambs entrusted to us into God’s everlasting sheep pen, no shabby place to spend forever.

We encounter the triune God in various ways and unexpected places, at countless moments of our daily lives.

Wrestling alone puts us always at a disadvantage and every wrestling face-off needs a referee. Pastors are called to be such referees for their people.

What preacher’s deliver to their hearers is not just one or another gift, a present or two that enriches life. Preachers also deliver the very presence of the Lord.

Sermons begin with an audience of one, me. But, preaching to oneself is always dangerous.

Do we honestly believe what we tell our hearers really makes any significant difference in the coming week for them?

Trusting in Christ’s promise of new life and deliverance pours patience and hope into the way we think and the way we experience life.

Each day gives us occasion to die to our sinful identities of all kinds and to live out a life in Christ’s footsteps as children of God.

Golgotha is the point where not only Mary and John’s family life assumed a new character, but it is the point of orientation for all human community that uses the cross to straighten out the lives of individuals turned in upon themselves.

The cross does not remain on a hill far away. It pursues us into the valleys, the ravines, the crevices in which we get trapped as we wander in search of a fixed point for our lives.

Trusting in Christ’s promise of new life and deliverance powers our ability to view the world with perceptive sensitivity and, therefore, to treat others fairly in the way we think and the way we experience life.

Trusting in Christ’s promise of new life and deliverance pours generosity and hospitality into the way we think and the way we experience life.