As we move from Holy Week to the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, rejoice in all your Lord accomplished on the cross for the sake of your salvation, from a sermon by Johann Gerhard on the Suffering and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ:Our Easter/Passover Lamb is Christ, who also died on the tree, and shed His blood so that we may be safe from the hellish angel of death.  Jonah w...

Throughout the month of March and the days of Lent, we primarily focus on repentance and sanctified living. However, the forty days of Lent are to help us prepare for the events of Holy Week, Good Friday and the celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection.As we humbly reflect on our thoughts, words and deeds, which are tainted with sin, we do well to meditate on these words from Paul Gerhardt’s beautif...

This month begins the annual season of reflection and repentance in preparation for Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter. According to the Treasury of Daily Prayer, “During the forty days of Lent, God’s baptized people cleanse their hearts through the discipline of Lent: repentance, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Lent is a time in which God’s people prepare with joy for the Paschal Feast (Easter). I...

Throughout the month of December we celebrate the season of Advent, remembering how the prophet Isaiah declared the miraculous birth of Jesus with these words, “Behold the virgin will conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” He also described the how the Messiah would, “bring good news to the poor…bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of ...

After the celebration of All Saints, the rest of November leads us into the last three Sundays of the church year. During this short season, the hymns and reading emphasize the Judgment Day and the return of Christ. In a sense this month is pre-Advent, even as the “Gesima” Sundays are pre-Lent.Therefore, we remember that time is short. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “the creation waits with eage...

“Salvation unto us has come, by God’s free grace and favor. Good works cannot avert our doom, they help and save us never. Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, He is our one Redeemer.” The words of this hymn, beautifully summarizes the teaching of the Lutheran church, which is the true teaching of God’s Word. St. Paul wrote, “For I am not shamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvatio...

September 14 is Holy Cross Day, a day set aside on the church calendar to ponder the cross and its meaning in the life of the Christian.  During his life, Martin Luther lived under the cross, enduring much suffering for preaching Christ and Him crucified.  Luther wrote about the suffering all Christians will experience in his sermon on the Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the Large Catechism...

     It was eight years ago this month that construction began on our newly purchased pipe organ.  The loss of our digital piano by an act of God through a lightning strike on the church, allowed us to consider purchasing and installing an instrument that would be used to assist the congregation in making a “joyful noise” to the Lord during the Divine Service and prayer offices.    At the time, th...

We have come to the conclusion of Pastor's Bible Study on funeral planning and preparations. Below is the general outline and suggestions from that study. Expand each area to view the details. Additional Funeral Planning Resource: Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller: Final Victory: Contemplating the Death and Funeral of a Christian......

     During June, the weeks of the church year begin to be numbered in reference to “Trinity Sunday.” This helps remind us that the only true God, whom we confess in the Creeds and who saves us is “Trinitarian.”  One God, but three persons.  In the daily prayers from the Small Catechism, we learn that when we get up in the morning, “we are to make the sign of the holy cross and say, “In the name o...

    He is risen! He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! For forty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we continue to rejoice in the “Season of Easter.”  In fact, from our Lord’s ascension into heaven until the moment of His return in glory, this is the message that sustains the church, “That Christ has risen.” This message is so important, that without it, St. Paul would write, “Our faith ...

"He's risen, He's risen, Christ Jesus, the Lord. He opened death's prison, the Incarnate Word...” C.F.W. Walther wrote those words on Easter of 1860 as he was heading back to Germany for a much needed rest. Not surprisingly, it is often times of suffering and cross bearing that produce the greatest and most comforting hymns. As Walther’s hymn declares, “The Foe was triumphant when on Calvary The L...

   Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Around the world many Christians are already planning what they want to give up during the “forty days” leading up to Easter. For good reason Lent is considered the most “penitential” season of the church year. St. Paul wrote, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”  Even the words used to impose the ashes, from the curse ...

Last month, we began Epiphany singing of how our Lord’s miracles revealed Him to the world and identified Him as its savior.   “Manifested by the star to the sages from afar; in Thy birth in Bethlehem; Manifest in Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest and King supreme; and at Cana wedding guest, God in man made manifest; manifest in power divine, changing water into wine, manifest in making whole, pal...

     “And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matt....

     This month begins the new church year with the season of Advent. The first Sunday in Advent is called Ad Te Levavi. This title comes from Psalm 25 which is the antiphon of the introit, “To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O My God in You I trust; let me not be put to shame.” The gradual, also from Psalm 25, helps establish the reverent, penitential focus of the season, when we remember, “None ...

     At the end of this month we will celebrate the Last Sunday of the church year and acknowledge the quickly approaching return of Christ, when we sing, “The day is surely drawing near, when Jesus, God’s anointed, in all His power shall appear as judge whom God appointed. Then fright shall banish idle mirth, and flames on flames shall ravage earth as Scripture long has warned us.” These are sobe...

     This month we will celebrate the anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. Unfortunately, for the past 500 years, both Roman Catholics and Protestants have often accused us of worshipping a man. The Scriptures clearly states that we are to follow no one but God. To call ourselves “Lutheran,” shows that we believe that the teaching of the Lutheran church best fulfills the admonition to preach C...

“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lo...

    King David wrote in Psalm 96, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm 96:1)      The Aposlte Paul encouraged the people of Colossae with these words, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and a...