Author Archives: Pastor

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Today the church celebrates Mary’s visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. It is not usually worth celebrating a pregnant woman’s visit to another pregnant woman. But … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” Who are these folks and why are they flocking to hear … Continue reading →

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus tells a parable in which a certain man prepares a rich supper and invites many people to enjoy it. But those whom he had … Continue reading →

Today’s epistle lessons sets the entire Christian life before us. It consists of two things. First, the apostle says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” God is love. Not the way the world thinks of God as love. The world thinks “God is love” means “God loves everybody just the way they are and wants them to be happy just the way they are, no matter what they think they are how they’re behaving.” But God teaches us in Scripture that God’s love isn’t tolerance. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son,” meaning, “This is the way God loved the world, by giving His only-begotten Son into death to pay for the world’s sins, so that “whoever believes in Him”—not just that He exists or that He is the Son of God, but repents of their sins and trusts Him as their only mediator with God—“shall not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the love that God is. And God wants all people to believe this, to repent of their sins, and to abide in His love by living in it each day, by using the gospel faithfully. Enduring, persevering faith is how we abide in God and God in us. Continue reading →