This is for pastor’s only. If you are a layman, turn around now. I’m not kidding. I’ve shared such thoughts below in Bible classes and it bothered some. I can’t blame them. It bothers me. But you don’t need to be bothered at all. Turn back now. Don’t click the read more.
Continue readingWhen Will They Ever Learn
Japanese businessmen wishing to break into the then lucrative Christmas card industry began selling their own. The image they chose for their first offering? Jesus kneeling in prayer and in agony in Gethsemane. In the immortal words of St. Maxwell, Smart that is, “They missed it by that much.”
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Posted in General
Visit to Our Savior Lutheran, Austin, Texas – Theology in a Time of Pandemic
Right off the bat let me say that I heard the Vicarious Atonement, Universal Atonement, and the Bible is the Word of God mentioned. The Nicene Creed was confessed and the Lord’s Prayer prayed. So, an unbeliever could have entered this church and walked out a Christian, but it is doubtful anyone could come out or stay a Lutheran here. Why? It’s the little things.
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Posted in Contemporary Worship, Missouri Megatrends
Defection by Television
Forty Autumns, the story of East Germany and Germans inside and out of that dystopian regime is worth the read. It illustrates why the most effective way of undermining an Iron Curtain is not an effective way for spreading the Gospel. The ubiquity of Zoom services and Facebook streaming not withstanding.
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Posted in Contemporary Worship, Missouri Megatrends
Prolife Pregnancy Centers and Contraceptives or 21st Century Bread and Circuses
Recently my congregation stopped funding a local prolife pregnancy center because they provide birth control to the unmarried. When I told this to the center this is how they responded:
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Posted in Missouri Megatrends
“I Support Rick Sawyer”
That’s the title I saved this under in 2011. I think this is the writing of his I am referencing https://steadfastlutherans.org/2011/03/acelc-conference-the-divine-service-and-daily-offices-by-rev-rick-sawyer/ . As always from the original Seelsorger of the web, good stuff.
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Posted in For Pastors Only, Missouri Megatrends
Fact or Fiction, the Blurring of Theology
In the category of truth is stranger in fiction, we find that Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mocking Bird, and author and gadfly Truman Capote grew up together.
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Posted in Contemporary Worship, Missouri Megatrends
Pope was Right
No, not the Pope but Alexander Pope, the turn of the 18th century English poet who some consider better than the Bard. He told us how we would come to embrace LGBTQ. And boy have we.
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Posted in For Anyone who dares, Missouri Megatrends
Uxoriousness
I had to look this word up when I first read it. Uxoriousness means to be “excessively fond of or submissive to a wife”. It’s from the Latin for wife uxor (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uxorious ). In his 1999 book The Church Impotent, Roman Catholic scholar Leon Podles observes: “Not tyranny, but uxoriousness, is the chief danger of patriarchy” (73).
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Posted in For Anyone who dares, Missouri Megatrends
The Fat Lady Hasn’t Sung
Who knew that this saying is no older than 1976 and comes from Texas Tech sport’s information director, Ralph Carpenter, when the Aggies tied the Red Raiders in the conference finals? The actual quote is: “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” (Based on my research, I think the jury is still out as to where, when, and who first said this.)
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Posted in For Anyone who dares