A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Sometimes the best way to learn something is to just start doing it. That’s the premise behind language immersion, a technique used in bilingual education. Unlike more traditional programs, where the language is taught simply as a subject to be learned, language immersion focuses more on the second language being a tool which is used to immerse the student completely within a variety of subjects. Research has shown that language immersion provides students with overall greater language comprehension and production of the second language in a native-like manner, with greater understanding of the underlying culture as well. It’s one thing to study a language for one class peri...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” (John 21:3, ESV). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, serving a congregation in the land of 10,000 lakes: there are a lot of men, women, and children in this congregation who love to fish. From Elaine Rieck and Clarence Graphenteen down to Lucas Brockberg and Abbott Moeller, and a whole lot more of you in between, we have (pardon the pun) a boatload of avid fishermen and women. And each of them has stories to tell of successful fishing trips and “the big one that got away.” Elaine tells me about going down to the creek fishing for bullheads after milking cows. Lucas is proud to show off the walleye he caught ice fishing, and will tell you that you won’t catch anything with baby shad. Fishermen do what comes natu...