A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 John 3:17-21). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!   You’ve probably had this experience: you learn a new word or concept or gain a new insight and suddenly see it everywhere. It has been there all along, but now it catches your attention, and it appears all over the place. That happened to me as I prepared to present a textual study of our Epistle lesson, 1 John 3:16-24, at this month’s Circuit Winkel. I noticed the word “heart” was repeated five times in five ve...

Click here to listen to this sermon.

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In the popular song, the little drummer boy tags along with the Magi to see Baby Jesus. Arriving at His house in Bethlehem, the Magi fall down in worship, offering Him fine gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. But the little drummer boy is sad because he has no gift to bring that’s fit to give the King. So here we are this evening—in His house, bringing gifts for the King. So, what sorts of gifts have you brought Him? Did you, perhaps, dress up in your nicest clothes to honor Him? Dressing up for God’s house is a good and worthy practice, to be sure—a way of remembering whose presence you are entering. But I’m sure the shepherds were just as welcome when they arrived to meet Baby Jesus in their everyday work clothes. How about offerings? Offerings are gifts, too. Offerings of money—that’s what we usually think of, but of course, there are other things. Time is a...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Just when you think our culture has sunk as low as it can get, another headline hits the news: “Racial Tensions Heat Up on One-Year Anniversary of Fatal Shooting in Ferguson, MO.” “The Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage,” “Planned Parenthood Sells Tissue from Aborted Babies.” Some would lay the blame for our declining morals on the doorsteps of filmmakers and TV producers. But the media aren’t to blame any more than bathroom mirrors cause our pimples and wrinkles. The entertainment industry simply reflects the moral climate of our age. No, the source of the problem is elsewhere. In the immortal words of the cartoon character Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Too often we look to the world around us as the source of our moral problems. If we could just stamp out pornography, we think, we could get rid of sexual abuse. If we could clean up the lyrics to roc...

I read the following quote from John Bunyan in my devotion today from Treasury of Daily Prayer (Concordia Publishing House).   What a wonderful reflection for this Lenten season of repentance! "I find to this day seven abominations in my heart: (1) An inclination to unbelief.   (2) Suddenly forgetting the love and mercy that Christ shows us.   (3) A leaning to the works of the Law.   (4) Wanderings and coldness in the Law. (5) Forgetting to watch for that which I have prayed for. (6) A tendency to murmur because I have no more, and yet a willingness to abuse what I have.   (7) I can do none of those things which God commands me, but my corruptions will thrust themselves upon me so that “When I would do good, evil is present with me.”   These things I continually see and feel and am afflicted and oppressed with; yet the wisdom of God orders them for my good.   (1) They make me abhor myself.   (2) They keep me from trusting my heart.   (...