She felt cursed by God. Her husband loved her. But in her body, and in her soul, she felt cursed. Echoing in her heart were the ancient words spoken to our first mother: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children.” The pain applies to the birth, to be sure. But there is sorrow here, too – sorrow in conceiving a child, or rather, the difficulty thereof. The woman in today’s Old Testament reading spends years in the sorrow of barrenness. Why does this happen, these trials of infertility, secondary infertility, and miscarriage ..read more

We do not worship saints, nor pray to them. These things clearly contradict God’s Word. We do, however, remember the saints and give them honor. The Augsburg Confession says, Concerning the cult of the saints our people teach that the saints are to be remembered so that we may strengthen our faith when we see how they experienced grace and how they were helped by faith. Moreover, it is taught that each person, according to his or her calling, should take the saints’ good works as an example ..read more

In his book The Sermon on the Mount: The Church’s First Statement of the Gospel, David P. Scaer draws out the true teaching of Jesus, obscured by textual assertions that accommodated man’s tendency to justify himself: there is no place for anger in the life of a disciple of Jesus. “One who is angry has taken to himself the prerogative that belongs to God alone. The phrase “without cause” does not belong to the original reading. Even if there is a cause for anger, anger must be put aside among the followers of Jesus. There is no cause for anger. Though anger is the prerogative of God alone, in ..read more

Our minds contemplate grievances and dreams, seeking our own will. We are called to contemplate Christ and seek to be conformed to His will. We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. If we gaze on images of uncleanness, we are conformed to that image. It defiles, and renders us incapable of genuine love. We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. So what is occupying your mind? We naturally have many scattered thoughts held in the mind: things to do, things to buy, bills to pay, the needs of the day. We cannot spend the whole day reading Scripture and occupied in for ..read more

Descending into the waters, the sinless One becomes sinner. For that was the content of the water. All the transgressions of all those coming to John, they were all in the water. And in that water, too, were the drowned bodies of Pharaoh’s army. And the sad horror of the infants Pharaoh cast there. The stench of corruption from Noah’s flood. The blood of the Nile. The blood of Abel. The rotting core of the fruit Eve tasted. It’s all there, in water unfit for bathing ..read more

In today’s Gospel we see demonic, malevolent power seek to snuff out the Light kindled in Bethlehem. Fear and suspicion corrupt man’s will with a hatred for God’s good will. What is truly senseless is our belief that technology or government or education or regulation can scatter the darkness. Our globe is illumined with artificial lights, yet the darkness has only grown deeper. Herod has absolutely nothing on Planned Parenthood. No society that discards its offspring as rubbish can be called civilized. Today there are thousands of Herods, some with MDs, and others with PhDs, in prestigious un ..read more

Do you not see your own peril, that the power of your own sinful flesh will rule you unless it is brought under subjection to the Name? And Satan comes against you, “in battle array like Goliath” [Müller]. How did David meet the giant? He said, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you” [1 Sam. 17:45f]. This David had fought with wild animals, and vanquished them, killi ..read more

Of the 44 books I read in 2024, these are my top selections: Best New Book (published in 2024): The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Jonathan Haidt) Haidt demonstrates that an electronic-based childhood ..read more

These are my favorite albums released in 2024: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle) MoonDial (Pat Metheny) Earthcycle (Orchestra of the Swan) Études Mélodiques (Marie Awadis) Arium (Thom Brennan) Can I Tell You Something? (Mark Lettieri) Stay By My Side (Gerard Cousins) LIFE (Extended) (Mari Samuelsen) Bach (Alexandre Tharaud) Brisk - single (Aukai) Upgraded (soundtrack; Isom Innis) Solastalgia (Erik Wøllo) Blurring the Edges (Data Rebel ..read more

Outside the temple there is no peace. You have challenges in your family. You feel arthritis settling in, or some other part of you is aging. Friends turn against you. Irrational people will give you no peace. But here, in Jesus ..read more