Good morning: Sometimes words fail. Sometimes they fail to really communicate all that fills your mind and heart. Try as you might, you can’t find the right words or enough words. That is true for me in looking back over the past 26 years of serving the Lord here at Messiah. Words fall short in... The post When words fail appeared first on Messiah Lutheran Church Hales Corners, WI ..read more

Good morning: Whether it’s the political world or your local neighborhood, there is no lack of anger and divisiveness. It seems as though it’s nearly impossible to find two people to agree on anything or for any kind of peace and harmony to last. But this past week has been refreshingly different. Yesterday we finished our annual week of Vacation Bible School. Every morning 30 students plus teachers and helpers gathered to take a virtual balloon trip to various places in the creation which illustrate God’s blessings to a world of sinners. As you might imagine, there were a few tears of anxiety ..read more

Good morning: Is your wall calendar scribbled full of reminders about upcoming appointments, places you need to be, and things you need to do? Maybe your refrigerator is the family bulletin board which you use to communicate and coordinate with one another. Do you have a phone app to schedule your day down to the minute? Life is complicated. There is so much going on. You have to calculate how long it will take to get to work and how to squeeze in shopping and ball games later. There are bills to pay at a particular time each month or you’ll be faced with late charges. Unforeseen “emergenci ..read more

Good morning: All of us need a confidence boost from time to time. It might be a friend encouraging you to take the new job. It’s a nurse assuring you that the doctor caring for you is the one they would choose for themselves. It could be your parents telling you that you’ll do fine in raising your children; or maybe someone offering to go with you, so you won’t feel alone in a group of strangers. Do you remember Gideon? You can read about him in Judges 6-7. God appeared to him while he was threshing wheat, called him a “mighty warrior,” and commissioned him to save Israel from the enemy who h ..read more

Good evening, “There’s always hope!” We’ve all heard it. We’ve all said it. But is it true? It depends. You may have great hopes of making it to work or a doctor appointment on time. But if you leave the house 15 minutes later than Google maps tells you, and you hit all red lights along the way, it’s hopeless. You won’t make it on time. There are situations and circumstances, little and major, which are beyond human ability to “fix,” and so are truly hopeless. It’s a frightening thought. But David writes, “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you” (Ps. 39:7). The Apostle Paul ad ..read more

Good morning: You’ve chosen a card and written inside, “Dear Dad: Happy Father’s Day. Thank you for ____________ .” How will you complete the sentence? Did your dad help you through a particularly tough time? Did he pay your college tuition? Or does something else come to mind which on the surface doesn’t seem like much? Will you write, “Thank you for taking me fishing when I was five…Thank you for holding my hand when I was scared at the zoo…Thank you for playing a game with me, even though you had work to do…Thank you for listening and for your advice on raising my own children”? Often it’s ..read more

Good morning: When is “right” “wrong”? It sounds confusing and contradictory, but it happens. It’s right to tell the truth, but if you speak the truth to hurt someone’s reputation and make yourself look better, it’s wrong in God’s eyes. It’s certainly right to hear God’s Word and to speak to him in prayer, but Jesus condemned the hypocrites who prayed standing up in the synagogue and on street corners in order to be admired by others. It’s easy to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Have you defended gossip about others by saying, “I’m just telling the truth”? What about grudgingly unload ..read more

Good morning: If you visit the War Memorial in downtown Milwaukee this week, you’ll see the Field of Flags, 27,316 tiny US flags placed in honor of Wisconsinites who sacrificed their lives in service to the nation from the Civil War to the present. It took countless hours and an entire team of volunteers to place the flags, but they serve a valuable purpose in reminding everyone who drives by of what Memorial Day is really all about. To truly appreciate the blessings we have in our country, we need to remember the cost of our freedoms, and we want to honor those who paid for it with their li ..read more

Good morning: Have you ever hired, or thought of hiring, a life coach? Their purpose is to help a client with various areas of their lives, such as career advancement, dealing with stress, developing positive habits, and nurturing relationships, just to name a few. It could be time and money well spent. None of us has all the answers. All of us can benefit from learning and understanding aspects of life better. But it’s important to choose a coach carefully. The wrong one could do more harm than good. Their advice might make matters worse instead of improve them. Did you know that you already ..read more

Good morning: Around this time of year especially there are many students who would wholeheartedly echo Solomon when he says, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Eccl. 12:12). Yet Solomon was not anti-education, not by any means. God gave him extraordinary wisdom in both earthly and spiritual matters. He had a keen interest in observing and learning about all that God created. “He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke ..read more