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God wants you to take his commands seriously, but he also wants you to have confidence in his promise to comfort you in this life and in the life to come.
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This is arguably Jesus' most difficult parable to understand, but the more we ponder it, the more we see the blessings we have in our relationship with our gracious Master and with those around us.
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Saint Paul makes us aware of who the bad guy is when things go wrong in a congregation. He also shows us what to focus on as we sort things out.
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Where we might see a crowd of adoring fans of Jesus, our Savior sees individual souls who need to follow so that he can lead them to eternal life.
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As Living Water celebrates its 25th anniversary, it praises God that his forgiveness, life, and salvation have flowed to our congregation for over two decades and it celebrates the confidence of knowing such living water will continue to flow to us in the future.
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God gives us a glimpse of who gets into heaven and how. Instead of using it to judgemntally ask about others, "How did you get here?", this text invites us to reflect on the grace and compassion that God used to bring us into his church and to the very doorsteps of heaven.
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The writer to the Hebrews pictures our life of faith as an athletic race towards heaven. Just as earthly athletes surround themselves with the right kinds of individuals they need for athletic success, so the writer encourages us Christians to surround ourselves with the right kind of individuals who will set us up to successfully cross the finish line into heaven.
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God doesn't need your help when it comes to providing for your present or your future. That's because there's nothing we could do for him. Instead of asking for our help, he promises to help us both physically and especially spiritually.
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Nobody likes to be a fool, especially when it comes to money. To make us wise, our Savior Jesus shows us the meaning of life and then helps us both combat greed and display contentment.
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Our guest preacher is Pastor Keith Free, who serves the our brothers and sisters in Christ at St. John's Lutheran Church in Mukwonago. May God bless him and the ministry there!
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Abraham's repeated prayer to God is an example of how to pray. But in the way that God listens to and answers Abraham, we have confidence to know that he will listen to and answer our prayers as well.
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Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan to prove that doing God's commands are not as easy as we may think. But when we see the way God has had mercy on us in Jesus Christ, we become capable of becoming neighbors to all sorts of people.
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What does a few verses addressed specifically to pastors have to do with you? By letting you behind the scenese of pastoral ministry, Peter helps show you two things that Jesus wants to give you through the pastoral ministry.
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We so often hear about God's forgiveness that we often also fail to take to hear what it actually is and what it actually does. Jesus' parable helps us with that.
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Pastor Keith Free served as our guest preacher. He recently was installed as one of the pastors at St. John's Lutheran Church in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.
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Our text shows that the Wicked Foe (aka, the devil) is real and has real forces of power at his disposal, namely, demons. And yet the Son of the Most High God knows how best to defend us and bring others under his protection.
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On Trinity Sunday we meditate on who our God is; he is three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--in just one, undivided divine being. We also marvel at his what he is--holy, eternal, majestic, immortal. All of that can leave us feeling small and sinful. But our triune God comes to us to bless us and take away our shame.
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Easter is all about celebrating the peace we have with God through Jesus' death and resurrection. Fifty days later, Pentecost is all about celebrating how God himself makes sure that peace is perpetuated throughout his Church for all time.
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Jesus' death and resurrection made it clear that God loves all people of all cultures, nationalities, and races. Therefore, we do, too, even if it is a little bit uncomfortable at times.
Find Encouragement in the Care of the Good Shepherd
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The headlines over the last three weeks since Easter are enough to make anyone discouraged. In the midst of the chaos, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes and gives us his one-of-a-kind encouragement.
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Pastor Wayne Shevey is our guest preacher. Pastor Shevey serves as a campus pastor at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee.
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Where is your excitement level two weeks after Easter? Jesus' apperance to his disciples helps keep the Easter excitement going for us.
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This account is also the basis for one of our stained-glass windows:
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We often have individualized concpetions of Jesus' apperance and how he carried himself (tone of voice, mannerisms, etc.). In the opening chapter of Revelation, Jesus appeared to Saint John exactly as Jesus wanted to be seen. That appearance shows us the kind of Jesus we should picture... and believe in.
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The words of a dying man always carry some importance. The words of this dying man are definitely important because of who he is and because of who hears them.
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The words of a last will and testament can change lives. This is especially true of the words which our Savior left us in what many call his last will and testament, given in the Upper Room.
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Even the casual observer of Holy Week knows to look at Jesus these seven days. But when one looks at Jesus, what are they supposed to see? God the Father wants us to see the way that Jesus serves because, after all, the Son of God came to be not just a servant, but THEE servant.
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Jesus' parable is spoken against the extremen rejection sinful mankind is capable of. But it also highlights the eternal resolve God the Father and God the Son show us in order to save us from our sin.
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