This year, today is the third Sunday in the fourth part of the Trinity season. The weekly readings continue be proclaimed in order to turn their hearers hearts and minds to their emphasis on the power Christians are given to endure as we live under the cross, that which comes to us through the Faith of Jesus. The texts reveal the power of God that gives you strength in your struggle against the temptations of the world. They lead you to hear and believe that our victory against all those who oppose us, on account of the Faith we rightly confess is assured through the death and resurrection of the only truly righteous Man, Jesus the Christ…For more, click on the title above.
Author: kyriss
The seven ‘Ones’
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Thus far our text. This text sounds familiar does it not? Even if you have never heard it before today, the things Paul says to the Church in Ephesus in our epistle reading certainly ring a bell. Indeed, before we sang the hymn of the day, we confessed the Nicene Creed. In that Creed we confess that there is one Father, one Lord, Our Savior Jesus Christ, and one Spirit. It seems that these verses could very well be an early creed of the ancient church…
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King of the Hill
King of the hill. I’m sure you’ve all heard of that game. My father was in the Air Force and we moved around a lot. Before I was 10 we lived in Newfoundland, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Germany and Illinois. Everywhere we went we would end up playing this game and the rules never changed.
The object was to take the hill—even if you had to make little secret pacts with other kids (or even your brother)—to get to the top of the hill. …for more, click on the title above.
The Word of God dispels death
She was the mother of the dead. We all expect to bury our parents. This woman had probably already grieved over both of hers. We expect one spouse to have to bury the other. This widow had already buried her husband. And now the unthinkable: she had to bury her only son. St. Luke does not tell us how young this boy was, but in the eyes of a mother, she was burying her little boy… .For more, click on the title above.
You have been given the endurance you need
Starting with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, members of this congregation began to hear again that we have entered the time of the Church that is given to focus us upon endurance through the Word. We were reminded that it is the Word of God, proclaimed, heard as well as Incarnate, that gives us the power of God to stand fast in the face of our enemies. The Word is what the members of the Body of Christ truly need in order to grant us faithful endurance in all the battles that the forces of evil wage against us. It is that which continues to remind us that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus. …click on the title above for more
Who is the real St. Michael?
Your heavenly Father provides for His creatures
The beautiful creation that your Heavenly Father has made, He created to work beautifully together. All animals and plants should have ready access in a multitude of wondrous ways to food, shelter, water, and mates. This does not reveal the marks of steady evolution caused by mutation, but that we see such is a revelation of glorious and intelligent design of a loving Father. God cares for all creatures, from the giants of the great depths to the single-celled organisms. Our Father created the world to be teeming with life, and we can see this is clearly the case.
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She says “Amen” to the Name of the Lord
You are being called by the Spirit of the Living God to hear and cling to God’s good and gracious promises. Those He gives to all who call upon Him in the Faith.
Through His Word, you are called to receive divine encouragement. That God wills to give to you out of your hearing and beholding His Word. In that, we pray that the Holy Spirit will work in you true trust in the One Who promises good to those who call upon Him in the Faith. This day, God, through His visible and proclaimed Word, is working to give you sure and certain hope. That comes from the proclamation of His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises to people, such as Marie, who bear His Name.
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Life according to God’s Word
The Word of the Lord in the changable readings of the day—called the Propers—began for us with a question and an answer. Those remind us how wonderful and beneficial it can be to hear God’s Word as we are doing today. They emphasize God’s answer to the question posed by many of the faithful in our day, that is, “how may I live the Christian life?” That is just what the second section, or “Beth,” (B) division of Psalm 119 continues to communicate with these words:
How can a young man keep pure his way?
By (his) guarding (it) according to Your Word.
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You have heard what prophets and kings desired to hear
Looking back to the prophets and kings, they offered sacrifices, burnt offerings to the Lord. They did so for the forgiveness of sins. They offered the best portions of meat for a burnt offering to God the Father, and He forgave their sins.
While they had to do this, we do not. The sacrifice of Christ has covered us once and for all. When God looks at us, He sees the sacrifice of Christ, and our sins are atoned for by His Blood.
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