Merry Christmas! This day, God has called us again to hear His Word to His Church on another fourth day of Christmas. This is also a day wherein the Church has commemorated the shedding of innocent blood on account of the Good News concerning Jesus the Christ.
Through all of that, God’s Word for today presents to you God’s will. He reveals that in the divine hope that it would move your New Adam’s response to God’s mercy. Hear now that which you are free in Christ to do—despite the multitudes of tragedies that surround you in this fallen world. For more, click on the title above.
Tag: Pastor Morehouse
King of kings and eternal priest of the living God
Voluntary submission and sacrificial love
Today, God has gathered us to hear His Word concerning repentance, forgiveness, grace, and mercy. Those attributes, which the Word calls for as part of a continual practice in a healthy marriage between one man and one woman, are accompanied by two specific teachings in today’s texts. The first is one that has raised concerns in some 20th and 21st century American women. The second is one that some Christian men of the same era have failed to heed. We’ll hear more about voluntary submission and sacrificial love in a few minutes. …For more, click on the title above.
The song of Zechariah
Through His Services to us, the Lord has brought us to the second of the Church’s three Advent Wednesdays this year. They have served, and are serving, to proclaim to us Faith’s response to God’s beautiful gifts. Last week, we heard as the Magnificat was expounded that it was, and is, a reflection of this biblical principle as it applies to God’s Word and His people’s right responses: Gift, Recognition, [and] Response. The past two Sundays, we’ve heard the texts that led, and flowed from, that theme as it was, and is, wrapped about by the ancient themes of those Sundays, “Hope,” and “Peace.” …For more, click on the title above.
Freed in Christ to call upon God in the day of trouble
Today, God has called us into His Service to once again receive His gifts. Through them, He would have us hear, by our faithfully receiving His proclaimed Word, a theme that helps us in our watching and waiting for the Last Day. That is, that we, as members of the Body of Christ, are freed in Him to call upon God in the Day of Trouble. …For more, click on the title above.
The King of Glory arrives
This day, as in years past, the New Church Year has begun with our heralding the King of Glory… He is the One Whom we believe, teach, and confess is Jesus. He is the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts. He alone was, and is, the One Who once entered ancient Jerusalem humble and sitting upon a donkey, and upon the colt of a donkey.
So, as New Church Years have begun for centuries, this week has started by our heralding Jesus as the fulfillment of the Lord’s Promise to King David. He, we are being, and will be, led to understand over the course of almost four weeks this year, is the eternal Son of David Who would, and does, sit on God’s eternal Throne of Glory. …For more, click on the title above.
God Cut the Beautiful Everlasting Covenant.
“That prayer helps keep this November Second’s Commemoration in it is
biblical place. Such prayers help prevent rightly confession congregations from
assenting to, or cooperating in, many types of false worship and practices that accompany All Souls Day. You likely know that many Tucson area residents celebrate the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos on 1 and 2 November each year. In the face of that, we will continue to celebrate the biblical reality that people who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, even though they may die, live in Him forever. Baptized and continually believing persons who have not yet fallen asleep in the Lord find their greatest communion with the blessed ones who have died in Christ whenever they
come to Christ’s Altar Tables in rightly confessing and worshipping congregations. It is there where those who are baptized, those who rightly discern Christ’s Body and Blood in, with, and under earthly elements of bread and wine, recline in His Presence. Through those means, the faithful are granted forgiveness and strengthening to eternal life by Jesus Himself. Further, we recall that where Jesus is, there are the heavenly hosts.”
Click on the title above for the full sermon.
God cut the beautiful everlasting covenant
There is a conjunction of readings that have occurred this day. In this place, we follow the helpful and ancient tradition of keeping the appointed Sunday readings whenever a minor feast, festival, or commemoration appears on a Sunday. That helps all of us hold fast to the rhythm of this part of Trinity-tide, whose Sunday texts reinforce us for Christian endurance in the Faith. For more, click on the title above.
A Beautiful Feast of and for Living People.
“This is a day wherein, at this Festival Service, we will take time to remember the members of this congregation who fell asleep in Christ in the past year. As we do that, we are called to remember that the All Saints’ Feast has been handed on to our generation of the Faith. Further, as we
have received it rightly, we recall that this Feast Day has been accompanied by an ongoing prayer that it will be celebrated as a beautiful feast of and for living people.
Therefore, we declare that All Saints’ Day has been given to us to bring forth a remembrance of God’s grace and mercy for all the saints in heaven and on earth. That emphasis for this day has been in the Church for over 1,600 years. It was added to the Church calendar in the land of Syria.
From that, the joining of the primary readings for today was done, long ago, to bring clarity to the beatitudes that we heard from St. Matthew’s Gospel. Those are the “blessed be” proclamations of our Lord. Those may be heard in the Lord’s Services each year especially during this Feast Day.”
Click on the title above for the full sermon.
Wednesday following The 18th Sunday After Trinity
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
For the full sermon click on the title above.