Love, peace, hope and rejoicing

Three out of the four emotions, actions, verbs, meanings attributed to the candles of the Advent wreath are ones which we certainly strive for during our earthly lives, but always fall short of fulfilling—those three being love, peace and hope—those are all Divine gifts that our Lord and Savior provides to us and for us. Rejoicing, now that’s something we can and should do continually when we think about the grace and mercy shown to us by our heavenly Father….for more, click on the title above.

Our God is a God of Hope

Second Coming of Christ by an unknown artist

What is the “hope” that is in you? If your definition of hope goes something like this: “Wouldn’t it be nice, if…., or, “If only…” That’s NOT what the Scriptures mean by hope.
In today’s reading St. Paul called our God a “God of hope.” A God who fills His people with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may abound in hope. That’s not so they would abound in “wouldn’t it be nice,” or, “if only…”
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King of the Hill

Stained glass window fro Christ the King Lutheran Church, Redlands, California

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.