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The Harm of Sharing Personal Testimony
By Vanessa Rasanen Witness and testimony are good and biblical, but somewhere along the lines these became little about Jesus and much more about us. Instead of sharing the Gospel — the good news of His Grace and Salvation (and, ahem, why people need it) — too often we’re sharing stories of life-change or conversion. Left and right, here and there, we hear stories — moving, emotional, impressive, and heartbreaking — of how faith in Christ has helped someone, picked them up out of the rubble, dragged them away from the rock-bottom they had hit, and brought them into a life of joy and peace. Now, I like a good motivational story as much as the next…
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Contentment in Christ
By Holly Scheer When I was younger I thought a major goal in life was happiness. Primarily my own happiness. The choices I made, the ideas I pursued, and the friends I kept were in line with what I thought at the time would make me happy– even if it was bad for me. And those around me. But happiness is fleeting. Self absorbed happiness is even more so. Life has had many joys and sorrows for me in adulthood. There has been the joy of marriage, of children born and reborn in the waters of Baptism, of friends who point me to Christ. But there has also been death…
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Article XXVIII: Of Ecclesiastical Power (continued)
… continued from yesterday. 34] But concerning this question it is taught on our part (as has been shown above) that bishops have no power to decree anything against the Gospel. The Canonical Laws teach the same thing (Dist. IX). 35] Now, it is against Scripture to establish or require the observance of any traditions, to the end that by such observance we may make satisfaction for sins, or merit grace and righteousness. 36] For the glory of Christ’s merit suffers injury when, by such observances, 37] we undertake to merit justification. But it is manifest that, by such belief, traditions have almost infinitely multiplied in the Church, the doctrine concerning faith and the righteousness of faith being…
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Article XXVIII: Of Ecclesiastical Power
1] There has been great controversy concerning the Power of Bishops, in which some have awkwardly confounded the power of the Church 2] and the power of the sword. And from this confusion very great wars and tumults have resulted, while the Pontiffs, emboldened by the power of the Keys, not only have instituted new services and burdened consciences with reservation of cases and ruthless excommunications, but have also undertaken to transfer the kingdoms of this world, 3] and to take the Empire from the Emperor. These wrongs have long since been rebuked in the Church 4] by learned and godly men. Therefore our teachers, for the comforting of men’s consciences, were constrained to show the difference…
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Prayer
By Mary Abrahamson Today at work I was unexpectedly asked to join two of my coworkers in praying with them. A man who just started working at our facility a week ago has a son who experienced a medical emergency last week, and his condition is ongoing. So this man, a brand new employee, understandably has his mind and even sometimes his whole self, elsewhere than his new job. What a situation! Imagine the combined worry of your son’s health and the tenuous nature of a new job! Because my coworkers are both Christian people, they wanted to pray together for this man and his son. And because they knew…
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Why buy the cow? Thoughts on marriage
By Mary Abrahamson In talking to an older mom awhile back, discussing the trend among young people to delay marriage, my friend said, “Why by the cow when you can get the milk for free?” I understood, of course, her metaphor. She was expressing that with extra-marital sexual activity dominating our cultural norm, there was no compelling impetus for a young person to assume the commitment and responsibilities that come with marriage. This line of thought appeals to our sinful condition. And to our humanity, in a sense. We are biologically inclined to want to engage in sexual behaviors. This is a natural and good thing, in its…
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Review of The Story Bible: 130 Stories of God’s Love, edited by Edward A. Engelbrecht and Gail E. Pawlitz
By Bethany Kilcrease and Tabitha Moldenhauer The Story Bible came out in 2011, which is when we purchased it for our children, then ages 6 and 4. It’s a big book. As children’s books go, really big and heavy. Not that that’s a negative feature. It’s excellent for pressing leaves for Autumn crafts (I just discovered some very old maple leaves upon opening it today). It contains 130 Bible accounts from the Old and New Testaments, presented in a readable format for children without losing meaning. A guide for parents and teachers is included that offers useful strategies for reading the stories with children in different age ranges. There…
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Happy Birthday, Katie Luther!
By Rebecca DeGarmeaux Today is the day that history records as Katharina Von Bora Luther’s birthday. Who exactly was Katie Luther and why do we want to be counted as her sisters? In many ways Katie was a very ordinary woman who lived a very ordinary life. As best as we can tell, she was born January 29, 1499 to Hans and Katharina von Bora near the town of Lippendorf near Leipzig, Germany. When she was five years old, her mother died. Her father remarried soon after and, at about the same time, Katie was sent to live in a convent in Brehna. At the age of ten…
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Are you a Good Christian?
By Mary Abrahamson First let’s answer what makes a person Christian? Well, that’s an easy answer. Belief in one’s total sin and depravity, and further belief that Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death cleanses one from all that sin. Somehow though, when we apply the adjective, Christian, to life or another noun, or when we put an adjective such as good or true in front of the noun, Christian, it’s easy to mix up the Law and the Gospel. Or to confuse Sanctification and Moral Living. We hear quite often phrases like Christian living or Christian life or Christian home, good Christian, true Christian, etc. These conjure up images…
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To the Mother of Little Boys
By Allison Hull Coming back from my parent’s house I’ve come to realize that the life of a mom with boys is infinitely different from others. Now that I have 4 and my littlest is getting more of a personality I feel like I’ve surpassed Expert level and am in Mastery level with a few insights to give. So this is my Top 10 Guide to Living with a Multitude of Boys, or rather My DON’TS. Flashing and streaking are an everyday occurrence. You will always have at least one younger child who is “Porky Pigging it”. Reasons range from it just being easier to go to the…
