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Living Water
By Amanda Markel I spent most of the Divine Service the Second Sunday after Pentecost sweating bullets, on the edge of the pew with worry. What was the cause of my distress? Well, you see, my three-year-old is as repeater. Anything she hears that she understands, is interested in, or finds funny, she repeats. Loudly. It’s something we’re working on, especially in church, but in the meantime, the Old Testament reading was about the fall into sin. And if you’re familiar with that reading from Genesis 3, you know that the word naked comes up more than once. My preschooler, like many children her age, thinks the word “naked,” as…
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Longing to Belong: A Sheep’s Tale
By Debra-Lynn Swearingen We were lost sheep for a season. There is nothing like church shopping to make you certain you are shepherd-less. Especially if you are susceptible to being a part of the growing sad, mad, church alumni. In some churches we were greeted heartily, some put us through a grueling Q&A session, and some we passed through without notice. We knew little of what we were looking for, and more of what we weren’t willing to endure. We were unsure of how right doctrine and social-fit unite, but we wanted both. We were longing to belong. We just didn’t know what that meant. This was not a new quest…
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Biblical Submission
By Sandra Ostapowich When you hear about submission do you think of Law statements such as, “You better submit!” or perhaps of military formations with everyone standing in specific order, all lined up just so, in their proper places? Some people think that submitting is simply about gritting your teeth and assuming the position (literally!?) in the order of all things, because that’s just the way God set it up and who are we to argue with God’s ways? But what if I told you that submitting is also (and perhaps more importantly) a joyful response of faith in what Christ has done for us and who we are in…
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Katie’s Bookshelf– Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans Review
Welcome back to Katie’s Bookshelf! Life’s busy, really too busy to waste time on bad books, and The Sisters of Katie Luther are here to help! Feel free to eavesdrop on Sandra Ostapowich, Holly Scheer, and Ellie Corrow, as they use technology available to regularly e-chat about books we’ve chosen to read and discuss together. These reviews are informal, probably slightly snarky, but always informative, and designed to help you determine what is worth your consideration. Pull up a chair, a cup of tea, or something else, if you prefer, and help yourself to our conclusions, as we explore what is on offer. Our book this time is the new…
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Article XXIV (XII): Of the Mass- Part 1
At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we 1] do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things. 2] The adversaries have a long declamation concerning the use of the Latin language in the Mass, in which they absurdly trifle as to how it profits [what a great merit is achieved by]…
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Article XXIII (XI): Of the Marriage of Priests- Part 2
Lastly, if they understand that celibacy is purity in the sense that it merits justification more than does marriage, we most emphatically contradict it. For we are justified neither on account of virginity nor on account of marriage, but freely for Christ’s sake, when we believe that for His sake 37] God is propitious to us. Here perhaps they will exclaim that, according to the manner of Jovinian, marriage is made equal to virginity. But, on account of such clamors we shall not reject the truth concerning the righteousness 38] of faith, which we have explained above. Nevertheless we do not make virginity and marriage equal. For just as one…
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On Becoming a Titus 2 Woman
By Holly Scheer Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:3-5 These words are serious. These words are weighted with the expectations of generations of past discussions, among women and men far wiser than I, talking about something we’re often lacking in our communities and lives. But I’m here to encourage you, as best I can, and hopefully provide some…
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Welcome Spring
By Emily Cook “It’s like this, children,” said pastor-daddy, trying to explain the mysteries of faith one bleary morning, “Imagine little Peter walked across the street to the pond, and he fell through the ice and he died.” “No daddy I didn’t do that!” “Peter, it’s just a story, like a parable, I know it didn’t really happen.” “But I DIDN’T! Don’t laugh at me, Marcus!” “Okay, Peter. We know. Just listen.” “So, imagine he died. Could he call for help then? If he were dead, could he wave his arms and holler for us to come save him?” Heads shake. No way. That’s ridiculous. “Of course not. This is…
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For Good Friday
By Sandra Ostapowich “I couldn’t believe how gory it was.” That’s what my boss told me after going to see The Passion of the Christ when it first came out in the theater. “I knew the story of Jesus and what was going to happen, but I had never imagined it could be that violent.” And this from a snarky atheist. I used to be able to watch violent movies, shoot-em-ups and creepy murder mysteries without batting an eye. I’d go through Holy Week and piously imagine the betrayal, trumped-up charges, beatings, flogging, public humiliation and crucifixion and how horrible it must’ve been. But, in my mind, it was sanitized.…
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Amnesty
By Sandra Ostapowich For all your sins, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you were ashamed of the body the Lord gave you, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you compared your size to another woman, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you worried that you had completely messed up your life, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you dressed to tempt men, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you took pride in your modest attire, you are forgiven in Christ. For all the times you wished you could take back your hurtful words, you are…
