Sermon Audio: March 1, 2026

 Reminiscere - The True Israel of God

CrossTalk: Read the Bible as your Lenten Challenge

 

For the second year in a row, our congregation is working on a challenge to read the Bible from cover to cover during one calendar year. That comes out to 82 verses, or three and a quarter chapters per day.

It’s quite doable and it has many benefits. I encourage you to join us in this challenge.

The first benefit is that it will dispel the myth that the Bible is just too big and too complicated for the average person to tackle. Anyone—and I mean anyone—who starts reading the Bible at page one soon learns that it is very straightforward.

Most of the Bible simply describes events that happened during the history of the world. It is not written in cryptic code but in historical narrative.

The Bible is only confusing when false teachers cherry-pick a passage from here and a passage from there and artificially connect them together into something that the Bible never says.

When you read the Bible cover to cover, don’t try to read between the lines. Just see for yourself how its stories connect naturally. Adam’s story flows into Abraham’s story. And Abraham’s flows into Moses’ story and Moses’ story flows into Jesus’ story.

Read it on its own terms and you will soon become familiar with the story of the human family, created and sustained by God. As you are reading these historical events, you will see how God is deeply involved in very ordinary lives.

Sometimes His involvement is a miraculous deliverance from an impossible situation. Sometimes it is a frightening judgment on those who thumb their noses at Him.

The blessings—like bumper crops, victory in battle, and restoration of broken relationships—may seem like pure luck in the non-biblical world. But the Bible makes clear that all of them are God’s direct fulfillment of His promises.

Likewise, judgments—like famine, military disaster, and the fall of entire nations—are not random, but are directly connected to the people’s sins and rebellion.

Taken together, both sorts of stories are written so that you would take God ever more seriously. “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

When you read of God’s terrible punishments, you are stirred to repent. And when you read of God’s miraculous deliverances, you are emboldened to trust His promises without fearing that He will let you down.

That’s the second main benefit of Bible reading. If you approach it like an empty fairy tale, you will be bored. But when you remember that these things really happened, you will be moved to repentance and faith.

Repentance is when you take your sins seriously and are no longer content to cave in to every temptation that you feel. Faith is when you are no longer afraid of what others can do to you but you trust that God’s promises to care and provide for you are true.

And that brings us to Lent.

Lent is a time of renewal because Lent is a season that invites us to take God more seriously today than we did yesterday. Lent is not about giving up chocolate or some such thing. Lent is really about a renewal of life that is born of repentance.

Fasting can be helpful. But if you really want renewal, go to God’s Word. It will do more for you than anything that you can do for yourself.

Reading the Bible for yourself will reduce your intimidation over Bible reading and fortify you against some of the false teaching that Satan will throw your way. Reading the Bible will give you reasons to fear, love and trust in God more than anything. Also, reading the Bible will teach you to gather with fellow believers in weekly worship.

When you take God’s involvement in your life seriously, the blessing you find by gathering with other believers will crown your Lenten repentance with renewal and Easter joy. God promises it.

CrossTalk: God Redeems Our Time through Christ

 

In Ephesians chapter 5, St. Paul teaches us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

To walk circumspectly is to see our current world in the light of Holy Scripture. It is to see things as they really are, not as the rest of the world sees things.

To see your life in the light of heaven is not to trudge through your life as one meaningless day after another. Your life is not merely an endless struggle to put food on the table and a roof over your head. “The Gentiles seek after all these things,” says Jesus, “and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matthew 6:32).

Life is more than food. And the body is more than clothing. You were created in the image of the One True God. You should see your life in that majesty and glory.

C.S. Lewis said it this way: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

The true meaning of life is that you are “not wrestl[ing] against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

This gives your life great dignity and meaningful purpose. What you do and say matter in the great scheme of things.

Small things—like doing your work well and laboring honestly with your hands—drive arrows into the heart of darkness. Ordinary activities—like raising your children and being a good citizen—are spiritual warfare against the powers of darkness.

But don’t think that you can participate in this great cosmic battle with your own strength and with worldly weapons. You have this power only in connection with Christ. Without that faith, you can do nothing.

“Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). You are destined for eternal glory. But that eternal glory depends entirely on faith, which is your connection to Christ.

That potential for connection with Christ dignifies your life in three ways.

First, all human beings are a direct creation of the Most-High God. Contrary to the world’s lies, we are not mere pawns crafted by a pantheon of lesser gods and used in their incessant war games.

Nor are human beings the random product of chance and time—mere cosmic accidents. Rather, the Creator of the universe specifically willed you into existence. And created you in His own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).

God gave you a special place and function in the universe that only you can fill. And He did the same for everyone whom you have ever met. This is the first foundation of human dignity.

Second, as the title Christ indicates, God Himself became a human being in the person of Jesus. God did not become an animal or a plant, or even an angel. But, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He dignified human existence by becoming a man. This is the second pillar of human dignity.

Third, all human beings—as evil and flawed as they are through sin—can be made holy through Christ’s redeeming sufferings and death. No one was above the law. But no one was too far gone for God’s mercy, either.

No matter how far away from God you may be—no matter how low you may feel—our Lord Jesus Christ has died for you and offers you forgiveness, restoration, and meaning through faith in Him.

Jesus has come to a world that preaches hopelessness and despair. And He contradicts the world to offer you new life and hope. Don’t let the devil tell you otherwise.

Go to Church. Listen to God’s Word. That’s the will of God because that’s how Christians redeem the time.

Life Summit - Park County Right to Life

Being God's Voice for the Voiceless

 

LWML Zone Rally - Cheyenne

 

Growing in God's Grace - Reflections on Genesis 1

Ruth Ann Johnson - Funeral

 

Service of Christian Burial - September 29, 2025

CrossTalk: Pray without Ceasing

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Thus, Jesus begins one of his best-known parables. It is known for his sharp criticism of the self-righteous Pharisee, and his justification of the sinner.

I want to talk about that. But, first, let’s talk about what they went to the temple to do. That’s a vital part of the story. They went to pray!

What does that mean? What is prayer?

The root meaning of prayer is “to make a request.” It is to ask for something. Whatever else we might say to God, we have not yet prayed until we have asked him to give us something,

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He answered by giving them seven things that they should ask for. Collectively, we call these seven petitions the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-15).

That’s hugely important. While God wants you to thank him for his gifts and to express your thoughts and concerns, what he wants above all is for you to pray. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).

God wants you to ask for godly things. So, that’s where the devil attacks.

Satan may tell you that God doesn’t exist. This is the lie that keeps most of the world from praying.

The devil may paint God as aloof and uncaring. This is another lie that discourages people from prayer.

But among those who already believe that God is good and gracious, Satan’s favorite deception is that you already have all that you need. He uses this lie to keep you from actually asking for anything.

That is the ruse that kept the Pharisee from praying for anything. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” Blah. Blah. Blah. But he never got around to asking for anything. And by that devilish omission, he proved his unbelief.

Suddenly, “thoughts and prayers” has become a hot topic. That’s great! Because like the pharisee and the publican, prayer separates the men from the boys—the sons of God from the sons of disobedience.

Of course you will want to defend the power of prayer. But once you have stood up to be counted with the sons of God, don’t just stand there, pray!

You should start like the publican started: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He will have mercy on you—not because you deserve mercy more than others or because you are any less of a sinner than others.

He will have mercy and forgive your sins because Jesus has earned mercy for you. By His suffering and death, he takes away the sin of the world.

And once God has had mercy on you by taking away your sins, he invites you to pray for many other impossibly difficult things.

- Pray that your friend or neighbor who is captivated by Satan’s lies might be set free and come to believe in the one true God. Pray for the one on the evening news who hates God, who blasphemes—who even kills those who believe in Jesus.

- Pray that people in positions of government power might make decisions that harmonize with God’s will and do not defy the Creator of heaven and earth. Pray that believers might be elected to public offices throughout our land. And pray that the Christians already elected might do their jobs guided by God’s holy Scripture.

- Pray that the unspeakably evil powers of hell might be held at bay. Jesus has always warned us how deep is the corruption and how deadly is the evil that seethes just below the surface. Now that you can see it on the evening news, don’t be surprised.

Rather, now that the serpent has come out of hiding, do what Jesus has always exhorted you to do. Pray without ceasing. God has put you here in the world to make a difference. And your greatest power is not to scream at the television, but to pray to God.

You are the salt that preserves this evil world from the rot that would overtake it. And your saltiness is most effective when you pray for those whom you meet. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Pray at church with the body of Christ. Pray at home with your family. Pray in your closet and in your car. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).