Pious Lutheran

“ You shall remember the Lord your God. ” “ The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, ... And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you. ” The Lord our God has given us His Word and He alone cares for us through His Word. When we remember the Lord our God, we both repent of our failure to keep His Word, and we rejoice and give thanks to God for giving it to us. Today is the last day when we as a church shall gather during this church year. Historically, a service was held on the last Friday of the church year, before Advent, in order to hold a service of repentance. As we think back on the past church year, instead of just recalling our many successes and joys and happy moments, we also recall our many sins, failures, and sorrows. We recall that we haven’t kept the commandments, we haven’t feared and loved God, and we haven’t kept God’s Word pure; we have sinned and for this we must repent.  When we recall all of God’s...

Dear Jeff and Kristin, family, relatives, and friends of Eric, may the grace of God, the peace of Jesus Christ, and the certainty of the Holy Spirit richly dwell in your hearts at all times. In the words of Job, who had just lost all of his earthly possessions, including his children, he said: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord who redeems His people from their sins. Even though the past weeks have been filled with immense sorrow and deeply troubled hearts, even though this veil of tears has been even more clouded of late, the Lord’s name is blessed because He alone is our hope and joy even while we struggle to make it from day to day. Blessed are you, for our precious Lord Jesus promises you, saying “ Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted. ” Jesus tells us that the Devil is a liar, a thief, and a murderer. Jesus is our Good Shepherd who guards us against the devil’s lies, thefts, and murders. Lately the threats of the devil s...

“ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’” There will come a day when Christ returns, with the sound of a trumpet, with the voice of an archangel, and we shall all be awakened from our slumber with that glad announcement. Jesus has ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, from whence He shall return to judge the living and the dead, the wise and the foolish. He shall return just as the disciples saw Him ascend. Jesus Christ is our Bridegroom who will return to lead His holy church, the ten virgins, into the marriage feast of heaven with Him. This marriage feast is that glorious feast of victory of the Lamb of God who stands reigning upon His throne. This marriage feast is the new heavens and the new earth where we shall “ be glad and rejoice forever,” and “ no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. ”  My dear friends, there will come a day when this world is bu...

“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today.” John Lennon’s imagination is not only his, but in fact it’s many people’s perception of reality and it has been for a long time here in America. People suppose that hell is just a made up place pastors tell people about to get them to behave, like Santa Claus only giving you gifts if you’re nice. But imagining that there is no heaven or hell, and thus living for today without respect for eternity, will only bring you to hell. Because contrary to what secular society and liberal Christianity tells you, heaven and hell are real. Jesus says so in His own words: “ Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell…” Again, He says, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment… in anguish in flame. ” Once again Jesus says, “ He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart f...

Faith in the heart of even a true believer can be a rather fickle thing. For some people, the fact that they have a weak faith can be a real issue for them. Perhaps the reason it’s such an issue is because of a misunderstanding of what faith is. For many American  Evangelicals, they believe that faith is a work which they must accomplish in order for them to be saved. For them, their faith is the object of their salvation, and so they would say that they’re saved by their faith. But nowhere do the scriptures teach us that we’re saved by our faith. It’s just not in the Bible! Search with a fine toothed comb, but nowhere in the Bible will you find that you’re saved because of your faith! Yet we act as though our faith were the object of our salvation as exemplified by our choices to decorate our homes and our bodies with words like “faith” or “believe.”  So instead of teaching that we’re saved by our faith, the scriptures teach us that we’re saved through our faith. The go...

A blessed feast of All Saints to you my friends in Christ. Throughout the church year we Christians celebrate a number of feasts and festivals. Very early on the Christian church gathered weekly on Sunday, the day on which Christ rose from the dead, in order to celebrate Easter each and every week. After some time, they decided to set apart one Sunday in the church year as an especially high feast day to celebrate Easter. They set this day during Spring, around the time of the Passover, when Jesus would’ve been crucified and resurrected. From there, they set the day of the Annunciation, when Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb, on March 25th, since it was the tradition that people died on the day they were conceived. Fast forward 9 months from Jesus’ conception and you get to December 25th, which is celebrated as Christmas.  From there many other feasts and festivals also arose, such as Epiphany, Pentecost, and Ascension Day. But also at the same time, the Christian church commem...