This is the advantage. Not God near in the way you wanted. Better than that. The Spirit who convicts — your sin named and buried, Christ’s righteousness declared and given, the ruler’s judgment executed and delivered — doing his work here, in this service, for you. View article →

The garden in Genesis has no prices. God gives, Adam and Eve tend, nothing is traded. Scarcity enters in chapter three. Need, surplus, and something to measure both accumulate across twenty chapters before Abraham weighs four hundred shekels of silver at a gate in Hebron to buy a grave. That weighing is the Bible's first monetary transaction. After it: a boy sold for twenty shekels, Passover plunder redirected into a tabernacle, a hidden gold bar buried in a tent, 666 talents filling Solomon's treasury, a denarius with Caesar's face, two bronze coins worth almost nothing, thirty pieces the priests refused to touch.

When Nothing Had a Price

The Biblical History of Money - An Introduction

Two kinds of time run through this Gospel. Chronos, which counts every loss and draws its conclusions. And kairos, which speaks the word of the risen Christ into the middle of those losses and names them for what they are: labor pains, not graves. View article →

Joseph Feeds Brothers, Sends Them to Jacob—Gen. 42:25-38 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/XXjwAkPjzXA

So yes—there is a “not yet.” Your body still breaks. Your heart still aches. Your house still gets sick. Your relationships still strain. The grave still waits. And Christ will come again to finish what you cannot see finished yet: the dead raised, the blind seeing, the oppressed fully freed, the captives fully released, the whole creation set loose from corruption. #biblestr View article →

Joseph Becomes the Prince of Egypt—Genesis 41:37-57 #bliblestr https://youtube.com/live/08bf0rnCTDQ

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams—Genesis 41:1-36 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/Bkpq9g4oqTQ

Here is the good wine kept until now. Forgiveness that does not run out. Joy that does not depend on your mood. Hope that does not collapse when the test results, the bank statement, or the family meeting go badly. Fellowship with Him and with one another at a table that outlasts death. We are not playing religious pretend. He truly gives Himself. #biblestr View article →

Joseph Interprets Dreams in Prison—Genesis 40:1-23 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/mlo2U9E90EQ

Sunday’s OT and Epistle—Amos 9:11-15; Romans 12:6-16a #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/B6wsmZdMYYo

Joseph’s Brothers Sell Him into Slavery—Gen. 37:1-36 #biblestr https://www.youtube.com/live/DDczO-l2tXI

You have been baptized into Christ. That means where He is, you are. If He has stepped into the sinner’s water and taken your sin as His, then your sin is not free-floating anymore. It has an address: on Him. And if His righteousness is His—and He gives Himself to you—then His righteousness has an address too: on you. #biblestr View article → Audio:

Spotify for Creators

"Baptism is God’s public claim: 'This one belongs to Me.'" Octave of Epiphany 2026 by Preaching and Teaching from St. John Ev. Lutheran Church (Sherman Center), Random Lake, Wisconsin

Januaray 14, 2026

LIVE THIS AM: The Baptism of Our Lord—Matthew 3:13-17 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/o2n41lHZYNk

Radical proposal: give a tithe of your time to hearing, study, meditation, and prayer of God's Word.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way of the Lord—Mt 3:1-12 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/eOScV50g88Y

10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. sjrl.org/media/bible-study-1-thessalonians-41-12-november-30-2025-e6zb3-rhbps-4wg2y-r8rbc #biblestr

So what is the Father’s “business”? To send His Servant, His Son, filled with the Spirit, to bring justice, to be a covenant, to open blind eyes, and to free prisoners. That is not a vague “mission statement.” That is concrete: forgiveness for the guilty, light for darkened consciences, and release for people chained to their sins and fears. View article →

The Boy Jesus in the Temple—Luke 2:41-52 #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/FpMz_E-yoXc

Sunday’s OT and Epistle—Isaiah 42:1-9; Rom. 12:1–6a #biblestr https://youtube.com/live/BMsUkguF5gY

The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents—Matthew 2:16-23 #biblestr https://www.youtube.com/live/cCnfXJDs9VE