Christ does not come to stir your emotions or decorate your December. He comes to forgive your sins. He comes to cleanse your conscience. He comes to break your death and give you His life. He comes into your mouth, into your body, into your grave-bound flesh. #biblestr View article →

Bible Study: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 — November 30, 2025 #biblestr

Now you can talk about Thanksgiving in a Christian way. You give thanks for daily bread—food, drink, house, home, family, work, land—because your Father has provided it. You receive what is set before you with prayer, not as a god to cling to, but as a gift to use and enjoy. You feed the hungry, support the preaching, care for the weak, because you know you are not your own; you were bought with a price. View article →

Heaven Is Opened at Bethel—Genesis 27:46–28:22 https://youtube.com/live/Qu8NKJ1ddyA

Esau Does Not Receive the Blessing—Genesis 27:30-45 https://youtube.com/live/YbfgJ8wu1vM

1 Thessalonians Excursus: Advent — November 23, 2025

The only thing that saves anyone is the call at midnight: “Behold, the bridegroom!” The voice wakes them—not their readiness, not their vigilance, not their superior discipline. The Gospel call creates readiness. It wakes the dead. It puts the lamp in your hand and light in your darkness. But that fear kicks in for the foolish. “What if our lamps don’t last? What if we aren’t enough? What if He is angry? What if He won’t accept us?” This is the reflex of the Old Adam. It’s the voice that always says, “Run. Fix yourself. Get more oil. Get worthy. Get prepared.” And that is the one thing that condemns them. They leave the groom behind. They run from the very promise meant to save them. The wise don’t refuse oil out of selfishness—they simply refuse to take part in the foolishness of unbelief. “Go buy oil” is not a cruel command. It’s Jesus revealing the futility of trying to buy what only He can give. You can’t buy readiness. You can only receive it. View article →

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day when we stop and admit something we usually avoid: the best things in life aren’t things we made for ourselves. They’re given. We didn’t invent love. We didn’t manufacture the people who care about us. We didn’t earn the food on our table as much as we like to pretend. Even our breath is borrowed. View article →

And if you can’t forgive—then the place to go is not deeper into your resentment but deeper into Christ. The lack of forgiveness is not a moral deficiency; it is a spiritual emergency. It is unbelief expressing itself in hatred. The fix is not to “try harder.” The fix is to repent—to receive again what Christ won for you on the cross, what He pours on you in Baptism, what He puts into your ears through Absolution, what He sets upon your tongue in the Holy Supper. His forgiveness is the only thing that makes your forgiveness possible. View article →

Rebekah—Gen. 24:29 (30-31) 32-38 (39-41) 42-49 (50-57) 58-67 https://youtube.com/live/IX7OJF6OFF4

Forgiving your brother is not some heroic achievement. It is simply living in the baptismal reality God has placed you in. You drown the old Adam daily by confessing your sin—every bit of it—and letting Christ speak His absolution again and again. That absolution is not information. It is power. It is the Spirit creating a new heart. And a new heart forgives. Not because the neighbor deserves it. Not because it resolves everything. Not because it feels good. But because Christ has forgiven you—fully, freely, finally—and His forgiveness changes you. View article →

I love how I cannot access DownDetector when Cloudflare is down.

Sacrifice of Isaac—Abraham’s Faith Is Revealed—Gen. 22:1-19 https://youtube.com/live/CYjsZ47oHa8

“This triangle of truisms; of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed. It can only destroy those civilisations which disregard it.” —G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the…atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” —C.S. Lewis

Sunday’s OT and Epistle—Micah 6:6-8; Philippians 1:3-11 https://youtube.com/live/4bnmTB2r30s

Isaac Is Born and Ishmael Is Cast Out—Genesis 21:1-21 https://youtube.com/live/pZWR0R5k3Hs

Abraham and Abimelech—Genesis 20:1-18 https://youtube.com/live/UPZ-RmWOo0E

On that cross, the Law is fulfilled. The Sabbath is completed. The Lord of the Sabbath rests His head in death to give eternal rest to the weary. His hands are destroyed so that yours might be restored. His life is taken so that yours might be saved. View article →

When Paul Bunjes was asked about removing carpet in the nave, a woman complained about hearing the footsteps of those going to the Sacrament. Bunjes responded, “Madam, only one wouldn’t want to hear those steps… the devil.”