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Articles by Stephen Preus
Pastor’s Pen
God Protecting the Good Life: The Third Commandment In my articles the last two months, I have focused on how God tells us what the good life is. How He designed the good life. And how He has given us the Ten Commandments to protect it. The first month we considered how in the First Commandment God is protecting our hearts from believing in false gods so that we cling to Him alone.
Pastor's Pen: God Protecting the Good Life: The Second Commandment
In last month’s article, we focused on how God tells us what the good life is. He has designed this good life for us. It is a life ordered around what He says. And He has given us the Ten Commandments to protect this good life that He has designed. Last time, we contemplated the good life according to the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” This protects our heart to trust in the only true God, the Triune God.
Pastor's Pen
God Protecting the Good Life: The First Commandment We all want the good life. But what does the good life look like? Getting to do whatever we want whenever we want? Striking it rich? Being successful in the eyes of the world? Being comfortable in as many ways possible? Having more fun or leisure time? Expressing ourselves? What if none of these accurately tell us about the good life? What if God actually exists and tells us what the good life is, a life He has designed for us?
Pastor's Pen
Christians Breathe You’ve all heard an individual breathing heavily. It’s worrisome to hear that sound because you know that it means something is wrong inside of them. You might even worry that this individual could die if he does not get help. You’ve heard of someone choking, too. This is even more worrisome because you know time is of the essence; you have to quickly dislodge the object that is blocking his regular flow of air. It is a matter of life and death.
Pastor’s Pen
This Man is God! During Christmas we think about how our God is now a man. During Epiphany we think about how a man is God. Christmas gives us the perspective from above. Epiphany gives us the perspective from below. Christmas tells us how heaven comes to earth. Epiphany tells us how earth now gives us heaven. Each of the Epiphany Gospel Lessons demonstrates this for us.
Pastor’s Pen
Thanking God for the Rain Martin Luther reminded the German people of his day to be thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He asked them to remember the “former misery” they had, “the darkness in which [they] dwelt.” He was talking about how the people of Germany had not heard God’s word purely proclaimed for so long. Those were sad years.
Pastor’s Pen
The Church Just Wants Your Money? Does the church just want your money? Some churches do. Shame on them. They care more about the budget than the benefits of Christ. They love money more than God’s mercy. They are more interested in what they can purchase than what Jesus purchased for them. So, shame on those churches that just want your money. They use the church for their own purposes. Nevertheless, not all churches do just want your money.
Pastor's Pen
Correcting Entitlement Culture in the Church By nature, what are you entitled to before God? Are you entitled to His love? His mercy? His grace? His heavenly home? Are you entitled to membership in His Church? A new family in Christ? A place at His table? No. Due to your sin against Him and your fellow man, you are by nature entitled to His punishment. Now and in hell forever. You are by nature entitled to nothing good due to the guilt of your sin.
Pastor’s Pen
Forgiveness Achieved, Forgiveness Distributed When it comes to the forgiveness of sins, we must think of it in two ways. First, how it is achieved and won for us. Second, how it is distributed to us. Jesus Christ has achieved and won our forgiveness on the cross. He did this once and for all. He made atonement by His holy blood for every sin of every sinner who has lived, presently lives, or ever will live. He paid the guilt and punishment for all sins and left not a single one behind.
Forgiveness Achieved, Forgiveness Distributed When it comes to the forgiveness of sins, we must think of it in two ways. First, how it is achieved and won for us. Second, how it is distributed to us. Jesus Christ has achieved and won our forgiveness on the cross. He did this once and for all. He made atonement by His holy blood for every sin of every sinner who has lived, presently lives, or ever will live. He paid the guilt and punishment for all sins and left not a single one behind.
Pastor's Pen
Jesus, the Lamb of God “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29) John the Baptist said those words about Jesus. And, as we approach Holy Week, it is helpful for us to understand what he meant by this. What exactly does it mean that Jesus is the Lamb of God? Well, it means that God has chosen Jesus as the sacrifice to set us free from our slavery to sin, death, and the devil. By nature, we are all enslaved. We cannot stop having a sinful nature. We cannot stop our death.
Throwback Thursday: Forgiveness Before Repentance — Gottesdienst
Provocative titles for blog articles are en vogue. If it doesn’t shock grandma or sound like the devil said it apparently it’s not worth reading. I hear that provocative titles increase traffic, too. And while Gottesdienst is not into church growth in the holy, catholic Church, they are into blog-traffic growth in the internet-produced meta-church. So, for my inaugural post I’ve decided to use a title that might shock some. So, why is the article title provocative?
Pastor's Pen
Justified Through Faith, Not Because Of Faith Why does God forgive? Why does He count people as righteous in His sight? Many Christians say that God forgives them because of their faith. Their faith, they believe, brings God to forgive them. So they will say, “God forgives me because of my prayer for forgiveness,” or “because of my sincere repentance,” or “because of me giving Him my heart.” All of these are ways of saying the same thing: God forgives you because of you.
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