Devotions Archives - Page 11 of 30 - St. Peter's Lutheran Church

A Different Kind of Witnessing

We meet in the slightly chill air of an overcast morning … twenty or twenty-five of us. Most of us have come right from church service. We stand on a brick walkway or in the mulch or atop a few cement steps. Trees surround our gathering area, though not entirely. Those who pass by on…

Mushroom Grace

It seemed to show up in my lawn overnight and got very comfortable … very quickly. It wasn’t a miraculous arrival, but it seemed like it. It enjoyed a couple of days of hospitality, but was then banished to salad-bar fodder for the squirrels and other denizens of our unruly lawn, after I cut the…

Disciplined Prayer

The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the kingdom of God: it is a grace that is given…. In this regard it would be proper to speak of “the…

And It’s All FREE!

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) My grandson started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. A lot has changed in the 25+ years since my kids started school … especially the lunchroom. Sammy can take the lunch special of the day,…

Life is Fragile

For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:10) I was in the building one Saturday about a week and a half ago, checking on a few details for our Sages service. As…

Treasure

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21) I came across it while digging for something else in my desk at home. I was searching for a key that I thought was buried in a small container in the desk drawer which serves as a repository for all sorts of small trinkets. …

Those Among Whom We Walk Unseen

I saw him again this morning. The man I think of as my occasional “elevator buddy.” I don’t see him a lot … maybe every couple of months … always in the hospital … almost always in the elevator. His accent suggests that he is African – but I can’t be sure … he is…

Spiritual Road Kill … Rescued

There is a great difference between the skill and the grace of prayer. The skill is but the outside, the shape, the carcass of our responsibility. The grace is the soul and spirit that gives it life, vigor and efficacy, that renders it acceptable to God and of real advantage to ourselves. The skill consists…

Control … or Lack of It

I am not in control of my life. I know this already, of course. I have been married for 38 years. I promised to share control of my life with my beloved at the altar of Ascension Lutheran Church, Deer Park in August of 1980. I am also a baptized child of God, who in…

Heaven on Earth

It was not heaven, but it felt pretty close to me. I fell asleep in one room (Operating Room) and woke up in different place (Recovery Room). I woke up pain free … I experienced a sense of excitement as I tried to process what was going on around me … and I felt like…