St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Category: Devotions

  • Four Freedoms

    Four Freedoms

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    In his January 1941 State of the Union address delivered to Congress, Franklin Delano Roosevelt shared these words, as he spoke about national security and a proposed change from America’s traditional stance of non-intervention. In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human…

  • The Circle of Life

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The words take on new meaning as I stand next to a man lying in a temporary casket a few feet from the cremation oven in a local funeral home.  The deceased is surrounded by his family members.  We all hold hands and lift up prayers of thanksgiving for…

  • That Still, Small Voice

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    We thank Cindy Stauffer, our guest devotional provider this morning. I’m not sure what to call these encounters: God moments? Angels unaware? Divine intervention?  Has it ever happened to you? A chance meeting that commands you to stop, listen and pay attention. Someone is trying to “tell you” something. The universe is tapping you on the…

  • A Father’s Love

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.  (George Webster Douglas)  I write to you both as a son and a father and a grandfather who has been on both the receiving end and the giving…

  • Not Your Grandma’s Church

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    Nancy and I spent the past weekend with our son Justin and his wife Megan at their home in Frederick.  Come Sunday morning, Justin and I decided to try and surprise our former vicar Matthew Beers at one of the churches he serves in Thurmont, Maryland.  We drove up for the 8AM service and were…

  • So Many Reminders ….

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    I’m leaving the Intensive Care Unit yesterday afternoon after having spent some time with one of our church families that has a loved one in the ICU.  As I walk down the hall I pass a window that offers a lovely view of the southeast corner of Lancaster city, from the relatively high 6th floor…

  • Life Beyond Confirmation

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    Lord, it is time: we pray for our children.  Not only for them in their infancy, when disease or accident alone might harm them; not only for them in childhood, when their dreams begin and school is hard and our own discipline’s the hardest thing they must endure; not only for them in adolescence, when…

  • Death is Not the Final Word

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    Some of you know I am a bit of a poetry junkie.  I subscribe to a couple of poetry blogs … The Writer’s Almanac … Panhala … Poem of the Week.  They are all different. The Writer’s Almanac is my favorite, as it has the widest breadth of poems from classic to modern, from rhythmic…

  • What’s in a Name?

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

    I ask that people make no reference to my name; let them call themselves Christians, not Lutherans. What is Luther? After all, the teaching is not mine. Neither was I crucified for anyone. (Martin Luther, 1522 treatise) The Ethiopian eunuch … I mean really … how often do you get to say those words in…

  • Fool’s Gold

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    by

    Rev. Craig Ross
    in ,

     I want to know You/ I want to hear Your voice/ I want to know You more. I want to touch You/ I want to see Your face/ I want to know You more. “In the Secret” by Chris Tomlin — New Day Service song. Did you hear Mark Zuckerberg say last week that, “FaceBook…