Tag: worship
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Breath of the Spirit
Wowzers! What a week! I think I’ve expressed this sentiment at least once a month for the last year or so. It seems like just when I think I know how to operate, some change comes that upends some aspect of my plan. The challenge for me is to see these changes as Spirit-led movements…
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Will I Or Won’t I?
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory…
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Different But the Same
Our thanks go out to Adam Lefever Hughes for offering this weeks’ devotion. Justin the Martyr, a 2nd-century convert to Christianity wrote some of the earliest accounts we have of how early Christians conducted their worship. He writes: “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together…
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Our Sages: Models for Our Worship
Traditional Sermon Pentecost 11 I’m not much for preaching on the Old Testament lessons that we read each week in church. If you pay any attention to my sermons, you know that already. I’ve always been most interested in talking about Jesus, from the pulpit. But when I started my sermon prep last week, and…
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Everything in the forest is the forest
I just returned from a week of rest and renewal at the conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians held this year in Portland, OR. These conferences are always a wonderful time of fellowship, worship, and learning for me and this year was no different. Worship services are structured in much the same ways…
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Episodes and Epiphanies
New Day Sermon Epiphany Sunday January 6 is Epiphany Sunday, a day we recall the wise men visiting the holy family. The Gospel writer Matthew gives us few details about these travelers. Imagine if we could be a fly on the wall…or in this case a fly on a camel…and listen to the conversation of…
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Worship … God Opening Doors into our Lives
New Day Sermon Easter 2 What does the “Doubting Thomas” story have to do with your worship life? Tune in here for a consideration of the presence of Jesus in the Upper Room with Thomas and ther disciples … and Jesus presence with you in your worship life.
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Lent and the Center
Lent is in full swing and we’re rapidly approaching the center of the church year, Holy Week. Late in Lent this lectionary year we hear many readings from the gospel of John. Often cited as being the more difficult and ‘heady’ gospel, John emphasizes the depths of Jesus’ authority and personhood where the synoptic…
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In Your Own Backyard
Email Devotional Pentecost 6 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields. –Matthew 13:23 Upon encountering need in the world, sometimes we are prepared to be a good disciple. Sometimes God asks us to be an agent…
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What burdens you?
New Day Sermon pentecost 5 Ever feel out of line with God? Maybe it’s from the heavy burdens in your life…
