1 Samuel 29 Bible Study

[Wednesday Lent] Matzah - The Seder

- This week is the Karpas. Remembering the Humble though the Vegetable Every Week we will be going though the Seder plate of Passover meal. Discussing what each things mean from the Bitterness to the Lamb

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Freedom - The Way

We can hear the cry of our hearts for freedom, but once we have freedom, it's so tempting to just curl in on ourselves. Jesus, however, constantly gives to us from his abundance.

Questions This Week

1. How would you define freedom?  How do you maintain freedom?

2. Read John 8:31-38.   What does Jesus say will give us freedom?

3. What is ironic about how the Jews respond?

4. What are some times you might fail to acknowledge the slavery of your sin?

5. How does Jesus free us?  What are we freed to do?

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Wednesday Series

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

1 Samuel 25-28 Bible Study

Hemmed in By Freedom

read the whole article at https://mbird.com/social-science/identity/hemmed-in-by-freedom/

Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope… (Zech 9:12)

The year I graduated from high school and entered, according to popular theory anyway, adulthood, was about the time I embarked on my own case study of freedom by moving out of my childhood home and into a college dorm, living among peers instead of with my parents. Navigating, for the first time of my life, the exponential growth of options available to me: sleeping when I wanted (not enough), eating what I wanted (too much), drinking what I wanted (way too much), dating whom I wanted (no comment). This was the same year Mel Gibson dressed as William Wallace and bellowed “FREEDOM!” through some blue-and-white face……………..

[Wednesday Lent] Karpas- The Seder

- This week is the Karpas. Remembering the Humble though the Vegetable Every Week we will be going though the Seder plate of Passover meal. Discussing what each things mean from the Bitterness to the Lamb

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Beauty- The Way

What makes something beautiful? Is it a look or maybe a feeling? When John writes to his people, he invites us to the creation then shows us beauty in the resurrection.

Questions This Week

1. What is the most beautiful thing you have seen?

2. Read John 11:17-44. What are the places where you see beauty, and where do you see pain?

3. How have you experienced Jesus bringing you beauty in the midst of a time of pain or struggle?

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Wednesday Series

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

1 Samuel 21-24 Bible Study

The Truth and Beauty of Jesus’ Resurrection

Read the whole article at The Truth and Beauty of Jesus’ Resurrection (1517.org)

Above the altar at St. Peter and Paul Church in Weimar, Germany, stands the famous Weimar Altarpiece. Begun by Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1552, and completed by his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1555, this painting is a visual sermon on the doctrine of justification. It is a work of profound Christian theology, and stunning Christ-centered artistry. It is cruciform creativity. It is didactic and delightful. It is a witness, and a work of art. It portrays the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion and does so beautifully.

The gospel writers are doing something similar in their accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, albeit greater than even the greatest works of art. After all, the gospels are divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, and at the same time, a delight to hear and read again and again.

[Wednesday Lent] Zeroah- The Seder

- This week is the Charoset. Remembering the Bricks. Every Week we will be going though the Seder plate of Passover meal. Discussing what each things mean from the Bitterness to the Lamb

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Spirituality - The Way

Often when we think of spirituality, we think of something that is intensely personal. But what if it looks more like vines and jokes than solemn and alone?

Questions This Week

1. How would you define spirituality?  How about your friends who are not in church, how would they define spirituality?

2. Read John 15:1-17.   How are we connected to God according to Jesus?  

3. As we are connected to Jesus, as the vine, what is our relationship to Jesus?

4. What does a spiritual life look like to you with Jesus as your friend?

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Wednesday Series

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Where's The Next Brick?

Read the Whole Article at https://mbird.com/theology/wheres-the-next-brick/

Once there was a great building. Mighty with towers, spiky with spires, a-bubble with domes. Inside it opened into gallery after gallery, vault after echoing vault, so high that human beings who set off across its marble pavements sometimes mistook its roof for the sky and the building for the world itself. And though it showed signs of many styles, and had been built by many different architects over many centuries, it had been………..

Week 5 Vanishing Grace Together Groups

Together Group Video Week 5

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Discussion Guide | Week 5

[Wednesday Lent] Charoset - The Seder

- This week is the Charoset. Remembering the Bricks. Every Week we will be going though the Seder plate of Passover meal. Discussing what each things mean from the Bitterness to the Lamb

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Love - The Way

Weddings are beautiful places of love, but so often we discover the brokenness of that love way too quickly. So where is unbroken love? Maybe it's the rebuilding of the temple in 3 days.

Questions This Week

1. Describe a time when you’ve loved imperfectly or been called out for loving imperfectly.

2. Read John 2:13-22.  What does Jesus mean when he says “he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days?”  How does this show us the love of God?

3. Read John 13:1-20.  How do you see God’s love here?  What does it mean that Judas also had his feet washed?

4. How has Jesus loved you?

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Wednesday Series

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Photos of Ash Wednesday

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Grace Hello, Welcoming New Members to Grace [Photos]

Great New Member Sunday at Grace. We invited 16 new people.

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Tempted By an Unexpected Evil

Read the entire article at Tempted by an Unexpected Evil - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

Along time ago in a heavenly court far, far away, God made a cosmic wager with the Devil. God was boasting to the Devil of the faithfulness of his servant Job, who was blameless, upright, and turned away from evil. The Devil was unimpressed, believing Job was faithful because God protected him and blessed him with everything he could ever want. The Devil seemed to have found such an arrangement unsatisfactory, believing t…………………….

LCMS President Harrison de-nounces "disturbing ideologies"

Statement from Pastor Cris:

Over the last few weeks I have mentioned some troubling things, like friends of mine who are active LCMS Pastors have been openly threatened by people online who have “disturbing ideologies.”

This statement from President Harrison addresses some of these issues and gives encouragement in Christ.

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Statement on recent online unchristian teachings

Feb. 21, 2023

Dear friends in Christ,

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, its president, vice-presidents and all 35 district presidents, along with its ministerium and congregations, categorically reject the horrible and racist teachings of the so-called “alt-right” in toto (including white supremacy, Nazism, pro-slavery, anti-interracial marriage, women as property, fascism, death for homosexuals, even genocide).

The Synodical explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism teaches that the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder,” includes the prohibition of “hating, despising, or slandering other groups of people (prejudice, racism, and so forth).” The Scriptures agree: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Every human being is precious to God and as valuable as the very blood of Jesus Christ shed for all, “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).

We were shocked to learn recently that a few members of LCMS congregations have been propagating radical and unchristian “alt-right” views via Twitter and other social media. They are causing local disruption and consternation for their pastors, congregations and district presidents. They have publicly stated that they seek the destruction of the LCMS leadership. They have made serious online threats to individuals and scandalously attacked several faithful LCMS members. Through these social media posts, even our wonderful deaconesses have been threatened and attacked.

This is evil. We condemn it in the name of Christ.

These “alt-right” individuals were at the genesis of a recent controversy surrounding essays accompanying a new publication of Luther’s Large Catechism. This group used that opportunity to produce not only scandalous attacks and widespread falsehoods, but also to promote their own absolutist ideologies.

Anyone trying to sully the reputation of the LCMS based on comments from a small number of online provocateurs does not know the loving, faithful, generous, kind and welcoming Synod that I have met all across the nation. Our people are delighted to gather with sinners of every stripe to receive full and free forgiveness from our crucified Savior and are not represented by these few men with their sinful agenda.

I am not speaking about the individuals who may have expressed theological concerns about the essays published alongside the Catechism. I’m talking about a small number of men who based their opposition upon racist and supremacist ideologies. The former we welcome. The latter we condemn.

The LCMS is a robust Christian community under the absolute authority of the inerrant Scriptures as the very Word of God and bound together in subscription to our Lutheran Confessions. Theological dialogue is good. We have clear processes for registering concerns over published materials, and we encourage such theological critique. The biblical confession of the LCMS on doctrine and life is true and unchangeable.

LCMS congregations agree to uphold our biblical standards. We are not a top-down institution. That said, I will work together with our pastors and district presidents to address this matter wherever it arises among us and reject it. We issue the cry of Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). We are confident that the same Law and Gospel that broke the hard heart of St. Paul, himself a murderer and blasphemer, can and will do the same today. We are all called to repentance daily. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Where that call to repentance is not heeded, there must be excommunication.

Of all the things I’ve seen as LCMS president, this is the most bizarre. I am informed that other conservative denominations are experiencing similar challenges. This horrid attack of the devil drives us to be firm in our confession. Our message of Christ the Savior for all, our local and global mission that serves the entire human race with forgiveness and joy stands firmly opposed to Satan and all evil. Our steadfast message of love and biblical fidelity on the cultural issues of marriage, sexuality, race, and life is an assault on the devil and his minions to no end. Our steadfast witness and assistance to our global Lutheran friends has the devil fuming.

Do not be discouraged! Stand firm! Speak of Christ and His Gospel! “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23). And if Jesus so carried our sins and the sins of the world, though He never sinned, shall we expect not to bear a few splinters of the cross in this age?

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:31–39).

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Matthew C. Harrison
President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

[Ash Wednesday] Bitter Herbs - The Seder

Every Week we will be going though the Seder plate of Passover meal. Discussing what each things mean from the Bitterness to the Lamb

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What Had happened at Grace this week.