And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the…

14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. 15 I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For…

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” -Matthew 25:14-30 In the parable of the talents, a master gives each servant some of his property. One servant…

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  ~Romans 1:16-17 (ESV) One of the nice things about…

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which…

I do not know what I would do without my desk calendar. I cannot begin to list or mention what I would forget to do without having it written down on my calendar. Once I hear about a meeting or deadline, I immediately write it on my desk calendar so that I don’t forget. I even need to write the important events…

In the small towns of Island Lake and Wauconda where I grew up, there were not many Lutherans.  Between the two cities there were about 17,000 people, and maybe about 100 Lutherans.  Growing up, it seemed that everyone was Roman Catholic.  Every year when Ash Wednesday would come around, I would hear my Roman Catholic friends talking about what they would be…

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!…

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”-Matthew 2:1-2 In the Kooi household, we have a tradition with our…

With Christmas coming just around the corner, we have lots of preparations to do to make sure that we are ready. We have to stock up on salt, and make sure that our shovel or snow blower is good to go for that first snowfall. We need to make lists of the things that we would like, and we need to get…