From Creation to Jacob: Communicating the Promise
What does the Bible say about how people who lived after the Flood could know about the Creation and Fall of Adam? Well,…
Category: Steadfast in the OT
Pastor Eric Andersen
A Bible Study Every MegaChurch Pastor Will Hate
Do you love uplifting praise music that focuses all on your feelings and not on the Gospel at all? Do you like it when…
LadyLike: A Book Every Man Should Read
LadyLike: Living Biblically is an outstanding collection of forty-four short essays which provide an unapologetically biblical perspective on matters significant to life in family,…
The Cost of Becoming a Pastor
I absolutely love being a pastor. There isn’t a single thing I would change about what I do—not even the meetings (which often…
Prayer Is Not Always a Good Thing
One of the most frequently abused gifts of God among Christians today is prayer. For some reason we’ve gotten this notion that prayer is…
Tolerance: Narcissism in Disguise
We live in a highly individualistic age, an age which fancies itself tolerant. The sad description of Israel under the Judges could equally…
Why I Left the Roman Catholic Church
I was raised Roman Catholic. Now I’m a Lutheran pastor. But I didn’t just leave the Roman Catholic Church because I happened to…
When Shadows Are Better than Reality: A Devotion for Easter Tuesday on Exodus 15 & 16
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come…” (Hebrews 10:1) Who would settle for looking at a…
Introducing… The Church Growth Translation of the Bible!
Do you want to grow your congregation? It’s simple! Just follow these two easy steps. 1) Read the Bible. 2) Do the exact opposite….
Why the McDonald’s Bathroom Isn’t as Holy as the Divine Service
Prolegomena: This is the sixth and what will likely be the final chapter of the recent discussion on praise bands between Pr. Reeder…
The Most Dangerous Situation You’ll Ever Encounter: A Sermon for Wednesday of Judica on Psalm 130
Click here for a free, downloadable Bible study of Psalm 130 from Around the Word. Out | of the depths* I cry to…
Why the Praise Band & I Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together
Please note: This post is a response to Pastor Kent Reeders’ response to my post, “Why I Quit the Praise Band.” If you…
Bible Studies That Don’t Ask You to Talk about Your Feelings
This Lent I began editing and co-authoring a weekly free, downloadable PDF Bible study with Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller on the Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38,…
Why I Quit the Praise Band
Quitting the praise band wasn’t easy for me. Nor did I just play in the praise band— I started it. It was my…
Why Christians Make the Sign of the Holy Cross (and a word on genuflection)
In The Small Catechism, Martin Luther encouraged Christians to retain the practice of making the sign of the cross. The Missouri Synod, following Luther’s…
Suffering as the Key to Evangelism
Recently I was up at the hospital providing pastoral care to one of my members. As usual, I was wearing my clerical attire, and,…
False Christs and Wrong Answers: A Sermon for the Confession of St. Peter on St. Mark 8:27-35
From the very beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel, things hadn’t been going particularly well for our Lord. In chapter 1 He’s tempted by…
What Happens to the Sacrament (the Reliquae) after Distribution?
It is not by accident that there is a great deal of reverence in the Divine Service associated with the celebration of the…
In This Together: A Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord on St. Matthew 3:13-17
So far this liturgical year we’ve prepared for the Lord’s coming, celebrated His Incarnation, witnessed the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and looked…
Jesus in the Lions’ Den: A Sermon for the Nativity of Our Lord
Our celebration of the Savior’s birth can become so routine that we become numb to the joy—and the horror— of it all. On…
“Inviting Some and Keeping Back Others”: Who is Welcome to the Lord’s Table?
Christ established His Church on earth so that sinners might receive His gifts of Word and Sacrament. Put another way, the Church exists…
Löhe on Koinonia, Novelty, and the “Modern” Pastor
A great deal of practical wisdom for the church today can be found in Wilhelm Löhe’s “Three Books about the Church.” In this…
Meditation: Jerome, Translator of Holy Scripture
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual…
Sacramental Entrepreneurship or Franchise Corruption?
The first Lutherans didn’t use the term “Lutheran” to describe themselves. They identified themselves by the much more apt term “evangelical.” After all, the…
Satan’s Angelic Disguises
If you were to stop and consider the devil’s appearance for a moment, you might imagine something frightening. He very well may show up in…