Biblical love is giving to others as God has given to us, and desiring what God has promised

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

The promises of God are able and dependable. He fulfills every promise He has made. Jeremiah’s prophecies of the punishment and restoration of Israel are ultimately seen in the life on Christ on Good Friday and Easter.

Sin is disgusting, but it’s role in the Christian life is avoidance not shame

Few lessons make God’s grace to an undeserving world more clear than our type/antitype Old Testament Reading and Gospel: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." (John 3:14–15).

God gives us His joy in creation, salvation, and the church

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Lent is a time of penitence, but a Lutheran observance of Lenten penitence does not mean merely shifting our self-absorption (which plagues us all year long!) from preoccupation with pleasure to preoccupation with our sins. Rather, we seek to shift our eyes from self altogether and instead behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

The Ten Commandments clearly call us to repentance. Historically, though, the One who issued these commands to love is the Savior of the Israelites: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex 19:4).

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

The Scriptures continually warn us against holding onto anger, yet also describe the reality of God’s wrath against sin. God’s judgment can both guide us in showing mercy and guard us against anger driving us into sin.