Looking out for #1 isn’t a bad idea, the problem is just that we identify the wrong person as #1

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

There’s no other blessing for families so powerful as letting God be the source and goal of all our work together in the home

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

In both the Old Testament (Numbers 11) and Gospel (Mark 9) readings, God's Word addresses the pride which corrupts His people to use one standard to condemn and potentially exclude others from the fellowship of believers, while using another, much easier standard when it comes to their own behavior. Both readings point out that it actually ought to be the other way around. God's people should be grateful for what God does in them and in others. In our text, Jesus calls for disciplined (salty) living, realizing that the way we live today has eternal consequences.

Being quick to judge others while being curiously uncritical of our own rotten attitudes is a truth that can be hard for Christians to perceive and accept. The truth about ourselves can hurt, like salt poured into an open wound and yet Jesus talks about "salt: how the hurt can help."

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Conflict, with the resulting tension it triggers in us, is one of the major causes of health-damaging stress that plagues humanity. Why is conflict so persistently present in our lives? Is there anything that can be done about it, both in preventing conflict and in healing the hurts when it occurs?

In today's Epistle, James touches on both cause and treatment of conflict as he gives some very practical helps toward Conquering Conflicts in the grace and power of our Lord.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Having Jesus as our Savior means that God has rescued us from sin, death, and the power of the devil so that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Words have great power to build up or destroy, and anyone can do either