Journey of Life Lutheran Church Podcast

When your world is shaken, your principles pull you through.

 

In the 1500's, the Protestant Reformation was shaking Europe. The Reformers came together around three principles.

 

These same three principles can guide you through your life today. They will keep your relationship with God clear. What that relationship is clear, everything else falls in line.

 

Learn how these three principles guided the Reformers and how they can guide you:

Grace alone: God loves and forgives us without any reference to merit or worthiness on our part.

Faith alone: Our part is to trust in God's love and forgiveness, not work to earn his approval or love.

Scripture alone: There may be millions of great books and wise people, but only the Bible is a binding authority.

How to Subscribe

Subscribe to our Spiritual Growth email list to get more content like this. We don’t send church announcement to that email list (except Christmas and Easter) so you won’t get bombarded with emails irrelevant to your life. What you will get is week after week of encouraging spiritual growth content.

Like YouTube? Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Prefer podcasts? Subscribe as a podcast (itunes, Stitcher, etc.)

You can revitalize dull relationships and keep new ones fresh with these two simple practices.

Why do some relationships grow stale and boring while others seem to grow in vitality as the years pass?

How can you restore life and vitality to relationships that have grown dull and lackluster?

In this sermon, Pastor John gives you practical and powerful pointers for keeping relationships vital. (It’s the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, so PJ continues his telling the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation even as he offers practical guidance for modern life.)

Near the end of the sermon, Pastor John will give you a simple assignment that may breathe new life into your relationships. It’s just one question to ask anyone you’ve known for a while. But it might be like letting fresh air and light into a dark and musty room. It’s a great question even for relationships that are humming along nicely.

THEN…

Pastor John closes the sermon with a special gift for you:

A single sentence that is pure gold.

 

Imagine a single sentence that is the perfect response when…

Your daughter comes home from school frustrated

Your spouse is angry

Your son tells you something wonderful about a video game that you don’t understand

Your coworker offhandedly mentions something that seems important

Your mom tells you she had a good day

Your teenager is having relationship troubles

Your spouse tells you something he or she is excited or nervous about

 

Could there possibly be such a magical sentence?

Yes! There is a single sentence that is the perfect response to every one of these situations.

This is a sentence you will want to memorize and keep in your back pocket.

Don’t worry, it’s only 5 words long. But these five words have an almost spell-like power to bring life and forward movement into every situation mentioned above and many, many more.

Watch until the end where Pastor John reveals this amazing piece of relational ju jitsu.

Yes, you could just scroll to the end of the audio or video. But why do that? You’ll miss a video clip from “Happy Days” with Fonzie and Ralph Malph. You won’t hear Pastor John’s odd, yet oddly appropriate, name for God.

Subscribe to our Spiritual Growth email list to get more content like this. We don’t send church announcement to that email list (except Christmas and Easter) so you won’t get bombarded with emails irrelevant to your life. What you will get is week after week of encouraging spiritual growth content.

Like YouTube? Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Prefer podcasts? Subscribe as a podcast (itunes, Stitcher, etc.)

In this third lesson, the vision of Revelation actually begins. Jesus gets John's attention with a voice like a trumpet, flaming eyes, a face shining like the sun, and a sword sticking out of his mouth. But, really, what does this mean? That's what you'll learn in this lesson. But you would be well-advised to do the lessons in order.  Go to http://journeyoflife.org/courses/, enter the Revelation course, and do them in order.

Video

Audio

Teaching Notes

Revelation 1:9-20 teaching notes PDF

The Gospel began to come clear to Martin Luther as he lectured on books like Psalms, Romans, and Galatians. What he read changed his life and, in the process, the course of the world: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," — Romans 3:21–24 (ESV)

In this lesson, Pastor John walks you through the prologue and the greeting. We haven't even scratched the surface of the difficult stuff and it's already getting very interesting. What do you think the "seven spirits" are?

Video

Audio

Teaching Notes

Revelation 1,1-8 Teaching Notes PDF

Martin Luther grew up with a stern father. As we all do to some degree, Martin transferred his image of his father to his image of God. Martin Luther became a monk to fulfill a vow he made when he thought his life was in danger during a storm. As he studied the Bible, Luther began to see that God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is very different than his father. He discovered that we are right with God simply by trusting in his grace and love. What good news that is!

Some prayers are simply cries of the heart ("Help me, Lord!"). Some prayers are composed by others and contemplated by the one praying (e.g. the Lord's Prayer, the Prayer of St. Francis). The sandwich gives you enough structure to let the Scriptures affect you and enough freedom to be real with God. This message is also available in audio format (MP3, stream, download, podcast through all major systems including iTunes and Stitcher) via our website www.journeyoflife.org under the 'worship & teaching' tab.

Welcome to the first lesson in our Bible study on the book of Revelation. This lesson, "Introduction," introduces and defines several important words and concepts that will come up again as we study Revelation, so don't skip it!

You can either watch the video or listen to the audio version. You may also want to download (and print) one or both of these documents:

Two-page lesson handout with blanks to fill in

Full lesson notes (typos and all)

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:

Pastor John's teaching style (broad and charitable)

Type of literature in the Bible and Revelation as apocalyptic literature

Pre-, post-,  and a-millennialism, and the rapture

The preterist, historicist, futurist and spiritual points of view with regard to interpreting Revelation.

Linear, cyclical and ongoing interpretations of the events of Revelation.

The author, date, and place of writing.

CLICK HERE to sign up to get notified each time a new Revelation lesson is posted.

Video

Audio

Who is God? Is God a cosmic killjoy, wagging his finger and chiding you at every moment while shaking his head in wonder and disgust? Psalm 103 tells a different story... a story that, if you will accept it, will change the way you live your entire life. God is forgiver, healer, redeemer, and satisfier. As a father has compassion on his children, so God has compassion on all who turn to him.

The first in a three-week series on the Psalms. Pastor John will help you read the psalms in a way that gets to your heart. Then he explores the truth in Psalm 32 about the weight of keeping things hidden/unconfessed because of pride or shame, and the glorious release of confession.