Reflections

December 22, 2023   

Today's Reading: 

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 43:1-24; Revelations 9:13--10:11

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Israelites in exile endured each day, and longed for when God would deliver them. God did not abandon them, or leave them without His Word. He sent men like Isaiah to remind them that God had not forgotten His promises to deliver them. God had not forgotten them, and He would be the one who would redeem them, bring them back home, and be their Savior. 

We long for our suffering to end. That our struggle against our sinful flesh and its desires would cease. That the groaning of all creation would be silenced. Your God has heard your groaning, and has answered you. As we endure each day of our earthly lives in our fragile flesh, we go about each day not despairing as the world does, but full of hope and joy for what is to come. God has redeemed His creation. His Son Jesus, is the Savior of the world. In Him the one whom they have pierced flows rivers of life giving water, and blood for His chosen people to drink.

You were baptized into this life giving water, and receive the body of Christ to eat and His blood to drink. You are strengthened by this life-giving meal. Getting up each day and remember that in your Baptism you do not simply struggle against the world and your sinful flesh as a poor miserable sinner, but as a baptized redeemed child of God. These promises are for you, and all believers in Christ. Behold God has done a new thing in Christ Jesus, not just for Abraham’s offspring, but for the whole world. In Christ your longing for home is ended, because in Christ you are redeemed, and declared a witness of the resurrection.  In Christ you may have peace that there is a place prepared for you, and whether in death or on the day He returns God has received you as His beloved child and welcomed you into His kingdom. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

You sit in splendid glory, enthroned at God’s right hand, Upholding earth and heaven by forces You command. We know that You will come as our Judge that final day, So help Your servants You have redeemed by blood, we pray; May we with saints be numbered where praises never end, In glory everlasting. Amen, O Lord, amen! (LSB 941:4)

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 21, 2023   

Today's Reading: John 20.24-29

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 42:1-25; Revelations 9:1-12

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Thomas was faithful to his Lord in the end. Now, doubting Thomas really isn’t the best construction to put on him. So let’s call him “reassured” Thomas. Thomas wasn’t there that night when Jesus appeared to His disciples. Thomas wanted to believe his brother disciples, but dead men don’t rise.

Eight days later. Thomas was now with them, longing to be reassured by the disciples' account. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”” These eleven disciples, despite ten of them having seen Jesus, are still hiding behind locked doors. Their fear, Thomas’ doubt and need for bodily reassurance are present in this locked room. Despite this, Jesus came to them, He stood among them and absolved them and said, “Peace be with you”.

It’s not all about Thomas. It’s not about the faith of the eleven. It’s all about Jesus. Jesus who was crucified in front of them, bled and died in front of them. Who rose and appeared to them. This Jesus who’s chosen twelve betrayed, and deserted Him, are absolved. Just as He came to them and pointed to the marks that He is Christ the crucified and risen Lord, He comes to you. He comes to you through your pastor and when you confess your doubts, your fears, and your failures, you hear just what Thomas and the ten heard. “Peace be with you.” “Your sins are forgiven.” Not only that, but He gives you His body to eat and His blood to drink under the simple means of bread and wine. All this He gives, just as these words were written down, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 

Thomas’ faithful proclamation is your proclamation. That by faith and not by sight you have received the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in Jesus. In Jesus your doubts are reassured, and your fears calmed. Thanks be to God, for His servant Thomas who proclaimed Christ crucified to the nations, to comfort those who doubt, and reassure them that Christ has come and will come again for you.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty and ever-living God, You strengthened Your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in the resurrection of Your Son. Grant us such faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that we may never be found wanting in Your sight; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 20, 2023  

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, 1st commandment

Daily Lectionary:  Isaiah 40:18-41:10; Revelations 8:1-13

You shall have no other gods. (Exodus 20:3)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.  What even is an idol? We’re not exactly making golden calves or selling statues of foreign deities anymore. Dr. Luther is helpful to us in understanding the totality of the first commandment, “Now, I say, that whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in, is truly your God.” (Luther, LC I., BoC, 385)

Jesus puts it another way, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” The devil would like nothing more than to put idols in our faces, even more so to put things that don’t look like idols in our lives. The explanation of Dr. Luther rings true. Whatever we fear, love, and trust more than God and His Word is an idol. Whether that’s money, fitness, sports, family, technology, etc. Anything that would pull us away from God and His Word that we find trust in, is an idol.

This is the commandment that all others extend from. Our old Adam pushes back against this commandment. Since the fall, we see ourselves as the center of our own universe. Our neighbor, our daily bread that God gives us can all be used as stumbling blocks for our old Adam to latch onto and proclaim as our own doing. Our sinful flesh has no desire to be with God, because sinful man has no place before a holy and righteous God. So we set up gods that are in our own image. Who are approachable, on our terms. These gods all fall by the wayside, and ultimately no security from suffering, no peace in our despair, and no deliverance from death.

This holy, jealous, and righteous God is a loving God. Who tells Moses and His people, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2) God has no desire to see you fall away from Him. God is a loving Father who, from the beginning has proclaimed life through His Word. This same Father through the Word incarnate Jesus Christ, His Son does what no false god can. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and endures the pains and trials of this world. The Son of God bears your sin, your false hopes in false gods, and crushes any idea of security that this world or idol could prop up. God’s love, His freedom from sin, death, and the devil are yours in His Son. You shall have no other God’s because there are no other gods. God Himself came down in human flesh for you, suffered and died for you, rose again and ascended into heaven for you. Your heart and mind is free to love and trust in Him, knowing that all things are done in Christ Jesus.

God, the holy, jealous, loving, and gracious God who reigns over all things, and caring for you and all creation until He will come again on the last day for you. Come Lord Jesus.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might, Who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height In ancient times didst give the Law In cloud and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel! (LSB 357:3)

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 19, 2023  

Today's Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5.16-24

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 40:1-17; Revelations 7:1-17

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. That’s right, Paul is talking about Advent, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although he’s referring to the second Advent the whole church prayerfully waits for. Yes that’s right, just as God’s people of old sought the first Advent of God’s Messiah, His anointed one, who God has long promised would come and redeem His people. This was not just a redemption, and return from an earthly exile. Although God would certainly deliver Israel home in time. This was a redemption with eternal consequences.

But we know that story. The Advent of the Messiah who was born in Bethlehem, not as a king in a palace, but the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who came to redeem you. To end your exile of wandering in slavery to sin, and death, and to know God’s love for you in the wounds of His crucified Messiah, Jesus. Only these wounds are not found in the arms of a dead man, but the wounds of your crucified, dead, and risen Savior. Who came for you, died for you, and conquered death for you. 

In Jesus, the God of peace sanctifies you completely. It’s all His gift, given to you through faith by the simple means of the water of your Baptism, and nourishing you weak after weak with His life giving body and blood that He gives you to eat and to drink. He does this without any merit or worthiness in you, purely out of His fatherly divine mercy, that just as His people of old wait for Him, you too may wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, assured of the promises of the God of Israel, the God of the church, and the God who will come and bring you out of the great tribulation, and into the life to come. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“Comfort, Comfort ye My people, Speak ye peace,” thus saith our God; “Comfort those who sit in darkness, Mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load. Speak ye to Jerusalem Of the peace that waits for them; Tell her that her sins I cover And her warfare now is over.” (LSB 347:1) 

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 18, 2023  

Today's Reading: Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 34:1-2, 8-35:10; Revelations 6:1-17

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Word given to Isaiah to proclaim to those returning from exile is truly comforting. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…” (Isaiah 61:1). These are the same words that Jesus reads in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth. Jesus proclaims that these words given to God’s people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah “has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17)

This good news, of God fulfilling His promises, to comfort and restore the poor, the broken hearted, the captives and those who are bound, is proclaimed to you by the one God has sent out to care for His offspring. Your pastor proclaims God’s Word and administers the Sacraments to you because that is God has promised to be for you. You don’t have to look in the world for God to reveal His comfort, or means of salvation. He tells you plainly where He can be found. While the world does not accept Jesus, and even His hometown rejects Him as the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah He is there in His Word and simple means of bread and wine, and water. Desiring nothing but the broken and those trapped in their sins to come and hear this good news.

In this Jesus who was crucified, died and buried, your sins are covered with His blood and laid in the tomb never to emerge again. It is the crucified and risen Jesus who God has fulfilled these words of Isaiah and all of His promises to His people. In your Baptism God has clothed you with the garments of salvation, and covered you with the robe of righteousness. You and all believers are Christ’s bride, the church. Who are united to Christ Jesus your bridegroom, who takes you His bride and adorns you with jewels to present you to His Father as His most precious treasure.

Take comfort in these words, you are united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Your sins are forgiven, all the stressors and pains of this world cannot take you away or exile you from the love of God for you in Christ Jesus. Come Lord Jesus, where the bride groom will join His bride and live together in righteousness with praise and thanksgiving forever.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Mine is the sin, but Thine the righteousness; Mine is the guilt, but Thine the cleansing blood; Here is my robe, my refuge, and my peace; Thy blood, Thy righteousness, O Lord my God.“ (LSB 631:5)

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 17, 2023  

Today's Reading: John 1.6-8, 19-28

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 33:1-24; Revelations 5:1-14

He [John] was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. (John 1:8)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. John the apostle gets right to work with John the Baptist in our reading today. There’s no annunciation by an angel, no mute Zechariah, no leaping in Elizabeth’s womb. John the prophet, the preacher, sent from God to proclaim His Word to His people.

The people of Israel, God’s chosen people certainly must have felt God had forgotten them. Like they had lost their identity. Stumbling from empire to empire, wondering when God will be the God of His promises, the God who had delivered them in the past. When will He deliver them now?

We can relate to this. Often our daily lives have similar stresses, similar identity crises. When a parent or loved one becomes sick or hurt beyond recovery. When the to do list seems to never end and school work, house work, your job just continues to pile on overwhelmingly. When we see tragedies, and disasters happen at home and around the world. We feel lost, and often wonder “Where is God?”, “Has He forgotten me?”.

Beloved child of God, your Father in heaven has not forgotten you, just as He had not forgotten His chosen people Israel. Maybe it has been awhile since you have been in church, heard His Word. Received His gifts. Know that your Pastor, or the Pastor in your community is delighted to give them to you. Just like John the Baptist, He is not the Light, but He bears witness about the Light. Even more so your pastor is given to you by God Himself to give you Jesus. Who is the Light of the world, the Christ, the one promised and foretold by Isaiah and all of Scripture who is the fulfillment of God’s promises for you.  Who on the cross gave His Body and poured out His Blood for you, as the very lamb who was slain. To cover your sin, to cover your suffering, and brokenness. 

So you know that you do not walk alone through the challenges of this life. Your identity is not given legitimacy by this world, that is always changing. No, your identity is yours in Christ who has washed you and united you in the waters of your Baptism, and united you to Himself in His body, and blood that you are given to eat and to drink. That is your strength, your assurance, that the one who will come whose sandal strap John the Baptist is not fit to untie”. Is the one who has come, is with you now, and will come again. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we implore You to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 16, 2023  

Today's Reading: Introit for Advent 3

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 32:1-20; Revelations 4:1-11

Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It’s easier for me to imagine the saving face of God that saves us as something brighter than the sun.  Transfigurations are always appealing, even to those who know better than to try to build tabernacles on mountains.  The Good Shepherd, enthroned upon the cherubim that guarded the Ark of the Covenant seems to demand awe and wonder.  

But if the cherubim guarded the real presence of God in His true glory, wouldn’t they circle the cross where God-made-man came down to die?   The hour for the Son of Man to be glorified left Him with no throne but a cross.  The radiance of the transfiguration gave way to streaks of blood and sweat.  But this is how we are saved.  Don’t look up the mountain for a glowing God of might.  Look to the cross for the dying God of mercy.  Here, we are restored.  Here, we are saved.  Here, all of your sins are atoned for, and you are given a shepherd that leads you through death to life again, not one who calls to you from the other side of the veil.  

In fear and in danger, we want the face of the transfiguration, but God gives us the face of the cross, crowned with thorns instead.  And it’s a gift.  Peter, confronted with a shouting sky and a glowing God, only realized what he was not, and fell down in terror.  A centurion saw the same God die and realized what happened.  Pray the psalms for mercy, not power, and God doesn’t ever seem so far away, because we finally start to measure Him in the things that actually work to answer our prayers.  Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus, author of salvation, Shared in our humanity; Crowned with radiant exaltation, Now He shares His victory! From His face Shines the grace Meant for all our fallen race. (LSB 462:3)

-Pastor Harrison Goodman is content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 15, 2023  

Today's Reading: Revelations 3:1-22

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 30:27-31:9; Revelations. 3:1-22

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3:1)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. From the whitewashed tombs of the Pharisees to the tax collectors and sinners in the Kingdom, the heavenly band isn’t what we’d expect.  And it leaves us plenty of opportunities to turn that on to each other.  There’s too much conflict in church.  Especially considering that this applies to ourselves more than it does anyone else.  This isn’t just a warning not to trust anything too polished, to question authority, and to roll your eyes at anyone who says “we’ve always done it this way”.  

If you’ll allow it, it’s a chance to reflect upon the secret things that are killing you from the inside out that you hide from everyone else.  They’re not actually measured in the battles you lose against vice, nearly so often as they are the things you don’t want to call wrong in the first place.  The things you excuse yourself from, but are still too uncomfortable to talk about among the sanctified, because you tell yourself they’re just not enlightened enough to understand.  We hide the things that are killing us because what else do you do with the things you can’t get rid of and you’re not even sure you want to?  

John has instructions to the walking-dead-inside.  Remember. Keep. Repent. Remember what you received. Past tense. Already, before you quit the vice you won’t call a vice. You are already free from it. It’s drowned in the font. You received it in Baptism.  Keep it.  That means realize it’s valuable enough to keep you.  Treasure it.  This isn’t a battle for self control you lose. It’s an identity already won on a cross for you.  It’s worth clinging to because it’s at least honest, even if it’s every bit as confusing.  This is who you are. Dead to sin. Alive to God.  It’s called repentance.  You live a life of repentance every day. You live a life of Baptism every day. Not marked in improvement, but in death. Every day you call sin what it is, even if you can’t get away from it. Every day you hear God’s promises.  Every day you’re turned back towards the one who forgave you because that Baptism you treasure is worth more than the vices you hoard.  Repentance isn’t what you quit. It isn’t how sorry you are about what you’ve done. It isn’t about a promise to quit you’re not sure you can keep.  It’s what brings the dead inside back to life.  It’s a Spirit carried hand toward the cross that swallows up what you bury and a promise that you’re already joined to the same empty tomb that Jesus burst free from. No matter how you feel inside. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen. 

-Pastor Harrison Goodman is content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 14, 2023  

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, question 4

Daily Lectionary:Isaiah 30:15-26; Revelations 2:1-29

Who receives this sacrament worthily?  Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Our churches make a big deal about Communion.  We don’t let just anyone come.  We believe it is exactly what Scripture says that it is. We believe that it can do great good if received correctly, and great harm if received incorrectly.  Paul talked about someone dying.  He seemed against it. We agree. 

The problem is, the devil loves an opportunity to call someone unworthy.  The evil foe will say you’re unworthy because of the porn you watch. Because you cut yourself. Because you struggle not to hate your parents. 

Being a sinner doesn’t make you unworthy of Communion.  Communion is only for sinners. If you’re not a sinner, don’t drink from the cup that promises forgiveness.  It’s not a meal for former sinners who kicked the habit. It’s not a meal paid for with promises to do better next time.  It’s a meal for the unworthy, and everything is flipped on its head.  For everything you’re too ashamed to admit to everyone kneeling beside you, Jesus only promises forgiveness.  Every week (cool practice, huh?).  

Fasting and bodily preparation turn into something new.  They don’t earn your place.  They simply become fine outward training.  A meal that forgives everything you want to be rid of helps us to realize life would actually be better without it.  So we fight against our sinful flesh. We fast. We prepare for the supper. And when we come starving and sinning anyway, we’re met by the same promise.  Take drink, this is the blood of Jesus, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  

We still practice closed Communion.  Not because we want less people to receive this great gift.  But because we want to be sure that everyone who does is helped by it.  So the answer to “may I take communion” is never a no. Just sometimes a not yet.  We teach the faith all hearts must believe. We point to just how much is given here.  The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who hear it.  And the church is fed.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Unworthy though I am, O Savior, Because I have a sinful heart, Yet Thou Thy lamb wilt banish never, For Thou my faithful shepherd art: Lord, may Thy body and Thy blood Be for my soul the highest good! (LSB 618:3)

-Pastor Harrison Goodman is content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

December 13, 2023 

Today's Reading: Revelations 1:1-20

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 29:15-30:14; Revelations 1:1-20

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. (Revelation 1:4)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The more exciting you try to make the book of Revelation, the more boring you make the church.  The more boring you allow Revelation to continue to be, the more glorious church appears.  We go looking in the book of revelation for wild stuff we don’t see.  Like sword-mouth-Jesus.  Sword-mouth-Jesus is definitely less boring than your pastor.  Except they preach the same thing.  Jesus died and rose again. He holds the keys to death.  

But John saw a vision from heaven. With trumpets.  Visions from heaven with trumpets are definitely less boring than the Bible reading in church that goes on just a little too long.  Except the vision directed John to share it with the churches in a book. Like a Bible.  That is trustworthy and speaks of Jesus for sinners. 

The gift of Revelation is that the more boring you allow it to be, the grander church appears because for all the incredible language describing heavenly visions; all that stuff shows up in your church.  The letter of Revelation was written to fledgling churches struggling with doubt and despair, false doctrine and gross sin.  Jesus is there in Word and Sacrament to forgive, to comfort, to save those who don’t deserve it.  He calls us out of foolishness and into eternal life. You receive those very gifts every Sunday. Your pastor preaches to you. He gives you the body and blood of Jesus. He ties you to the alpha and the omega in a way that transcends space and time as you are united with the marriage feast of the lamb in His kingdom which has no end.  When Revelation needs to be more than that, it always makes church feel like less, and worse, you can never actually find it no matter how many signs you see in the news.  When Revelation is a book pointing to Jesus, going to church where Jesus is just gets even more impressive.  I imagine sword-mouth-Jesus looks cool, but the body and blood on your altar aren’t just something to imagine.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

A mighty fortress is our God, A trusty shield and weapon; He helps us free from ev'ry need That hath us now o'ertaken. The old evil foe Now means deadly woe; Deep guile and great might Are his dread arms in fight; On earth is not his equal. (LSB 656:1)

-Pastor Harrison Goodman is content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.