Reflections

August 14, 2023

Today's Reading: Job 38:4-18

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 12:1-25, Acts 22:30-23:11

Job 38:4: ““Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Where were you when God worked? To create. To redeem. The real question the Lord poses to Job is “Why would you think you need to be?” It’s a harsh question for a reason.  After everything that Job went through, it’s easy to question how a loving God could let it happen. It’s easy to come up with 100 other options that involve less hurt.  The Lord doesn't take time to entertain them.  He doesn’t make it a contest of ideas, but of identity. 

Because we have questions and ideas.  And honestly it’s going to be tough to convince anyone in the midst of Job’s suffering that it’s totally a good idea. We still try. We treat “everything happens for a reason” like a magic spell that just makes it all ok.  Instead, Job is left with a reminder about who his God is.  Because honestly, he’s not going to understand the reason.  The Lord berates Job for chapters on end for assuming he possibly could.  You are not God. You’re not going to understand the reason.  You were not even there.  And that’s a gift. 

Why would you think you’d need to be?  Did the God who did all these we don’t understand and hate put Himself farther away from creation or closer? He was incarnate.  Did He put Himself farther away or closer to suffering? He took flesh to die for you.  Were you there?  

Why would you measure creation by your experience of it? Why would you think you had to be at the foot of the cross to make it matter more? It’s evil to measure it by your experience.  If God is only working in ways that you experience as pleasurable, when you need Him the most, He’ll feel the farthest away.  He didn’t abandon Job.  Thinking that way is demonic.  It’s literally what Satan wanted.  Sing songs about where you were when Jesus was crucified all you want, but what matters isn’t just that it happened, but it happened for you. Even if you weren’t there. That it was the work of a God smarter than you. Holier than you. Who loves you.  He does things we don’t understand and don’t like.  But He also bears the worst of it Himself, even for the very sinners who question His motives while He does it. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh . . . Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord (Were You There, LSB 456:1)?

-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.

August 13, 2023

Today's Reading: Matthew 14:22-33

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 10:1-27, Acts 22:17-29

Matthew 14:24–25: “but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It’s easier to talk about the Jesus who walks on water than the Jesus who made the disciples get in the boat before the winds and waves pulled their boat from land and soaked the disciples to their bones.  The wind was against them.  Which is an understatement sort of like when someone asks you “how’s it going?” and you say “OK”.  The wind was against them in the kind of way that took control of their boat from them and threatened death.  It’s great that Jesus walked on water in a storm, but if you ignore the reality that He also made the disciples go out into what just might have killed them, you’ll miss the point.  Both were done out of mercy.  

In the middle of the night, surrounded by death, the deeper truth is that Jesus rescued the disciples from the misconception that calm is the same as peace.  When Christianity confuses calm for peace, it offers neither.   But still, so often, we want to describe our faith as a calmed storm, not a present Lord. We imagine that a thriving faith is the kind that can walk on water and not sink, but I wonder how many of the people who’d criticize St. Peter for the doubt that sunk him into the sea also took swimming lessons.  

“O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” O ye of little faith, why would you think that would stop God from working.  The disciples were anything but calm.  Peter doubted.  God still saved.  All of this is given to you so you’ll stop measuring the storm, stop measuring the calm, stop measuring your faith, and start looking to your God.  

Christianity is not Christians copying Jesus to walk on water.  It’s Jesus pulling up sinking sinners.  He reaches down into death and pulls us back out.  He dies upon the cross for you and rises from the dead, taking you with Him. And if Christ can pull you out of the grave, go ahead and let your calm be damaged. In the Name + of Jesus. 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.

Almighty and most merciful God, preserve us from all harm and danger that we, being ready in both body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish what You want done; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

August 12, 2023

Today's Reading: Introit to Pentecost 11: Psalm 34:4-8; antiphon: Psalm 34:1

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 9:1-27, Acts 21:37-22:16

Psalm 34:7: The angel of the LORD encamps around those who I fear him, and delivers them.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The angel of the Lord is, more than sometimes, the Son of God.  Angel means messenger.  Voice. Word.  The Word of the Lord made flesh spoke even before He was made flesh.  The Son of God was at work in the Old Testament too.  The angel of the Lord who saves the poor man out of his troubles, who encamps around those who fear them and delivers them is the one who would become man to die and rise.  

It doesn’t just change the actor. It changes what the help looks like.  We imagine help from angels looks like spiritual war protecting us from demons.  We imagine it looks like forces unseen at work to keep us safe.  But the angel of the Lord dwells with us in our suffering to deliver us by suffering for us on the cross.  God won’t be far from our cries for help in times of trouble.  But He saves us not by sending legions of angels to conquer the trouble but by bearing it Himself.  God saves us through weakness, not strength.  But that means when you look around and things are falling apart, it isn’t because God has left us.  

It usually just means we’re looking in the wrong places.  Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.  God dwells with sinners to save today.  In communion, Jesus encamps on altars surrounded by the faithful, struggling with sin week after week. Struggling with death. Struggling with the evil one.  He gives the victory we’re desperate for week after week.  He brings deliverance you can taste. His body and blood for you.  They save you.  From the sins you can’t escape on your own.  From the death that looms.  From the evil one.  We eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus that forgives all your sin, brings life everlasting, and robs the devil of all his might.  That It’s worth praising. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

From evil, Lord, deliver us; The times and days are perilous. Redeem us from eternal death, And, when we yield our dying breath, Console us, grant us calm release, And take our souls to You in peace (Our Father, Who from Heaven Above, LSB 766:8).

-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.

August 11, 2023

Today's Reading: Acts 21:15-36

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 8:1-22, Acts 21:15-36

Acts 21:24: “take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Paul seems to go back and forth on little details, but makes a huge deal of them.  In some places he urges circumcision. In others he forbids it.  Sometimes he speaks about eating food offered to idols as no big deal, and today he shaves his head to show he’s not down with that tomfoolery.  

It’s almost easier to blame it on the hypocrisy of Christians.  Today we don’t talk about food sacrificed to idols, and circumcision isn’t a trending topic, but can you shop at Target?  It really seems like everyone is making up their own answers, justifying them from Scripture, and condemning others even if they end up changing their minds and justifying their new answers from the same Scriptures.  

There is a way to see through the haze.  First, right and wrong are defined by the 10 commandments.  Those don’t change.  If the commandments are silent, for example, on food that was sacrificed to Ba’al or  Ta’arget, we ask a simple question.  What does this confess? Not just what do you intend, but what do other people see? You can fly a rainbow flag as a remembrance of God’s promise to Noah, but the world will see something different.  What does this confess? That’s why Paul’s answer changes.  To those who would make a weapon out of the Law and use it against others, he preaches Christian freedom.  To those who would be harmed spiritually by being subject to the trends of the day, he preaches a clear distinction between faith and unfaithfulness.  

When you go out into the world, can you be made unclean by anything in your Baptism? No! Jesus died for you. Daily you are washed.  Your salvation cannot be robbed by the dollar spot.  Might there come a time for some people in some places that they cannot be associated with unbelief to the point where they’ll have to look elsewhere? Sure.  But in each case, the question is what does this confess? We confess Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins and the free salvation given to sinners by His promises.  Let that be our identity.  That saves more than public declarations of boycotts. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

All who confess Christ’s holy name, Give God the praise and glory. Let all who know His pow’r proclaim Aloud the wondrous story. Cast ev’ry idol from its throne, For God is God, and He alone: To God all praise and glory! (Sing Praise to God, the Highest Good, 819:5)

-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.

 August 10, 2023

Today's Reading: Acts 19:1-22

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 6:19-7:17, Acts 19:1-22

Acts 19:19: “And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Magic always boils down to the same thing.  Whether it’s Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or genuine dark arts and witchcraft.  Manipulate something spiritual to affect something physical.  Poke at something you can’t see to get something you can.  Which, if you think about it, is a lot like how most Christians treat prayer.  

That might actually be a good way to think about this.  In the text the exorcists weren’t calling out to Satan to cast out Satan. They were using the name of Jesus. They thought they knew the magic words.  It’s what broke the second commandment.  Magic is evil because it’s about control.  Using God’s name as a magic word to get what you want (please) is evil because it’s about control. The difference between magic and prayer is control.  Are you praying to a Heavenly Father who loves you for comfort in the knowledge that His will is going to be done in your life as it is everywhere else, or are you trying to manipulate something you can’t see to get something you can? God’s name is not something you use to get something else.  God’s name is a comfort to all who trust in Him.  

The difference between the exorcists and Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit and baptizing in the triune name isn’t just that Paul’s stuff worked. It isn’t because Paul meant it for good and the people trying to cast demons out of the sick and suffering had ulterior motives.  It’s that God would not allow His name to be misused to teach people He was the same as any other spiritual force out there.  Call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.  But do so knowing you have a Father in Heaven who loves you, and that any peace comes from knowing you have received the Holy Spirit and need not worry about having to do magic in the first place.  Because God is in control.  That’s way better.  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, Who ord’rest all things mightily; To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel! (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, LSB 357:2)

-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.

August 9, 2023

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, Table of Duties: Intro to the Lord's Prayer

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 5:1-6:3, 10-16, Acts 18:1-11, 23-28

Our Father who art in Heaven

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Prayer is about comfort, not stuff.  For some reason we’ve come to see it the other way around.  Prayer is about making God do stuff for you.  The problem is that the second prayer is rooted in stuff and not comfort, there’s never any comfort to be found until you get the stuff.  So everything becomes devoted to getting it.  Which means you have to pray more. And be more heartfelt about it. And definitely get more people to do it with you and for you so that God will help you.  Because He only helps the popular kids, right? Also, when prayer becomes about stuff and you’re not getting your stuff, it’s hard not to see God as the bad guy in the situation.  Some Christians even call themselves prayer warriors.  The thing is, Satan was defeated at the cross.  So, who’s left to fight except God?  

So Jesus teaches us to pray.  Our Father who art in heaven.  We pray as if we have a Father in heaven who actually loves us enough to take care of us.  Who calls us to ask for all things with the knowledge that the answer isn’t rooted in you doing enough to earn a prize, but in Him loving you enough to take care of you.  Sometimes that means saying no.  Sometimes that means saying later. But even when you don’t get what you want, even what you need, you still have a Father in heaven, and this prayer is a comfort because it reminds us of that.  The thing we need isn’t everything.  You have a God who will care for you, even without it if He knows it to be best.  When prayer is about comfort, you can bring all your complaints, your worries, and even your sins to God with your petitions and know that He gladly bears them all for you.  He answers not as a vending machine would, but as a Father.  This is the greater good. Your parents don’t stop being your parents because they say no to you.  You’re better for being told no once in a while.  The comfort of prayer is knowing that God, who is smarter than you and holier than you, is on your side, and working in all things to care for you as a dear Father cares for His dear children. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

 Our Father, who from heav’n above Bids all of us to live in love As members of one family And pray to You in unity, Teach us no thoughtless words to say But from our inmost hearts to pray (Our Father, Who from Heaven Above, LSB 766:1)

-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.

August 8, 2023

Today's Reading: Romans 9:1-13

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 4:1-22, Acts 16:23-40

Romans 9:11: “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It’s a dangerous thing to look at missions and assume you’re more loving than God is.  Almost all of us have someone in our life outside of the faith.  Every single one of us is uncomfortable about it.  Even though God is the one who did the work to die and rise again to save us. Even though we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in this Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him, we make it our “mission” to make sure someone else does.  What can we do? What can we say? How can we make them believe? Paul struggles with it, and I deeply understand his frustrations.  

To Paul’s people belong the promises, the Law, the worship, the covenants.  Yet not all of them are children of Abraham.  It is not as though the Word of God has failed, though.  Remember, God’s purpose of election, His love for sinners, is what first drove Him to the cross.  Do you think He loves us less this side of Easter, now that the painful part is over?  All who hear and receive God’s promises in faith hear because He calls.  Yes, some will hear and ignore.  Some will close their ears to the Law and the promises.  It doesn’t mean God doesn’t want them saved. After all, He calls them, which shows He wants them saved.  It also doesn’t fall on you to fix what God supposedly did wrong.  

There will be people who hate the promises, but they can’t unmake them.  It isn’t yours to save your friends anymore than it is Paul’s.  But God wants them saved even more than you do.  Even if they hate the promises now, they can’t unmake them.  So God will still proclaim, and the Holy Spirit will still work to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify, and even keep. Rest here. If there are such things as missions, recognize it is God who is at work, and simply take joy in the reality He cares about the people in your life enough to make promises to them over and over, and that His Word does not return void. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Elect from ev’ry nation, Yet one o’er all the earth; Her charter of salvation: One Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses With ev’ry grace endued (The Church’s One Foundation LSB 644:2).

-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.

August 7, 2023

Today's Reading: Isaiah 55:1-5

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 3:1-21, Acts 16:1-22

Isaiah 55:2: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It doesn’t makes sense, but I still watch a basketball team I don’t think will win and eat food I know isn’t healthy.  I say money can’t buy happiness, but I also say practice makes perfect, so I guess I’ll try it one more time anyway.  Everyone nods sagely when we talk about the futility of these things.  Simplicity and productivity fill my feeds.  They get millions of views because all of us see through the foolishness and are convinced that if we just finally abandon the ridiculous things we cling to. our stress will go away along with it. We figure If we can't have all we covet, money must be bad, even though we thank God for the gifts it buys because we know who made it, gave it to us, and called it good in the first place.

Money isn't bad, leisure isn't bad. Being more organized and less stressed isn't bad. But God won't limit Himself to where these things might theoretically exist.  If you want to measure God's presence or goodness or even just whether or not He exists based on how little stress and how much money you have, when you need God the most He'll be the farthest away. He doesn't need those things as much as you think He does. God puts Himself in poverty and chaos.  God invites in those who have no money, and all who thirst.  He makes a covenant with sinners, and promises to save, help, and redeem.  He doesn't need money or work/life balance to manage it.  He takes on human flesh and weakness, and even the human sin that looks for God where He has never promised to be found, in us getting better enough to not need Him anymore.  We find Him not living the best life, but dying the righteous death upon the cross.  It’s so that if you have plenty, you can thank God, and if you don't, I'm sorry, and you're allowed to lament it, but just don't think you somehow lost God in the midst of it, or that He won't continue to care in ways that all those things you think you need could never manage. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

All depends on our possessing God’s abundant grace and blessing, Though all earthly wealth depart. They who trust with faith unshaken By their God are not forsaken And will keep a dauntless heart (All Depends on Our Possessing, LSB 732:1)

-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

August 6, 2023

Today's Reading: Matthew 14:13-21 

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 2:18-36, Acts 15:22-41

Matthew 14:14: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The feeding of the 5000 happens right after John the Baptist gets his head cut off for preaching the stuff God told him to preach.  It makes bread and fish seem like less, even if He healed a few sick people along the way.  Especially since Jesus left afterwards so He wouldn’t have to do it again.  Reading about miracles in the Bible only seems to highlight the places they aren’t today.  So instead of measuring God by every single problem, by everything you think you lack, look to who He is in the face of all of it.

It was compassion that moved Jesus each time.  It was compassion for the loss of His friend that drove Him to the desolate places to mourn.  It was compassion for the people there that drove Him to feed the people that followed Him.  It was even compassion that drove Him away after.  When He went, it wasn’t to abandon them. He carried their pains and fears and most of all their sins with Him. He wanted to do more than answer one fear after another as they arose.  He wasn’t meant to be that kind of King.  He left to snuff them out completely.   His was to go into Jerusalem to wear a crown of thorns so that sinful desire and scared idolatry would not devour us, that enemies like death and the devil would be robbed of their sting. That the sinners would find mercy.  That the dead would live. That those who hunger and thirst for righteousness would be satisfied.  Even when everything looks like this.  Maybe you don’t see Him still working in the middle of all your problems, but neither did the disciples surrounded by hungry mouths to feed.   

In the face of fear and sorrow and a complete lack of everything needed, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples. 5000 were fed.  The same love, the same mercy that drove Him to care for those saints drives Him to care for you, even if He does it differently.  Today I don’t see 5000 fed, but the body and blood of Jesus forgive my sins.  That does more than leave me fed once and looking for the next meal. You can have some too. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Heavenly Father, though we do not deserve Your goodness, still You provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may acknowledge Your gifts, give thanks for all Your benefits,

and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

-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.

August 5, 2023

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 10: Psalm 105:39-43; antiphon: Psalm 105:1

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 1:21-2:17, Galatians 6:1-18

They asked, and he brought quail, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.  (From the Introit for Pentecost 10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It is no surprise that this is tomorrow’s Introit when you know that the Gospel reading is the Feeding of the 5000. These words dovetail (or is it ‘quail tail’?) nicely with what Jesus does.

This psalm is a quick overview of what God has done for his people from the call of Abraham up to the people coming into the Promised Land. It is a remembrance of all that God has done in love for His chosen ones.

When you hear these words tomorrow, and your pastor proclaims the Gospel to you about how Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, think back to these words and rejoice that God our Father has been providing for His people in strange and mysterious ways century after century since He called Abraham to be the father of his people.

Sure, the modern grocery store may not seem as miraculous as the loaves and fish, or manna on the ground each morning, or flocks of quail drifting through the camp at catchable speed, or water gushing from a rock in the wilderness, but it is indeed a miracle of modern engineering that fresh (and shelf-stable) foods are replenished as fast as you can load a grocery cart. Not to mention fast food outlets and their offerings.

The giving of First Article Gifts, of our Daily Bread, is what God our Father does for a living. He allows the rain to fall on the just and unjust, He provides food and shelter for all of His creations, and He preserves us in safety with an eye to eternity.

These gifts of food and drink, house and home, and all that the explanation to the First Article of the Creed in the Small Catechism spell out come to us because God remembers his holy promise.

As marvelous and as amazing as these miracles are, and the reception of our Daily Bread, they all pale in comparison to Jesus giving his very self for us and our salvation. Even this is a gift of God because by it, He remembers His holy promise.

So the next time you are wowed by a beautiful dinner or a surprising find at the grocery store, remember that God your Father remembers His holy promise to you and He sustains you because He loves you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things is wondrously reigning And, as on wings of an eagle, uplifting, sustaining. Have you not seen All that is needful has been Sent by His gracious ordaining?  (LSB 790:2)

-Pastor Duane Bamsch is the Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley, CA  and the President of 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.