Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Nov 1, 2009
"Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God" (Luther’s Works
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Nov 16, 2009
FAITH: A LIVING, DARING CONFIDENCE
"Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures.
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Nov 25, 2009
William Reid recognized how far our thankfulness falls short. He wrote, "Forgive us, Lord, for shallow thankfulness, For dull content with warmth and sheltered care, For songs of praise for worldly wealthiness, While of your richer gifts we’re unaware" (Christians Worship, 482:1, "Forgive
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 3, 2010
"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people" (Luke 1:68 NIV). A little child plays innocently in a park. Suddenly a man grabs her from behind and drags her into a van. She’s gagged. A bag’s pulled over her head. Dust stings her eyes. The smell of sweat
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 3, 2010
The rhino calf was taking a drink at the water hole. The tiger leaped at it. Soon the calf would have been ripped to shreds. But the mother rhinoceros charges out of the tall grass and drives the tiger away with her horn. "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 3, 2010
So find joy in whatever your Lord gives you to do in this year ahead. Serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all your days. Bring your service to him like a little child bringing her coloring page home from school. She gives it to Mom and Dad not because she thinks she’s
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 17, 2010
C. F. W. Walther in a sermon on this text called the marriage of a Christian a most splendid school of faith, love, humility, patience, gentleness and all Christian virtue. (/Amerikanisch-Lutherische
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 25, 2010
In the mid 1700's a little bit before the time Kunta Kinte was said to have lived, a certain Englishman served under slavers and became a captain of a slave ship. One night in 1748 in a storm as the ship took on water, he felt the weight of his guilt chained to him. Faced with death, he came to
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 25, 2010
Roots: Freedom From Your Slavery
Kunta Kinte lived free among the Mandinka people of West Africa, becoming a Mandinka warrior at fifteen. But then as he gathered wood for a drum outside his village, slavers captured him. Stacked away on a slave ship piled up with a hundred seventy other slaves, he
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 25, 2010
Kunta Kinte
Our greatest sin is trying to deal with our sin-guilt by some form of denial. These various forms of denial think that we can escape and run away from our guilt. We imagine that freedom is within our power.
Kunta Kinte tried to escape. He tried to mentally escape by refusing to
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jun 6, 2010
He claimed to "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee." Sports Illustrated crowned him the "Sportsman of the Century." His nickname was "The Greatest." He was the three-time World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali.
But where is that left hook followed by the hard right to the face that
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jun 6, 2010
In the 1940’s there was race, a race to get the mightiest weapon this world had yet seen. The United States had the Manhattan Project. Hitler had his heavy water experiments. After the war it was learned that Hitler was much farther away from developing the atomic bomb than some had feared. But
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jun 15, 2010
Let’s begin understanding this name, /Adonai/ (אֲדֹנָי), meaning /Lord/, by going back to the Middle Ages. Picture a medieval manor. Peasants worked the surrounding fields. Craftsmen lived in the village. The manor house, maybe with a moat and watchtower,
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jun 15, 2010
Picture again the medieval manor we talked about earlier. No doubt many lords of the manor were more concerned about their own comfort and safety rather than about their people. But a good lord would defend his people. He would fight for them against marauders, raiders, bandits. He might even bleed
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Aug 10, 2010
And I don't think that I'm alone in this struggle to pray. Even a great church leader like Martin Luther has said this about prayer, "At times I, who teach this and prescribe it to others, have learned from my own example that praying comes close to being the most difficult of all works"
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Aug 17, 2010
FAITH AND PROMISE
When something is promised, you have not seen it happen yet, have you? If I promise my wife that I'm going to clean out the basement, there's no proof that you can see. There's only my word. That promise is the only evidence it will happen. And I may prove unreliable for one
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Nov 24, 2010
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70 FUNERALS IN ONE DAY
During a forty-year ministry, I would guess that many pastors do seventy or more burials. But this wasn't over the full span of his ministry. In fact, it wasn't even a full year. In one day, Pastor Rinkart did burial rites for up to seventy people and did the same the next
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Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Nov 29, 2010
STAY FOCUSED
God's Word. That's what focuses our hearts so that we watch continuously, ready for Jesus. In a way, you might say, God's Word is like my glasses. Without my glasses, I couldn't even begin to catch a football. I wouldn't see it coming. But even with my glasses on, I still need to
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