In our day-to-day life, Satan constantly works to trick us into falling away from our Savior. There are plenty of pitfalls and traps he makes for us, hoping that we will turn away from God and embrace more of our own sins. Fortunately, we were given the beautiful, soul-saving Word of God to fight back against Satan’s lies. Read below ten lies that Satan loves to tell (or whisper, or yell) into our ears. Then, see how God’s Word shows us the truth, and cling to specific verses from His Word when you feel yourself falling prey to the lies. 

My teenage daughter loves taking pictures of sunsets; her phone’s camera roll is filled with them. Here in the suburbs of Washington, DC, though, we often admire a beautiful, pink-streaked sky not surrounded by nature but while driving on the highway or walking out of the grocery store.

A better term for “Lutheran” spirituality is “evangelical” spirituality. The term evangelical is simply a term derived from the Greek word for “Gospel,” which in turn literally means “good news.” To be “evangelical” means focusing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News that Christ, through His death and resurrection, has won forgiveness for sinful human beings and offers salvation as a free gift.

I sat with some friends back in October, talking about when we put up Christmas trees as kids. Everyone in the group said “the day after Thanksgiving” except one. She had grown up putting up her tree on Christmas Eve. Where she was from, Advent was Advent and Christmas was Christmas. But that’s not so easy today. 

Our homes are adorned with decor inscribed with “Thankful” and “Blessed.” We often utter “Thanks be to God!” in worship. We have holidays dedicated to giving thanks. But do we truly have gratitude in all of this? This blog post, adapted from Portals of Prayer Devotional Bible, offers five reflections to help you ponder and give thanks for God’s gifts. 

Ahh, Christmastime as a parent. Christmas is a busy time of year for anyone, but as someone with young children, there’s an added pressure in the air. There are all the things to remember—buying gifts for your children’s teachers, bringing cookies after the Christmas concert, and perfectly coordinating schedules so you can attend as many Christmas parties and family gatherings as possible.

The controversy over the relationship between the Father and the Son (and, later, the Spirit) broke out in the first half of the fourth century AD, but the source of the controversy goes back 1,700 years before that, to Moses. 

The Concordia Publishing House team recently took a field trip to Perry County, Missouri. This place is as much the original home of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (the LCMS, our parent church body) as is St. Louis, Missouri, though not as well known.

Concerts, shopping trips, gatherings, and other tasks often take up a lot of our time during the season of Advent. None of these activities are inherently bad, but they can take our attention away from the real reason to celebrate Advent—the birth of our Savior, Jesus. We’ve assembled a list of five activities that busy families can use this Advent to intentionally focus on Christ. 

At the end of October every year, Lutherans all over the world celebrate Reformation Day. In protestant reverie, they think gratefully of the first time they heard of salvation by grace through faith in Christ and faith alone, grace alone, and Scripture alone. Beyond this, a great number of Lutherans would struggle to explain what it is that makes the Lutheran faith distinctive. I studied the Lutheran Confessions at Concordia University Chicago and Concordia Theological Seminary. Yet I wonder just how much exposure the average lay Lutheran has to the teachings of the Lutheran tradition.