Growing up, I thought I was pretty much the perfect kid. Even in high school, I was always the good kid—I even got voted “Parent’s Dream Child” my senior year of high school. (Yes, I know that’s not a “Most Likely To” award, but hey, it’s a small town and you gotta take what you can get.)

This post is an adapted excerpt from Without Flesh: Why the Church Is Dying Even Though Jesus Is Still Alive by Jonathan Fisk.

The Ancient Church saw martyrdom as an honor. Today, we cower in corners, bickering over the color of the carpet. The Ancient Church conquered the world by dying at its hands. Today, we are crushed in an overwhelming retreat of trying to fit in.

In Living with Grief, Pastor Kristian Kincaid talks about three major impacts of grief: emotional, physical, and spiritual. The impacts of grief occur when the mind and body are thrown out of what psychology calls “homeostasis,” or balance.  Realistically, no one grieves in strict outlined stages or at the same pace. Grief often lingers long after losing a loved one. For believers, grief’s impacts are diminished with the comfort of Christ. 

In the New Testament, Christians are often told to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Greek language uses different words to describe love: storge, philia, eros, and agape, to name a few. What do each of these types of love entail? How can you share them with people in your life?

Read about the different types of love below, then download some floral or woodland-themed Valentine’s Day cards with Scripture, created by Oar + Arrow— a creative team led by wife, Sherry Luhman, and husband, LCMS Pastor Ethan Luhman. Use these cards to share God’s love with parents, children, grandparents, friends and other loved ones. 

Rumors swirled around the Ancient Church as some teachers professed that Jesus was never going to come back. The early Christians’ hope was being dampened—could this be true? Could the hope that they clung to so tightly be false?

Peter wrote this letter to Christians in Asia Minor to directly address these false claims and reassure the Church that Christ’s promises hold true.

My hometown church is small. It always has been. I started attending my junior year of high school, and at that time, it was already a pretty small congregation. But it’s smaller now, six years later. And I know we’re not the only church with this story.

Recently, I’ve been calling my friends from home, talking to them a lot about loneliness. This holiday season was my first without having my parents or close friends nearby. Although 2020 marks the start of my first full year in St. Louis, it’s also my first year being over four hundred miles away from family. My cell phone calls to Indiana and Michigan are the closest I get to genuine interactions with my loved ones as I continue to meet new people and develop deeper friendships where I am. In all of this, you could say my loneliness is a form of grief: the grief of losing what and who I grew up with.

Can you believe that another year has come and gone?!  For many, the start of the new year is a great time to think about new goals for the upcoming year. However, sometimes it’s hard to create goals and stick to them. What’s the secret to setting attainable goals that last all year? How is it possible to achieve them? Read more below on how to set devotional goals and work toward them daily.

Christmas is the best time of year to share the story of Jesus’ birth with your children! No matter the age or reading level, the Christmas story can be found in many different books for kids. From beautiful, lifelike pictures to singsong rhyming patterns, there are so many wonderful options to read with your child this Christmas.

We continue our journey through the Bible with another minor prophet—Malachi. The Book of Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, but it still occurs about 430 years before the birth of Christ.

The coming of John the Baptist is predicted in Malachi 3:1, a forerunner of Christ who will “prepare the way.” This is an excellent book of the Bible to read in December during Advent since it is the closest canonical book of the Old Testament before the birth of Christ. Pay close attention to the prophecies that refer to Christ, and spend extra time meditating on these verses!