“Can you find babysitters for the women’s event on Saturday?”

“Will you organize the Wednesday night meal in two weeks?”

“Are you open to teaching pre-school Sunday school next fall?”

“Will you head up our trip to Minneapolis for the next National Youth Gathering?”

Life in the church is filled with requests like the ones listed above. Whether you are working in a congregation or volunteering in your local parish, not a week goes by without inquiries from staff, congregational members, and people in the community. Some of those requests sound very appealing and inspire you to a quick response of yes. Some, however, are requests you feel less inclined to accept.

The focus for today’s devotion is the Isaiah reading, and we read an excerpt from Concordia Commentary: Isaiah 40–55.

Today, we commemorate Joseph of Arimathea, and we read a study on his life as described in The Gospel According to St. Luke.

Our devotional reading for today focuses on the Gospel text and comes from LifeLight: Matthew, Part 1—Leaders Guide.

Today, we commemorate Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and read a devotion from God’s Word for Today: John.

On today’s commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, we read a devotion from Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig.

Life is hectic. We find ourselves constantly waiting for the next season of life when “things will slow down.” They don’t. Part of contentment is making peace with the reality that life holds lots of responsibilities, and part of it is asking God to help us realign our values with His—daily, weekly, yearly redefining priorities, reassessing what is important and what matters most by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Isaiah holds a lot of law and judgment against the affluence, idolatry, and growing indifference to God’s Word by God's people. However, this book was also written to give comfort with the good news of the coming Messiah! Use this overview and free study questions as a guide for a personal or small group study of the Book of Isaiah.

Our devotional reading for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost focuses on the Romans reading and comes from Concordia Commentary: Romans 1–8.

As a Christian and a student at a liberal, secular university, I can say that the peer pressure to conform to non-Christian beliefs and values is staggering. The general atmosphere that surrounds many colleges and universities in the US is the belief that a student, no matter their background, should attend college with an open mind to new ideas. This seems great; on the outside, an open mind is presented as a belief that could only lead to an improved lifestyle. However, this belief leads some Christians to innocently question why they believe what they do, and then to a stronger, more assertive reason not to believe the same thing they did when they first came to college.