The bodily resurrection of Jesus is central to the understanding of the Gospel of John. The comfort that Jesus offers twenty-first-century Christians is rooted in His first-century words and actions. The Comforter brings the peace that Jesus spoke and did in all these words and actions for us. What He accomplishes in His resurrection thus directly impacts our lives in the present.

On the edge of the Datos plain, about six miles from the Aegean Sea, Greek colonists founded the city of Philippi in 356 BC. Philip II of Macedon soon took the city and named it after himself. The Roman Empire recognized the city’s worth, making it one of the last points along the Egnatian Way, which linked Rome with the east and was strategically located in the system of Roman roads for the security of the empire.

The mountain chains of western Asia Minor reach for the Aegean Sea. Where the Ayden range points finger-like toward the island of Samos and the Cayster River flows into the Sea, Ionian Greek colonists founded the prosperous port city of Ephesus (near modern Selcuk).

This blog post is adapted from Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus.

The Taurus Mountains of south central Asia Minor form the southern rim of a great basin in which one finds the central Anatolian steppe. Grass, shrubs, and salty lakes fill this dry, lower ground over which enterprising Greeks passed in search of Persian riches to the east. Greek (Hellenistic) settlements grew up at Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe alongside the Taurus Mountains.

I was a kid in the late seventies and the early eighties. At the time, Sears was a popular department store. This long-standing company sold a brand of children’s pants called “Toughskins,” named so for their sturdy fabrication, especially at the knees. Like many kids who wore Toughskins, I did my best to test their durability by falling out of trees and sliding into home base. I consistently wore the knees out. So my Mom would iron patches onto the knees to get a few more months out of them. Despite all the protection Toughskins afforded, I still came home with abrasions—red, tender, and filled with dirt. When my Mom would spray on disinfectant, there was the predictable sting, which I always figured was the chemical killing the germs. She always said it was necessary to apply disinfectant to allow the abrasion to heal properly.

This blog is excerpted from an article by Herbet C. Mueller Jr., published in a previous edition of Concordia Pulpit Resources.

The surpassing value of 2 Corinthians is the opportunity it gives us to view the great care—through both Law and Gospel—that Paul and his colleagues provided to a wayward congregation. We read about the sharpness of his rebuke by which he prodded the congregation toward repentance and the soothing comfort he poured out to them as they welcomed the Lord’s Word.

There are plenty of places in the Bible to turn to when you need guidance. While the New Testament is filled with Christ’s parables that offer strong advice, the Old Testament is also brimming with narratives that can help guide you in life. With kings, queens, and workers all throughout these books of the Bible, you can find vocational life advice. Read below to see how with an excerpt adapted from Faith at Work: Christian Vocation in the Professions. 

Visiting the homebound, the hospitalized, those living in nursing homes, and the imprisoned is a privilege and a joy. Those in such circumstances are welcoming and happy to receive visitors. One of the challenges for them is dealing with isolation. Even with radio, television, and social media, it is easy to become out of touch with what is happening in the world if you can’t be part of it. Such was the case for John the Baptist.