Grace impels excellence. St. Paul enjoins the Christians in Colossae, “to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God our Father through him” (Col. 3:17). Furthermore, he calls the Corinthian church to engage in even the most mundane of human activities, eating and drinking, “or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

God’s answers are not always discernible.

David’s successful encounter against Goliath has been an inspiration to believers and unbelievers alike since the event took place and was recorded. A small shepherd boy vanquishes the enormous, battle-hardened warrior Goliath, brandishing sword and spear. The victory is an affirmation of God’s power and His love for David.

Where do our attitudes come from?

It seems like a basic question, but I think it’s more complex than we might think. Let me explain.

Attitudes are, roughly defined, our states of thoughts and emotions. Humans like to believe that we oversee our own destinies, including who we are and who we will be. God’s Word reveals to us that, before God, this is certainly not true.

Recently, I was having a conversation with my daughter about what she wants to be when she’s “grown up.” For some reason, something so obvious struck a chord within me that I want to share my realization if nothing more than to serve as a reminder to my readers.

What skill are you just now beginning to learn? Can you recall the last new skill that you learned? With the year we have had, perhaps you learned something technology-related to accommodate the remote aspects of your job. Or maybe it was something one of your students or children showed you about their world. Perhaps you have tried to be Mr. Fix It or Ms. Do-It-Yourself on projects around the house to save some money and learn something new. While some of us who picked up new quarantine habits may have since dropped them, some have continued in the brain-stretching process and further extended these habits.

There are roughly eight billion people on earth, and that number is growing. As a result of improved economies, cleaner water, more productive farming, stabilized governments, and better medicine, the world’s birthrate has increased, and infant mortality has decreased. Not all countries have increased birthrates, however. In the United States, for example, the population is increasing, but ever so slowly. One would think, with the wealth of the United States, the population would be burgeoning. Yet parents have smaller families than in the past, and hundreds of babies are aborted each day. 

When we read with children, we know how to correct their mistakes, but sometimes we don’t know how to help them pronounce, understand, and retain new words. Here are some tips for teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone else who works with children on how to teach hard Bible words.

Think back to how you began your day yesterday. Take time, think it through. What did you do? What was the order?

I’m guessing you either woke up to an alarm or just woke up at the same time you usually do. Either way, it was probably a similar morning to most. You got out of bed and went into the bathroom for your morning routine. You might have taken a shower, gotten a cup of coffee, checked your social media, and so on. Then you got ready for the day and went your way.

In St. Louis, a popular fundraising activity is a trivia night, in which a small group of people competes with similar groups in answering an array of questions from various categories. Of course, in our Lutheran circles, “The Bible” is a common category, and one of the questions that arises frequently is “How long did creation take?” Generally speaking, the expected answer is “six days.” However, there’s no getting around the mention of the seventh day in Genesis when “God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done” (Genesis 2:2). So, what did God create on the seventh day? He created rest.

We are living in a postmodern age with a vastly different view of the world. For the postmodernist, truth and knowledge are not obtainable. That flies in the face of our Christian worldview. For the believer, truth is the words of our Savior. We hold to that. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is truth.