Walnut Grove Lutheran Church Podcasts

Our natural response is to fight against or flee from our fears, but both responses pull us away from the abundant life Jesus wants to give us. With a turning point of love and faith, we can head off in a new direction with a far better result, all because of the transforming power of love.

When we get anxious, we tend to make our values about gaining creaturely comfort and worldly security for ourselves, with no regard for the negative impact our values may be having on others. But God loves all people and sent Jesus into the world to win forgiveness and restoration for all. Moved by God’s love and mercy, we align our values with God’s so that we can truly love and bless others.

We all need hope for the future, but whether we think that hope is even possible depends in large part on what we believe. Jesus came into this world to defeat that two things that always hold us back: sin and death. His death and resurrection created the possibility of a far better future for us. That possibility becomes reality for us through faith in Jesus.

One of the fundamental questions in life that all of us must answer is “Who am I?” We could try to find the answer inside ourselves, but what if the self we find there is broken? It is in Jesus where we find our true identity. When we bring our fractured soul to Him, Jesus heals and completes us and helps us to see who we really are in Him, a beloved, forgiven child of God.

One of the reasons why The Princess Bride is a favorite with so many people is that it appeals to us in many different ways, but most of all it is a love story, a story of true love that is so strong that nothing, not even death can stop it. In it we clearly hear the echoes of the Christ story, where Jesus loves us with the love that we have always wanted: True Love that is pure, infinite and unconditional.

There are many resources to which we can turn to seek help for living a good life, but without God, our quest is hopeless. We are flawed, broken beings who need help from outside of ourselves. Thankfully, we have that help through Jesus, and with the love that He gives us, we are able to live a good life full of love for others.

Everyone has a foundation of faith of some kind in their life, something that they trust in above all else as they live their life. In the marketplace of ideas there are many options for us to consider, but the greatness and the goodness of the God of the Bible suggest that faith in Jesus is the best foundation for us to have.

We don't like to think about God being angry but His anger is the result when the people He loves get hurt. We all have hurt ourselves & others and therefore deserve God's wrath, but God did an extraordinary thing. He let the wrath that we deserve fall on Himself instead of us, so that we could have peace. That peace is more than a cessation of hostility. It is a rich, full life defined by God's blessings of faith, hope and love. And it is all a free gift to us from God the Son, Jesus.

Life is often a struggle. Not only is there the exterior struggle, which we all share, of trying to make our way in this world. There is also the intensely personal interior struggle in which we all try to answer the question, “How do I know that I am going to be ok?” The default method for answering this question is with worldly measurements, but those things will all eventually disappoint or even crush us. The Holy Spirit gives us a new life where His presence is our promise that we will be more than ok for now and forever. We will thrive.

While this time of social distancing can be frustrating because of the increased limitations we experience, it reminds us that limits are part of life. We may not like limits, but they help us to realize that we need Someone to help us. That Someone is Jesus, in Whom we experience amazing freedom, even in times of great limitations.

One thing that none of like to do is suffer, but suffering is part of life in this world. Is there a way to rise above it? As we look at the account of Paul & Silas in jail in Philippi, we see that they were able to do so. How? By living their lives before God. He is our foundation & future and the source of our identity, joy and hope regardless of our circumstances. Therefore, we can still pray, praise and hope, even while we suffer. (Based on Acts 16:16-40.)

How does God think about people? This is an important question because, without it, we assume that God thinks like we do & accepts or rejects people based on whether they fit with his picture of what a follower of his should look like. Thankfully, God does not think like we do. He shows no favourites & he accepts people from all nations who fear him and do what is right (Acts 10:35). When we think about people like he does, we can be Christ-centered & inclusive.

What we believe can help shape our reality because our beliefs direct our vision and influence the environment we create. But our beliefs need to be based on what is true. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus helps us to see and people who know that, because of Jesus, we are loved & loving.

Facing a crisis is never fun. But through each crisis we face, God invites us to change our way of thinking and build our life on the new identity that Jesus gives us. We are now beloved, forgiven children of God and that changes everything for us.

One of the last things that Jesus said to his followers before he ascended into heaven was to tell them to wait in Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Everything changed for the weak and unqualified disciples when they received the Holy Spirit. The higher life that Jesus wants to give to us happens when we are weak & Spirit-filled.

Death is not a subject that we like to think about. And when we do think or talk about it, we tend to not go to the root of the problem. But God has solved our death problem for us by sending his Son, Jesus, to ransom and redeem us so we can be restored to a relationship with God and renewed in our entire being forever. (Psalm 16:1-11, Jeremiah 31:1-10, John 20:1-18)

With all the scary things happening in the world at this time, it is hard to praise God. But by turning our pain into praise, we can shine a light of hope into the lives of the people around us.

Many of the things we valued have been stripped away during the Covid-19 pandemic. The world has been turned upside down and we may wonder what hope can there be in the midst of this calamity. The truth is that God is still with us and working through our trials and weakness to bring forward what he knows is best. Therefore we trust in him.

There are a lot of people who are feeling fear because of Covid-19. Fear is a natural response to all that is happening around us, but fear can keep us from stepping into the blessing of a rich, deep, full life with God that he has for us. We know that God's promise of blessing is true because of Jesus.

All of us have character flaws but we don’t like to admit it. Those flaws are often hidden from us and we prefer to keep it that way. But going deep with Jesus and admitting our character flaws to ourselves and to him is important, because going deeper with Jesus enables more of his light to shine through us.