The Secret Wireless

I have heard the comparison made between the Christian faith and a pizza. It was said that with pizza, as long as you have crust, sauce, and cheese, you can put whatever you want on top and it remains a pizza. It doesn’t matter if you have sausage, onions, anchovies, or whatever. Pizza is pizza as long as it has crust, sauce, and cheese. And so the Christian faith is still Christian as long as it has some essentials, like Jesus, the Gospel, and faith. You can add whatever you want on top of that to suit your own fancy as long as you have the essentials. My question for people who think this way is this: how much garbage do you want on your pizza? Would you eat a pizza covered with mold, rotten tomatoes, dirty shoestrings, or used Kleenex? Of course not! Why then would you tolerate a Christian faith where there was clearly false teaching? Why would you want to listen to a false prophet? If something is untrue then it is a lie. If it is a lie then it is garbage....

"A generation ago it was customary in Lutheran circles for pastors to devote two years to teaching young people Luther's Small Catechism. I once heard of a pastor in St Louis, Missouri, whose practice it was to divide those two years of instruction as follows: 'The first year,' he said, 'I have the students memorize the Catechism. The second year I tell them what it means.' "I first learned of this pastor when I was a young man, and like others my age I guffawed. How ridiculous! The whole point of catechism instruction is to help young people understand the meaning of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed. What is the value of having youngsters memorize the words of the Catechism without telling them what they mean? Now years later I realize that this pastor was much wiser than I. He knew that Christian faith was a matter of words, and that what counted most in the Catechism were the words." (from Robert L.Wilken. "Introdu...

I recently watched two very different Christmas specials. The first one, I am not even sure of the title. It is something like "A Shrek Christmas". I caught it about half way through, but I don't think that will make much difference to the ending. Shrek (a large green ogre with a big green ogre family) has apparently never celebrated Christmas before. So he buys a book, something like "Christmas for Dummies". He creates a feast, gets a tree and decorates it, buys tons of gifts. But his Christmas if far from perfect. There is too much chaos and commotion. Finally Shrek has to learn the real meaning of Christmas: family and chaos. What?! That's right, the point of Christmas, according to Shrek, is to have lots of family and lots of chaos. Let us compare this to another Christmas program from another era. Charlie Brown wanted to know what Christmas was all about. Was it about pageants and plays? Was it about cards and presents, Santa Claus and ...

We need to put to rest a little bit of confusion that seems to exist in the minds of Christian men. In First Samuel 13:14 Yahweh rejects the kingship of Saul and, through Samuel, announces that "the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart." The prophecy is thought to point to David, the next king in line. As we read this in English we can get confused. To "be after" something, after all, means that we are seeking it, pursuing it. This, however, is not what the Hebrew text communicates. A more accurate, or at least less confusing, translation might read "the LORD has sought out a man like his own heart." Who is like the heart of God? Is it David, the adulterous, murderous, neglectful father? That seems rather unlikely. Rather, this serves as a case in point of how the purpose of the Old Testament is to point us to Jesus Christ FIRST. Samuel probably did not know it at the time, but he was prophesying the Incarnation. Jesus is the man who i...

Ancient bone box might point to biblical home of Caiaphas Good old fashioned archeology always backs up the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ!

To those called to be shepherds of Christ’s flock, Illinois has passed a law making it possible for men and women to enter into “civil unions” with any other person they choose, be they male or female. This means, of course, that a man may enter a civil union with another man. A woman may have a civil union with another woman. There are many implications for such a law. Those implications could be ethical and moral, political, social, and spiritual. While it is tempting for pastors to address the social and political aspects of such a law, I wish to issue a call for pastors everywhere to address this as the spiritual issue that it is. Women and men are going to come to you asking for civil unions. In the face of this request you have a responsibility as those called by God to spread His Word. To neglect that responsibility is to ignore the call of God. As homosexuals enter your office asking for civil unions in a religious setting you have a God-give...

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-22) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love .” (Galatians 5:6) Friends in Christ, These two verse shoot straight to the heart of the Christian message and mission. Jesus Christ has suffered, died, and risen. He has conquered death and the grave. He has set us free from the fear of sin and death. And this is not mere philosophy. This is not book knowledge for a select few seminary professors. It is life changing, reality creating good news for each and every one of us. You are a new creation in Je...