Hope Lutheran Church Hope Lutheran Church

We all face moments in life that we feel like we're completely unqualified for. We face challenges we don't think we can handle. But God shows us through Ephesians 4 that we aren't left to face those challenges alone. We have his gifts of grace he's given us, we have Jesus' presence, and we have fellow Christians around us. In other words, Jesus' ascension means we're never alone.

Why do we love the way we do as Christians? John tells us in this reading from 1 John 4. Everything we do for others, God did for us first.

This week we had Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary student Ryan Gurgel share a message with us for Good Shepherd Sunday based on John 10:1-10. In his Word, God shows us that he is our Good Shepherd who cares and provides for us and comes to bring us life to the full!

What do you do when you're confronted with your sin? Do you deny it? Minimize it? Try to hide it? John tells us that we don't have to do any of those things. Instead, we can confess it and know that God will forgive us.

Easter was 7 days ago. And yet doesn't it feel in some ways like that must have happened in a different world? Sometimes the trivial, mundane, stressful nature of our lives in the "real world" can make us feel like Jesus' resurrection couldn't have possibly happened in the same world as the one we live in now. But John writes these words to show us that Jesus' resurrection is a reality, and that Jesus is the place where eternity meets reality.

Happy Easter! Your Redeemer lives! This Easter we focused on Job 19:23-27, where we see an incredible display of faith in the midst of suffering. Job knew that he had a living redeemer, and that's why despite all he had been through, he still had faith that one day everything would be set right.