The mission of Higher Things is make the gifts of Christ Jesus known to youth and young adults.
I.Χ.Θ.Υ.Σ. Fish. From the 2nd Century Christians drew fish when they killed us for wearing crosses. It was a secret symbol, 2 lines in the sand that formed the fish. In Greek it was an acrostic. Each letter is a confession of our Lord. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. It’s all about Jesus. We marked our tombs and sanctuaries with it. There’s hope here. Three fish, none lesser or greater, because we know the Father through the Son. They send the Spirit. Today, Higher Things still makes known the Gifts of Jesus.
Gods precious promises manifesting into an aging person. The growth factor in the word. What we pray and how we pray. This model we find in the word. It seems as we age it means differing things to us as we tend to focus on what we need from the spirit and the promises of what the spirit does for us. Perseverance. Grieving not tribulation. Endurance and Hope come through the word. We are not alone. Alone as we might feel. Filled with the word. Darkness loneliness sickness. Displaced to trust. Yes sometimes we need a human hand to hold our. Yes we need the interaction of others in faith and to meet them may seem like manna from heaven to give us peace and sustainability. Food for body and mind and soul. When we are away. Where no one from the church is around us. When we are in the wilderness of life. When the word is in us and sustains us and yet still we have the need for the precious faith of another. So we hope. Maybe we in our time of brokenness heal the caregiver. Maybe the person who rejects the word misses us and wants to hear the word they have so often rejected. God gives the growth. Watering and planting are works and actions with the hope of a harvest. So we tend our fields and grow where we are planted. Miracles happen, and the comforter comes just as we pray for the kingdom to come and the will to be done. Trust in the word. Flowing through life like as on a stream, and the word is the way. Tip the paddle and tip the bow as you make music on the waters of life and on the strings of time in musical sound production. Trust and hope. Persevere. The Lord is our rock and our foundation. Amen, God loves a broken and contrite heart. If you love Me, keep my word, and you will live in Me, and We will come and dwell among you. Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen
It's hard for me to take religion/Christianity seriously because why didn't God ever go "hmm, maybe giving beings the ABILITY to make mistakes isn't the way to go". I don't know about you, but if I want something I create to be perfect, I'd make it perfect. The ability of that thing to choose is of no consequence. It wouldn't know the difference anyway. Not trying to be rude but this conception of God most commonly promulgated is just confirmation to me that this can't possibly be the real God but instead the god of some very unsophisticated, petty, punitive primitives.
Imagination. To contemplate the work of imagination. First there was the word and the word was with God. Imagine! We have all scripture to assist us in our imaginations. As a child and as an adult, we imagine. One to growing and imagining int he work at hand. The solution to a problem. The imaginations of manifestation. What is it we want to do or attain? Is it a skill as in a vocation? What of thinkers and thinking things through? What of the manifestations of as we learn in the church prayers the manifestations of sin? Envy, malice, hatred and enmity. How we are held to these things and the learning to let go of them. The manifestations of the garden of faith we live in. The imagination of forgiveness and we forgiven as we forgive and this imagination of doing so and what it means and simply doing it in faith. Not seeing and believing and doing the work in any vocation. One has a desire and takes it to God and one must do the work to learn a trade or play a musical instrument or speak truthfully the word of God in even laymen terms. God is with us. If we do not fear but imagine not fearing but trusting and doing. God is with us in all. The turning to Christ and His being with us. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the Words of Jesus in. If you love me, keep my word, and you will live in Me and We will come and dwell among you. Imagine then. God in Us. God always with us. Never leaving us. God in all people. The gift of a measure of faith and imagine speaking to this gift of faith in all whom we meet regardless of whether they know they have this gift or not. To speak to it then always. Imagine. :) Now go and do anything doing all things as if for the Lord and believe. I am with you. The commands. The word by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Living in Us. Children of God. Imagine. Grafted in. Part of the whole. Imagination. :) Tom.
I don’t know who started the weird semi erotic early modern art trend of depicting Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute (she was never a prostitute, different Mary) but whoever they are, we are NOT friends
I am not aware of any ELCA church that uses incense or any Lutheran teaching that promotes the use of incense during worship. This must be an LCMS or WELS practice. Also this pastor is a yeller.
I just heard this song at church for the first time and the version I saw had six verses, and I saw the last two verses were extremely powerful hoping to learn this song on guitar and play it with great passion I love the spiritual warfare in the last two versus Jesus bless you
From what I've experienced, Lutheran distinctiveness would be the belief that the pastor is Jesus' voice on earth, through whom a person comes in contact with God's grace. Lutheran pastors hold the keys to heaven. At least the LCMS variation.
Nailed it. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I'm a little confused about your answer,. You are saying that there's no reason according to the Gospel to have others pray with you, but that doesn't make sense. The Gospel is the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, Matthew chapter 18 verse 20 (KJV) says "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Ecclesiastes isn't one of the Gospels, but says something similar Chapter 4 verse 12 (KJV) says, “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold coard is not quickly broken.” These scriptures are talking about prayer, and strongly suggest that praying together with others is helpful. I don't believe in praying to the Saints, but that is because Jesus said to pray to the Father, and to the Father only. However, there does seem to be Biblical president to have others (living people) pray together in unison for something. I would love to know your thoughts on this. I was brought up non-denominational, but have been gravitating more and more to Lutheran theology for a lot of reasons. I would be very interested in knowing the Lutheran perspective on this.
