The Pauline Epistles: An Overview
“When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. … You...
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Streamline Youth Ministry with Church Management Software
Any director of Christian education, youth pastor, or volunteer will tell you that leading a youth ministry requires a high level of organization—from planning events to coordinating...
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Is the Separation of Church and State in the Bible?
Like most Americans, I was raised to believe there should be a separation between church and state. Christian things belonged in one place, separate from the worldly, earthly parts of our...
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What Do Lutherans Believe About Mary?
In a doctrinal note issued on October 7 with the approval of Pope Leo XIV, the Roman Catholic Church set aside the sometimes-used reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as...
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Ten Questions to Ask Yourself While Reading 2 Thessalonians 3:1–13
My book Ten Questions to Ask Every Time You Read the Bible is all about building biblical fluency through the practice of curiosity. In the final chapters, I provide examples of what it...
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Philemon: An Overview
Paul’s experience under house arrest at Rome is well described by his frequent companion, Luke, in the last chapter of Acts (cf Phm 24). Paul had to pay his own expenses for the house...
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Philemon: An Overview
Paul’s experience under house arrest at Rome is well described by his frequent companion, Luke, in the last chapter of Acts (cf Phm 24). Paul had to pay his own expenses for the house...
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What Does Mission Work Have to Do with Me?
Concordia Publishing House is excited to be releasing a new series of compact books! The first title in our new series of polemic and apologetic books has been released, but perhaps you...
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Brain Strategies for Preaching
It seems generally assumed that preachers want hearers to remember at least the main idea and purpose of the biblical truth considered in the sermon, as well as to reflect it in their...
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Titus: An Overview
Nicopolis was a Roman colony on the west coast of Greece, on the isthmus separating the Ambracian Gulf from the Ionian Sea. The city would serve as winter quarters for Paul and his...
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2 Timothy: An Overview
While searching for Paul, Onesiphorus would tread the broad streets of Rome, passing beneath the archways of its aqueducts and walking beside its grand colonnaded porticos. But the prison...
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A New Series on Apologetics and Polemics
Have you ever wished there was a simple resource to help you better understand the prickly issues of our day or to give you the tools you need to talk with others about them? Have you...
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What Do Lutherans Believe About Baptism?
About the worst thing for a Lutheran is to find yourself thinking that your access to God isn’t through His Word but through yourself, as if in a direct line from your heart to the Holy...
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Jesus Calls His Disciples: A Study of Matthew 10
Let the kingdom of heaven be proclaimed! Jesus has chosen the Twelve, and their instructions are clear: Preach and heal so that the world knows the Kingdom has come. The proclamation of...
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1 Timothy: An Overview
This blog post is adapted from Lutheran Bible Companion Volume 2: Intertestamental Era, New Testament, and Bible Dictionary.
Paul, on his way to Macedonia, has left Timothy at Ephesus...
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How God Speaks with His People
This blog post is excerpted from The Christian Faith: A Lutheran Exposition, second edition, by Theodore J. Hopkins and Robert Kolb.
God used the many and varied voices of the prophets...
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What Does a Good Law-Gospel Sermon Look Like?
This blog is excerpted from an article by Rev. Carl C. Fickenscher II that was published in a previous edition of Concordia Pulpit Resources.
So much has been written on the dynamics of...
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2 Thessalonians: An Overview
The city of Thessalonica, named after a sister of Alexander the Great, was built within sight of one of the great religious landmarks of ancient Greece. Southward, across the Thermaikos...
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Lessons on Prayer from Samuel
The other day I was listening to a pastor speak about the priority of prayer. He said the following:
Scripture records the disciples asking Jesus to teach them one thing: how to pray...
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Time in the Biblical World
This blog post is adapted from From Abraham to Paul: A Biblical Chronology, Second Edition. Select in-text citations and original Hebrew have been omitted...
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