Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

What do you do when God calls you? When we pray are we having a monolog or a conversation? We should expect the Lord to engage in conversation with us, but when He does will we listen? Jesus proves to us that we are His friends and that He wants us to hear Him.

The Gospel of John, chapter 9, tells a complicated story about what happens to a man after Jesus heals him of blindness. He had been born blind. After Jesus healed him, no one wanted to accept him as himself!

John chapter 4 verses 1-42 tell the story of an unnamed Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus one hot afternoon when she went to fetch water from Jacob’s well. This woman went to a well and her life was never the same, but who was she and why did Jon think her story was worth including in his Gospel even without giving us her name? During her encounter with Jesus we discover there is more to her thirst than mere water can quench. So what is this “Living Water” Christ offered her? Does He still offer us the same water?

There is never light when we approach God in rebellion, but when we come to Him in humility with open hearts God is always ready to shine His light on us. The problem with light is that not only does it make muddled things clearer, it also exposes things that were hidden. Christ's exposing light clears darkness and makes room for the Holy Spirit to drive us into a kingdom life.

John's Gospel invites us to take a very different view of Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2:13-22). Jesus is going to take the place of the Temple! (John 2:19). What does this mean for us today?

When we involve Jesus and obey Him we can always expect to see Him in action. When we obey Jesus we trade our identity for His and His kingdom intersects with this world in amazing ways.

Did you know that ancient traditions and customs at the time of John the Baptist were founded on a system of introductions between patron and client; between host and guest? John’s Gospel uses this system to introduce us to Jesus the Word who became Flesh. The first two chapters of John’s Gospel invites us to come and behold our Immanuel, our Jesus who is God’s only Son.

Pastor Christine Nelson joined us for service on Sunday, December 31 and shared a wonderful sermon - "Make Straight the Way of the Lord". Listen to the entire message here.

Have you ever wondered if God can be trusted to keep His promises? If so, you are not alone in your doubting for God's people who were living through the Babylonian exile wondered the same things. God answered their questions and brought peace to their fears through His faithful Prophet whose inspiring hope filled message can be found in Isaiah 55. Join us this week as we hear God’s invitation for all who are thirsty to come to Him with no money, with no resources, and receive His free gift that sustains us all.

God's breath of life is in you. What is He forth-telling you to do and be?

In Daniel chapter 3, Daniel's friends have been set up as disobedient Jewish agitators. They are commanded to worship an idol and they refuse. They are thrown into a fiery furnace, and they survive without even smelling burnt! God walks with us in our difficult moments and wants us to be faithful to him!

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a future filled with hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) This familiar verse we have heard and claimed as God’s promise for our lives was received much differently to those who first heard it in the midst of the Babylonian Exile. Was this a verse of hope for God’s people of the exile? Can it be a verse of hope for us today? And just what can we learn from the “Weeping Prophet Jeremiah?”

Darkness, no matter how deep it is, has absolutely no true power or authority over the light. Jesus literally destroys all darkness. He is living in us, but we often live like the dark is stronger. Jesus has the truth of the light for us.

The Prophet Amos has a very powerful message as he cried out to the people of Israel who were living in the northern kingdom of Israel saying, "Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you...Seek God and Live! Repent and turn back to God for justice is coming!" Yet, in the midst of this doom and gloom message, God gives hope to His people. God will "cut" an new and everlasting covenant with them and they will be His forever!

Good Shepherd supports Binh Rybacki and Children of Peace International annually. COPI cares for thousands of orphans in Vietnam and it is alway a joy to hear an update from the ministry that God is using Binh and others to accomplish through COPI

Solomon's Temple was supposed to be so grand and magnificent God never wanted to leave. Did God ever really want a temple like that to be built in the first place? We need to know from God what He thinks the grandest temple is and why He wants to stay.

God's Call of David

I Samuel 3 contrasts the story of Eli’s Family (and Impending Disaster) with Samuel's Story as he learns obedience in hard things. We learn from I Samuel 4:18 that Eli was one of the judges who led Israel. He was in charge! He didn’t discipline his sons when they showed contempt for God. The Lord called Samuel and he learned that God was bringing the promised judgment on Eli’s household because Eli “failed to restrain his sons.”

When we have angry hearts and trapped minds it is easy for us to act like people lost and in chains, even when Christ has set us free. This sermon takes a look at the reality of our situations versus our perceptions and points us toward experiencing the reality of freedom in Christ through submission and worship.

God's covenant people of the nation of Israel had been in the bondage of slavery in Egypt for 430 years. During that time, they groaned and cried out in their slavery and God heard their cries. Upon hearing their cries, God remembered His covenant with Abraham and He looked upon His people with concern and love.