Grace
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All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of…
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Comments at Bethel in Light of Recent Supreme Court Rulings
The following comments were made by Pastor Jeff Wilson at the beginning of worship services on Sunday, June 27, 2015. Today we gather for worship after a deeply emotional week. This is the second time in as many weeks that I felt I must address issues that affect us. This has been a week in which…
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Building Bethel: Grace
From April 2015 Bethel Bell Tower newsletter For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He…
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Devotion: C’mon out! The water’s getting hot!
You’ve heard the story about how to boil a frog … if you try to put a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out because it realizes that the water is too hot for it. However, if you put a frog in lukewarm water and gradually raise the temperature, by the time the…
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Devotion: Moving On After Sin
Sin is not a great topic. To talk about sin is to necessarily raise our awareness of our own faults, where we have hurt people, and where we fall short. The reality is we all sin – we all fall short. It is our faith that makes a difference because it describes how we react…
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Devotion : Advent – Horizontal Relationships with Neighbors
Is our faith just about getting myself to heaven at the end of my life? Is it just about being “good enough” or being a “good person”? In the Adult Forum on Sunday, we were reviewing chapters 7-11 of The Story and got talking about heaven and salvation. We said that, in Lutheran theology, we…
Epicurious Lutheran 