Relationship
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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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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…
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Devotion: Advent – Vertical Relationship with God – part 2
I find images such as this one helpful not only for teaching about our relationship with God, but also as a way to remind me and direct my own relationship with God and the world. Last week, I wrote about the downward facing arrows – that they remind us that God has made the first…
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Devotion: Advent – New Beginnings
Over the last year-and-a-half, Bethel’s Long Range Planning Task Force spent a lot of time reading, praying, thinking, talking, listening, and organizing. This may sound odd, but much of their time was actually spent dwelling on two questions: “Who are we?” and “Who has God called us to be?” I say it might sound odd…
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Devotion: How Complete Is Our Obedience?
The Story | The Battle Begins I cringed a bit when I wrote the title for this week’s devotion: “How complete is our obedience?” But, as you read chapter 7 from The Story, I think this ends up directing our thoughts toward God’s Upper Story. As I read and talked with people on Sunday morning, I…
Epicurious Lutheran 