Bethlehem Lutheran Church Podcast

There’s storms in life that we just can’t control: layoffs, cancer, the poor decisions of others, even literal weather that disrupts our plans. If you feel like God is absent in your storm this week’s Focus Text is a reminder that even when everything is out of your control God is with you as promised.

In our Focus Text this week, Jesus has a few parables for the Kingdom of God, all of them involve being hidden. A tiny fragile seed is hidden in the ground before becoming a great big plant, it's a process that is hard to comprehend and one that requires patience like waiting for a butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis. Sometimes when God is at work in our lives, it is hidden away and in the mome...

In our Focus Text for this week, we hear John’s version of the Feeding Stories, which appear in all four Gospels. John’s is the only version that mentions the source of the little bit of bread and fish that end up feeding a multitude: a young boy in the crowd. John’s Gospel is reminder that God works with what we would likely dismiss as being too little to bother sharing. The Miracle Jesus perform...

What is your go-to problem solving method? Careful, well-researched solutions that are known to work? Or do you charge in, throwing the kitchen sink at a problem because there are no bad solutions as long as it works? In our Focus Text we encounter people who approach problems in both these options. The friends of the paralytic man don’t stop until they reach Jesus even if that means cutting a hol...

Has anyone famous come out of your hometown? In our Focus Text this week, Nathanael is convinced that nothing good has ever come out of Nazareth and God certainly wouldn’t send a Messiah there! And then he encounters Jesus of Nazareth and his whole idea of how God works is changed. Time after time God is using the ordinary to share the extraordinary love of AGAPe! Even if your hometown isn’t known...

First words are an important introduction to a character in a book or movie. A character’s first words often point to their purpose or core traits. In our Focus Text this week we hear the first words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: “What are you looking for?” Jesus is asking the would-be disciples what they are seeking from life, not offering to help them find the last item on their grocery list....

As we mark the Day of Pentecost we are reminded of how the Holy Spirit equips us with all sorts of 'languages' that can be used to share the impact of God's love on our lives. When we know the same ‘lingo’ of a shared interest, passion, or vocation, we have an established  connection that makes sharing God’s love easier. We can find belonging when we share a common lingo and in belonging we c...

Using modern day scientific discovery our Focus Text seems like fantasy, Jesus ascending into the stratosphere like some kind of weather balloon. For the Gospel Writer, it wasn’t about the physics, what was more important is what the Ascension meant for people of faith. The Ascension is not about escaping the world, but rather a reminder that Christ’s work that began in Jerusalem now continues thr...

In our Focus Text Jesus sends out his followers to bring a message to those they meet: “The Kingdom of God has come near!” He also tells instructs them on how to handle those who do not greet the meeting in peace. Don’t argue, or threaten, or harm them in order to convince them to welcome you and the message. Just move on and keep proclaiming the message. Their rejecting the meeting does not dimin...

Our culture tends to obsess over ‘proving our worth.’ Find success, your worth is proven. Make a notable contribution to society, you’ve proved your worth. Carrying on the family legacy, proof of worth. In our Focus Text this week, Jesus, as usual, is counter-cultural, your worth to God is not proven through what you’ve accomplished it is inherent in your identity as a child of God. The children a...