Faith and Life Podcast

Don't run away from the world because the world needs us. Sometime it is hard to be a Christian in the world. Some in the world have a very negative view of our faith. They think we are judgmental. In Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, we learn from Jesus how to be in the world. We learn that even when Jesus faced difficulties, barriers, weariness, and stress, he let his love le...

Remember you are not of this world. Live the tension of being in the world but not of the world. Your identity and confidence rests in the eternal salvation Jesus has given you and that you have accepted through faith.   Next Step: Find your identity and confidence in the being connected to Jesus.   Lessons: Isaiah 42:5-7, Philippians 3:20-21, John 17:6-21   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/intheworld1  ...

Improve your working conditions by primarily serving the Lord and others in your work. We spend a significant part of our lives doing our work. For some, work can be the frustrating and painful toil spoken about in Genesis 3:17. For others, work can be a meaningful and fulfilling career. The difference comes down to for whom we understand that we are primarily working. We learn from Jesus teaching...

Kim and Annie Colich are missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators, serving in Papua New Guinea among the Tami people. For many years St. Luke has financially and prayerfully supported their mission. Kim will be preaching that Jesus is our redeemer who has broken all the chains that bind us.    Lessons: Psalm 107:1-16, Acts 16:16-34, John 8:31-32  

Becoming more like Jesus means to give our lives to serve, invite, and give to meet the hopes and hurts of others. Our faith is active in love.   Next Step: Find at least one way to serve, one way to invite, and one way to give to meet the hopes and hurts of others.    Lessons: Isaiah 58:6-10, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Luke 15:1-7

We were designed by God to be in close relationship, so why not seek it out. One of the first moves Jesus made was to form a life group of close friends that did life together. We are who we hang out with, so vibrant friendships with other Christ-followers is necessary to becoming a fully-devoted follower of Jesus. In strong life groups we experience the yoke of Jesus that is easy, his burden that...

Refresh: Learn, Live, Unleash This series will refresh our mission, vision, and discipleship path.   We come to worship to learn God's Word and give God glory. Faith comes from hearing the word. Worship is our primary ministry for learning God's word that leads to faith. Our response to what we learn of God's love centered in Jesus is to give God glory through our worship of God.   Next Step: Dete...

While Jesus and his disciples were desiring time away to rest and talk about all God had just done through them, they didn't turn their back to the needs of the people. They remained available to what God wanted them to do most. How about you? Have you had moments in your life where you felt God wanting you to do one thing, but you did something else instead? Why do we do this? What makes being av...

Jesus offers his disciples a template for prayer in what we have come to call "The Lord's Prayer," which begins by acknowledging God's holy name and God's kingdom. Jesus teaches his disciples that prayer begins not with what we want, but what God wants and desires. Prayer brings us into alignment with God's will and rule, and we will receive what we need to live in God's kingdom: the gift of the H...

Death and death-like experiences are the reality in our lives. To ignore this reality is naïve and can bring ridicule from others. Jesus faced such ridicule when he ignored the realities that kept people trapped in death and death-like experiences. He raised them up to new life. Our stubborn Savior, Jesus, continues to ignore the death-like realities of our lives to give us the abundant life God i...

Jesus keeps looking for us when we are hiding in fear. Many of us are held back from deeper intimacy with God and others because we fear being exposed for who we think we truly are. Jesus is our stubborn Savior who is relentless in searching for us and his perfect love casts out our fear. When we surrender to Jesus and open our whole lives to him, he embraces us as his own child with unconditional...

Jesus never said this faith will be easy. We ask questions, we doubt, and we fear the uncertainty of our tomorrows. But it is these struggles where we wrestle with our faith that we emerge stronger, ready to face our trials knowing that together with God and those in community the face of God is always upon us.   Next Step: Identify those places of struggle, share these struggles with a trusted pa...

Jesus brings remarkable change. God raises us from death to life and persistently changes us and to be more like Jesus. Some of these changes happen rapidly while others are slow and steady. What is always the case is that these changes are remarkable and the change can be seen as the difference between a mustard seed and full grown mustard plant.    Next Step: Jesus changes you. Lay down your bar...

Sharing the story of Jesus working in our lives can be intimidating, scary even. If we let out fears keep us silent, Satan is the only one who wins. If we listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as have an opportunity to come along where God is already working. God gave us love and boldness to share his love. In letting fear rule what we share we miss the opportunity to be at the intersection w...

Jesus shows his power over sin and evil in his ministry, and on the cross through his death and resurrection. All who acknowledge their sinfulness before God may receive forgiveness and healing through the power of the Holy Spirit.   Next step: As Luther suggests in the Small Catechism, begin each day by acknowledging that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, and open yourself to the power of...

There is often a misunderstanding of the act of worship, that it lives only on Sunday mornings at church, and that we worship God for what we get out of it or to impress others. We often don't enter church in a spirit to declare the worth of God in honest celebration and proclamation, and we rarely find ways to worship outside of the church building. By redefining our definition of what worship is...

Lessons:  Proverbs 22:6, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Matthew 16:13-19

Lessons:  Proverbs 22:6, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Matthew 16:13-19

Lessons:  Proverbs 22:6, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Matthew 16:13-19

The Holy Trinity is the relationship between the three persons of the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The purpose of this relationship is bring us into an eternal relationship with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our essential belief in the Holy Trinity is based on the historical experience of the apostles.   We hope this message will help you understand and be able to teach our ess...

Because of Jesus, God lives in you. In the person of the Holy Spirit, God lives in the heart of every Christ Follower. This is the full and radical restoration of the original and blessed relationship that God intended to exist between each of us and God. It is the Holy Spirit that creates in us faith to trust Jesus, keeps us in true faith, guides us into all truth, enlightens us with his gifts, a...

It is to our great and eternal benefit that Jesus ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God to judge the living and the dead. We know that a physical human being can survive in heaven. We know that that one who has all the authority to eternally judge us died to make us right with God. We know that Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us.   Next Step: Next time that you s...

When your behavior causes devastating or even death-consequences in your life, you can trust that God continues to work for your deliverance and salvation. Jesus is a bigger savior than you could ever be a sinner. Maybe you get engulfed in thinking you deserve this punishment.   When you wrestle with those deeply hidden feelings of regret, guilt, or shame over what you have said, done, or thought...

When your past is so daunting that there is no way you deserve someone to forgive you and yet that is exactly what God does, it takes a ridiculous faith to actually think you can be forgiven of your past sins. But not only does God forgive Paul but uses him to impact the world in such a way that we can't even comprehend the impact he made in shaping the Christian church   Next Step: When you think...

Fully intending to complete a terrible action over which you have full control, and yet trusting that God will provide a way out takes ridiculous faith. In all his preparations and during his journey to the mountain, Abraham fully intended to follow through with the sacrifice of his only son, Isaac. Yet, Abraham believed that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice. Even as Abraham raised the...