Grace Alone Online

Midweek Advent Devotional based on Luke 21:28 "Look up, your redemption draws near."

NO ROOM FOR YOU is not exactly welcoming words we would ever like to hear. As Christians, they are words we should never say to others. But, as you know, there was no room in the inn for Mary and Joseph and, with these little words, there is a lot to consider in our text!

A Midweek devotion for the Second Week of Advent.  Todays Hymns: What Child is This and The Twelve Days of Christmas.  What is the history behind these hymns.  Also, our reading from the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, chapter 2, where the Lord pronounces judgment against Israel and Judah who have forgotten their first love (God) and broken the covenant made with Israel....

Can you imagine traveling now? With all the COVID 19 bans on getting together, distancing, etc.  It might seem dangerous to travel.  Mary and Joseph, however, were forced to travel to the city of David, Bethlehem, according to the edict of Caesar Augustus.  They had no choice.  There is a lot of traveling - journeying - going on in the Bible.  As Christians does your faith...

Midweek devotions are an additional devotional time to Sunday services.  Each week, for four weeks, this podcast will have a devotion based on two familiar Christmas hymns and their background stories, a reading from the prophet Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, and a short devotional reading from the letters of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. During the season of Advent, Christians prepar...

Decrees are given by power and authority.  they're no good if there is no power or authority behind a decree.  Caesar Augustus gives a decree for taxation.  what kind of power did he have to mandate the obedience of others.  god gives decrees too.  He decrees total obedience and absolute trust in Him, punishable by death.  Decrees are given in accordance with legislat...

2020 is a difficult year in which to give thanks.  Can we?  Seriously?  How and why should we.  We give thanks for the faithfulness which God has shown to all creation through the work of His son Jesus, Christ.  His death and resurrection fulfilled the promise of the Father, by offering a sacrifice for having gone our own way after creation.  He forgives and grants et...

Rev. Kevin Austin of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Livermore, California, is guest preacher.  Pastor Greg will return on November 29, 2020

Rev. Kevin Austin of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Livermore, California, is guest preacher.  Pastor Greg returns November 29, 2020.

Rev. Kevin Austin of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Livermore, California is guest preacher.  Pastor Greg will return on November 29, 2020.

Rev. Kevin Austin is our guest pastor for the sermon this morning.  Pastor Greg will return November 29, 2020.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Nothing could be simpler. Easy-peasy, right? Maybe the Ten Commandments really were better than this simple, shortened summary. What was Jesus thinking? Until we even consider this command, we have to consider what love is. A funny question perhaps. Do our emotions define love, or does God define love?

Few opportunities in Scripture lend themselves to talk about politics and religion. But, it is an election year so I think our gospel for today is particularly apropos. According to our constitution, we are instructed not to mix politics and religion. In Jesus’ day, however, this question of separation was particularly difficult

Philippians 4:4-13 - REJOICE IN THE LORD, ALWAYS!!!!! What?  How is rejoicing even possible today.  From COVID-19 to unreliable political leaders, violence, insecurity, lack of authority, personal depression, etc.  ALWAYS?  Seriously?  What is St. Paul getting at?  How is this even possible?  Join in.....

Rev. Michael Lange, president of the California, Nevada & Hawai'i  District of the LCMS, is our guest preacher.  His message focused on  Jeremiah 52:31-34.  A promise of hope.  There is always a NEXT step and  NEW DAY with God.

We conclude our study of Romans with the final chapter.  To the naked eye it's merely a list of catch-all greetings from Paul to certain individuals in the congregations of Rome.  Are they important?  Is there any historical significance to these otherwise unknown people of the first century church?  These unsung heroes of the faith are the reason the Christian Church is here t...

This morning, Paul’s words to us are strange. Strange, in that he joins two very different things together. In just a few short verses, Paul moves from talking about food to talking about the return of Christ. Paul begins by talking about eating. Not eating as in partaking of the Lord’s Supper but eating as in consuming daily food. Some Christians in Rome are eating only vegetables and others are...

In our text this morning, Paul addresses what is called the Two Kingdoms; that is, the kingdom of the left : the civil kingdom. And, the kingdom of the right : God’s kingdom, which in this world –AT THIS TIME - is not seen through power and glory, but through grace and forgiveness. The physical fulfillment of this kingdom will come when Christ returns. Paul sees the two kingdoms as two ways in whi...

In our text this morning, Paul is not setting out a twelve-step program to “build the better spiritual you” but rather revealing the varied ways in which God is at work in the world. And Paul invites us to consider that vision this morning so that today, in our small corner of this vast world, we too can participate in this ever- living kingdom of God.

Earth is crammed with heaven. God comes down from heaven and touches the earth, filling it with his glory. But only those who see take off their shoes. Our readings this morning invite us to be among those who see. They invite us to see the earth crammed with heaven, to see how God in Christ has come down from heaven and touched the earth to fill it with his glory.

Has God rejected Israel or not? Will God save Israel or not? These are the questions arising from the text. Even more troubling, however, is the picture these verses can give you of God. God seems unfaithful – one time calling a people to be his own and then rejecting them only to call another. What is to keep God from rejecting the Gentile church? Can God be trusted when he makes promises . . . w...

How easy it is for us to enter church and turn our eyes upward to the cross and leave the world behind. All we can see is Jesus and seeing him, we can forget where we are or what he would have us be doing. We can simply gaze at Jesus, hanging there on the cross, dying for us and forget that we live in the world and that God has chosen us to be involved in his mission. Here. In time.

When we look up bible passages that meet only our momentary needs to avoid worrying, avoid temptation, help us through the day, Christianity becomes something it was never intended to be: a private, personal religion . It becomes something you turn to not when you enter the world but when you retreat from it. It’s something you read in your private devotional time and you look forward to that mome...

Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.  Paul makes it a point of reminding us that even though we live among the ruins of sin in the world and in our own lives, that Christ's death and resurrection restores the ruined world to God.  We are given new life; forgiven life.  He teaches us that a new perspective to view our suffering world, one in which we can be sure that in...

What is the life Spirit of all Christians as they struggle daily with evil and pestilence in the world, their own temptations, fear, mistrust? Do we look to ourselves? The security that is offered on commercials, in the news, to our government, local authorities to help us through? In his letter to the Romans, Paul has presented us with Christ, who creates us new as we are buried with Him and rise...