Dear Members and Friends of the ELS: Our synod’s hymnbook, the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (ELH, 1996), contains many wonderful devotional prayers, touching on a wide variety of topics. There are day-by-day morning and evening prayers (pp. 167-171) and there are prayers that deal with disease and death (p. 172). One of the short prayers especially […]

Dear Members and Friends of the ELS: Among things we prayerfully appreciate in this church season are the Lenten hymns. These hymns are packed with prayerful meditation on the love of our Savior as he treads the road to Calvary for our salvation. Do we also realize that our Lord himself-together with his disciples-sang as […]

Dear Members and Friends of the ELS: A major dichotomy between Christianity and the religions of the world is this: Religious systems of the globe depict human beings seeking after god, while Christianity presents God seeking after human beings. The Christian faith tells of the great news for all sinners that God, in the Person […]

Dear Members and Friends of the ELS: Greetings to all for a good new year! During the time of the Civil War, the famous Lutheran theologian, Dr. Walther, told the members of his congregation: “Only he who has celebrated a blessed Christmas can also celebrate a happy new year. Only he who on such a […]

Dear Members and Friends of the ELS: We are in the “stirring” time of the year. This is not a reference to baking. Nor do we have in mind the political proceedings. While we may find calendars busy with all kinds of activities, this too is not why we speak of the season upon us […]