Ascension Lutheran Church Podcast

My daily Bible reading began with the book of Hosea. And the first chapter is a wild ride!

An Uber ride can lead to an interesting conversation.

I would like to second what Pastor Mike said about the conference that we attended last week. There was a permeating Joy that went throughout the conference. There were lots of hugs, laugher and a noticeable absence of concerned conversations about the state of things in the church.

I was asked that question numerous times Sunday morning after Pastor Goltl, Cyndy, and I returned from the Best Practices in Ministry conference in Phoenix, AZ. I settled on one answer. The happiness of the people at the conference.

The Ascension Grade school has passed the fire marshal's inspection and has received the certificate of occupancy from the city.

I know that lots of people gamble and perhaps they are just fine and can take it or leave it. But I can also see how easily I could slip down this slippery slope. This isn't an anti-gambling video but just an observation that I made about myself.

“American Airlines paging Tyrel Williams. If you want to go to Key West with us, you need to be at gate C29. Now.”

Over the past 65 years of Ascension's history the congregation has had the typical practice of offering Holy communion on the first and third Sundays of the month. And as we look forward to the coming years of our life together as a congregation, I would like you to consider changing this pattern to every week. We could still use the fifth Sundays of the month for our non-communion Matins service, but for the months with only 4 Sundays imagine if we gathered around our Lord's Table each week.

We want affirmation for a job well done. Recognition for when we had to carry more than our fair share. Thanks in various forms. A trophy when we sacrifice for the sake of the team. A public deposit into our emotional well-being bank.   We yearn for praise.   The Bible bursts our bubble.

I can remember as a kid that shopping with adults was not one of my favorite activities. They took far too long, and I know that I was not always the fun kid to have on a shopping trip.

The tooth ache wouldn't leave, and I was out of town.   You know that pain. Like a great-uncle on the 100th re-telling of the African safari where he almost got gored. That pain. Only everyone's left the room.

I can't be bored for even a moment, so I pick up my phone and begin to scroll. So what's the big problem?

This picture used to hang in my dad's barber shop. Not out where customers would wait for their turn to sit in his barber chair, but in the backroom. As a young child I looked at this picture and found it to be heartwarming and endearing.

“These are my fancy shoes. My mom told me to be careful.”

As we turn to the new year of 2026 there is so much to give thanks to God for the past 365 days and much to look forward to in the coming year.

This will be my last video devotion for the year. Next week I will be focused on planning the Christmas Eve worship at Ascension and the following week we will have grandchildren here so I'm taking a little time off.

I have reached that point in my life where I don't need Christmas gifts.

The front arrived on schedule. More windy than icy. More blustery than wet.   Front porch wreath blown off the wall. Welcome rug covered with leaves blown off the river birch.

There's a problem with giving just a little information in that it is not the whole story. Yes, the 5 love languages book is helpful, but it's just a little bit of the whole story. Helpful and in the right direction but it is far from complete.

In all of my years I've never seen a turkey get the axe at the Rose Garden.

There is an article in Psychology Today this week entitled, “8 Ways to Be an Adult” and I think that most of us could benefit from its suggestions.

Fifty years ago, I bought my first vinyl album. I still have it. Any guess who the band was and the name of the album? Too many to choose from, right?

Working for wages leads to burn out. Jesus offers a very different motivation for work.

No matter where we are, in a rocky place or a comfy bed, in a lounge chair on the beach or an adjustable hospital bed, God is with us, connected through Jesus.

I woke up grumpy. Actually, I woke up a couple of hours earlier than what I had set my alarm for and my mind began to race with a particular problem that has been ongoing for some time. Here's how everything changed for the better.

A friend of mine has a love/hate relationship with socks. His puppy just swallowed one. If the sock doesn't reappear on its own, surgery is on the docket.

The readings for this Sunday take us with John to his revelation of the end times and what he got to see in heaven. And guess what John saw?

Almost can consume us. Especially if it involves our hearts desires. Children. Spouse. New job. Cancelling the cancer.

Either Jesus has provided for our complete forgiveness and restoration with God, or he has not. And the prevailing opinion taught from the Pope on down to the local priest in the 1500's was that Jesus has done his part of God's salvation through his suffering, death and resurrection, but now each person must also do their part.

I could easily eat a case of baked Cheetos. If I had a case of wet wipes.   What in your life do you put off because it's too messy? It takes too much work.   Could it be a relationship that's dear to you that needs attention. Likely some conversation needing conversing.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

The catalogue arrived old school. Compliments of the US Postal Service.   I didn't know companies still sent them. I remember my parents getting the Sears Christmas catalogue and spending time just looking at all that was available. This catalogue was from Amazon.

In our elementary school lunchroom we had this picture of Jesus hanging on the wall and I loved it. I imagined myself as the kid with the airplane looking fondly at our Lord.

On Tuesday evening the conversation soon morphed into a cassette tape journey down memory lane. My high school years have been labeled the cassette tape era of rock music.

Sunday, September 28 was our Foundations of Faith Capital Campaign commitment Sunday. And I am excited to share with you the results. Keeping in mind that this number will still be growing as more people submit their pledges in the coming days and weeks.

The book of Ecclesiastes provides an unvarnished look at reality. There is a flaw in the system that is designed to reward the good and unless you understand the law of random chance life will be hard to understand.

I'm a big egg guy. Could eat them every day. Do eat them almost every day especially now since I'm suppose to drastically limit carbs and sugar. I gravitate toward fried in bacon drippings. Over easy. With habanero hot sauce for the yolk.

I used to enjoy watching the nightly news at 5:30pm each night, but not any more.

Situations and events wreak the same havoc on our view. Causes us to see things disproportionately.

Acts chapter 2 Peter reminds us that Baptism is for you and your children.

Paul wrote to the slave owner Philemon about his runaway slave. Paul does not condemn him for owning another human being or even scold him wrongness of slavery, but that's not to say that he had nothing to say about these two men and their relationship with each other.

Transfer a prescription. Not an easy task. Express Scripts won't call the local pharmacy for a transfer. You have to get your doctor to send them a new prescription directly even if it's the same prescription.

But the wisdom of Proverbs comes in couplets and the end the second part of Proverbers of 14:4 states, “but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”

The $12 car wash failed on multiple levels. I passed up the $20 version.   The scrubbing strips seemed to miss major portions of my truck. The tires look like they weren't even touched. Still covered in dust.

The card arrived compliments of the mail carrier. Encouraging me to better understand how my property taxes get decided. Something about “revenue neutral rates.”

RSVP Your Spot for the Foundations of Faith Small Group Meeting https://forms.gle/iTZcUNTDcfT8QD4R9 You will soon start to see progress being made in preparation for the Ascension Lutheran Grade School. Classrooms have been cleared out to make room for the renovation process.

This devotion is my 250th saved devotion. I say “saved” because there were other devotions in the beginning that I did not save. I never thought I would continue doing them for this long.

I have made a few videos about ChatGPT and other large language models In which I have sung their praises. But after using ChatGPT and other Apps like grok and Copilot, I have found that not only can they give you inaccurate and wrong information, But that also will tell you what you want to hear.

It's hard for me as a pastor not to view movies in the light of theology. It used to bother my wife when we were first married, but I can't stop seeing biblical themes run through storylines. And so today I want to look at the new Supeman and compare and contrast him to Jesus.

We want all of our relationships to be good. Our hearts sense “former” shouldn't define friends.

Read the Journal Article https://publications.ctsfw.edu/bookcase/tjycg/