Life Library — Christian Living

Life Ministry   •   The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

• Amoral Times — To be amoral is to be unable to distinguish morally acceptable behavior from morally unacceptable behavior. Through conditioning we can lose the moral skills for even recognizing a moral issue when it confronts us. Discerning moral questions and answers requires the skills of careful, unbiased thinking and honest, self-disciplined reflection.
  
  
• Christianity and Culture: God’s Double Sovereignty — Recognizing God’s double sovereignty over all of life can enable Christians to be engaged in a positive, transforming way with their culture without succumbing to the deadly, spirit-quenching sin of worldliness. It is a formula for both faithfulness and relevance.
  
  
• Feelings, Emotions and Christian Truth — Those who minimize sound doctrine and promote feelings and experience must recognize they plot a course for deception and disaster. Those who focus on sound doctrine must begin teaching people to apply Scripture to their daily living so the experience of God’s people matches what God’s Word commands.
  
  
• Luther’s Answers to Anxiety — Martin Luther knew from experience what it was to be despondent and anxious. He had bouts with this all his life, and he developed remedies he shared with others. Today, people suffering from ongoing depression should seek medical help. But others who feel “down” may find Luther’s suggestions helpful.
  
  
• Luther’s Dark Days — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther suffered through periods of deep personal struggle with sin, human frailty, satanic attacks, and the call to Christ-like self-sacrifice. Affliction is a sign of how much Satan wants to tear us away from Jesus and His promises. But Satan is not able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:38-39).
  
  
• Martin Luther’s Thoughts About Money — Martin Luther’s advice about money is still valuable today: God’s gifts are meant to be enjoyed, shared, and put to work in His name.
  
  
• Pursuing Pleasure — Finding Boredom — By God’s design, excessive indulgence soon turns to ashes. Boredom is a sign that nothing earthly will satisfy us. God, on the other hand, gives us access to an infinite reservoir of joy.
  
  
• Right and Wrong in the Workplace — We cannot separate our faith life from our career or business. Our service through our vocations is an expression of our gratitude for God’s grace through Christ. We have received God’s forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We show our thanks to Him by forgiving others for His sake.
  
  
• Redeemed Body and Soul — Gnosticism denies the truth of the redemption and resurrection of the body. Scripture teaches that the body is a vital part of man’s creation, redemption, and sanctification – temporally and eternally.
  
  
• Responding in Love: Theological Guidelines for Human Care Ministry — We define and direct human care ministry relative to the heart of our Lutheran faith, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its essential partner, the Law of God. We have been united with Jesus and one another in His body, the Church, and are called to and equipped for Christ-like service to one another and the world.
  
  
• The Peril of Prosperity — We fear letting go of material possessions, and we are afraid we will lose things we love too much. Both rich and poor prisoners of consumerism participate in the myth of scarcity, so there is never enough. By trusting God we shed anxiety about our needs and no longer covet excess.
  
  
• Twelve Good Reasons to Go Hungry — Even though the Old and New Testaments mention fasting nearly 100 times, this highly worthwhile discipline is essentially absent from most of our lives. Although most Christians may not feel the need to do a lengthy fast, there are benefits to be gained from even a short period of self-denial.