Several years ago, a college student told me she was troubled by one of her professors. He regularly disparaged her and other Christians in his class. He told them they were close-minded to follow Christianity. At the same time, he expressed how enlightened he was in his spirituality. He professed to the class that he took the best out of each religion to create his own faith. He said he took the peace from Islam, the meditation from Buddhism, loving your neighbor as yourself from Christianity, the love of nature from Native Americans, the respect of ancestors from Shinto, and so on.

Looking around at this world we see, hear and feel death everywhere. We see death in our movies. We hear death in our music. We feel death in our families.

There is war and violence.

There is frailty and disease.

There is weakness and walkers.

Of all the days since Pentecost, which day has done the most to change the world? How about July 4, 1776—the American Revolution, which ushered in a new era of freedom and prosperity? Or maybe July 14, 1789—the French Revolution, which was the beginning of the end for the great monarchies of Europe and exposed dark side of many revolutions, the Reign of Terror. Maybe October 25, 1917—the Russian Revolution, which led to untold misery and death for millions.

But revolutions don’t actually happen in a single day. They take time to unfold and develop. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century changed life throughout the world very dramatically. The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s drastically changed the moral climate of America for the worse.

When you attended a worship service in a non-Lutheran church, have you ever kept praying the Lord’s Prayer when everyone else stopped? They ended the Lord’s Prayer with the words, “but deliver us from evil.” You continued praying, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

These familiar words at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer do not appear in some of the ancient manuscripts of the Gospels. It is possible that these words were added later by those copying the manuscripts. Whether these words were originally included or not, they are thoroughly scriptural and doctrinal. They are an appropriate conclusion or doxology to the Lord’s Prayer.

I want you to imagine you are part of the mob that really hates the apostle Paul. Your mob preaches circumcision, blood sacrifices and eating clean foods. Paul preaches Christ crucified. Your mob preaches the Jews are God’s chosen children. Paul preaches that people from all nations are God’s children through faith in Jesus. Your mob preaches salvation by works. Paul preaches salvation by grace alone.

You and the mob really hate this guy! He preaches everything exactly the opposite from you.

At the beginning of every adult confirmation class, I give the people three warnings. First, I warn them that there are 14 lessons in the class. That’s a 3 ½ month commitment. Second, I warn them that there’s homework. (I don’t tell them about the homework until they sign up for the class.)

The third – and most serious – warning is that the devil is going to come at them hard. I’ve seen it for over 20 years of teaching these classes. I tell them that if they weren’t Christians before, the devil wasn’t concerned about them because they already belonged to him. If they were only nominal Christians before, the devil still wasn’t all that concerned about them because, although they were in the Enemy’s camp, they weren’t doing anything over there.

I learned about the Keto diet from Stacy. If you haven’t heard about the Keto diet, it is very low on carbs and very high on fats and proteins. This was good information to have because, as part of my pastoral mentoring duties, I took Pastor Scoggins from New Hope to breakfast this week. We ate at the Blue Bear restaurant down the road.

I was interested in their signature breakfast, the Blue Bear Benedict. For $4 more, I could have it Keto style. I asked the waitress what that entailed. She said, “You will still have the poached egg and Berkshire ham, but your potato pancakes will be made with cauliflower.”

Sally (not her real name) wanted me to share her real story with you. Sally and her husband have been married for several years. They are ready to enjoy the blessings of children. But from their human vantage point, it looks like they are not going to be able to have children of their own.

They have examined various fertility methods, but they have learned that many of them are not God-pleasing or will be ineffectual for their infertility issues.