Welcome to Calvary Lutheran Ministries
For over a year we have been meeting every Friday morning from 11am-12n with several residents of Wittenberg for Bible study. The attendance has remained constant at @ 12 and recently we have welcomed 2 newcomers to our group. For the majority of this time we have been using a Concordia Publishing House series entitled, “Heroes of the Faith.” Each series is divided into six (6) personalities we encounter in the reading of Holy Scripture. Every week I hear a comment similar to, “I never knew very much about this person, or about this part of the Bible, etc.”
The characters we encounter each week are fascinating to read about, but one thing about each of them is the same – they are just like us – people who find themselves in difficult circumstances, or having to make difficult choices, or facing the uncertainties and fears of living in this fallen world. The real point of every lesson about every person we meet in the Bible is not how much of a hero they are, but of how faithful God is to His own. This is a unique characteristic of the Scriptures, we meet real people with real weaknesses, facing real circumstances and real difficulties. The stories are not about the triumph of the human spirit, but of the faithfulness of a loving and caring God, who is working to show people the depth of His love in their journey through the valley of shadows.
The Bible is all about the faithfulness of God in working salvation to all people through the gift of His Son, Jesus, who is truly the Hero. In reading the stories of Abraham and the patriarchs, in the calling of the nation of Israel out of Egypt through Moses, in the judges and kings that followed, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and in the lives of the disciples and writers of the New Testament, we encounter real life, real history and we receive a very real hope. The Bible is the only book that gives us History, read it, meditate on it and you will live like a hero!
Pastor Jim Bothwell
August, 2010