1. What is MLC?

2. Who is PELSB

3. What happened with MLC and PELSB?

4. What remedy is underway

5. How might this hurt recruiting at MLC

6. Is there a better way

7. Encouragement, support, and prayers for MLC.

1. Was America founded by revolution or resistance?

2. Is patriotism a Christian virtue?

3. Can we celebrate America?

4. What makes America special?

5. What are various dangers to bring America’s downfall?

6. What are various strengths to build upon America’s exceptionalism?

7. How do we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s?

1. Are we willing to stand up to this pagan god like the MLB baseball players?

2. Is public support waning for everything being gay?

3. Are we prepared for the long march to return to normal?

4. Can churches have faith and family nights in June?

5. Are we too risk adverse?

6. Are we equipping our youth for dealing with the dangers of the sins of sexuality?

1. Where did the rapid shift in cultural attitudes toward homosexuality come from

2. What does the Bible say about pride

3. “Gay marriage” is an abomination of the image of Christ and the Church

4. The evils of gay surrogacy

5. How do we handle LGBTQ in the family.

1. Roe v Wade/Dobbs – abortion

2. Obergefell v Hodges – gay “marriage”

3. Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – refusal of services for LGBTQ+

4. Chiles v. Salazar – therapists performing “conversion therapy”

We examine four major Supreme Court cases to discuss what effects these decisions have had on both Christians and unbelievers. How has legalizing abortion normalized an act that Christians consider a sin? How did legalizing gay “marriage” redefine a divinely ordained institution? How did the court uphold the concept that the government cannot force a citizen to say, write, or create something that violates their conscience? How did the court protect a therapist’s right to speak according to their conscience as a vital safeguard against government tyranny?

1. What does the world turn to first when despairing, lonely, bored or any other isolating feeling

2. What is Satan’s goal in leading a world to be depressed, lonely, or bored

3. What about mushrooms, gummies or even prescribed drugs

4. Can a Christian seek professional help for these feelings

5. What spiritual advice does God give us to combat these thoughts and emotions

6. What practical advice is there to combat Satan’s lies regarding depression, loneliness, and boredom?

We become bored, lonely, and unhappy when we don’t have a purpose. When we are fulfilling our purpose – our vocation – we are filled with joy and hope as we fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. “Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13).

1. What is violence? Are words violence? Is silence violence?

2. What logic do people use to justify political violence?

3. Historical and current examples of political violence

4. How do Christians respond to political violence from their enemies?

5. How do Christians respond to political violence from “allies”?

6. How might Christians work to deescalate political violence?

7. What might Christians do if it doesn't deescalate but intensifies?

“Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him? Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth” (1 John 3:17-18).

1. The Lamb opening the first of the seals

2. The identity of the rider on the white horse

3. The identity of the rider on the red horse

4. The identity of the rider on the black horse

5. The identity of the rider on the pale horse

6. What does this vision mean for the Christian Church

God promises that his Word goes out like a conqueror. St. John writes, “And I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider held a bow. A crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” (Rev 6:2).

1. I will show you what must happen after these things

2. The identity of the twenty-four elders

3. The identity of the four living creatures

4. Singing the Sanctus

5. The elders and living creatures join in praising God

6. What does this vision mean for the Christian Church

We join with the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders in singing, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for you have created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created”
(Revelation 4:11).

1. What is the purpose of exploration (oceans, American West, North Pole, moon, space, etc.);

2. Does “fill the earth and subdue it” include the moon, Mars, and beyond;

3. Purpose of space colonization – earth is fragile, extinction event, benefit to society, or “it’s there”

4. Could the colonization of Mars and moon stations become like the Tower of Babel

5. What might a Christian Church on the moon look like

6. Biblical themes in space movies like “The Martian,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Apollo 13”, etc.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

1. The importance of Laodicea

2. The Amen and true witness

3. Lukewarm Christianity that desires to be nice

4. Buy gold, white garments, and salve

5. Take this seriously and repent

6. Jesus is standing at the door and knocking

7. Sitting with Jesus on his throne.

“Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me. To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

1. The importance of Philadelphia

2. The Key of David

3. An open door no one can shut

4. Those from the synagogue of Satan will bow down

5. Patient endurance and the hour of testing

6. Hold on to what you have

7. A pillar in God’s temple and name written on God’s city

“The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. I will also write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.”

1. The importance of Sardis

2. The seven spirits and seven stars

3. Reputation for being alive but are dead

4. Remember what you received and heard

5. Wake up or Jesus will come like a thief

6. A few who haven’t defiled their clothes

7. Will not erase your name from the Book of Life

“The one who is victorious in this way will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.”

1. The importance of Thyatira

2. Flaming eyes and bronze feet

3. Patient endurance and doing more than previously

4. Allowing Jezebel to deceive

5. Satan’s deep things

6. Hold fast

7. Authority over the nations

“To the one who is victorious and continues to do my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, and he will rule them with an iron staff and shatter them like clay pots, just as I myself have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star.”

1. The sharp, two-edged sword

2. Pergamum and the throne of Satan

3. Not renouncing the faith

4. The teaching of Balaam

5. The sin of the Nicolaitans

6. Repent or Jesus will fight with his sword

7. Hidden manna and the white stone

“Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, which no one will know except the one who receives it.”

1. The First and the Last

2. The importance of Smyrna

3. Suffering, poverty, and blasphemy

4. The synagogue of Satan

5. Do not fear

6. Be faithful until death

7. Won’t be hurt by the second death

“Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.”

1. The importance of Ephesus

2. No tolerance for evil people

3. Continual testing

4. Patient endurance

5. Forsaking their first love

6. Hating immoral living

7. Eating from the tree of life

“Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious I will give the privilege to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

1. Jews continue to play a special role in God’s plan

2. God has granted the Jewish people the land of Israel forever

3. The Jewish people will be converted en masse at the end of the age

4. The Old Testament sacrifices must be reinstated at the Temple for Jesus to return

5. Jesus will return to establish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem.

The claims of Christian Zionists are too small for God’s Servant to merely restore physical Israel to glory. God’s grace is both for Jews and Gentiles who believe in God’s Servant for salvation. All believers become God’s spiritual Israel. (Read Romans 9-11.) “The Lord said: It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant to raise up only the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6).

American Heresy: Christian Zionism and the Scriptural Response

1. How pervasive is AI

2. AI as a useful/dangerous tool

3. How is AI an “echo chamber”

4. AI replacing relationships

5. AI as digital necromancy

6. The Christian responsibility to manage AI

The Devil likes to twist everything that God creates. AI a tool in our toolbelt. Just like Jesus’ miracles were tools. The miracles were meant to lead people to listen to his words and be in fellowship with the Creator. We can use AI – just like we might use social media or online services – to bring people into physical contact with God’s people; bring them into the church for worship and Bible study; and create and strengthen faith through the Word and Sacraments.

1. Specific types of gambling

2. The increasing prevalence

3. The addictiveness of greed

4. The entertainment of gambling

5. Can Christians gamble professionally or intermittently with a clear conscience?

Gambling promotes reliance on luck or chance, whereas Christians are called to trust in God's provision. Christians don’t believe in luck. We believe in hard work and God’s providence. A Christian t-shirt summarizes this well. It says, “Luck is for heretics. Proverbs 16:33.” That verse from Solomon is, “Lots are cast into the pouch, but the Lord determines all their decisions.”