Thy Strong Word from KFUO Radio

A community so generous that no one claimed anything as their own sounds like a dream until the next scene turns deadly serious. Ananias and Sapphira sell some property, keep part of the money, and lie about it to look more sacrificial than they were, and what condemned them was the pretending. The early church needed to learn that the God who fills his people with grace is not mocked by play-acting. This episode is a sober word for every Christian tempted to manage an image instead of living honestly before God.

The Rev. David...

Peter and John heal a man crippled from birth, and their reward is arrest. By the time the guards haul them in, the number of believers has grown to about five thousand, and the temple authorities have seen enough. The next day the two apostles stand before the same council that had condemned Jesus, with Annas and Caiaphas presiding. The order is blunt: stop speaking in this name. Peter and John refuse, because they cannot keep silent about what they have seen and heard.

The Rev. Jacob Hercamp, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Noblesville...

Luke gives us a snapshot of the first church that still makes congregations homesick: devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, and to one another. Then a man lame from birth, who has begged at the temple gate his whole life, asks Peter for money and gets something he never imagined instead, walking and leaping in the name of Jesus. This chapter holds together the ordinary rhythms of church life and the extraordinary power that runs through them. It speaks to anyone who has settled for begging at the gate when God meant to...

Weeks after denying he even knew Jesus, Peter stands before a crowd in Jerusalem and preaches that the man they crucified is Lord and Christ. When the words land and the people ask what they should do, Peter answers with repentance, baptism, and forgiveness rather than a load of guilt, and three thousand are baptized that day. The same Peter who crumbled before a servant girl now cannot be silenced, which tells you what the resurrection does to a coward. This episode is about the power of plain preaching and a promise that reaches as far as the Lord...

Have you ever wished God would do something so plain that no one could explain it away? Pentecost is that kind of morning, when a sound like a violent wind fills the house, fire rests on each of them, and ordinary Galileans start speaking languages they never learned. The same Spirit who turned frightened followers into bold preachers is the one given to the church to turn the world's eyes toward Christ. This chapter is the birthday of the church and a study of what the Spirit was actually given to do.

The Rev. Benjamin...

Jesus has risen, the disciples have him back, and the first thing he tells them is to wait, which may be the hardest command in the book. Then he is taken up, and two angels gently ask why they are still staring at the sky. Most of the Christian life is lived in that in-between space, after the promise and before the fulfillment. This first episode sets the table for everything that follows and speaks to anyone weary of waiting on God.

The Rev. John David Duke, Jr., pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Buffalo...

The book of Acts picks up where the Gospels leave off. Jesus has risen. He has ascended. And now what? Acts answers that question. Luke tells the story of how the Holy Spirit built the Church from a handful of frightened disciples in Jerusalem into a movement that reached Rome itself. Along the way, you get Pentecost, the first sermons, the first martyrs, the conversion of Paul, the first church councils, shipwrecks, riots, and the persistent, stubborn work of God through Word and Sacrament even when His people didn't have a plan. If you've ever wondered how we got...

Most people skip Romans 16 because it looks like a list of names they cannot pronounce. But every name here is a person who carried the Gospel to Rome before Paul ever arrived. Phoebe delivered this letter. Prisca and Aquila risked their necks for Paul's life. Andronicus and Junia were in prison with him. These are real Christians with real stories, and Paul knows them by name even though he has never visited their church. Romans ends the way the faith has always spread: through people who showed up for each other because Christ showed up for them.

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Strong Christians know their freedom in Christ. Weak Christians are careful not to violate their consciences. The tension between them is real, but Paul insists that neither group belongs to itself. Both belong to the Lord who died and rose again for them. Rather than judging or despising one another, Christians are called to bear with each other in love, just as Christ bore with them. As Paul brings this section of Romans to a close, he reveals how the Gospel creates unity among Jews and Gentiles alike and gives a glimpse into his own mission to carry Christ's...

Romans 14 focuses on Christian liberty, love, and unity within the church, and faith, love, and conscience shape our actions and relationships as believers. Christ's death and resurrection establish His Lordship over all, and love and conscience should guide our actions toward others. While we avoid passing judgment and causing others to stumble, our actions should reflect faith and gratitude to God. Our faith is personal but should be expressed in love. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Unity in Christ requires patience and understanding, and avoiding unnecessary disputes preserves church unity.

Every election cycle, Christians argue about what they owe the government and where that obligation ends. Paul wrote the original version of that argument. The governing authority is God's servant, he says, and you owe it taxes, respect, and honor. That was written under Nero, which means Paul is not talking about a government that deserves your admiration. He is talking about an office God established for your good. Then he turns to the Christian's own life: put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. How you live under authority and how you live...

After eleven chapters of what God has done for you, Paul says “therefore” and gets specific about what it looks like to live in God’s grace. He tells us: Present your bodies as living sacrifices. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Love without hypocrisy. Think soberly about your gifts. Feed your enemy when he is hungry. This is where Paul connects doctrine to daily life, and every instruction here grows out of the mercy God has already given you in Christ.

The Rev. Dr. St...

If you are a Gentile Christian, you are a wild branch grafted into someone else's tree. But what of the original covenant? God has not abandoned His people. Though many have fallen away, he kept a remnant by grace, and Paul himself is the proof. But what does Paul mean when he says, "all Israel will be saved"? This is one of the most debated passages in the letter, and getting it wrong has real consequences.

The Rev. John Lukomski, pastor emeritus and co-host of Wrestling with the Basics on KFUO Radio, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil...

People often talk about faith like it is something you find inside yourself if you look hard enough. Paul reveals just the opposite. Faith comes from outside you––from the Word of Christ spoken into your ears by someone God sent to speak it. That is how it reached you, and that is how it has reached every Christian who has ever lived. Paul traces the chain all the way back from the believer to the preacher to the one who sent the preacher, and it changes how you think about every sermon you have ever heard.

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You own a Bible. You have probably started reading it more than once. And somewhere along the way, you wondered whether you were doing it right. On this Free-Text First Friday, we walk through the basic rules that help Christians read Scripture faithfully: why context matters, how Law and Gospel shape everything, why the whole book points to Christ, and how these tools belong to every Christian in the pew, not just the pastor in the study.

The Rev. Robert Smith, pastor emeritus in Ft. Wayne, IN, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to discuss...

Paul opens this chapter with a dramatic expression of grief, like Moses before him, saying he would forfeit his own salvation if it meant his fellow Israelites would be saved. That alone should tell you how personal this gets. God chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and showed mercy to whom He would show mercy. The potter has authority over the clay, and that offends us because we want God to explain Himself. Yet, God demonstrates time and again that he is not only sovereign, but compassionate and merciful toward all people—Jew and Gentile.

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Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. St. Paul lists them all in this section of his letter because he has faced most of them personally and he knows the Christians to whom he writes are facing the same and losing hope. He tells them plainly: none of it can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christians have been holding on to these verses through every kind of suffering for two thousand years because the promise is that Christ does not let go, even when everything else does.

The...

You have had moments where you needed to pray and could not find the words. Paul knows. He says the whole creation is groaning like a woman in labor, and we groan with it, waiting for what God has promised. The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, praying on our behalf when we cannot do it ourselves. And God works all things together for the good of those He has called. The comfort here is not that suffering makes sense, but that God is at work inside it.

The Rev. Peter...

If you have ever laid awake wondering whether God is angry with you, Romans 8 is where Paul answers. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. After seven chapters proving that sin and death have a grip on every human being alive, Paul announces that God has done what the law could not do. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and that makes you a child of God and an heir with Christ.

The Rev. Sean Kilgo, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lawrence, KS, joins...

Every Christian knows the sin you confess, mean it, and find yourself back in anyway: “I do the very thing I hate. The good I want to do, I don't do! Why?!” Paul clears the Law of any blame: it is holy, righteous, and good, even as it exposes how deeply sin runs in us. So, what’s the issue? Our sinful natures battling to regain control. The Apostle describes the Christian life from the inside as a war that ends with a cry for rescue—who will rescue me from this body of death? The good news is that St...

Every Christian knows the sin you confess, mean it, and find yourself back in anyway: “I do the very thing I hate. The good I want to do, I don't do! Why?!” Paul clears the Law of any blame: it is holy, righteous, and good, even as it exposes how deeply sin runs in us. So, what’s the issue? Our sinful natures battling to regain control. The Apostle describes the Christian life from the inside as a war that ends with a cry for rescue—who will rescue me from this body of death? The good news is that St...

Should we keep sinning since Christ already died and atoned for all of our sins? Paul’s answer to whether we should simply sin in the face of abounding grace is clear: absolutely not! In baptism you were buried with Christ and raised to walk in a new life. Grace does abound over and against sin, but sin is no longer your master because you have a new one—Jesus—and this master gives life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The...

Adam sinned, and death spread to every human being who ever lived. Paul states that plainly and does not soften it. But the free gift is not like the trespass. Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. One man’s disobedience made the many sinners; one Man’s obedience makes the many righteous. Paul draws the contrast as starkly as possible, and the math always favors grace because Christ’s obedience outweighs Adam’s fall.

The Rev. David Boisclair, senior pastor at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Overland, MO, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to...

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is where Paul plants his feet before he says something strange: we boast in our sufferings. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame. This is not a self-help sequence. It works because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is the love driving the whole chain.

The Rev. Jacob Hercamp, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Noblesville, IN, jo...

Abraham is Paul’s test case. Was he justified by works? No. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Paul makes sure you notice the timeline: the faith came before circumcision, not after. Circumcision was a seal of a righteousness Abraham already had by faith. That matters because it means the promise belongs to everyone who shares Abraham’s faith, Jew and Gentile alike. God justifies the ungodly.

The Rev. Joshua Heimbuck, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Ashland, OR, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Romans 4:1–25.

Paul has spent two and a half chapters proving that every mouth is stopped and the whole world is guilty before God. Then he writes two words: but now. The righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe. There is no distinction. All have sinned. All are justified freely by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is the heart of Romans and the article on which the Church stands or falls.

The Rev. Matthew Kusch, pastor...

Paul is building a courtroom and nobody gets acquitted because no one has obeyed the law. The Jews have the law and break it. The Gentiles have conscience and ignore it. By works of the law no human being will be justified in God's sight, because the law's job is to show you what sin is. It does not fix it. Paul needs you to hear how total the diagnosis is before he gives you the cure in the next passage. The cure only makes sense when you know how sick you are.

The...

If you read Romans 1 and felt good about yourself because Paul was talking about other people’s sins, chapter 2 is for you. You who pass judgment have no excuse, because you do the same things. Paul strips the moral high ground out from under the religious person who assumes the rules only apply to everyone else. God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. It is not confirmation that you are better than your neighbor.

The Rev. Keith Lingsch, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Naples, FL, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to s...

Three times Paul writes "God gave them up." The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness, and it looks like God stepping back and letting humanity have what it wanted. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped the creature instead of the Creator, and God gave them over to the consequences. Paul describes a world that looks uncomfortably like the one outside your window.

The Rev. John Shank, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Edwardsville, IL, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Romans 1:18–32.

To...

When Paul says "gospel," his Roman readers would have heard a political word. For them, "gospels" were the emperor's birth, his military victories, and his decrees. Paul takes that word and gives it back to God. The Gospel he preaches is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Jew and Greek alike, and it reveals a righteousness that comes by faith. "The righteous shall live by faith," Paul writes, quoting Habakkuk. If you want to understand what the Reformation was about, this is where it starts.

The Rev. William Cwirla, pastor...

Why does doing the right thing sometimes feel impossible? Why do feelings of guilt follow us even when we've been forgiven? These aren't new questions. St. Paul wrote his letter to the Romans for a church he had never visited, and yet he addressed the struggles every Christian knows firsthand: the weight of the law, the persistence of sin, the sufficiency of what God has done in Christ. Romans covers enormous ground. Paul moves from the universal problem of sin through justification by faith, the role of baptism, the war between flesh and spirit, God's faithfulness to Israel, and...

When you're suffering, who do you go to? James closes his letter with an answer the modern world doesn't expect: call the elders of the church. Let them pray over you and anoint you with oil. Elijah was an ordinary man, and his prayers shut the sky for three years. James saves his final word for the whole congregation: if someone wanders from the truth, go get him. God puts His people in each other's lives for exactly that reason.

The Rev. Robert Smith, pastor emeritus in Ft. Wayne, IN, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil...

James opens with a line that sounds like an Old Testament prophet: weep and howl, you rich, for the miseries coming upon you. Your gold has corroded and the wages you withheld from your workers are crying out to the Lord of Sabaoth. Then he turns to the brothers who are suffering under all of it and tells them to be patient like a farmer waiting for rain. The Judge is standing at the door, and He comes to set things right.

The Rev. Ryan Kleimola, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Toledo, OH, joins...

You made plans for next year. James wants to know who told you you'd be here for them. Your life is a mist that shows up for a moment and then it's gone, and the people who say "tomorrow we'll go to this city and make money" are writing checks on a future they don't own. That sounds grim until you realize the flip side: the God who holds tomorrow also holds you.

The Rev. Keith Lingsch, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Naples, FL, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study James 4:11–17.

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The fights in your church, your family, your head: James traces all of them back to the same source. You want what you don't have, and it eats you alive. He calls friendship with the world adultery against God, which is a hard word to hear. But he follows it with a promise: God gives grace to the humble. Draw near to God, and He draws near to you.

The Rev. John Lukomski, pastor emeritus and co-host of Wrestling with the Basics on KFUO Radio, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study James 3:13–4:10.

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Rev. James Baumgartner gives today's sermon based on Matthew 7:7-14.

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Tune in weekdays at 10:00 a.m. CT to hear daily chapel services from the LCMS International Center. Find service information including the lectionary, hymn, and homilist for the day at kfuo.org/daily-chapel-schedule.<...

You've said something you can't take back. Everyone has. James knows it, and he spends twelve verses on why the tongue is the most dangerous thing in your body. He compares it to a wildfire started by a single match, and his conclusion is blunt: no human being can tame it. But the God who created the mouth also forgives what comes out of it.

The Rev. Brian Davies, pastor of Lord of Glory Lutheran Church, Grayslake, IL, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study James 3:1–12.

To learn more ab...

A man is cold and hungry and you tell him "hope things get better." James wants to know what kind of faith that is. Martin Luther wrestled with this passage because it sounds like James is saying your works save you. He isn't. He's saying a living faith moves your hands, the same way a living body breathes. Abraham and Rahab both trusted God, and that trust showed up in what they did. Faith that doesn't move is a corpse, but the Christ who gives faith also gives the life that moves it.

The...

A man walks into your assembly wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and you say "sit here, please." A poor man walks in wearing shabby clothes, and you say "stand over there." James catches the church playing favorites and calls it what it is: you have become judges with evil thoughts. God chose the poor to be rich in faith. Mercy triumphs over judgment, but only for those who show it.

The Rev. Jonathan Priest, District Executive for the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the LCMS and Director of the Mission Training Center in Irvine, CA...

Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. The man who hears the word but does not do it is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he looked like. Pure religion before God is this: visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep yourself unstained from the world. James has no interest in a faith that never reaches your hands.

The Rev. Roger Mullet, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Buffalo, WY, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study...