• Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: October 2025

    For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 ESV I’ve been thinking about our freedom in Christ. It is a great gift to be free from the bondage of sin. This freedom is God’s gift through the Jesus Christ, for it…

  • Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: September 2025

    The Problem with Deciding— You’ve probably heard the question before, “When did you accept Jesus as your Savior?” It often comes from well-meaning Christians. But for us Lutherans, that question feels strange. We don’t talk about our salvation as something we decided. We confess it as something God has given. That difference—between decision and gift—gets…

  • Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: August 2025

    Christian Marriage — Peace Lutheran will be having our Vocation of Marriage Sunday on August 3. Be sure to come. Remember the good gift that God has given us. Marriage. Since my children have grown, they mention what a weird house they were raised in. Halfway through seminary, I took a class on “Christian Sexual…

  • Pastor Patrick’s Perspective, Summer 2025

    Read by the Word of God “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked…

  • Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: July 2025

    Various issues prevent people from hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. Some are intellectual issues that block belief. The problem of suffering is one. The problem of suffering has been expressed in various ways. If God is all powerful, why does suffering exist? The problem goes back to the ancient Greek philosophers and the…

  • Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: June 2025

    Summertime 1Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,Whose sin is covered.3When I kept silent, my bones grew oldThrough my groaning all the day long.4For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.5I acknowledged my sin to You,And my iniquity I have not hidden.I said, “I will…