Author: Rev. Christopher Gillespie

[ download ]

It’s easy to list off a ticker-tape of doctrines and practices that divide us as Christians and churches. But what makes us unified with each other is not a matter of everyone having all the same items checked off the list or passing certain litmus tests, it’s about being united as one with Christ as He feeds us with His own Body and Blood. In this episode, Sandra and Pastor Riley talk about unity and division, the Lord’s Supper, and the Gospel.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

Not that long ago, “pastoral care” meant the same thing as basic psychological therapy. A lot of Christians believe that going to church will make a person’s life better, and pastors may be tempted to offer common-sense counseling at the expense of administering the Spiritual care they are called and ordained to provide. In this episode, Sandra and Pastor Riley discuss some of those distinctions, especially as they relate to shame, guilt, fear, sin, and pastoral counseling.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

As sinners, we tend to understand love by how it makes us feel. When we translate this into how we look for a loving church, we can end up setting ourselves up for disappointment. This week, Sandra and Pastor Riley discuss what Christian love is, what it looks like in a church, and how we are freed in Christ to love the people around us — even when we don’t like them.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

A pastor is there to preach the Law and the Gospel to kill and raise to new life, so that’s what congregations should be listening to hear in every sermon. This week, Sandra and Pastor Riley talk about what makes for a great (and not-so-great) sermon. No one is saved by a preacher’s creativity or intelligence, we actually need to hear essentially the same sermon – every week: Christ and Him crucified for our sins.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

When you walk into a building, how do you know it’s the Church? Could you distinguish the Christian Church from a church that calls itself “Christian”? In this episode, Sandra and Pastor Riley discuss not only what to listen for, to find the Christian Church, but they’ll talk about some of the stuff that gets in the way of the Church confessing and receiving Christ in Word and Sacrament.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

We talk about sin a lot as Lutherans. But that’s so we can get to talking about forgiveness. Not forgiveness in theory, but actual forgiving of sins. Forgiveness isn’t really forgiveness if there are strings attached, hoops to jump through, or any conditions placed on it. It’s actually scarier (to the Old Adam, at least) that way.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

Repentance is not something we work up in ourselves to show that we deserve forgiveness. And it’s not a free ticket to go ahead and sin some more. It’s about the Holy Spirit turning us around – turning us from sinful navel-gazing to life in Christ.

Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

[ download ]

It’s easy to talk about sins as the big, law-breaking things we know we shouldn’t do. But it goes so much deeper than that. The more we look to Christ, the more we realize how sinful we truly are and how much we desperately need the forgiveness He won for us by His death on the cross.

[ download ]

Saints aren’t made by Christians trying to live heroic examples of faith (a violent martyr’s death helps) but by God speaking His word of absolution to a person, forgiving sins and making a believer holy and saint-ified in Christ Jesus.

[ download hifi version ]

Sometimes the Gospel seems too good to be true. It’s even (dare we say it?) offensive – especially when it comes to forgiving people we don’t like and sins we’d rather see someone punished for doing. Not only is the Gospel that good, it’s even better than we could imagine!