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© First Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, IA
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Dig into God’s word with informal conversation around the scripture and ways to apply the message to our lives. We’ll pray for you, chat about what’s brewing around our church, First Lutheran in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and take your questions about faith and life. Join us as we put our Faith First.
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Pr. Craig is floored how a contestant on the TV show Survivor is willing to risk a million dollars for a personal relationship. Perhaps just as wild as Mary dumping a year's salary worth of perfume on Jesus' feet to show her love for him. Discover what situation you feel it's ok to extravagantly spend money on someone in this week's Faith First podcast.
Pr. Craig talks about our attendance at our amazing Christmas Eve services and takes you behind the numbers to see how it all gets put together. Plus...is God sending you a sign? We'll discuss the Magi and signs from above in this special year-end episode.
Pr. Katie shares her Christmas Eve message about being the light of Christ, Pr. Craig pays tribute to a faithful staff member who says good-bye, and Pr. Steve has some very special prayers for us on our Christmas episode!
Pr. Katie talks about God bringing peace through the message of an angel to Jesus' father, Joseph, amongst the chaos of the circumstances around his birth and how God delivers that same peace to you and I today.
Pr. Steve ponders perhaps the biggest question of the Christian faith...is Jesus who he says he is? And if Jesus is in fact the savior of our entire world, how does the God of Love make himself known in our world today?
Pr. Craig talks about all the decluttering books getting suggested to him on his social media this week. A message from God, maybe? At the same time, John the Baptist has a similar call for us to "clear the way" in our hearts for the coming Christ.
Remember circling things you wanted for Christmas in the Sears, JC Penny, or Montgomery Ward's catalog? Pr. Steve talks about similarly what people of faith do to prepare for the coming of Christ in this week's episode.
This week we celebrate that Christ is our King, but Pr. Steve ponders what kind of power will he exert in our lives? The "hard" power we know and use to get our own way in this world or a "soft" power that leads to eternal forgiveness and peace?
FLC Member Alicia Murphy talks about our church's response to the increased need in our community as Pr. Steve challenges us to "see" Christ in the middle of it as it plays out in real time around us.
Pr. Craig talks about announcing for the Hawkeye Marching Band and how God announces to all of us on All Saints Day that you belong! This is all thanks to God's work on the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit which connects us to all those who have lived and died in the faith.
Pr. Steve shares the moments that gave him the most goosebumps while walking in the footsteps of Paul in Greece and Turkey with church members and gives us some insight to his upcoming message about the Holy Spirit of Reformation to our Confirmands.
Martin Luther said, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified me and kept me in the true faith." Pr. Katie will talk about how the Spirit works today as we prepare for Healing Services this weekend and Wednesday.
Pr. Craig & Pr. Katie discuss the power of Jesus' resurrection to swallow up all the world's anger and hate on the cross once and for all, allowing us the opportunity to build a world of peace. But are we ready to take hold of it?
Pr. Steve & Pr. Craig describe an amazing encounter they both had with a Bishop of the Country of Hungary, who described trying to be the church under the totalitarian governments of the Nazis and then the Iron Curtain and how Christ sets us free from the inside out of all evil forces that would oppress us.
Pr. Steve asks us what side of Jesus do you connect most with? Is it the divine authority who can do miraculous things including giving us eternal life or the real human being who cares about feeding and healing us from our day-to-day issues?
Pr. Steve teaches us how the first person in the Trinity, our Creator, protects us and provides for us through life's many dangers. An important word for us today amidst life's many ups and downs in the chaotic world in which we live.
Pr. Katie teaches us how God the Creator is the maker of it all and still creates and re-creates in and through us despite all the brokenness of the world around us. After all, in Genesis 1:1 it says in the beginning God created out of the chaos.
What are we confessing when we say "I Believe" nearly every week in church? Pr. Craig & Pr. Steve break down classic statement of Christian faith, The Apostles' Creed, and how it opens up the door to understanding to our vast and loving God.
What if we weren't meant to be a church that sits around but gets up and moves for God? Pr. Steve ponders this question and many more like it as he shares with us his Top Ten Things he learned while on sabbatical.
Pr. Steve returns! He gives us his first impressions after four months away on sabbatical while Pr. Katie talks a radical act by Jesus transforming forever our notion of sabbath.
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