Posts by Rev. Tab Ottmers (Page 2)

You know the old adage, “Time is money.” Maybe this year you will get your schedule or budget under control…as you promised last year.  Or I remember when I was a student working through college and I griped to my dad, “I either have no time to have fun or I don’t have money to have fun.” My dad laughed and said, “Welcome to…

“O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heavenly home; Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery.” In our Tuesday Bible study, we have been examining the beginning of David’s kingdom in 1 & 2 Samuel. Before Thanksgiving we read 2 Samuel 7. In that chapter David desires to build God a home, a temple. However, God tells David that HE…

Many times folks begin to lose hope because life doesn’t go how they expected it to go. No one really believes life will always be sunshine and rainbows. However, we all have expectations and we always, at first anyway, think our expectations are reasonable. But perhaps our expectations were not reasonable to begin with. Many times our relationships with others become a…

“No one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it…”  I preached this sermon for the Matins service for our conference on Life Issues focusing on transgenderism. The conference began with a Matins service and ended with a Vespers service because no matter what the topic or conference, we believe that the Word of God must be priority. We had…

Over the summer we’ve been considering Luther’s Small Catechism and how God’s Word teaches us how we should view “Human Life.” This catechism has life and eternal life as its main subject. And when we Christians contemplate life both here and in eternity, when we are contemplating faithfully we will always be led to Jesus who himself said,…

There are many ways to react to evil and sin. Many try to distance themselves from their sins when they get caught, “Oh that’s not truly who I am.” They try to claim that their sins don’t belong to them while standing with their proverbial hand in the cookie jar. The sin is still present. It is still having its desired effect on those who sinned…

“[W]hat is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the…

This month we will celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord on Easter Sunday, April 17th. The resurrection of Jesus is the basis and foundation of our belief that Jesus is the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. The resurrection of Jesus is our justification before God. We confess this…

The apostle John begins his account of the gospel of Jesus Christ with this word describing John the Baptist in Chapter 1 verse 7, ” He came as a witness(Μαρτυρία), to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.” John the Baptist was a martyr in the true sense…

Words have meanings. Back in 2015 the Supreme Court decided that states had to recognize same sex marriages as valid marriages. In essence, the Supreme Court decided to redefine marriage. The meaning of marriage was changed. Many Christians were mocked for standing against this ruling. We were labeled as haters. Even well meaning Christians said, “Why not just let…

On January 6 the church celebrates Epiphany. This is the celebration marking the revealing of who Jesus is, true man and true God. On Epiphany we hear about the Wise Men who come to worship Jesus in great joy, but we also hear about King Herod who was not overly joyful at the birth of Jesus. This is how it is with God becoming flesh and coming into the world. John says it…