DISCOVER MORE : TOGETHER
Our weekly devotional content ties back to the worship themes and scriptures from the previous Sunday. Dig deeper into what the Word and the message mean to you, and explore how you can deepen your walk with Christ through these resources.
In addition to the devotional resources, the "5 Minutes with God" sections are like spiritual snacks; small, quick, easy connections you can make as you go about your busy life.
Fall Worship & Study Series
I BELIEVE ...
Our Fall Worship Series, I Believe, will closely examine The “I believe in the …” statements of the Apostles’ Creed that we say each week in traditional worship.
This 9-week study (in three, 3-week segments) will take you behind the words so you can better understand where they come from and to give you more meaning when we recite it together.
You can pick up a printed study guide at the church, or use the digital version linked below. To go deeper with a discussion group, find one that fits your schedule at the link below.
Weekly Devotion
9-14-25
I Believe- Life in Creation: Maker of It All
The First Article of the Apostles’ Creed: On Creation
I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Luther’s Explanation to the First Article: On Creation
I believe that God has created me together with all that exists. God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties.
In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property; along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life.
Pr. Steve’s Introduction:
The creed and the Bible do not get into the mechanics of how creation happens. Rather they focus on who and why. God created because God is love. God continues to create and bring order because God is the one who gives, blesses, and bestows out of love.
What does it mean to have a God? Look at the verbs associated with creating. God creates. God gives. God preserves. God provides. God is a giver of gifts, that we may live with a sense of abundance and the goodness of God.
To believe in God the creator connects our present life with the beginning. In the beginning God created. We affirm God created order and goodness, and God endowed all human beings with dignity and worth. Even now today, we continue to experience God’s creative work. The bible does not imagine God as a watch maker who made the world, set things in motion, and then sits back to see what happens. God continues to be active in creation and our lives to bring blessing.
We confess what we pray. Every prayer of gratitude is a prayer for what God continues to do, for the ways God continues to provide and sustain. Nothing is taken for granted as Luther’s explanation gets into the details of eyes and ears, and food and drink. We pray to God, we give thanks to God, because we believe God continues to be generous and life giving.
Psalm 104:1, 5, 13-15, 24, 30-35
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, to bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine and bread to strengthen the human heart.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!
Genesis 1:1-5
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Opening Discovery
1. What is your favorite place in creation? What makes it so?
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2. What stands out to you about the scripture readings? What resonates with you?
3. Both the catechism and the scripture have less to say about the how of God’s creative acts and more to say about the who and the why. Look at the scripture texts again.
a. What do they say about Who God is?
b. What do they say about Why God creates
and sustains?
4. How do the verbs, actions words, in the catechism explanation connect with the scriptures here?
5. What is the response of the Psalmist to God’s creative work? How does the time of Gratitude fit in with this or not?
6. When it comes to God’s blessings, the Psalmist does not focus so much on personal blessings, as look with a wider view to how God works in all the world. In your praise of God, do you tend to look closer to home or not? What would it mean to take a wider view like the Psalmist? What would you focus on in the world?
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7. How do you make sense of what science says about the world and what the Bible says about God and the
world? Complementary explanations? Contradictory? Disconnected? Uncertain? Doesn’t matter? Other?
8. When or where do you experience your deepest gratitude?
9. SUGGESTION: During this study on the Catechism, write 15 things you are thankful for EACH day, for 63 days. (About 1000 in total). In time you will go beyond the obvious or easy, and marvel in how God provides and protects.
Weekly Devotion
9-7-25
I Believe: Why study the Apostle’s Creed?
The Apostles’ Creed in a nutshell: I believe in God, the Father almighty… I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son… I believe in the Holy Spirit…
Pr. Steve’s Introduction: What does it mean to say, “I believe in God”? We begin with a distinction between believing intellectually that something is true and believing in something to be true for me. To believe in God is to believe with a trusting faith that who God is for me really matters. At times Luther will also say: “I believe upon God.” Here he links faith with building my life upon the foundation Jesus Christ. God revealed in Father, Son, and Spirit is a foundation I can build my life upon.
Martin Luther’s teaching on the creed shifts our focus from the “I” who believes to “God,” who creates, redeems, and gives faith. God comes to us in the words of the creed as God who gives, loves, redeems, comforts. The Apostle’s Creed and the Catechism Explanation are a gift to us, forming our faith, giving us the foundation stones to build our life upon. We will explore the creed as three experiences of God: life in God’s creation, life in Jesus, and life in the Spirit. Even so, for each of the parts of the creed, the fulness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit show up in each of the parts.
John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) 16From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Discussion Questions
Opening Discovery
1. What is your faith story?
2. What primary associations do you have of God? Whether of judgment or mercy? Anger or love? Distant or Close? How have those associations changed or stayed the same for you?
3. What experience of Luther’s Small Catechism did you have growing up?
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4. What are your experiences associated with God in creation?
5. What are your experiences associated with Jesus: his teachings, the cross, salvation in him? How do you talk about that?
6. What experiences do you associate with God the Spirit?
7. Which member of the trinity do you resonate with more? Why?
God the Creator?
God the Savior?
God the Spirit?
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8. What do you hope to learn through this worship and study series?
