Mel Lawrenz is Teaching Pastor at Elmbrook Church and the author of A Better Year Ahead? Opening Our Eyes to Hope (revised edition), looking ahead to 2022. This time last year we were all thinking how difficult 2020 was and that it will be so good to get to 2021. Yet 2021 presented its own challenges, …
For a limited time the devotionals Christmas Joy: A Devotional and Christmas Joy for Kids are available at half price on Amazon. If you are a group leader, a teacher, a pastor, or other leader, this is a good way to preview these devotionals if you wish to consider them for this year. (These devotionals …
FREE – Ten prayers in PDF booklet. Who do you know who would benefit from prayers for times of grief, illness, or loss? This FREE PDF has ten prayers, six for adults and four for kids, who are dealing with grief, illness, or loss. The ten prayers are: -When Someone Is Ill-When We Are Ill-When …
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[A sermon shared with Elmbrook Church the Sunday after 9/11/2001, based on what Psalm 25 says about treachery.] FACING TREACHERY A message given at Elmbrook Church, September 16, 2001Mel Lawrenz, Senior Pastor We have been through a harrowing week. It is good that we are here to worship today. Every evening since Tuesday hundreds of …
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[adapted from A Chronicle of Grief: Surviving Traumatic Loss by Mel Lawrenz, IVP 2020] Sometimes people say that their severe loss is like a hole in their hearts. It is so hard to describe that empty space, that tear in the fabric of the universe. When it happens we struggle to adjust to something or …
In this message Mel Lawrenz talks about the practicalities of making Scripture a normal pattern of the Christian life. NOTE: For one more day (until April 15, you can download a FREE copy of the books How to Understand the Bible and How to Study the Bible on Amazon. But only through April 15. SCRIPTURE …
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For the next few days, April 11-15, the ebook versions of How to Understand the Bible and How to Study the Bible are FREE on Amazon. As always, paperback versions available as well. CLICK HERE CLICK HERE
BUILDING A STRONG LIFE Matthew 7:24-29 I. Wisdom and foolishness – building on rock or sandA. The many faces of foolishness: simplemindedness, carelessness, cynicism (see Proverbs)B. The meaning of wisdom: “wisdom is deep insight into the true nature of things, including their moral value, and the integrity to act on that insight”II. How to build …
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Almighty God,On this day we rejoice in the glory of resurrection. The tomb is empty.Death could not hold the Lord Jesus. His body saw no decay. His enemies did not win. The earth could not contain him.We are emboldened by the power of resurrection.We are encouraged by the hope of resurrection.We are enlightened by the truth …
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A Prayer for Lent, the Days Leading Up to Easter Lord,In the days leading up to Easter we want to contemplate and understand more fully the suffering death of the Lord Jesus whereby we are forgiven and his glorious resurrection whereby we are empowered to live.This great mission to heal a broken world was your …
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Mel Lawrenz is Teaching Pastor at Elmbrook Church. He just published A Better Year Ahead? Opening Our Eyes to Hope, looking ahead to 2021. ________________ These well known words from 1865 are engraved on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial. “With malice toward none, with charity for all… to do all which may achieve and cherish …
[This is chapter 4 in the newly released A Better Year Ahead? Opening Our Eyes to Hope ] Now that is an important question. Everything we do in life, every choice we make, every reaction we have to the people in our lives, every opinion we have about how things are going in our communities and …
What Should I Believe and Whom Should I Believe? Read More »
Happy New Year, friends! Perhaps you have been through the typical ritual of making resolutions for the new year, or perhaps you long ago gave up. I have mixed feelings about resolutions. If they work, and if they aim at a good end, that’s great. I tend to think of turning points in our lives …
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Mel Lawrenz is Teaching Pastor at Elmbrook Church. He just published A Better Year Ahead? Opening Our Eyes to Hope, looking ahead to 2021. ________________ Everyone agrees with this simple sentiment: 2020 was a difficult year. A shockingly difficult year. An unprecedented difficult year. And they all wonder: Is there reason to hope that the new …
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Christmas is always a difficult day for a soldier on a battlefield far from home. How could it be that the Prince of Peace had come, and yet men still shot each other with rifles? On Christmas of 1914 something happened that nobody could have ever predicted. British and German troops were bogged down in …
