What do we get wrong when we talk about God’s omnipresence? 🤔

Is God everywhere? 🌎

If we say God exists in all things, we risk drifting into paganism. ⚠️

It’s true that there’s no place He cannot be, but that doesn’t mean God reveals himself in all places. ✨

If God is in the trees 🌳, the sunset 🌅, and the mountains 🏔️, the one place you're never going to see God is on the cross. ✝️

The Bible never says God is everywhere.

Psalm 139 says, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” 🙌

What’s awesome is not just that God can be anywhere, but that He would go anywhere FOR YOU. 🎯

Wherever you happen to be, that’s where God wants to be — even in the darkest, most chaotic moments. 🌑

After Jesus tells his disciples to baptize all nations, He says: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 🌍✝️

In baptism, you are bound to a God who goes with you everywhere — no place is off-limits to Him. 🌊✝️

God goes with you to shield and save you not only from the pains of this life, but from death itself — because you will rise again. 🌅💫

Yet, you’re never alone because God is with you and for you. 🤗

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #attributesofgod #omnipresence

It feels like the world’s longest road trip. 🚗 You’ve been there: Dad is losing his patience, the family dog 🐶 is antsy in already cramped quarters, and the kids keep asking, “Are we there, yet?”

You finally get to your destination, but you have to wait even longer before you can get out of the car. 🚙 Will this trip ever end?? 😩

No, this isn’t your summer vacation. 🌞 It’s only a year’s long trip on Noah’s ark . . . 🛳️ the trip that feels like it will go on forever.

While so much art 🎨 romanticizes Noah’s ark, it was most likely not a pleasant ride. Think about it — he's in this boat full of animals 🐘🦒🐍 that are smelly, loud, and crowded.

But then: “God remembered Noah.” 🌈

When God remembers, it's always tied to an action.

God remembers us even if we are on a boat surrounded by death itself. ⚰️

We see that in our baptism — each day the old Adam dies and the new man rises. 🌿 Just as God continued to be with Noah, so God continues to be with us in the ark of the church ⛪ (which exists in a world that smelly, hurtful, and awful). 🌎

To find out if it’s okay to leave, Noah sends out birds. 🕊️ A dove brings back the olive branch of peace that God’s wrath has receded.

Noah and the fam can FINALLY get off the boat! 🎉

He offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving. 🙏

God then repeats what he said at creation: “Be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 🌱

God sustains his creation through family. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Then, God makes a promise. Even though creation is still fallen, God promises that he will never destroy the earth in this way again. 🌏

And the order of creation will continue: “while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.” 🌿❄️🌞🌙

God is being merciful to a world corrupted by our sin. ❤️

We have a God who sustains creation in the midst of death and he becomes death himself. ✝️

Because we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, it lets us deal with the messy side of sin and death because we know that God has not forgotten us. 🙌

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

Contributor Michelle Bauman is the Director of Y4Life.

#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #noah #genesis

You're confirmed. ✅ You’ve learned the catechism, the Book of Concord, and you understand law and gospel.

So, what’s the next level? What does Christianity 2.0 look like? 🤔 Is there something more to this than just the forgiveness of sins?

The problem is the question.❓The question should not be “What’s next?” The question should be, “What is the most needful thing for me to do?” 🤲

Think back to the Bible when Martha was upset at Mary for not helping her with the housework, and Jesus tells Martha that “one thing is needful.”

What was the one thing that was needful? To sit and receive from Jesus. ✝️

Go back to the first things — the things you first learned. Even if you think you’ve got it all mastered, you haven’t. 😬

Our sinful flesh demands that we return again and again to first things — the 10 commandments, the creed, and the Lord’s Prayer.🙏

❓Why is returning to first things the answer?

The old Adam has to die every day ⚔️ so the new man can be raised. 🌱

We need protection from the devil, rescue from our sinful flesh, and from this world — constantly.🛡️

The devil never sleeps. He doesn't stop. 😈 The same is true of our sinful flesh. It's always trying to take God's gifts and turn them into something we do.

The good works that we want to do and we should do only come as good from God.

Luther says there's enough in just baptism for us to unpack the rest of our lives.💧

✨Look to the author and the finisher of your faith.✨

God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways. There are parts of God that you will never understand, but there are also the parts that he wants you to know. And the more you study them, the more you learn.

Every time you return to the text and the more you dive into the scriptures, the deeper they seem to want to go.

Luther said you need to hear the gospel every day because you forget it every day. 🗣️We’re good at beating ourselves up with the law. So what do you learn next? You need to hear the gospel again and again and again.💗

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

Contributor Marsh Shamburger is Pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Rocklin, CA.

#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #christian

God: *It’s time to get into the ark* 🌊

**God Saved His Creation Then, and He Saves Us Now.**

Just like God saved Noah and his family on the ark, the church is our 'boat' today. 🌍⛪

The flood waters that lifted the ark also remind us of our own salvation through baptism. 💧

In the church, we are protected, even when the storm outside rages. 🌧️

God sealed Noah's ark to keep them safe—and He seals us in His grace through baptism, saving us from the storm of sin and death. 🙏⚡

Just like Noah, we aren’t perfect builders. 🛠️

But God makes sure the ship is strong enough to carry us. 🕊️🌊

Stay in the boat—God continues to save, cleanse, and uphold us, no matter how rough the waters get. ⚓️

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

Contributor Michelle Bauman is the Director of Y4Life.

#lcms #lutheran #higherthings #noahsark #church

What does Jesus say about wisdom?

Proverbs 4…

"🌿 What does Jesus say about wisdom?

What do you do with what you know about the word of God?

When the Lord talks about sin, what do you do with that information?

When the Lord talks about goodness, what do you do with that information?

Here’s the thing…

Wisdom isn’t just being the winner at Bible trivia.

Nope!

Wisdom = applying God’s Word to our lives. 💡

Wisdom is actually knowing what to do with both the law and the gospel of God.

The law absolutely comes to show us our sin. It shows us the dangers of evil.

And just when we begin living in that darkness of sin and evil and knowing we are so broken, the gospel reminds us yet again that we belong to God.

In Christ, we're baptized.

That's our place. That's where we belong.

You’re not the sum of your sins.
You do not belong to darkness.
You belong to Jesus.

Contributor Rev. Harrison Goodman is the Higher Things Content Executive.

Contributor Matt Richard is Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Minot, ND.

#lcms #lutheran #higherthings #proverbs #jesus

Ever find yourself trying to figure out how your faith fits with your human logic?

Same.

We live in a world where logic and reason are king, but when it comes to faith, things get… well, a little wild.

Here’s the thing: Faith and reason are NOT the same things.

Faith is trusting in something way bigger than yourself…

…something that doesn't always "make sense" by our earthly, sinful, human rules.

But what if faith actually puts reason in its place?

Like, who’s smarter—us or God, the Creator of literally EVERTHING?

If we’re smarter, maybe we need a better God (spoiler: we’re not).

Faith isn’t about winning a logic battle.

It’s about trusting God even when things seem impossible—like…

The whole "God becoming human" thing. 🤔

The body and wine in the sacraments.

The Holy Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 3-in-1.

Doesn’t add up, right? But that’s the point.

But one of the fruits of your faith is that our reason can be of service to you…

You know how to read and that helps you to read the Bible and the catechism.

And there we find the words, “I believe I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel….”

Remember, we are saved through faith, not through reason.

So, is having reason or logic a bad thing?

Nope!

They just need to be put in the right order.

Your reason is corrected by scripture. Always.

God will tell you a thing that you can't understand, and that doesn't mean that it's not true.

That just means that we have to say, ‘All right, that's, that's what it means to have faith.’

This tension between faith and reason will continue as long as we're in sinful flesh.

So, what question should we ask ourselves instead?

Maybe it's ‘In what way does faith inform my thinking?’

And the answer is:

In service of God and neighbor

By living the 10 commandments

Because Christ fulfilled them for you

And because you now want to

Not because you have to

But because you want to

Because of your faith