Christ the Lord Lutheran Church, 9998 90th Street S, Cottage Grove, MN (2026)

08/27/2026

A Verse from Vicar:
Ephesians 5:13—"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."

In the opening scene of Pixar's Ratatouille, an elderly woman finds two rats in her kitchen. After she tries to get rid of them, she accidentally weakens the chandelier in her dining room. With a crash, an entire colony of rats fall from the ceiling. With the lights of the room and the woman's stare, they quickly scatter. Letting our light shine and living our Christian lives has an effect on the world. Like the scattered rats, our light exposes and reveals darkness and sin. This effect is powerful, but the darkness doesn't want to be exposed. It works to stop the light from shining. It tries to make situations uncomfortable or awkward when we don't want to do what others are doing. It tries to scare us and have us dim our light. It tries to make us guilty that we didn’t shine our light. It tries to make us darkness once again. It is true that we were all once darkness, but you aren't anymore. You were illuminated by the light. The Lord shone on you and given you faith. He scattered your darkness and turned you into light. There is no need to fear darkness, because you are light! Whenever awkward or uncomfortable situations arise because you are a Christian, remember who are. You are light. Do not fear the darkness or its lies but expose it for you are a child of the light.

08/18/2026

A Passage from Pastor:
2 Timothy 2:15— “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

Part of strong communication is knowing when someone needs to hear a particular truth. A team who is arrogantly looking past their next opponent needs their coach to warn them that they better be careful or they could lose. When the team is despairing before a tough opponent, they need to hear inspiring words that they can win. The situation affects what someone needs to hear. Paul urged Timothy to think about how he handles the words of God’s truth. It is something that all Christians should take to heart. God’s Word reveals two important truths: God hates sin and will punish it. And God is merciful and forgives sinners through Jesus. We need to hear both of these truths. However consider carefully when each is needed. When someone is comfortable in a sinful choice they are making. When they have no intention of turning away from a sinful action. They need to hear the thunderous warning from God’s Word of what sin is and how dangerous continuing in it would be. When someone is crushed under guilt and is despairing of how God could possibly love them, then they need to hear the promises of mercy and forgiveness that abound through Scripture. Telling the comfortable sinner that God forgives sin won’t be helpful. Telling the terrified person that God hates sin and will punish it will cause harm too. We want to correctly handle God’s words of truth and speak what is needed to others and ourselves. This is challenging in practice. Our prayer can be that the Holy Spirit continues to accomplish his good purposes through his Word, and that he would guide us in our proclamation of it. May the Lord grant us skill in correctly handling his word of truth.

08/10/2026

A passage from Pastor:
Ezekiel 2:1,2 — “He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.’ As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.”

Get up. That command can be drastically different depending upon the person to whom it is given. If I tell one of my children who is playing cards on the floor to get up, they definitely can listen and stand up. If I speak that command to someone who is injured, or due to physical weakness is unable to stand, it’s an impossible command. Perhaps I could take that person by the hand and cause them to stand, but they are unable to do so on their own. These two verses in Ezekiel struck me this week because I am also reading a book by Martin Luther that is all about what the human will is able to do. He is responding to a writing by someone who claimed that since God’s Word gives lots of commands to people, they must be able to keep them by their own will and strength, at least to some degree. But Luther rightly argues that some of those commands are simply the Lord’s way of showing us that we can’t do what is asked on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to be at work in us. Ezekiel is a good example of this here. He saw the appearance of the Lord’s glory and had fallen to the ground. Now the Lord is going to speak to him and he tells him to stand up. But the Lord doesn’t wait for Ezekiel to figure this out on his own. He sends the Holy Spirit into him, and the Spirit lifts Ezekiel up. There are many commands the Lord makes of us that on our own we could never hope to keep or heed. But the Lord in mercy sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts. He lifts us up and does the heavy lifting as he leads us to repent, believe, and rejoice. Holy Spirit, continue to be at work in us to will and to act according to your good pleasure! Then give us every command.

08/06/2026

Join us this weekend to welcome Vicar Joel Sauer and his wife Grace. Joel will be installed during the morning worship services at 7:45 and 10:00. Everyone is welcome to join us following the 10:00 service for a lunch to welcome Joel and Grace as well as celebrate all of our new members from the last 6 months. Lunch will be ready at 11:15, and we're planning some fun yard games outside, plus plenty of time to chat and enjoy each other's company!

08/03/2026

A Passage from Pastor:
Psalm 32:4 — “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”

It was hot last Monday. How hot was it? The temperature at the airport reached 100 degrees, something that hadn’t happened in Minnesota since 2022. We won’t even talk about the heat index. Even if you are someone who enjoys the heat, you couldn’t help but feel it a bit on Monday. It might have felt like a wall that takes your breath away as you attempted to do much of anything outside. David knew the feeling. He knew the feeling because some hot summer days in Israel probably were even more intense than July in Minnesota. But he also knew that feeling because that was how it felt when he attempted to hide his sin. It felt like his bones were wasting away. It felt like the Lord’s hand was pushing him down. It felt like all his strength was gone, like we might have felt in the heat on Monday. Attempting to sweep his sins under the rug and ignore them wasn’t working. And he didn’t need to do that either. David goes on in Psalm 32 to this refreshing truth. I confessed my sins, and you forgave my guilt. He didn’t have to be afraid to confess his sins, and neither do we. When we confess our guilt to God and to one another, what happens? The Lord forgives our iniquity. He promises us mercy and peace because of what Jesus has done for us. He promises relief. On a day like Monday, you might walk into a place with air conditioning, and even if you have turned your thermostat up a few degrees to save energy, it feels like a wave of refreshment. We confess our sins to the Lord and we are met with a wave of refreshment and strength as the Lord declares us forgiven and at peace with him. Today, and every day, is the best day for us to run to our Savior, to confess our sinfulness, and to hear the cool, refreshing promise of complete forgiveness.

07/29/2026

We are hosting another Red Cross Blood Drive coming up on Tuesday, August 25th from 9am-3pm. Appointments can be made online at redcrossblood.org and entering Christ the Lord or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Donors will receive a $20 Amazon gift card by email.

07/27/2026

A Passage from Pastor:
Jeremiah 50:20 — “In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.’”

Normally when we are searching for something, we hope to find it. We play hide and seek with our children, and the seeker hopes to find all the other players. We are trying to get out the door and we frantically search our counters and desks to find our keys. We see the lost dog signs and we know someone is feverishly searching for the furry companion. The act of searching normally means we hope to find something. But in this verse it is just the opposite. The Lord declares that a search will be made but will not find something. And this is the best news! Because the search being made was for the guilt and sins of his people. Those who just read Jeremiah appreciate how shocking this statement is. The Lord was blunt in his words to his people about what their idolatry was going to do. But now he declares though a search is made, no sin or guilt will be found. For he will forgive them. You and I might feel like David did when he wrote Psalm 51 and said, “My sin is always before me.” It is always right there in front of my face. Horrible and ugly. And what does the Lord say? Search will be made for your guilt and it will not be found. Search will be made for those sins and they will not be brought to light. How on earth can he make this promise to me? Because of his forgiveness in Christ. He took the sins before me and before you, the ones right out in the open and the ones hidden in the deepest recesses of our hearts, and he hid them in Jesus on the cross. No one will ever find them there. No search will ever bring back your guilt because of what the Lord has done! The greatest search and rescue team in the world will never find my sin, for the Lord has forgiven me and cast my sins away forever.

07/21/2026

A Passage from Pastor:
Leviticus 16:13 — “He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die.”

In the last few days most have probably seen an impressive picture or two. Ironically, the sight is noteworthy because of what you can’t see. Maybe you have seen a picture of the smoke wall moving in, or it could just be someone sent you a text showing how they can’t even see the other side of the lake or the soccer field. And one would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t noticed the smell of smoke lately. The fires that are burning in the north are destructive and harmful, and even if we are not geographically close to them, we are feeling their effects. We rightly can yearn for the smoke to diminish and disappear. But the haze and smell did serve as a reminder of an important part of the Old Testament’s worship of the Lord. You may recall that the place where they worshipped was divided into two rooms. This was true of the tabernacle (the moving tent) and the temple. One room was the holy place. Priests would serve there every day. But the second room was the most holy place, and only the high priest would enter that room, once a year, with a very specific set of instructions. Part of that process was burning incense inside the holy place and then bringing it with him into the second room. The smoke of the incense was to conceal this sinful man in the presence of the Holy God. The smell of it was a pleasing aroma that rose to the Lord, just like the prayers of his people. This priest needed to be covered. In our study of Hebrews on Sundays, we have been seeing how Jesus is the ultimate priest. He enters into God’s presence on our behalf and stands before him face to face to plead for us. No smoke needed. As we see and smell this smoke, and long for its dissipation, may we rejoice that because of Jesus’ holiness, we no longer need to fear dwelling in God’s presence forever!

07/15/2026

A Passage from Pastor:
Jeremiah 36:27,28 — “After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.’”

Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, didn’t want to hear what the Lord had to say to him. The Lord called for Judah to repent and turn away from wickedness. The Lord warned of the destruction that was coming because of their idolatry. The Lord called on the king to be the shepherd of his people. But Jehoiakim wasn’t going to listen. Instead he decided he would burn up the Word of the Lord. As Jeremiah’s message was read to him, he would cut off every few lines and throw it in his fireplace. He decided to destroy the Word of the Lord. There was only one flaw to his plan. The Word of the Lord stands forever. The Lord declares that the heavens and earth will pass away but his word will never pass away. Sure, you could take my confirmation Bible and burn it up. Yes, my visitation Bible is quickly wearing out and the only question is what will fall apart first: the binding or my eye's ability to read the small type. But you cannot destroy the Word of the Lord. His judgments, and most importantly, his promises will stand until the end of time. Mankind can close their ears. He can make his heart like the hardened path from Jesus’ parable. But the word remains. Instead of fighting a losing battle to ignore the Word of the Lord, let us joyfully listen to it. Lord open our ears to your words. Allow us to see there our desperate need for repentance and forgiveness. And allow us to hear your Word as it promises us life and salvation in your Son Jesus Christ. Your Word will abide forever Lord. Allow it to remain in our ears and hearts forever!

Christ the Lord Lutheran Church

08/27/2026

08/18/2026

08/10/2026

08/06/2026

08/03/2026

07/29/2026

07/27/2026

07/21/2026

07/15/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request