Christ Lutheran Church, Paris, TN

06/04/2026

Alright, the services for both May 24th and May 31st are now up! Click below to watch.

Biblical, confessional, liturgical, Lutheran. Join us Sundays at 10:30 AM for Divine Service!

06/03/2026

TODAY IN HISTORY: On June 3, 1931, Francis August Otto Pieper, theologian and president of Concordia Seminary St. Louis and fourth president of the Missouri Synod, died.

Franz Pieper was born in Pomerania, Germany on 27 June 1852 and immigrated to the United States in 1870. Upon completing his studies at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, he was ordained on July 1875 in Centerville, Wisconsin. Pieper served as pastor in Centerville for one year before accepting a call to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where he served for two years. He then became a professor at his alma mater in 1878, and in 1887 became its president. From 1882 to 1899, Pieper served on the Board of Colored Missions for the Synodical Conference. He served as President of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod from 1899 until 1911.

Pieper is perhaps better known that other seminary and synod presidents of yesteryear because of his three-volume Christian Dogmatics (1950–1953), translated from the German Christliche Dogmatik (1917–1924). The work still serves as an important theological work within the LCMS, and was also the basis of the condensed, single-volume Dogmatics by John Theodore Mueller.

Pieper married Minnie Koehn in 1877, and the couple had thirteen children in all. By our research, three of his sons (Francis, Theodore, and Erich) became pastors, and his daughter, Irene Therese Pieper Koenig (1895–1967), was a medical doctor and married to Rev. George Karl August Koenig, who was briefly the president of the Atlantic District. Small Lutheran world!

05/21/2026

Alright, services for both May 7th and 10th are up! Please click below to watch.

Biblical, confessional, liturgical, Lutheran. Join us Sundays at 10:30 AM for Divine Service!

05/18/2026

The Hymn of the Day for Holy Trinity is "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest” (498/499).

The Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of believers, changing the heart of stone into a heart of flesh washed clean in God’s word (Ezekiel 36:27-38). This changing of the heart, bringing life where there once was death, is a saving act done not by one making a decision to believe, but by God. The Christian cannot believe in Jesus Christ by his own reason and strength, but only through the Holy Spirit enlightening us by the gospel. Having once been dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-3), like Lazarus (John 10:38-44) the Christian rises from death into life only by God’s word, for a dead being can do nothing. The Holy Spirit fills the heart with faith, being the wonderful Counselor, the Helper, the upholder who reminds all believers of Christ’s words (John 14:26).

Through the Spirit is the fount of life, the living water of Christ, given. The Spirit comes in the washing of baptism that anoints the church. Just as God’s fire lead Israel by night through the desert, does the Holy Spirit guide all Christians through this valley of sorrow and death, walking strong against any fear of evil. Where there was once a soul belonging to the wily foe, the devil’s kingdom, the Christian soul is freed and under God’s abiding peace.

The guidance of remembering Christ’s word is an active, daily remembrance in the walk of faith. By giving faith, and remembrance of God’s word, does the believer feel contrition for sin, and joy in forgiveness.

Art: The Israelites Led by the Pillar of Fire by Night, c.1845 by William West

05/17/2026

05/17/2026

Last Thursday Pastor Yamamoto had the blessing to worship with and preach at St Paul Lutheran Church - Paducah, KY for their celebration of Ascension Day

https://youtu.be/ScgHbzyF1Ow?si=kE_fHUy7hiE4hIXL

Sermon begins at 19:22

2 Kings 2:5-15, Acts 1:1-11, Mark 16:14-20LSB 822, "Alleluia, Let Praises Ring," LSB 494, "See the Lord Ascends in Triumph," LSB 493, "A Hymn of Glory let us...

05/14/2026

Blessed Ascension of Our Lord, from all of us at Concordia Historical Institute!

40 days after Christ rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, as we read in Mark 16:19–20, Luke 24:51, and Acts 1:1–11. There are other references to the Ascension across the epistles (Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:19–20, Colossians 3:1, Philippians 2:9–11, 1 Timothy 3:16, and 1 Peter 3:21–22), and Jesus foretells it three times in the Gospel of John (John 3:13, 6:62, and 20:17). Historically, the church has kept the Ascension as a festival of Christ 40 days after Easter Sunday. Some churches have Divine Service today, while others translate the feast to the Seventh Sunday in Easter.

What do we confess by celebrating the Ascension? Here's what the Augsburg Confession has to say:

"[Jesus] ascended into heaven that He might sit on the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to rule, comfort, and quicken them, and to defend them against the devil and the power of sin" (AC III:4–5).

05/13/2026

Hymn of the Day –The Hymn of the Day for Exaudi ("Hear O Lord" from Psalm 27:7) is "If God Himself Be for Me" (LSB 724).

“If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) Whether it be against a mighty host, such as the armies Joshua or David faced, to whatever else, the Christian has nothing to fear. No power, neither angels nor rulers, death nor life, "nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). The foundation of this strength is built on Christ's salvation.

To not have eternal salvation renders any other good pointless and vain. If there is no salvation, then there is only doom. Through the blood of Christ is one able to stand cleansed from all accusations and fury of Satan. The Christian rejoices and endures then all suffering in being an enemy of Satan, from persecution, mockery, shame and loss. To proudly bear being Satan's opponent is a joy, for even if the body Satan kills, the soul cannot be when cleaving to Christ. It is a battle already won. The Lord is a mighty fortress, a shield and sword. Having Christ as king and heaven as inheritance, the Christian fights on in God's kingdom as a happy warrior.

This joy is what gave Paul Gerhardt (1607-76) strength, who endured losing his entire home, the lives of his congregation and village from the Thirty Years War, and later his wife and four children from sickness. In all this, his faith stood unbroken.