Christopher Gillespie

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 26, 2025

"Forgiveness of sins flows from Christ's cross into your life" Trinity 19 2025

And here comes Jesus—with no lecture, no conditions, no delay— “Take heart, son. Your sins are forgiven.” That’s not just a kind word. That’s a word that changes everything. That’s a word that moves you from death to life. We might think Jesus got it wrong—this man came for healing, and Jesus gave forgiveness. But that’s the point. Forgiveness is the healing. The real sickness isn’t in the legs; it’s in the heart. It’s the sin that separates us from God. And Jesus cuts straight to it. This isn’t Jesus showing off for the Pharisees or using the man as an object lesson. No, He loves him. He loves him enough to give him what matters most: peace with God.

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 23, 2025

“The Church is a field of sinners—repentant sinners” Wednesday of Trinity 18 2025

You want to talk about weeds? Look at the cross. There’s the Lord of the harvest—hanging among the weeds, counted as one of them, so He could raise up a field of wheat. He took our impatience, our distrust, our self-appointed judgment. He took it all into the ground, and on the third day, the true Wheat sprouted from the soil—first-fruits of a new creation. Now He’s at work in you. In this messy, mixed-up field we call the church, He’s working through His Word, watering you with baptism, feeding you with His body and blood, forgiving, pruning, reshaping, keeping the wheat alive until harvest.

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 20, 2025

"That’s love: arms stretched wide, heart pierced, blood poured out" Trinity 18 2025

Now you belong to that love. You live from that love. You give what you’ve received — not perfectly, but faithfully. Because the one who loves you doesn’t keep score. He doesn’t measure your worth. He gives Himself to you over and over — in preaching, in baptism, in the Supper — until His love fills every empty space in your heart. That’s how you learn to love your neighbor — not by trying harder, but by being filled with Christ. You can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t love from emptiness. But Christ gives you Himself — His body, His blood, His forgiveness, His Spirit — so that His love becomes yours.

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 16, 2025

"Look to the One Isaiah saw, the One lifted up for your salvation!" Wednesday of Trinity 17 2025

Because the truth endures when the world forgets. The Word stands firm when everything else falls. And the glory of God — the crucified, risen, forgiving Jesus — is still shining, still calling, still healing, still saving. So look to Him. Not to the crowd. Not to the opinions of others. Look to the One Isaiah saw, the One lifted up for your salvation. Look to His cross, His wounds, His mercy. That’s the glory that matters. That’s the glory that lasts.

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 13, 2025

"Your host Jesus comes to you and say, 'Friend, move up higher!'" Trinity 17 2025

And hear this clearly: You don’t have to make a name for yourself. You don’t have to build your own reputation. You don’t have to chase affirmation. You don’t need to be the big-name Christian or congregation. Because you already have a name—given to you in baptism. You already have a seat—set by grace. You already have honor—because Christ has called you “friend.”

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 9, 2025

"Follow Jesus, and you’ll lose some things—but you’ll gain everything" Wednesday of Trinity 16 2025

That’s the paradox of the cross. To gain life, you must lose it. To be rich, you give it away. To be filled, you have to be emptied. That’s why we gather—to have our illusions shattered. To hear what’s true, even when it’s painful. Because Jesus isn’t trying to ruin your life; he’s saving it. He’s freeing you from the grip of mammon, from the illusion that you can save yourself, and from the lie that you can be good without God.

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 6, 2025

"What no doctor, no medicine, no fortune could do—Christ does with a word!" Trinity 16 2025

Death still stings, but it cannot keep you. The grave still claims the body, but not the soul. Christ has made death a servant of life, turning the enemy into the doorway through which He brings His saints home. And so, when the day comes—and it will—when your strength fails and your eyes grow dim, do not be afraid. Christ will be there, as He was at Nain, as He was at the tomb, as He is here now. And He will say to you, not as a command of judgment but as a word of promise: “I say to you, arise!”

by Christopher Gillespie Oct 2, 2025

Ambrose on the Resurrection

87. If the earth and heaven are renewed, why should we doubt that man, on account of whom heaven and earth were made, can be renewed? If the transgressor be reserved for punishment, why should not the just be kept for glory? If the worm of sins does not die, how shall the flesh of the just perish? For the resurrection, as the very form of the word shows, is this, that what has fallen should rise again, that which has died should come to life again.

by Christopher Gillespie Sep 26, 2025

How The Brethren Are to Reconcile in Christ in Times of Conflict

The Church falters when Christians refuse to pray, confess, and reconcile in conflict, but Christ’s unyielding mercy calls them to lay their grievances at the altar and be made whole.

by Christopher Gillespie Sep 18, 2025

"The Servant who conquers not by quarreling, but by redeeming" Wednesday of Trinity 13 2025

This is Jesus: the Spirit-anointed Servant, chosen and beloved of the Father, who does not conquer by shouting, does not redeem by politicking, does not establish His kingdom by power plays. He redeems by mercy. He conquers by weakness. He saves by suffering.

by Christopher Gillespie Sep 14, 2025

"Love the neighbor God drops in your path" Trinity 13 2025

You don’t love God. You don’t love your neighbor. But Jesus does. Jesus loves His Father completely, and Jesus loves His neighbor completely. And then He dies for every failure of yours. He dies for the times you looked away. He dies for the grudges you still carry. He dies for the names you called people in your heart. He dies for your selfishness, your coldness, your Cain-heart. And in exchange, He gives you His heart. His Spirit. His love. Paul says in Romans 5: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” You don’t love by nature. You love by gift. And the gift is Jesus.

by Christopher Gillespie Sep 12, 2025

"The blind shall see, the deaf hear, the mute sing, the dead rise!" Wednesday of Trinity 12 2025

This is your hope: what He begins here, He will complete on the Last Day. The blind shall see, the deaf hear, the mute sing, the dead rise. For the same Jesus who opened eyes and loosed tongues has conquered death itself. “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Therefore, we join the blind men in their prayer: “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” This is the Church’s daily cry. In sickness, in sorrow, in sin—we cry for mercy. And Christ answers. Not always with a miracle of healing, but always with forgiveness, always with His presence, always with the promise of resurrection.

by Christopher Gillespie Sep 8, 2025

His Word went out and the people “were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well.’” Trinity 12 2025

As Jesus cried out, “Ephphatha!” more ears were opened and more tongues confessed. Within eleven years, the congregation had grown so that it called its first teacher, Jakob Brater, to assist the pastor in opening the children’s ears to Christ and His Word. In that same year, some of our own who lived closer to Cascade began a new congregation there. And through fire and plague and Civil War, Jesus continued to open ears and loosen tongues, with new buildings, new congregations, and pastor after pastor. His Word went out and the people of Sherman Center “were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak’” (Mk 7:37).

by Christopher Gillespie Aug 31, 2025

The Sacred Value of Everyday Work

Whether you are standing behind a counter, sitting in a cubicle, driving a truck, or managing a household, take heart: your work matters. It is not wasted in God’s sight.

by Christopher Gillespie Aug 31, 2025

"You are sinner and saint. But in Christ you go home justified!" Trinity 11 2025

Here, Pharisees and tax collectors, hypocrites and doubters, saints and sinners, come together as one. Here you confess together: “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities.” And here you hear together: “I forgive you.” Here you cry out: “Lord, have mercy.” And here you hear: “Take, eat; take, drink. This is My body, this is My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Come, then. Come with your shame, your guilt, your fear, your grief. Come as a sinner. Come to the altar where Christ welcomes sinners. And go home justified.