LMM - Lutheran Men In Mission

12/24/2025

Merry Christmas!

12/23/2025

THE JOY OF THE TURN
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” Luke 2:10 NIV

We’ve done it. We’ve made the turn. Golfers recognize the term “the turn,” when the front or “outward” nine of an 18-hole round gives way to the back or “inward” nine – some call it the homeward nine, since the round now heads home to the clubhouse, and the counting up of strokes, and a drink or two spiked with the implicit joy in having joined friends outdoors for a fun and challenging pursuit. Somewhere, in whatever season or on whatever hemisphere, someone is always making the turn in celebration – and, yes, in regret for missed putts and wayward tee shots, or perhaps even disappointment from not playing up to one’s potential. But that’s golf, and that’s definitely life.
Long before golf was a thing and mankind marked the seasons with such ruthless efficiency – on detailed maps of the heavens, through calendars conjured by Roman emperors and codified by Gregorian monks, and now on our smart phones and watches
– our ancestors marked “the turn” not from front nine to back nine, but from long darkness to joyous light. Their lives literally depended on the turning of dark to light. Without it, crops would fail, livestock would die, and larders would go empty. So they build the Stonehenges and Mayan temples and carefully marked the sun’s movement across the horizon, and slowly, surely, joyously welcomed the coming of longer days and renewed life.
There is no certain record showing that Jesus was born near the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice, but tradition places his birth there for a reason: He IS the light. He is the joy. He is the “reason for the season” among Christians. He IS the path to new life, renewed hope, restored peace, and everlasting love – the elements that mark our Advent journey this and every year.
In a clinical or social sense, it’s easy to describe joy as a passing, all-too-transitory emotion, an unsustainable blast of euphoria. It’s also easy to cheapen joy by attaching it to something that’s ultimately meaningless, like a favorite team’s touchdown in overtime or a buzzer-beating three-pointer, or a long birdie putt on the 18 th hole. Those things do indeed give us jolts of human celebratory joy, but the real deal, the brand of lasting joy we all seek, comes through faith in Christ, in the Word, in his unextinguishable light – and how that light lives through us, on this Earth, in this time, for all time.

— Vic Williams
Let us pray,
Giver of light and truth, you bring us out of the darkness yet again with the promise of your Son, Emmanuel. You bring us to another turning point where fear is defeated, hope holds humankind close to one another in celebration and abundant joy, and we are invited to welcome the light by striving for peace and treating one another with love. We turn back to you, our creator and protector, to show us the way forward, toward home, as Christmas gives way to a brighter day and snew year. Amen.

12/22/2025

Daily Advent Prayer...
Holy and Loving God,
Whose Spirit rested on Joseph,
Calling him to parenthood,
And on Mary, preparing her for motherhood and birth,
By your Spirit, call and prepare us
For our relationships, our work, our ministry,
That we also may say, “Your will be done in us,”
To the glory of Jesus Christ,
In whose name we pray. Amen

12/19/2025

Please register if you're needing a more serene worship during this season.

Join us for the 2025 Blue Christmas Service 💙. This service takes place on the Winter Solstice, Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 7 pm (CST) which is the longest night of the year.

Register to attend. ✨

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T_O-DI4iTtGEtNaV1SFMsg #/registration

12/19/2025

Daily Advent Prayer
2018 throwback...
I try to go without you Lord. Even with knowing you, I try to go it alone. I forget that everything I am able to do is ultimately still because of you and not me. Let me remember how you come to me and how you sought me. Amen

12/18/2025

Advent Daily Prayer...
a throwback from Advent 2021...
A Man Of Faith
Matthew 1:18-25
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

What do you know about Joseph?
Can you relate to the character he has?
Would you have done what Joseph did?

12/18/2025

Merry Christmas LMM nation!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

12/17/2025

Daily Advent Prayer
“Love In Any Language”
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. — Revelation 21:4
Over the past weekend, as one horrible, violent tragedy after another dominated the TV news chyrons and exploded across our phone screens, I managed to lean on the power of love to help me get through the horror and disbelief. I watched both my grandsons score a few points and dish a few assists on the basketball court, reveling in the love they have for athletic pursuit and teamwork. On Sunday morning I joined a packed sanctuary of fellow believers to take in this year’s Advent Children’s Play, aptly titled “Love In Any Language.” Kids from age four to teen hammed it up, leading us adults through several sweet songs and clearly loving where they were and what they were doing . Even the shy ones brought the love to every word and smile, with two of the littlest girls blowing out the candle on Jesus’ birthday cake. Later Sunday evening, the older grandson anchored an another annual event – a holiday piano recital, 14 youngsters strong – blasting through three songs sans sheet music and bringing a proud tear to my eye.
I love this stuff. After many years of looking forward to Christmas Day itself for thoroughly worldly and selfish reasons – presents ripped open, food and drink consumed to excess – I’ve been far more attuned to the real “reason for the season” in my later years. Nowadays I wait to feel the heat and light and promise of Christ’s love, delivered straight to my heart by family and friends. Even as a part of me continues to mourn the loss of human lives near and far, the larger part – the faithful part – continues to move forward toward that eternal light. I wipe away the tears and keep looking for the “old order” of fear and violence to give way to God’s kingdom, built on the strongest foundation there is in the universe: love.
Let us pray:
Heavenly light, giver of life, you conquer our fears and wipe our tears even as the world threatens to pull us away, bring us down, and wring us out. You never turn away from us or dim your love for us. As we await the joyous day marking the birth of your Son, help us keep His love for us at the forefront of our spirits, in that place where death holds no purchase and grace keeps us going. Amen.

12/16/2025

Daily Advent Prayer
Christmas comes, but not yet. 
Before we celebrate, let us wait,
taking time to remember who is coming,
time to prepare our lives,
time to look outwards in love.
"Christmas waits to come. Gently count the days;
time to wait and walk with God,
time to fill with praise."

-Brian Wren

12/15/2025

12/13/2025

More than a game…

“In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit

12/12/2025

Advent Daily Prayer...
Lord Jesus Christ, we await your coming,
We wait filled with hope,
Knowing your light will shine in the darkness.
We wait anticipating your peace,
Believing that one day it will fill our world.
We wait embracing your love,
May we reach out to share it with our neighbours.
We wait with joy,
Bubbling us in expectation of your birth.
Lord we wait,
Come soon and fill us with your life.

~ written by Christine Sine