When Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). 

Our Lord performed many amazing miracles during His earthly ministry, none greater than raising the dead back to life, like Lazarus. Such miracles were not about the act itself, however. They pointed ahead to the greater miracle that was yet to come: the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the dead on Easter morning. This saving work is what assures us of our own healing and resurrected life eternally. All of this, from the miracles to the resurrection of Jesus to our own resurrection, is about bringing glory to God. Throughout its over 80-year history, the LWML has also accomplished some pretty great things. Christ has been proclaimed, missions have been supported, women have been encouraged and equipped in their own lives of faith and given opportunities for faithful service. None of it, however, has been about the LWML. It has all been about Jesus and about giving glory to God for His faithfulness to us. Prayerfully consider supporting the LWML through a charitable gift plan. Our gift planning counselors can help you with this at no cost to you. What a blessing it will be in both life and death to proclaim Him who is the resurrection and the life!

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing (John 9:6–7). 

When it comes to considering a will or even bigger gift planning options, some people think that there will not be much to work with from their assets. After all, most people don’t have built-up resources that align with names like Gates or Musk. However, you would be surprised at what you can do with gift planning, even with what may seem like meager resources. Our gift planning counselors can help you to evaluate all of your options and can show how you can make a faithful, joyful gift that will help your family or charitable organizations like LWML. Besides, even if your gift doesn’t have a bunch of zeroes after it, that does not mean it cannot have a great impact. LWML mite offerings have turned into millions of dollars over time, by the grace of God. And, Jesus is in the habit of taking little things and making something miraculous out of them. The Creator who made man from the dust of the earth now takes that same dust and makes a blind man see. He can certainly make use of your gift, whatever the size, to help those who are blinded by sin to see clearly their salvation in God.

The Third Sunday in Lent

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

The woman at the well was very earthly-minded. Her concern was about her own thirst, her own workload, her own reputation. Jesus, on the other hand, was concerned about her spiritual well-being. His desire was to offer the living water that wells up to everlasting life. While the woman was earthly-minded, Jesus is eternal-minded. We are not so different than the woman at the well. We worry and fixate on earthly things, concerned about how to live well and retire well, and even to die well and provide for our family’s earthly needs after we are gone. Our Lord is more concerned about our eternal needs — life with Him in His kingdom. He desires this eternal life for all His beloved children. Gifts of Love can help you evaluate your earthly blessings, whether they be great or small, and aid you in making an eternal impact by supporting missionaries and mercy work among the world’s most needful people. This will help to connect them to the living water that Jesus provides, and to the eternal life He gives to the world.

The Second Sunday in Lent

[Jesus said,] “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

It is a strange reality that the Spirit of God goes where He wishes, and works when and where He pleases. We do not always understand how, but the promise is that the Spirit is at work through the proclaimed Word and the Means of Grace. It also emphasizes the truth that God doesn’t give up on anyone. Like the thief on the cross at Golgotha, one never knows when the Spirit might work faith into the hearts of God’s people. That is why the Church, and why Lutheran Women are always in Mission. If God doesn’t give up on anyone, then neither can we, and so we seek to support mission work around the world. Through LWML’s Gifts of Love ministry, you can support the work of charitable, Gospel-oriented organizations by including a gift plan in your will. Your gracious gift can continue to support the work of LWML for generations to come, and aid in the proclamation of God’s Word where it is needed most. Where that happens, the Spirit is indeed blowing, and in His timing, faith is created in the hearts of men and women and increasing the blessed saints who are inheritors of the kingdom of God.

The Nativity of our Lord

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4–5).

What an amazing blessing it is that in the darkest time of the world, when we have the least amount of sunlight shining each day, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Word made flesh Who has come to usher in the age of light! It is truly symbolic of our lives. Darkened by sin and its effects, we constantly live in darkness. To meet that darkness, Christ has come to us declaring to us His forgiveness and ushering us into the light of His glory, a light that now darkness cannot overcome. It is this light that LWML looks to equip women of the Church to bear in their lives, that we support missionaries to proclaim and share, and that we grow in through our study of the Word. So that we may have the ability to carry on this work into the future, the Gifts of Love ministry has been established to help people think deliberately about how to leave a legacy that bears witness to the light of Christ for generations to come. Prayerfully consider supporting Gifts of Love. Or, sit with a counselor and enable them to show you your options for blessing your family and supporting organizations like LWML so that the light of Christ may go forth into the world, calling sinners into the light and life of God.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Christmas is just a week away, and the anticipation for the birth of the Savior of the world could not be higher! Just days from now, we will celebrate the newborn King, born in our midst. Yet, what we celebrate is no mere birth. It is the birth of Jesus, the very One Who has come to save us, not just from the strains and pains of life, but from their very source, which is sin. Jesus would be born in humility, make His way to the cross to suffer and die for our sins, and then rise in glory to grant us life — to save us from our sins eternally. That is what we truly await, and Jesus is our hope and life. In considering all that God has blessed us with in this life, we know that it is nothing in comparison to the life He gives us eternally through the work of Jesus. As we think about those blessings, setting a plan in order to pass them on to our family and other charitable organizations is a wonderful way to demonstrate the hope we have in our Lord’s salvation. Contact our Gift Planning Counselors today and see how you can leave a blessing for your loved ones, and through a Christian preamble included in your will, point them to the same hope that you have been given: salvation in Jesus and life forever in His name!

The Third Sunday of Advent

And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4–5).

Interestingly, the final thing that our Lord gives as proof that He is the One Who is to come is the proclamation of good news to the poor. This is not to diminish the other signs that accompany the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, but the other ones occur to a select few people. What is common to all sinners of the world is the preaching of the Gospel, calling them to repentance, faith, and life with God. This is part of what LWML has sought to do through support of missions and equipping women by the Word of God. Our aim is to have the Good News of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Through the Gifts of Love ministry, we hope to assist people in aiding organizations like the LWML in this endeavor for generations to come, until our Lord returns in glory. Such proclamation points people to Christ and to the salvation He has won for us. Prayerfully consider a gift to the LWML through Gifts of Love. This important work of helping families plan for the future can be a tremendous blessing, for it helps to connect others to Jesus and to the healing and life that He gives eternally.