Every day, I’m going to hand-write the same Psalm

October 29, 2020EtcMatt Maldre

We all know that reading our Bible every day is a great thing. How about hand-writing a verse every day? Hand-writing a verse everyday gets you to slow down and absorb each word more. Instead of doing just one verse, how about an entire Psalm?… Read the rest

Jesus death foreshadowed by Joseph’s carpenter tools

June 4, 2020EtcMatt Maldre

“The Shadow of Death” by Frederick Stacpoole, 1878 Since Joseph is a carpenter, it’s most likely that Jesus learned the carpenter trade from his earthly father. At the very least perhaps Jesus spent a lot of his life hanging around Joseph’s carpentry tools.… Read the rest

You can keep your Easter decorations up 50 days after Easter

April 17, 2020EtcMatt Maldre

My easter decorations The Easter season is technically 50 days long. Churches recognize every Sunday after Easter as “Second Sunday of Easter”, “Third Sunday of Easter”, etc, all the way until Pentecost. We can have Easter decorations up for 50 days after Easter!… Read the rest

The favicon for Google Sheets looks like a cross

March 24, 2020EtcMatt Maldre

Whenever you open a new tab in Chrome, the favicon of the website appears in the tab. This favicon is a super-tiny icon for the website. A mere 15×15 pixels in size. The favicon for Google’s online spreadsheet program looks like a cross!… Read the rest

Spreading the love on baptism

March 12, 2020EtcMatt Maldre

Last year my wife and I were overjoyed to welcome our second daughter into the world. At her baptism, my twin brother made a baptism log. He carved a cross and dove into a birch log. (The home we grew up in had a birch tree in front of the house).… Read the rest

Your sports rival is a good team to root for

September 5, 2019EtcMatt Maldre

Hatred for your sports rivals just spreads more hate. Thus, I will not continue this practice. Both the Bears and the Packers are fine teams to root for. The Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, and Cardinals are all fine teams to root for.… Read the rest

Searching Lutheran podcasts for episodes about Baptism

May 20, 2019EtcMatt Maldre

It would be really cool if there was an online searchable archive of all the podcasts from Issues Etc, 1517 and Lutheran Hour Ministries. e.g. I would like to search “baptism” and come up with all the relevant episodes. But sine there isn’t a master search, here’s what you can do with each individual site.… Read the rest

Bible verse references in Formula of Concord

May 17, 2019Bible studyMatt Maldre

I love books with a ton of Bible verse references. The more verse references, the better. While listening to the Thinking Fellows podcast episode, “The Reformation: Conclusions“, they touched on how Lutherans are great for basing their doctrine on Scripture alone.… Read the rest

Bible lectionary bookmarks for Lutheran and Roman Catholic church

January 14, 2019Bible studyMatt Maldre

Yesterday I finished my 2018-2019 lectionary bookmarks. I have five bookmarks; one for each of the readings: 1st reading, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel reading (and one for the Alleluia). Whenever my daughter and I have breakfast, I like to read to her the Bible verses for the upcoming Sunday.… Read the rest

Weightless or grounded?

March 22, 2018EtcMatt Maldre

An uplifting song on Spotify:?Weightless by Natasha Bedingfield The sky is the limit And I just wanna float Free as a spirit on a journey of hope Cut the strings and let me go I’m weightless, I’m weightless Millions of balloons tethered to the ground Weight of the world tries to hold us down Cut the strings and let me go I’m weightless, I’m weightless, I’m weightless, I’m weightless… I love the positivity in this song, and the undertones of not worrying.… Read the rest

Christian notebook

Thoughts on God from a Missouri Synod Lutheran artist