Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: The Lord will give you a sign

Ahaz learned the hard way that when God wants to point you to Jesus Christ it's best to let Him do it.

Ahaz learned the hard way that when you make up your mind beforehand to ignore God, He's not likely to make that easy.

Ahaz missed out on a lot that God had to give.  He could have had God's deliverance.  His protection.  His favor.  His Son.

Ahaz could have had a part in God's salvation story instead of being a footnote.  He could have had a story of repentance and reconciliation and restoration.  He could have been the one to lead God's people back into faithful worship of their covenant God.  He could have had a sign of God's favor . . . but instead he chose a sign of God's judgment.

God's sign to you is Jesus Christ.  The One born of the virgin still comes to you, bringing God close enough to touch . . . to see . . . to be Immanuel, "God with us."  And in Him you can have all the peace, the comfort, the forgiveness you've been longing for this Christmas season.

Look to Jesus Christ as God's sign for you this Christmas season.  Believe upon Him as the One who comes to bring you God's favor.  Do not ignore Him, do not turn away in disbelief or test him by preferring your sin to His forgiveness.  Do not reject the sign, but in faith receive the gracious gift of God.

Jesus Christ, Immanuel.  God with us!

Merry Christmas!

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: On Snow Days and Sufficient Words

It's a snow day here in Hudson, and I wonder if children all over town needed to have access to every bit of information that went into the deciding of a snow day?  Did they agonize over not knowing whether or not there would be school tomorrow?  Did they demand more evidence that it was actually an official snow day before they went outside to play?

Or were the mere spoken words "snow day" enough to be a source of joy for them?

In God's Word, He speaks promises to us.  Promises of release from captivity, of deliverance from bondage.  He speaks words of freedom and undeserved love freely given.  He speaks promises of providing and promises of staying by our side.  He speaks words of forgiveness and eternal adoption.

These words of God are far, far better than the words "snow day".

Maybe it's time we started to have the faith of a child once again.  The faith that doesn't demand more signs and wonders and information from God.  The faith that doesn't question His goodness and is not disappointed in Him.  But the faith that hears the simple words of God and finds in them sufficient reason to be joyful in today.

God's Word is sufficient.  He has not chosen all to speak to us all we want to know, but in His Word He tells us all we need to know:  In Jesus Christ we have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

And in that, there is profound joy.

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Preparation leads to expectation

The second coming of Jesus Christ—His Second Advent, if you will—will be a cause for celebration like no other.

He will come with shouts of triumph, with the blasts of trumpets.  He will come with angel armies and a sword in His mouth.  He will come to resurrect the dead to life, and bring His Father’s children into eternal life with Him. 

He will come for you.

Will you be prepared? 

The Scriptures tell us two specific things in regards to Christ’s coming: 1) No one knows when it will come.  2) Watch and wait for it in expectation.

Nothing quite builds expectation like preparation.  The bride picks out her wedding dress and longs for the time when she will be united with her bridegroom.  A family cuts down a Christmas tree and the children dance with gleeful expectation of December 25^th.  But how do you prepare for something like Christ’s coming?

You prepare for it by focusing upon what Christ has done for you and what He will yet do.  Not by working or giving or sacrificing for Christ, but by acknowledging that you have received good gifts from Christ.  And as you focus upon what Christ has done for you, you will be all the more eager to see Him when He returns.

1 Peter 1:3-5   ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you,  ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Prepare for Christ’s coming, and you’ll life your life in joyful expectation of it.

Monday's follow-up (on Tuesday) to Sunday's message: The treasure of the church

“The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”—Martin Luther

What’s the true treasure of the church?  What is the thing that makes church truly special?  Is it the fellowship we enjoy with one another?  Is it the sense of unity, of belonging?  Is it the treasure of shared memories of good times and happy days gone by?

Those things are good, to be sure.  But they are not the true treasure of the church.  They are not the thing that binds us together, that causes us to gather every week.  They are a gift from God, but not THE gift from God to His church.

The true treasure of the church is God’s Gospel.  His message of the enduring, faithful love He has for you.  The love that endures despite your sin.  The love that endures despite the sin of your fellow church members. 

But that Gospel treasure demands we take our sin very seriously.  It demands that we admit it, that we own up to it, that we confess it.  We are not an almost-perfect people who gather together every week to get some advice on how to be just a little bit better . . . we are sinners who come to agree with God once again that we deserve nothing from Him but punishment, but instead through Jesus Christ we receive nothing from God but forgiveness.

It’s a hard thing to admit, this thing called sin.  We’d rather play at being holy.  We’d rather listen to the advice of some spiritual-sounding teacher who tells us how to get holy.  But when we simply stand and agree with God that sin is sin, that sin is ours, and that only His Son—and not us!—can pay for sin . . . that is when we realize what a treasure we have in His church.

So enjoy your church friends.  Enjoy the memories you share.  Enjoy the fellowship you have with one another.  But treasure the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for only it can make you right with God.  Only the Gospel can truly make a church.

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. What the heck was He thinking?

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.

Trite saying.  Something we quote every so often when it seems appropriate.  But nothing that we really mean.

What we really mean is that if God decides to take something away from you, then you should just learn to accept it.  When He decides to take something away from me, however, then The Almighty owes me an explanation.  A reason.  An answer.  And make it snappy, God!

Have you ever thought about how weak your faith must be if you demand answers from God before you can be satisfied with Him first giving and then taking away a gift?  How you must have sincere doubts as to whether or not God is truly good?  Have you thought that behind your pious words about faith and trust there lies a sneaking suspicion that God is really just out to mess with you after all?

Do we believe God is truly good?

Do we believe that when He gives it is good? 

Do we believe that when He takes away, it is also good?

No . . . no . . . if we’re going to be honest, we must admit that we don’t always believe that.  But when we have doubts about God playing a cosmic game of Candid Camera with our lives, we must remember that we have God’s own promise in Romans 8:28 that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

I don’t suppose that anyone standing on Mount Calvary around 2000 years ago looked upon the cross and said, “Oh yes . . . this is good.”  God’s good design and plan was hidden beneath a mask of suffering and confusion.  The goodness of His plan wasn’t immediately apparent.  And yet we can look back today and with bold faith declare the cross of Jesus Christ as the pinnacle of God’s goodness: the day He delivered you and I from sin, from death, from the devil.  The good gift of God was delivered wrapped in an ugly package that none of us would have chosen, and yet we thank and praise Him for choosing to give us such a priceless gift. 

It’s curious, isn’t it?  It’s almost like God perhaps knows what is good for us better than we do ourselves.

When God works, it is always good.  Period.  End of story.  God is good.  He only works in good ways, He only gives the good kind of gifts, He only has good plans for us.  So when He gives a gift, we thank Him for the good gift He has given.  When He chooses to take it away, we thank Him for the time we had the gift and also thank Him for the good gift He is preparing to give us to replace the one He had taken.

We thank Him because He is much better than the gift.  Because we love Him much more than the gift.  And because we trust His understanding of what is “good” much more than we trust our own.

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: It's not your fault

It’s not your fault.

You hear that all the time.  Sometimes it’s a legitimate circumstance.  Sometimes it seems like someone’s making an excuse for their bad choices.  And whether it’s said in a good way or bad, it’s almost always overused.  We can get calloused to the “it’s not your fault” claim, because we know there are simply lots of things that are our fault.

But what about your friends who don’t know Christ?  You’ve told them about Christ, about His forgiveness.  You’ve offered Godly advice to them for their life’s struggles.  You’ve even comforted them from God’s Word when they needed.  And while it seems like they’ve come close to faith so many times, they still have not made that final step. 

Is that your fault?

For some reason, God places limits on what His limitless Word can do.  It’s true that the Word has converted the hardest of hearts.  It has made alive the most spiritually dead of sinners.  We know that because that’s what it’s done for us. 

But at the same time, the enormous, life-giving power of God’s Word cannot revive the cold hearts of those who will not heed its warnings nor take comfort from its promises.  God would rather go the trouble of adopting children than forcibly converting robots. 

That’s why your friend won’t believe; because God won’t force them to.  He will call, He will gather, He will enlighten.  Through His Word, He will continue to daily extend His gracious offer of life and salvation, always willing to forgive the deepest sins and the greatest heresies of those who hear His Word and believe.  But he will not force belief upon them.

So you, Christian, continue to offer God’s Word.  Life it out in your life for your friend to see.  Drop Jesus’ name into your conversations.  Give advice based upon God’s Word and let them know that’s where it came from.  Don’t blame yourself and grow weary even if they don’t believe:  You are giving them God’s Word.  Offering them His promises.  Offering them His life.  

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: You can't take it with you, but you can sure send it on ahead!

I mentioned something almost in passing during yesterday’s message.  Today I want to focus on it.

Our money should tell a story.

It should.  It should say something.  Our money should be used to proclaim that we do still trust in God, that His Son is our redeemer, that money is something we spend, but eternity is something we invest in. 

There are ways to use money to benefit this earthly life.  Some of those are good, some are appropriate.  After all, one of the ways God provides for you is by giving you money to purchase the things you and your family need.  You can’t fill your family’s bellies by looking at a pile of $1 bills, but you can if you spend them.   God gives you money to spend, not hoard.  Frankly, it is a sin to sit on stacks of money while your family goes without food, shelther, or clothing, but spending it wisely proclaims that you trust God as a gracious giver.

So yes, it is true that money is to be used for this earthly life.  But is that the only life it is good for?  Certainly not!  No, there’s no way you can take money with you into eternity, but you can certainly send it on ahead!

Jesus counsels us to use money in a way that builds an eternal dwelling.  He says that we can make an investment in eternity.  Eternity for ourselves.  Eternity for others.  How can we do that?  By investing it into the proclamation of His Gospel.

A bit of money towards missions, and a missionary buys 50 Bibles for his students.  A bit of money towards a seminary student, and he goes on to be a Gospel-preaching pastor.  A bit of money on a roof and the church building stands for four more generations as a place where Christ’s Gospel is proclaimed weekly.  A bit of money, and people hear how Jesus Christ died for them, how He rose again to conquer death, how He lives today to intercede for them.

Just the way He did for you.  You heard, you believed, and now you trust God to do as He promised: to forgive you through Christ’s shed blood, to raise you to new life.  To bring you to your eternal home.

Money spent as an investment in eternity.  That’s money that tells a story: The story of Christ’s redemption for all who would hear and believe.  

(Wednesday's) Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Repentance, not holiness, keeps you close to God

Repentance, not holiness, is what keeps you close to God.

There’s an old story about a man and woman who were “celebrating” their anniversary.  They dressed for dinner without talking.  They drove to the restaurant with only talk radio breaking the silence.  They ordered and ate a delicious meal, but their hearts were neither nourished by a meaningful glance nor fed by retelling the stories of their life together.

As they drove home, he staring firmly ahead and she looking with longing out the passenger window, she spoke the first words of the evening.  “What happened to us?  We used to be so close, but now I feel we’re so far apart.  When did we move so far away from each other?”

And the husband replied, “ . . . I never moved.”

If you feel far from God, it’s you that’s moved.

God is always faithful.  His love is always graceful.  His disposition towards you is always merciful.  He has not now nor ever has moved away from you.

But perhaps you’ve moved away from Him.

How will you get back?  Will you make the long journey back to God by manufacturing some emotion in your long-cold heart?  Will you find your way back to Him by doubling—no, tripling!—your efforts to be holy?

Or today, when you hear His voice, will you simply let your heart be softened, turn to Him in repentance, and instantly be ushered into His presence, surrounded by the shouts of joy and celebration of all of Heaven at the lost sheep that is now found, the wayward child who has come home?

Repentance, and not holiness, is what keeps you close to God.  The cross of Christ bids you come and die in repentance so that you may live in His righteousness.  The entire life of the Christian is one of repentance.  Not just a penitent tear shed from time to time, not an emotional outpouring . . . just the simple act of living by clinging to His cross alone as your hope for peace and forgiveness.

“You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge.  Against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.  Have mercy on me, a sinner, and restore to me the joy of my salvation.”

Be close to God once more.  Live as a Christian today.  Live a life of repentance.

Monday's follow-up (on Tuesday) to Sunday's message: From “painful” to “paid in full”

Have you ever read about scientific experiments that test disassociation by pain?  The basic gist of it is this:  Take a rat and put it in a box with some cheese.  The rat naturally goes for the cheese, anticipating an enjoyable meal.  Its mind is wired to think of cheese as being a good thing.

Now change it up a bit.  Whenever the rat approaches the cheese, right as it touches it, give the rat a healthy electric shock.  Confused at first, it will back off and then try again.  Another painful shock.  And another.  And another.  Until the rat cowers in a corner, afraid and hurt even by the thought of the thing it once loved.  The rat is now convinced that the cheese is no longer a good thing, but a source of pain.

I’m a rat sometimes.  And, I suppose, so are you.  Our “cheese”, though, are people we know and love: people whose company we used to enjoy.  But a series of painful events has conditioned us to avoid those people.  The pain is too great.  The wounds they caused us too fresh, too deep.  The emotional scars still too fresh on our hearts.  The very thought of meeting them again is painful.

But see, there’s the thing: We think of those people as being painful.  Their sin against us (or even our sin against them) has cut deep, so deep that we are divided from them.  Onesimus is divided from Philemon, Philemon from Onesimus . . . and both from Christ.

That painful, sinful action that they committed against you?  That’s a sin that Christ has paid in full.  The agony of heart that you’ve been carrying, cowering in the corner, afraid and hurt at the very thought of the very person you once loved . . . you don’t need to carry it any more.  You can let go of the bitterness, the anger, the pain, because Christ has paid for it all.  You can receive back your friend as a fellow worker in Christ, rejoicing over the depth of grace God has given.  Rejoicing over what God has done.

Or you can choose to live with pain.

“Painful”, or “paid in full”?  Which will you choose?

PT

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Humility and wisdom

I was wondering how I was going to write this week's Monday follow-up, because just about everybody can be worldly wise, but few people know how to find a person who is a source of true, Godly wisdom.  And so this morning as I was backtracking into some readings I had missed in our "Read the Bible in one year" reading plan, I hit a section of verses from the book of Job that I considered a gift from God.



Job 32:1-9 
So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.  2 But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.  3 He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.  4 Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he.  5 But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.

6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said: "I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know.  7 I thought, 'Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.'  8 But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.  9 It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.


Pay careful attention to two things:

1)  Elihu has quietly stood just outside the spotlight throughout the entire conversation, giving his elders a chance to speak.  He expected their wisdom to be greater than his own, and so did not speak.  He expected to learn, so he listened.  This immediately marks Elihu as a man of great humility and wisdom, for the wise are always thirsting for more wisdom.  I suspect that when he speaks, he will be someone worth listening to.

2)  When the time is ripe, Elihu speaks, and speaks boldly.  For he recognizes that his words of wisdom are not really his at all, but they are the wisdom of God.  Elihu puts no trust in himself nor in his ability to think and reason, but he leans upon God and His understanding.  What Elihu's character suggested is now confirmed:  This is a man of Godly wisdom and someone worth listening to.

Elihu's words in the following chapters are wise because they point Job not to himself and not to his circumstances, but to God.  He speaks wise words that encourage Job to consider his proper place before God as being one that answers to Him and not the other way around.  His Godly wisdom exhorts Job to have a repentant and humble heart, a heart that acknowledges God's great holiness and trusts in God's great forgiveness.

In short, Elihu speaks words of Godly wisdom that the world does not possess and that those in the world cannot understand.  The older men--Job's so-called "friends"--probably considered his words foolishness.  But to Job, perishing but longing for salvation, Elihu's message of repentance and faith is the power of God and the wisdom of God..

Genuine humility marks a person of Godly wisdom, and God's wisdom helps make a person humble.  Find a person who has both of those traits, and that person will be someone worth listening to, for they will teach you the wisdom of the cross.



"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."  Proverbs 3:5

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Patience is a pain

Okay, let's begin with everyone being really honest and up front, shall we?

Getting stuff NOW is great.  Waiting is a pain.

Patience is kind of a pain in the kiester.  No one really likes to wait for their hopes and dreams to come true.  And more to the point of yesterday's message, no one really likes to wait on other people.  It's so much easier, so much more natural feeling, to get irritated by that one particular person's quirks and foibles and write them off as antagonistic or  difficult or just simply not worth my time.  Being patient with them generates a lot of hassle and pain we simply just don't feel we need.

But there's something important we're missing with that attitude: we're missing an opportunity to grow.

Learning to be patient with prickly people teaches you something about yourself.  You already know what faults other people have, but what we often lack is self-awareness of our own stress fractures.  The process of learning to be patient with the faults of other people is a revealing look in a none-too flattering mirror.  It teaches you what your hot buttons are, what things are likely to set you off, no matter whether those things are petty or grand.  And once you better learn what your own fault lines are, the better you will be at predicting their collapse.  In other words, learn more about yourself and you'll be more patient with others.

Try it next time you feel yourself growing impatient with another.  Ask yourself, "What, exactly, is going on inside me that I'm growing impatient with this person?"  I'd wager that if you are serious enough about that question, you'll find something inside yourself that you don't much like.  Something that God didn't plant there. Something that needs to be uprooted through confession.  Something that He wants to take away from you, to forgive, and in it's place bring new life and joy.

Something that God's Holy Spirit will have revealed to you through the painful process of learning patience.


Proverbs 19:8, "He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers."

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Wisdom

Christ is God's wisdom.

Think about that for a moment.  Christ.  Is.  God's.  Wisdom.

That means something.  It means that you can't be considered wise  in God's Kingdom unless you have Jesus Christ.  It means that all the wisdom that the world has to offer is zilch compared to the wisdom we have in Christ.

And it means that, very frequently, God's "wisdom" will look very strange to our human eyes:

For some reason, God in His wisdom condemned His own Son to die as payment for our sins.
For some reason, God in His wisdom considers your sin for Christ's righteousness as being a fair trade.
For some reason, God in His wisdom does things upside-down and inside-out of what we think would be the wisest course of action.

Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."

But there it is:  Christ is God's wisdom.  Christ, who left behind the splendors of heaven to serve us.  Who set aside His glory and power and authority to put on a towel and wash the feet of those who should be groveling at his.  Who chose to die a rebel's death if it meant that we could have the inheritance of a true child.

Christ's "wisdom" doesn't look much like wisdom at all.  Not unless you have it.  Not unless you have Him.

Then His wisdom is revealed for the precious, priceless treasure it is.  Something to be desired and pursued.  Something to be loved and lived.  That's what I want: Christ's wisdom made real in me.  That's what I want for you.

Monday's follow-up to Sunday's message: Idols lie

Isaiah 44:15-19   ¹⁵ It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 

¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." 

¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." 

¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 

¹⁹ No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"

There, once again, is the thing about idols:  They are things we make.  Good things—necessary things, even—that our hearts have elevated to the status of “God.”  And when we do that, the thing is transformed from something God intends for our good into something that brings about our own destruction. 

It seems right at the time, putting our trust in some thing or circumstance.  But idols deceive and lie.  They cannot provide what they promise.  They never have been able to do that.  They never will.  And one day, they will vanish.

The real God, the true Christ, is so much better than an idol.  What Christ promises, He always delivers.  What Christ says, endures.  What Christ brings about no human being can take away.

What Christ gives is always good.

Don’t waste your trust on the idols any longer.  Trust in the God who can—and will—deliver on His promises.

Follow-up to Sunday's message: Mercy

Luke 10:36-37:  


"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"  


The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."



Jesus' parable that we looked at yesterday reminds us of a simple truth:  Mercy is an action, not an attitude.

When a child falls down and you comfort him, that's mercy.

When a neighbor needs a hand and you help her, that's mercy.

When a stranger is hungry and you give them food, that's mercy.

An act of mercy is simply this: a need you see in another that you act to fill.  It's no good to see the need and not move to address it.  It's no good to meet a need that isn't there.  But when you see another's need and your heart is so moved that your hands actually get involved that, my friends, is Christ's mercy in action through you.

It doesn't have to be big.  It doesn't have to be world-changing.  It just has to happen.

Follow-up to Sunday's message

"It is, first of all, the freedom of the other person, of which we spoke earlier, that is a burden to the Christian.  The other's freedom collides with his own autonomy, yet he must recognize it.  He could get rid of this burden by refusing the other person his freedom, by constraining him and thus doing violence to his personality, by stamping his own image upon him.  But if he lets God create His image in him, he by this token gives him his freedom and himself bears the burden of this freedom of another creature of God.  The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person's nature, individuality, endowment.  It also includes his weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us.  To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it."


Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Thinking about the theology and practice of the Lord's Supper

Today I stumbled across an older issue of Concordia Theological Quarterly, a publication of our synod's Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  In that journal was an article from a cherished former professor of mine, Dr. Joel Biermann.

Dr. Biermann writes eloquently and forthrightly on a very difficult subject: the practice of closed communion.  But he does speak accurately.  I encourage you to read his article and take some time to digest it.  It is that good.

You can find the article here:

http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/biremannstepuptothealtar.pdf



Happy reading!

PT

What might happen?

What might happen if every church issue we faced, we faced with a missionary attitude?  What might happen if for every church decision we made we first asked the question, “How will this help make my neighbors part of Christ’s chosen family?”

What might happen?  I think we’d come alive with purpose.

There’s an exciting feeling of belonging to a group with purpose.  It’s not that life gets any easier, but each decision made has a sense of destiny.  It’s not that hardships vanish, but they are borne with a sense of destination.  Character is formed into the image of God’s character.  Hearts are changed and reflect Christ’s heart.  Lives are slowly changed to look more and more like Christ’s life.  Every step has meaning.  Every challenge is an obstacle waiting to be overcome.

When a church group lives with purpose, the stories they tell start to reflect that purpose.  Stories like the new member here at Our Saviour thanking and praising God for finding her a church to call home.  Stories like the man who heard about Christ here at Our Saviour and wanted to know more about the difference He could make in a person’s life.  Stories like the family that brought ALL of their children to the waters of baptism, desiring the Spirit’s work of calling and enlightening through the Gospel to be visible in their lives.

When a church group lives with purpose, it spends far less time worrying about what it doesn’t have and can’t do and more time looking for opportunities to go where God is leading and use what He is giving.  Like having a 2-day “VBS” at the Bean Creek Heritage Festival instead of a week-long summer program.  Like tackling the effects of raging unemployment by instructing families on how to have true financial peace.

What might happen if every church issue we faced, we faced with a missionary attitude?

We’d become the church that we already are.  A church where Christ is active.  A church that knows His forgiveness and His redemption.  A church that looks to the community’s needs and looks to God and says, “Use us for your purpose.  Use us to make our neighbors family.”

And let me tell you, it is exciting to belong to a group with purpose. 

PT

Follow-up to Sunday's message

Readying and studying through Luther's commentary on Galatians today and came across this gem.  I thought it accented Sunday's message beautifully.


"But blessed is the man who knows this properly amid a conflict of conscience, who, when sin attacks him and the Law accuses and terrifies him, can say: 'Law, what is it to me if you make me guilty and convict me of having committed many sins?  In fact, I am still committing many sins every day.  This does not affect me; I am deaf and do not hear you.  Therefore you are telling your story to a deaf man, for I am deaf to you.  But if you really want to argue with me about sins, then go over to my flesh and my limbs, which are my servants.  Teach them; discipline and crucify them.  But do not trouble my conscience, which is lord and king; for I have nothing to do with you.  For I am dead to you; I now live to Christ, where I am under another Law, namely, the Law of grace, which rules over sin and the Law.'  By what means?  Through faith in Christ."


--Martin Luther, 1535 commentary on Galatians

Keep that Bible open!

We're right at the halfway mark in our commitment to read through the Bible together in one year, so it's time to take a quick moment and refocus on why we're reading the Bible in the first place.

1. The Bible is God's Word.  In the Bible, He speaks to you, giving us comfort, direction, hope, and the knowledge that leads to salvation.  Almighty God, speaking to you!  
2. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible.  When you read the Bible, you have God's promise that His Holy Spirit will be enlightening you, encouraging you, and shaping you into the image of Christ.  
3. The Bible is God's salvation story.  In the Bible, you read the entire history of how God has been working to save and redeem mankind.  It's awesome to see how God has been at His work for thousands and thousands of years.
4. The Bible points us to Christ.  Both Old and New Testaments.  Every word, every person, every action recorded in some way points us to Jesus Christ, Who He is, and what He has done for us.  You read the Bible and you know Jesus Christ better.

The Bible gives us things we just can't get anywhere else!  So stick with us as we read through it together.  And if you've missed a few days here and there, make today the day you start fresh.  You won't be disappointed!

Youth group garage sale this weekend!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the OSL youth group are having a garage sale in order to raise the last bit of money they'll need to get to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans this summer.

So 1) C'mon out and see if there's something that you need!  You'll save money buying it here over buying it new, and you'll help them in the process.

And 2) If you are one of the people that donated items for the sale, THANK YOU!!  You've helped the youth as they work hard for the opportunity to gather together with LCMS youth from all over the nation.  God bless you for your help!