The Perfect Storm

    Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The other night I watched The Perfect Storm for the first time.  I don't watch hardly any live TV anymore; however, I do still watch way too much Netflix.  The thing I love about Netflix is it gives me the chance to watch older classic movies that I didn't watch when they first came out.  I can remember all the buzz of a certain movie when it came out, but I wasn't going to spend the money to go to the movie theater to see it.  Then by the time it was released, I would have forgotten about it.  So now, as I see those titles pop up on Netflix, I try to watch them to see what I "missed out" on at the time.  The Perfect Storm was one of those movies that I remember hearing a lot about but had never seen it.  So the other night when I saw it one Netflix, I watched it.  It was a pretty good movie and actually quite impressive filming of the giant waves.
    So as I was reading Psalm 93 today, those images of giant waves throwing around the boats and even the giant ships like toys came flooding back to my mind (pun intended).  Especially after living in Duluth and seeing how big those giant ships really are, those images are even more real.  And yet, listen to the good news that psalm 93 is telling us.

"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, 

 the floods have lifted up their voice; 

the floods lift up their roaring.  

Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

mightier than the waves of the sea, 

the Lord on high is mighty!"  

    As I think about those giant, crashing waves, thrashing those boats and ships around so easily, it is  pretty good picture of the floods lifting up their voice and roaring.  I know it was a movie and just special effects, but it was trying to capture what really happens to those ships during a real hurricane.  Those waves have a lot of power behind them.  The movie is dedicated to the thousands (I don't remember the exact number) of men and women who have lost their life out at sea.  Most of those lives where taken by the power of the waves, the roaring of the waters, and the floods of the storms raising their voices.  It is a scary threat to all those who work on the sea and even more for their families praying they make it home safely.  This is the dark force, or the mighty part of the world that this Psalmist chose to contrast with the power and might of God.  Those powerful waves, the constant threat of death in those waters are compared to the one and only God and Lord.  

    Even mightier than these roaring waters, stronger than the most powerful wave, is the one and only God of the universe.  He is mightier than the waves of the sea.  Even the giant wave at the end of The Perfect Storm that is so tall it stands the boat straight up and down before it comes crashing down on them and causing the boat to sink (spoiler alert if you haven't seen the movie).  Even mightier than the tsunami that cased so much damage in Thailand years ago, is our God.  This psalmist chose one of the most powerful forces of our earth - water - and says even it cannot begin to compare with the mightiness of our God.  This is good news and a great reminder for us that our God is bigger than the world.  He is stronger than anything that can harm us; even the roaring waters of the fiercest storm.  He is the creator of all and He is in control of all things.  And since He is every lasting, we can put out trust in Him and His decrees.  Thanks be to the one and only God who is ALL-powerful and ALL-mighty!   

Call Day!

    Greetings in Christ.  Today is Call Day at the Seminary.  An exciting time for all my friends who will be receiving either their vicarage placement or their first call.  It is hard to believe it has been a year already since I received my first call.  I remember it being a very long day, trying not to be anxious, and just waiting, wanting to sleep but also wanting to see family and friends.  However, as soon as they called my name, all of that anxiety was gone.  All of the waiting was worth it as my emotions turned to pure joy.  I remember thinking I won as I got the call I was really hoping to get.  And a year later, I still feel like I won call day.  I got the best first call I could have ever dreamed of.  The Lord blessed me and sent me to an amazing place, a wonderful church, and a great new home.  I thank Him almost every day for bringing me here.
    Tonight I will watch and see where all my fellow brothers are being sent.  It is not only exciting to watch where my friends will be pastors, but also just to see more laborers being sent out into the harvest field of ministry.
    Psalm 113 - "Praise the Lord!  Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!"
     Let us all together praise the name of our Lord as we rejoice for another class of servants entering the ministry.  Let us together praise the name of the Lord for all the amazing things He does every day.  Praise the Lord!

1946 John Deere Model B

    Greetings to you in the name of our Risen Lord.  I think spring is finally here!! I mean I am told snow is still possible well into May, but it looks like for now we have officially turned the corner.  The nice weather has me excited for a few reasons.  One, I am just itching to get out on the golf course.  Hopefully this Friday I can go get the first round of the season in.  Two, because it allowed me to get my tractor out of the shed and finally get it running.  I will say more about this below.  Three, because as we get nearer to closing on the house in just two weeks from tomorrow, I am excited to start the endless project of tree trimming, yard work, and cleaning up the place.  It is really not that bad as is, but of course my standards are too high for even myself, so I will be busy.  Four, because we are going to be tackling some major projects around the church in the next two weeks.  We are going to be doing some demolition work in the fellowship hall this Saturday so we can get all the patching done before we re-paint the whole place the following Saturday.  Then, that next Saturday (same day as paint day) we are also going to be doing a bunch of brush and tree removal to get the space ready for our parking lot addition.  I am excited to be working side by side with church members as we accomplish these projects.
     So see spring is just a great time of the year, and this spring will be a remember-able one.  As I said, I was finally able to get my tractor going.  Pastor Ludwig and I came upon a very generous from his end deal, and I am now allowed to call it mine. :)  It is a 1946 John Deere (Slant Dash, Styled) Model B.  I will post some pictures when I get her all cleaned up.  We had to pull it out of the shed because it wouldn't start.  Then we figured out the first problem was that we weren't getting any spark.  So I had to tear into it and follow every wire to make sure it was going to the right place. (I fortunately found a free online parts manual that laid out the whole wiring diagram or else I wouldn't know where the right place was.)  So then, once I got all those hooked up right, I had power to the right places. Then with a $0.36 part from Napa (which the guy kindly gave me for free), I had spark to both spark plugs.  So now that the spark issue was taken care of, it still wouldn't start.  So I spent the next hour siphoning and draining all the old fuel out of the tank.  With new fuel in the tank, and the spark plugs working, she started!  It was a beautiful sound!  Now I have to finish fixing the hydraulics so I can lift the bucket/  Then I will be able to drive it up on the trailer and haul it to storage at a friends house for two weeks until I can take it home!  That is a beautiful sentence.  The Lord is good and has blessed me abundantly.  Most of all, it has been a fun project and I am learning every step of the way.  Once it is in my garage at home, I will really work on taking it apart, cleaning it up, new wires, new cheap parts, etc.  I will use it for several years to push snow and do landscaping around the house before I finally have the money to completely restore it and have it for a show tractor.
     I hope the warm spring weather brings joy to you as well.  Hopefully you have one outdoor hobby that allows you to get out and enjoy the amazing creation God has giving to us.  Spring tidings and God's blessings to you all!

Psalm 134

Psalm 134:2

“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!” 

            I am going to confess a personal character flaw about myself.  I know it’s a flaw, I know it’s stupid, but I just cannot seem to help it.  Whenever I am in a worship setting and I see someone raising their hands as they sing along with the music, it drives me absolutely nuts!  Now maybe this is because of my very traditional, conservative background that pretty much implied there were to be no emotions as part of the worship service.  The church I grew up in, which I love and am not faulting, but they said the words with reverence, they sang with a gentleness, and there was not much if any smiling, clapping, or raising hands.  So when I go to more contemporary style worship services, which I do enjoy, with more upbeat music, and much more emotions as people are clapping, swaying back and forth with the music, and yes the dreaded hand raising, it seems simply disrespectful to me.  It gets under my skin, it distracts me, and all of a sudden, I am no longer worshiping because I am so focused on that person holding their hand up.  My ego, pride, or arrogance, whichever or possibly all three working together, try to convince me that they are only raising their hands so other people will look at them and think they are “better” worshipers than everyone else.   As you can probably tell, this truly is a pet peeve of mine. 
            So it is with full conviction and shame that I read these words of Psalm 134.  I am burdened down to my core, as I realize God’s Word itself tells us to raise our hands to the holy place as we bless Him.  Now does this mean this Sunday, you will see me with my hands raised high during one of the hymns? Probably not!  What it does mean is that I realize raising your hand is a perfectly fine way to worship God.  What it means is that I need to get over my own flaws and judgments, and not let that style of worship distract me from worshiping God myself.  Rather than using all of my energy to try to guess why they think it is necessary to raise their hand, I should use that energy to realize I too am supposed to be praising God.  Instead of being filled with hate and anger when I see someone raising their hands during a song, I should be reminded that we are all there to worship and praise the same God.  I should be encouraged to be excited, to smile, to sing louder, and to genuinely give God my heart-filled thanks and praise for the good news of the Gospel in His Son Jesus Christ. 
            For you maybe it is not someone raising their hands.  Maybe for you it is the crying kid in the back that you wish the parents would take out.  Maybe for you it is the teenage kids snickering at each other’s doodles. Whatever it is that the Devil uses to distract you from genuinely worshiping God, let me use this psalm and remind you to stop worrying about everyone else, and focus on yourself faithfully praising God.  Stop letting your own personal likes or dislikes influence you to judge others around you.  Most likely, the other people who are “distracting” you with their worship habits are much more genuine in their praise then you are at the moment.  God tells us to use instruments of all kinds to praise Him.  Here God tells us to raise our hands as we bless Him.  He doesn’t care near as much about how we worship Him as He does that we are genuine and faithful in our worship.  Think about it!  He sent His Son to DIE for YOU!  He raised His Son from the DEAD to be YOUR living King!  He FORGIVES YOU of YOUR sins.  He gives you SALVATION and ETERNAL LIFE freely through Jesus Christ.  This is the good news you are hearing, this is the reason you are thanking, praising, and worshiping Him. It’s OK to show emotion, it’s OK to dance, clap, and celebrate that good news.  And yes, His Word even tells us it is OK to hold your hands up high when blessing Him.  The point is to bless the Lord, for He is good!