Team Jesus/Walk in Christ

Greetings fellow brother and sisters in Christ.   I hope you all have already found joy in your Monday as the weekend is now behind us and the Lord has blessed us with another week of work and classes.  I had a pretty amazing weekend overall.  Friday I spent part of the day with my friend Adam exploring Clayton, the suburb of St. Louis we are technically in.  Then that night I played cribbage with one of the guys in my dorm which was fun, and then went out to the bars with a large group of guys from the seminary.  It was a pretty good time.  Nothing too crazy, especially for me since I was driving a group of the guys.  Oh also Friday afternoon, my heart hit the heels of my feet when I got the official statement of what I owe here.  YIKES!!! However, I do have to say the Lord has always blessed we financially and as expensive as this place is, I will make it through and the life that comes as a result is worth it.  When Jesus called the disciples, He told them to leave everything they had behind and follow Him.  Well Jesus is telling me the same thing I guess because while I still have a dorm room packed full of possessions, I will just have student loans to counter act those possessions.  Kidding!  All joking aside it is some what humbling to know how much it is costing, not only me but several congregations, church groups, personal donors, and my family personally supporting me as well as all of those supporting the seminary to help keep its costs as low as possible, in order to form me into a hopefully efficient pastor.  The time, effort, and costs made by all my supporters as well as the teachers and staff at the seminary, puts a lot of responsibility on me not to screw up and really holds me accountable to learn the most I can learn, grow in every opportunity the Lord gives me, and never short suit myself while I am here.  That is a powerful motivator when homework doesn't seem that important, or some activity with the guys sounds more fun than studying.  I need that kind of motivation, and trust me I will use it.  So this week when I go write that check, and force every muscle in my hand to grudgingly let go as the accounting people take it from me, I will know I am past the point of no return.  I have just signed the life contract with the church.  I will then be personally reliable to faithfully serve the church to the best of my ability until the day I die.  Talk about a scary, yet exciting look at your own future!
Saturday was a good day.  I woke up about noon, taking advantage of one or two last chances to do so, before I will be swamped with the full quarter's work load and feel guilty for sleeping in that late.  Then I accomplished some stuff in my room and around campus.  Then I went to the Highlander, which is basically the Husker bar in St. Louis.  I think I mentioned this place in one of my previous writings, but it is a small piece of game day Lincoln just cut out and removed to St. Louis.  So even though it was not a very good game by any means, it is fun to watch it in a place full of similar fans.  I think the reason I like sports fans so much, is because I love to see a group of complete strangers come together to support their team.  You can literally walk up to any table and just start talking to the Husker fans about where they are from or how they became Husker fans and find out their life story and make new friends just because your both dressed in the same teams gear.  I wish I could get people to do the same thing, only over the cross necklace or ring they are both wearing instead of the sports gear.  I will probably write a sermon on this someday, but I'll give a quick summary on what I mean anyways.  A football fan sees another person who he or she has never met before wearing their team's logo, can walk up and talk to that person about their team for any time length from thirty seconds to an hour.  They get excited and talk about the high points of the team's history, and mumble through the discouragement of the low years, but in the end say "Go Big Red!" (just for example) and both cheer their same team as they depart from each other.  At sports games you see the quietest people to the everyday person all yelling their heads off cheering for their team, or defending them when they don't agree with the referee's call.  Why can't we all do the same for Team Jesus?!  We get together on Sunday mornings to support our team, but instead of 80 or 90 thousand filling a stadium, we can't get 200 to fill the pews.  At the game we yell until our throats hurt, but yet we barely sing the hymns loud enough for our neighbor in the same pew to hear let alone anyone else.  We as sports fans will stand up for and defend our team when someone tries to put them down, even in the down years.  Yet as Christians we listen to our friends and coworkers take the Lord's name in vain and say nothing about it.  Why doesn't Team Jesus get the same respect, the same following, the same type of fans as a college football team?  And the funny part is everyone goes to or watches the games hoping their team wins, but is sadly disappointed when they don't.  Jesus has already won, its a guaranteed victory!  He never disappoints!  I don't know, it might need some work before its a sermon, but I just remember when I went to the National Youth Gathering where there were 35,000 kids all in one arena singing and cheering for Jesus.  It was awesome, just as awesome as any Husker game I have ever been to.  Then I have to stop and think, between college and professional sports, it would be a very high figure to know how many games are played in one year.  I would bet its in the thousands.  And yet, the National Youth Gathering only happens once every four years.  The one time we do get a massive crowd all cheering for Team Jesus instead of any sports team is 1/4 versus 1000/1 roughly.  Just something to ponder on.
Now Sunday was a great day.  I got up early and got ready to go to my field work church.  I met the two other guys who are also at my field work church, James and Tim both great guys, and we began the forty-five minute drive to Highland, Illinois.  The long drive gave Tim, James, and myself some time to get to know each other.  Then we got to the church , met pastor, and worshiped our Lord with the congregation of Hope.  Pastor Laetsch is an amazing man.  I would guess him to be in his sixties, he is a smaller elderly man with white hair and glasses.  But he has a smile that just lets you know he loves his vocation.  The congregation was very welcoming and full of warm people.  Then, as is a Sunday tradition I look forward to, Pastor took all three of us out to lunch.  He is a single man, and told me he wants to feed us but doesn't cook, so he takes us to the local restaurant called Farmers.  It was busy, but delicious food and huge servings.  He made me think a lot of my Grandpa Abbott, so you should already know I hold a high opinion for him.  We spent the time over lunch talking about ideas for adult Bible study and who will lead what.  I pretty well have free range to explore after church between the Sunday School classes, youth classes, and adult classes.  He told me his policy is I only have to do what I want, but if there is anything they don't do that I want to try he will work with me.  I think it will be an awesome place to do my field work.  I can't wait to become a part of the effort of the church working under Pastor Laetsch and beside Tim and James.  I start already next Sunday by reading the messages.  EXCITING!  I truly believe the Lord has blessed me with a wonderful congregation that I can grow in my faith and relationships, while still growing in my education as well.  Thanks be to Him!
So I know I basically already preached a sermon above and this post is getting very long, but you don't have to read it all in one sitting.  So to stick with my regular format I do have one thing I want to talk about that has come to my attention several times lately.  The past week, the topic that has been in front of me several different places under several different contexts is church attendance.  Now Sunday worship attendance has been a part of this a little bit, but the main attendance I want to talk about is outside of Sunday worship.  Now don't get me wrong, Sunday morning worship is a crucial part to every church; however, it is important to know and recognize that it is not the only time its important for a Christian growing in their faith to be at church.  I have in a week been made aware of a problem that pastors have been dealing with for centuries.  People come for Sunday morning worship, few stay for Bible class afterwards, and even fewer come to weekday Bible studies.  A major part of our life being a walk with Christ is spending time with Him.  According to John 1:1 Jesus is the Word!  If we truly are Christians claiming to believe in Christ, and say that we desire to live as Children of God, then we need to spend time with our Lord both in prayer and in Scripture.  Daily devotions, Bible studies, adult confirmation classes and etc. are all ways we can spend time with Him.  Now I have never been very good with this personally, so I know how hard it is to make time for that kind of stuff.  However, I have began a regular daily devotion for myself, as well as daily chapel and classes.  I know not every one has chapel available everyday, but I think its safe to safe every one has access to a Bible.  If you belong to a LCMS Church, they should all have free copies of Portals of Prayers booklets.  They are very short, very well written daily devotions.  I use them as part of my daily devotion.  I am realizing in the week that I have been here, how the last twenty-two years of my life, I can barely call myself a Christian.  I was truly a Sunday morning worshiper who said prayers every night before I went to sleep.  That, like many Christians, was the extent of my faith life.  Now, being here at the seminary my eyes have been opened to how important it is for each of us to spend time reading, studying, and learning the Word.  And the sad part is, it shouldn't have taken coming to the seminary to make me aware of this.  I had heard it in multiple sermons, and always knew it should be more important to me than it was.  However, it never clicked until I got here.  I guess its better late than never, but my hope for all of you is that you can learn from my mistake.  The old saying, live life with no regrets.  I don't hold a lot to that because we learn and are made who we are by our past so unless you are just absolutely displeased with who you have turned out to be, you shouldn't really have regrets anyways, but this is one time I will use it.  Do not wait as long as I did to realize that something so simple, twenty minutes a day, can mean so much when you look back on it.  I unfortunately look back at my past and do regret the lack of that time in the Word.  Now you can say I will make up for it being a pastor, but there is no such thing as too much time in the Word.  So my thought for today is the importance of our walk in Christ.  If we aren't walking in Christ, who are we walking in?  My challenge for each of you reading this is to spend twenty minutes to a half hour in scripture each day this week.  If you are married, do a daily devotion with your spouse and use it for family bonding time.  Part of your wedding vows were to always keep Christ a part of your relationship.  Do so by reading His Word together.  If you have kids, include them in your devotion to build a foundation of the importance of devotion in their life.  Even if its just talking about what they learned in Sunday School or for older kids how they can use what they are learning in school to serve Jesus.  If you already have daily devotion and have made that a priority in your life I praise the Spirit for being with you and pray He keeps you strong in that habit.  My challenge is to do it every day this week. My hope is that you will see how easy it is to actually find time in your busy life for God, and how those twenty minutes reading and praying to God are more rewarding than the rest of your day.  My hope and prayers for you is that after a week and seeing how easily it can be done, you will stick with it.  You will continue to set aside that twenty minutes each day for the next week and the next week.  Then once you begin to see how incredibly amazing it is to actually walk with Christ, you will be more open to stay for that Bible study after Sunday worship, or maybe even get very daring and join the weekly one which ever week day your church has it.  The important part is to end each devotion or reading in prayer.  Talk to our Lord, ask Him to help you stick with it, ask Him to help His Word stick in your heart, and stop to thank Him for everything He has done for you and your loved ones.  Never underestimate the power behind prayer.  

Dear Heavenly Father,
We come to You, asking You to be with us, help us make time and see the importance of spending time with You.  We are never alone in our journey while we are in this world, because You sent Your One and only Son down to take flesh and live beside Your creation.  Through His death and resurrection You saved us, Your lost sheep and fallen children.  However Christ our redeemer's return home to be with You, was not an abandonment for us still here.  We have Him always with us in the gifts You give us daily.  He is with us in Your Word, He is with us in Your Holy Supper, and Your Spirit lives and reigns in our hearts.  Let us never forget Your presence, but rather celebrate it and spend time with You.  You are the greatest God we could ever ask for, and all thanks and praise be to You name. Through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God now and forever.  Amen.