Grace and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ to all who read this. I started writing a post yesterday, but only got two lines in before I received two emails. One was an important one asking my opinion on something so I spent a while replying to that one just how I wanted it so sound, and then the second email was asking me to go into work. Wednesday night my boss called me in to help pre-treat sidewalks with chemical application. It was 37 degrees and the chance of freezing rain seemed very unlikely. However, we got asked to do it, so I gladly accepted the hours and went to work. Then yesterday I woke up to an absolutely beautiful sight. SNOW!!!!! So it was a good thing we treated the sidewalks after all. I didn't have any classes yesterday, so I slept in which was nice. I had also hoped to get out and take some pictures of the campus covered in snow. I had a hunch that our lovely campus would only look that much better with a layer of snow, and I was correct. However, since I didn't have time to get a post done yesterday, I also didn't have time to get any pictures taken. I thought about taking my camera to work with me since I spent quite a bit of time out in the snow, but I didn't want my camera to get wet or broken. Reverend Castens, one of our admissions guys, put up a You Tube video of the snow on campus. The link for that is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qA0DV-W2mU. I went to work at four yesterday afternoon and we got done shortly after nine. We spent the first few hours in the smaller equipment cleaning up parking lots and sidewalks as best we could. Then we spent the final two hours treating the sidewalks with the chemical application again. For those of you who are wondering, the way we treat the sidewalks is by dumping bags of chemical ice melt (which is extremely better than having to deal with salt like at Seward) into fertilizer push spreaders. Then we simply walk the sidewalks and let the spreaders throw out a layer of the ice melt. It is actually good exercise walking every sidewalk we have on campus, including all residential areas and perimeters. I love moving snow and this small snow storm did not even come close to quenching my thirst for snow removal. However, I hope this is only the beginning of winter.
Today, I have just been sitting in classes all day. If you read my Facebook status, that was a quote from Confessions. For those of you who may not have Facebook, I will copy and paste it for you: -Three men appeared at Heaven's golden gates before St. Peter. The three were St. Aquinas, Gabriel Biel, and Martin Luther. St. Peter asks, "Why should I let you in?" St Aquinas pulls out a large bag of works and says, "Look at all the works I did with God's grace." St. Peter says "I see. What about you Biel?” Biel pulls out a large bag of works and says, "Look at all the works I did without God's grace." St. Peter says, "I see. What about you Luther?" Luther just simply hands St. Peter his baptismal certificate. St. Peter asks, "And where are all of your works?" Luther slaps his forehead and says, "Oh I thought I was suppose to leave those on earth!" -The truth is your neighbor needs your works. God does not. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Now that we are saved, serve your neighbor and be an active Christian, not because our works save us, but because they are good for our neighbors who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Again, that was part of our discussion in Confessions class.
Chapel was a unique service today. It was the Rite of Aspersion. For those of you who have never seen this before, they took water out of the baptismal fount, that is always full and running in the Narthex, into bowls, and used evergreen branches to sprinkle water on the congregation as we sang a hymn to remind us of our baptismal promises. I thought it was really cool and hope to use the special rite in my church someday. As human beings who need tangible things, feeling the drops of water hit you, is a great way to remember our baptism.
This afternoon I am in two more classes, and then work again at four. I am getting a lot of hours this week, but other than one or two reading assignments I plan to make up this weekend, I am actually still keeping up with school too.
My thought for the day could have been the above quote, but I decided to do another for you too. One thing I have been seeing a lot lately in our younger and upcoming generations is the idea that just going to church does not make you a good Christian. Now this statement is true and I am actually quite impressed with people who realize that truth. However, the downfall of it is, these same youth are avoiding churches and have come up with this idea that they are better Christians for not being a part of the church. This is a serious problem. I am going to give you my opinion on the topic, and if you have any comments or disagreements to add, or questions please contact me either via email or even the comment section below and let me know. My view is that the church (with a lowercase c= the people who attend services every Sunday and are a part of the four walled building that holds their services) has made a bad name for itself by most of them being either corrupt or just stagnant. The reputation of our churches has become that they are more worried about money for a new edition to the church, or to build a bigger building, or to redo their parking lots rather than sending money to missionaries, or starting outreach programs. The reputation has come to be that church goers sit in their same pew ever Sunday and look to see who is or isn't in church that Sunday rather than welcoming visitors or praying for those who aren't there. These younger generations think church goers are only self righteous people who think they are better than everyone else. Now while I know not every church and not every member of those churches accurately fit into these categories, I do feel our churches could be doing some things to make a better name for themselves. Church on Sunday morning is intended to be an hour where Christian brothers and sisters in Christ gather in His holy house to confess they are sinners, admit they need Jesus Christ as their Savior, hear His Word and receive His sacraments in order to be strengthened in their faith, and to praise Him for all He does for us. Then the rest of the week, we are to live as a Christian, being loving and kind to our neighbors. Again, this is not because our works save us, but because they help our neighbors. However, I need to make one more point before I get to my views on this. These people who are against “the church” state it as the fact they are against religion, or they don’t want to be religious, they just want to believe in Jesus. OK, here come my thoughts. First, how they word it, being against religion, is ignorant. If you truly believe in Jesus, guess what, you are religious. A religion is a set of believes, not what church you belong to. So if you believe in Jesus, you have a set of beliefs, therefore you are religious. Secondly, even if you think churches are not doing what they are meant to do, we are called to be ONE body in Christ. If you think your church is corrupt or stagnant, become active to change that problem. Work together with your brothers and sisters in Christ to change the problems rather than separating yourself from the body of Christ. This is where the Church (with capital C= the congregation of all believers on this earth) becomes important. The Church is the body of Christ, not the church. The church should be doing everything it can, not to be building bigger, better churches, but to be building bigger the Church. Being religious should have the best name and reputation if we are truly following the example of Christ in our everyday lives, not something people are avoiding and denying. However, this also comes down to one of our biggest struggles as Christians. We strive to live the best life we can, again not because our works save us, but because we want to be like Christ to share Christ with all. So we try to live the best we can as a Christian witness, but as sinners we will always fail. Now does this mean we stop trying? Absolutely not! We try our best, we fail as sinners, but rejoice in the fact that we are still righteous before God because of His grace and mercy that has forgiven, redeemed, and saved us by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then since we know our God has done all this for us freely, we want to try even harder to be better. But again we fail, and again we rejoice in the fact that God has mercy on us. It is a continuous cycle that all Christians should face and it never ends. It is the struggle of being a terrible sinner and yet a beloved saint at the same time. Praise the Lord He only sees the saints, not the sinner because of our Lord Jesus paying the price for all our sins. The video that has really sparked this whole movement is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY. This was the email I got yesterday that I took my time forming my opinion on and hope it comes out correctly and clearly in this post as well. Again, if you have anything at all to add or ask, please do not hesitate. I pray daily for the Church, that we may put a side our human failings and simply work harder to spread the love of Christ. All Praise be to Him for all he has done for us sinful people.
Dear Heaven Father,
We thank you for all the undeserving mercy and grace you have freely given us Your sinful children. We beg You that You continue to bless us and strengthen us in our faith and love of You. Please be with Your Church and all believers, that we may all confess You as true Lord and Savior. Never let our sinful human errorget in the way of sharing and clinging strong to Your Word and Gospel. In the name of the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.
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