My greetings to all of you in the name of the one and only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. I apologize that today is more of a boasting day for myself than I normally like to do. However, this is my 200th post on this blog and it is also my 4 year anniversary. 4 years ago today, I wrote my very ever first blog post. It was the first week or two of my seminary career. Looking back, I cannot believe how far I have come or how greatly I have changed since then. However, St. Paul says if you are going to boast, boast in the Lord. So today I will boast in the Lord, because I know I would not, in fact I could not be where I am today, without the strength of the Lord. 4 years ago I was so scared to speak about anything concerning the Bible because I felt like I knew absolutely nothing. And even now I am still humble enough to admit there is more about the Bible that I don’t know than I actually do know. However, through 4 years of education, field work and vicarage experience, and personal growth in my faith, I have confidence in my teaching and preaching. Again, I only have this confidence because of the Lord and His Spirit in me that gives me the boldness and confidence to teach and preach His Word and Gospel message.
I also want to boast a little that doing the math 200 posts in 4 years averages out to 50 posts a year which is almost equivalent to a weekly blog. Now I know I have had large gaps in my writing time line, but I was proud of myself that I was still able to average that closely to a weekly post.
However, the main point of today’s post is to thank you and to thank the Lord. I want to thank all of you who actually read my posts. If you hadn’t encouraged me along the way and reassured me that people actually are reading this blog, I would have quit for sure. However, you inspired me, encouraged me, and kept me going for 4 years now. Sometimes I wonder why you would keep reading what I write, but I am reminded that you are hearing the Word of the Lord and that is worth it no matter how poor my writing skills may be.
I also want to thank the Lord that I am able to boast in Him. I want to thank Him for being with me all four years through the seminary, vicarage, and field work. And I most certainly want to thank Him for giving me such an amazing first call here at Peace in Christ. I remember leaving Adair for the first time as I left for college. I was moving to a place where I knew absolutely no one and it was scary. However, within a day of being there I made friends and from there it has never stopped. It doesn’t matter where life has led me, any place I go to, any situation I walk into, I have been able to make friends, feel right at home, and love my life exactly as it is, and that is all because the Lord has been with me and blessed me wherever I am. I cannot thank Him enough for the friends and relationships I have made over the past eight years of college, seminary, and vicarage. And now I continue to thank Him for the relationships I am building here at Peace in Christ and the Duluth area. Again, He has blessed me so much more richly than I deserve and I know He will continue to bless my ministry for the years to come.
So I thank, praise, and worship the wonderful God we have, I thank you my followers for supporting and encouraging me and sharing in the experiences I have had over the past four years, and I pray we may continue to share in the grace, mercy, and love of Christ for many more years to come. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Monday, August 31, 2015
Our God is a God of salvation!
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Have you ever thought about the reputation of God? I mean the word God gets used in all sorts of contexts that can be argued whether they are really speaking about the one and only true God. But even more than that, think about all the ways people talk about God. Hopefully you have heard God be called gracious, loving, and merciful. However, you might have also heard Him called angry, mean, spiteful, even hateful or evil. We learn God's attributes as all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. Now just imagine if you took a poll of every person in the world on what they thought about God, what would those statistics look like? If you organized the stats into a pie chart, how many slices would there be and which would be the biggest slice? A lot of different people have a lot of different views of God. What would your answer be? If you had to to answer the question, "How would you describe God in one sentence?" How would you answer?
I think my first instinct might be to use the adjective gracious or loving. I might try to sneak a little language of the creeds in there and include that My God, the one and only true Triune God, is a loving and gracious God. However, look at how the psalmist from Psalm 68 speaks about God. Our God is a God of salvation. This is most certainly a correct way to answer the question, but is it one that would jump into your mind? Now I am not trying to say that this is the best possible answer or anything like that. I am simply trying to point out one more way God's Word shows us how He is as our God. The Bible is the revealed knowledge of God which reveals to us who our God is, how He works in our lives, and what His will is for our lives. So the psalmist's claim that our God is a God of salvation is just one more way of showing us who our God is. He is truly a God of salvation. Look at the extent He is willing to go to in order to give us our salvation. He forgives Adam and Eve when they sin for the first time, He remains with His people and frees them from slavery in Egypt, He guides them through the wilderness, He rescues them from countless enemies during the judges and kings reign, and sends His one and only Son to redeem all of us. The entire story of the Old Testament is leading up and pointing towards God offering salvation to His people. The four Gospels are obviously pointing to God's salvation for mankind with Jesus as the main character of all four. The life, death, and resurrection of His Son was purely for our salvation. And now during the life of the church, we are constantly reminded of the salvation we have in Christ as a free gift from God. The promise of eternal life which is our Easter hope is the completion of the salvation God has already given us. The entire narrative of God and His people is about salvation, and since He has done all the work for us, He truly is a God of salvation. So there is nothing wrong with saying God is a gracious, loving, or merciful God. But He shows us His grace, mercy, and love in the free gift of salvation He offers to all who believe in His Son Jesus. So maybe the psalmist's answer of our God is a God of salvation does rank up there among the best answers, I'll let you rank them yourselves. But be reassured, our God is most certainly a God of salvation as He offers salvation freely through His Son to you! In the name of Jesus, Amen.
I think my first instinct might be to use the adjective gracious or loving. I might try to sneak a little language of the creeds in there and include that My God, the one and only true Triune God, is a loving and gracious God. However, look at how the psalmist from Psalm 68 speaks about God. Our God is a God of salvation. This is most certainly a correct way to answer the question, but is it one that would jump into your mind? Now I am not trying to say that this is the best possible answer or anything like that. I am simply trying to point out one more way God's Word shows us how He is as our God. The Bible is the revealed knowledge of God which reveals to us who our God is, how He works in our lives, and what His will is for our lives. So the psalmist's claim that our God is a God of salvation is just one more way of showing us who our God is. He is truly a God of salvation. Look at the extent He is willing to go to in order to give us our salvation. He forgives Adam and Eve when they sin for the first time, He remains with His people and frees them from slavery in Egypt, He guides them through the wilderness, He rescues them from countless enemies during the judges and kings reign, and sends His one and only Son to redeem all of us. The entire story of the Old Testament is leading up and pointing towards God offering salvation to His people. The four Gospels are obviously pointing to God's salvation for mankind with Jesus as the main character of all four. The life, death, and resurrection of His Son was purely for our salvation. And now during the life of the church, we are constantly reminded of the salvation we have in Christ as a free gift from God. The promise of eternal life which is our Easter hope is the completion of the salvation God has already given us. The entire narrative of God and His people is about salvation, and since He has done all the work for us, He truly is a God of salvation. So there is nothing wrong with saying God is a gracious, loving, or merciful God. But He shows us His grace, mercy, and love in the free gift of salvation He offers to all who believe in His Son Jesus. So maybe the psalmist's answer of our God is a God of salvation does rank up there among the best answers, I'll let you rank them yourselves. But be reassured, our God is most certainly a God of salvation as He offers salvation freely through His Son to you! In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Happy Sunday
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Worship went well this morning. I did liturgy and Pastor Ludwig preached an awesome sermon on Deuteronomy 4. It was a good sermon on why the law is still a good thing. This is actually a topic I have been studying up on quite a bit lately so I was glad to hear his point of view on it. I appreciate his down to earth approach on things and I think the people appreciate it too.
The world today does anything to try to explain or diminish the law. Even Christians try to make the law not important. The truth is that the law is still a wonderful thing given to us from God. Don't believe me? Try reading Psalm 119 and see what it saws about God's law, statues, commandments, etc. Now it is true, we live by the Gospel of Jesus Christ but even Jesus says he did not come to get rid of the law. We still live according to God's will which is given to us in His law. An the real issue is that when we try to void the law, we actually change the Gospel message. When we try to say the law doesn't matter because Christians are just as sinful as non-believers, we are denying that salvation has actually changed us into saints. When we try to say the law only applies to non-Christians because believers are already saved by the Gospel, we deny the fact that we as Christians are still sinners. It is the sinner and saint paradox that is a mystery to us and yet does not give us permission to change the Word of God. As children of God who are sinners and yet are saved saints all at the same time, the Law applies to us to teach us how to live according to God's will, and the Gospel most certainly applies to us because it is through the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name that we have eternal life.
Hope you have a great Sunday and as you hear the Word of our Lord be reminded that we as His children, who live according to His will, only have life in His name. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
The world today does anything to try to explain or diminish the law. Even Christians try to make the law not important. The truth is that the law is still a wonderful thing given to us from God. Don't believe me? Try reading Psalm 119 and see what it saws about God's law, statues, commandments, etc. Now it is true, we live by the Gospel of Jesus Christ but even Jesus says he did not come to get rid of the law. We still live according to God's will which is given to us in His law. An the real issue is that when we try to void the law, we actually change the Gospel message. When we try to say the law doesn't matter because Christians are just as sinful as non-believers, we are denying that salvation has actually changed us into saints. When we try to say the law only applies to non-Christians because believers are already saved by the Gospel, we deny the fact that we as Christians are still sinners. It is the sinner and saint paradox that is a mystery to us and yet does not give us permission to change the Word of God. As children of God who are sinners and yet are saved saints all at the same time, the Law applies to us to teach us how to live according to God's will, and the Gospel most certainly applies to us because it is through the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name that we have eternal life.
Hope you have a great Sunday and as you hear the Word of our Lord be reminded that we as His children, who live according to His will, only have life in His name. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Grass getting rained on?
Greetings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning's devotion included Psalm 72. In this psalm there was a line that has stuck with me all day. The line is verse 6: "May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass." This line sticks with me for two reasons. The first is because it made me think back to one time I was a young child and I heard the pastor of my home church compare us to the grass. I went home that night and wrote a "sermon" on what it would be like if we as people really were grass. It was quite comical and even included a cow pie if I remember correctly. However, the second reason this line has stuck with me all day is because it is a beautiful metaphor for how faith really works. We really are like grass in the sense that we can do nothing to earn or gain our justification. Grass does nothing to earn the rain. The only thing grass can do is what it was designed to do, grow! So the grass just does what it was made to do and it grows. It is completely dependent on other to provide for it. The grass needs the rain, but all it can do is wait for the rain to come. We like grass need God's grace and forgiveness to live eternally and yet there is nothing we can do to earn or gain God's grace. We like the grass must do what we were created to do and wait for God to send His grace on us. And do you notice something else? It says the mown grass. Why is this important? Because I think we all know that when it rains on freshly cut grass, it is ready more now that ever to start growing. It has been trimmed and watered and the conditions are just right for growing. So it is with us and being cut down. When the law shows us our sins and the fact that we deserve nothing but eternal condemnation and then God showers us with His grace and forgiveness, never is there a more prime time for us to grow. We have been cut down by the law and our sin, but we have been watered by the Gospel and we are now ready to do what God has created us to do, grow in our faith. So this simple line reminds me that as I daily confess my sins to God in prayer, I have been mown. The old sinful nature is cut down. And at the very same time God showers His grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ and His salvation down upon me and gives me the strength to grow. So let us all pray that God may be like rain on the mown grass and know that the Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ are always working in our lives to help us grow in our faith and do exactly what God has created us to do, and all of this happens without any effort or merit of our own. What a gracious and loving God we have to shower us with His gifts so that we can grow in Him, Amen.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
First Sermon at Peace in Christ
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus. I am not sure if you are all aware of this but most of my sermons will be put up as an audio file on the church's website. The website is: http://www.piclutheran.org/ Then under the "Learn" tab is a link to the sermon files. I say most of them because they may not all be up there. They try to get all of them up, but sometimes they don't record or other things happen. So my second sermon is actually up on the website and my third one should be put up soon. However, my first one did not record properly so it will not be up there. So I will post the manuscript on here for you. Keep in mind my manuscripts are not word for word what I actually end up preaching, but it gives you the idea for the sermon anyway. Actually the last two sermons, I have not even really written out manuscripts since I do not preach them anyway. So luckily they recorded and will be on the website. So for your reading, here is the manuscript for my first sermon as an ordained pastor. Hope you enjoy!
Text – 1 Kings 19:1-8
Focus Text: verse 7
Theme: Journey is too great for you
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Elijah – what an incredible man. Elijah is just one of those men of the Bible that really is an example of men among boys. Think of all of the amazing things Elijah did in his ministry. Elijah was the one who prayed and made it stop raining for three years. Elijah is the one who challenged the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel and after he wins the challenge by proving his God is real, he slaughters 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah is the one who will eventually be taken to heaven in a chariot of fire while Elisha, his predecessor, watches. Elijah is the man. In fact, Elijah is even mentioned several times in the New Testament. When Jesus is asking His disciples who people say He is, Elijah is one of the answers. And of course, when Jesus cries out from the cross one of the seven times, the religious leaders think he is calling out for Elijah and watch to see if Elijah will actually come. If you have ever had the opportunity to be a part of a legitimate Seder dinner, the dinner Jewish people still celebrate on the night of the Passover, it always ends with the youngest child at the table going to the front door of the house to see if Elijah has come. And when Elijah is not at the front door, they say, hopefully next year He will come. They are waiting each year for Elijah to come back for them. Elijah is a major figure not only in the Old Testament, but throughout the entire Biblical narrative. Elijah is the man. Personally when I compare myself to Elijah, I feel pretty worthless.
This morning Elijah is the main character of our reading from 1 Kings Chapter 19. This narrative comes right after the Mt. Carmel scene where God used Elijah to prove He is the one and only true God and that Baal is nothing but a worthless idol. Elijah not only wins the challenge but does indeed slaughter, massacre 450 men, 450 prophets of the false god Baal. Now King Ahab tells his evil wife Jezebel what Elijah has done. Jezebel who is always causing trouble for the prophets of the Lord, tells Elijah she is going to kill him since he killed the prophets of Baal. So Elijah flees for his life. Now this is not the first time Elijah flees for his life, nor is it the first time God directly intervenes to provide for Elijah as he is fleeing. Every time Elijah flees for his own safety, God always provides the food and water he needs. God has used ravens and widows to provide for Elijah. However, this time he sends the angel of the Lord to bring Elijah food and water. Elijah wakes up to bread and water and the angel of the Lord telling him to arise and eat. Then the second time Elijah wakes up to bread and water and the angel of the Lord speaking to him is what I really want to focus in on today. I want to focus in on this specific detail of the story because what the angel of the Lord says to Elijah the second time really struck me as interesting.
The angel of the Lord not only says, arise and eat this time, he also says, “for the journey is too great for you.” This is Elijah we’re talking about, the men among boys, the prophet of prophets. The journey is too great for him on his own, so God directly intervenes, sends His angel, feeds Elijah, and gives him the strength to make it to Horeb. And yet when we look at verse 4 of this very same passage, we see Elijah giving up, asking God to take his life. Elijah, compares himself his fathers, basically saying, “I am no better than anyone else who has lived, I am no better than any other sinner.” Elijah, the major figure in the Old Testament, feels worthless, like he has done nothing right and is asking God to just take him away. Now, I am no Elijah, but I have felt this way before. I have felt so worthless, so helpless, like no matter what I do it is not right anyway so I might as well give up. Have you felt this way? Have you ever felt helpless, hopeless, worthless, and just wanted to give up? Have you ever been at such a low point that you actually asked God to take your life away and just end it all?
I imagine most of us have. But whether you have experienced this or not, look at what God does and says to Elijah in that very moment. When Elijah is at his lowest, God directly intervenes and comes to him through the angel of the Lord. He feeds Elijah, gives him water to drink, not just once, but twice. And this is when God speaking through His angel tells Elijah, Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. God knows what Elijah is thinking, He knows what Elijah is going through and He knows the journey is too great for Elijah to do this on his own.
Now you could take this extremely literally and say the forty miles to Horeb is too great for Elijah, but I believe God is speaking even more broadly and saying, I know this journey through life is too great for you. And I believe God says this to all of us in our times of doubt, our low moments. All those times where we too, just like Elijah fleeing for his life felt helpless, hopeless, and worthless. In our struggles, our failures, our low points, God comes directly intervening for us too and tells us, The journey is too great for you.
We live in a sinful, stressful, depressing world that constantly seems to be trying to break us. Watch five minutes of any news channel and you immediately are reminded of how sick, twisted, and corrupt our world is. Random shootings and acts of senseless violence, more laws making direct sin against God legal in our country, Planned Parenthood not only killing babies, but now chopping them up to make money off of them. And with all of the evil and corruption that is constantly happening all around us, it becomes too real for us when it begins to affect our lives. When life seems to be stacked against us and everything is falling apart right around us. These are the moments when we really feel like Elijah here. This is when the journey of life is too great for us. Because you see it’s not that the journey through life is impossible, but to remain faithful through that journey is the difficult part. There are a lot of atheists that make a great life for themselves. In fact sometimes it seems like the unfaithful, the ones who have nothing to do with church or God are the only ones who don’t have struggles in this life. But when God says the journey is too great for you, He means the journey of remaining faithful to Him in the struggles of life is too great for you. To face trials, temptation, hardships, and struggles and still through them all fear, love, and trust in God above all things is the part that is too great for us.
When life throws its darkest, toughest moments at us – this is when we feel helpless, hopeless, and worthless like Elijah. This is when we ask God to just end it, take us away, make the pain, the loneliness, the suffering end. When your husband or wife is diagnosed with cancer and you watch him or her go through the suffering of chemo knowing there is nothing you can do to help him or her. When a teenager is killed or dies un-expectantly and you can’t understand why so much of his or her life will never happen now. When you lose a child at birth and can barely bear the pain of holding your precious child that you will not get to watch grow up. When these dark, horrible, tragic, unexplainable, terrifying effects of sin, death, and evil rear their ugly face in your life, the journey of a faithful life becomes too great for us and we just want it to end rather than continuing to feel the pain, the doubts, the helplessness, and the hopelessness. The journey is too great for us and we give up.
However, God knows the journey is too great for us. Just as He heard Elijah’s prayer of doubt, prayer of despair, He hears our prayers. He hears our moans, our shouts of anger, our sighs of disbelief, our prayers of despair. And just as He took direct action, directly intervening in his life, feeding him to give him the strength to arise, to eat, and to continue on his way, God comes to us in those dark, suffering moments. He feeds us, gives us the strength to arise, to eat, and to continue on our journey of faith through this life. Last Sunday Pastor Ludwig gave us a great sermon on Jesus as the bread of life that is far better than any earthly bread. This morning’s Gospel lesson was again on John 6 and Jesus as the bread of life. God comes to us when we are weak, struggling, doubting, and gives us our bread of life, His very own Son Jesus Christ and tells us arise and eat. When we are weak and want to quit, God comes to us and gives us the strength of His Son, the bread of life. He knew this journey through life would be too great for us, He knew we could not make it faithfully to the end if we had only ourselves to depend on. This is why He directly intervened by sending His Son to be born in this world, make it faithfully through His journey in this life, only to be killed on the cross and rise again to new life. Jesus has conquered sin, life, and evil and now offers us His strength to remain in the faith He gives to us, and to forgive us for all those times we are too weak to remain faithful. God directed intervened to send His Son to be the Savior of the world, to be the bread of life so that now in all those times of weakness, struggles, trials and temptations, in the moments of helplessness and hopelessness, God who knows the struggles we are going through, God who knows the journey is too great for us gives us His strength in His Son, who is the bread of life. God directly intervenes in your life, telling you to arise and eat and gives you the strength you need to continue on your journey.
He comes to you in His word as you hear the Holy Scriptures read aloud here at church or when you read your Bible at home. He comes to you through the gift of your baptism which is still constantly working in you as the Holy Spirit lives in you and works to continually make you holy. He comes to you in the words of absolution that as they are spoken over you, your sins are truly forgiven and you are given a fresh clean slate and renewed faith to continue on in your journey. He comes to you through brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage you in your faith, who help bear the burden as they cry with you when you cry and empathize with your pain. And He comes to you in His very own body and blood, assuring you your sins are forgiven, renewing your faith that He really is with you, and giving you the strength you need for the next part of the journey. God loves you so very much and wants nothing other than to see you make it through this journey of life in the faith He has given you, that He continues to come to you over and over again, giving you the strength you need, giving you the Bread of Life, His Son, our Lord Jesus, because He knows life is difficult and that the journey is too great for you, so He gives you the strength you need, He gives you the assurance that He is with you, and He gives you the ability to make it to the end of the journey where He will be to welcome you into His loving arms. The journey would be too great for you if you were alone. But you are not alone because God loves you and is with you. Let Him come to you in His gifts of His Word, His forgiveness, His mercy, His grace and His love. Come receive His strength through the Bread of life, Jesus’ body and blood. And then continue on your journey of life knowing God is with you at all times, he loves you and gives you His strength to remain faithful until the end. In Jesus name, Amen.
Text – 1 Kings 19:1-8
Focus Text: verse 7
Theme: Journey is too great for you
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Elijah – what an incredible man. Elijah is just one of those men of the Bible that really is an example of men among boys. Think of all of the amazing things Elijah did in his ministry. Elijah was the one who prayed and made it stop raining for three years. Elijah is the one who challenged the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel and after he wins the challenge by proving his God is real, he slaughters 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah is the one who will eventually be taken to heaven in a chariot of fire while Elisha, his predecessor, watches. Elijah is the man. In fact, Elijah is even mentioned several times in the New Testament. When Jesus is asking His disciples who people say He is, Elijah is one of the answers. And of course, when Jesus cries out from the cross one of the seven times, the religious leaders think he is calling out for Elijah and watch to see if Elijah will actually come. If you have ever had the opportunity to be a part of a legitimate Seder dinner, the dinner Jewish people still celebrate on the night of the Passover, it always ends with the youngest child at the table going to the front door of the house to see if Elijah has come. And when Elijah is not at the front door, they say, hopefully next year He will come. They are waiting each year for Elijah to come back for them. Elijah is a major figure not only in the Old Testament, but throughout the entire Biblical narrative. Elijah is the man. Personally when I compare myself to Elijah, I feel pretty worthless.
This morning Elijah is the main character of our reading from 1 Kings Chapter 19. This narrative comes right after the Mt. Carmel scene where God used Elijah to prove He is the one and only true God and that Baal is nothing but a worthless idol. Elijah not only wins the challenge but does indeed slaughter, massacre 450 men, 450 prophets of the false god Baal. Now King Ahab tells his evil wife Jezebel what Elijah has done. Jezebel who is always causing trouble for the prophets of the Lord, tells Elijah she is going to kill him since he killed the prophets of Baal. So Elijah flees for his life. Now this is not the first time Elijah flees for his life, nor is it the first time God directly intervenes to provide for Elijah as he is fleeing. Every time Elijah flees for his own safety, God always provides the food and water he needs. God has used ravens and widows to provide for Elijah. However, this time he sends the angel of the Lord to bring Elijah food and water. Elijah wakes up to bread and water and the angel of the Lord telling him to arise and eat. Then the second time Elijah wakes up to bread and water and the angel of the Lord speaking to him is what I really want to focus in on today. I want to focus in on this specific detail of the story because what the angel of the Lord says to Elijah the second time really struck me as interesting.
The angel of the Lord not only says, arise and eat this time, he also says, “for the journey is too great for you.” This is Elijah we’re talking about, the men among boys, the prophet of prophets. The journey is too great for him on his own, so God directly intervenes, sends His angel, feeds Elijah, and gives him the strength to make it to Horeb. And yet when we look at verse 4 of this very same passage, we see Elijah giving up, asking God to take his life. Elijah, compares himself his fathers, basically saying, “I am no better than anyone else who has lived, I am no better than any other sinner.” Elijah, the major figure in the Old Testament, feels worthless, like he has done nothing right and is asking God to just take him away. Now, I am no Elijah, but I have felt this way before. I have felt so worthless, so helpless, like no matter what I do it is not right anyway so I might as well give up. Have you felt this way? Have you ever felt helpless, hopeless, worthless, and just wanted to give up? Have you ever been at such a low point that you actually asked God to take your life away and just end it all?
I imagine most of us have. But whether you have experienced this or not, look at what God does and says to Elijah in that very moment. When Elijah is at his lowest, God directly intervenes and comes to him through the angel of the Lord. He feeds Elijah, gives him water to drink, not just once, but twice. And this is when God speaking through His angel tells Elijah, Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. God knows what Elijah is thinking, He knows what Elijah is going through and He knows the journey is too great for Elijah to do this on his own.
Now you could take this extremely literally and say the forty miles to Horeb is too great for Elijah, but I believe God is speaking even more broadly and saying, I know this journey through life is too great for you. And I believe God says this to all of us in our times of doubt, our low moments. All those times where we too, just like Elijah fleeing for his life felt helpless, hopeless, and worthless. In our struggles, our failures, our low points, God comes directly intervening for us too and tells us, The journey is too great for you.
We live in a sinful, stressful, depressing world that constantly seems to be trying to break us. Watch five minutes of any news channel and you immediately are reminded of how sick, twisted, and corrupt our world is. Random shootings and acts of senseless violence, more laws making direct sin against God legal in our country, Planned Parenthood not only killing babies, but now chopping them up to make money off of them. And with all of the evil and corruption that is constantly happening all around us, it becomes too real for us when it begins to affect our lives. When life seems to be stacked against us and everything is falling apart right around us. These are the moments when we really feel like Elijah here. This is when the journey of life is too great for us. Because you see it’s not that the journey through life is impossible, but to remain faithful through that journey is the difficult part. There are a lot of atheists that make a great life for themselves. In fact sometimes it seems like the unfaithful, the ones who have nothing to do with church or God are the only ones who don’t have struggles in this life. But when God says the journey is too great for you, He means the journey of remaining faithful to Him in the struggles of life is too great for you. To face trials, temptation, hardships, and struggles and still through them all fear, love, and trust in God above all things is the part that is too great for us.
When life throws its darkest, toughest moments at us – this is when we feel helpless, hopeless, and worthless like Elijah. This is when we ask God to just end it, take us away, make the pain, the loneliness, the suffering end. When your husband or wife is diagnosed with cancer and you watch him or her go through the suffering of chemo knowing there is nothing you can do to help him or her. When a teenager is killed or dies un-expectantly and you can’t understand why so much of his or her life will never happen now. When you lose a child at birth and can barely bear the pain of holding your precious child that you will not get to watch grow up. When these dark, horrible, tragic, unexplainable, terrifying effects of sin, death, and evil rear their ugly face in your life, the journey of a faithful life becomes too great for us and we just want it to end rather than continuing to feel the pain, the doubts, the helplessness, and the hopelessness. The journey is too great for us and we give up.
However, God knows the journey is too great for us. Just as He heard Elijah’s prayer of doubt, prayer of despair, He hears our prayers. He hears our moans, our shouts of anger, our sighs of disbelief, our prayers of despair. And just as He took direct action, directly intervening in his life, feeding him to give him the strength to arise, to eat, and to continue on his way, God comes to us in those dark, suffering moments. He feeds us, gives us the strength to arise, to eat, and to continue on our journey of faith through this life. Last Sunday Pastor Ludwig gave us a great sermon on Jesus as the bread of life that is far better than any earthly bread. This morning’s Gospel lesson was again on John 6 and Jesus as the bread of life. God comes to us when we are weak, struggling, doubting, and gives us our bread of life, His very own Son Jesus Christ and tells us arise and eat. When we are weak and want to quit, God comes to us and gives us the strength of His Son, the bread of life. He knew this journey through life would be too great for us, He knew we could not make it faithfully to the end if we had only ourselves to depend on. This is why He directly intervened by sending His Son to be born in this world, make it faithfully through His journey in this life, only to be killed on the cross and rise again to new life. Jesus has conquered sin, life, and evil and now offers us His strength to remain in the faith He gives to us, and to forgive us for all those times we are too weak to remain faithful. God directed intervened to send His Son to be the Savior of the world, to be the bread of life so that now in all those times of weakness, struggles, trials and temptations, in the moments of helplessness and hopelessness, God who knows the struggles we are going through, God who knows the journey is too great for us gives us His strength in His Son, who is the bread of life. God directly intervenes in your life, telling you to arise and eat and gives you the strength you need to continue on your journey.
He comes to you in His word as you hear the Holy Scriptures read aloud here at church or when you read your Bible at home. He comes to you through the gift of your baptism which is still constantly working in you as the Holy Spirit lives in you and works to continually make you holy. He comes to you in the words of absolution that as they are spoken over you, your sins are truly forgiven and you are given a fresh clean slate and renewed faith to continue on in your journey. He comes to you through brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage you in your faith, who help bear the burden as they cry with you when you cry and empathize with your pain. And He comes to you in His very own body and blood, assuring you your sins are forgiven, renewing your faith that He really is with you, and giving you the strength you need for the next part of the journey. God loves you so very much and wants nothing other than to see you make it through this journey of life in the faith He has given you, that He continues to come to you over and over again, giving you the strength you need, giving you the Bread of Life, His Son, our Lord Jesus, because He knows life is difficult and that the journey is too great for you, so He gives you the strength you need, He gives you the assurance that He is with you, and He gives you the ability to make it to the end of the journey where He will be to welcome you into His loving arms. The journey would be too great for you if you were alone. But you are not alone because God loves you and is with you. Let Him come to you in His gifts of His Word, His forgiveness, His mercy, His grace and His love. Come receive His strength through the Bread of life, Jesus’ body and blood. And then continue on your journey of life knowing God is with you at all times, he loves you and gives you His strength to remain faithful until the end. In Jesus name, Amen.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
You talking to me?
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus who loves you all so dearly. Have you ever had that moment that you are reading your usual devotion and yet it seems like God is speaking specifically to you individually? You realize there could not have been a better text or message that day then what you just read, because it fit perfectly with whatever you may be going through in yo life at the moment. This happens quite a bit to me but it definitely happened this morning. I opened my devotion and read the Psalm and I almost laughed out loud. I just stopped and said to myself, "I hear you loud and clear Lord." I knew God could see I had been letting my mind wander on something and He decided it was enough and threw this text right at me in my face to make sure I couldn't miss it. Now, I imagine there are probably some theologians out there who might try to say that it is wrong of me to assume God put that text in there just for me. However, I am a firm believer God is always at work in our lives and He works in mysterious ways, so I am not convinced that these moments aren't God's hand at work directly in our lives and Him reassuring us of His promises and love.
The Psalm this morning was Psalm 32 (one of the penitential psalms) which I have preached on before. As I read it that sermon theme came rushing back to my mind and I knew t was exactly what I needed to hear. And after reading the Psalm, I stopped reading without finishing the rest of the devotion and went to prayer. If God is speaking directly to me in that moment, I wanted to make sure I talked back and thanked Him for the grace and mercy He continues to show me each and every day. So not only are daily devotions a great way to keep yourself in God's Word and your mind on heavenly things instead of earthly things, but it is one more opportunity for our loving, protecting, and always watching Father to speak directly to us and remind us that we are His and nothing will ever change that. Praise be to God who not only gives us His Word in the Scriptures, but gave us His revealed Word in the flesh and blood of His very own Son Jesus Christ who showed us exactly how much our Father loves us and is always at work in our lives.
The Psalm this morning was Psalm 32 (one of the penitential psalms) which I have preached on before. As I read it that sermon theme came rushing back to my mind and I knew t was exactly what I needed to hear. And after reading the Psalm, I stopped reading without finishing the rest of the devotion and went to prayer. If God is speaking directly to me in that moment, I wanted to make sure I talked back and thanked Him for the grace and mercy He continues to show me each and every day. So not only are daily devotions a great way to keep yourself in God's Word and your mind on heavenly things instead of earthly things, but it is one more opportunity for our loving, protecting, and always watching Father to speak directly to us and remind us that we are His and nothing will ever change that. Praise be to God who not only gives us His Word in the Scriptures, but gave us His revealed Word in the flesh and blood of His very own Son Jesus Christ who showed us exactly how much our Father loves us and is always at work in our lives.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Bold enough to look.
Greetings to you in Christ Jesus. This morning's devotion included Psalm 27. Verses 1, 7 and 8 got me thinking. Verse one starts with, "The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" Now while these are words of comfort reminding us that because we have God we really do not have to fear anything in this life. Except God. All of the commandment explanations start with we should fear and love God... So we have a God who we should fear and love, but then because we do fear and love Him we don't have to fear anything. This is one of those places where our faith is so rich and complex that at times we could almost be tempted to say different passages are contradicting each other. But then as I read verses 7 and 8 I was immediately reminded of Moses. In Exodus 3 with the story of the burning bush, Moses falls on his face to not look at the bush because he is scared to look at God. He does fear the Lord. However, in Exodus 33, we find Moses asking to see the full glory of God. God agrees and lets Moses see His backside but God will not let Moses see His face. We see Moses going from being to terrified to even look at a bush to later being bold enough to ask to see God's face. What changed? Moses knew God much better and was in a relationship with Him by chapter 33.
So in Psalm 27, in verses 7 and 8 it speaks about our heart seeking to see the face of God. We like Moses should fear the Lord knowing He is the Lord Almighty. This is why Luther includes fear and love God in all the commandments because as we are learning His ways from the fundamentals of the Small Catechism, we should fear Him out of respect for Him as our God. However, once we have learned the fundamentals and moved on to a deep, personal relationship with our God, we can begin to be more bold like Moses and let our heart seek to see the face of God. This is not to say we have become worthy to see God's face, but merely that we love Him so much and we are so completely committed to our relationship with Him, we want to be in His presence standing right before Him seeking to see His face.
So you should fear and love the Lord in all you do, and then as your relationship with Him grows and your fear and love for Him will give you the desire for that relationship to always be growing and your heart truly can seek to see the face of God. The best news, is that God let us see His glory by sending His Son and some day we will all see the face of God when Christ comes again. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
So in Psalm 27, in verses 7 and 8 it speaks about our heart seeking to see the face of God. We like Moses should fear the Lord knowing He is the Lord Almighty. This is why Luther includes fear and love God in all the commandments because as we are learning His ways from the fundamentals of the Small Catechism, we should fear Him out of respect for Him as our God. However, once we have learned the fundamentals and moved on to a deep, personal relationship with our God, we can begin to be more bold like Moses and let our heart seek to see the face of God. This is not to say we have become worthy to see God's face, but merely that we love Him so much and we are so completely committed to our relationship with Him, we want to be in His presence standing right before Him seeking to see His face.
So you should fear and love the Lord in all you do, and then as your relationship with Him grows and your fear and love for Him will give you the desire for that relationship to always be growing and your heart truly can seek to see the face of God. The best news, is that God let us see His glory by sending His Son and some day we will all see the face of God when Christ comes again. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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