It's not just me!

God's blessings to you all.  I had a rough, crazy weekend that actually worked out to be a blessing.  I have a sermon due this very day.  Last week on Thursday I had my outline roughly drafted, and after class on Friday I was ready to begin writing my sermon.  However, Friday night I went and saw a movie with some of the guys.  We saw the movie The Raven, which I wasn't sure what to expect from it.  There were parts that were a little more bloody and gory than they needed to be, and some of the dialogue is a little simplistic, but the overall plot was very good and I would recommend it if you are looking for a good movie.  It has a little bit of a Sherlock Homes feel to it if you like those kinds of movies.  Getting back to my sermon story, Saturday after working brunch I sat down to start writing it.  I decided to make my outline more detailed and figure out exactly what I was going to write about before actually writing it. This is where the more I thought about my outline, the more I realized it was not even close to being usable.  After about the first four hours I decided to scrap the whole idea and try to think of a new one.  Then after another two hours of pulling my hair out, I got a break from the frustration with the storm we had go through.  It got super dark, the wind was blowing very hard, the storm sirens of Clayton went off, and then it hailed for about a minute golf ball to tennis ball size hail.  It was huge and sounded terrible bouncing off the slate shingles of Wartburg.  Down by Busch Stadium a tent blew down, killing one man and injuring several others if you didn't already hear about that.  That part was not good, and some of the guys have hail dents on their cars now, but other than that no serious damage was done.  So I was back to the frustration of having no idea what I was going to base my sermon on.  The biggest problem was, I could have easily written several sermons off of my text.  Except for class we were told to write one very particular style, which is why I struggled so much. So another couple hours passed by of me starring at the Bible just thinking about every possibility I could think of.  Then I went to vent to one friend who was playing video games and not really listening.  So I went to another friend and he actually let me vent to him.  However, he asked me, "Have you prayed about it?"  I felt stupid saying no, but it was the truth.  He told me to go spend some time in prayer and then get a good night sleep and try again on Sunday.  I went back to my room, literally got down on my knees and prayed.  I threw it all out there and told the Lord I give up, I know I cannot do it, but need Your help.  Then I curled up under my blankets with a blank notebook and a pen.  I simply wrote out every idea I could think of that this text was actually saying.  After scratching out a couple dozen, one popped out.  I started writing ideas that went with it and before I knew it I had my entire outline done.  I called it a night and went to sleep.  Sunday morning, I did not have to go to field work church because I went to the deaf church.  It is part of my cross-cultural module along with my sign language class.  This was an experience I will never forget because it was so amazing.  I truly want to go back again.  I will tell all about the deaf church after I finish my sermon story, so I do not get too side tracked.  After church I came back and wrote about two-thirds of my sermon before I had to work as an usher.  The concert was an Easter Lessons and Carols concert in the chapel and was awesome.  I love going to those kinds of things we have here on campus, especially since I get paid to go to most of them.  Then after the concert I came back and wrote some more on my sermon.  Then the rest of the night last night I had to study for my Calvin Reformation test I have today.  It is open book, so I went through and highlighted important areas.  However, as I was reading to find the key parts I kept dozing in and out.  So I finally called it a night and went to sleep.  Then this morning I reluctantly got up at my second alarm, instead of waiting for the fourth or fifth like normal.  I sat down, finished my sermon and revised it once.  I still need to revise it at least once or twice more throughout the day today, but the important part is I am done writing it.  So the very important lesson I was reminded of, since I already knew it, was that the harder I try to write my sermon, the more frustrating it gets.  Instead of praying, trusting the Holy Spirit to be with me in my writing process and just overall spending enough time in the text, I tried to write it myself.  The best part of this whole story is, the teaching I used for my sermon was to "trust the Holy Spirit".  If only I had  trusted Him sooner, I would have seen the text screaming that message at me and saved a lot of hours and stress.  However, it was a reminder that the best sermon preparation is to simply let the Word preach and teach you first, then you can decide what it is trying to teach God's people.  That is a really important message I have heard on several occasions this year already.  I quote Dr. Bayer, a guest speaker, as saying, "The comfort that the preacher is trying to bring to the people, is the very comfort he needs himself and the only way he gets it is by letting the Word first address him."  I even typed that into my paper I had to write about his speech.  Dr. Gibbs told us that when a pastor gets a little frustrated he is thinking that is is him doing the work instead of knowing it is Him doing it, and when a pastor gets really frustrated he is believing  it is him doing the work instead of Him doing it.  I have heard this message several times, and yet my thick stubborn self spent all of Saturday stressed and frustrated.  Hopefully eleven hours of misery is enough to remind me next time to just stop and pray right away.  I thanked my friend for reminding me of what I needed to hear and pointing me towards the One I was forgetting about.  After I get the sermon graded I will try to post it so you can all read it.  Until then, trust in the work of the Holy Spirit and remember He is with you at all times.  
Back to the deaf church story, it was amazing.  My friend Lee and I went together.  As soon as we walked in, the Pastor asked if we were seminary students.  Lee is about the exact same size as me, so there we stood two big guys in dress clothes and ties walking into a church of about thirty people all in jeans and t-shirts. He welcomed us as did some of the hearing members.  The one lady who was in the choir starting giving us a hard time asking if we wanted to sit with the goats or with the sheep.  We sat down and ended up having to sit down the entire service.  There are only about four rows of pews, and behind the pews are tables and chairs.  Most of the completely deaf people sat back at those tables and chairs because they could still see the signs.  However, when Lee and I stood up, the people at those tables and chairs could no longer see.  So the pastor, from the altar, asked if we could just remain seated.  I laughed every time he said, "Please stand," and Lee and I both would start to stand up and then sit back down.  A fellow seminary student, who wears hearing aids and is hard of hearing, goes there for field work and he actually gave the sermon.  It was cool to see a brother student giving a sermon and signing the entire thing himself.  The entire service is still spoken by  the pastor and the people, it is just also completely signed too.  My favorite part was communion.  When you are at the rail, the seminary student gave you the bread and signed the words after he placed it in your hands.  Then an assistant would give you your individual cup.  Then finally the pastor went behind them and gave each and every person a hug and a personal dismissal.  The theme for the day was not knowing but believing.  So Pastor would randomly ask people to explain how the meal had just worked.  Then he would remind them we do not absolutely know, but we still believe.  It was just very personal and I like it.  Then he had all the children come up to the rail after all the adults had received communion.  He gave each one of them a hug and made the sign of the cross on their forehead, blessing them.  The service took longer than an hour, but was fun to see.  Then afterward we had fellowship with doughnuts and coffee.  We talked to several people, and they were all so nice.  It was a great experience and amazing to see how our Lord cares and blesses for all of His children, even in a unique ministry like that one.  They stream all of their services online, so if you want to see it the website is holycrossdeaf.org.  If you watch yesterday's church service you would see me and Lee stand up and introduce ourselves in sign language.  
My thought for the day was included in the sermon story.  So I will close with prayer and the rest of the commandments.  Hope you all have a wonderful day and I ask God's blessings on your week.  All Praise be to Him who gives us His Spirit, to be and abide with us now and forever.  Amen.    
LSB Prayer 183
Almighty God, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, that He may rule and direct us according to Your will, comfort us in all our temptations and afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth that we, being steadfast in faith, may increase in all good works and in the end obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 


Last four Commandments and Conclusion from Luther's Small Catechism:

AS THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY SHOULD TEACH THEM 

IN A SIMPLE WAY TO HIS HOUSEHOLD

The Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor's money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income. 

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.  

The Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's house.  

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, or get it in a way that only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.  

The Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not entire or force away our neighbor's wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.  

What does God say about all these commandments: He says: "I, the Lord your God, an a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of their fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments." [Exodus 20:5-6]

What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who break these commandments.  Therefore, we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them.  But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments.  Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands. 

What is the Word?

Hello again.  I want to forewarn you all that the next four weeks may be very limited in the number of posts I am able to put up.  I will try my best, but I have four papers, four tests, and a sermon to accomplish in the next four weeks.  On top of that, it is also the busiest season for the department I work for with Call Day, Graduation, and about ten other events on campus.  So I will be picking up about ten extra hours on top of what I am already working each week too.  I am sure I can handle it all, and can even still do quality work on the papers, it is just going to require some major time management and serious buckling down.
I have been doing pretty well since I last wrote you.  I did liturgy this last Sunday and other than butchering the benediction, I did fine.  I was flowing along very nicely and decided to just shut my hymnal as I turned around to say the benediction.  As soon as I shut the hymnal, my mind starting saying, "Don't mess up, don't mess up, don't mess up..."  Well like I said, I messed up.  However, I just paused, saw one of the other seminarians laughing (which actually help get me back on track), started over and rolled right through it with ease.  It is funny how you know something very well, but as soon as you start thinking about being in front of people, and saying it just right, that is when you mess up.  The one elder who always lets me know exactly what I did right or did wrong, told me it was good that I just started over and got though it.  It is a good thing the congregation is all loving Christians who understand forgiveness.
I gave blood today.  I felt fine afterwards, but my buddy Stein (nickname derived from his last name) got light headed and almost blacked out.  The nurses laid him down and put his feet up and then I stood there and talked to him.  I told him it's a good thing we are not Catholic or I would have said last rights just to scare him.
My thought for the day comes from Synoptic Gospels class.  Dr. Voelz was talking about the inerrancy of Scripture.  Dr. Voelz put it in a way I had never thought of it before, and I liked it so much I decided I would share it with you.  We believe Jesus had two natures.  He is 100 percent God (divine) and a 100 percent man (human).  He looked like a human, walked like a human, and talked like a human.  He was and is indeed human.  However, we know He was and is still God.  We also know Jesus is the Word.  John 1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Jesus is the Word.  So we know that Scripture (the Word) was written by human authors for human audiences.  The four Gospels are not exactly, word-for-word, the same because they were written by four different guys.  The Bible, when you just read it has human qualities.  It looks like all other literature written by human authors.  However, we know it is still divine.  The Word has the same two natures of Christ because the Word is Christ.  So if somebody tries to prove the Bible is not true because of what appears to be mistakes or contradictions in the human language or writing styles, we know it is true because while it has human authors, it is still fully divine as the Word of God.  I just thought that was a really cool way to look at it and know we can always trust God's Word is at work in and with us through His Scripture.  All Praise be to Him who gave us His Son, the Word, as a very important and wonderful gift completely free to us.
LSB Prayer 148
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning.  Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that, by patience and comfort of Your Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 


Continuing with the Small Catechism, the next three commandments

AS THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY SHOULD TEACH 

THEM IN A SIMPLE WAY TO HIS HOUSEHOLD

The Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and Mother.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

The Fifth Commandment: You shall not murder.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

The Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.

What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife lover and honor each other.

Suit up!

Hello again everyone.  God's blessings and peace be with you all.  I know it has been almost two weeks since I last wrote to you.  However, between classes, work, and playing every sport possible outside, the only thing I have been doing on my computer is writing papers.  I hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Easter.  I made a very quick trip back to Iowa.  I will explain why in a second, because originally mom, dad, and JoAnna were going to come down and see me.  However, plans change and I made the drive home.  I got home Thursday just in time to help with Maundy Thursday service.  Then on Good Friday I had to go to Atlantic.  This is the reason I had to go home.  I think I told you all about my sleep clinic in an older post? Well this was the follow up visit where I got my breathing machine.  It has been a pain getting used to, but seems to be helping already.  I got the one that is a mask that fits just over my nose, not my mouth, and then has a hose that runs from the mask to the machine.  The machine is actually a bi-pap machine because it shoots the air up the hose at two different pressures.  It shoots a higher pressure when I breathe in and then a lower pressure as I breath out.  I have found a couple times when I must have pulled it off in my sleep, which is not a simple feat.  However, I am getting more used to it and I do use it every night.  I am actually able to get out of bed in the morning and have cut my coffee intake in half.  I do not think I will ever give up my morning coffee all together though just because it is a simple joy to have a cup every morning.  Anyway, that is why I had to go home for Easter.  Then Friday night I helped with the service again, and then I hung out with some of my high school friends.
Saturday, I went fishing with a couple guys and we caught quite a few fish.  It was just good to be sitting beside the pond with a cold beer and talking farming or hunting with the guys again.  Then Saturday night Nate and Kari came down and JoAnna came home.  So we hung out as a family.
Sunday I got up early enough to help with both services, including sunrise service out at the country church.  I also learned a very important lesson.  Always make sure the second service is serving breakfast.  St. Johns, the first service had breakfast so Pastor and I ate there.  Then we went to second service in town and did that service.  It did not effect the parts I helped with, but during Pastor's sermon, I could not quit burping.  So the lesson is always eat after the second service when you are all done.  Then Sunday afternoon I headed back to school.  We had Monday off from classes, but I had papers to write.  Last week I had a test and two papers so they both kept me extra busy on top of the normal stuff.
This last weekend was pretty fun.  A bunch of guys hung out in the community kitchen playing pool, cards, board games, and video games.  There were a few adult beverages included and the board game that I was playing with some guys came to an end when one of the adult beverages was spilled on the board.  The game was Settlers of Catan, an awesome board game if you have not played it before.  It was just a really fun night of hanging out with a lot of guys I do not hang out with on a regular basis.
This week was supposed to be busy getting a start on the next round of papers, sermon, and tests to make sure I do not leave them all for the last minute again.  However, so far I have been pretty unproductive this week, besides getting all my regular work and homework done for classes this week.  But tomorrow I do not have any classes and I do not think much is going on this weekend.  I would like to try to get some golf in, but I do not know for sure.  I did play tennis for the first time this spring and beat the guy I was playing. He is on the tennis team, so I felt good beating him but I did not play the best and would like to get at least one more round in before I go play with the whole team.
Also, I got a new suit today.  A group of lawyers here is St. Louis rounded up two hundred used suits and donated them to us seminary guys.  We had to email our sizes in, and then were allowed to go in and try them on until we found one that fit us.  I found two that fit me pretty well.  The first fit perfect other than the pants being just a tad short.  The second one fit literally perfect, like it was made for me, but had a little hole right in the middle of the back of the suit coat.  Luckily, I was able to pick the first one, because of the awesome lady who is volunteering to alter them for us.  She is able to take the hem out of the pants and lengthen them for me.  So I now own a very nice dark grey with white "texture lines" suit.  I do not know how else to explain it.  They said they will try to do it again next fall for us.  
My first thought for the day comes from Kolb's Confessions class.  This morning we were talking about the third article of the Formula of Concord.  Kolb made the comment that God is our creator and re-creator.  He further clarified what he meant.  God the Father created us by His Word.  However, after the fall we are now fall creatures of original sin and sinful nature.  This sin is not just an illness, wound, disadvantage, or weakness.   We were not just healed by Christ's death and resurrection.  In our baptism, we died!  We actually died to the wage of sin through the same death of Christ.  We were made alive to Christ.  We were resurrected to never die again.  God is our re-creator who gave us this new life to Christ, the resurrection from our death in baptism.  He created us, and resurrected us.  I thought it was a pretty cool way to put it that God is our creator and re-creator.
My second thought for the day comes from Calvin Reformation.  Now this is a point Calvin made, so its wrong of course(partly kidding), but it helps clarify how we Lutherans see it.  Calvin has three uses for the law.  I am only going to explain the first one.  It is the pedagogical use.  He says that the law shows that God is righteous and shows us who we are.  (Kind of sounds like Luther's mirror idea).  Calvin says that the law accuses us of our sins, condemns us to hell and destroys us as children of God.  However, this is where Calvin goes astray.  Calvin goes on to say that the law moves us to see God's grace.  So when the law condemns us, and we feel the despair of our sin, the law moves us to see God's saving grace.  Now in class I asked about this because we as Lutheran's see the law as a way to see the full magnitude of the Gospel.  The fact that the law drives us down so far into despair and we realize how terrible an filthy of sinners we are, the Gospel then seems that much bigger that God would save us horrible fallen creatures.  However, that is not what Calvin is saying.  Calvin is saying that the law is actually pointing us to the Gospel.  See we believe that the law does accuse us, condemn us, and leaves us in despair.  And it ends right there, leaving us in that pit of despair knowing we are condemned.  If someone has never heard the Gospel before and you give them the law, it should drive them to feel complete despair and helplessness.  For us that is the end of the law, that abandonment, forsaken, completely alone feeling is the end of the law.  No hope, no joy, no grace.  The law by itself has no grace or mercy, because it is to be followed perfect, we have not done that, so we fail and are left for dead.  However, this is where the grace of the Gospel comes in and shows us we are not alone, abandoned, or forsaken.  So I do not want this to sound like Lutherans only give the law and leave people hanging.  However, we disagree with Calvin and clearly separate law form Gospel.  Calvin sort of combines the two by added just a touch of Gospel that comes at the end of the law, but that is not true.  This also fits in perfect with what we are talking about in Homiletics class.  The law before we know the Gospel does condemn us.  Then after one knows the Gospel, knows that Christ has saved that person from all accusations, all condemnation, and all despair; they can now hear the law as God's will.  The law, to someone who is alive to Christ and has the Gospel in their heart, is simply how God wants us to live.  It is His way of living that He expects us to keep, not because it saves us, but because we have been saved and now have life in Christ that allows us to try to live according to His law.  And again, this takes us right back to my point in class.  Once we know the Gospel, the law does indeed show us how filthy, terrible, rotten and sinful people we are.  Deliberately disobeying and rejecting God and His ways daily through our sinful nature, and yet we are the ones He saved.  We are the ones through the death and resurrection of Christ that are now the forgiven, baptized children of God.  The law shows us the full price God paid, and the full glory of the Gospel we have as His redeemed children.  All praise Him who did not leave us condemned and forsaken by the law which we broke, but claimed us as His redeemed, forgiven children.
Dear Heavenly Father, 
You are our creator and re-creator.  You have given us new life through our baptism which made us dead to sin and alive to Christ.  Let us live our new life to Christ by striving to live by Your law, not because we have to but because it is how You desire us to live.  Let our Easter songs of joy, that shout the full glory of Your amazing and saving Gospel, never end or fade, but be sang ever louder as we daily remember what an amazing God we have.  Amen.  

Since I had to memorize the Small Catechism for a test, and I realized even most of us seminary guys had to go back and refresh it in our minds, I am going to add one part of Luther's Small Catechism at the end of each post.  Today I will do the first three commandments since they are so short.

AS THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY SHOULD TEACH THEM IN A SIMPLE WAY TO HIS HOUSEHOLD.

The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
The Second Commandment: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 
What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

Devotion

Happy Holy Week everyone.  I hope you are all ready for the journey to the cross, through the empty tomb, and to ascension where we find our hope for eternal life with our Savior.  I apologize for not writing for a while.  I have been so busy and just so tired lately.  Last night was the first good night's sleep I have gotten in weeks.  However, this Friday I get my C-PAP machine and I am praying that it helps me feel rested each morning.  I have several things I want to share with you, but only have a quick break to write this post.  So I am going to share with you the devotion I gave in Homiletics class yesterday.  We had to pick a text, read it, apply it to our lives, and then close with prayer.  I wrote out the full manuscript but was not allowed to use it because the whole thing had to be done without notes.  I did go back and change a few things that I added on the spot that I thought were good points.  The text I used is the story of Ehud from judges.  Now the devotion has many grammar mistakes because it is written in oral form. Sp please do not judge my writing skills on this devotion, but   try to read it as if you were listening to it being spoken.  Also I used guys from the class as examples and Jim's devotion on God working through us in my devotion.  I think you will be able to follow along.  Jim's devotion was a personal story about when he was a young confident drug rep and a doctor called him for advice for a man who was dying very rapidly.  Jim told her what to do and saved the man's life.  His application was that God saved that man's life, Jim was just the agent God worked through, very powerful.  The class and professor really enjoyed my devotion and I got several compliments from it.  So I hope you enjoy it too, and I will try my hardest to write again soon.

Read Judges 3:15-23; 26

Yesterday we heard a great devotion by our brother Jim.  And the message he gave us about how it’s not really us doing these great things, but God working through us could apply very well to the story of Ehud.  I mean it wasn’t really Ehud doing this, but God working through Ehud.  However, I want to take it one step farther and talk about why God worked through Ehud rather than choosing someone else to free the Israelites from the Moabites.  The text tells us that Ehud was a left-handed man.  Actually the Hebrew says, “not right handed”.  Now we always translate it as left-handed, but there was something serious that prevented Ehud from using his right hand.  Maybe he was crippled, we are not sure.  We just know for a fact he was left handed.  Now I learned the importance of this in my undergrad Hebrew class.  This was the first time I had heard the story of Ehud and I fell in love with it for three reasons.  The first two reasons are what I am going to explain to you today, the third reason is because it talks about the king soiling himself in the Bible.  I find that funny.  Our professor explained to us how any man of the army or any soldier had to be right handed.  Because see when they formed their battle lines, every man would hold his spear in his right hand and his shield in his left hand.  This way they were one unit, all the same.  A left-handed man would have exposed a hole in their line and created a weakness.  So no left handed man was allowed in the army.  So the fact that Ehud was a left-handed man made him special and it just what was needed for this job.  Every soldier would wear his dagger on his left side so he could pull it out like this with his right hand.  However, Ehud wore his on his right side since he would pull it out with his left hand.  So when Ehud went through the guards, the TSA of the Old Testament, they would have patted down his left side, felt no weapon, and let him go through.  They never thought to check his right side.  This was the special talent and gift God have given Ehud that made him the right man for the job. 

So Ehud went into the king and told him he had a secret message from the Lord.  So Eglon kicked everybody out and scooted in real close to hear this secret message from Ehud.  This was Ehud’s chance to pull out his dagger, stab his dagger and whole hand through the fat of the king and pull out his hand leaving the dagger inside the king.  The king fell over dead and soiled himself. 

So now the two important things I want us to look at.  The first is that God gives us our own unique special gifts, talents, and experiences that we are able to use in our ministry as He is working through us.  We are not all just robots spitting out Scripture and doctrine at our church members. We are real humans who have lived lives and have experiences, both good and bad.  Not only do these experiences and gifts help us write sermons, but they help us build relationships and be able to relate to people, they help us explain things in a way that real people can understand.  Look at Jim’s story yesterday, he is the only one in this room who knew those terms of the medicines and diseases because he had gone to school to study them.  He had finished top of his class and had the confidence of a young bright man.  That doctor could have called any drug-rep for advice, but she called Jim knowing that he would know what to do.  So yes God worked through Jim, but God worked through Jim specifically, knowing he had the courage it took to make that right call without doubt.   Look at Jerry and Gary.  If they get called to a church with a school, they are far better equipped than any of us because they have been a teacher and a principal and know how the systems work.  We are all unique and different by the grace of God because He knows those special talents are going to be used for His glory in specific cases where our special gifts help us be better prepared and ready to do His work with His help. 

The final thing we can see from this story is that Ehud and Debra and all of the other judges and Kings of God’s people in the Old Testament could save them from their enemies…. For a short while.  Then they would return right back to their old sinful ways and be taken over again.  God had to send a very special judge, a very special king to us who could defeat sin, death and the devil once and for all.  But that special king that God sent was born in a stable to a virgin, lived a life spending his time with sinners.  He would ride into Jerusalem being praised as a king, but only for a few days of this holy week.   Then he was beaten, spit on, and mocked.  Then they crucified him on a cross.  This Friday we will celebrate the death of our special king that God sent.  Our “special king” who was supposed to be able to free us, was dead just like every other human king or judge.  But then this coming Sunday we will rejoice loudly and boldly with hymns of praise, and the Alleluia’s we haven’t said for six weeks will ring out with gusto.  Because Christ did do it.  He had the special gift to be able to do it.  Then forty days later, as Jerry is preaching his sermon on Ephesians in the pulpit for the very first time, we will celebrate the Ascension of the one who God sent.  Because you see it took this special king who was sent by God to be our Redeemer once and for all. Christ was the only one who had the uniqueness to be our Redeemer for good.  

So in summary while God does indeed give us our own special gifts and talents to use to be servants of Christ, the greatest gift He has ever given us is that so special and so unique King, our Messiah and Redeemer who died, rose and ascended to heaven to defeat sin, death, and the devil once and for all, for us. 

Let us pray. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for making us unique and giving us our own special gifts and talents.  And we ask that you would use those gifts and talents for Your glory.  We also thank you for the greatest gift you have ever given us, Your Son, our Redeemer.  Let us celebrate this holy week in remembrance of what He did, the price He paid to be our Redeemer for eternity.  Keep us in the one true faith until, until You call us home to be with Your for the rest of eternity.  In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen.   

Justice?

The First half of this I wrote last Friday.   I am just now finishing the second today as I post this.

 Happy Friday!  What a wonderful gift from God today is.  It is another beautiful sunny day here.  We had rain yesterday which brought cooler temperatures.  I was finally able to use the covers on my bed again last night.  Our rooms, including the classrooms, have been so warm because they were scared to shut off the heaters just in case we got one last cold spell.  However, I think winter is hopefully gone for good and they are slowing turning on the air conditioners instead of the heaters.  These old buildings are beautiful, but they do have their signs of age. 

This week has gone by so fast I cannot even remember everything that happened.  Classes are going well, but the papers and tests begin to slowly start next week.  I have a test next Monday, and need to get at least one of my papers started next week.  The biggest thing I am struggling with is my first sermon.  I have several “good-to-me” ideas, but just cannot officially decide which one to go with.  He intentionally gave us a hard text so we have to pick an idea and stick with it.  His quote in class yesterday was, “The more you preach, the more you know what is preach-able.”  He told us this first sermon is the hardest one we will have to write because the prep process we will be the hardest to go through.  He told us not to get discouraged.   That made me feel a little better about the future, but still struggling with this one for now.  I think I do have it narrowed down to two ideas, but each step of the process, Schmitt reveals some new profound idea to us and I have to start my elimination process all over again. 

I do not really have any official plans for this weekend yet, other than church Sunday morning.  A group of about ten of us sat outside last night after it quit raining, and smoked cigars and pipes.  It was fun and certainly smelled good. 

I just wanted to include a few more fun facts from my classes.  The two or three I want to include today come mostly from Confessions class.  The first one is a quote by Kolb.  “It is not very important to be Lutheran on sunny days, but on other days, especially funerals, it is more important that we find our Lutheran faith.”  Now before you make Kolb out to be against the Lutheran church, let me explain what he meant.  He meant that when life is going good and it’s all sunny days, we are happy jut being Christians knowing we are blessed from God.  However, it’s on cloudy and gloomy days, this is where funerals fit in, that we can be happy to be Lutheran.  By this he means Lutheran by the sense that we have our doctrine that points to the hope and promises of God’s Gospel being completely free.  Days when we feel like we are just dirty filthy sinners and nothing is going right, we can know that we are still forgiven, loved children of God because His mercy is completely free.  We do not worry about our merits, because we know they do not earn our salvation.  When we lose loved ones, we can rejoice in the hope of eternal life in heaven, and do not have to worry or stress about our loved ones being in purgatory, suffering until they get to heaven.  We know they are in paradise that day with our Lord.  These sad or dark days are when we can rejoice that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in our Christ and Savior.  So on sunny days just praise the Lord for the blessings He gives you and know you are His child.  Then when those dark days come, we can find His glory because we know He has done it all for us and we receive His grace and mercy freely. 

The next idea I want to look at is the term Redeem and how we normally define it.  We normally define redeem as “buy-back.”  This analogy does work nicely, but still is not a perfect fit.  Dr. Kolb pointed out the minor error with this analogy to us in class.  He asked us, “What is the biggest example of redemption in the Old Testament?”   Do you know what it is?  It is the Exodus, God bringing His people out of slavery of Egypt.  However, when you look at this buy back analogy, you have three parts: the person who is paying the price, the thing or people who are being ransomed, and the one who is receiving payment.  So the one paying the price or doing the buying back is God, the ones being ransomed were the Israelites, but who received the payment?  Well you could say Pharaoh and Egypt, but what did they receive?  One kid in class said Pharaoh got to see the bottom of the Red Sea which was a place he had never been before.  (Oh you have to love seminary humor).  This is where the analogy falls short, because you cannot really say someone received the payment.  It is the same with the biggest redemption of the New Testament.  You had better know what that one is!!!!! Jesus Christ on the cross!!!  So the Father paid the price of His Son, but technically it is Jesus who paid the price with His blood.  We were the ones who were ransomed.  And who got the payment?  Did all of Jesus’ blood run down to the Devil in Hell?  Even if you say the sin is what holds us captive, not the Devil, did sin receive the blood of Christ?  See this analogy works for the most part but is not perfect.  However, very rarely does an analogy fit perfectly.  They are just meant to help us better understand the concept, and Jesus buying us back from sin with the price of His life and His blood being spilt should help us understand the high cost it took to free us. 

This is where I started writing today.

The weekend went really well.  I did not do a whole lot, but it was still fun.  Friday night a group of four us just hung out and played some video games.  Then Saturday, we went to Play It Again, Sports, which is a used sporting goods store.  I found a softball bat that was in awesome condition for dirt cheap.  I also found a driver that looked like it would fit me better than the one I have and it was just as cheap as well.  Then we went to the softball field and did some batting practice with the new bat.  It has a sweet pop to it and will be a very good bat for many years to come.  Then Sunday after church, which was just the typical church, Sunday school, and lunch; Chris and I went to the driving range.  I think fifteen dollars may have put a driver that I can actually hit back into my arsenal.  I was hitting all my clubs very well.  Although I did not let myself get too excited because every spring when I first start golfing I always start off very well.  Over the winter my swing forgets all of its bad habits and I start the season off with my prime swing.  However, it is not very long before each little habit sneaks its way back into my swing.  However, it just felt good to be swinging again.  The store also has a 180 dollar putter that is in great shape for only forty dollars.  I am going to wait until my paycheck comes in before I go see if that is still there.  I normally would not be able to justify buying another club, but I am going to sell my current driver that I am replacing with the new one.  It is in really good shape and is a nice driver so I hope they will buy it for most of the price of the putter. 

Today I had my test.  I think it went pretty well but we will see after it is graded.  I studied quite a bit for it so I hope it went well.  Wednesday I have a funeral to go to.  My great-uncle Bill died.  The funeral is about an hour and a half south of St. Louis.  It will be good to see that side of the family again, even though it had to be a funeral to get us together.  However, that is just one of those gloomy days we can rejoice in the Savior we have and what He has done for us. 

The final thing I want to talk about is justice.  We were looking at the term “justified” in Confessions class the other day.  The definition Dr. Kolb gave for justification is being in the state of justice.  So the question was, “Are we in a state of justice for our sins?” If you say no, you are saying we are not justified and denying the saving power of Christ and His forgiveness.  If you say yes, have we really gotten what we deserved for our sins that we define as justice?  So what is your answer?  The truth is we did get what we deserved.  Now you may say we did not get what we deserve because we as sinners deserve God’s immediate and eternal wrath and punishment.  While this is true, even if God gave us His wrath and let us pay the price for our sins ourselves, what is the wage of sin?  Death is the wage of sin!  So we deserve death for our sins.  But each one of us has died already.  See in our baptism we died to sin and were made alive in Christ.  We died the same death Christ died on the cross when we died to sin in our baptism.  We were made alive to Christ in the same resurrection that Christ accomplished on Easter morning.  So we have gotten what we deserved for our sins through our baptism.  Now do not use this to say that we have been justified by our own means, because it is still only through the death and resurrection of Christ that we are able to die to sin and be made alive to Him.  However, my point is that this fully explains that Christ’s saving act was truly performed to us, and we were physically and entirely changed by the power of Christ in our baptism.  Through water and the Word, we truly did die!  That is not a metaphor or analogy.  It is what actually happened to us in our baptism that justified us and made us blameless before the eyes of God.  We so often see baptism just as a ceremony that we do for our children.  I want you to each know and realize it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more than that.  It is the present state of being in justice before your Lord.  It is a state of being, not an action.  You were not baptized.  You ARE baptized, and will be until the day you stand before your Lord for judgment, and He says, “You are my baptized, forgiven child.  Welcome to my house where I have prepared a room just for you.”  We are justified by the miracle of our birth to Him through our baptism.  All Praise Him who gives us the power to become His children through the miracle of our baptism, which made us dead to sin but alive to Christ. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for redeeming us through our baptism.  Let us never forget that we truly were justified through Your Word together with the water.  You have made us Your children, now please let Your Spirit be with us that we may be Your faithful children.  We pray in the same name we were baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Undeserved life.

Greetings to you in the name of our Redeemer and Lord Jesus Christ.  I have been super busy lately and time is flying by faster than is fair.  Minus a few rainy days, the beautiful weather has continued to excite me for spring and even summer.  Classes have been going well, but I feel like I am constantly behind even though all we really have right as of now is still just reading.  

This weekend I went to Decatur to babysit the nephews while Nate and Kari went to a high school fundraiser with the new high school he will be at next year.  I got there Saturday about noon, ate lunch with them, saw the house they have unofficially bought, saw the school, and went swimming with the boys and Nate at the hotel.  I had a pretty good time with the boys even though they were tired and cranky from swimming.  Then after I got them asleep and Nate and Kari came back, Nate and I went to a restaurant for a couple beers.  Then Sunday we went to church and ate lunch together.  Then I came back to the seminary, and they went back to Iowa.  It was good to see them again, and I always enjoy getting to spend time with those two little squirts.  Justin is getting quite the pop-belly on the front of him and had an eerie resemblance as he walked between Nate and me.  He is finally realizing he will most likely be a lineman in football, and it is funny to hear him talk about it with an ounce of disappointment in his voice.  Since he has always normally played quarterback or running back, he is not the most excited to see what I call the "Richter curse" settling in.  

Today was a pretty good day until I found out the recent change in student loans policy.  Right now I have all subsidized loans which means they do not start accruing interest until six months after I graduate.  However, the laws just changed so now there will be no subsidized loans.  This means all student loans starting next year will be unsubsidized, which means the loan will start accruing interest as soon as I borrow them.  So while I am still in school and not paying them back, they will still be accruing interest.  This ruined a small part of my day, until I reminded myself that the Lord always provides and I can just watch my spending a whole lot more strictly.  

My thought for the day comes from Confessions II class.  I have several things that I want to mention from my classes, and then will elaborate on one of them.  I feel like I am really letting you down with this blog especially looking at my original statement of intention.  I want to give fewer details about what I am up to in my daily life, and more details about what I am learning in classes.  If you have any objections to that, please let me know, but I assume most of you read it not to hear about my life, but for the tips of knowledge I am learning and can pass along to you.  

The first idea is a fun fact from Luther.  When reading Luther's explanation to the Ten Commandments in his Small Catechism, the explanation of the first commandment is short but very important.  The first commandment is: You shall have no other gods.  When answering "what does this mean", Luther states that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  One simple sentence, and yet it is the reason we are entirely sinful.  Luther made the claim that when we break any of the commandments, it is because we do not keep the first commandment.  If we could keep the first commandment, it would be easy to keep all nine of the rest.  See, if we truly feared the wrath of God, loved Him the same way He loves us, and trusted in Him above all other things in our life, we would not steal, lie, commit adultery, murder, etc.  If we feared the wrath of God, we would not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, and if we loved God as He loves us, we would help and support [our neighbor] in every physical need {explanation to the fifth commandment}.  If we were able to keep the first commandment, we could keep them all.  Now we know that because of our sinful nature due to original sin we can never keep the first commandment which causes us to break all the rest too.  Dr. Kolb's quote is that 100 percent of Americans (although I think you could just say humans) are polytheistic because we rely on and trust in other gods in our lives.  We put trust in our savings accounts in the bank, or in our cars that get us places, or in all the other things that we put before God and trust in rather than just knowing He is our God who we should fear, love, and trust in above all things.  I just thought that was pretty cool that this one little sentence, which we cannot not keep, is the reason we cannot keep any of God's laws as sinners.  

The second idea came from Dr. Schmitt's homiletics classes.  Now before I give you the tip, I just want to say I have not once walked out of a class with Dr. Schmitt without being scared out of my mind about preaching.  Not that preaching is an impossible thing, but it is not easy and is a major responsibility.  We define preaching as having four characteristics: 1. authoritative public proclamation of the faith, 2. based on a text of Scripture, 3. centered in the death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and 4. for the benefit of the hearers in faith and life.  A sermon must have all four of these components or it is not actually a sermon.  Now there are several things we are looking at in each one of those four things, so do not automatically assume your local pastor is not including one of those and is not preaching.  My point of telling you this is not so you can critique your pastor's sermons, but rather just so you know the full responsibility of preaching the Word of God to His people each and every week.  So each class when we dive deeper into what makes a sermon a sermon, the actual purpose of a sermon, and how to write a "good" sermon, I get more scared each week.  Now I know the Spirit will be with me and help me write sermons, but it is still a responsibility I do not want to ever over look.  The tip he gave us comes from Melanchthon (who I hope you all know who he is).  Melanchthon said that the chief worship of God is the proclamation of the Gospel.  So while you may think the most important part of the Sunday morning service is your favorite hymn you get to sing that week, confession and absolution, or even the Lord's Supper (which is so valuable I almost did not even mention it but Melanchthon does too so I thought it was OK).  Now if you want to be a wise one you could say that absolution and the Words of Institution are both proclamation of the Gospel, which I would have to agree with you, but the major point of proclamation comes in the reading of the Scripture and the sermon which is based on the Scripture.  So if you truly think that you do not need to pay attention during the sermon and wish your pastor would keep his sermons shorter because you just cannot focus that long, just remember how important Melanchthon valued these parts of the service.  

I want to just very quickly include one more fun statement that came from homiletics. There are many, many, many amazing tips and guides he gives us to use during our sermon prep and preaching that I think are so amazing and had never thought of before, but I do not want to include these just in case you have a pastor who does one of them, I do not ever want to hinder the support a pastor has by his members.  This fact however comes from the pastor's prep work all week as he is trying to decide what to include in his sermon and what not to add.  "There are many very good Christian things you will NOT say every Sunday."  Every text can produce so many good sermon ideas as you are working through it.  However, wanting your sermon to be focused down to one theological point, there are many great ideas that you will come up with and will not be able to fit into your one point.  So while it is a great Christian idea or point, it just does not fit with your sermon and does not get added.  However, in the three-year lectern series, these great ideas can hopefully fit into your sermon the next time you preach on this same text.  

I will add a blog later about everything we are learning in Synoptic Gospels.  For now all I will tell you is that if you truly want to be able to understand the New Testament to the best of your ability (with respect to fully understanding culture and recent history of that time period) the book we are reading about inter-testament history, is Charles Puskas' book titled An Introduction to the New Testament.  Use the second edition, not the first if you are actually interested in checking it out.  It is actually not that long and a fairly quick easy read.  It is just so dense with useful material, it is almost more of a resource book than just a text book.  

The final point that I want to say and fully reflect and think about is a fun fact that Dr. Kolb said in Confessions II.  Again, that class could have an entire blog of its own, and we have only had two class sessions so far.  The statement he made the other day just really got me thinking though. Before I tell you what it is, let me tell you his joke and following quote just so you can get a feel for the guy.  He is an older guy and kind of soft spoken, but super nice and friendly and probably about as smart as they come.  His joke was he wrote the name Otto on the board because it was a guy we were talking about, and he stopped and said, "Oh man I spelled his name backwards."  Then when we all laughed, he said, "Oh don't laugh at that joke.  You really should not encourage me."  But his statement was that life from God is no more deserved than life from your parents.  Now when you just hear that on a level one surface it makes sense that we do not deserve life from God. However, when I stopped and thought about it, I had never thought about the fact that I did not deserve life from my parents either.  Did you deserve for your parents to create you and bring you into this world?  Life from your parents is a gift.  Even for couples who do not stay together after the child is born, it still took both of them to create you, and it was a gift that they brought you into the world.  This really struck me funny since most of the time we hear parents talking about their child being a gift to them, which is a good attitude to have, but they also could say they gave that child a gift by bringing them into this world. Although it might not work best to tell a dramatic teenager who "hates" their life, that they did not deserve to be brought into this world, because most likely they will agree with that statement.  However, when you think about life as a gift from your parents, it makes you appreciate your parents more and puts a whole new level of respect there for them.  They did not have to bring you into the world but chose to anyway.  This is true of God.  He did not have to give the gift of life in this world, and yet He gave it to you as sure as you sit there reading this.  Now our parents gave us life on this earth, but they also gave us original sin.  Do not hold that against them though because we are sinners on our own enough that we cannot blame them for the original sin we have, plus you will pass the same thing on to your kids.  However, the point is life from your parents was a gift, but life from God is a much greater gift.  God not only gave us life on this earth, but through the death and resurrection of His Son He has given us life eternally in heaven with Him as well.  This is truly a gift of life that we should always be thankful for and truly appreciate.  In my mind though this can also be used to show that life from God is a FREE gift, and is not based on our merits or anything we do.  If you spend your entire life being a great kid rather than being a terrible child to your parents, does it change the fact that they gave you the gift of life on this earth?  No!  So if you are a faithful child of God rather than a terrible sinner, does that change the fact that God gave you eternal life through your baptism?  NO!  It is one hundred percent undeserved, unmerited, and free from our gracious and loving Heavenly Father.  All Praise be to Him who freely gives us this most amazing and wonderful gift. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the gift of life both on this earth and the gift of life to come after this world that we have our secure hope in.  We certainly did not deserve either and yet out of Your grace and mercy, You chose to save us, claim us as Your children, and give us the gift of life.  Be with us as we use that life to serve You, knowing that our serving You is not necessary for salvation but is what You have called us to do as Your Redeemed children.  We pray in the same name that saved us and gave us our new life in our baptism, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Lies and excuses!

Hello everyone.  I hope you had a great weekend.  I certainly did.  Friday night Chris and I started a fire in the fire pit right outside of our dorm as we each enjoyed our pipes.  The next thing we know there are about ten to fifteen guys outside hanging out with us.  It was a blast and we spent most of the night just talking and sharing plenty of laughs.  Then Saturday we took full advantage of the spring weather.  Chris and I got up and played racquetball ball before brunch.  I worked brunch and then we were going to play basketball.  Instead we decided to play softball.  We mainly just took turns hitting and fielding, but it was fun.  I forgot to wear a hat and got my bald scalp just a little pink.  Then Saturday night I got everything ready for church and went to bed early to try to beat the time change.
Sunday morning I lead liturgy at church, and then watched a video on Noah's ark with the youth group.  It was a really cool video and made me do some extra thinking about exactly what Noah went through.  Then a couple from church took us three students and pastor out for lunch to this huge buffet.  They had every type of food you could ever imagine.  Needless to say I ate way too much. Then Sunday afternoon a few of us guys were going to hit the driving range, but the rain cancelled those plans.  So Chris and I played some video games instead before I spent the rest of the night catching up on my reading.  Chris, Stein, Brennan, and I are keeping each other accountable with a program that completes reading of the Bible in sixty days.  We read the assigned reading for each day and then three Psalms.  I am personally going to add reading one part of the Small Catechism to it each day.  This addition is two fold because I personally want to know the Catechisms better, but we are also required to have the Small Catechism memorized for one of my classes.  So I figure the more I read it the easier it will be to memorize it. I finished Leviticus last night and am kind of glad to be through it and Exodus.  
Today it literally is almost eighty degrees and sunny out.  It is a bit windy, but still a beautiful day.  Also, the food bank received a huge donation of food that they put out for all students to go through and pick out what they wanted.  It was mostly cereal bars and fruit snacks and Gatoraid, which is all good stuff and it was all free.  Now I am just typing this up quick before I start on my readings for classes and work ahead in my daily Bible readings.  I am not going to have much time this weekend as I head to Decatur to babysit the nephews while Nate and Kari have stuff to do.
My thought for the day comes from my readings in Exodus.  I want to look at the story of the golden calf.  Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to be with the Lord and receive His commandments.  While he is gone, the Israelites do not last very long before they are wondering where Moses is and start bugging Aaron.  They demand for him to make them gods for them to worship.  Now an important thing to remember is that Aaron has not only been Moses's aid through the entire Exodus starting in Egypt, but he is also the head priest.  Right before the story of the golden calf is the Lord telling Moses how to make the tabernacle and everything in it.  Part of that everything in it is the garments and vestments for Aaron and his sons to wear as the priests of the tabernacle.  Aaron has special garments to wear when he enters the Most Holy place that only he is allowed to go into once a year.  He is the most holy priest and in charge.  Then as soon as you get done reading about Aaron being the high priest for the Israelites, you read the story of the golden calf.  The people demanded from Aaron gods to worship.  Instead of directing their focus and faith to the Lord who he knows has brought them up out of Egypt and saved them from slavery, he tells them to bring him all their gold.  He makes for them the golden calf and tells them to worship the idol.  The best part is when Moses finds out.  Moses also plays an interesting part in this story.  He pleads with God not to let his anger burn against the people for walking against the Lord.  The Lord listens to Moses, but then as soon as Moses returns and finds the people worshiping the statue of the calf, his anger burns against them.  He just asked God to forgive them, but then personally gets mad at them.  However, you cannot really blame him.  He just stuck out his neck to save these people and now finds out they are not making him look very good.  He confronts Aaron about it all.  This is part of the story that makes it seem so real to me.  Moses asks Aaron how he could possibly let something like this happen and Aaron lies!  Instead of just confessing to being the one who let the people turn away from God, he says he threw the gold in the fire and the calf was what came out.  As soon as Moses is standing in font of Aaron, it finally hits Aaron and he realizes how big he has messed up.  He feels the guilt and shame for the wrong he has done.  Instead of just owning up to it and confessing, he makes up a lie, an excuse.  How many times have we done that in our life?!  We are confronted about something we know we messed up; we did something that we know we should not have done, but the guilt and shame scares us into lying instead of just confessing to the mistake, we make another mistake by lying about it.  I know I have personally done this time and time again.  I have found every time that lying only makes it worse, and those excuses we make up do not help anybody.  Even if Moses believed Aaron's excuse, the Lord still knew he was lying.  We may get out of trouble by lying or making excuses some times.  However, the Lord always knows the truth and on judgment day, we will all answer the truth for those lies and excuses. We should fear the Lord enough to be honest with Him and confess all our sins.  He knows them anyway, so why not just come clean and tell Him the truth.  Then do the same when we are confronted about our mistakes.  When some one is standing in front of you asking how you could possibly make such a mistake, do not make another mistake by lying.  Just tell the truth and confess that you have done wrong.  And you may have to pay the consequences of your actions.  However, when you confess your sins to the Lord, you know there are no eternal consequences.  Jesus Christ has died as the consequence for every sin you and I do.  He has paid the price so we do not have to.  His resurrection was the triumph that wiped away all our wrongs.  So when we find ourselves in Aaron's shoes, and we have lied about sinning, confess both sins to God knowing we are forgiven because of the gracious and loving Savior we have in Christ Jesus.  All Praise Him who forgives us, even when we lie about the wrong we have done.
This prayer was given to me and I want to use it for today:
Lord, You know what is best for me
Give me what You will and when You will and as much as You will.
Do with me as You know best and as it pleases You and brings You the most honor.
Place me where You will and guide me according to Your wisdom.
I am in Your hand as Your servant and ready to all that You command.
I want to live, not for myself, but for You alone. 
I want to live worthily and profitably and to Your honor. 
Amen.