Psalm 22

Psalm 22:17 “I can count all my bones, they stare and gloat over me”
      One of my favorite games to play with young children is “How many ribs do you have?”. This is a game of my own invention. I “count” their ribs by gently pressing my finger along their rib cages solely for the purpose that it an extremely ticklish spot for them. I have yet to play the game with any niece, nephew, or friend’s child who did not end up giggling and laughing so hard they can barely breathe. It makes me laugh because there is hardly a better sound than a child’s laughter. It is just a fun and silly game that always leaves everyone laughing.
      However, in Psalm 22 as David writes about counting his bones, it is not quite the same joyous, silly game. David feels completely surrounded by his enemies. He is tired, hungry, and probably sore from running and hiding in caves. He can count his bones from the weariness and soreness each individual bone causes him in his current situation. Then as you hear Jesus quote Psalm 22 from the cross these words get even further away from a silly game. As Jesus quotes verse 1 of Psalm 22 from the cross, it is most commonly understood that He is referring to the entire psalm. So as you see Jesus referencing these words of David, Jesus means that he is so beaten, so dehydrated, so famished, and so exhausted that He can (most likely literally) count all His bones as they sorely press against His tender, bleeding, and bruised flesh. The nails pressing again his wrist bones, most likely cutting off circulation to his fingers and hands; his own weight causing his elbows and shoulders to feel like the tendons are going to rip off the bones; his ribs trying to keep the weight of his tired, sagging body from crushing his lungs; his spine trying to hold him as upright as possible; his neck bones struggling to hold up his own head; his skull pounding from the pressure points of the thorns and the previous blows; his legs, already too sore to carry his own cross up the hill, now using every ounce of strength he has left, pushing up off the nail through his feet to still stand up. Our suffering, dying Savior can count his bones from the excruciating pain each one is causing Him upon that cross. This is not a silly game. He is not laughing as He counts His bones.
       And yet, His pain is our gain. His counting those bones just before His death, is our joy that gives us the freedom to laugh at silly games in this life. As Scripture says:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

      We can still play silly games, we can still thoroughly enjoy the beautiful sound of a child’s laughter, but we have these joys of life only because our Lord and Savior was willing to experience such horrible pain, such horrific torture, and such a miserable death so that He could grant you His righteousness and eternal life. He counted His bones in the pain of that cross, so that He could count Your bones as redeemed. Praise be to Christ, that we can laugh, play, and rejoice in the fact that we are forgiven, we are counted as righteous because of Him, and have eternal life in His name. Amen.

Psalm 116

    Greetings to you all in the name of Jesus Christ.  I just got back from an amazing vacation.  It was a lot of time in the car with almost 2,000 miles, but it was also kind of fun to be on a long road trip again.  It had been quite a while since I had a true road trip.  I made a big circle down through Iowa to Kansas City, over to Cheney, Kansas, up to Omaha, back over to Iowa, and then headed north to home again.  I got to see lots of people and spend some good quality time with family and friends.  The Lord blessed me with smooth sailing the whole way and even gave me some hot sunny weather to enjoy.
    Now I am back home, back to work, and starting my chicken farm.  I brought 45 baby chicks home with me from Iowa.  My goal is to get down to about 20 to 25 egg laying hens by leaving the other 20 to 25 for meat.  It has been fun and gives me some minor chores to do every day.
    I need to get back to writing more psalms devotions, but here is one I wrote a while ago.

Psalm 116:6
“The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.”

       These words may be some of the most comforting words I have ever read. Why you ask? Because I am one of the simplest people you will ever meet. I am a simple minded, country boy, from small town Iowa. My seminary buddies used to get so mad at me because I always said, “I’m just a big, dumb brute.” Perfect example, after saying that line a hundred times, I still had to Google how to properly spell brute. Now, I do not deny God has blessed me in many ways, and if He had not blessed me with the intelligence He did, I certainly would not be where I am today. And yet, when you look past the fact that school always came easy for me, I really do think I am a very simple person. It doesn’t take much to impress me. I am easy going, happy-go-lucky, and don’t really expect much out of life. Another example, I used to love “running” a stop sign for eight hours straight when I worked road construction. I could entertain myself so easily, it was almost scary. One time I distinctly remember making myself laugh out loud as I was talking to myself. Maybe that is more crazy than simple, but you get the point. I am not fancy, I am not classy, and I do not think I am too proud. If anything, maybe I am too proud of the fact that I am a simple kind of man. It means Lynyrd was singing about me (I hope you get that reference).
      Here, our psalm for today says God preserves the simple. Simple kind of people do not worry about what other people think about them, they do not get all worked up about everything going exactly right, they do not expect that they deserve more than what the world is actually going to hand them. Simple people go with the flow, are happy with almost any situation, and are just happy living life. These are the people God preserves. Why? Because they don’t let their high-class society distract them from their faith. They do not expect to be served by everyone else around them, but rather would graciously help their neighbor in need. They are more worried with what God thinks about them, than what their friends or neighbors do. They are more than willing to admit they need help and depend on God.
      This verse continues with the fact that when God brought me low, he saved me. By destroying my own self-ego, my own self-image, God allows me to see what or better yet, who is really important. By realizing that everything doesn’t revolve around my desires and demands, I can see what the world really does revolve around. And it’s not the sun, but rather the Son. This whole world is about being the creature of God you are. You are entirely dependent on Him for everything. You are dependent on Him for food, shelter, house, family, and physical blessings. Even more important though, you are dependent on Him for your forgiveness of sins, salvation and your eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ. He sent His Son to serve, not to be served. Christ came to die as a ransom for many, not to demand high-class, center of attention, perfection. We are brought low in remembering that we are sinners who deserve eternal death. However, once He brings us low in this confession, then He saves us through the free gift of grace and mercy in His Son’s death and resurrection and gives us eternal life.
      So it is OK to be simple. In fact, God wants us to be simple. He wants us to remember we are sinners and are only saved because of what He has done for us through His Son. He wants us to serve those around us, instead of demanding to be served. He wants us to find the joy of serving Him and living in His mercy each and every day. So for a simple kind of man like me, it is comforting to know, God preserves the simple. When life tries to bring me down, part of those low times is knowing I can turn to God and am reminded I am only saved by Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Be not far from me!

    Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus.  Well I am officially living in my house.  I love it.  I mean it is a lot of work and I get overwhelmed with all the things I either need to do or want to do to it, but I am still content.  I have been mostly working on the yard now that I am pretty much all settled in inside.  It truly is a blessing from the Good Lord and I most certainly feel blessed when I call it home! 

Here is my newsletter article for June: 

Psalm 35:22 “You have seen, O Lord; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!”
     In the words of this Psalm, we hear David crying out to God, “Be not far from me!” How often have you cried out those very words yourself? During times where life seems to be crumbling around you, and in your mind God has distanced Himself from you, this plea for His presence is very comforting. During those dark, scary, sad, or tragic moments, we want nothing more than our all-powerful God to wrap His loving arms around us and hold us tightly. We want Him to be right there with us, just as a scared child wants to be close to his or her mommy and daddy.
      However, I wonder how often God has wanted to say these words to us. When life is getting us down, we want God to be right there with us. So we cry out to Him to be near to us and not only does He hear us, but He does come near. He comforts us with His presence. Yet, when life is going good and everything seems to be working out just fine, how quickly do you stop wanting God to be right there with you? Are you like the toddler who once comforted by his parents’ loving embrace, jumps out of their lap and runs away to play forgetting all about mom and dad being there at all?
      As our Heavenly Father watches us jump out of His embrace and run away to go play now that life is all better again, I wonder if His plea is for us to not be far from Him. That we would know we are dependent upon Him even during the good times. That our prayer would be for Him to be near us, even when life is great. That we would cling to Him every day no matter how life is going.
     This came to my mind because now that the weather is nice and I have been spending much more time outdoors, working in the yard, cleaning the garage, etc. I have noticed my own devotional and prayer life slowing down. It is so easy to get busy with the fun things of summer, golfing, fishing, boating, camping, etc. During these fun, busy months of summer it is also very easy to be far from God ourselves. As you get busy, it is easy to put off your daily devotions, your evening prayers, or even going to church. And it happens without us even really noticing. This is when I can picture God, watching us go about our busy lives without Him, wanting to cry out to us, “Be not far from me!”
     I pray you do get to enjoy these summer months and that your life is going very well right now. However, I will also pray for all of you, that even as life goes well and is so busy, you do not let yourself be far from God. Our loving Father is there with you every day; He has answered your plea for Him to not be far from you. Our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is with you every day. He has made Himself present in your life through His living and active Word, through the forgiveness of His Son, Jesus Christ, through His Spirit keeping you in your baptismal identity, and through the gift of prayer. He is not far from you as He is with you always. How will you answer His plea for you to not be far from Him?
      God’s blessings be with you all.

Psalm 101

    Greetings to you in the name of our praiseworthy Lord.  Well, even though I was supposed to be a home owner today, our closing got pushed back until Monday.  So Monday, I will be a home owner and hopefully next week I will post some pictures of the new place.
    It is supposed to be 85 here tomorrow.  That is very untypical for Duluth, but I will use the warm weather on my day off to get some more golf in as well as add to my sunburn/tan.  Our schedules at church have slowed down, which is nice to have a little more free time as well as some time to work ahead on other projects.
    I took quite a break from writing my Psalm devotions, but today I got back at it again.  Here is one from Psalm 101.  Have a great weekend!

Psalm 101:3 “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.”
      Growing up in our house, my siblings and I heard Philippians 4:8 quoted a lot by our mother. Any time she saw us watching some movie or TV show she didn’t approve of, she would quote this famous verse to us. St. Paul says in this verse, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
      Now this is good advice that St. Paul gives us and I understand why our mother tried to drill this deep into our thick skulls. And as we see from our Psalm for today, even David agrees. Actually, since David lived long before St. Paul, I suppose you would have to say St. Paul agreed with David. David’s one line from Psalm 101 is basically the same principal as Philippians 4. I will not set my eyes on anything that is worthless, and by doing so I will think of honorable and pure things. Good life advice for all of us who want to live a life of integrity, who want to use our lives as a living sacrifice for God.
      However, this is much easier said than done. In our world today, it is almost impossible to not set our eyes on worthless things. Facebook is a great way to keep up with old friends, see pictures of your cousins’ kids, and hear all about people’s good news. However, it is also absolutely full of un-honorable, un-praiseworthy things too. Between all of the political ads bashing opposite candidates, the memes making fun of people and situations that really are not a joking matter, and the anger-fueled arguments in the comment sections, Facebook quickly becomes something worthless. TV shows and movies are a great way to wind down at the end of the day and enjoy some entertainment, but almost every show or movie now includes something that is not commendable. When I watch re-runs of older TV shows, (like “Home Improvement” for example) you remember what clean, good family-moral TV shows used to be like. It is extremely hard to find any show that is entirely pure and excellent anymore. Even commercials, ads, and billboards have become more indecent and inappropriate. So in today’s world, it is very hard to not set our eyes on anything worthless, when we are completely surrounded by such things and images.
      So what are we as Christians to do? We still strive to listen to the words of David and St. Paul. We still strive to keep our eyes on things of worth rather than worthless things. We still strive to think about honorable, pure, and praiseworthy things. Because when we keep our eyes on these type of things, we keep our minds on pure and excellent things. Our eyes can lead us to sin in thought probably easier than anything else. We see a racy picture or image; our mind is filled with lust. We see a meme pointing fun at a very serious issue; our mind laughs at something we should be disturbed by. We look at hateful words attacking complete strangers; our mind is filled with anger that people are so mean or judgment that people are so “ignorant” according to our standards. Our eyes lead us to sin, take sin too lightly, or become immune to the sinfulness of our world altogether as we look at these worthless things.
      So, let us confess our sins of the past, admit that looking at worthless things does cause to think this way, and then strive to live in integrity by making the effort to not look at worthless things. Instead, let us look to the Word of God. Let us look to the praiseworthy things of family and friends. Let us look at all the blessings God has put in our lives each and every day. This way, when we keep our eyes on these beautiful things, we will also keep our minds on the one who gives us all honorable, excellent, and praiseworthy things. Look to Jesus, think of Jesus, and live a God-pleasing life. In Jesus name, Amen.

            

The Perfect Storm

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

"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, 

 the floods have lifted up their voice; 

the floods lift up their roaring.  

Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

mightier than the waves of the sea, 

the Lord on high is mighty!"  

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

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

Call Day!

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

1946 John Deere Model B

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