Getting ready for Sunday.

I remember the days when I sat in the pews.  I get to do it every once in a while now, but it's different for me now.  I hardly ever get to just sit and listen so now it's a very difference experience.  I see things differently and hear things differently now.  But I remember the days when I sat in the pew.  I was tired and often struggled to keep my eyes open.  I remember many a time when I walked away from church and wondered what we did for the last hour.  I remember struggling to pay attention and keep my mind on track.  Sometimes I was tired.  Sometimes I was distracted. Sometimes I was cold.  Sometimes I was hot.  Sometimes I was troubled.  Sometimes I was too comfortable.  There were all kinds of things that me from really giving my full attention to the worship that was at hand.

What is it for you?  What is that keeps your hears from hearing and your heart from absorbing that which God gives in Word and Sacrament?

Jesus had many important things to teach his disciples in those last hours of his life, many things that he wanted to stick to their hearts and minds long after he was gone.  But they were having trouble listening. They were having trouble understanding.  They were having trouble taking to hear the things that Jesus said.

But Jesus was so patient and loving with his deaf disciples. 

This Sunday we're going to look at John 14:1-14 and hear Jesus comfort his disciples who were so troubled and confused that they weren't hearing his words. 

As you come to church this Sunday say a prayer that God would use his words to open your hears and pierce your hearts that you might have the hope and comfort that Jesus gives us in these precious words on the night he was betrayed.  He was more troubled than all the rest but from the depths of his love he comforted his disciples and comforts us.

See you Sunday!

Beyond Sunday - What's next?

When my brothers started their ministries as pastors in WI, NY, and GA my dad got all of us boys the painting above.  And he preached a sermon to each of us that now sits above the fire place in our home.  I'll admit sometimes I forget about this painting; it kind of just blends into the wall.  But when John 13 is one of the readings, then it always pops off the wall for me again. It still preaches a sermon to me as I remember the words of John about what Jesus did for us that night.  It was a huge deal!

Jesus washes me.  Jesus washes you.  He got down on his hands and knees; he humbled himself and became a human being to make us clean and to bring us to God.  Jesus did everything that was needed to bring us home to our Father in heaven, the only place where we belong. This is a big deal! Jesus washes my feet.

And now he teaches us to do the same for each other. Jesus teaches us to love each other and served each other as Jesus loved and served us. This is a big deal.

Here are two questions for you today:

1) Who can I serve?  By God's grace and God's calling, through faith in Jesus, you are the hands, the feet, even the mouth of God in the world.  You are the hands of Jesus washing feet.  You are the mouth of Jesus proclaiming peace to the world.  Who can you serve? Whose feet can you wash?

2) How do you need to be served? Let someone do it.  I've hear this more and more lately.  "I am always glad to help other people, but have a really hard time letting other people help me."  I feel that way too.  I want to feel and even be self-sufficient; I want to get 'er done on my own.  And when someone has to serve me and help me, that's a jab at my ego.  But we can't do it alone.  We need the help.

That's why it's called grace.  We couldn't save ourselves, so God did it for us.  We could cleanse ourselves, so Jesus had to wash us.  We couldn't change our minds and choose Jesus, he had to choose us. That's why it's called grace.  God did everything - and I mean everything - to save us.

Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet.  But what Jesus doing? He was showing Peter grace and doing something that Peter need to have done.  It's just as much grace when other people help us.  God is working through them to help us, support us, strengthen us.  I don't really want someone else to wash my feet, but my feet get dirty and my feet need to be washed.  We need other people, other Christians to serve and help us as Jesus served.

Jesus keep you as you serve other people in his name!

Through the Gospels in 30 - Day 3

Day 3: Matthew 3, Luke 3, John 3.

How is it going? What has God taught you as he reveals himself in his Word?  I'd love to hear it.

Through the Gospels in Lent - DAY 2

Alright, for those of you reading through the gospels this lent. Here are your readings for today. Matthew 2, Luke 2, John 2. 

If you missed yesterday go back and read the first chapter of the same books. As I reread these sections it is amazing to me how God has this whole thing planned and organized, even orchestrated. It will go according to plan. In his grace, he lets people - us - be a part of his plan and sends messengers (in these accounts, angels) to get people on board. Yet, even when they are not willing God's plan is not deterred! God gets it done and our salvation is won.

Thank you, Lord God, our Father in heaven above for your wise and careful plan that you carried out powerfully and perfectly in the days of Jesus.  Thank you for not doing it secretly but doing it publicly and letting us know about it through your Word and through the messengers you send to us who proclaim that Word.  Amen.

Through the gospels in Lent - DAY 1.

Through the Gospels during Lent

People sometimes talk about “giving something up” during Lent.  To be sure, the 40 days of Lent have generally been treated as days for discipline.  At first, however, this “discipline” was first “discipling,” that is, instruction.  

This year I want to challenge you, instead of “giving something up” during Lent, “take something up” and read through the Four Gospels with me.  Get to know the life and works of your Savior Jesus better as we watch him go to the cross!

Monday through Friday, beginning today I will post the daily readings here and as time permits a brief meditation on those readings.

This is a plan from YouVersion.com.

Day 1: Matthew 1, Luke 1, John 1.

So, Lent is usually a focus on the Passion of our Lord, on his suffering and birth.  What could these readings about his forerunner, about his birth, about his person have to do with his passion?  Is this not where it all begins? Yes and no.

If we want to know where this all begins we have to go back to Genesis where God first proclaims the promise when he curses the snake (Genesis 3:15).  There God promises a Champion who will rise up from the seed of woman to crush the serpent's head and render him powerless and destroyed.  It all begins there.

Oh, how Satan must have screamed every time a child was born wondering, "Is this the promised Champion who will crush my head?"  And then, in the person of Jesus, in the baby born of Mary adopted, so-to-speak, by Joseph, proclaimed by John, the Champion was born. So, where does the passion begin, where does the cross begin to come into view? It begins the moment he was conceived, the day he was born.  This child was born to die!

For us! For you. For me.  This child was born to die for you and for me.

It all started there in a manger.  It all ends at the empty tomb!

Ash Wednesday - Our Lenten Journey Begins

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; 

according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  

Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.  

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. - Psalm 51:1-5

In the Old Testament it was common practice for individuals to show sorrow over sin by wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes.  It was an attempt to show on the outside the misery that was going on inside.  As Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday today, we continue to be sorrowful over the sins we have committed.

The writer of Psalm 51, King David, had reason to be sorrowful over his sin.  2 Samuel 11,12  paint an ugly picture of David the sinner.  He slept with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and she became pregnant.  After attempts to cover up the affair failed, he arranged to have Uriah killed.  David’s sin was horrible and damnable.

David asked for forgiveness that he knew he did not deserve.  So rather than trying to candy-coat his actions, he was honest.  He admits sin, iniquity, transgression and evil which had affected and infected him from the time he was born.  David did not deserve to be forgiven, so he simply threw himself on God’s mercy begging for forgiveness.  It was a forgiveness that God freely gave him.

Today is a day for all to be honest with God about sin.  We also need to admit sin, iniquity, transgression and evil that have come from our sinful hearts.  But this is also the start of Lent.  Lent is a Christian season when we consider the payment Jesus made for our sin.  As we follow Jesus to the cross on Calvary, we see God’s undeserved love and mercy which he offers to all people.

Join King David today in confessing your sin.  Be assured that through Jesus Christ you have been forgiven!

Prayer:

Almighty and merciful Father, you freely forgive those who, as David of old, acknowledge and confess their sins.  Create in me a pure heart, and wash away all my sins in the blood of your dear Son, Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord.  Amen.

Podcast Version.

This Devotion is brought to you by www.WhatAboutJesus.com

Getting ready for Sunday - Witness: Crossing Barriers.

February is black history month.  Our students and our kids are focusing on some of the important figures throughout history who have impacted and changed the world as they crossed racial barriers that once impacted our country.  USA Today asks the question: Is it still relevant?  I'll leave you to answer that question from your own experience.

On my part, I can tell you about my experiences with this.  Just a little over ten years ago, I myself was witness to how ugly racial tensions can become in our country.  Angry words exchanged.  Fires started.  It was ugly. Racial tensions were hot and heated.  But I haven't just had negative experiences.  I've experienced and still do experience great joy in relationships with people of all kinds of different backgrounds, races, colors, even languages.

But here's the question for us as we wrap up our series on witnessing: What is the Christian church to do about the barriers that exist?  What is Abiding Faith to do about it?

Before we can look closely at those questions, we need to answer two other fundamental questions clearly in our own minds and hearts:

What has God done about it? Simple answer: He sent his Son to die for all people of every race, language, tribe and nation.  God's Son crossed every barrier between people's that every existed!

What is God doing about it? Simple answer: He is overcoming the barriers that exist with the love of Jesus and the power of his Word.

This Sunday we learn from God about these very things as he teaches Peter and the early Christian  to cross barriers. We're going to study Acts 10:34-48.

As you prepare for Sunday I want you to ask yourself this introspective question: What biases and barriers do I have in my mind? Are they cultural? Are they economic? Are they religious? Do I have "issues" with people because of their color, their language, their social status, the religion?  What are the "issues" that I have with other people?

Then come ready to let God help you get over those "issues."