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         One of my favorite games shows to watch is Guy’s Grocery Games.  One thing I’ve noticed over the seasons is a recurring theme in the comments of the contestants.  More and more, I hear the phrase, “I have to win so my kids (or mom or dad or grandmother) will be proud of me.”  After they lose, the phrase turns to, “I hope my kids, etc. will be proud of me anyway.”  So, pride in a family member is contingent upon them winning a game show?  That’s so sad and so much pressure.

         I, on the other hand, have made it a point to NOT tell my children that I am proud of them right after something momentous happens.  I tell them, “Congratulations!  I love you!” but that’s it.  It has been during an uneventful weekend visit, just out of the blue, when I tell them I’m proud of them for the person that they have become and who they are.  I am happy for the things they are able to achieve but I would never want them to believe that I am only proud of them because of one accomplishment. My parents have done that for me as well.  Out of the blue, they have both told me at one time or another that they are proud of me for who I am and not what I’ve done.  It makes me feel really good because I don’t have a habit of doing things I’m proud of. 

         That’s the way it should be though.  We can be proud of our family, our city, our country, etc. but we must be careful to not take it to the next level.  Pride in ourselves is one of the seven deadly sins.  We are so wrapped up in ourselves and our accomplishments that we forget who made those accomplishments possible.  The scribes and Pharisees in the Bible were continually called out by God for this fault.  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.”  (Matthew 23:27)  The sin of pride is damning to your soul because you make yourself a false god. 

         Then, what do we have that we can feel pride in?  Death.  Specifically the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as sung in the hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.  Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast  Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.  We should feel pride that Jesus died for us and we can boast in Him alone.  He rightly deserves all of the credit because the things on earth that we are proud of are only here because of Him.  We can’t come before God with our good works or accomplishments because we don’t have any.  Jesus righteousness is free and offered to everyone but many people are like the stubborn 2-year-old and say, “No!  I do it myself!”  Personally, I’d rather have God do it so I know that it’s done right and my place in heaven is assured because of Jesus alone and nothing I did.  I don’t do it myself.

Last week, over a period of 3 days, I heard the phrase ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ three times; once in a book I was reading and twice during the church service.  That phrase has always confused me.  I understand the ‘new earth’ part because after sin came into the world, God’s creation of earth was corrupted by sin.  When Christ comes again, sin will be no more and we will enjoy a new earth.  It was the ‘new heaven’ that I didn’t understand.  The Bible refers to this twice.  Once in Isaiah 65:17-18a, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create.”   It is mentioned again in Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” 

Just a little advice for anyone questioning the scriptures… DON’T GOOGLE IT!  I did and found cultures that talk about seven heavens and what each one is, etc.  In cases like these, I think people tend to over-think it and take the Scriptures literally.  Sometimes, taking them literally gets them out of context and makes them more confusing.  It takes an ordained pastor to know when the Bible is literal and when it’s not; but that’s a blog for the future. 

My mind tries to be logical and reasons, OK, heaven is where God is so there is earth, this planet, and everywhere else must be the heavens.  But God is on earth also so that doesn’t work.  OK, heaven is everywhere that hell isn’t because there’s only heaven and hell.  Well, because God is omnipresent (everywhere at all times), reasoning says that God is also in hell…but hell is the separation from God.  So that doesn’t work either.  Umph…  So let’s start at the beginning.  Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Heavens; plural; more than one – no.  When ‘heavens and earth’ are listed together, it’s a term that means everything God created and shouldn’t be taken literally.  ‘The heavens’ include the heaven that the Bible refers to along with all of the planets, stars, galaxies, universes, etc. that were created in the beginning.  We are curious beings and want to know details about our future life in heaven but it’s not important that we know now.  The purpose of Scripture is to help us know Jesus for eternal life and not answer every question we have about what heaven, or the future perfect earth, will be like.  Jesus tells us how important heaven should be in our faith in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Life in heaven should be our ultimate goal.  The promise it gives affects how we live on earth now.  The surety of Christ’s resurrection gives us hope and courage even in this life to hold out for what is to come.   So don’t focus on ‘what-ifs’ and ‘whys’  that are not important.  Through belief in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you’ll find out one day and it will blow your mind.

Let us pray….what does this mean?  It means I have to say my prayers before/after each meal and at bedtime.  Wrong.  It means I need to pray only at church.  Wrong.  It means the pastor’s prayers are more powerful than mine.  Wrong.  Many people have preconceived notions about what prayer really is but it goes much deeper than you may have first thought.  For several years, my first thought when I woke up in the morning was the words to a hymn and sometimes a sung part of the liturgy in a worship service.  Was that prayer?  You bet it was!  Jesus came on this earth partly to show us how to live as God’s children.  His behavior is something we should imitate; serve others, share the Good News of the Gospel and PRAY!  He prayed all the time.  He went off by Himself to pray without distractions as an example for us and even gave us the words to say when we can’t think of anything. (Lord’s Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13)

The Bible even gives us directions on prayer.  1. Ask God in faith.  (James 1:4-8)  If you truly know, without a doubt that He will answer you, ask.  That means don’t hesitate.  God is your Father and your friend.  Talk to Him like a friend.  He wants you to share the good times and the bad with Him.  Have faith that He will understand your feelings and help calm your heart.  As James says, if you doubt, you should not expect to receive an answer from God because you don’t have faith in him to hear you and answer in your best interest.  That’s something to think about.  2.  Ask for the right reason.  (James 4:1-3)  Are you asking for selfish pleasures or worldly treasures?  Don’t waste God’s time.  “Humble yourself before God and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).  Getting full of yourself, demanding lotto numbers, etc. is not going to get you anywhere.  You are not the creator, you are the creation.  You don’t tell, you ask.  There’s a difference.  “Your will be done.” Should be included in each petition and it should be meant.  God knows what’s best for us.  A 5-year-old doesn’t understand why they can’t have cake and ice cream right before bed.  They’ve gotten cake at other times, so why not now?  The parent knows what’s best for the child as God knows what’s best for us regardless if we are 5 or 55 or 500.  We’re always the child.  3.  Don’t stop praying.  James 5:16b says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.  Why?  Because of faith (see #1).  On the other hand, your prayer is not bad and God is not saying, “No” just because you don’t get an answer right away.  Remember that God’s time is different than ours.  You can’t give God a deadline.  Sometimes He wants to see just how bad you really want something.  One of my favorite illustrations of this is the song, “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks.  As a teen, there was one girl that he wanted to be with so bad that he prayed every night for God to make her his.  Years later, he sees her again while he’s with his wife and realizes that God’s greatest gift was not the girl he thought he wanted but the one he ended up with.  Technically, God answered his prayer with a “no” but that doesn’t ‘sing’ as well I guess.  The point is, you may think you know what you want but God may have something better planned for you down the road and you have to trust in that. 

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2)  Praying constantly sounds impossible but our definition of ‘constantly’ and God’s definition are somewhat different.  First of all, keep it real.  If we had to use stiff and formal language of the Bible – “our most holy and mighty God, we beseech thee that thou…” – we’d soon be bored and would have to make it a law as something we ‘have’ to do.  That’s not right.  Praying should be an open communication line like the background music you hear in some offices and elevators.  It's always there but you’re not focusing on each word.  When you see something great, or funny, or scary, say a quick prayer to let God know about it.  It’s OK to tell Him something He already knows.  If you have small children, you have a pretty good idea about how their day went in school.  When they tell you about something funny that a friend said or how excited they got about something the teacher said, it deepens your connection with them.  You see life through their eyes and with their perspective.  God loves it when we share with Him and make our relationship with Him more meaningful.  Another way is to incorporate prayer into everyday chores.  While driving to/from work or the store, thank God for the beautiful weather or that your car hasn’t broken down lately, etc.  When folding laundry, say a short prayer for each family member as their item is folded then branch out from there.  Pray for your child’s soccer teammates, the teachers in your children’s classrooms, the workplaces your spouse’s clothes are worn, the health to stay active and even the warmth of the home where you have a fluffy towel after a shower.  The number or quality of the words don’t matter because prayer is about God, not us.  Trust that He will listen but don’t monopolize the dialogue.  Spend some time sitting still and just listening.  The best conversations are two-sided but you won’t hear anything if you never stop to listen.

P.S.  In case you can’t see it clearly, the Bible passage on the arrow going up to the Holy Spirit in the picture is Romans 8:26-27.

Looking at this image, I’d be safe in saying that Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper (they are the same thing) is not the first thing that comes to your mind.  I wanted to write about several interesting things I’ve learned about this Sacrament and this does tie in with it (somewhat)…stay with me here. 

Starting at the beginning, the word ‘communion’ is defined in the Christian Church as: receiving forgiveness of sins by partaking of the body and blood of Christ.  Lutheran teaching summarizes and claims six benefits of partaking of the Lord’s Supper:  1. Offers and conveys forgiveness of sins.  2. Offers the truly present body and blood of Christ.  3. Strengthens faith.  4. Imparts power for Christian living.  5. Is an act of thankful adoration.  6. Is a celebration of Christian fellowship.  FUN FACT – From the year 30-313, the church grew incredibly.  It was a different reality being in church because it was not influenced by the culture of the times.  To be a member, it took three years of instruction.  If you weren’t a member, you could attend worship but had to leave right after the offering.  You weren’t allowed to be present for Holy Communion. 

Let’s take a minute to look at the night the Lord’s Supper was instituted.  It’s a little difficult to follow the timeline in the Bible because each Gospel has a different point of view.  Some events are written in chronological order while other events are grouped together.  The early leaders of the church lay it out like this:  On the night before His death, Jesus had the Passover meal prepared for Him and His disciples.  All of them ate the initial part of the Supper.  Now, it gets interesting.  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5a).  Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray Him.  He identifies Judas as the betrayer and tells him to leave.  Jesus prepared the table in the presence of Judas, His enemy.  Judas was allowed to see the supper but he couldn’t stay to partake of it.  Jesus then institutes the Lord’s Supper by telling the remaining disciples, “Take eat, this is My body; take drink, this is My blood.  Do this in remembrance of Me.”   

Remembrance does not mean to ‘recall’; it means to be an active participant.  When we are at the Lord’s table in church, we are there at the original Lord’s Supper and we are united with Him.  “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16)  Here we have the broken bread which is His body.  To make bread, the grain must be threshed (beaten to separate the grains from the straw), milled (crushed between large stones to break the grain open and separate the parts of each kernel), and baked.  It sounds very similar to what was done to Jesus’ body, doesn’t it?  Then there’s the wine that is His blood.  It is made from pressing grapes; similar to our sin that pressed down on Him on the cross.  We must remember that we were the cause of His suffering and death and He endured it all out of love for us.  We also remember the completeness of His gift; the perfect life He led to be worthy of paying the price for sin. 

Now look at the other side of the coin.  We don’t ‘drink to remember’; we ‘drink to forget’.  I’m sure you’ve heard that term before.  It’s true that alcohol affects your short-term memory by slowing down how nerves communicate in the part of the brain that forms memories.  But that’s not what happens here.  We go to Holy Communion with our guilt, shame and sin.  Jesus says, “Do you feel unworthy, ashamed, or embarrassed?  Partake of Me and leave all these things here at the foot of the cross.  Forget about them because I have paid for them.  Go in peace.”  Our faith is strengthened and our sins are forgiven.  You won’t find a better deal anywhere. 

Who is a really “religious” person?  Someone who attends church every Sunday and is on all the boards and committees?  Listens only to the Christian radio station?  Wears crosses?  Has a fish sticker on their car?  The Book of James has a lot to say on this subject.  He had a problem with people in his congregation saying one thing and doing another.  Obviously, it’s not possible for us to tell which category a person falls into just by looking at them.  I believe that all people can be divided into one of four categories: Christian, non-Christian, Agnostic, Atheist.

An atheist is defined as a person who has ‘a lack of belief in gods’.  (They are very sensitive about that wording, by the way.)  They are also not a religion even though they are protected by many of the same Constitution rights as those that protect religion.

A non-Christian is described as someone who does not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  In His stead, their ‘religion’ consists of following human leaders that have their own agenda and/or worshiping things like nature or themselves.  They have a belief in a god, just not the true God.

An agnostic is not committed to believing in either the existence or nonexistence of God or a god.  They sit on the fence to see which way the wind blows.  The Bible says there is no excuse for not knowing that God exists.  “For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world, His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made.  So they are without excuse.”  (Romans 1:19-20)  What then could be holding them back?  I once spoke with a person who falls in this category to try to understand their ‘beliefs’.   When I asked what they thought of Christianity, the response was, “I don’t think anything of it.  Most Christians just try to pretend that they’re better than everyone else but they’re really the same.”  They don’t see Christians acting any differently than non-Christians in their daily lives other than having a holier-than-thou opinion of themselves.  When asked what they thought of the church, they thought the church helped society by making people feel better and providing a place for people to get guidance counseling as an overall morale booster.  After this, my only response is, “For all of us make many mistakes” (James 3:2a).  I can say that it should NOT be the intention of a Christian to appear smug or have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude.  That’s not what Christianity is all about. 

So how do you describe a Christian?  I’ve been a Christian all my life but when I have to put the reason into words, I had to give it some thought.  Not about what makes a person a Christian, but why I believe it.  A Christian believes in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior because He died for each and every one of us regardless if we believe in Him or not.  His relationship with us is very personal as should our relationship be with Him.  Whoever believes in Jesus as their Savior recognizes His death on the cross and resurrection as payment for their sins.  Jesus is life.  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)  He says it very plainly.  There is no eternal life without Him.  The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. 

How do we show our faith to others?  The Bible says it is seen through our works.  God will not reward us for going to church but for the acts of service we perform for others.  We still go to church to be fed by Him with His Body, His Blood, and His Word but others should see our faith through our actions.  We don’t serve others to earn God’s favor or our salvation, but in response to His mercy and grace.  “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’  Show me your faith apart from your works and I by my works will show you my faith.” (James 2:18)

Learning how agnostics view Christianity really opened my eyes as to how I present myself to the world.  So, yes, I am a Christian and I make mistakes and don’t always have a ‘Christian glow’ about me but that’s because of sin in this world.  The best I can do while here is worship my Creator and Savior, and through my actions, show others His love, mercy and forgiveness.  Fortunately, I won’t be here on earth forever.  I’ve got a better place to be.

To continue from the last post on the Creeds of the Christian Church… Lutherans confess three ecumenical (which means ‘promoting worldwide unity’) creeds of the Christian Church. 

             Apostles’ Creed – The Apostles’ Creed started as a baptismal confession in the 3rd century and became a formal creed in the 8th century.  The wording was changed at that time to make a more accurate statement of our beliefs and to denounce the false beliefs of others about who Christ is.  It is a personal statement of faith so each section begins with “I” (I believe in God… I believe in Jesus Christ… I believe in the Holy Spirit…). 

             Nicene Creed – The Nicene Creed is a confession of the church and not a ‘personal’ confession so it begins with “We” most of the time instead of “I”.  (Note: it occasionally begins with “I” in the Lutheran Church because the Committee that compiled it felt the “I” would drive home that this is each Christian’s creed as well as belonging to the church as a whole.)  The creed came from a report given by the Ecumenical Council that met in Nicaea in 325 A.D.  They were disputing the teachings of the Arians who, at that time, taught that Christ was 100% human and partly divine.  They believed God created Jesus who then created the world.  This put Jesus below God and above us. 

             Athanasian Creed – The Athanasian Creed was written in the year 428 because people were having trouble understanding the concept of a Triune God.  Honestly, I believe this is something we will never understand with our human minds but this creed is the best we have of explaining it.  

We make confessions in our daily lives by expressing what we did or what we feel; either in spoken or written form for a specific thing or to a specific person.  The Creeds are the same thing.  When we confess our beliefs along with others, it renews our sense of mission so we can live and witness together with unified agreement.  These creeds confess what we believe, teach, and practice on the basis of their source, the Scriptures.  In addition, they are 100% Gospel.  The Creeds tell what God does and gives to us.  No human wisdom can understand the Creed without the Holy Spirit.  In them, God gives Himself completely to us.

These creeds not only tell what we believe about the Triune God but also include one important line to express what we believe about the church on earth:  I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.  What does this mean?

1.   “one” – (Eph. 4:4-6) There are many visible churches from the human perspective but only one from God’s perspective – the invisible church made up of believers in Christ.

2.   “holy” – (Eph. 5:25-27)  Again, from God’s perspective, the church consists of forgiven sinners.  We are holy because we have been made so only by Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.

3.   “catholic” – (Rev. 5:9-10)  catholic or universal with a lower case ‘c’ refers to the completeness of the church.  Her members come from all nations and languages throughout the world.  We proclaim that Christianity does not belong to one nation, ethnicity, language group or denomination.  All who belong to Jesus are part of the catholic church

4.   “apostolic” – (Eph. 2:20; Acts 2:42)  The things that were taught by the apostles and recorded in the Bible are still taught today.  The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and remains faithful to the inspired Scriptures, the teaching of the apostles.

5.   “church” – (Matt. 16:18)  Christ establishes His church.  He builds her, blesses her, causes her to prosper and promises that she will endure.  Although trials come, there will always be Christians on earth.

As I said last time, this is but the tip of the iceberg on this subject.  Books can and have been written on creeds alone.  One of the best books I’ve come across was a textbook I had in college, Called to Believe, Teach, and Confess by Steven P. Mueller.  It was amazing in that it explained so many different areas of theology in a way that was very easy to understand.  It’s written from the Lutheran perspective and the chapters are grouped into categories so you can go right to the section you want to read about.  I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to learn more about why they are taught certain things in the church.   If you have questions and don’t want to buy the book, ask your pastor.  Trust me, they love answering questions like these.  I personally have two pastors on call at all times to answer my e-mail questions.  It’s hard to believe but they can’t get enough of people wanting to know more.

I got it in my mind last Sunday that I wanted to do a blog on the creeds in the church.  After looking back through my notes on creeds, I heard my high school English teacher’s response in my head when I told her I wanted to do my senior term paper on ghosts…”You’re going to need to narrow that down.”  Ironically enough, the first thing I came across in my notes was a paper I did in college on July 19, 2013 on the creeds.  The last line of that paper is, and I quote myself, “I look forward to the opportunities in the future that will allow me to share my “fun finds” with others.”  Wow.  I guess God took me seriously…here we are. 

The first thing I learned while taking theology classes is that the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.  It can seem overwhelming at times.  The purpose of these blogs are to just whet your appetite for more.  They are the Reader’s Digest version of Cliff Notes of the Bible, as it were.  On a side note, I welcome any suggestions for future blog posts.

The word ‘creed’ comes from the Latin word, credo, which means, “I believe”.  The creeds are not just a confession of faith but also the answer to the question that Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  Martin Luther said the Commandments tell us to have only one God and the Creeds tell us about God.  The Creed is a response and confession of Christians based on the First Commandment and rooted in Scripture. 

The Lutheran Church has three Creeds: Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian.  At least one of these three Creeds are confessed during each worship service.  At times, it seems we get so indifferent about them that we just recite them from memory and they are immediately forgotten until next Sunday.  They serve a great importance however.  Creeds give Christians a sense of identity because it connects the past and the present.  They are Evangelical, which means Christ-centered and Gospel-centered; Ecumenical (designed for the entire Christian church; Christendom); Theological, which means they embrace all that Christ has confessed; Scriptural (the confessions come from Scripture; Scripture alone is the authority); and Applicable, which means they are relevant and important for us even today.  They can be seen as very freeing for us in that we don’t have to worry about what it means to be Lutheran.  These teaching have been reviewed by some of the greatest theologians that ever lived and continue to be studied and reviewed even today.  Most importantly however, it is a confessing document by the power of the Holy Spirit.  They are not just words, but power that reveals our faith in the one, true God.

That last part is important to remember when faced with unbelievers that look at creeds differently.  They often see them as a) written documents that become a rule or regulation because they are above scripture; b) a separation from the world (“We’re confessional so we don’t have anything to do with anyone else.”); c) “It’s historical and quaint but that’s all it’s good for.”; d) a cold, orthodox, ‘right’ teaching regardless of feelings.  These are not opinions with a background in faith.  (see the last post for “faith”)

As we witness our faith, “so that all nations will have a clear testimony from us that we hold the Gospel of Christ correctly and piously”, we can expect to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and sometimes condemned.  We should not be a witness in a martyr type of way so that we go looking for persecution.  Just living our lives, as Christians, and stating our beliefs can sometimes bring about this persecution regardless.  When/if this happens, we should look at it with a feeling of being blessed as those before us: “Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear His name.” (1 Peter 4:16); “and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” (Acts 5:40-41); “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).  No matter what happens to us while we’re here on earth, we’re in good company.  Spoiler Alert:  More on this next week.

Keep the faith.  Oh, ye of little faith.  Leap of faith.  Take it on faith.  I could go on and on.  We talk about faith all the time but have you ever tried to define it?  It’s not so easy.  The Bible gives us the definition of the word “faith” in Hebrews 11 (the faith chapter).  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  No wonder it’s so confusing; even the definition is a brain puzzler.  It’s not easy to be convinced of something you can’t see.  Let’s make it more fun…look at the verses immediately following it… “Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”  You could meditate on that till your brain explodes.  Seriously though, read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11 when you can.  It’s a wonderful lesson on how God works through faith.

Let me show you another way of looking at it and see if it helps.  Faith is a relationship with God the Father, through the Son, given to us by the Holy Spirit.  Now, because it is a relationship, it is relational or interactive which means it grows and develops.  There are different stages of faith just like there are different stages of your life.  The only difference is that while you move continually forward in life, your faith doesn’t always just forge ahead but can go back and forth depending on the day or sometimes by the events around you.  The stronger it gets however, the more stable it becomes; and just like your body, it takes work and effort to make it stronger.

There are six stages of faith:

1.      Primal – this is a relationship that may not be recognized by the believer; similar to an infant.  Fantasy and reality are equally important and authority figures are very influential.  God is like “mommy and daddy” to a 2-6 year old child.  This is the first stage, not because of us, but because of how we receive it.  It is a gift of God that we are not always cognizant of receiving.  We don’t one day go, (boom!) “Hey, I just received faith!”  It doesn’t work that way.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

2.      Literal – your imagination thrives, stories are delightful, correct responses are memorized.  This stage is compared to children age 4-12.  Fairness is important and justice needs to be dealt out equitably.  In this stage, you start realizing that you received faith and begin taking the steps to better understand it.

3.      Conventional – “I believe what the church believes.”  Confirmation instruction takes over and church doctrine is explained and sincerely believed but often untested.  You know what you are told to believe but you haven’t had to put it to work yet. 

4.      Reflective – This can be a frightening stage and because so, many drop out at this time.  At this stage you are searching for your identity as a believer.  Personal struggles of faith can also occur that have you questioning what you believe.

5.      Conjunctive – This stage, by definition, means you are searching to join.  Here, you will probe into the depths of your faith and find out just how strong it is.  You get a real joy in a faith-relationship with God.  Many people fail to reach this level because they are afraid they are not strong enough to withstand the world around them.  They fear they will lose their faith and become an unbeliever. A better way to word it might be, take stage 3 & 4 and combine them.

6.      Universalizing – This means that you “live the faith”.  Your faith and life are combined completely.  You “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk”.

Now, this is important… just because you see the different stages of faith DOES NOT mean that you should focus on them.  I’ve listed them here as a way for you to better understand where you came from and where you’re going.  Do not chastise yourself for going backward.  We all do it occasionally.  Just because you have moments of doubt from time to time does not mean you have done anything wrong or lost your faith.  Don't give up learning.  2 Corinthians 5:7 says we walk by faith, not by sight.  We understand that as Christians, we are not of this world.  We don’t belong here forever.  It is by our faith in Jesus as our Savior that we are saved and have a life forever with Him.  This is sometimes hard to remember when the world is right in front of our eyes all of the time.  The enormity of it can shake us occasionally.  When this happens, we need to take time to look with the eyes of the mind and remember our faith can be more than strong enough to endure what we go through here.  I like the way C.S. Lewis put it, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.”  So, what do you see with the eyes of faith?

WARNING: This blog has several Scripture references.  (Sorry but I have to lay the groundwork.)  Get through them.   You can do it.  I promise that there’s a point. 

One of the lesser known, or talked-about, stories of Peter is in Acts 10:9-16.  9…Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven. 

Peter’s beliefs came from Leviticus 20:25-26:  25 You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.

This sheet of animals must have been exceedingly difficult for Peter to see.  His whole life had been based on the teachings of the Bible, (we call it the Old Testament but he calls it the Bible because that’s what he had), and now God was telling him to break the rules.  Peter had been zealous with the standards that God had set up and now here’s God saying, “Hey Peter, try the pork chops.”  If he would have had the New Testament, he would have seen in Mark 7:18-23 where Jesus said,   18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come… and they defile a person.”  Jesus declares all foods are ‘clean’.  With some you need a marinade and others are better fried but regardless, all foods are good for eating. 

So why did God make the distinction between clean and unclean animals to begin with?  Well, that was the fault of the Gentiles.  Their primary source of entertainment was feasts, and social intercourse mainly occurred at banquets.  When God said that in Leviticus, He was basically telling the children of Israel, “I don’t want you getting involved with the Gentiles.  I don’t want you acting like they act” or, “You can’t play with those kids.”  (Parent reference)  Because the banquets of Gentiles often turned into orgies, God had to draw the line so that the Israelites would not have social relationships with them and be drawn into their way of pagan life.  This wasn’t the only reason though.  He also declared those animals unclean because there are some animals more likely to carry epidemic diseases.  Since the preparation of food in those days was nothing like it is now, God was saving them from the threat of an epidemic.  The people lived in a close community and an epidemic could wipe them out.  This was another way God preserved the existence of His people.  So why was Jesus changing the rules?  His sacrifice was for ALL people, including the Gentiles.  The Jews no longer had to be separated from them because we were all meant to be one people under God.  The Jews had first shot but they refused so everyone was now welcome.  It was time to change and invite the pagan Gentiles to know the true God and change their ways. 

         I heard another view I thought was interesting as well.  Some people view this sheet to represent the church of Christ.  It comes down from heaven already opened for us to receive the gifts of God.  It is knit at the four corners to receive people from the four corners of the globe that are willing to be added to it, and to keep safe those already in it so they don’t fall out.  The sheet of the gospel encloses all believers, including those that others consider to be ‘clean’ or ‘unclean’.  God presents us to the world to encourage others to join us when we are gathered up to Him on the Last Day.  I think it’s an awesome visual.  There’s always room on the sheet for one more….oh, and thank you God for bacon!

This past Sunday, my husband went to Wal-Mart for a few items.  As he was checking out at a register by the Customer Service area, he noticed a black woman walk past a long line of people waiting to be helped.  When the man behind the counter, also African-American, told her she had to wait in line for her turn, she announced loudly that she would not.  She said she should be next and deserved to be helped before the Hispanic couple waiting, and the Caucasian women, and others, because she was black.  That was her sole reason.  She thought the rules did not apply to her because of her skin color.  Sorry mam but you missed the civil rights movement by about 60 years.  There are no longer lines just for whites or people of color anymore.  We're all in this together, like it or not.

It reminded me of the story of the rich, young man that asked Jesus how to get eternal life.  (see Matthew 19:16-30)  Specifically, he asked, “What good deed must I do to get eternal life?”  This was an important man in the community.  He was a ruler that ran (which you just didn’t do in public back then because it was undignified for wealthy people) and fell on his knees before Jesus.  This guy is serious.  The problem was that when he asked what to “do”, he was focusing on himself and not God.  Eternal life is a gift of God, it cannot be earned by doing works.  Jesus told him to give away everything he owned and follow Him (Jesus).  This would show that his love for God was greater than his wealth.  Jesus said this out of love.  He wanted to guide the man to salvation but the man could not let go of his earthly possessions.

Another way to look at this might be that the man might not have really wanted Jesus to give him something to do.  Other people had probably praised him for his good works and he wanted a “good job” from Jesus as well.  He was secure in this life and a “good job” from Jesus would make him secure in the next life as well.  After all, Jesus was a new teacher in town and might have a different opinion from what he had been taught.  We’ll never know his true reasoning but can we still learn from the story?

Hmm…  You know, when I was a kid, before the internet but after the dinosaurs, people were known by their deeds.  I would often hear things like, “He’s a really good guy and comes from a good family” or “She is amazing and helps so many people.”  You didn’t toot your own horn.  If you did good deeds and helped others, they tooted your horn for you.  Today is a different story.  With Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and WhatsApp and QQ… I could go on and on.  There are over 65 social networking sites that are used today for people to brag about themselves or show how stupid they are or what they ate for lunch.  We think everyone in the world wants to know how we spend each minute of every day and gauge our self-worth on how many ‘followers’ or ‘likes’ we have.  Call me an old fogie, but I see us focusing only on ourselves and what we do and what we think.  It sounds like the rich, young man that wanted to DO something to enter heaven.  That’s not how it works.  We can’t save ourselves.  Jesus already did that for us.  Our job now is to let go of our pride and focus on showing others the love of Jesus and giving them a chance to join us in heaven by telling them about what Jesus already did so they don't have to.  Can you imagine people showing up at heaven’s gates and saying, “I should be let in because I got 2 million tweets!” or “I have 500,000 followers on Facebook!”?  Jesus’ reply might be, “How many followers did you recruit for Me?”  What's your answer going to be then?

I know what you’re thinking…. You look at this picture and your mind says, “Oh, here we go…one more person telling me I have to go to church.”  Not true.  I’m going to tell you why I go to church.  I don’t feel as though God is speaking directly to me every week in church but I still get the benefit of the Holy Spirit and am able to partake in the body and blood of Christ so that’s a win-win.  Sometimes though, I do feel as if He’s speaking directly to me.  These times are pretty awesome because I so often ask God in prayer to tell me what He wants from me and ask what I should do.  I can turn to the Bible at any time to hear God speaking to me, but it sinks in more when it comes from the pastor because I know I won’t misunderstand.  In addition, I know that on my own, I won't turn to the Bible as often as I should.  I've heard this from other Christians as well, "I don't have to hear the pastor's sermon.  I have a Bible and if I want to know what it says, I'll read it myself."  (Yes, that's an actual quote.)  But how many times does she actually open her Bible, I wonder?

Several weeks ago, I noticed that it seemed as if over half the congregation was in blue jeans and tennis shoes for the church service.  Even the pastor’s wife was in a t-shirt.  Now, this just irked me to the highest level.  I was brought up that you have church clothes that you only wear to church because they are your best clothes.  You dress up when you go to God’s house; you don’t look like you’re going to a garage sale or Wal-Mart.  Don’t get me wrong.  If all you have is a t-shirt and jeans or shorts, God love you, come on in and worship with us.  No problem.  It’s just that I know most of the people I saw the other weekend have better clothes because I’ve seen them wearing them.  This bothered me to no end but I said nothing to anyone.  

This past Sunday, I was set straight.  In Bible class, the pastor was talking about judging people out of context.  If someone says, “You should not judge others,” what they are really saying is, “I don’t want to be judged.”  Well, no one wants to be judged.  Too often, we confuse judging the action with judging the heart.  Pastor went on to say, “If someone destroys private property, they have broken the law and have a right to be judged guilty.  That’s different from judging someone because of the clothes they wear to church.”  Ouch!  Was he reading my mind?  No.  God was speaking directly to me and my tail immediately went between my legs (so to speak).  Message received loud and clear.  We should judge others by God’s standards:  “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).  Jesus died for all and His righteousness covers all.  My actions were no more or less than the Pharisee in the temple who prayed aloud, thanking God that he was not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers, people who wear jeans to church, etc.  (See Luke 18:10-14)  It was a most sobering and shaming thought because I never dreamed that I could be like that.

Like everyone, I’m a sinful human being that needs Jesus.  I need to hear the law of God (what I’m doing wrong) and the Gospel (what God has done and continues to do for me). I go to church to hear God speaking directly to me.  Where do you go?  

You are never too old to have a ‘first’.  I recently had a first – I prayed for two and a half hours nonstop.  I pray often during the day normally because when I pray before going to sleep, I usually fall asleep before I’m done.  This time was different.  I was in a hotel room in Houston in the middle of the night and could not turn on the light to read because my husband was asleep; I could not sleep because I was in so much pain; and I could not focus on anything else but asking God for help.  Being in pain is a temptation to ask God, “Why?”  Even Jesus asked, “Why?”, while on the cross.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)  “Why” is a prayer of passion.  There is a fine line between the passion that trusts God and the passion that curses God.  Jesus asking ‘why’ here shows that He was true man at this time.  He felt the separation from the Father because of the burden of our sins.  The ‘why’s’ of our life are the ‘ways’ of God because He uses us for His purpose.  Prayer is an exercise of faith that is fueled by our urgency.  I definitely had the urgency but our desperation has nothing to do with how God listens to our requests.  If it did, more people would win the lottery.  What happens in our lives is important to God.  He knows what’s happening with us and what we need, but still wants us to go to Him and talk about it because that shows our trust in Him.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord…Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” (Jer. 28:11-12) 

 I never asked ‘why?’ in my prayers.  I prayed for healing; knowledge for the doctors; and that the tests done the next day would show the real problem.  I didn’t get the answers I wanted because the tests showed nothing and the doctors were clueless as to the reason for the problem.  Regardless, my focus was fully on God, where it needed to be.  You see this frequently in the book of Luke.  Luke talks more about Jesus praying than any other Gospel.  Jesus prayed before every important step in His ministry: before His baptism, 3:21; before choosing the twelve, 6:12; before Peter’s declaration that He is the Messiah, 9:18; at the Transfiguration, 9:28; before teaching the disciples how to pray, 11:1; in Gethsemane, 22:41.  He also tells us, over and over, that we should pray as well:  “pray for those who abuse you” (6:28); “ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest” (10:2); Luke 11:1-13; “will God not grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night” (18:7); “pray that you will have the strength to escape all these things that will take place” (21:36).  

Basically, we should continually pray for the strength to persevere in this sinful world.  The temptations of this world surround us and we cannot battle them alone.  Only through prayer and faith in Jesus can we stand before Him on Judgment Day and say, “I did my best, with the help of God”.  

This phrase was amazingly easy for me to relate to.  How often do I silently condemn others for things I know are wrong?  I’m not claiming to be perfect.  I do more wrong things than anyone else most times.  As my nephew, Kelsey, is fond of saying, “No one’s perfect…well, there was this one guy…but we killed him.”  All sins are equal in God’s eyes but not in mine.  Even though it sometimes bothers me to see others sin, it haunts me when I sin.  The strange part is that only some of my sins bother me and not others.  Why should I choose to forgive myself for some mistakes and not others?  Even though the person I sinned against has forgiven me and God has forgiven me, I cannot forgive me.  This idea has plagued me my entire life and at times has become my obsession and costed me many months of therapy but to no avail, until this week.  Everywhere I turn, I am being confronted with my sinfulness and God’s forgiveness.  A pastor asked me to speak to his confirmation class about a Commandment I broke or something I did that went outside of God’s will.  I was asked to tell the kids how the sin affected me and how I felt when I was forgiven.  (He went on to say that he had never experienced that himself; but we won’t go into that right now.)  My point is that although I have been repentant for the things I’ve done wrong, I don’t allow myself the peace of God’s forgiveness.  I don’t know why.  

Apparently, it’s time for me to deal with this issue because I’ve been confronted all week with reminders of God’s forgiveness.  As Max Lucado said, “Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner.”  If we get upset by things that others do, we become a prisoner of our emotions.  I have been a prisoner for a long time; not because of others, but of things I do.  I turned to the Bible and found Philippians 3:9, 12-13, “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.  …I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own…this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”  Paul is talking about righteousness (being ‘right’ with God) because of Jesus and through faith in Him, we can obtain the goal of eternal life.  It’s easy to take what he says about ‘forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead’ in the wrong way.  He's not saying we should forget the past; he’s chastising himself for doing so.  Paul got his start in the faith by persecuting Christians and killing them.  It was only when God blinded him for 3 days that he saw the error of his ways.  We should not dwell on past sins but continue to remember our repentance and God’s mercies toward us as an unending thankfulness to God.  We all stumble in many ways.  By remembering this lesson, we are able to let go of our guilt and live as God wants us to live; with His peace through faith in Christ.

Last night, I was watching the movie, Peter Rabbit, when my husband, Charlie, asked me if I was doing a Bible Study on it.  I said no, but in the back of my head, I do a Bible study on almost every movie I see.  It is possible to go overboard, I suppose, but if God created everything, we should be able to see Him in everything, right?  How often do we have things right in front of us but don’t see them?  One of the biggest examples of this in my mind is John the Baptist.  Yes, we are very familiar with his story.  He was set apart by God to proclaim Jesus’ coming.  He baptized people, Jesus included, and was beheaded by Herod Antipas at the request of a little girl.  

This has always been right in front of Christians, but have you ever really looked at it?  Would you be surprised to know that when John baptized people, it wasn’t the same as we do today?  I always assumed as much but never knew it was different until it was brought up in a Bible study.  The baptism that John gave was called the Baptism of repentance.  It was God’s commitment to forgive someone that was repentant of their sins.  The Baptism we perform now in the name of Jesus (the Triune God) imparts the Holy Spirit who works forgiveness of sins for the one baptized.  While we distinguish the two as somewhat different, both were instituted by God and both conveyed the forgiveness of sins.

John was always very important in the life of the church.  In Matthew 11:11, we hear what Jesus Himself said about John: Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  Jesus knew how to value people according to the degrees of their worth and He preferred John before all that came before him.  Of all that God had raised up and called to service in his church, John was the most eminent, even beyond Moses himself.  It was John who began to preach the gospel doctrine of remission of sins to those who are truly penitent.  He had more single revelations from heaven than anyone else because he saw heaven opened, and the Holy Ghost descend.  Why is that so important?  John knew his Savior was in the world because he leapt while he was still in his mother’s womb when Jesus, still in His mother’s womb, approached.  Hold onto your hat.  John grew up knowing that Jesus was his cousin.  He didn’t know that Jesus was his Savior until Jesus’ baptism.  Let that sink in a minute.  John himself admits that in John 1:33.  God told him that the one he saw the Holy Spirit descend on would be the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit…the Savior of the world.  At that point, he realized his cousin was the Messiah.  Wow. 

If you look at the second part of that verse in Matthew, as amazing as John was, the least in the kingdom of heaven was still greater than him.  The mother of James and John didn’t realize this when she asked Jesus to let her sons sit next to Him in His kingdom.  Yes, there are degrees of glory in heaven but as Pastor Red explained years ago in Houston, “Heaven is like Astroworld.  You might be put at the tea cups, the log ride, the boat ride or the Texas Cyclone roller coaster; it doesn’t matter where you’re put because YOU’RE THERE!”  All of the wonders and beauty and magnificence of heaven and you’re there!  That’s all that really matters.  The second part of the passage can be a bit confusing.  What it’s saying is that the lowest saint in heaven is greater, and knows more, and loves more, and does more praising God, and receives more from him, than the greatest believer in this world today.  They are in God’s presence and so their experience with God is so much more than we can imagine.  Even if they’re at the tea cups, they’re better off than we are now.

This blog is a bit long-winded but since it fits, I’m going to go a bit more.  As a comedian once said, “Jesus was the greatest preacher in the world and He never preached a funeral.  He raised people from the dead and when the dead sit up, the funeral’s over.”  Well, we don’t have a record of Him doing a baptism either.  You’ll say, “What about John 3:22?”  My response would have to be, look at John 4:2.  Jesus most likely supervised the baptisms, but His disciples had His authority to do baptizing both in His presence and (later) in His absence.  Also, baptism connects us to Christ (Romans 6) but with Jesus being present at the time, such connection was unnecessary.  Finally, it might have become a stumbling block down the road that would divide Corinth even more if Jesus had baptized some people and not others.  How easy is that for us to imagine?  

We want to rule our own lives but should we even be allowed to make decisions for ourselves?  We’re really not that good at it when you take into consideration how much most of us hate change.  It’s amazing how much change a person can see over their lifetime.  My parents grew up without a telephone in the house and a few years ago, they would look on a little screen and see and speak to their grandchildren on the other side of the world.  I believe that you can get a feeling of the state of the world by watching commercials.  When I was growing up, 90% of the commercials were for children’s toys, breakfast cereal and women with household cleaning and laundry products.  Today, 90% of commercials are for prescription medication, lawsuits for people that took that prescription when it was advertised 15 years ago, fast food, and online shopping.  On the plus side, the men are usually in the laundry commercials now instead of the women.   The world is full of change, like it or not and you don't have to go far at all to see it.

Some people believe that God changes like we do.  Look at God in the Old Testament, “You’re misbehaving!  I will smite you!”.  Then look at Jesus in the New Testament, healing everyone, making wine, peace and love, etc.  (I kid.)  Seriously though, it was the same God.  He never changed His attitude about us.  It became so serious that it was His will that an innocent man, His Son, Jesus, come to earth and become a dirty, smelly human (because we are), and suffer unheard of cruelty for me.  Does that sound fair?  It was some change for Jesus to go from creator of the universe to a baby that goes boom-boom but thankfully, it was a change that He took on gladly.

Philippians 2:8 tells us that Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Someone once asked a pastor if Jesus had been electrocuted, would we all wear little electric chairs around our necks?  Can you imagine drawing that on your forehead on Ash Wednesday?  But I digress.)  A person today can sacrifice himself or herself for others and are thought of as noble and gain fame for their final action.  Jesus had to die in a manner that had nothing noble about it.  He died as a common criminal.  This was the ultimate humility.  Why did He do it?  So we would be His own and never have to worry about change.  If He would have used His divine power, He would not have been able to die.  If His glory had been manifest, the people would not have condemned Him.  Had He done miracles constantly, they would have saved His life only to exploit His power.  He knew what He had to do to change our lives for the better regardless if we wanted it or not.  

So we deal with change.  Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse but if we have faith, we can be certain that God will be with us through it and will make the best of whatever situation we get ourselves into despite what the commercials on TV say or who does the laundry. 

Cool picture, isn’t it?  Can you see the bird?  The Holy Spirit is NOT a bird even though He is often referred to be like one.  The Greek word for ‘spirit’ is pneuma which means breath or wind.  The best way to show a picture of wind is a bird.  I learned several interesting things about the Holy Spirit in classes I’ve taken over the years and would like to share them with you.  

First, in the Nicene Creed, we recite, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life”.  What does ‘Lord and Giver of Life’ specifically mean?  The Spirit fulfills this title in two ways.  Spiritually: He awakens faith in us through the means of grace (Word and sacrament).  He reveals Christ to us and guides us as we live as God’s children in the world.  He also strengthens us, blesses us and intercedes for us before God.  Physically: He participated in the work of creation.  He hovered over the face of the waters and breathed into man to make him a living creature.  He also participated in the conception of Christ.

Second, gifts and fruits of the Spirit.  These are often thought of as the same thing but they couldn’t be more different from each other.  The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, kindness, peace, patience, self-control, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.  These fruits are given to all believers equally as a result of our faith.  If we choose to not use some of them, it is our choice to reject God’s gift and doesn’t mean we weren’t blessed with it.  “But I don’t always feel peaceful and have no patience in certain circumstances!”  Whose fault is that?  Is your patience short because you have no control over the actions of others or worry about what might happen and forget that God is in control?  Something to think about.  Gifts of the Spirit include things like prophecy, teaching, ministry (not being a minister but ‘ministering to’ or helping others), giving generously, leader, compassionate, healing, assistance, etc.  Some people may have one of these gifts while others might have three or more.  Each person is given their own gifts to be used in the church and they are as diverse as the people that receive them.  

I’m asked many times where I come up with things for my Bible Studies and blogs.  My continued reply is that it’s not me; it’s the Holy Spirit.  “… what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20)  As I was growing up, I noticed that the adults prayed to God the Father.  The children were taught to begin prayers with, “Dear Jesus”.  That always left out the Holy Spirit.  I used to feel bad about that and would pray to the Spirit so He wouldn’t feel left out.  As an adult, I learned that He doesn’t want to be prayed to because He works behind the scenes.  We have no right to credit him with human feelings like being ‘left out’.  The best way to honor Him is to honor Christ.  His purpose is to point to Christ and not Himself.  He Reveals Christ’s love to us through baptism, Reminds us of His love, Reports to Christ with our commitment to God and any help we are needing, and Rebukes sin.  There’s a lot more to the Holy Spirit than I ever imagined.  

Fun fact:  You will never find Holy Ghost in the Bible.  He is always referred to as the Holy Spirit or Spirit.  The ‘Ghost’ came from the German word for spirit – geist. 

When were you saved?  Some Christian faiths teach that when you accept the fact that you are a sinner and when you repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness, you are saved at that instant.  That’s putting an awful lot on our shoulders.  If we are responsible for our salvation, how do we know that we did it right or enough or whatever?  The last time someone asked me, “When were you saved?”, my answer was, “August 30, 19**”.  That’s the date of my baptism; when I received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).  I received forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  (Just an FYI, that’s the Lutheran answer.)  God used the means of water and the Word.  Without the Word of God, you just got wet.  In my baptism, I just had to lay there and do nothing.  I didn’t have faith.  I didn’t bring myself to church or understand what anyone was saying or doing.  It didn’t matter because nothing depended on me.  Thank you God for that, by the way!  So we cannot accept Christ but we can reject Him.  The rejection of the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin and leads to our damnation.  (see more on that in the July 5, 2019 blog)  Accepting and rejecting always sounded to me like two sides of a coin; light and dark, good and evil, north and south, etc.  How could you do one without the other?  How can you reject the Holy Spirit but not also accept Him?  Answer???  Anyone???  I muddled over that for years.  It’s difficult to understand because it is a teaching from scripture that transcends logic.  The best explanation came from my college professor in Biblical Theology.  

Because we are fallen, we are spiritually blind and dead; an enemy of God.  As such, we cannot choose anything.  A dead person, or spiritual corpse, can make no decisions.  But the Holy Spirit "calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies..." The Spirit makes us alive in Christ. The Spirit brings the gospel, gives the gift of faith, and brings us new life so that we are "born again."  Now, here's the tricky part. If I want to remain dead in trespasses and sins, I can choose to reject the gift the Holy Spirit brings.  So, put plainly, I have no power to accept, but I do have power to reject. Now, I receive faith by the Spirit's work through the Word, and with this faith, I turn to Scripture and accept the guidance it gives. I can now do this because I'm a new person in Jesus Christ. So, we might say, after coming to faith I can acknowledge what the Spirit brings. Even so, when I receive the wonderful gift at the Lord Supper for example, I never think of it as my acceptance of the gifts, only as my reception of the gifts or the receiving of them.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”  We are not saved by accepting God in our time and in our way.  We are saved by grace…from where?  God.  Through faith…from where?  The Holy Spirit (God).  That’s it.  Plain and simple.  I have a few more opinions on things we actually can accept but that’s for another time.

The door into my office at the church is much narrower than most doors.  People are always commenting on how hard it is to get in sometimes.  It continually reminds me of the story of the narrow door in the Bible.  

“ Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”  He said to them,  “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’  “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’   “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’   “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’   “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.  People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 13:22-29)

So why would God have a door to heaven and not let some people in?  Revelation helps us with that.  (Remember that Scripture interprets Scripture.)  “These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.  I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”  (Revelation 3:7-8a)  This is part of a letter to the pastors in Philadelphia to remind them of who Christ is.  His personal character: holy and true and His political character: He holds the key of David.  He controls the door by opening opportunities to us and can also shut the door against unbelievers and those with hard hearts.  This teaching was different from the ideas of others.  Many at that time believed you would only be turned away if you were not a descendant of Abraham and did not follow the Laws perfectly. We have different ideas today but many still believe that you cannot get into heaven unless you do something about it.  You have to regularly attend worship, you have to be a member of the right denomination, you have to ‘accept Christ’, etc.  (By the way, we can’t accept Christ.  But more on that next week.)  Why do we continue to put limitations on people that God saves?  

Jesus said to strive for the narrow gate, “Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” (Matthew 7:13).  This means to A. put in some effort by submitting to God’s will and doing as He says, and not acting how you want to act and B. acknowledging Christ as your Savior means leaving your pride and self-righteousness behind you.  You can’t fit through a narrow door if you’re carrying a large bag of self-righteousness.  Many will be rejected by God because what they thought was enough, really wasn’t.  Like the passages at the beginning say, “We ate and drank with you”.  Well, so did Judas.  “You taught in our streets.”  But that didn’t mean you were listening.  It’s natural that those of us who get in will be curious and have compassion on those that don’t but once the door is closed, it’s closed.  (Remember the story of the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13?  We shouldn’t live our lives with the idea that we can do whatever we want and the door will still be open when we get there.  Personally, I’d rather live according to God’s rules as best I can now, so there’s no question of the door being shut in my face.  Maybe the idea of wondering what happens to those left outside should spur us on to our mission of evangelism while we still have time to make the most of today.  After all, what’s behind that door?  The heavenly banquet and room enough for all believers from all corners of the world.  It’s going to be awesome!!  I hope to see you there!

Wow.  It's hard to believe I've been bloging for a year now.  Time goes quickly. 

The Bible study class I attend on Sunday mornings is currently studying the book of Exodus.  Last week, we discussed the way Pharaoh hardened his heart against Moses and the plagues.  The question was asked, “Does a hardened heart refer to unbelief or a sin against the Holy Spirit?”  As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, my mind immediately went to the song by Quarterflash, Harden My Heart.  In the song, the girl is continually lied to by someone she loves and decides to harden her heart, swallow her tears, turn and leave them standing there.  (I’ll pause here while you finish singing the song in your head.)  Needless to say, we need to take her example and turn our back on Satan, the father of lies.  

When someone lies to us or says something that causes us pain, it is our choice to hold onto that pain or let it go. Words can only hurt you when you allow them to by holding onto the pain it caused you.  (Yes, I know I just repeated myself.  If something is repeated, IT’S IMPORTANT!)  If we can forgive them and forget it, the relationship will grow.  If we hold onto that pain and harden our heart toward them, there is no peace.  In Mark 8:17b, Jesus asks, “Do you still not perceive or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  This passage implies that hard hearts come from a lack of faith or ‘unbelief’.  That could relate to Pharaoh since he did not believe in God but what about the sin against the Holy Spirit?  …the Unforgivable Sin?  (You can read my July 5, 2019 blog for the definition.)  Can you say a hardened heart leads to the unforgivable sin?  I would say, yes.  If you choose to keep your heart hard and hold onto your pain, you continually reject the forgiveness and comfort offered to you by the Holy Spirit.  That is just one of many jobs the Holy Spirit works for our benefit so why not take advantage of it?  It can be hard to forgive others and yourself.  I know.  But in the end, isn’t it worth it?

It’s amazing how easy it is to find God when you actually look for Him.  I subconsciously find Him in movies and now in Pinterest pins.  (I know, two posts on Pinterest in a row.)  I saw this one the other day and couldn’t stop thinking about it.  The possible reality of it hits home very well.  In my case, it’s my drive to work.  It takes 35 minutes and some days, I find myself just talking to God the entire way.  I tell Him about what I’m stressed over, what I hope for, what I worry about, etc.  It often takes the entire trip.  Once or twice, before I get to work, He answers me.  The answer just pops in my head and I know that it’s what I’m supposed to do.  

Sometimes, we intentionally go looking for Him like Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to see Him and sometimes He finds us; usually when we’re at our worst.  Right when our sins are the most obvious, BOOM, He pops up.  It started with Adam.  He and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and then go hide.  Here comes God, strolling along, “Adam.  Whatcha doin?”  Busted.  The thief on the cross…already caught and paying for it and Jesus is hung up right next to him.  Nowhere to hide now.  Peter denied knowing Jesus at His trial.  Jesus didn’t even have to go looking for him to catch him in the act, just turn His head a little.  Jesus was RIGHT THERE and Peter was screwing up.  We just can’t help ourselves sometimes.

When we do actually try to do the right thing, our human nature wants to see immediate results or get immediate answers.  I was recently talking to my father and confessed to him that I only knew of four people (all are already devout Christians) that read my blog.  What is the point in continuing?  My head knows to have faith that God’s message will reach someone that needs to hear it and I will most likely  never know if, or when, it will happen.  My heart on the other hand, feels that without hard results, the situation is hopeless.  I seriously considered stopping but the next morning in Bible class, we were studying Exodus 3:18 where God tells Moses, “And they will listen to your voice”.  Moses was trying his best to get out of sharing God’s Word just like I was.  (There is nothing new under the sun.  Eccl. 1:9)  God assured him that those he would speak to would listen.  When God’s Word is spoken, it will be heard by someone that needs to hear it but guess what, it cannot be heard unless it is spoken.  We must at all times be ready to give witness to the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15).  Will it always be received?  No.  Will it always be fruitful?  We have no way of knowing what the Spirit will do with it.  That’s just a fact that we will have to accept on faith.

Everyone doubts occasionally.  My main message is to not give up.  That’s a message must I continually remind myself of as well.  Just like when teaching children, just saying it once is not enough.  God answered me pretty quickly on that one.  I guess I'd better pay attention.

Why?  This has to be the most asked question in the world by everyone in the world.  We can get a little frustrated when our child asks us ‘Why?’ forty times an hour but don’t we do the same thing?  Why do young people die?  Why can’t I lose weight?  Why do I always chew on the inside of my cheek when I’m watching a movie?  I think we can answer many of our ‘why?’ questions ourselves.  It’s often a matter of acknowledging the problem; figuring out what the trigger is; and then changing your habits.  Easier said than done, right?  

My second favorite Bible passage is what I call the do-do verses.  Romans 7:18-20  “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.  I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.”  I think we can all relate to Paul’s struggles.  We know God’s Law and God’s will but we are unable to do it because we are sinful.  Does that mean we give up trying?  No.  Why?  God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9  (cue the Lutherans in the house…all together now) What does this mean?  (By the way, that’s another way of saying, ‘Why?’)  Sure, bad things happen and life isn’t perfect because of sin in the world but God’s got this under control.  He knows what He’s doing and will bring good out of things that go bad.  Believing that without physical proof is called faith.  

God doesn’t mind if we ask Him why certain things are or why they happen but a better question might be, “What can I do to change what’s wrong?” or “How can Your glory be shown in this circumstance?”  Nothing in this life is easy.  It all takes hard work and courage to live day to day.  The best part is that God’s grace comes to us freely with no work on our part.  It strengthens and comforts us and we also have Jesus, who understands our issues and needs, to help us deal with life and make it worthwhile.  There are many things we may never understand but God’s love, grace and mercy are sure things in this world we can depend on regardless.  Do you believe that?  Why?

I’ve said it before and I will continue to do so.  I like to think of the Bible as an action packed movie in that every time you read it (see it), you notice something new that you never saw before.  My college professor called it a ‘contextual river’.  You float down the river in a canoe and every time you turn the bend, you see something that wasn’t there the last time you traveled that way.  Regardless of how you look at it, I get excited about it.  I imagine the reason so many people don’t want to go to church or Bible class is because they imagine the same stories they heard as a child in Sunday School and refuse to look deeper for the real meaning.  The parable of the lost son never fails to amaze me.  I’ve heard it discussed over a dozen times and yet, every time, I learn something new or see it in a way I never did before.  I could write a book on that one parable alone and yet it’s just a story.  It never really happened.  I love parables because they always have such a surprising, deep meaning that you would never see otherwise.  They are so important because they are earthly stories with heavenly meanings.  Let me explain what I mean.

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”  (Luke 13:6-9)

This story is four verses long and seems pretty self explanatory, doesn’t it?  It’s the story of a tree.  Now look deeper:

 “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard”.  Right off the bat, this tree is given advantages.  It is planted in a vineyard which meant it had better soil and was more cared for because it had an owner.  (The ‘man’ is God the Father, by the way.)  The Church of God is His vineyard – For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting (Is. 5:7a).  We, God’s people, are planted at our Baptism.  Moving on… 

“and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.”  The owner came Himself.  He didn’t send a servant to check on it but took a personal interest in what is His.  He expected to see fruit.  God expects fruit from those in His vineyard.  Leaves and flowers do not serve God, it must be fruit; the fruits of the Spirit.  So many people in the world enjoy the privileges of the Gospel but do nothing to honor God and thank Him in response.  Also, the owner did not have above-average expectations.  He just expected some fruit.  

“So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.” He was also not in a hurry because he came year after year for three years.  God does not measure time the way that we do, so in a sense, we could say that He came looking for fruit before the Israelites were placed in captivity; after they came out of captivity; and at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ Himself.  

“Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  The tree enjoyed the Gospel but did not produce any fruit.  Not only that, it cumbered the ground and took up room that other trees might have needed to produce.

“He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.”  The ‘He’ here is the gardener of the vineyard, a.k.a. Jesus.  Christ intercedes for us.  He did not ask that it never be cut down, only to give it more time; enough time to make an effort.  We cannot expect God to wait forever if we have no desire to change.  Just asking for more time is not enough.  An effort must be made to help it along by digging in the dirt to unsettle it (Law) and applying the strength and comfort received from the manure (Gospel) that feeds it.  Both must be used because one prepares for the other.  

“If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”  God’s patience will end one day.  Barren trees will be cut down and thrown into the fires of eternal hell.  It’s not the gardener that will do the cutting but the owner of the vineyard.  On that day, there will be no more chance to bear fruit.

Do you still think it’s just a story about a tree?

Many years ago, I worked for a company that had an employee of the month.  A small article was written on the employee so everyone could get to know them better.  One of the questions was: What is your favorite book?  After a short time, they added (other than the Bible) to the question because that was the general answer everyone gave.  The Bible is not a book though.  It’s bound paper, sure, but it’s God’s Word.  A book is read and you say, “That’s nice”.  But the Bible is studied in order to be understood because God is talking to us in it.  For this reason, it’s OK to write in your Bible, highlight, take notes, anything to help you better understand and remember what you learned.  

Take the following two passages for example: “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” (Romans 3:28) and “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)  WHAT?!?!  If you were just reading this, you wouldn’t know what to believe.  So many people take verses from the Bible out of context to change the meaning to what they want to say.  In order to truly understand, we have to include the verses around it.

Romans 3:19-31 (written by Paul)

Because man is sinful, there are no works that we can do to gain God’s acceptance.  The Jews boasted about the laws that they kept and believed that they were justified by it.  The law that convicts and condemns us can never justify us.  “Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Romans 7:9).  Because of God’s grace alone, Jesus, who knew no sin, made Himself sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Only through Him can we be ‘right’ before God.  Lutherans are taught this from day 1.  A sinner is justified by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) for the sake of Christ alone (solus Christus), a truth revealed to us in Scripture alone (sola Scriptura).  

So what is James talking about?

James 2:14-24

To begin with, we must understand that Paul is speaking of a different kind of ‘works’ than James does, but the same faith.  Paul addresses the Romans that valued themselves because of their works more than they valued the gospel.  They only did good works and obeyed the laws as a showing of their pride and how much ‘faith’ they had.  Works do not justify us before God.  James speaks of works done in obedience to the gospel.  He was dealing with people that claimed to have faith but did not do good works in evidence of it.  The good works should be a result of faith – what we do to show God our gratitude for all He does for us.  Faith that results in works justifies us before men.  Which is more a show of a person’s faith?  Saying, “Someone should do something about the hungry, poor and destitute” or volunteering at a food bank and donating clothing?  

What I’m trying to say is that both statements seem to contradict each other.  Without studying and understanding, we could not put this information to work in our lives.  Don’t open a book.  Open God’s Word. 

One of my favorite TV shows to watch is, “Adam Ruins Everything”.  It’s hosted by Adam Conover and looks at things we thought we knew to be true and turns our beliefs upside-down.  Even if you don’t believe what is said, it still makes you think about the world around you and may inspire some to begin to fix what is broken in our society.  

This reminds me of the misconceptions we are taught as children in the church.  There are several items that I learned as an adult that threw me for a loop because it’s not what I was taught in Sunday School.  I’m not saying we have to change what we teach to children.  Certainly a 3-5 year old would get a better understanding of the story of Jonah if you said whale and not ‘big fish’ or in the story of Adam and Eve you used the term apple and not ‘fruit’.  My argument comes from the fact that when we grow older and have a better understanding, these things are not cleared up.  (Some Sunday School classes might do this but the ones I went to never did.)  Some of the misunderstandings that were not cleared up until I reached adulthood include: Christ was born in the spring and not on Dec. 25th, Jesus was in a house and not in a manger when the wise men showed up, Mary didn’t ride a donkey to Bethlehem but walked.  As you can see, Christmas held the larger amount of misconceptions that I had growing up.  Do knowing these truths now change my faith in any way?  No.  What it does do is make me wonder if there’s anything else I believe that is not true.  

I don’t believe that faith comes overnight.  The Holy Spirit works faith in us as we go through our daily lives with the people we interact with, the things we read and the miracles of God we witness.  But faith needs to grow or it could die and like us, in order to grow, we must be fed or we will die.  Faith is fed through the Word and Sacraments.  When we hear the Word in worship, we may not be able to put exact words to our faith but it is there nevertheless.  

So where is all this coming from and where is it going?  This past week, I found the following ‘poem’ titled, And God said, “No”.  

And God Said No!

I asked God to take away my pride, and God said "NO".

He said it was not for Him to take away, but for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole, and God said "NO".

He said her spirit is whole, her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience, and God said "NO".

He said that patience is a by-product of tribulation,

it isn't granted, it's earned.

I asked God to give me happiness, and God said "NO".

He said He gives blessings, happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me pain, and God said "NO".

He said suffering draws you apart from worldly cares

and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow, and He said "NO".

He said I must grow on my own, but He will prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God to help me love others as much as He loves me,

And God said "Ah, finally you have the idea"!

This poem really bothered me.  It makes our prayers sound like we are the only ones who control our lives and asking God for anything is pointless.  That’s simply not true.  God wants us to come to Him with all of our cares and worries and problems.  I don’t believe God tells us no when we ask for some of the things on the list.  Whenever He does say “No” however, it’s for our own good.  Like many things in our world today, we must not take anything outside of the Bible as fact.  We must feed our faith with the protein and vitamins found in knowledge of the true Word to make it stronger and not cute sayings or poems found on the internet which are nothing but candy.  It may seem to satisfy you but in the long run, it will do you more harm than good.  Like the show, "Adam Ruins Everything", we need to take a look for ourselves at what we believe and think about why we believe it.  Do you believe because God said so or because you saw something cute on the internet?

The season of Advent will be here soon.  Advent is the beginning of the year in the church and begins four Sundays before Christmas.  The word 'advent' means "coming" so it is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ.  The advent wreath is made of five candles; three blue or purple and one pink surrounding one white candle for Christ.  Blue is the color of hope and purple is the color of royalty but also a symbol of repentance so either are used.  

One of my assignments in college was to write a devotion to be used to celebrate the season of advent in the church.  One year I hope to actually do it.

Preparation - I would send out baby shower invitations to each family in the church.  They would invite the members to a brief baby shower for Jesus right after the Sunday service.  Each family would be given a small gift bag (either pink or blue) with one of four gifts inside (a small stone, a small vial of oil, a bit of straw or a small bag of salt).  An advent candle wreath would be set up in front of the group.

Lesson – I begin by explaining that Advent means “coming”.  “We are preparing for the coming of Jesus to the world as a baby.  This season is just as important as Lent.  This event is so big; we must prepare our hearts and minds to receive it.  Please open your gift bags.”  As I light the first blue candle on the Advent wreath, I explain how it represents hope by the gift of salt.  “Salt was very valuable during Jesus’ day.  It not only enhanced the flavor of foods and preserved meat; it was mixed with dung to make it burn hotter, longer.  As believers, God calls us to “mix” with unbelievers in the world to lead them to God.  This gives them HOPE of an eternal life.”  As I light the second blue candle, I explain how we receive peace represented by stone.  I ask for references of stone in the Bible that people remember.  (I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head.)  “Stones meant ‘God’s presence was here’.  People traveling would see a stone altar and know that God had been there.  Jesus started His humanity in a stone trough (Law – He had to come to earth because we are sinful.) and ended it in a stone cave with a stone in the entrance (Gospel – The grave could not hold Him.  His resurrection gives us eternal life.).  We have a sense of PEACE knowing that God is always present in our lives.”  As I light the pink candle of joy, I explain the gift of oil.  “Oil was used for cooking, giving light, caring for wounds and anointing.  Jesus is the Bread of Life (cooking), the Light of the World (light), the Great Physician (healing) – He heals man from the sickness of sin and performed healing miracles, the Anointed One (anointing).  Jesus is everything we need in life and is our only reason for JOY.”  As the final blue candle is lit, I explain the love in the gift of straw.  “Straw was used and then thrown away.  God did not intend for everything to be permanent.  We wither and fade but God’s Word stands forever.  Digging into God’s Word shows us true LOVE.  The rock of our salvation came to a world among things that don’t last just for us.  That’s true love.  We are given time and money that we should make the best use of because they won’t last.  They are gifts that we need to bring others to knowing God’s love for them also.”

Application – “Do you see a need to have Advent services every year?  Will you participate in the hope, peace, joy and love that God shows you every moment of your life?”  We conclude the baby shower with cake and coffee.

In a few weeks, on November 1st, it will be All Saints’ Day.  This is a day set aside to celebrate the saints who have gone before us to heaven.  What does this mean?  We are inheritors of what generations of Christians that went before us, passed on to us; we are temporary caretakers of today’s churches.  The traditional terms for the deceased saints is the “Church Triumphant”, while the believers who are alive today are called the “Church Militant”.  All Saints Day celebrates the connection between the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant.  Since the earliest Christian martyrs, the Church has remembered the saints who have gone on before.  

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine told me that a friend of hers was being abused by her husband.  She advised her friend to light a candle and pray to Margaret the barefooted who is one of the many patron saints of abused wives.  This bothered me.  Not only the fact that someone was being encouraged to pray to a dead person but the fact that my brain didn’t think fast enough to give her intelligent advice.  

People view saints in different ways.  The Catholic Church teaches that saints influence us by their behavior.  We are encouraged to be like them because Christ lives in us like He did in them.  They all had different gifts that they used to God’s glory just like we do today.  I love the illustration I heard of this once…have you ever seen a crystal hanging in a window?  When the white light of the sun shines through it, the rainbow of colors burst out the other side of the crystal.  Each color has its own purpose and use but they come together in the white light of Christ.  

The Catholic faith goes on to teach that the saints intercede on our behalf.  They say the saints pray for us and we should ask them to do so.  This, I don’t agree with because it is nowhere in Scripture.  One of the Bible verses they reference to substantiate their claim is Revelation 5:8.  “And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.”  So from this, they teach that the saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.  In Exodus 30, the Lord describes the use of incense in the sanctuary as being offered with the prayers.  Jesus’ life and work was pleasing incense before His Father and through His intercession, our prayers are acceptable.  “…as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)  Incense was put on the altar along with the bread and wine because the scent would rise up to the heavens just as our prayers do.  Our prayers go to God through Christ, not to the dead to be passed down the line to God.

Scripture does not tell us that saints help us with certain things and it does not say that we should call on them to pray for us.  Praying to anyone other than the true God is putting your faith in a false god.  Scripture says we should “…pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)  A dead person cannot pray for you.  We ask others here on earth that are righteous (right with God) to pray for us.  The prayers of the righteous are powerful because those that are righteous have faith and God lives in them also.

The Bible teaches, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”(1 Timothy 2:5)  The Holy Spirit doesn’t even go to God the Father on our behalf.  Only Jesus.  The Spirit does help us with our prayers however…  “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)  

I once heard a sermon based on Hebrews 11:32-40 that explained three ways to relate to saints.  1. Thank God for their example of faith (v. 39).  By God’s grace, they proclaimed their faith in the face of death.  2. Use their example to strengthen our faith – we have troubles just like they did and Jesus did.  3. We should imitate their faith and virtues.  We must be a witness (example) to our children, grandchildren and future generations.

Those in the faith that have gone on to heaven are happy now in His presence.  We can rejoice that they are there and that we will one day join them when our work here on earth is done.  

I have something that I've been wanting to post for a long time but never had the chance.  This week has been absolute craziness so now's as good a time as any.  I came across these things over the years and they've always fascinated me for some reason.  You may find them interesting as well.  The first two things you learn growing up in the Lutheran church is the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed.  

Lord's Prayer - 

Tradition is a large part of why we pray the Lord’s Prayer in the form that we use. If you look at the Bible, we find the Lord’s Prayer recorded in two places. Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV) “9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And Luke 11:1-4: “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

The King James Bible of 1611 includes what we call the Doxology or closing to the Lord’s Prayer, as we read Matthew 6 again: 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

In most of the more modern Bible translations (from the 20th Century forward) this closing or doxology is not included because it is not in most of the original Greek manuscripts. Now this does not mean that it is not fitting and proper to pray the Lord’s Prayer in the way that we have learned to from childhood. The closing to the Lord’s Prayer is found, almost word for word, in 1 Chronicles 29:11 “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.”(KJV) Thus we can pray the closing to Lord’s Prayer in the way that we have learned. It is fitting and proper because it is indeed God’s Word that praises His holy name.

The Apostles' Creed

Of course, this is not found in the Bible in this format.  The earliest form of the Apostles' Creed obtained its wording from the baptismal creed of the Roman Church.  Centuries later, the wording was changed to make a more accurate statement of our beliefs and to denounce the Docetists and Gnostic beliefs about who Christ is.  It is one of three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church that affirm the Trinity and especially the centrality of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection for believers.

Its essence is completely Biblical and just so that no one can say that a verse is taken out of context, there are 2-3 verses for each section that confirm what we believe and why we believe it.  I got this from a fellow student when I attended Concordia University.

This resource comes from a very old orthodox Lutheran theology book, dating back to the 17th century. It is unknown precisely which book this derives from.

I believe  (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 4:5)

In God  (Deut. 6:4 1 Cor. 8:6)

The Father  (Matthew 7:11; Psalm 89:27)

Almighty  (Genesis 7:1; 2 Cor. 6:18)

Maker of heaven and earth  (Psalm 33:6; John 5:17)

And in Jesus  (Zech 9:9; Matthew 1:21)

Christ  (Daniel 9:24; John 3:34)

His only  (Zechariah 13:7; John 1:14)

Son  (Psalm 2:7; Matthew 16:16)

Our Lord  (Jeremiah 23:6; John 20:28)

Who was conceived  (Luke 1:31; Jeremiah 31:22)

By the Holy Spirit  (Daniel 2:45; Matthew 1:20)

Born  (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:14)

Of the Virgin Mary  (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:43)

Suffered  (Isaiah 50:6; Luke 23:25)

Under Pontius Pilate  (Psalm 2:2; Luke 18:32)

Was crucified  (Psalm 22:17; John 3:14)

Died  (Daniel 9:26; Rom. 5:8)

And was buried  (Isaiah 53:9; John 12:24)

Descended into hell  (Psalm 16:10; Ephesians 4:9)

And on the third day  (Hosea 6:2; Matthew 26:32; Acts 10:40-41)

He rose again from the dead  (Isaiah 63:1; 2 Timothy 2:8)

Ascended into heaven  (Col. 2:15; Psalm 68:19)

And sits at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty  (Psalm 110:1; Mark 16:19)

From thence he will come  (Isaiah 66:15; Acts 1:11)

To judge  (2 Corinthians 5:10; Acts 17:31)

The living and the dead  (Daniel 12:2; 1 Cor. 15:51)

I believe in the Holy Spirit  (Zechariah 12:10; John 15:26)

The holy  (Psalm 45:14; Ephesians 5:26)

Christian Church  (Psalm 22:26; Matthew 16:18)

The communion of saints  (Exodus 19:5; Ephesians 4:3)

The forgiveness of sins  (Psalm 32:1; Acts 10:43)

The resurrection of the body  (Isaiah 66:14; John 5:28)

And the life everlasting  (Psalm 16:11; 1 Peter 1:4)

Amen!  (Psalm 72:19; 2 Cor. 1:20)

Why do we go to church?  

1.  It’s a commandment.  “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”.  What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word but GLADLY hear and learn it.  Attending church to worship God for all He has done is right but Just going to church for a participation trophy doesn’t make you faithful in God’s eyes.   Going to church gladly will change your life so that you also worship Him by serving outside of the church.  Yet, some people still trust in their rituals for security – go to church, check; tithe, check; be baptized, check; etc.  Without faith, all this means nothing.

2.  ‘Right worship’ inside the church goes hand-in-hand with ‘right living’ outside of it.  Do you eat every day?  Yes.  Do you remember every meal?  No.  But those meals nourish your body and keep you going.  Spending one-on-one time with God and partaking in the Lord’s Supper nourishes your spirit and keeps it going.  You may not remember every sermon but the Word has worked in you and you will benefit from it.

3.  Isaiah 58:13-14 – “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  Can you go fishing or hunting or watch football instead of going to church?  Of course.  Some say, “that is my worship, communing with God in nature”.  How much communing do you actually do though?  Do you pray and sing hymns to God and read your Bible in the deer blind?  I didn’t think so.  What you are doing is putting yourself before God.  That’s a no-no.

4.  Going to worship is like getting a glimpse of heaven.  In Revelation 5, we are given a glimpse of the heavenly worship of saints and angels.  All attention is focused on the Lamb at the center of the throne.  They acknowledge His work of redemption.  He is likewise the focus of our worship.  We cannot help but thank Him for the mercy He has shown us and receive His body and blood as He commanded.  The church is like holy ground.  Not the physical location itself but the holiness comes from us coming into the presence of a holy and gracious God that gives us of Himself; His Word and His body and blood.  It’s like nowhere else in this world.  

5.  Some say, “It’s so boring because we say the same thing every time."  For this reason, we participate without thinking about what we’re saying.  Repetition is the mother of learning.  God commanded the Israelites to “impress” His commandments on their children.  That means to continually repeat the words.  Changing the service brings variety but it deprives us of one of the chief ways the church has taught its members for generations.  God Himself is talking to you and the pastor is explaining it in a way that you’ll understand (if you stay awake during the sermon).  If you have some trouble in this area, try what I do.  Take sermon notes.  Listen carefully to what he is saying and write it in a little notebook in your words to help you remember.  You never know when you might want to look back and remember something that was said.

See you in church!

I have to admit that the Lutheran Church is not very big on definitions of words.  We are taught which words to say but it is not always clearly explained what these words mean.  This is surprising considering such a large part of Luther’s Small Catechism explains many things in detail by saying, “What does this mean?”  So, today’s blog is a vocabulary lesson because even though I grew up in the church, I recently learned some of these.

Fear:  This DOES NOT mean to be afraid of God.  Much of the world focuses on the actions of God in the Old Testament…raining down fire and brimstone, etc.  But, that was before Jesus came to earth and paid for our sins with His death and resurrection.  Because of that, God puts all of our sins on Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21; 1 John 1:7) so we do not need to fear God’s wrath or punishment.

So, Susan, what does it mean?  It means to have a healthy reverence or respect for Him.  He is the creator, sustainer and redeemer of all life and deserves respect and worship as such.  If you want a clearer definition of how to fear God, read the book of Proverbs – 1:7, 8:13, 10:27, 14:26-27, 15:16, 28:14.

Bless:  We have no problem understanding how God blesses us but why do we bless Him?  For example, Bless the Lord, O my soul… (Psalm 103).  The book of Psalms is full of David blessing the Lord.  In these cases, the Hebrew word ‘bless’ means ‘to kneel’.  It implies kneeling in worship to God.  We praise, worship and bless Him because He deserves it.  In this way, we show our understanding that He is truly deserving of our worship as our Creator and heavenly Father.  

Faith:  Most people believe they know the meaning of this word but can you put the explanation into words?  It’s not that easy.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)  

What does this mean?  Faith is our connection to God’s action.  

Faith is not just the understanding that God exists.  Even non-Christians know that God exists.  

Faith is not having an understanding of who Jesus Christ is.  Even the demons know who Jesus is.  

Faith is not a human decision.  Faith is a gift that the Holy Spirit works in us that enables us to say, yes.  Faith is knowledge, assent and trust.  Faith involves a relationship.  Faith enables us to believe.  

Faith works because of God’s promise.  The starting place of conversion is unbelief.  We are enemies of God.  Christ had to enter our lives and create faith.  Conversion is the Holy Spirit giving us the gift of faith in Christ and then we cling to the promises of God.  

Parable:  This is one of my favorites.  A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  Picture a bridge between earth and heaven.  On one side, you have things of this earth – plants, animals, crops, etc.  Jesus used these things on earth to tell us what heaven will be like – the other side of the bridge.  That’s for all the visual learners like me.  It will be more wonderful than we could ever imagine but we can get an idea by the images He puts in our minds.  The bridge is the parable that gets us as close to heaven as we can be while we are on earth.

Salutary:  Every Sunday worship service I attend has this said by the pastor… “It is truly good, right and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You…”  Other words for salutary are – beneficial, advantageous, helpful.  Why they don’t use these more common words?  I don’t know.  Salutary is something that is beneficial to you and promotes good health.

Justification and Sanctification:  Because these happen together, I will explain them together but please remember that they are two separate and distinct events.  Why is it important to understand?  This is the central doctrine of the Christian religion…the Old Testament anticipates it, the New Testament goes back and reflects on it and reminds us of what God has done for us in Jesus.  It can be confusing so I’ll explain it in different ways because it’s that important.

1.  As soon as God declares us acceptable as His children because of Christ (justification), the gradual process of becoming what-God-has-declared-us-to-be (sanctification) begins.  Immediately, the Holy Spirit works a change in us through the same means that created our faith: the Gospel.  As a result of this personal justification, good works flow from the Christian’s life (John 15:5).

2.  Imagine you are accused of a crime.  Without a trial, you are found immediately guilty and sent to death row in prison.  They come get you to put you in the electric chair.  Just before they pull the switch, you are told that you can go.  Someone else was brought in and will be executed in your place for your crimes.  That’s justification.  You are amazed.  You want to know who this person is so you can thank them.  You ask, “What do I do now?”  That’s the best definition of sanctification.

3.  Justification has four components: 

                a.  By grace – we don’t deserve it and can’t earn it.  Grace is God’s undeserved mercy and love as seen in the voluntary death of Jesus for our salvation.  (Rom. 3:21-24, Titus 3:7, Acts 15:11, 2 Tim. 1:9)

                b.  Through faith – Human pride wants us to make some contribution to our salvation but all that is asked of us is faith.  We receive God’s grace through faith or we don’t receive it.

                c.  For the sake of Christ – Faith must have an object, we have faith in Christ.  It is not the believing that saves but the One in whom we believe. (Galatians 2:16)

                d.  Apart from works – Grace is the opposite of works.  Faith…not works.  Why repeat this?  Because we keep trying to give ourselves a role in our salvation.  We have nothing to offer God but we keep trying.

Sanctification is the deeds that flow following forgiveness.  (The Law of God first acts as a curb to keep us on the right path; then as a mirror to show us our true, sinful nature.)  This is the third use of the Law as a ‘ruler’.  It turns “rule” into more like guidelines.  A rule is something you must do.  Guidelines are something that you do out of gratitude.

I hope this clears up some of the terms you may have been wondering about as well.

Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible.  It's hilarious.  The word 'Ecclesiastes' is Greek for “preacher” (someone whose job it is to speak God’s Word).  In no uncertain terms, this book of the Bible tells us how stupid we are chasing after things in this world that won't last anyway.  Why work hard just to keep up with the Jones' when you will never be satisfied?  It's better to have occasional peace and tranquility than constantly work toward things that are unfulfilling and all in vain.  

In short, we learn the following:  accept life as it comes; keep yourself busy; try to remain calm in all circumstances; enjoy such things as God sees fit to give you; don’t think too much because ultimate answers remain mysteries.   Today, there is nothing new in life (under the sun).  Even Scrabble is nothing but crosswords – they had crossword puzzles in Latin.  One thing I loved to do as a child was look up 'firsts' in the Bible or sayings to see if they had Biblical origins.

First time someone put a dummy in bed to trick someone - 1 Samuel 19:13

First birthday party - Genesis 40:20

First zombies - Matthew 27:52-53, Zechariah 14:12

Celebrate Thanksgiving - Exodus 23:16b

First witness protection program - Matthew 28:11-15

First money laundering - Matthew 27:3-10

Don't go to bed angry - Ephesians 4:26

Angels among us - Hebrews 13:2

Can't tell the difference between your right hand and your left - Jonah 4:11b

Go to hell in a handbasket - Zechariah 5:7-11

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched - 1 Kings 20:11

The truth will set you free - John 8:32

Out of the mouths of babes - Psalm 8:2

God helps those who help themselves - often quoted but NOT in the Bible

These are just a few.  We will forever have questions and continue to waste time chasing after the answers.  We know what eternity is but we don’t understand it.  Did Adam have a belly button?  How many Wise Men were there?  What was Jesus like as a teenager?  Trying to figure out the impossible is vanity and striving for wind is useless.  Finding cute things in the Bible is a fun distraction for a short while but we shouldn't focus on it or let it lead us away from our true mission in life.  We need to quit wasting our time on things that don't matter and focus on what God wants us to learn...the founder and source of our faith and the only means of our salvation...Jesus. 

Have you ever felt like you've just had it?  Your goose (or turkey) is cooked and there's no hope?  If you're over 50, that song from Hee Haw runs through your head: (sing with me)  Gloom, despair and agony on me.  Deep, dark depression, excessive misery.  If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.  Gloom, despair and agony on me.

Yes, we've all been there.  The problem is that it should just be a quick visit and not an extended vacation stay.  Sometimes that's easier said than done.  I mean, how fast can life change?  One minute you've got the job promotion, light traffic and a new baby in the family.  The next minute you're looking at a totaled car, broken air conditioner and maybe cancer.  Do you remember the wooden rulers with the hole in one end?  Picture that ruler with a nail in the hole, nailing it to the wall.  Sometimes the ruler swings one way (a great life) and sometimes the other way (troubles galore).  It's never a consistent swing though is it?  Sometimes things are going almost too well and you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop or the ruler to swing the other way.  Then things go bad and you say, "It has to get better soon."  All too often we focus on the swing in the ruler when our attention should be on the fixed nail above us.  The nail that was driven into Jesus’ body on the cross.  It never moves or changes.  God has planned out each of our lives and has made each of us unique from our life’s swings to our fingertips.  We are special and no matter which direction our life swings, we can always look up to Christ and know that He will be there.  Hebrews 12:1-3 tells us:  "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." 

One of my professors in college loved to refer to the Bible as the Contextual River.  As you read through the Bible, you picture yourself floating down the river with its twists and turns.  You can travel the same part of a river every day and still see something new that you didn't see before.  Around every bend is a surprise that you didn't see coming.  Our lives are like that as well.  It's a familiar river in that we have a continuous pattern of our sin, God's Judgment and God's grace; sin, judgment, grace, over and over again.  It also has unexpected twists and turns.  You see them all the time in the Bible because it reads like a storybook.  Joseph was sold into slavery and then BOOM!, he became part of Pharaoh's household and then BOOM!, he was falsely accused of rape.  Didn't see that coming, did you?   Jacob worked for Laban for 7 years and then BOOM!, he got stuck with the ugly sister.  Jael offered her husband's ally a safe haven and then BOOM!, drove a tent peg through his head.  Do you see the river?  The more often you travel it, the more you see things that you missed before.  That's why I enjoy Bible study so much.  You never know what new thing you'll find.  Even if it's a story you've heard dozens of times, I promise you, there's more to learn about it.  Focusing on that helps me more often than not get through the swing of the ruler.  I strongly recommend it.

Since I was a child, I was taught that Jesus is the Lamb of God; the sacrificial lamb that had to die to take away the sins of the world.  Got it.  I was also taught that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  The shepherd who takes care of the sheep (us); who calls us by name; we are His; He cares for our every need.  Check.  I never questioned the logic behind these two contradicting statements.  How could one person be a lamb and a shepherd?  Through Bible study, I realized recently that Jesus as the lamb shows His 100% humanity; as the shepherd, it shows His 100% divinity.  He is 100% true man and 100% true God.  Now, that math doesn’t work for a lot of people.  Some say He’s 100% God and not man; others that He was 100% man and not God; still others take it a step further and say He is 100% God and 50% man or 50% God and 100% man.  It can be very confusing if you make it so.

The Bible spells it out over and over:  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9); “…the Son of God has come and given us understanding…He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20); the list goes on and on.  Jesus is 100% God.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…glory as of the only Son from the Father…” (John 1:14); “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit…” (1 Timothy 3:16); “…every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2); and on and on.  Jesus is 100% man.

Now you say, where is she going with this?  Well, the other week at Bible study, I told Pastor Red about my revelation; that I just realized the evidence of His humanity and divinity represented by the form of the Shepherd and the Lamb.  He just stared at me as if to say, “I can’t believe you didn’t know that before.”  To be honest, I felt a little embarrassed.  I mean, he and I have been through a lot over the years.  He has been a big part of my spiritual growth.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I realize I have nothing to be embarrassed about, nor should I be gun-shy to mention things I learn in the future.  After all, we all learn at different rates and start our faith journey at different times in our lives.  

This really hit home for me yesterday.  I saw a friend of mine who told me she was going to start going to church.  Her husband had received a Bible and she started reading it.  She got excited about what she read and asked me if I knew that Adam had a son, Seth, when he was 130 years old.  I told her I knew that and it was not unusual because people back then lived a lot longer than we do today.  They had to populate the earth after all.  I told her Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived because he was 969 years old when he died and didn’t even die of old age; he died in the flood.  She freaked and said, “He was a real person?!”  I assured her that he was.  This encounter was exciting for me because I could see the excitement she had for learning and I wanted to be a part of it with her.   Seeing other people excited about learning helps fuel my excitement for learning.  I believe we all need to work together in this because the stronger our faith, the more we see of God and the more we see, the easier it is to share Him with others.  One day it will be too late to get started so we shouldn’t waste any time.  Right now, we need to learn more than we already know and if we don’t know Him at all, right now is the time to start learning.  Let’s go!!

Growing up in the church, you hear a lot of terminology that you don't hear anywhere else.  The one word that always sent a chill down my spine was 'evangelism'.  What?!  Go up to a stranger and tell them about Jesus?  Are you nuts?!  I can't even start up a conversation about the weather with someone I don't know and I have to tell them about Jesus?  The horror!  

My husband and I are members of Grace Lutheran Church in Victoria.  Last Sunday, Pastor Aschenbeck had a sermon on this very topic.  He explained that teaching someone about Jesus was called catechizing while evangelism was telling someone what Jesus has done for you.  50+ years old and that's the first time it was explained to me that way.  Well, I can certainly tell what Jesus has done for me.  I'm especially excited when I see the ways that He works through me to help others and don't mind sharing.  

While working at the last job I had in Houston, the CFO went to lunch one day and saw a family begging for food in front of a grocery store.  He went to a nearby fast food chicken place and got a big bag of food for them.  By the time he returned to the store, they were gone without a trace.  He brought the food back to the office and gave it to me for my family.  On the way home, I was stopped at a light, 5 blocks from my house, when I saw a woman walking between the cars with a sign that her family was hungry.  I handed her the bag of chicken and told her, "God bless you".  She was very grateful.  I have to say that I'd been through that intersection thousands of times in over 30 years and this was the first time I'd seen someone asking for food...and she just happened to be on the side of the intersection I was stopped in.  Coincidence?  I don't think so. 

One night, my husband and I were at one of our favorite restaurants and throughout the meal, I couldn't stop looking at this couple a few tables over.  They were your average couple but I just couldn't stop staring at her skin.  As we left, we passed their table and I told her, "I'm sorry, I never do this, but I have to tell you that you have the most beautiful skin I've ever seen."  She was very surprised and very pleased.  Even though it's nice to compliment someone, even a stranger, it's something I very rarely do, if ever.  I have to believe that she needed to hear that for some reason so God sent me to her.  There's no other explanation in my mind.

And it's not just people.  One morning on my stop-and-go commute in Houston freeway traffic, I caught a glimpse of a tiny, black kitten.  Someone had thrown it away on the freeway in hopes that it would get run over.  Before I took the next breath, I had the car in park, flashers on, seat belt undone and I was out the door and running toward the car in front of me yelling at the women driving it to "DON'T MOVE!!".  I dove under her car in my dress clothes and grabbed the leg of the little guy and literally pulled him out from underneath the car.  I cradled him in my arms, walked back to my car, put it in drive and went on to work.  I'm highly allergic to cats!!  Regardless, I fully believe that God used me to save that little guy for some reason.  (FYI - a co-worker took him home to her daughters and named him 'Freeway')

It's not always about someone else either.  Sometimes, God talks to me personally.  (In reality, I'm sure He does all the time but this time I was actually listening.)  One night while driving home from work, I was extremely stressed.  Between the job and the kids and commitments, I was maxed out and headed for a breakdown.  I turned into my subdivision and saw a turtle crossing the road.  I parked the car so no one would hit him and got out and walked over to him.  I just watched as he made it to the other side.  He strained his neck up to see over the curb in front of him at the grass, realized he had no way up there and moved down the curb about a foot.  He stopped and looked up at the grass again.  I had to laugh.  I could seriously hear God telling me, 'See?  You think you're the only one with problems?  I sent you here to help him and I can help you too."  I picked the little guy up and put him in the grass where he promptly headed off for a pool of water further on.  I went home with a light heart and to this day, turtles are my favorite (dogs a close second).  

But I'm not the only person these kinds of things happen to.  I believe God does things like this for everyone but we're too busy and noisy to see and hear Him.  I would love to hear your stories about how God used you.  It would be so inspirational to set up a page just for stories like this.  Please sign my guestbook if you have a tale to tell so we can evangelize to the world!  Yes, EVANGELISM!!

I’ve seen a lot of movies lately.  Most of them deal with teenagers or horror (fear).  The two go together very easily as anyone that has ever had teenagers with a new driver’s license can attest to.  Will they get home safe?  Our imaginations run particularly wild with that one.  I have to admit that I never had that fear when my kids were out.  I went to sleep just fine.  After much prayer, I realized that my worrying would not change anything.  If anything did happen, I’d find out soon enough and needed to be rested enough to deal with it.  I was blessed because nothing ever did happened and my heart goes out to those parents that can’t say that. 

I have other fears though.  Many times these fears control our lives but the Bible says, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).  That’s hard to do because we love to focus on the negative.  We expect it.  The answer?  Prayer, prayer, prayer.  Again, God tells us, “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).  That’s a good one to remember because focusing on our fears and constantly going over past failures can trap us in the past so we don’t see our future.  If God is in our lives, we have a future with our wonderful teenagers.  Letting go of past failures doesn’t sound that difficult but I’ve personally been working on that one for over 40 years now.  We all have things to work on I guess.

On that note, I have to quote Jeff Allen again.  (I know I do that a lot but he’s really funny.)  He says, “I strongly believe that teenagers are God’s revenge against mankind.  God said, ‘Let’s see how you like creating someone in your own image that denies your existence.’  I’ve looked and nowhere in the Bible does it say how old Satan was when he rebelled against God.  My guess would be 15.”  It’s hard to argue with logic like that.  As I told my daughter today, the mother’s curse works and you will one day see the fruits of it, I promise.  

Churches are not built as regular buildings because the design is a reflection of what you believe.  Many churches were built in the shape of a cross because it is the chief symbol of our faith.  

Growing up in Immanuel Lutheran Church in Giddings, TX, I would often stare at the ceiling and wonder why it was built that way.  It had rows of wooden planks that go up to a point.  I had seen many churches with a similar style but never understood why it was used for the sanctuary or nave.  I found out that the term nave is from the Latin navis, meaning ‘ship’ and sanctuary means a place of safety or protection.  There was my answer.  Now that I know the reason, I now look for it in every church that I go to and always marvel at the beauty of it.  If you didn’t know, it’s designed that way to resemble the bottom of a ship, also known as the keel.  The ship is an ancient Christian symbol but only partly because the mast forms a cross.  It began with the ark of Noah and continues on through the New Testament when Jesus saved the disciples on a boat in stormy seas.  Likewise, the church goes through the years as if on a boat with stormy seas of worldly cares, disbelief, persecution, etc. while providing protection to the human souls inside.  “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.”  (Haggai 1:8)  It is inside here that we are protected from the cares of the world for a little while.  It is in here with others that share our faith that we can be refreshed and receive Jesus through the Word and Sacraments.  We are reminded that no matter what life throws at us, we can receive peace here to strengthen us for the outside world.  It is here that we batten down the hatches to prepare for bad weather and squalls ahead.  When we look up to God, we are reminded of our pilgrimage as God transports the faithful through the rough seas of this world to our heavenly home.  Come aboard!  Permission granted.

Last week didn’t have a blog.  I tried to come up with something; I really did, but drew a blank.  That fact has convinced me more than ever that it’s not me writing these because I’m rarely at a loss for words.  I only write if I’m feeling very strongly about something that God puts on my heart.  This week it’s a matter of your point of view.  We all have a different point of view depending on the topic or what we’re seeing.  Men vs. women, student vs. teacher, child vs. parent.  For example, Jeff Allen tells a story of his son pouring milk on the cat.  When asked why he did it, the son explained that the cat was thirsty and liked to lick himself.  It made perfect sense from the child’s point of view.  Again, why do dogs go after postal workers?  From the dog’s point of view, here is a person that tries every day to get into the house but the master never lets them in, therefore, they must be an undesirable person and the dog does their part to keep the intruder away.  Surprisingly enough, my favorite M*A*S*H episode is called “Point of View” (Season 7, Episode 10) where the entire show is from the point of view of the wounded soldier from the time right before he’s wounded up until he’s put on a bus to be shipped back home.  In “Dead Poets Society”, Robin Williams encourages his students to stand on his desk to remind them to see things from a different point of view.  The list goes on.

It’s difficult to remember to see someone else’s point of view but it’s very important that we always try.  So many conflicts would be avoided if we could communicate better instead of jumping to conclusions with our imagination and taking things the wrong way.  (Here’s the part where I need to work on practicing what I preach.  I’m working on it…with about a dozen other things.  Let’s just say it’s on the list.)  Whenever my husband says something that upsets me, I try to remember to say, “Say that another way” or “What I heard you say was ….”.  Sometimes the simple act of re-wording can save a lot of aggravation.  If my family says something that rubs me the wrong way, I try to focus not on the words, but the understanding and love behind those words.  More than likely, it was my brain that read something into it that wasn't there.  Everyone says the wrong thing from time to time.  I, for one, appreciate it when my family can ignore when I say something stupid and move on.

Most of the time, I believe the conflicts come from not having all of the information.  That’s another reason I’m currently working on Bible Study #3.  We see daily life all around us but usually don’t look at it from God’s point of view.  He’s got a point of view for everything that we could never fully understand because we don't have the mind of God.  What we do have is a mind that needs God.  It can be difficult sometimes trying to understand what He’s telling us.  Sometimes we (present company included) make it more difficult than it needs to be and sometimes it just seems too good to be true.  That’s when we need the church, pastors and Bible Studies to “say that another way”.  We need to never stop learning.  The more you know, the more you should want to know.  And that’s my point of view.

 “It’s not my fault!”  People have been saying that since they learned how to talk.  I tend to go to the other extreme.  I’m not only the first to admit when I’ve done something wrong, I claim to do everything wrong.  Everything that has ever gone wrong is my fault.  This hit home for me when I saw a video last week titled, “When God Ran”.  I’d never heard that song by Phillips, Craig and Dean before.  If you’re not familiar with it either, here’s the YouTube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Akv2V5fNdk

What an amazing message.  God, the creator of the whole universe and Lord of all, lowers himself to run to me as messed up as I am.

So whose fault is it?  Eve?  Many people love to blame her because she committed the first sin by lying.  Then she sinned by wishing to be like God and THEN she sinned by taking the fruit.  People only tend to focus on the fruit.  Some say, “Oh, but it wasn’t her fault because God didn’t tell her to not eat from that tree; He only told Adam.”  It doesn’t matter because she sinned before any of that even happened.  Besides, did you ever wonder why Eve took the fruit first but sin came into the world through one man?  (Romans 5:12) God made Adam first and put him in charge over all creation.  God let Adam name all of the animals, told him which trees he could and could not eat from and why, and called for Adam, not Eve, when He went walking in the garden.  Because he was in charge, Adam was responsible for the actions of his wife, Eve.  

So, is it fair that Adam is blamed for bringing sin into the world?  Our human reasoning says it’s not fair but as the responsible party, it is.  Is it fair that Jesus had to live as one of us and be treated so badly because we sin?  No.  But that’s the way it had to be.  Sin must be paid for.  Is it my fault personally that sin is in the world?  No.  Does it really matter whose fault it is?  No.  Are the sins that I do my fault?  Yes.  

We are all born in sin and so are sinful but we have the choice as to how we live our sinful lives.  The best we can do is try hard to not sin and repent when we do mess up.  Also, let’s not blame Adam or Eve.  Blame doesn’t accomplish anything.  God knows who’s responsible and the punishment has already been dealt and paid for.  Let’s praise Him for His mercy and move on.

I believe that there is no crueler, inhuman, unjust and evil mechanical device in the world than the bathroom scale.  I’ve often referred to it as ‘evil’ and ‘the devil’.  Why?  Because I am among the millions that fight the battle of the muffin top.  You’ve seen those muffins, right?  Once the batter gets over the top of the cupcake pan, it just SPREADS out.  Anyway, it’s not the devil because Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44) and the number on that scale is truth.  That’s what you get for having ice cream before bed each night and ding dongs for breakfast.  We prefer to lie to ourselves.  We can reason out anything.  Case in point, the other night on TV, I saw a woman say she only drinks water, juice and coffee and eats 2-3 meals a day with no snacking.  She weighed 689 pounds.  Personally, I prefer to go along with the humor of Jeff Allen.  He reminds us that those numbers on a scale gradually go up to our correct weight but we can jump off at any time.  

In reality however, that final number is pure law.  The results of our actions stare us right in the face.  The Bible tells us that the purpose of the Law is to serve as a CURB (1 Timothy 1:9-11) to keep us on the right path because it is for the lawless and disobedient; as a MIRROR (Romans 7:7) to show us as sinners because without the Law, we would not know we are sinners; and as a RULER (Psalm 119:9) to guide us how to live through the Word.  That’s all well and true but be honest, when you look in a mirror, do you see a sinner or do you see if there’s anything in your teeth or wonder how to manage that cow lick on the back of your head?  On a bathroom scale, we have no choice but to see ourselves as we truly are.  We are sinners (Romans 3:10).  That’s why I think a bathroom scale should be added to the curb, mirror and ruler.  It’s 'in-your-face' law.  It’s 'red and blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror' law.  

The good part is that God’s law also promises long, prosperous lives (Deuteronomy 6:24-25).  (This is the Star Trek part of the Bible).  We need both, the Law and the Gospel.  The law to show us our wrong and the gospel to remind us of God’s promise that we are chosen, redeemed and accepted as His adopted sons.  All this because of the work of Christ.  Belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior will allow the Holy Spirit to work good in you despite the law that we cannot keep on our own.  Just as each road is two-way, so is the scale.  If those numbers go up, they can also come down.  Praise God!

It's an understatement to say that people love to celebrate.  Personally, I enjoy a good green beer on St. Patrick's Day but being German, my heart longs for Oktoberfest.  One day isn't enough though.  I'm also a Texan (Go Texan Day); I'm a mother and grandmother (they each have their days); I'm not left handed (my brother and daughter get that day); I'm a secretary (you get a day for any occupation and ); the list goes on.  No matter what your nationality, occupation or station in life, you have your day.  But let's not stop there.  Let's take a day to appreciate everything this world has to offer.  Do you like animals?  Each animal has their appreciation day (chicken, cow, squirrel, bald eagle, frog, penguin, spider, polar bears, etc. and even dragons).  What about food?  There's a day to celebrate corned beef and cabbage, pickles, peanut butter, potato chips, waffles, etc. and my personal favorite "National eat ice cream for breakfast day" (first Saturday in Feb.).  There are days to get stuff done: clean out your computer day; clean out a junk drawer day, etc.  'Rubber Eraser Day', 'Measure Your Feet Day' and 'Hairstyle Appreciation Day' kind of push my limits though.  Proof that you can go too far with anything.

Along this line, every faith has their holidays as well.  No matter what I am, first and foremost, I'm a Christian.  Thinking about Christmas, I recall how upset many pastors get because the Wise Men are most often shown around the manger scene.  It makes it look as though they came that night as well even though they actually came much later.  That used to bother me as well but now I look at it a different way.  Pastor Red told me that Christmas Day was for the Jews.  Jesus came first for them.  The Wise Men were Gentiles and so when we celebrate their coming to honor Christ on Epiphany, that's the Gentile's Christmas.  Makes sense.  But do we celebrate Epiphany outside of church?  I don't know anyone that does.  About the only celebrating going on is taking down of the Christmas tree and decorations and getting the house looking normal again.  Jesus came for everyone so everyone is represented in the manger scene: shepherds (lowly Jews) and Gentiles.  We're all celebrating His incarnation because He became one of us.  If you get technical about it, He wasn't born on Dec. 25th anyway (spoiler alert).  If He was, I could see us celebrating Epiphany differently.  It's just a day that we set aside to celebrate the event so let's celebrate everyone the event was for.  Right?

After all, we don't celebrate His death and resurrection on a specific date.  It's calculated every year as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.  Just try to find that in the Bible.  I dare you.  LOL  The date is not specific but the event is.  Let's focus on what's really important this Lenten season and celebrate every day who we really are: God's children.

I love this idea but always thought of it as appropriate when going through hard times.  As I look back, I see that it can be used for anything and everything that happens to you even if you never asked.  For example, I never asked God to help me write something that would be published.  I never dreamed anything like that would happen to me.  All things considered, though, it was pretty cool.

I started with a passion to learn more about the Bible.  The church I had been going to for about 20 years changed in a way I felt was wrong so we changed our membership to Concordia Lutheran Church in Houston.   When Pastor Red asked for someone to lead another Bible Class, my hand went up.  WHAT??!!?!  Scared to death, I started leading a Bible study each Sunday morning.  I was Spirit-driven with a need to learn more so I looked into taking online classes at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin.  

Problem: we couldn't afford the classes.  God's answer: our daughter finished college early so we had extra money that had to go to schooling but our son's college was paid for and we had no more kids.  Problem: I couldn't get off of work to fly to Wisconsin for the orientation because another co-worker was already scheduled to be off.  God's answer: their plans changed so I could take the time off from work.  More problems came up but each time, God provided a way.  It seemed that God was altering other people's lives so that my path would be clear.  After classes were over, I taught with more confidence on Sundays.  I led a study on the movie, "Avatar" put out by CPH.  It was enjoyable but too long.  I thought, "I can do that".  So I did.  The result turned out to be "Watching Movies with Christian Eyes".  That mission accomplished, I needed something else to do.  Pastor Red suggested an idea to me for a Bible Study that he'd never seen done before.  Challenge accepted.....