“How Much is Enough?”

As many of you know, our church has been involved in a process to gather information and to hear opinions about the starting of a Lutheran school at our church, called the Genesis Project. The process is now finished and we will have our final report in January.

One question that has come up because of and throughout this study, especially in my own mind, is the question, “How much knowledge of the Scriptures is enough?” Well, that’s a trick question, and an incomplete one at that.

First of all I have to ask, enough for what? If we are speaking of enough for salvation, one need look no further than one verse, or even one word, in the Bible, the verse John 3:16, the word Jesus. At the same time, we need to know what to believe about this guy Jesus. How many of you do?

On the other hand, if we are to answer that question in terms of enough to know about God, to learn his will for lives, or to grow in our faith and life, the answer is a little different. The Bible tells us all that we need to know about God. It tells us his will for our lives. It gives us the means by which we are able to grow in our faith and our life. In this case, there is never enough of learning the Scriptures.

On the first hand, we have everything we need for eternal life in the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the other hand, if that is all we ever learn throughout our lives, we will never grow from an infant faith. The writer of the Hebrews chastises his readers in this when he says in chapter 5:12 “In fact, though by this time some of you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Unfortunately, as human nature shows very clearly, most people want the bare minimum. They want to know what they need and nothing more, to keep their heads above water, to keep from going to the hot place. Beyond that, interest seems to decline rapidly.

Did you know that the Scriptures clearly tell us how we should have voted on Amendment 2 this past Tuesday? Did you know that there are diet secrets in the Scriptures? Did you know that there are very clear and good instructions on how to have a happy marriage in the Bible? Did you know that there are tons of good, nonfiction, stories to read for entertainment in the Bible, take the book of Esther for instance? I bet there are a few of you reading this today who didn’t even know there was a book of Esther. Did you know that you can teach reading, writing, and arithmetic through and with the Scriptures? I don’t know about advanced calculus, but I think you get the idea.

The Scriptures are God’s Word to us. God didn’t simply dictate to the Apostle’s and prophets what they were to write, he put his Words in their hearts and wrote it on their minds.

Shouldn’t we want to know as much as we can about them and learn as much as we can from them? Shouldn’t we want to make it the basis for our life and not simply use it for one or two things and then put it on the shelf? We should be hungering and thirsting for God’s Word. We should be people who just can’t get enough of it, who can’t put it down.

Instead our lives are full of so many meaningless things. I say our, because I too often forget how important and useful the Scriptures are for me and for my life. I forget what Paul says to Timothy in II Timothy 3:14-16, where he says, “But as for you , continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We forge the simple reality that if we want to know the truth we need to go where the truth is found.

I urge you, then, to go to that book shelf of yours and get that old Bible off the shelf. Don’t just start reading it. Pray beforehand. Have a study guide with you. Most importantly though, read it always knowing that it is all about Jesus Christ, from beginning to end. The whole Scriptures center around Christ. In other words read it all with Christ in mind.

I think I have mentioned before that I have several different Bibles for several different purposes. I have a daily Bible that I use for devotions. It goes through the whole Bible in one year. I have used it for the past ten years in a row. I also have a study Bible with many notes in it. I use that to prepare sermons and Bible studies. I also have several different translations so that I can sometimes check to see if what one translation says is different than the version I am reading. I also have a Greek New Testament and a Hebrew Old Testament so that I am able to go through things in the original texts and see how things were originally expressed.

I have read through the Bible many times. I have studied it for the last 33 years, from three years old on. I went to schools where the Bible was taught every day. Still, every time I read God’s Word I learn something new about the world, about him, and about my own life. It has definitely made me “wise for salvation.”

So how much is enough? The answer: there is no such thing as enough learning of the Scriptures. I for one will be reading and learning from it till the day I die, at which time I will see God face to face and will finally know it fully and completely!

Won’t you join me in renewing your zeal for the Scriptures? Go to your church’s Bible studies. Start a Bible study of your own. Ask your pastor to help you study it, or at least get you started on your own. Offer suggestions for new and inventive ways to do group and individual Bible studies. It’s just like anything else, you just have to start doing it and keep it going!

God’s blessings as you get back into God’s Word!

One of the hardest lessons that I have had to learn as a pastor is that you can't preach or teach someone into heaven or into a real relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What I mean is that I could have the most inspiring sermon in the world but if the ears aren't open and the heart is not ready to hear and accept the word of God, nothing is going to happen. As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

I have learned this lesson the hard way with my 3- and 5-year-old children as well. I can make them look at me when I am telling them something, I can tell them something 15 different times, but in the end it is up to them to take what I say to them to heart and actually do what I say. Take Karin's and my attempts to potty train our three year old Gus for example. We tell him over and over again that big kids go potty on the potty. We give him rewards when he does go. We scold him when he doesn't. We beg him, prod him, and push him, but still in his rebellious nature, he refuses to do what we ask him to do.

You would think that the good news that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for you and for me would be an easy thing to hear and accept, and that once a person hears this good news that their lives would change and they would be ignited for the Lord. You would think that, but thinking something is going to happen and seeing it happen are often two different things.

Why should I expect anything else? Did Jesus himself always reach the hearts and minds of his hearers? He even instructed his disciples to shake the dust off their feet at the house or the community of those who didn't hear what they had to say. The people at one point were so angry at what Jesus had to say that they picked up stones to stone him to death. They even crucified him on the cross because of their hardened hearts. If this was the case with Jesus, should I expect that I have such amazing power and such a way with words that I am going to convert everyone I meet or turn everyone, to whom I preach and teach, into raving evangelists and people who are on fire for the Lord? I would have to humbly say, certainly not.

Maybe you have been witnessing to your next door neighbor for months. Sure he listens to you, and has even said that he would be in church a time or two. Yet, when Sunday rolls around, they are not in the pew with you. You finally figure out that he is just being polite so that he doesn't turn you away from being a good neighbor to him.

Yet, before you and I go and judge our hearers, maybe we should first judge ourselves. For as little as people have not listened to us, so have we not listened to God, our heavenly Father, even less. If we only condemn the people who fail to listen to our message, without condemning ourselves and our own failure to listen to and do God's will, we are only deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Oftentimes ministry is a frustrating job. That is one major reason why so many pastors suffer from burn out and also why it is so hard for all of us to continue to share the good news with those around us. It is frustrating because we know what our hearers need, but it isn't our job to make them take it. It's not like giving a dog medicine where you can wrap the pill in a piece of cheese or a hotdog. A person must accept the good news at face value for what it is. It should be an easy pill to swallow, but because of our totally lost and condemned state it isn't.

At the same time, in the midst of the many heartaches and frustrations in sharing the Gospel there is much joy, not only because there are those rare times when someone hears and believes, but also because every time you share the Gospel, your own ears are hearing it again too. The Holy Spirit, through your own witness, is working on your heart and life. In essence, there is grace, mercy, and peace simply in just getting the message of God's saving work through his Son Jesus Christ out to the world. It is as much for the messenger as it is for those to whom the message is given.

In the end, as hard as it may be to do, we must give up our control to the Holy Spirit, for it is he who brings life and immortality to life. It is he who works that saving faith in a person. It is he who breathes life into a lost and condemned sinner. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the Word work in a person's heart and mind. It is simply our job as Christians to get the message of salvation out to the world.

It is this knowledge and that gives us comfort and peace. To know that I am not responsible for whether a person goes to heaven or hell takes a lot of the pressure off of me. To know that the best I can do is get the message of salvation out to the people is comforting, because I know that I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make him drink. God bless your witness of Him and His salvation.

“But God”, “Then God”, “Yet God”; have you ever heard these words spoken or read these words anywhere? I have heard them many times, not by themselves mind you, but always in the middle of a sentence or paragraph that goes something like this: “I was in deep trouble, I didn’t know where to turn, I was penniless and my children needed food, so I prayed to God to help me and THEN GOD did something miraculous. He provided for my needs in ways that I would have never imagined. I was fed and clothed.

How about this one? “I had been dating for a quite a long time and nothing seemed to be working out. I was getting frustrated and tired of it so I quit, I told the Lord, ‘If you want me to have a wife you are going to have to bring her to me.’ Not two nights later I went out with some friends to just listen to some music and relax and low and behold guess what, just THEN GOD gave her to me.”

Here’s another one. “I was laying in the gutter stoned out of my mind. All I wanted to do was die. I had given up. I was worthless. My life meant nothing to anyone. I was about to run out into the street and end my life. BUT GOD had other plans. Just then a man came up to me, helped me to my feet, and asked me if I needed any help.” He brought me to a shelter, got me into a treatment center and befriended me for as long as I needed.” Go really helped me out there.”

The stories go on and on. These are stories of God’s help, stories of God doing exactly what he promised to do if we would only ask. Why is it then that we don’t ask? Why are we so proud as to not ask God for help? Why do we fail to see all of those times when we needed help and God very plainly gave it to us?

The biggest story is the one that all of us, if we call ourselves Christians, have gone through time and time again, most of the time simply taking God’s help for granted as though if we ask for his help he is duty bound to give it to us. This help comes in the form of confession and forgiveness. It starts off with us realizing how sinful we really are and how much we need Jesus in our lives. This realization may come about in a way that can’t be missed, when a loved one reprimands us or shows their disapproval of the sins we have committed. It may come in the gentle whisper or the loud shout of our conscience convicting us of that sin we keep doing even though no one else even knows about it. Whatever it might be, that realization of sin is a gift from God in itself. For if we hadn’t known our sinfulness we wouldn’t have known our need for a Savior. Still God provides the law, written in His Word, and also written on our hearts to convict us and condemn us.

The second part is the forgiveness. This is the greatest gift of all. If it were not for forgiveness, a complete removal of sin from us by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross, we would be lost and condemned forever. I can’t think of anything more important to us than this forgiveness. I don’t know of anything more crucial in life and for life than the gift of forgiveness. The best part is, all we have to do is ask.

That is also the worst part. For in the sins of pride and self importance people are unwilling to ask for forgiveness. People would rather die forever in hell than face up their sinful lives, get down on their knees in humility, and ask the Lord for forgiveness. I hurt for these people. I yearn for these people to know the peace and joy that I know. I long for these people to, as the Lord says, “turn from their sins so that they may live.”

My prayer for you all who are reading this today is that you let go of your pride and your self importance. My prayer is that you realize your sin, your inability to get rid of that sin yourself, and your total dependence upon God for all things. My prayer is that you turn to your God in all humility and dependence and ask him for the forgiveness and peace that you so desperately need so that you may be saved and may live out your days on this earth in that peace that goes above and beyond all human understanding! God bless you and give you the will and the way to Him forever! Amen!

Today I want to talk about wisdom. The way the Scriptures talk about wisdom is that there are two kinds of wisdom. There is the wisdom of the world, which is the one that is really not true wisdom, and then there is the wisdom of the Lord.

The difference is in where the wisdom comes from and on what that wisdom is based. The first is based on one's own experience and one's own mind. It looks at the world and tries to figure things out on its own. It uses reason and logic to work things out. It will look to certain people that it deems worthy of respect and honor.

For example, a person who wants to be wise about money and uses the wisdom off the world, will look to someone like Donald Trump or Bill Gates. A person who wants wisdom on how to raise children will look to someone who has either done a good job at raising their own children or someone who has written a book on the subject. A person who wants wisdom concerning how the world began will look at secular science textbooks and consult evolutionists.

The second one will look to the world for wisdom, but only through the eyes of Scripture. For instance, I might read a book by Dr. Phil on how to lose weight, but if Dr. Phil tells me to go into a trance and pray to Buddha or to take illegal drugs, I will know not to follow his worldly wisdom. If I want to earn a living through investing in real estate, Donald Trump might be just the right guy to learn from, yet I am not going to use his advice if he tells me to stab my neighbor in the back or cheat in some way.

The very simple premise here is that if you are going to have true wisdom it has to come from the right source. King Solomon is still considered to be one of the wisest and most well known kings.

In today's world he would be the richest and most successful person in the world. From where did he get his wisdom? Did he pick it up on his own? Did he learn it from someone who wrote a book on the subject? No. He got his wisdom from God. When contemplating his kingship, God came to him and told him to ask for anything he wanted. He could have asked for all the riches of the world. He could have asked for fame and power. Instead, he asked the Lord to give him the wisdom he needed to govern the Israelites in a God pleasing manner. Still today the legend of his wisdom surpasses everyone else.

In Solomon's book to us, Proverbs, he tells us all about true wisdom. One of my favorite verse in al of Scripture is Proverbs 9:10 where Solomon tells us that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." I love this verse because it sums up in one sentence how we are to gain wisdom.

Some of the wisest people I have known were not wise by human standards. By that I mean that they didn't have all the money in the world, they weren't the most intelligent, or the fastest, or the coolest, they were and still are those who fear the Lord. They took the Lord seriously. They took the Lord at His Word. They had a holy fear that could be seen in the way they acted, how they gave to the Lord, and especially in how they loved the Lord by loving the people around them. They studied the Scriptures as much as they could. They worshiped the Lord as much as they were able. They totally sought the Lord and His holy will in very part of their lives.

The best part of these holy people is that they were able to see that they were not perfect but that they truly needed a Savior. They knew that, if it were up to them, they would be lost and condemned forever. Therefore, when they realize their sins they are able to go before Almighty God with all humility and ask for forgiveness. Then, in their wisdom, because they know what the Lord has done through his Son Jesus Christ, they are able to live in peace knowing that their sins are forgiven.

Are you following God's wisdom or are you aimlessly and hopelessly following the wisdom of the world? Do you earnestly and honestly want to have true wisdom or do you just want the kind of wisdom that suits you and your fancies? Remember again and once for all what the wisest man of all time said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Study God's Word. Know the truth of the Scriptures. Keep the Word of God as your only rule and norm for faith and life and you will get the wisdom of the Lord.

One of the major reasons people don't like going to church or have even quit going to church is because the church seems to always be asking for money.

"All they want is my money", is often a phrase heard from a disgruntled church member. "Why can't I just go and not have to put an offering in the plate?"

What I want to say to them and what I often do say to them are two different things. What I usually say is something like, "I don't care how much you give to church, all I want is to see you there hearing the Word and receiving His blessings." This is a truthful statement and one that I will continue to use when confronted with this situation so as to not turn the person off to church even more than he or she already is.

What I really want to say is a bit more sarcastic and maybe even a little bit rude, but at the same time just as truthful as the first statement. What I want to say this, "If you were giving like you were supposed to be giving to the Lord, the church wouldn't have to ask, now would it?"

While this may seem a bit harsh and even sarcastic, there is really some truth to it. The truth is that if every giving member of the church even gave 2 percent of their income, forget the 10 percent that is God's prescribed amount in the Scriptures, there would be no need to ask for money. Imagine what the church could do, if people gave what they could.

One problem is that when people talk about "the church" they think of it as a separate entity apart from themselves. They don't connect the fact, like we say it in the children's song, "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. All of God's own people, all around the world, yes we're the church together." People confuse the church, as a whole, with the people who are placed in charge of the church whether by election, call or hiring.

So the first thing such a person needs is to identify him or herself as part of "the church." When you become part of "the church" and its ministries, you begin to realize the amount of time and money it takes to keep an organization running and effective. If you are on the outside looking in, all you see is the pastor or the chairman of the board of stewardship telling you that you need to give more and that "the church" needs more money.

A second problem has to do with the incorrect understanding of what stewardship is all about. Stewardship starts with the clear understanding that everything you have comes from God and is, in effect, God's.

If you come from the understanding that things you have are yours because you worked for them and earned them, then your Christian stewardship is gong to be effected immediately. The second thing to realize is that your stewardship, your giving to the Lord of your time, treasures, and talents is for your benefit, not for the church and certainly not for God. God does not benefit from your giving to him. He's God. He's perfect. He has everything he needs.

What God sees when someone is practicing good and correct stewardship is someone who is giving out of the joy they have in their heart simply because they are one of God's redeemed children.

Consequently, if you are withholding money from God by not giving what you are truly able to give, or if you are giving grudgingly (because you have to), then you aren't practicing God-pleasing stewardship. If you are happy to give to the work of the Lord and you would gladly give more if you could and if you are giving what you can, then you are practicing God-pleasing stewardship.

God wants you. He wants your whole heart and soul. He doesn't want to share you with your money. He wants you to be free from the slavery of money. He wants you to think more about him than you think about the balance in your checkbook. He wants you to go to church more and spend less time in overtime for that extra dough you get. He wants you to give away those things that can hinder you and weigh you down.

In other words, he wants to be your God. The first commandment is a very serious one. It simply states, "You shall have no other gods." Is money more important to you than the work of the Lord? Is that extra overtime check you get for working on Sunday morning more important than going to church on Sunday morning? Is the new house, new car or new TV more important to you than the new person you see in church because of the money you gave so that the board of outreach could do some more effective evangelism? Is the checkbook more important than the good book?

I think that it is time for all of us, including me, to let go of our hold on our money. I'm not saying get rid of it all. I'm not saying you should give every last penny you have to the church. What I am saying is that we all need to have a loser grip on our wallets and a tighter grip on the Word of God.

God forgive us for not doing that, and God help us to do that better in the future. To God be all the glory. Amen.

You might have noticed something different about last week’s article. That’s right, it wasn’t me. It was Pastor Quartermous from Foristell Christian Church. I want to thank him first of all for his intelligent insight and his introduction to the teachings of the Christian Church there in Foristell.

I first want to say that I am honored to have him share this spot in the Journal with me. From what I have read from him before, I know that he is an honorable man who believes and trusts in Jesus Christ for his salvation.

I would also have to say that my church, along with most Christian churches agree with almost everything he talked about. We both believe that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God and is the only rule and norm for faith and life. We also both believe that the world was created in six, consecutive 24 hour days. We, in the Lutheran church, also believe that baptism is necessary for salvation, although not absolutely necessary, take the thief on the cross for instance.

We are also trying to be a church that believes and teaches what the first Christians believed and taught. But we also believe that those first Christians had articles and confessions of faith, creeds, to express what they believed about the God of the Scriptures. In fact, I would venture to say that Pastor Quartermous’ whole article last week was a statement of what his church believes and teaches, and correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the very definition of a creed “a statement of what one believes and teaches”?

In our creeds, the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian, we are simply stating what the Bible has stated about God. We don’t add anything to it. It is simply a summary of the Bible’s teachings about God, just like Pastor’s summaries of what his church believes and teaches as he had in his article last week.

Now, it is important to say here that both of our churches, along with anyone who believes that Jesus Christ died on the cross for them, which is the Gospel in a nutshell, will be in heaven. Members of Foristell Christian Church believe that, members of most of the churches in Warren County believe that, and members of St. John’s Lutheran Church most certainly believe that. We will see each other in heaven some day despite the differences we may have.

The big difference between St. John’s and Foristell Christian Church is in our views on free will, which ultimately show themselves in our differing views on baptism. In the Lutheran church we believe that when it says “Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” in Psalm 51:5, it means that I was a lost and condemned sinner even before I was born, when I was still in my mother’s womb. We would give that sin a name. It is called original sin. We also believe what it says in Ephesians 2:1-10 where it talks about us being dead in our transgressions and sins and how God made us alive in Christ, even though we were dead in transgressions.

Therefore, since we were dead, could we bring ourselves back to life, or even have any part in it? Can a dead person hear? Can a dead person move? Can a dead person willfully do anything? No, not unless God acts upon them and brings them back to life. We see this very plainly in the raising of Jairus’ daughter. She was dead. Jesus came to her and said, “Little girl, I say to you get up.” She did, but only because Christ raised her from death. Once she was dead she could not breathe again nor could she make her heart start to beat. The same is with us in spiritual life. God uses his Word, and in the same way Baptism, which contains water and his word, to bring us back to life, to breathe life into us. The good news of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” is very true for us. It is as if he is saying through these very words “My child, I say to you, get up, rise from the dead, and live, because of what Jesus did on the cross for you.”
Because of what it says in these verses and what it says in many other verses, the Lutheran church would say that we have no free will apart from the will to sin on account of the fact that we were sinful from the time our mother conceived us. Foristell Christian Church would say that we still have, inherent in us, a will to take what God has to give us, namely the forgiveness of sins. In fact, they may even use the same verses that I have used but interpret them in a different way.

Here’s the difference on Baptism in a nutshell. Foristell Christian Church believes that Baptism is an act of obedience. It is something we do because God has commanded us to do it. They would say that, it is something we do to show that we believe in Christ. They also believe that there is forgiveness in Baptism as we also do, but that they take that forgiveness through this act of obedience.

The Lutheran Church believes that Baptism is simply a means of grace. It is not something we do, but something that God does to us, through the water and the Word. We would say that it is not an act of obedience, because a dead person, one who is dead in his trespasses and sins, cannot act in obedience to someone which he is not nor ever has been obedient. In other words, the Lutheran Church believes that baptism is a means by which our Lord Jesus instills faith in us and by which he washes us of our sins. One takes, the other receives. This is why, in our church, an infant can be baptized. Not only do the Scriptures tell us to baptize all nations, and not only do the Scriptures tell us that the whole households were baptized, and not only are there records of infant baptisms as early as the second century (100’s A.D.), but in our church Baptism is solely an act of God upon humans. The human being does nothing but receive the blessings that our Lord Jesus bestows in and through baptism. Therefore, since the human does nothing, it matters not how old he or she is.

The other thing, which I don’t want to spend too much time on today, is the whole thing of immersion. There are actually several different instances in which the word baptism is used. It is also used in many different forms. It is seen as baptismos as Pastor Quartermous pointed out, but also baptidzo, baptidzein, baptidzontes, and many others. Some of these point to an immersion simply by context, but never is it commanded that we baptize by immersion only. The word baptize at least in all of the lexicons (Greek dictionaries) that I have, always say that this word, in its various forms, means simply to wash. Whether it is immersion, sprinkling pouring, or whatever way you wash, to us anyways, doesn’t matter. It does matter to several other denominations and so we respect their ideals, although we do not agree with them.

I hope that you will take both of our articles to heart as both of them have one goal, that the hearers come to a belief in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins so that they may receive eternal life.

Ah, the dog days of Summer, don’t you just love them? Frankly, even after living in this general area for over ten years now, I can’t stand them. Frankly, there are a lot of things I can’t stand. That’s why many people, including my wife, call me an old (even though I’m only 35) crabby German. The humid heat of Missouri is, by far the worst on my list. When all I have to do is breathe to sweat, it is too hot. When I can’t stand my own stink after sitting outside for ten minutes, it is too humid. When condensation from the humidity in the air builds up on my sliding glass window. It is way too humid.

Now it may sound like I am complaining, and I am, even if it is all in good fun. Still, we hate to be burdened by anything. As I look to many other places around the world, including several place right here in our United States, I have a hard time complaining too much. Right now, on the Gulf Coast there are people living in tents, because they are still waiting to receive help. Right now in Israel and the surrounding area there are people in bomb shelters waiting out yet another attack. Right now in Africa there are tons of children who are dying of starvation. And I am going to complain about a few extra degrees on the thermostat and the dewpoint? I am going to complain about the few extra cents I have to pay for gas. I am going to complain that my bed is not comfortable enough or that my satellite T.V. isn’t working properly. Come on! Or as my wife would say, “Get over it.”

As Christians, especially Christians living here in America, we have nothing to complain about. We are blessed with opportunity after opportunity. We have comfort upon comfort. We have more money than anyone else in the world. Still, there are some days when we can be seen and heard complaining as much as Job! What a waste of time.

As Christians we need to get off our duffs and, instead, of complaining, we need to do something. Instead of waiting for someone else to do it we need to be doing it. Instead of looking to our government to help out those in need we need to be doing it. Instead of waiting for help from somewhere else, the help needs to start right here. Instead of saying, “That’s their own business, let them deal with it”, we need to be on the front lines dealing with it.

Jesus didn’t say, “Wait around an let them come to you”. He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The key word here is go. Go and do is the command of Jesus.

Today I urge my fellow Christians to go and do! If someone needs food, give them food. If someone needs shelter, give them shelter. If a child needs to learn more about Jesus teach him. If a widow needs a shoulder to cry on lend her yours. If someone has not heard the Gospel, that Jesus died on the cross for us, then let it be you that they first hear it from.

And if there is nothing you can do, you can still pray that God would do something! You can pray that his will would be done. You can pray that he would show you the way that you can help. You can pray for grace, mercy, and peace. You can pray for his kingdom to come.

God help you as you work on stopping your complaining and start doing and praying! Amen!

This week I am having knee surgery to clean up some scar tissue in my knee, to smooth out the cartilage and to move my knee caps back to where they are supposed to be. As you read this, I will have already had my surgery and be well on the way to recovery, God willing.

Did you ever notice that we don't use that phrase "God willing" nearly enough? We simply state our plans as if we have the control and the power to make sure that they are carried out. Yet, as I look at my own life and at the lives of others I am often reminded at how I am not in control, but how God is truly the one that controls even my very breath.

There are lines in a country song that I like that say it ever so truthfully, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans." Isn't that the truth. The Lord declares to us through holy Scriptures that, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your way my ways." Sometimes I wonder how far away my thoughts, ideas and plans are from the Lord's plans for my life.

It is at times like surgeries, whether minor like mine, or major like that of my father's 12 years ago when he had heart surgery, that we begin to realize how fleeting and fragile life is. One need look no further than that major interstate that goes through the middle of town and see the tons of life-ending accidents that occur on a daily basis. One need only watch the news for a few seconds and hear of another murder or another attack in Iraq to see how quickly life can come to an end.

So what do we do? How do we keep ourselves from going into complete despair? How do we have peace in our lives in the midst of tragedy and sorrow? We trust in the Lord, that's what. We trust that when we say in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done" that it will.

We trust in his word that he will never leave us nor forsake us. We trust in the words of Paul when he says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. Most importantly though, in the midst of the realizations of this fleeting world we trust in the salvation Almighty God won for us on the cross. We trust in his never-changing mercy to save us from death and bring us to everlasting life.

I really don't know how my surgery is going to go. It may go well or it may not go so well. The real reality is though, that I don't even know whether I am even going to make it to the hospital to have my surgery. God may decide to take me to heaven before I get there. That would be awesome. I know my family and friends would miss me, but I also know that they will see me again and I them, in paradise.

My prayer for you today is that you also realize how fleeting your life really is. I pray that you would hear God's call to trust in him for all things, especially eternal salvation from death.

I pray that you would feel that peace that nobody understands but that can be yours through faith in Christ.

Peace be with you.

Sometimes ministry is overwhelming. I am not just talking about pastoral ministry here, but about the ministry that all Christians do.

Let me give you an example.

A group of us just got back from a trip to Ocean Springs, Miss. It is near Biloxi and is part of the area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Let's just say pictures in magazines, books and TV do not begin to do the devastation justice. Whole towns have been wiped off the face of the earth. Over 130,000 people are living down there without jobs, because their businesses and places of employment have been destroyed.

The list goes on and on as far as the problems that continue for the people down in Mississippi.

I will remember, for as long as I live, one of the first scenes I saw as we arrived. Our group stayed in an old textile mill that had been renovated and fixed up to house volunteers and to act as a distribution center for food and other supplies. This will be in place for the next eight years.

Anyway, as we were entering the facility the cars were lined up four deep to pick up supplies. In the front was an old, beat up station wagon with a mother and her four kids. The kids were dirty, the youngest was crying, the mother stepped out of the car, picked up her groceries and simply smiled and said thank you.

This was no big deal, I thought, this happens every day even in Warrenton. Later I came to find out that, for the last nine months, that mother and her four children had been living in a tent in the local campground, because her home had been destroyed, she had lost her job and had nowhere to go.

That was it for me. I broke down and went away to my nice, cozy, air conditioned room and wept for a while.

Sometimes the sheer pain and suffering in this world is more than we can bear. We feel the weight of all that can happen to us in an instant. That first night we went down to the beach and saw what the storm had really done.

There is a bridge that connects Biloxi and Ocean Springs, or at least it used to. This bridge made of millions of pounds of concrete, steel and iron was simply picked up and broken to pieces by the force of nature. Houses that had been standing in the same place since the early 1800's were blown away in an instant.

It is in the midst of all this devastation and hopelessness that we can't help but turn to God. Christus Victor Lutheran Church operated the place in which we stayed. Christus Victor is now known as the place to go for help, along with all of the other churches in the area.

As we walked along the beach we encountered one church group after another. On our way back, we stopped in Memphis and just happened to meet up with two groups who had been working down in the same area.

My point is that it is the churches, not the government or special secular assistance, that is providing the bulk of the help for those who are struggling just to live. It is God who is providing the help through people like you and me. It is God who is doing the work in us so that we can, in turn, go and do the work where it needs to be done.

As I said in the beginning, ministry can be overwhelming at times, but only when you think of it as your ministry and not God's ministry. I am only one person. God is infinite.

My group was only able to minimally help one family. God is able to help all people forever. If we think that it is by our power or might that things will get done, then we are just plain stupid. It is only by God's will and power. As the Scriptures say, "Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord."

My friends, if you think that you aren't making a difference, think again. If you speak words of love to someone, if you help someone who needs help, if you act as a Christian should, then you are making a difference.

Everyone knows the story of the boy on the shore with the starfish. The boy saw all these starfish on the beach and wanted to save them, so he started to pick them up and throw them back into the sea. An adult came along and chastised him. "What are you doing?" He asked. "You realize that there are millions of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly make a difference here. Picking up another starfish and tossing it into the sea, the boy replied, "I made a difference to that one."

As I sit here at my desk writing this article, I know I am only one man. But my hope and joy is that I can make a difference one person at a time.

St. Paul put it best when he said, "I have become all things to all me so that, by all possible means, I might save some." Our group made a difference to one family down in Mississippi. You can make difference with your children, with your spouse, with your neighbors and with everyone else you know.

God go with you and give you strength as God makes a difference through you.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I don't have to go to church to worship God, I can do that anywhere"? I must say that I have heard that more times than I have ever wanted. I usually hear it when confronting someone about his or her worship attendance. The conversation goes something like this.

Me: I have noticed that you haven't been in church a whole lot lately.

Other person: Yeah, I have just been awful busy with a lot of stuff lately.

Me: And that stuff happens on Saturday evening between 5 and 6 p.m. or Sunday morning between 8 and 11:30 a.m.?

Other person: Well, not always, but I am always so tired by the end of the week that Saturday and Sunday is the only time I have for myself or just to sleep in.

Me: So you're sleeping and doing something else on Sunday morning instead of coming to church to spend time with God.

Other person: Well, I do go to church sometimes, and I always pray, every day. Besides you don't have to be in church to worship God. You can worship him wherever you are.

Me: "That's right you can worship God wherever you want and wherever you are, and you should, but do you?"

After this the answers and responses vary. Some might hem or haw their way around it. Others might just admit their guilt, which is best, because then we can get to the good stuff of repentance and forgiveness. Still others will get defensive and angry and even just plain leave.

Don't get me wrong, I know it is hard to make it to church sometimes. I have had other jobs which required me to work on Sundays, but that's why I was able to go Wednesday night. I have been awful tired after working an 18-hour shift on several occasions. Yet, I have felt worse if I skipped church than if I would have just gone and been fed and lifted up by the Holy Spirit through the word and Sacraments.

Many people just have an aversion to church. Some have this aversion because of a former experience they had with a church member or pastor where they attended once upon a time.

Someone said or did something bad to them or made them feel bad. I especially hear this all the time from people who are angry with the Roman Catholic Church because of the priest abuse scandal. There are also those stories of mean people who got angry with someone for sitting in their pew or parking in their parking spot.

Others have an aversion to church because they just don't feel like they belong due to some past life or something in their life right now that is really bothering them. Maybe they just feel so guilty about something that they just can't let it go. Or maybe they see the rest of the people in church and feel like they just don't measure up.

Still others have an aversion to church because they don't like the people in the church. They see them act one way in a church setting and another way around town. The reason that these people use for their lack of church attendance is that people who attend church are hypocrites.

For these three reasons, I have a quote from a wise and learned man who once said, "The problem with the church is that it is full of sinners." Isn't that the truth? I have often said that I am the chief sinner of this place (Paul, the Apostle and missionary, said that once too by the way.)

The reason we come to church is not that we are perfect, but so we can be made perfect through the word of God and through the sacraments. We come to hear the precious saving words of the Holy Gospel, which is like precious ointment for the soul. We come to receive God's mercy and grace through the words of forgiveness.

Everyone at church is in the same boat. They are all sinners in need of forgiveness, and church is the very best place to get it.

One more reason for not attending church is that the church always asks for money. To that I say, if we don't pay the electric, water and mortgage bills then there won't be a church to attend. Where do you think the church gets its money? Does God let it rain down from heaven like manna? No, it comes from its members.

If we are to "make disciples of all nations," as God commands us, it takes time, talents and money. God has given us money to use as he pleases, not as we please.

The money used to support the work of the church in evangelism, missions, ministry to the sick, to the lost, to the dying, to the young, to the old, to everyone comes from the members of the church. I say, if you are not willing to give to the work of the church with your time, talents and treasures, don't be a member.

Getting back to the point, sure you can worship whenever, wherever and however you want. But do you? Do you worship God when you are lying in bed on Sunday morning sleeping off the hangover you have from the night before? Do you worship God when you are on the third hole, par four, and you just slapped your third tee shot into the water? Do you worship God at Denny's eating your stack of pancakes? Do you worship God as you are sighting in that turkey or deer?

I would probably guess that the answer, if you were to answer truthfully, is no.

My friends, we need corporate worship. We need the fellowship of believers however sinful they may be. We need to hear God's word read, preached and sung. We need to be able to say with fellow believers that we believe in one God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. We need to study God's word so that you may grow in its truth and peace. We need to fulfill Jesus' last command to make disciples of the whole world. We need the Sabbath. As Jesus once said, "The Sabbath was made for man."

I usually get on this worship kick at this time of year because attendance seems to go down drastically. People go on vacation, and I hope they go to church somewhere else while on vacation. I dread though that the truth might not be so optimistic.

I encourage you all to get to church on a regular basis this summer. You are never too busy that you can't take an hour or two on Saturday night or Sunday morning to worship. On the contrary, as Martin Luther once said, "I'm too busy not to worship and pray."

The fact is that the more you have going on in your life the more you need Jesus in your life. Quit making excuses and go to church.

In our world today, we are all about convenience. If something works for us and fits into our schedule then it is good and we will spend the time on it that is needed and required.

If something is not convenient and throws us off our game, so to speak, we would rather not take part in it.

So it is with God.

There are tons of times in the Bible when God tells us what to do and not to do. For instance he tells us "marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed pure", meaning that we should only have sex, of any kind, with the person to whom we will be married for the rest of our life.


To us, living in the world, this is very inconvenient and downright impossible. To God, this is his will. Which one shall we choose? Which one is right?

This is just one example of hundreds where our convenience and our wants and needs take precedence over God's will for our lives. Yet, we can see that because we choose our own will over God's will, time and time again. Our lives suffer greatly. Not just our lives but also the whole world in general suffers because of sin.

The thing is, we want God himself to be something we can handle and put in a box. We want him to be all powerful, all knowing and all loving, but only if he is going to do what I want him to do.

We want him to be understandable and reasonable, which, I would think, would go directly against any definition of what "God" is supposed to be. We want him to conform to our will, norms and rules instead of us conforming to his. We want him to be this nice grandfatherly type who gives us whatever we want whenever we want instead of the vengeful, just and sometimes angry God that we often see in the Scriptures. To sum this all up, we want control of God.

This goes with what he says in the Scriptures. If something in Scripture doesn't quite fit our ideal way of thinking we can do one of three things.

We can explain it away, saying something like, "That was only for that time and place. Things are different now", which in some cases might be true, but not all cases.

You can totally dismiss it as not really being God's word, which is what the "Jesus Seminar" and other fringe groups have so often done. But what does that do for this verse in II Timothy 3:16?: "All Scripture is God breathed and is useful teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." I guess if you want, you can take out that verse too.

Homosexuality is an issue, living together before marriage is an issue, divorce is an issue, whether Jesus is God or not is an issue, whether Christ rose from the dead or not is an issue, basically everything that is in the Scriptures can be questioned once you throw out the II Timothy 3:16 passage.

People, just because something in Scripture doesn't make sense to you doesn't mean that it isn't from God. Just because your sinful human mind doesn't want to acknowledge that something isn't from God doesn't mean it isn't.

It is a sin as old as Adam and Eve. We put ourselves above God. When God plainly tells us "You shall not", we say "He didn't really mean that." When one of the gospel writers tells us that Jesus rose from the dead, are we ready to say, "He didn't really mean that?"

You can pick and choose what you want to believe, but that doesn't mean what you believe is true, does it? If I believe, with all my heart, that the moon is made out of green cheese does that mean it really is? In the same way, my believing that Jesus rose from the dead doesn't make it true. The only thing that makes it true is that it really did happen.

The only thing that the people who wrote Scripture said about it is that it is all completely true, real and from God's mouth. Nowhere does it say that some of it is true while other parts of it aren't. It only claims to be true and real, nothing else.

Not only that, but the Scriptures have withstood the test of time. We have found no evidence that anything in the Bible didn't happen just the way it is stated. In fact it has always been just the opposite. Those trying to find evidence to prove the Bible false have always found evidence that only proves the Bible true.

The last thing you can do is simply believe the Scriptures to be what they say they are. Believe in God's word. Hold on to it, even when you may not like it too much. Trust in it to guide your life. Live by it so that you may be blessed instead of cursed.

My friends, I encourage you to let go and let God be God. Don't try to put him in a box, or to minimize him to your standards. Don't try to put your own conscience and your own reason above God's will and his word. If you do, you will only hurt yourself, and cause yourself years of bitter anguish pain and sorrow because of your sin.

I leave you with these words from Proverbs: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths."

It is very clearly stated in Ephesians 2:8-9, yet, for some reason, people choose to ignore or it or deny it.

My favorite passage tells us all how we are saved. It says, "For we are saved by grace, through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast."

Let's unpack that verse for a second. What does the word "grace" mean? There are many dictionary definitions for this word, but the one that is useful for us states:

"Unmerited Divine assistance given man for his regeneration and, or sanctification."

A way that I have learned to describe it is through an acronym, using the letters for the word grace to say God's Riches At Christ's Expense. It is a gift. It is something that is not earned or even taken, but something that is simply given and received. If we try to earn it, then it is not grace.

The second part we must look at is the "through faith" part. Faith is described in the dictionary in many ways as well. The one that works best for us is:

"Firm belief in something for which there is no proof."

The Bible tells us a definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

In other words, Ephesians 2:8 could be paraphrased to say, "We are saved by God's riches at Christ's expense through being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

This still doesn't answer the question about how we get faith in the first place. Does it just come to us magically? Do we somehow conjure it up as if we have the power to do so? Or does God work through means to bring us to life by the power of the Holy Spirit?

To answer this question we must first look at what the Lord tells us about ourselves before conversion. He tells us that we are all are conceived and born sinful and so are in need of forgiveness when he says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."(Psalm 51:5), or "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins." (Ephesians 2:1)

Can a dead person do anything? No. Can a dead person come back to life? A dead person can only come back to life if God acts upon him in some miraculous way as in the story of Lazarus and others, but especially in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

God must act upon us to bring us back to life. How does he do this? Well, we have the answer to this in Romans 10:17 where Paul tells us that "Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ." This word is what we would call the good news or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The message is that Christ has died on the cross and has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit has the power to use that message and those words of good news to bring a person, who was dead in their trespasses and sins, back to life.

Consequently, what this is saying to us is that all you need are two ears to hear the good news and you can be brought to faith. I know of 3-year-olds who can barely talk, and yet they can tell me that Jesus died for them. It doesn't take any special training or special age requirement or some sort of understanding that goes above and beyond believing that Jesus died on the cross for you.

You don't even have to be able to express it. According to this verse all you have to do is hear it. If you hear it and believe what you hear, you are saved according to everything written in the Scriptures.

The reason I am writing this article is that there has been some confusion as to how we receive the grace that God gives to us. Many different Christian denominations teach many different things. In my church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, we believe that the Holy Spirit works through means. We call these means the Word (Bible) and the Sacraments (for Lutherans there are two Sacraments — Baptism and the Lord's Supper).

Other churches believe that God works immediately, that is without means, to bring a person to faith (The Spirit goes where it wills).

Still others believe that God works with a person, this is called synergism, to bring him/her to faith. In these churches, a person still has the ability to work with God for his own salvation. Whether this is called a choice, a decision, or being slain in the Spirit, is up to the individual denomination or even congregation.

This can all get very confusing, but there is one thing we must keep straight. In order to be a true Christian, one must believe that Jesus died on the cross for them and that by His death on the cross he has saved us from all sins.

A man once asked Peter, "What must I do to be saved?" Peter answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." John said in his Gospel, "God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but eternal life." Mark says, "Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

Belief (faith) is what counts, not just belief in anything, but belief in Jesus Christ, he is the Son of God and that he came to suffer, die, and rise again for us.

Some say we get faith only one way, some say that we get it through means, and still others say that we work with God to get it ourselves. What matters most to me is that people get it. If they simply hear the Gospel and believe, then great. If they get it through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, that's great. If they get it through an immediate, "Pentecost" moment, that is awesome too.

As Christians, we are simply able to praise God for the faith that we have. Thanks be to God that we receive God's grace by faith. I can't wait to get to heaven.

Recent events demand question — What is truth?

Last week I talked to you a bit about the debate between those who believe in evolution versus those who believe in the Scriptures and creation. We talked about the fact that there are some people who believe that their own brains and their own thoughts and feelings can be held as equal with God. We talked about the fact that our sinful human nature is, by nature, opposed to God's word. Therefore, even among Christians, the devil works to get us to think that we can become equal with God. That, of course, was the first temptation of Adam and Eve, and it has not stopped since.

Today, I would like to bring up a few modern heresies that have popped up in recent months and years. One is "The DaVinci Code" and the other is "The Gospel of Judas".

I call them heresies simply because they go directly against what the Scriptures teach, and because those who have written these things have put their philosophies and their own minds on par with God.

The first one, "The DaVinci Code" is about some sort of "relationship" between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This relationship is unbiblical and is only supported by a speculation of Mary Magdalene being in the famous DaVinci picture of the Lord's Supper. Although the book is purported as fiction, the author supposedly states at the beginning of his book that all places, documents and events are factual.

The second one is a supposedly "lost gospel." It is about Judas, although Judas didn't write it, because he had been dead before it was written. It is a story that someone made up. It states, among other things, that Jesus took Judas aside and told him that he would be doing God's will by handing his friend Jesus over to be crucified. There is also a promise from Jesus to Judas that Judas would become scorned on earth but be revealed as great in heaven.

Unfortunately these types of things are not something new. These false teachings and being held as true and real have been around as long as Christianity has been around.

Certain heretics like Arius and others tried to teach that Jesus was not fully God or that he was not fully man. Certain people throughout the ages have written other "gospels" or other "testaments" with the intent of turning people away from the true word of God and faith in Jesus Christ.

It is important here that we realize criteria for including something into the Canon of Holy Scripture. They didn't just accept everything that came along that talked about Jesus or God. There were some very strict rules they followed for a book to be included in the Christian Scriptures.

For the Old Testament there were two things to which they held. One was that Jesus quoted from every book of the Old Testament except for two and the other was that the Jewish scribes were meticulous in their preservation of God's word. Therefore the Old Testament has not been in question even from the very beginning. There were several books called "The Apocrypha" that didn't stand up to the tests and scrutiny and that is why these books are still not fully accepted as true and real.

For the New Testament there was quite a bit more scrutiny. There were four very strict questions that needed to be asked. Was the author an apostle or someone very closely connected with an apostle? Was the book accepted by the body of Christ at large? Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? Did the book bear evidence of clear high moral and spiritual values consistent with the Old Testament? A good book to read about all this is called "The Canon of Scripture", by Bible scholar F.F. Bruce.

The apostles approved of books that already existed. Peter talked of Paul's writings as inspired. Paul talked of Luke's Gospel as equal with the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Several of the early church fathers, such as Clement, Ignatius, Ireneaus, Polycarp and Hyppolytus, accepted certain books. Only Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John and 3 John had any real question as to their authenticity, and only that by a few people because of their origin.

Today, unfortunately, the world's philosophy is, "Whatever you believe about something makes it true for you." Or "If it makes you happy it must be right." It is a theory of relativism.That is why, you can have someone like Dan Brown write a purely fictional book and have hundreds of thousands of people take it as true. Or you can have an old writing found by archeologists, calling itself the Gospel of Judas, and right away, without question, people come to believe it as a true and real gospel because it is old or because one or two people say it must be true and real.

As I said last week, it is your choice. Are you going to believe in someone or something that is here today and gone tomorrow? Or are you going to believe in something that has withstood the test of time over centuries of debate, ridicule, whole countries and groups of people trying to destroy it, and even the punishment of death for those who were caught with these writings in their possession?

At the time of the acceptance of the Canon, these men were risking their lives for these books. They were willing to die for them. That is how precious the Scriptures were to them. Are they that precious to you?

Evolution, creationism both take faith

I have been watching the debate that has been fought in the letters to the editor of this newspaper these past few weeks. I didn't really want to even bother with it, because frankly, I believe that it is a waste of my time.

I would rather be telling you about Jesus and how much he loves you and how much he wants to see you in heaven with him when the time comes.

Yet, I feel as though I must get the facts out about this debate that continues to rage on, and has raged on for over 150 years.

How many of you, when you hear or talk about how the earth is billions of years old, the ice age, missing links, the big bang or any other thing having to do with evolution, ever hear the word "theory"? Probably not too much.

I hate going to science museums for that very reason. Evolution is always purported as fact by those who believe in it. I guess I can't blame them. When you have faith in something, you want and need to believe it is real and true.

You're not going to have faith in something you know and believe is false, are you? We, who believe in the Scriptures, don't call creation a theory, do we?

The debate is about what to believe in. Do you believe in God and his word or do you believe in the study of evolutionary science and the scientists who study it? They both take faith. One has faith in God and the other has faith in scientists. So let's look at them both and see which one holds more credibility.

In case you don't quite understand the theory of evolution, here is what this theory states: 1. All life forms have developed from other species. 2. All living things are related to one another through a common descent. 3. All life on earth has a common origin. That is, in the distant past there once existed an original life form and that this life form gave rise to all subsequent life forms. 4. The process by which one species evolves into another involves random, heritable, genetic mutations, some of which are more likely to spread and persist in a gene pool than others.

Let me just say a Christian can agree with numbers three and four as they are stated here. The difference is that, for number three, we would call that original life form God. We would also say that the subsequent life forms were and are called plants, animals, and people.

For number four, we don't have a problem with "microevolution," which is the constant change within a species. Humans grow shorter and taller over generations. Humans, as well as other species, develop immunities as well as new bacteria and viruses all the time.

We also don't have a problem with the idea of natural selection. Different families within species, and sometimes whole species, go extinct. Through climate changes and the survival of the fittest some species thrive while other species deteriorate.

Yet, to use the scientific evidence for microevolution and transfer it to macroevolution is simply a denial of the real origin of all life. Why is it so hard for people to admit that God created the world in six days? Why is it so hard for people to simply accept the word of God? The reason is very simple and it comes from last week's article.

They want to be like God, or even more, they want to be a "god" unto themselves.They want to believe that the earth is the center of the universe instead of the creator. They want to believe that their minds, their reason and their intellect can go above and beyond anything in the Holy Scriptures and anything that God declares to be true and right.

It is a sin as old as Adam and Eve.

An evolutionary scientist will say that any talk of creation or study of biology, chemistry and physics in the light of creation cannot be called science because it involves trust in someone and something that goes above and beyond anything "scientific".

I went to Lutheran schools my whole life. I learned a lot about life systems, chemical reactions and how things live, move and have their being. I know there are a lot of good scientists who believe in a six day creation. Tons of them are working in labs and fields across the world right now.

Don't let these evolutionists trick you into thinking that you can't do good science if you believe in creation.

My friends, you have a choice. You can either believe in flawed, and at best, speculative evolutionary "science" that relies on poor, sinful, human brains making hypotheses and theories, a brain that can change its mind in an instant.

You can believe in a sin-filled earth and a bunch of fossils that are flawed because of sin. Or on the other hand you can believe in God's infallible word. You can believe in an almighty God that created all life, including fully developed human beings, in six consecutive, 24-hour days just like it says.

Both take faith. Both take a belief in something. It is just that one is human science and the other is God. You choose.