Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Today’s article is going to be about conflict. I know it is getting really close to Christmas and we should be talking about all that is peaceful and good and we should avoid conflict completely, but with all the getting together with relatives that you don’t particularly care for and all of the added tension that the holidays bring, there will be added conflict. What I want to do today is give you a Biblically based and very sound way of how to deal with conflict.

It comes from Matthew 18:15-17 which reads, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

Now, the thing about all this is that there is an overriding factor called love. Jesus tells us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” If love is not the motivation of the action laid out in these verses, it will never work. You will be seen by your brother as someone who is judging him, someone who hates him, or someone who is out to get him. The motivation has to be love.

If you go to your brother with hatred and/or anger in your heart against him you will not have healing but will only cause more bitterness and conflict. On the other hand, if you go to your brother out of love and compassion for him wanting only what is best for him, the outcome will be much different. Love always thinks of the other person first.

When we talk about these actions laid out in these verses we must also know that they must be carried out in humility with gentleness and respect. Jesus tells us that we must first take the plank out of our own eye, before we should even try to take the speck out of our brother’s eye. This means that we always need to confess our own sins first. Saying “I’m sorry” for what you did or said first will make all the difference. If you go thinking that you are totally in the right and he is totally in the wrong, as the Bible says, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We must always be willing to admit our own faults first.

The last thing to remember is forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive us our sins (trespasses) as we forgive those who sin against us. In essence, we are saying that we want God to forgive us as much as we forgive others. Do you want God to only forgive you for some of the times you have sinned? Do you want him to forgive you only after you have paid the price for your sins? Do you want him to make you suffer for what you did? Well, then why would you make others suffer, withhold forgiveness, or treat your brother any differently than God treats you? The disciples asked Jesus, “How many times should we forgive our brother, seven times?” Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times.”

In this season, we must always remember why Christ came to earth in the first place. It was to forgive sinners. It was to break down the dividing wall of hostility between us and God. It was to get rid of the conflict that sin put between us and God. Christ became our mediator, he became our sacrifice, he became our redeemer so that the conflict would be resolved. And it was! Praise God that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ to resolve our conflict. Praise God that he has given us good rules to follow in resolving our conflicts with each other. Praise God that we are redeemed sinners forgiven by Christ!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

This coming Sunday begins the season of Advent in many of our Christian churches throughout the world. Many of you know it by those little Advent calendars on which you count down the days till Christmas. The word Advent literally means “getting ready for a coming” or “preparing for an entering into existence”. While we could use those phrases, Advent sounds so much better, cleaner, and neater.

In essence though, Advent is a kind of microcosm of all of life, isn’t it? I mean, aren’t we always getting ready for the return of Christ? Aren’t we always preparing for him to come? Maybe we are, but then again maybe not.

Are you ready for Christ to come? I don’t mean as a baby in a manger at Christmas. I mean as the eternal ruler and judge over all the world, as either the Savior or judge of your soul. Are you ready for him and for that? Why or why not? What makes you ready?

Simply put, it is faith that makes you ready. It is faith in Christ Jesus that saves, nothing more and nothing less. What I am trying to say is that if you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, then you are ready. You are ready for when the bridegroom returns to enter the banquet feast. You are ready when the trumpet sounds. You are ready to make that entrance into life eternal.

As a pastor I so often have to be there and help people when they are in their worst distress. One comment I often get is, “I am not sure if I am going to heaven. I don’t know if I am good enough.” The answer I always give often seems a little bit to simple. At the same time it is the only answer I know. I first ask them, “Did Jesus die on the cross?” If they answer yes, then I ask a second question, “Did he die for you?” If they answer yes to this second question then I simply say, “Then you are saved and you are going to heaven.”

If you spend your whole life wondering whether you are saved or not, what good is that for you? If you spend your whole life trying to be good enough and never succeeding what will your life be like? It will be full of distress, anger, resentment, and despair.

If you live your life as Christ want you to, as his forgiven, redeemed, and saved child you will have peace in your heart even when there is no peace in the world. You will have peace because you know that Jesus’ death on the cross was for you.

As you begin this season of Advent on Sunday, please know that your sins are forgiven so that this time before Christmas can be a joyful time for you. When you get to Christmas and you have your loved ones all around you, thank God that he sent His one and only Son to be born in that barn for you and for them! The peace of Christ that comes from the knowledge of your salvation go with you all your days!

Monday, November 12, 2007

It seems as though our world is full of worry today. We worry about the price of oil and how gas prices may soon be $4 a gallon. We worry about our greenhouse gas emissions and how we are ruining the atmosphere for future generations, how in essence our actions are destroying the world. We worry about our economy. As I listen to the news I hear that the dollar is getting weaker and weaker. While I don’t quite understand what that means, I know it is not good. We worry about our kid’s future whether they are going to be alright. We worry about our own future whether we are ever going to be able to retire. We worry about the bills that seem to keep piling up. There is no end to our worry. After one thing is settled in our minds another pops up. After God takes care of one problem another one is right there to replace it.

What is it that makes us worry? Why, after God has promised us that he will care for us and give us what we need, do we continue to worry day and night? Why, when we know that our lives are safe in God’s hands, do we seem to forget that very fact?

Let me tell you why. We all have a sinful nature. Because Adam and Eve lost the image of God, and we are children by birth of Adam and Eve, we too have lost that image. We have the curse of sin upon us through our conception and birth not to mention our actions, thoughts, words, and deeds.

Therefore, because we are sinful and do not have the complete image of God in our human nature, we are unable to live perfect and, as some of my Christian friends from another denomination would put it, “obedient” lives. If we were able to live obedient lives, if we were able to “obey the Gospel”, then we wouldn’t have need of a Savior. We would be able to get ourselves to heaven because we would be considered perfect.

Yet, since we are not perfect, we continue to fret about things over which we have no control. We continue to think that we are actually in control of our own lives when we should know full well that we are not. Sure we can make the money. Sure we may have certain talents. But what if God would take that all away? Would we still be okay? Would we still have peace, or would we lose it?

As human beings created by God we need to be able to say every day, in good times and bad, as David said: “From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” We need to be able to say as Paul says, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We need to be able to trust in what Christ says: “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me”, or when he says, “Behold, I am with you always to the very end of the world.”

What happens when you put your trust and your confidence in the things of this world or in your own abilities? Your confidence is lost. Your trust is broken. Your hope is gone.

On the other hand, what happens when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Your confidence is strengthened. Your strength is renewed. Your hope is restored. Your faith is sure! You have that peace that no one can understand!

Thanksgiving is only a week away. Although it is a national holiday it is also a day, as every day is, to count your blessings. Wherever you might be and whatever you might be doing, count those blessings, especially the one that is your Savior Jesus Christ, the biggest blessing of all. As you count them, watch your cares and worries melt away and a peace overtake you that comes from the knowledge that everything is going to be alright because of what Christ has done for you on the cross and where he will take you at life’s end! Give thanks in peace! Amen!

Monday, October 08, 2007

Have you ever been reminded of your shortcomings? I sure have. In fact, as I try to lead a congregation of 475 souls, I am constantly reminded of them. Just about everyone in my congregation knows that I am very forgetful. Not to make excuses, but when you come to me on Sunday morning five minutes before worship is about to start and you tell me to call you on Thursday at 8:14 am, don’t expect me to remember that.

The other day though, my forgetfulness went way too far. I was supposed to pick up the junior high kids after school so that they could come to church for bell practice. I was even reminded twice by one very faithful, loving, and worrisome mother. In the meantime, I got another church member’s concerns on my brain, went to see him, and totally forgot all about those ten or so kids that I was supposed to pick up.

There was also that one time, where a church member called me to inform me that another church member was in the hospital. As soon as I hung up the phone, my daughter, who was two at the time, started screaming and I had to attend to her, then I had another phone call, plus it was supper time so my mind was where it always is, on food, and before you know it, that church member in the hospital totally slipped right out of my mind.

A couple weeks ago I was supposed to do chapel at Lutheran High School in St. Charles. I didn’t forget that I had to do it, but I remembered the wrong day. I was supposed to be there on a Wednesday and, for some reason, I don’t know why, I thought it was Thursday. I even had it written down in my appointment book.

Every day, somewhere along the line, I find myself worrying about someone I have forgotten to call or to go and visit or some appointment I have missed. It is way too often that I have that sneaking suspicion that I forgot to do something.

In this little way, and in so many other ways, I am reminded daily of my sinfulness. I have never really had a problem with saying that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness, because the sin is way too prevalent and forthright in my life for me to ever miss it.

Paul says the same thing when he says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” In Romans 7:18 Paul continues by saying “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good , but I cannot carry it out. Actually from verse 14 all the way to the end of the chapter is a good thing to read over and over again.

As it is though, verse 24 is the one that gives me comfort. It says, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What this says to me is of greatest comfort, especially after I have had a terrible week, after I have said some mean things, after I have complained a little too much, and after I have forgotten the fourth appointment of the week. It says to me that there will be a rescue from this overweight body and this forgetful mind. It says that there will be a deliverance from all of the times that I said I would do better next time and still failed when next time came. There will be a time when I will throw off this old sinful nature that I housed in this sinful body and exchange it for my new perfect and sinless body in paradise.

This same promise is for you as well. If you have come to realize that no matter how hard you try, you still fail. When you finally come to notice that you can’t do everything, be everyone’s go to guy, or even control yourself. Then you can finally begin to realize that you are a forgiven and redeemed child of God. Then you will have real peace that doesn’t spoil or fade away! Peace be with you all in Christ!

Monday, September 10, 2007

The longer I am a pastor, the more I worry about the future of the Christian church. One of the biggest stressors in my life is to work on ways to keep church attendance and church membership growing. Just about every day I get something in the mail telling me that they have the secret to growing my church and that if I just attend this or that conference and do this or that program, my church is sure to grow. At the same time, often location has a lot, if not everything, to do with it.

Still our churches should be growing at least a little bit, just as Warrenton is growing. The problem is that they aren’t. Instead they are declining in membership and worship attendance. And when I say “they” I mean all Christian churches in general. If you look at any census of any major denomination you will notice that the majority of them are declining.

Why? Why are we declining? Why aren’t our churches busting at the seams? Why aren’t we having to add worship services instead of taking them away for lack of attendance? Why are so many churches struggling to keep their doors open because of finances?

I have a few answers to this question, but only one main one that I would like to share with you all today. It is because over the past couple of decades we have failed our youth. I am not saying that we haven’t tried to do everything possible to keep them interested in church. No, we have done that to a fault. We have employed every possible means of entertainment and attention grabbing devices and ploys to keep our children’s attention at church.

What I am talking about is that we have failed to teach them the utmost truths of Christ and the theology of the cross as it has been laid out for us in the Scriptures. We have worked hard at keeping the kids in church for the church’s sake instead of for Christ’s sake. For many churches including my own at times, it has been enough for us to get them into the doors, while we often don’t really care about what they believe or how their lives are affected by what they believe. We don’t care what they know about Christ. We simply want the kids to be in the church building and somehow maybe they will learn by osmosis or something like that.

As long as I have been in ministry, which is about 12 years all together now, I have seen a lot of well meaning parents, youth directors, and even pastors entertain the youth of the congregation just to keep them interested in church. Then, as soon as there is something important to teach them and it requires a lecture or a lesson, or something gets “boring”, or they aren’t entertained like they want to be, they leave, or at the very least, continue to whine and complain to their parents about forcing them go to church or forcing religion down their throats. The parents in turn, out of frustration, give in to their kids or use the copout that they want their kids to decide whether they want to go to church or not or how much they want to be involved, which is usually not at all.

It is hard to be something you are not. The church is not an entertainment venue, so when it tries to be it may succeed for a while but eventually it will fail to keep people interested. It is not a full service store where everyone will get all of their wants met, notice I said wants not needs. So, if a person is going to church to get a certain want met, they may get it met, but then when their want is filled and they have another want, and that one isn’t filled, they move on to the next church that can fill that want, and so on and so forth. Do you get my drift?

My point in all of this is that we need to be about the business that Christ gave us in the first place, which is very simple. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Go therefore 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, and behold I will be with you to the very end of the age. ”

We, as the Christian church, can’t be in the business of keeping people interested in the church for the church’s sake. Because then it is nothing but an empty knowledgeless religion based on feelings and what I want from day to day. The church needs to be about the business of making disciples of Christ for Christ’s sake, teaching them and baptizing them, so that the body of Christ may be built up and we all may be in heaven together on the last day. We especially need to be about this business with our young people so that they can grow up in a good relationship with their Lord and Savior as they go through their most difficult years.

To this end, St. John’s Lutheran Church has started a before and after school program, which focuses its attention on the spiritual welfare of each of the children who attend this program. The program is called Kingdom Kids. It is not just a babysitting service but also a program that teaches kids all about Jesus and helps them to grow in their relationship with him in many ways. If you would like more information about this program, please call our church at 456-2888!

Always remember this verse, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Peace to all!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

When tragedy strikes, are you prepared? Do you have all of the things you need to deal with tragedy? What do you need when tragedy hits you or your family? What is it that you need?

These past few weeks have shown us a lot of tragedy. First we had a bridge collapse after which they still haven’t found all of the people who were on the bridge. Then we had a mine collapse, and again, as I write this a week later, they still haven’t found the people trapped in the mine. Then, after that, two sweet little kids drown in a pool. Today there were hundreds killed in car bombs and roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq. I just visited a family at Cardinal Glennon whose first baby died from SIDS, whose second baby developed an illness and almost died, and whose newest child was recovering from viral meningitis. I could go on and on, and the longer I live, the more tragedy I see. It never goes away and it never becomes less.

So, I go back to the question, what do you need to deal with tragedy? Well, I can answer that question with one word. I bet you already know the answer. It is JESUS.

When it all comes down to it, the only real, true, and lasting hope comes from Jesus. And I’m not talking about the hope that you can be like Jesus some day, or the hope that if you are as good as Jesus was and, “obey the Gospel” like Jesus did, that you can be saved. What I’m talking about is the never failing, all availing, grace of God that comes through and because of the suffering, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

How many times have you failed today? If you were to put your trust in yourself, don’t you suppose that you would eventually let yourself down so much that you would run out of trust and hope? Just because you tell yourself over and over again that you are a good person, doesn’t mean that you are. Even if you are a Christian, you still aren’t perfect! Where’s the hope in that?

There is someone who was perfect. There is someone who has kept all the law and the prophets. There is someone who has fulfilled all his promises. There is someone who will never leave you or forsake you. When you fail yourself and all of those around you, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t fail you!

He said he would suffer and die for you, and he did. He said he would rise again, and he did. He said he would ascend into heaven, and he did. In fact, everything that he said he would do, he did! Can you say that? Can you promise that? When tragedy strikes can you find peace within yourself? Can you find peace in anything in this world?

Let me ask you this question; why does tragedy strike in the first place? It strikes because this is an imperfect world. If it was perfect everything would always go right. Tragedies happen because of sin. Our Lord tells us that the wages of sin is DEATH. In the same passage, actually the very next verse, it says that “the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The best example of this is Job, whose hope was not in his things, his family, or his own life. His hope was solely situated in the Lord God. His famous saying, which we use time and time again is very clear. “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”

There is so much more that I could say about this. The main thing I want you all to understand is that the only hope for this world is Jesus! There is no other real hope! Trust in him, believe in him, have faith in him, live in him, and have eternal life in him!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

In the past few weeks a lot of Protestants have been up in arms about what the Pope said about other denominations. Frankly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

The Roman Catholic Church has been saying that their church is the only true church since the beginning. In fact, up until the reformation, the Roman catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church were really the only two ‘Christian” churches in the world. Then came the reformation, which caused a wide variety of divisions and splits among Christianity all of which claimed that they were right.

Yet, even before that, yes since the beginning of the Christian church, there have been divisions and disagreements. Acts and the Epistles are full of accounts of disagreements between Judaizers and those who would not have Christians follow the Jewish way of thinking. There were disagreements about the Lord’s Supper, about Baptism, as well as many other things.

To think that we all can agree on everything is ludicrous. We will never agree on everything on this side of heaven. We will never come to an agreement about how we should baptize, when we should baptize, or even what baptism does for us. We will never agree on whether the whole Bible is true or just parts of it. In connection with that, we will never agree on how to interpret Scripture either. We are so close and yet so far apart.

Now, I am not saying that this is all right. I wish for and long for the day when we can all agree on every matter of faith. It would be the most awesome thing in the world if we could all come together as one in theology and in practice. Still, as long as there are human beings in these church and a part of these churches, I am afraid that this will not happen.

Even within our own church bodies, from Lutherans, to Roman Catholics, to Presbyterians, to Methodists there are constant struggles and disagreements. The LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) of which I am a member, just had a convention. Not one of the motions that were voted on received a 100% vote. While this may seem like a terrible thing, it really isn’t. It just shows that we all come from different places and times, have different views on things, and will never agree on everything. I’m not saying that it is good that we can’t ever agree or that it is ideal, but it is just the way it is among sinful human beings.

This shows another reason for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. If we were all perfect, which we aren’t, we would all agree on everything, because we would all have the same mind, the mind of Almighty God. Since none of us is perfect, and since we are all fallible human beings, we will always disagree.

At the same time, getting back to the beginning point, we do have different belief systems based on our best understanding of things. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod bases its beliefs solely on the Scriptures as they have been set out for us in the 66 books of the Old and New Testament. We also believe that Scripture interprets Scripture, which means that if we don’t understand something in Scripture the only way to figure it out is to read the rest of Scripture to come up with the answer.

The Roman Catholic Church has as its authority the Scriptures and church tradition which includes an infallible Pope. In other words, if they don’t understand Scripture they go to the Pope for the answers.

They believe they’re right. We believe we’re right. And you believe you’re right. If this weren’t the case we wouldn’t need all of these different churches now would we? We would all be one big happy Christian church.

While we long for this and continue to work toward this, the likelihood of this happening is very slim on this side of paradise. Therefore we eagerly await our full adoption as true sons and daughters of the king into our heavenly inheritance that is heaven where there will be no more divisions, wars, famine, plague, or any other consequence of sin. Come quickly Lord Jesus! Come quickly!! Amen!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Over my six years of being a pastor there have been a few things that I have learned. One of the most important things that I have learned is that the Gospel is a much better motivator than the law is. It is much easier to catch flies with honey.

What I mean by this is that, if you want to conform someone to the will of God and have it be for the right purposes, you have to persuade them with the love of Christ that flows through your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This can be applied to just about any and every situation in life. If you want your spouse to be kind to you, to respect you, and to show love to you, treat her with kindness, love, and the peace of the Lord. If you treat her with contempt, with scorn, or as someone to just be there for your every whim, you won’t get very far.

It can be applied to your kids as well. I learned this with my daughter Cara. If I start to yell at her when she isn’t doing what I want her to do, she immediately shuts down and goes into crying mode, or she is rebellious to the point of sitting down on the ground and pouting. At the same time, if I treat her with respect, if I tell her why it would be good for her to do what she is told, and if I show her the love of Christ as I am telling her, she will gladly do it most of the time and we will both be pleased.

This also works very well in talking with others about Christ in so many various forms. You can either go up to someone and accuse them of their sin by calling them a sinner, or you can show them that you are sinner too, that both of you need a Savior, and that God sent his Son Jesus to save both of you by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

This also works well in getting people who have strayed from worship and fellowship to come back to church. It doesn’t work to make them feel guilty and ashamed of not being there, that just drives them further away. It also doesn’t work to accuse them of their shortcomings over and over again. What does work is to share Christ with them, over and over again, letting them know how much you care for them, how much you want to have them back with you, and spending time with them, kind of like Christ did with “sinners” like the Samaritan woman, the tax collectors, and others.

Truth be told, I have had to learn most of these lessons the hard way. I have tried to guilt people into doing things. I have tried to yell my kids into submission. And I have tried to use the law to motivate people into doing what I want them to do. It just doesn’t work.

Not that I have achieved the ideal yet. I still get a little too forceful with my kids from time to time. I still bring out the guilt card with members of my church a little too often. And I still try to use the law to bring about results. Please forgive me God.

My point is that if we are to grow our churches, if we are to bring about love and peace in our families, if we want to heal broken relationships and make new ones, we need to do it with the fruits of the Spirit namely: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

At the same time, this isn’t something that we can necessarily “work” on. Instead these things come as a direct result of our growing understanding of God as he has made himself known to us through his word and sacraments. In other words, to change our habits, to change our attitudes, and to change our perspective we must rely on the one who changes us, namely the Holy Spirit.

This is what worship is for. In worship we confess our sinfulness and receive the forgiveness that our Lord Jesus won for us on the cross. You receive His Word through your ears as the pastor preaches the sermon, as you hear people read from God’s Word, and as you sing hymns that contain his word at every point.

This is what Bible study is for. In Bible study we learn all about God and who he is and how he deals with us, we also learn from him how we are to treat one another and grow with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is what daily devotions are for. In daily devotions are minds are turned from the every day worries of the world to the serenity and peace that can only be found in Christ. In prayer we have a conversation with our Lord God, and who better is there to talk to than him?

If we spend time daily in these things, and rightly learn from God’s Word we will definitely see a change in all of our relationships. We will also see a change in ourselves.

One thing I do wish though is that I would have learned these lessons a long time ago, that way I wouldn’t have messed up so many relationships and spent so much time trying to fix what I had messed up.

I encourage you all to learn from my mistakes. Live a life of love, not sappy all accepting love, but true Christian love that flows from a pure heart that has been cleansed by the blood of the lamb. God go with you as you grow in, by, and through him!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I don’t know about all of you, but I am sick and tired of all this namby-pamby, touchy- feely Christianity that is out there. It seems like everywhere I turn nowadays all anyone wants to talk about is feelings and attitudes. There is not much talk about theology, the Bible, or absolute truth. There is not much discussion about standing up for what you believe in and actually saying that other people might be wrong. It is considered intolerant and even at times bigoted or evil to express your faith in a real and concrete manner. It frustrates me to no end when I hear people, who call themselves Christians, say things like “Aren’t we all going to the same place anyway?” Or, “My God is no better or worse than their God.” Or, “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere about it.”

Come on people! Was Jesus ever like this? Did Jesus ever say, “It is all right if you believe in Mohammed instead of me, or that you don’t believe that I am God, or that you don’t believe that I rose from the dead, as long as you are sincere in what you believe, it’s all okay”? NO! He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.” He also said that “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.”

How did we get to the point where a Christian can’t stand up for his true beliefs without being criticized or slandered? Well, sorry to say, most of the problem lies with Christians themselves. We have become too concerned with what people think of us. We don’t want to offend anyone so we water down our Christianity so that it sounds and looks the same as every other religion. When attacked, we back down instead of fighting.

When I watch most of the T.V. preachers out there, at least the ones I am familiar with, I could be watching a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, or an Atheist, and I wouldn’t know the difference. Everyone sounds the same because they are all about helping yourself, or about making yourself feel good, or about the most popular thing for the day.

Very seldom do you hear a T.V. preacher, with the exception of the likes of Billy Graham, talk about the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is all about how you feel and how to feel better, when it should be about how you are a sinner and how God saved you from your sin by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for you.

People are dying without knowing what Jesus has done for them and all we can talk about is how to make our own lives better with more money, a better career, or a more successful life, come on! It is time to get our heads out of the sand and start preaching the pure Gospel again! It is time to forget about what people think of us or the successes that we do or don’t have and start thinking instead about how the Holy Spirit can work through us to bring souls to him through the Gospel!

Quit being a namby-pamby, touchy-feely, emotional, self serving Christian and start serving others by giving them what they really need, Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. If they are sinning, and you know it, tell them, even it means hurting their feelings.

Don’t tell them that whatever they are doing is alright, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else. There is no such thing as a sin that doesn’t hurt anyone, because every sin hurts God!

Instead, tell them that what they are doing is against God’s will according to what He says in the Bible. Tell them, that you love them but that you can’t stand to see them hurting themselves and God like they are. Tell them you don’t want to see them lose their faith because of what they are doing. Then, when they are finally listening to you and heeding your words, tell them the true and certain good news that Jesus died on the cross for them and that their sins are forgiven.

I think one of the reasons that we tend to see less and less men in church is because of this emotional, feely Christianity that so many have grown accustomed to. If we want to regain the Christianity of our forefathers, if we want to rise up again as brothers and sisters in Christ, then we need to stop worrying about feelings and start looking to the truth of God’s Word and the true help and salvation that is offered there. God bless us as we rely on God to guide us into the way of truth! Amen!

Monday, June 11, 2007

A lot of advances have been made over the last ten to twenty years in the areas of anxiety and depression. There are tons of wonderful medicines out there that can help someone who is dealing with these issues. Counselors, therapists, and psychologists are continually working on news ways to work with people who are clinically depressed or have anxiety disorder. Still, it is disheartening and discouraging to me to see how many within the Christian church still don’t have a clue about these disorders that have been affecting the lives of millions of people since the fall of Adam and Eve.

I used to not understand these issues either. If someone would talk about being clinically depressed or having anxiety issues and panic attacks, I would say things like, “Why don’t they just take a deep breath and stop worrying”, or “Just stop it”, or “Trust in God more”, or even “Maybe if you work on strengthening your faith you will be able to conquer these problems you are having.”

Then, in January 1995, something tragic happened. A fellow teacher of mine and a person with whom I shared a classroom and coached basketball committed suicide. We found out later that he had been clinically depressed for quite sometime and hadn’t been taking his medication. I didn’t quite understand it. I blamed myself. I was angry at him. None of it made any sense. If he was just depressed why didn’t he just do something to make it so he wasn’t? It bothered me for quite some time until I learned more about what it actually meant to be clinically depressed or to have an anxiety disorder.

Many of you reading this today have some sort of ailment. Maybe it is high blood pressure. Maybe it is diabetes. Maybe you just can’t see as well as you used to. What if I told you people with high blood pressure to just calm down and lower your heart rate? What if I told you people who have diabetes to just have more faith and that will lower your blood sugar. What if I told you people who can’t see that you don’t need glasses, you just need to work on your eyesight?

It doesn’t make sense, does it? While we are still learning a lot about depression and anxiety, we do know that in the majority of the cases it is not simply external factors that are the cause. Most of the time there is a mix up and a mess up in the chemical reactions of the brain that cause one to be clinically depressed or have anxiety disorder. Hence, it is really a physical problem not just something that can be relieved by simply taking a deep breath and counting to ten.

When I say clinically depressed, I am not simply talking about having a bad day once in a while. I am talking about a depression or anxiety that causes physical symptoms and a disorder that takes over and ruins your life even when everything seems to be going great; something you have no control over.

So how should we as Christians, forgiven for our own sinfulness and shortcomings, react to such a problem within our own family and loved ones? Well, one thing I have learned from past mistakes is that it is best not to give advice for something you don’t understand. Don’t tell them to pray more and it will all go away, but pray with them and for them. Don’t criticize them and tell them that their faith is just too weak. That will just bring them further down and make them wonder about their salvation.

Instead offer to help them find help. Assure them that it is okay to take medicines for this just as it is okay to take medicine for high blood pressure or diabetes. Offer to go with them or to take them to a counselor that will help them deal with their disorder and live with it, but know that it might not be something that ever goes away. I have had asthma since I was two. It hasn’t gone away, but I have learned to live with it and manage it.

Most importantly, assure them of their salvation. Let them know that even when they might not know what is wrong with them and even when they may be questioning God, God still loves them and Jesus Christ has still died on the cross for them.

In a way clinical depression and anxiety disorder are both great testaments to the helplessness we have in our humanity because of our sin. I’m sure those with anxiety and depression would just love to “snap out of it”, just like I would be forever grateful to the person who comes up with a cure for asthma to the point where I don’t have to take medicine anymore. At the same time we all have shortcomings, failures, and the consequences of sin in our lives. This shows us that we are who we are and God is who he is, and no matter how hard we try, we are never going to reach up to his heights, nor are we ever going to be able to bring God down to our level. We must rely on the mercy and grace of God to both get us through this life and take us to eternal life with him forever.

If you are someone with anxiety and/or depression I urge you to get help. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t think that you are weak or that you will somehow be “abusing” drugs if you are taking medicine for these or other disorders such as these. If you want you could even come and talk to me and I will try to counsel you the best I can, but most assuredly I will help you find the help you need, and I will pray for you and with you.

God’s blessings as you live under God’s grace and forgiveness in spite of all the things that you have to deal with in this world.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Today I want to talk about these books that people have been suggesting to me saying, “Pastor you’ve go to read this”, or “I really like that book it really changed my life. I call them “self help books” although many would call them masterpieces of literature and words that change lives. They are huge in scope and number, but my problem is that they have even entered the realm of Christianity, and have sold millions of copies among Christians. I want to speak only about two of them today although there are literally thousands of them

The first one I want to talk about is called “The Secret”. It is a book that even Oprah raved about for quite some time. What it tries to sell to us is the law of attraction. It is very simple and it makes sense. If you are nice to people and do good things, you will attract nice people and good things all around you. If you are hard working and do your job well you will attract more clients, more business, and so on. Sounds pretty reasonable right? Not always.

What happens when you are doing all the right things as it says to do in this book and still nothing good happens to you? In other words, what if you are like Job who had everything he could want, and all was taken away from him even though he did everything right? Or what if you are like Solomon who had everything he ever wanted including all of the wisdom of the world and yet, was miserable after not following God’s will concerning foreign wives and false gods.

The next book is a book by Joel Osteen called “Live Your Best Life Now”. This one isn’t much different. Think positive thoughts, have A LOT of faith, and you can achieve and have everything you could ever want. Again it has a lot of good stuff in it. But you can tell from the first page on the book is nothing more than Norman Vincent Peale warmed up and put in a colorful package.

I know I am probably ticking off quite a few of you today, but you need to be aware of what you are learning. You may think I am a bit too critical, but I have to be critical of anything that can cause harm to a person’s soul.

I could continue to list so many of these books that are flying off of the shelves in Christian bookstores everywhere. I guess they are flying off of the shelves because, just like the books, we are self centered. And who doesn’t want to live their best life now, know the Secret to a successful life, and live a life with purpose to it.

My friends, the key to happiness is not how much worldly wealth you acquire, or how much good you can do, because you will always be in want of more. Instead of being self or human centered, as if we are the center and in control of the universe, we need to be Christ centered and cross focused so that, even in the midst of pain and failure, we can have peace and joy. The key to a successful life is a life spent in the grace, mercy, and peace of Christ, knowing that even in the midst of your failures and shortcomings you have nothing to fear, the pressure to perform and do everything perfectly and in righteousness towards God and fellow man is gone.

As Paul says, “Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with Go something to be grasped, but made himself NOTHING, taking the very nature of a servant.

The problem is that these books promise success, happiness, and prosperity, when they are in no way able to fulfill these promises. What happens when the average person does what these people tell him to do in these books and no earthly good comes out of it? What happens when all they get for their $25 they spent on the book is just $25 less in their checkbook? What happens when success isn’t all its cracked up to be and a person gets to the top and realizes how lonely it is up there?

Instead of empty promises of wealth and prosperity, we need to stick to the one who keeps his promises. I am talking about our Lord Jesus Christ, who promises that if we but trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus and his death and resurrection we will soon be with him forever in paradise. We need to stick to our goal of eternal life. When we stick to this goal through the power of the Holy Spirit our lives, no matter what the circumstance, no matter how much we have in the bank, how big and beautiful our house is, no matter what our health is like, no matter how many people we can gain as friends or influence along the way, our lives will be fulfilled in the grace, mercy and peace of Christ.

Monday, May 21, 2007

A couple weeks ago, I came to the conclusion that this world just stinks! Everything about it stinks. A guy, out of his mind, shoots and kills 32 college folks. Another guy takes a hostage and kills him along with himself. Twenty people die in a car bombing in Baghdad. There are five people in my subdivision that are on the sex offender list. Wives and children are constantly being abandoned by selfish jerks who could care less about the child they helped to create as long as they get everything they want. People are starving all over the world and we throw more food away than we consume. The most popular people, at least as observed by Entertainment Tonight, are women who are having babies and then handing them over to their nannies to care for as soon as they can, all the while partying till they puke. These are the girls that our daughters are supposed to look up to? I think not! Or is it the rap artist who has been shot seven or eight times and survived? Oooo, he must be a tough guy. We better look up to him? Question, why was he in a place where he could get shot that much?

The next day I came to another conclusion. I am one of the luckiest people in the world. I have a wonderful, beautiful wife, two very good looking and above average kids (listen to Garrisson Keilor on "A Prairie Home Companion" to understand the above joke), if I do say so myself, a perfect job where I can, every minute of every day, talk about Jesus and his love, a wonderful support group of Christians all around me, and most importantly a faith that will see me through to eternity.

Did you catch what I did there? I showed the contrast between the world and Christianity. I clearly delineated what it means to live in the world but not of it. This is what it means to live the Christian life.

One of the best selling books to come out recently is called "The Secret". I haven't read it and I don't care to, because I am too busy reading the BIBLE which is really no "secret" at all. Yet, what I have heard about this book is that it gives you the "secret" to a "happy" life. The problem is that this book just assumes that the key to a happy life only includes money, fame, success, a good looking spouse, and a healthy body. Sorry, but if my happiness is connected at all to what I have on this earth without first relying on the mercy, grace, and peace of God, then all is lost and I will be the poorest, most depressed sap in the world.

I'll give you the real secret to being happy or to a life worth living, or living your best life now, or how ever you want to put it. Here it is! Are you ready? Do you have paper and pencil to write it down? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. Now that you've heard it you realize that it is really no secret at all. All you have to do is open your ears and your eyes to the truth that is right before you in God's Word.

In the midst of a world that seems to be going downhill faster than an Olympic skier, in a personal life that will be full of ups and downs, you can be happy because you know that John 3:16 is completely true. You know that, because Jesus died on the cross, you will not die but live and proclaim what the Lord has done!

Sometimes as I am watching the late evening news I just sit there and cry. All I see and hear is one bad news story after another. Yet I have peace because I know that there will come a day when this world will end, and it is this peace that makes me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, appreciate all of the good gifts that God has given to me while I am here on this earth! I pray, out of sincere love for all of you, that you can and do know that peace and security as well, because I really want to see you in heaven with me someday! "The peace of God which transcends all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians. 4:7) Amen.

Monday, May 14, 2007

What is evangelism? Is it simply inviting someone to church? Is it just getting them into the church building, and then whatever they do see, or hear is irrelevant? Is it taking care of someone’s needs either physical or emotional? What is this thing called evangelism? Well, the actual word comes from the Greek word euangelion, which means “good news” or even “Gospel”. Evangelism is “good newsing”.

Are we “good newsing” people by only doing the things listed above? Are we sharing the Gospel by helping people with their physical needs? The answer, very plainly, is no.

We need to define what we mean by “Gospel”. Again, we go back to the Greek word “which literally means, “good news”. Well then, what is the good news that we have heard from God? It is nothing less than “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Simply put, people need to hear this message and come to believe it, or they are going to hell.

The question we all have to ask ourselves in our own Christian lives and in our Christian churches is “Have they heard the Gospel from me/us?” Do they know that Jesus died on the cross for them? Are they going to be in heaven with us?

A church can be doing all kinds of good things, bringing thousands of people into the church through all sorts of programs, feeding thousands of people through charity, and providing all manner of programs to help people make their lives better, but if they are not bringing people to the saving work of Christ they are not doing what God has called them to do.

Don’t get me wrong, all of these things are good and the church should be doing all these good things. They should be feeding the hungry, clothing those who have no clothes, helping people who need help, being a comfort to those who need comfort, providing a safe place for children to go, and so many other things. But all of these things are done so that people will be more receptive to, hear, and believe the Gospel.

Almost every other religion does good things too. I have even heard of Satanist doing good things for others. Doing good things for people does not make us Christian. Believing that Jesus Christ came to earth, suffered, died, and rose again for us does. We reach out to the “least of these” so that we may show them Christ and what he has done for us.

As Christians, we need to be all about the good news. If it means inviting them to church so that they can hear the Gospel then so be it. If it means giving them a meal so that they listen to you tell them the good news, that’s good too. If it means that it changes your relationship with someone then so be it.

Are you sharing the true and unadulterated Gospel with people? Is your church? You might not be. I can tell you that I am not always telling people about Jesus as I should. At night when we go to bed we all must confess that we are not sharing the Gospel as we should. Then, after we have confessed, we should ask God, every night, to give us the power and the strength to be bolder tomorrow.

God has truly blessed us with the most wonderful message in the world. It is a message that gives people peace on their deathbed. It is the Gospel that can calm and comfort a soldier in battle. It is the good news that Jesus has saved us that can help in all times of trouble. Thanks be to God!

May God bless all those that we love, which should be everyone, even those that the world has deemed unlovable, with that same peace that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Lately I have heard a few people talking about how to dress for church. While there are a lot of thoughts on this matter, and it may sound sort of trivial, it is not really a joking matter. I know a lot of people who have been afraid, embarrassed, or just plain didn’t come to church because of this issue. They think that they didn’t or wouldn’t “fit in”, or that every one would be looking at them.

The fact is that God does give us some instruction, especially to women, in the New Testament, about how one should dress. You might think it says that women should dress to the hilt with makeup, and their best, most expensive dress, and some nice jewelry, but it doesn’t. Instead it says, “I want women to dress modestly with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”

Really, it comes down to the heart. What does the way you dress say about you? Does it say, “I am a slob and I don’t care who knows it”? Does it say, “I am rich and successful and I want everyone to know it”? Or does it say, “I am a Christian and I am here to bring attention and worship the Lord God and not bring attention to myself.”

The truth is that God could care less what you wear to church if your heart is not there. You could wear the finest suit or dress known to man and if your heart is not with the Lord you might as well be wearing old dirty rags. Your outward appearance only matters to God if it matches your inward appearance.

On the other hand, when you go to visit someone you care about, you want to wear your best for them, don’t you? If you are going to visit the president would you wear sweat pants and flip-flops? If you were going on a date would you want to make the best impression possible? If you were invited to a friend’s house for dinner, wouldn’t you at least take a shower and put on clean clothes?

When you present yourself to God, your whole presence, both inwardly and outwardly, should be a presence of humility and worshipfulness. If that means a suit and tie then that is fine. If that means a polo shirt and khakis that’s, fine too. It may even be that it means clean sweat pants and a t-shirt, or shorts and a tank top, as long as the tank top doesn’t bring attention to you. The whole idea is that you are bringing glory to God and no attention to yourself, and that you are honoring God with what you are wearing.

The reality is that the only one we should be dressing for is God. We should dress as a witness and testimony to the honor we have for him. We should dress as if he mattered most in our lives. Isn’t this just common sense?

The problem comes, once again, in the “have to” versus the “get to”. Do I have to dress up? No! Do I get to dress up to bring glory to God? Yes! So the answer is, you should dress your best to bring honor and glory to God.

The other problem is that in a sinful world others may judge you according to what you wear. The question is does their judgment matter? The answer is, No! They have no business judging you. Only God can judge you.

So the best thing you can do is to dress so that you don’t bring attention to yourself, but that all the attention goes to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That, in fact, is the essence of what Paul is telling Timothy in the reading I mentioned earlier.

In short, a Christian’s motto should always be “To God all honor, praise and glory!”

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

During this season of Lent we talk a lot about sin. But what exactly is sin? Is it something you do? Is it something with which you are born? Are there different categories of sin? Well, hopefully in the next few paragraphs, I will be able to answer some of these questions.

To find the answers to these questions, we only need to turn to one place and that is Scripture. In 1 John 3:4 we see John describing sin in this way: "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness."

Please understand that we are not simply talking about the law of the land, but the perfect, unadulterated law of God as he has set forth in the Old and New Testaments.

How did sin get into the world? Well, there are really two answers to this question. The first comes from 1 John 3:8 where it says, "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning."

So sin came from the devil. On the other hand, as it says in Romans 5:12, "Sin entered the world through one man." How many kinds of sin are there? There are two kinds of sin, original sin and actual sin.

What is original sin? Original sin is that total corruption of our whole human nature that we have inherited from Adam through our parents. There is one verse especially that tells us this straight out.

Psalm 51:5 says, "I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

There are others that hint at this in one way or another. Romans 5:12 tells us that, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." John 3:6 tells us that "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

This original sin has brought guilt and condemnation to all people, has left everyone without true fear and love of God, and causes everyone to commit all kinds of actual sins.

Actual sin is every act against a commandment of God in thoughts, desires, words or deeds. This is clearly taught in Matthew 15:19 where it says, "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." It is also seen in James 4:17 where James tells us that, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

The way we confess it at St. John's Lutheran Church is that we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. There are many actual sins that you commit each day, some without even knowing it.

The best verse is 1 John 1:8 where John tells us, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

You can see then, that once you look into the perfect word of God, you know that no one, not one person, can escape the ravages of sin. We are all sin damaged.

Yet, the next verse, 1 John 1:9 gives us peace, comfort and joy, because it also plainly tells us, "If we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Today I commend to you God's word as you search it out for the truth in your life. There is no hiding from God. It is time to look at yourself with all honesty and reality as you are a sinner. It is then time to look at Jesus for what he is: your Savior! Have peace, in Christ you are saved!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent in many churches. It is a time to humble ourselves by realizing our sinful states and our need for a Savior. On Ash Wednesday we "humble" ourselves by having a smudge of ashes placed on our foreheads to remind ourselves and others that "dust we are and to dust we shall we return."

We do it to show others that we are no better than they are, that we are sinners too, in need of God's forgiveness that comes to us through his Son's suffering and death on the cross. During Lent, we realize our sinfulness through the law so that we may rejoice all the more on Easter Sunday when we hear, "He is not dead, he is risen."

In my last article, I talked about the difference between the law and the Gospel. The law kills and destroys in that it shows us our sins and brings us to our knees in humility seeking forgiveness through the mercy and grace of God. We see this happen in Scripture. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is before the God's throne when he realizes his sinfulness and falls with his face to the ground. He said, "Woe to me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the Lord God Almighty."

In the New Testament, after Jesus provides the miraculous catch of fish to Peter and the other disciples, Peter realizes his sinful state and falls down on his face and says, "Move away from me Lord for I am a sinful man."

When Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments from God, his face shown with the brilliance that could only come from being in the presence of Almighty God. When the Israelites saw this brilliance they exclaimed that it was too much for them and they asked Moses to cover himself when he came down from the mountain.

It is the same with us. When confronted with the magnitude and seriousness of our sin, our first reaction is to hide. Take Adam and Eve, a perfect example of the shame of sin. Immediately after they ate of the fruit of the tree of which they were not supposed to eat, they realized that they were naked so they hid.

In today's world, we think we can hide from God. We do things in secret, thinking that no one can see us, when God is right there beside us. We lie and deceive.

Even as Christians, we like to explain or excuse our sin away. Think of all the things you do wrong every day and how you justify it by claiming that you didn't have enough time, that it was a little mistake, that everyone else is doing it, or that it is an accepted practice in society. We do and say these things hoping to justify ourselves. But we know all along that we are only hurting ourselves and our Lord God.

As Christians, we need to confront sin head on, not on our own, but with the power of the Holy Spirit who works through the Scriptures. When someone is sinning openly and unrepentantly, we need to confront that sin so that the person may be saved. We don't do this in a judgmental way, but we "speak the truth in love."

If God's love is not in your heart when confronting another's sin, you will fail in your task of bringing that person to God for forgiveness. If you have not love you are "nothing but a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

When we are sinning ourselves, we need to come clean, not only to the person or people we are sinning against, but most importantly to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As long as we continue to dismiss sin by saying things like, "It's not that bad," or "He is doing it too," or "The devil made me do it," we only hurt ourselves and the rest of the church.

When we are confronted with sin and feel the sheer despair that only the true and unadulterated law can bring, we need not remain in despair. We can find perfect comfort and peace in the Gospel.

Martin Luther went through this very thing. As a monk, he felt as though he was keeping the law perfectly. Because he kept it perfectly, he felt as though he was gaining his way to heaven.

As he read deeper into the law, he realized that the harder he tried and the more he worked, the more he failed and the deeper he fell into despair. He had no relief. He had no peace - until he realized what the Gospel was all about as he read passages such as Romans 1:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9.

In these passages, he discovered, "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:20). He read a little further and found that there was "a righteousness apart from the law to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Romans 3:21-22).

Through God's word, Martin Luther and millions of others before and after him came to realize their total reliance on God for salvation from first to last, because they couldn't rely on themselves any longer.

It is important that we keep the Law and the Gospel in balance in our lives. It is important that every day, as we are confronted with our sinfulness through the law, that we acknowledge it, confess it, and let the Lord Jesus kill it and remove it from you with the Gospel.

We cannot hide form the law, because no matter where we go or what we do God is there. He knows our very thoughts before they even come into our minds. We cannot excuse it away as being no big deal. We must deal with it face to face. It is how we deal with it that makes the difference. We must deal with it through the means of grace and forgiveness that our Lord God has given us.

I urge you to deal with your sin, so that you are not burdened with it any longer and that "The peace of God which is beyond understanding keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Amen.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

What is the law for? I'm not talking about the law as in the laws of the land - although they are based upon the laws to which I'm referring. I am talking about the law set before the people when God gave it to Moses on the mountain: the Ten Commandments. What are they for?

Many people throughout the world view these commandments as rules to live by. Yes, this is one reason we are to live by the law, but is that the only reason that God gave us the law?

What happens when you don't follow that law perfectly? What happens when you look at someone other than your spouse lustfully? For Jesus tells us that anyone who looks at another woman (not his spouse) has already committed adultery in his heart, thus breaking the third commandment. He also tells us that if anyone says, "Racca" (I hate you), to his brother, he has already committed murder in his heart. Or what about all of those times that you held money in higher esteem and with more value than you did the Lord? Didn't you break the commandment there as well?

Jesus tells us that if we break the commandments at just one point we are guilty of breaking all of it. What good are the Ten Commandments, not to mention the hundreds of other laws, if we don't follow them perfectly?

Well, back when I was in eighth grade confirmation class I learned it this way. The law acts as a curb, a mirror and a rule. It acts as a curb to keep you from straying too far from God and to keep you on track. It is the way that God has given to his people to keep from destroying themselves. The laws of our land are based on this point. They keep us from anarchy and total destruction. They are used to keep the peace.

The second use is as a rule. The verse from the Scriptures, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," has a good application here. The problem is that we would be in big trouble if we stopped there. We would be constantly depressed if this was where we stopped in our use of the law of God, because we would realize how much we fall short on a daily basis.

That leads us to the third use of God's law.

The law also acts as a mirror. As you look at yourself in the mirror and see all of your flaws and blemishes, so you can look at the law and do the same with all of your failures and spiritual blemishes. When you look at the law you can see all of the things that you did that you shouldn't have done: the evil thoughts you had, the things you failed to do and the evil words you spoke.

It is through this use of the law that you are driven to your knees in despair, seeking mercy, grace and forgiveness because you are helpless and hopeless to save yourself.

It is in this way that the law is good. It brings us literally and figuratively to our knees. It helps us to confess that we are poor, miserable sinners. It helps us to forego our pride and put our very lives in the hands of Almighty God who alone has the power to save.

This reminds me of Jeremiah 31:31-34, which I have used several times before, but I want to remind you of it again. In it God tells us that the time is coming when he will make a new covenant with the houses of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the first covenant, which they broke. The difference in this covenant is that it will only be God who is responsible to keep the covenant. In this new covenant, he will forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more.

In the old covenant under the law, God's people were responsible for keeping all of God's laws and commandments. When they broke the law, they were to offer sacrifices or "sin" offerings. This wasn't necessarily to pay for what they had done wrong or to appease God. It was to help them realize how costly and serious sin is. Too often, these sin offerings were not given with a penitential heart, but only in a dutiful manner, as a way to simply "pay" for sin and keep God off their backs. The offering lost its meaning and effectiveness. The sins remained and the people were dead in trespasses and sins.

Under the new covenant, the gospel, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, has fulfilled all that we could not fulfill, and paid the penalty that we could not pay. He is the perfect sacrifice for us. He is the sacrifice that paid for all of our sins for all time. Therefore, instead of looking to our own superficial and meaningless sacrifices to appease God or to rid ourselves of sin, we look solely to Jesus, who "takes away the sin of the world."

I urge you, as you look at your life and measure it up to God's perfect law, and as you realize his command to "be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect," I pray that you come to the conclusion that you are totally lost and condemned.

Then, fall on your knees, and tell God you're sorry. Turn from your sin, knowing that your sins have been forgiven - not because of your confession and repentance or that you turned your life over to him and totally committed yourself to him. Rather, it is because of what Christ has done for you by living a perfect life, dying a perfect death, and rising victoriously over sin, death, the devil and hell.

"Then, the peace which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7)."

Monday, January 29, 2007

What do you believe about Christ? An even better question might be, do you believe certain things "about" Christ, or do you believe "in" him? There is a difference.

A person can claim they believe Jesus was a man who died on a cross and rose from the dead. In fact, one can claim everything written in the Bible is historical fact. It is still a totally different thing to believe "in" Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. It is a totally different and more complex thing to believe "in" the totality of Scripture.

Many churches claim to be Christ-centered, even more claim to be "Christian," but how many of them claim to believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? How many claim to believe "in" Christ rather than just believe "about" him?

It all has to do with the relationship you have with him. I can believe my spouse is a good person and that she will do what is right because of the way she has acted toward me previously. It is another thing to rely on her and believe in her integrity to be a helper, companion and partner in life.

One comes from the knowledge of previous experience and the fact that she continues to be a good person. The other comes from a willingness to put my trust in her for my well-being and the well-being of my children.

On a much larger scale that is what faith is all about. You can have all the knowledge of all the facts that there are about the events and circumstances in the Bible and that can all be proven to be true in your mind. None of that takes any real faith. What takes real faith is when you put your complete trust in God for your well-being here on earth and, for that matter, your eternity.

Let me put it in even simpler terms. It is one thing that to know and believe Jesus died on the cross. This is a proven historical fact. It is totally another to believe this death on the cross was for you, for the forgiveness of your sins and for the saving of your soul from hell.

Say you are hanging off a cliff by your fingers. A man comes along who has the proper tools to save you. He lowers down the rope and says, "Grab on, I will pull you up." You know and believe he has the power to save you because you can see it in his hands. Still, it takes a big leap of faith to let go of the rock and grab the rope. In the end, you will grab the rope because you will eventually fall and die otherwise.

Faith in Christ is kind of the same way. Your whole life is like you are hanging from a cliff by one hand. The difference is you don't know it, or you think you can still pull yourself up with your own hands. Christ comes along with the tools, his very own body and blood, to save you. It just seems logical that you would, in the midst of your peril, let go of the rock and hold on to Jesus who is able to lift you up safely. Yet in your self-centeredness and pride you tell Jesus, "No thanks. I can make it on my own."

This is how the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature want us to think. Christ, on the other hand, wants us to simply let go of the cliff and hang on to him to be saved.

Once you start thinking in a truly Christ-centered manner, all of the pieces start to fall into place. You start to think and believe the world doesn't necessarily revolve around you, and you begin to realize there is a higher power involved in the world. You start to view the whole Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, in a Christ-centered way so even things like the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood, the rise and fall of earthly kings all point to the savior who is to come.

At the beginning of this article I made the analogy of how I believe in my wife. That analogy falls short in that from time to time my wife will let me down and even more so I will let her down. This is because she is a sinful human being just as we all are. When we put our trust in God, however, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will never be let down.

I urge you not to simply believe "about" God or even to believe God, but to believe "in" him. Put your trust in God to save you from sin, death, the devil, and hell, solely by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. I can assure you with all certainty that you will not be disappointed.
We are well into 2007. Things are constantly changing. The computer I buy today may be totally obsolete tomorrow. What is hip and cool today is totally outdated and uncool tomorrow. Our moods change with the weather. Our feelings change with the seasons. Our emphases in life change just as much as the rising and setting of the sun.

Six years ago the emphasis of my life was to get done with the seminary, wait expectantly and worriedly for the birth of my first child and for my first call into the ministry. Today my emphasis is on raising two wonderful kids and leading a church through the first decade of the 21st century.

In the midst of the workaday world that chases after all the latest fads, we can be sure there is at least one thing that will not change.

The old saying goes, "We can be sure of two things, death and taxes." I would have to add one other thing, the Word of God. His promises are as sure today as they were when he promised Adam and Eve that he would send a Savior. His word is just as valid and as relevant today as it was the day he first breathed it into the ears of His inspired writers. His Law and His Gospel mean as much today as they did the first time they went into the ears of its hearers.

The problem is not God's Word as so many would like to say. It is not outdated and irrelevant. It is not wrong. The writers would not have changed what they said based on scientific hypothesis. God would not have changed his mind based on what a few people thought and said was true. It has never been based on the whims of men but on the steadfast mind and will of God.
No, the problem is not God for he does not change and he is perfect in every way. The problem is the sinful creatures who change on a minute-by-minute basis, whose very lives change like shifting shadows, whose moods change based on the barometric pressure. The problem is we are sinful creatures who cannot seem to simply take God at His Word. We want to have it our way, not God's way.

In an age of complete relativism, in an age of you believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to believe and we're both right, we need to get back to an absolute truth. In an age of everyone saying what itching ears want to hear, the law, the commandments of God, need to be proclaimed and taught so we all know where we have fallen short and where we stand with the Almighty judge and know that we are all poor miserable sinners. We need to then proclaim the simple Gospel of God's grace that he gave through the death and resurrection if his Son, Jesus Christ so that people, in their despair over their sin, may be saved.

As this year bulldozes forward, and as your thoughts and moods change by the minute, trust in and hold fast to God's Word as it changes your life from the inside out. Trust in the promises of God which are the same yesterday, today and forever and which will save you for all eternity.

I urge you to read God's Word, the Bible, for what it truly is, God's Word and not necessarily what you want it to be. Peace go with you throughout this year.