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 What is hip and cool today is totally outdated and uncool tomorrow.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 It is not outdated and irrelevant.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.

“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.