Life in Perspective

Friday, December 11, 2009

RE: Life in Perspective

Here it is. I wrote it rather quickly as I am running out of time today. Please excuse any bad grammar or misspellings. Have a blessed weekend!

This is going to sound redundant and over done today, but I feel as though I must speak on this.

There would be no Christmas without Christ, yet every year Christian churches around the world are seeing less and less people on Christmas Eve.

Don't even get me started on Christmas day around the Warrenton area. It is as if Christmas is already over on Christmas Day.

What has happened? Has Christ become less important? Yes. Has Christmas become more materialistic? Yes. Do Christians have a bigger job to do today than ever? YES.

The thing is that it's not about guilting people into getting back into church or to start going in the first place. It is about sharing the LOVE of Christ with them. Here's an example, if someone invites you to go to come to their house for a party are you more likely to do it if you are nice to them and show concern and love for them or if they are mean spirited and make you feel guilty?

It only makes sense that people will want to come to church if there is someone there who cares about them, loves them, and wants them to be there. It is just common sense. Likewise if there is someone in your life that you want to see come to church with you or someone who needs to hear about Jesus, are they more likely to listen to you if you are constantly berating them and calling them a sinner or if you are showing love and genuine concern for them?

I think the church and people in the church have made a few mistakes in this area. Usually when people quit going to church or never enter the doors in the first place it is because of something going on in their life. Something is keeping them from going to hear God's Word and receive His gifts. It could be some sort of relationship problem. It could be money issues. It cold be here is a particular sin in a person's life that is taking over and keeping him or her from God.

Whatever it might be, we as Christians, need to recognize that the last thing that these people are going to respond to is our accusations, our ridicule, and our judgment. On the other hand, they will respond to our love, even more than that, Christ's love. The Apostle Paul put it best in his letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. Love (Christ's love) is patient and kind, love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; It is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Usually when we hear these words we say, "I sure wish I was loved like that." Or, "yeah, that's the kind of love I want." Really? I have been told quite often that you get what you give.

Do you want people to know the love of Christ? Then love them with His love. Don't love them with a selfish, earthly kind of love but with a selfless, forgiving love that loves unconditionally and for God's purposes and not one's own.

The best Christmas gift you can give someone this year costs you nothing, but cost Jesus His very life. Give someone the gift of forgiveness and eternal life this Holiday Season. Give them the love of Jesus!

Tonight at St. John's at 7pm our preschool children will be sharing that love by telling us all about the Christmas ABCs. Then this Sunday evening our Sunday school children will be re-enacting the "Manger Seen" Then Christmas Eve we will celebrate the birth of Christ with a wide variety of carols and music at 7pm and 11pm. Then on Christmas Day we will enjoy the beauty of Christmas morning as we hear more about Christ's birth, sing some more songs, and just bask in the glory of Christ.

Please join us and know that you are always welcomed and loved at St. John's no matter who you are.

Subject: Life in Perspective
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:45:50 -0600
From: JQuagliata@yourjournal.com
To: revklaus@hotmail.com

Good afternoon Jeremy,

Just e-mailing to see if you have a newspaper column to submit today. Hope your week is going well!

Jamie Quagliata

Community content editor

Suburban Journals of St. Charles County and Warrenton

636-946-6111, ext. 267

636-946-0086 fax

jquagliata@yourjournal.com

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

religion article

Attached is the religion article for next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

I have always believed that less is more. I can't stand it when my house or even a single room is filled with clutter. My grandma had one whole room of her house that was filled from floor to ceiling with newspaper clippings and old plastic containers. It was overwhelming when they moved to town to a smaller house. They ended up throwing most of it away as there was nowhere to store it anymore. When she passed away they could only get rid of the rest of it.

In this time in our nation's economical history and in our own lives that phrase "less is more" rings all the more true. We are learning to get by with less and that certain luxury excesses don't really mean that much. We are learning all over again that it is better to have something useful and economical than fancy, expensive and only useful for special occasions. . We are also realizing that the less our life is cluttered with stuff the better off we often are.

Having too much stuff can take a spiritual toll as well. Just think of all the money and time we spend protecting and taking care of all our stuff. It is so very easy for our stuff to run and then ruin our lives.

Jesus knew this full well. When he sent out the 72 to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God he told them to only bring enough with them to be comfortable. He told them that when they entered a town they should rely on the people there, whom God had appointed and blessed, to help them with all their physical needs. He didn't want them to be overburdened with too much stuff but instead to be able to focus on their mission.

He wants the same for you. He doesn't want you to be overburdened with too much wealth. It sounds like a contradiction doesn't it? Too much wealth, is there really such a thing as too much wealth? Believe it or not, there is. Jesus himself said that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." In this way and in many others, too much is more of a curse than a blessing.

Instead our Lord and Savior wants you to be able to rely on Him first and foremost. Instead of relying on the things, why not rely on the giver and provider of those things. Instead of trusting in material wealth to get you by and make you happy, why not trust in the spiritual wealth that only Christ can provide.

I want you to think about these things throughout this Advent and Christmas Season. Think about how much you have and what it is doing to you. Then maybe instead of hoarding and buying, buying and hoarding, you can give all your extra stuff away and bless someone who needs it.

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

religion article for week of sept 30

This article is also attached in Word format.

Peace on your day!

Jeremy Klaustermeier

Throughout this financial and economic crisis there has been great blessing. What? How can you say something like that pastor? Have you been blind to the ills of the world? Don't you see that unemployment is close to an all time high? Don't you see all the businesses closing? What about all the foreclosures?

Can you imagine anything else in all the world that has more control over our mood and our circumstance than money? We even call the time when this country had run out of money "The Great Depression." Yet, I have talked to many a Christian who was "poor" during that time but who also describe that time as the happiest in their life. I have also seen many a "rich" person who was completely depressed because of the burden of that love of money.

Let me share with you several verses that will help explain what I am trying to say. The first verse is 1 Timothy 6:10. It says, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Or how about this one from James 5:1-6 "Come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure at the last days. Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you…." Or this one from Ecclesiastes 5:10 "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. All this is vanity."

How is this present situation a blessing? It is a blessing because we have all too painfully been able to see how easily all of the physical and material things we have can be taken away. It is a blessing because for too long we have been made to put our trust in money instead of in the one who gives us the money and even the abilities we have to earn the money in the first place. It is a blessing because our present tough circumstance has caused us to turn back to him for guidance and support.

I can look back throughout my life and point to specific times in it that the Lord has turned me back to him, giving me no choice but to rely on Him for goodness and grace. It is in the toughest of times in my life that I have grown the most in my faith life. I praise and thank God for those tough times, because without them, God would not have made me the man who is able to write this article to you today. As Paul put it, "suffering produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us" if our hope is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I urge you in Christ to do whatever you need to do so that your hope and security doesn't lie in your finances or your economic circumstances but in the one who is in control of those circumstance. Take control of your finances. Pay off your credit cards and any other debt you have. Give your tithe. (By the way the word "tithe" means 10%, so if you don't have a job or, at this time, for one reason or another, have a negative cash flow, no one expects you to give anything. In fact, we as your brothers and sisters in Christ are expected to give to you as you have need.)

Have a garage sale and get rid of all the stuff you don't need. Give all that extra clothes away. Give what you don't use but someone else can to Agape or the charity of your choice. Don't be burdened by the love of money and things. Let God take control of it for you by going to Him in prayer and giving all those concerns to Him. He will guide you in all truth.

In other words, use this tough time for your spiritual benefit and for the spiritual benefit of others. Grow in spiritual wealth for a change instead of material wealth. Simplify your earthly life so that you can make time and space for your spiritual life in Christ.

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