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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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