Author: The Pastor

The power of prayer

/ The Pastor / 7 Comments

I have prayer story to share with you…

Last year we started celebrating baptismal anniversaries on the 2nd Sunday of each month.  After the hymn of the day (following the sermon) we take some time to celebrate with those celebrating a baptismal anniversary for that month.  I share a little illustration highlighting a promise we receive in baptism and then invite those people forward to the altar rail for a blessing.  The blessing is one I learned from my internship supervisor (who also celebrates baptismal anniversaries).  It goes as follows:  "The Lord bless and keep this day and throughout the coming year; keeping you in the promises He made to you when you were baptized.  Amen"  This is all done while the organist plays some soft music.

Well…yesterday was baptismal anniversary day.  As I looked at the list of names in the bulletin I noticed first that the list was pretty small and then that only three of those people were in worship…two of which I did not think would come up.  So I decided to do something different.  I invited those who have a baptismal anniversary to come forward for a blessing and anyone else who just wants to receive a blessing.  I then went up to the altar rail and waited…and waited.  Finally one man came up with his wife (her name was not listed).  Then a couple others.  Then B came up front.  I knew it was not her baptismal anniversary, but she was going to have major surgery on Monday to re-section her stomach to remove a tumor.  So I laid my hands on her head and we had a moment of prayer together and then I gave her a blessing.  With a tear in her eye she whispered a thank you to me and sat down.

This afternoon B’s daughter called me and said the 3 hour surgery went great.  They re-sectioned her stomach but also removed her spleen, gall bladder and part of her pancreas.  B is going to be a little surprised when she comes to.

Wow…God is awesome.  I knew B was nervous about this surgery but something always told me that everything was going to be fine…and it was.  This is nothing else but our awesome God watching out for B.  And the thing is…I did nothing but lay my hands on B’s head and said a few words.  B went into surgery today knowing that her church family was praying for her.  I wonder if she felt a hundred hands being laid on her head.  I wonder if she felt goosebumps as the Holy Spirit made itself known to her.  I wonder of the doctors felt God’s hand guiding them throughout the surgery.  I know B knows that she was not alone and that right there gives me great comfort.

Thank you God for being faithful and hearing our prayers.  I know that you don’t always give us exactly what we ask for because you know our needs better than anyone else.  But I know you hear us.  I know that you want to hear from us.  Thank you for demonstrating your power to me today through B.  Amen!

Sometimes we all need a little boost through answered prayer.  Isn’t our God awesome!  AMEN!
-edh-

Sunday morning prayer

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

I haven’t written a Sunday morning prayer for a while so here is the one I am using in my sermon this morning.  God bless and have a great day!

Gracious, loving and merciful Father, you have done so much for us yet we come before you with a weak faith.  Jesus came to this world and died on a cross, yet we have a weak faith.  Through Christ you forgive our sins and give us the assurance of eternal life, but we have a weak faith.  Grant us faith to move mountains and help us to live in the assurance that there is more to our existence than this chaotic and depressing world.  Help us to live with a vibrant and active faith expressing itself in word and deed.  Thank you God for loving us.  Thank you for the assurance of the very thing we hope for…eternal life.  Through your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen!

-edh-

God’s gas station

/ The Pastor / 9 Comments

The epistle text for this Sunday (11th Sunday after Pentecost) is from Hebrews 11 where it talks about faith.  Verse 1 says this, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

When I hear this basic definition of faith from Hebrews 11 I picture this "formula" in my mind: 
<HOPE> –> add some <ASSURANCE> –> and this leads to a held <CONVICTION> of something.

OR

<HOPE of something more to this life> –> add <ASSURANCE that Jesus died for your sins that you may have eternal life> –> this leads to a <CONVICTION> or <FAITH> that there is indeed something more to this life.

But what happens when we stop going to worship or stop praying or stop engaging scripture?  We stop hearing or experiencing this ASSURANCE that we all need to hear.  Therefore we start to run out of "gas".  And I definitely know this feeling.  I don’t stop going to worship but I have experienced times when my prayer life and devotional practices have slowed down.  It is in those moments when I feel "tired".  Basically…running out of gas.  I spend all my time feeding others and encouraging others to "refuel" their faith that I sometimes forget to practice what I preach.  Busyness is one of Satan’s best weapons.  We think we are doing God’s work when all the while we are draining our own faith life.  Satan loves nothing more.

And I think that is what has been happening to me this summer.  I haven’t been pulling up to "God’s gas station" nearly enough.  I haven’t been "feeding" myself nearly enough and because of that I have felt a little drained all summer long. 

Well…that’s going to stop.

We need to constantly hear and experience the assurance of forgiveness and salvation to endure in this world.  We need our hope re-energized and our convictions strengthened.  This can not be done in isolation from God or others.  Throughout scripture God has proved to be faithful.  God has proved to be true.  This we can not receive from the world — its only from God our Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have committed myself to a running program to re-energize my body and to train for a 1/2 marathon.  Now I need to commit myself (once again) to re-energizing my heart and soul (on a regular basis) through a more regular prayer and devotional life.  Busyness aside — God needs to come first.

So stay in the Word.  Keep praying.  And hear God’s assurance of forgiveness and salvation for your life.  Jesus died FOR YOU and FOR ME. 

I think I am starting to feel a little bit better.  Amen.
-edh-

Spam comments

/ The Pastor / 11 Comments

Today I received my second spam comment in the last couple days.  To date that makes three in the last two months.  I don’t like that trend so I have made some changes.  I have activated CAPTCHA which requires people to "pass a test" to prove they are not a computer leaving messages.  Basically you will need to enter some letters that you see on the comment screen.  I hope this does not become an inconvenience but I do want to nip this spam thing in the bud before it gets out of hand.

Has anyone else seen any spam comments recently?

-edh-

Accountability

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I have a list called, "Things I want to do before I die".  I have had this list for some time now, but really haven’t given it much thought until just recently.  So here’s my list and then I will tell you why I am even revealing this to you:
(1) Golf St. Andrews (the Old Course) in Scotland — the birth place of golf
(2) Golf Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia (where the Master’s is played)
(3) Travel in Europe (especially Germany and in Luther territory)
(4) Visit the Holy Lands
(5) Run a marathon

Part of me is really nervous about typing the next part of this post.  It means (at least to me) that I am committed to what I am going to do.  My mom and sister are going to read this along with a number of other people who are going to hold me accountable.  So here it is:  I have set a goal for myself to run a 1/2 marathon next summer and eventually a full marathon if not in 2008 then in 2009.  So there it is.  It’s out there in the open…I am going to run a 1/2 marathon next summer with the goal of eventually running a full marathon by the end of 2009.  Why do I have this on my "Things I want to do before I die" list?  Well…I believe a marathon is the ultimate test of endurance and I want to see if I can actually do it.  I don’t have a time goal just an I-want-to-finish goal.  And I think I can do it, but I am counting on my friends and family to encourage me and hold me accountable.  And not only will I accomplish a dream of mine, but I will get my body in better shape and be a little more healthy.

And in our Christian life – in our walk with Jesus – we also need people to hold us accountable.  Having that trusted person to meet with you to ask you questions like:  How is your soul these days?  How is your prayer life?  Have you been reading your Bible?  How is your stewardship? Etc.  It is easy to ask ourselves these questions but even easier to blow them off.  But when we have an accountability partner then it is harder to blow these questions off.  Our partner is there is encourage us and to pray for us.  They are there to listen when the going gets tough and to point us to Jesus.  And the reverse is also true — we can be there for someone else and be a "little Christ" (as Luther would say) to them.

Discipleship is not an easy thing and it is even more difficult when you are alone.  That is why I am thankful for this blogging community.  You have served as an "accountability partner" for me.  We may not ask each other those faith walk questions all the time, but we are reading and responding to each other.  We are challenging each other.  And if someone here stopped blogging, people would notice.  So I thank each of you for being Christian accountability partners.  I thank you for challenging me and forcing me to think about faith issues and my own personal faith.  Thank you.

With that I take my leave of you so I can head down to the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary conference (Arnold’s Park, IA — NW Iowa).  I have been taking some continuing education this week to attend this free conference and so far so good.  I will tell you more about this conference later and what I took away from it.  But I will tell you this, I have had some pleasant surprises thus far. 

So…in the mean time:  How is your soul doing these days?

God bless!
-edh-

A matter of perspective

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

This past weekend I made a monumental decision…I decided to CHANGE my normal morning running route.  I know, I know…a Lutheran CHANGING something…wild, I know, but I needed to spice things up a bit. 

We have a trail system that lines the Des Moines River in Jackson which is really pretty to walk, run or bike on, but even that was not enough to prevent me from deviating from my normal course.  So…I left the trail and hit the road.  As I was running I came upon Bluff Ave. in Jackson.  This street is not very long (about a block and a half), but it does have a hill.  I have driven it many times and never really thought much about it…until I arrived at the base of the hill.  As I looked UP the street I thought to myself, "Who tampered with this street and made the hill steeper?"  My run up that hill was interesting.  I made it, but I was puffing pretty hard by the time I got to the top.  Of course no one tampered with the street, but that hill sure looked bigger outside the confines of my car.

This morning I decided to alter my route once again, not because the Bluff Ave. hill scared me, but because a friend of mine challenged me to run along Springfield Parkway.  Dan said he runs this street and the long gradual hill is quite a workout.  My first thought was, "What hill? (I need to tell you here that I have lived in Jackson for over three years so one would think I would know this town pretty well by now…a town of 3,500 people).  As I thought I realized that there was a little incline to that street but no big deal.

<Insert chuckle or laughter here>

As I left the trail and turned onto Springfield Parkway this morning I was once again blown away.  "Who tampered with THIS street?"  Springfield Parkway is quite a bit longer (just over 1/4 mile) than Bluff Ave but not as steep, but the hill still look monstrous because of how long it was.  I made it to the top, but once again I was puffing a lot of air.

After my experiences with Bluff Ave and Springfield Parkway I realized something.  For the first time I was looking at those two streets from a difference perspective.  In my car I hardly noticed the hills because my car is doing all the work.  My car doesn’t even down shift to tackle those hills.  But outside my car, those hills looked like mountains (O.K….I may be exaggerating…sightly…but they WERE big).

I then started reflecting:  This is a lot like our relationship with God.  When we turn things over to God, life seems more bearable, but when we try to handle things on our own, little problems look like mountains that are far beyond our capabilities.  It’s really a matter of perspective.  God seems to make big problems (or mountains) manageable.  God doesn’t take them away, but is our source of strength.  And when we can’t do it anymore, God is the one carrying us.  I think that is why I like the poem "Footprints" so well.  When the person walking on the beach could only see one set of foot prints in the sand, during the most difficult times in his life, it was then that God carried him.

So God showed me something today.  Even though I can run Springfield Parkway and Bluff Ave. without keeling over dead, I would not want to do that day in and day out.  I am glad God is my God.  I am glad that I don’t have to walk this life alone.  I am glad that I will always have someone who cares and understands me.  God knows my strengths and weaknesses.  God knows when I can handle things (with His gentle nudgings and encouragements of course) and Gods knows when I can’t do it.  And when I can’t do it, it is then that God carries me UP that hill.

It’s a matter of perspective:  With God or without God.  It’s really a no-brainer…isn’t it?

-edh-

I35W bridge collapses

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Many, if not all, of you know by now that the Minneapolis/St. Paul area was struck by a terrible disaster that has effected my people far and wide.  The I35W bridge collasped on Wednesday around 6pm (peak rush hour).  My wife and I were with some friends at the Mall of America yesterday when we heard the news, but the magnitude of the event did not totally strike me until I arrived home and turned on the TV.

First and foremost, please pray for the victims and their families, the rescue workers and all those involved and/or affected by this terrible tragedy. 

I live over 3 hours away from the bridge but as I sat watching the intro to The Today Show this morning, I could not hold back the tears.  Its amazing…one minute you are driving on a bridge minding your own business and the next blink of your eye your in the river wondering what just happened.  I can’t even begin to fathom what that would be like.  You don’t expect things like this to happen.  Bridges are not suppose to fall from underneath you.  Hopefully authorities can figure out what happened and work to prevent this from happening again.

But it is in times like this I am even more grateful for our awesome and loving God.  God is our strong tower.  God is our mighty fortress.  And God will never tumble, fail or fall away.  In times such as these I turn to and hold on to God who comforts me.  And I know that God will comfort those who have lost loved ones.  God will be with the rescue workers.  God will be there among the rubble until the last survivor is found and the last body is pulled from it and laid to rest.  God is awesome and God is faithful. 

Loving God, comfort us in our time of need.  Be with the victims, families, rescue workers and all those involved with this tragedy.  Words cannot adequately express our feelings now, but we know that you are faithful.  Thank you God for always being faithful and for being with us always.  You never desert us and you never leave us to fend for ourselves.  Thank you God!!!  Through Christ we pray…Amen.

-edh-

Indifference, Curiosity and Intelligence

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

I don’t have anything really theological right know, but hopefully this afternoon I will when I return from text study.  The texts from Ecclesiastes and Luke 12 are running around in my head creating all kinds of chaos — good chaos though (if that even makes sense).  I do have a couple thoughts on them but have not formed them into "intelligent" sentences yet (if THAT even makes sense).  So in the mean time I am going to leave you with these three postcards that always make me laugh.  This is such a random post, but that is how I am feeling today.  Enjoy and I will see you later:

(1) Indifference:  It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn’t take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

(2) Curiosity:  There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.

(3) Intelligence:  Some people drink deeply from the fountain of knowledge.  Others just gargle.

God bless and stay cool (it is hot and humid in SW MN).

-edh-

My smelly problem

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

No…it is not what you are thinking 🙂

Yesterday morning my wife and I were getting ready for our workouts.  She uses our elliptical trainer that’s in the basement and I go for a run along the river trail in town.  As I was getting ready my wife yelled for me to come into the kitchen.  As I arrived to see what the problem was she pointed out the window toward the church and said "look!".  There, by the rain gutter that drains into the tile, were a pair of young skunks wrestling and frolicking in the grass.  I had smelled skunks around the house before but had not seen them – until yesterday.  We stood in the kitchen watched them play and wrestle.  Then they would stop and run down into the underground drain that goes into the tile.  A minute or so later they would re-emerge and continue their frolicking.  It was quite a scene.  I then snuck outside and got close enough for a couple pictures.  They were really cute…

…but of course they cannot stay…

…so when I got to my HOT and HUMID office I called the police and relayed my problem to them.  They told me that I could come and get a live trap and when I catch them I could call them back.  The police then would come and "dispose" of the skunks and then take them out into the country.  I did not like the term "dispose" because I knew what he meant.  The officer did warn me that if they were to "dispose" of our cute, uninvited guests that it would smell for quite awhile.  I did not like that either.  So I was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Cue my brilliant idea…

…I stuck a hose down the drain tile and turned on the water.  I figured this would flush them out.  When I returned from turning the water on a skunk was fighting its way past the hose to get out.  Of course I kept my distance and let him/her get out.  Only one came out so followed the "drowned rat".  I "chased" our cute little friend around the church (once again…keeping my distance).  It turned a corner and then I lost it.  I am not sure where it went.  I did hear some rustling in the street storm sewer so maybe it went down there.  Either way…our cute little "drowned rat" is gone…for the time being at least.

After the exciting events in the high humidity (I am dripping with sweat by now) my custodian and I placed a wire mesh down the drain tile to prevent our little visitors from entering it again.  We’ll see if this works.  The rest of my day was spent dealing with the heat in my un-air conditioned office (I did not get out to do visits…I guess the heat index zapped me of all my energy — except for the energy I had chasing a skunk around the building).  I still laugh when I think about that.

Even though I did not get anything really constructive done today I believe I did save one life.  It my not have been a contributing member of this congregation but one more of God’s creatures is alive when I had a chance to kill it.  Of course this attitude may change if they come back and create a nuisance, but for the time being, I feel pretty good about myself…

…but…part of me DOES hope our cute little friends do return to frolick in the grass again because there’s not enough frolicking done in this world.

-edh-