Bible

Spark Story Bible

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Story Bible

At the risk of sounding like an Augsburg Fortress commercial I wanted to highlight this story Bible that I came across.  This Bible is geared towards age 2 through grade 2 kids and contains 150 Bible stories. It has great color pictures, stories that are short and each have a question or an action statement; something to help the kids think more about the story.

After buying one copy to look at I bought another 10.  So far two people have come in to buy one and others said they are also interested.  I may need to buy more.  There is also a Spark Bible geared towards grade 3 through grade 6 students.  And all of this is part of the Spark Sunday school curriculum.

My plan is to read out of this story Bible on Sundays for the children’s message (trying to coordinate with the Gospel text)  and also to give one to parents who have their children baptized here.  I have been trying to encourage people to get into the Bible more so let’s start them young.

My point here is not to give Augsburg Fortress free advertising but rather to highlight a resource for getting kids into the Bible.  One of my fondest memories took place one Sunday morning.  One of my 3 year olds came into the narthex before worship and was carrying a couple books.  She ran up to me to show me and the first one she showed me was her new Bible.  She was pretty excited and proud of her Bible.  Now…what pastor is not going to get excited about that.

I hope more kids will develop a love for scripture early and keep scripture as a huge part of their lives as they grow up, but it all begins with the family.

-edh-

Out of the storm

/ The Pastor

In Job 38 verse 1 it says, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm…“.  And then in chapter 42 Job realized how foolish he was to not trust God.

In Mark 4:35-41 the disciples (with Jesus) are in the midst of a storm.  When called upon Jesus answered out of the storm…and the storm was quieted.  But the disciple are amazed and still have no clue who this Jesus is.

When you are in the midst of a storm, do you expect Jesus to answer you out of the storm; in the midst of a world crashing in all around you?  And when Jesus does answer, what do you expect?  I think people expect God to calm the storm that is raging all around us, but what God wants to do is calm the storm within us.

It is the calm that is within us; the peace that surpasses all understanding, that powers us through the storms raging all around us.  When Jesus died on the cross…FOR YOU…and when Jesus rose from the grave…FOR YOU…Jesus paved the way through the storm.  This is not a scheme to make out lives better now, but rather it is Good News…NOW (which does make our lives better).  But it’s already been done; Jesus has won; the storms have lost their power; and Jesus is already in the boat with you.

What do you need to do?  Nothing…but look behind you…Jesus right there.

-edh-

God’s grace revisited

/ The Pastor

As I mentioned on Monday, I am working through the book of Acts this month, following the First Lesson for each Sunday.  Last week I preached on Acts 8 – Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.  This Sunday the text is from Acts 10 – Peter and Cornelius.  Both texts deal with the grace of God coming in “usual” circumstances and coming to people that the new church did not expect.

In Acts 10, Cornelius is a Roman centurion who was considered a “God-fearer”.  He did total subscribe to the Jewish faith but was still seeking for God.  Cornelius was generous to the poor and was an example to his family.  It seems that he was on the verge of something but just couldn’t put his finger on it.  Cornelius needed a witness and Peter was it.  So Peter and Cornelius have “visits” from the Spirit and the two eventually meet.  While Peter was proclaiming the Gospel to Cornelius and his family, the Spirit came upon Cornelius’ group and they began speaking in tongues.  Peter and all who were with him were amazed that the Holy Spirit was poured upon Gentiles…of all people.  This was a significant turning point in Acts where the new church realized that Gentiles were also included in the mission of Christ.

After Peter witnesses this amazing event he asks a similar question the Ethiopian Eunuch asked in Acts 8, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?” Or rephrased, “Can anyone keep these people from receiving the grace of God?” Obviously the answer is NO since the Spirit came upon those Gentiles and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop it.  The grace of God is for ALL people.

Who around us do we consider “Gentiles”?

Who in our communities do we consider “outside” the church?

Is there anyone we know (or group of people) that we consider unworthy of attention?

Who’s not worth the effort?

In Acts 8 and Acts 10 we see that the mission of Christ does not stop at the “boundaries” of the church building or at the group of people who call themselves the church.  The grace of God extends across boundaries and shatters our expectations.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus says “…and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”

Who are the “Corneliuses” out there that need a witness?

Who is the Spirit leading you to?

Listen and pay attention.  Someone out there needs a witness.

-edh-

Priesthood of all believers

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

The priesthood of all believers is one of the basic tenants of the Lutheran faith; that we are all ministers; all preachers of the Word of God.  Some people just happen to be called and set apart for this ministry, but it doesn’t mean it is reserved for the clergy alone.

A week or so ago my wife started writing and emailing devotions to her co-workers (and I managed to get on her email list as well…surprise, surprise).  She has been more faithful in writing than I have been at blogging recently (I hope she keeps it up).  Each night she spends about an hour or so in devotions; searching scripture and writing what God places on her heart.  Her devotions are thought provoking and definitely come from God (I keep telling her she need to write a blog, but so far no luck).  Each morning I sign on to my email and there is her devotion for the morning…and she ministers to me.  She says that every once in a while a co-worker will tell her how thankful they are that she does this…but don’t worry…she never let’s those comments go to her head.  She feels so unworthy to be doing this but at the same time she feels that God is placing these devotions on her heart to share.

For me, Connie epitomizes the “priesthood of all believers”.  She saw an opportunity to share Christ at work and she is taking it.  She doesn’t do it for her glory but for Gods.  Allow me to share an excerpt from her devotions for this morning (I do have her permission to share this) that speaks to this very thing…being a minister where ever we are at:

Colossians 3:16-17
“16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Here again we are commanded to be thankful and give thanks to God.   Do you ever think about your job being an extension of the Lord Jesus?  He just told us it is in this verse.  You are showing Christ when you answer the phone, do some filing, deal with a difficult person, go to a meeting, or go out on a visit.  I remind myself constantly throughout the day that whomever I am dealing with is a child of God.  He created this person and I need to love them, no matter how difficult.  I am thankful for people who have differing personalities because if everyone was like me, we would have way too much chaos in this world!  With Thanksgiving coming tomorrow, I want you to know that my thanks to God include my job and my co-workers.  I feel blessed to be able to share these devotions with you and know we are all focused on the same God everyday.

I am thankful for ministers such as Connie.  We all need to epitomize the phrase “the priesthood of all believers”.  It can’t simply be left up to the clergy.  Look for opportunities to talk about Christ.  Whether it is through an email devotion like Connie is doing or whether it is through how you respond to a “difficult person”.  Each and every person can be a minister/preacher in a variety and a number of ways.  Don’t miss your opportunity.  But what ever you do, do it all for the glory of God; giving thanks and praise to Him.

-edh-

More Amos…

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Greetings and salutations…and welcome to another beautiful day.

For today’s installment/post I would like to introduce you to a guess writer…my wife.  Yesterday I preached on Amos 5:18-24 and upon telling my wife about this she read Amos devotionally for a couple days.  Yesterday, my wife wrote something about Amos that she posted on a discussion forum that we’re involved in with a number of friends of ours.  What is to follow is what she posted (with her permission of course).  I thought she had some great insights on what God is saying to us through Amos and made me think about Amos in a brand new way.  So…here it is.  I will pass on any comments to my wife, Connie:

I wanted to share something with you guys that really struck me last night as I was reading in God’s Word. I was reading in Amos because my hubby preached on the Amos text today, and I decided to just read the whole book.

Then I also was struck by Amos 6:3-6 “Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, who cause the seat of violence to come near; Who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall; Who sing idly to the sound of string instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Now I want to write to you what I read, here is the Connie translation of Amos 6:3-6 “Woe to you who feel that God is not going to return in your lifetime and therefore become complacent in our mission to make disciples, who have allowed a deterioration of Biblical values; who have the fancy houses and sit on the couch watching TV all day, eating the most elegant foods; who sing hymns/songs in church with absolutely no emotion and invent “new ways of worship” rather than focusing on what God has truly given us in worship; who consume alcohol instead of turning to God for guidance or use Bath & Body Works products when Suave brand is just the same, you are not searching for justice in the community or world, but rather search for the best for yourself”. Anyway, here is Amos 8:11&12 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord. But shall not find it”. I was struck by the famine, because I feel that is where some of our churches are headed or are already there. We have our “books of worship” which may contain some scripture, but we are not spending the most time in God’s Word. We don’t always openly talk about God’s Word in our workplaces or our coffee fellowship downtown. We are truly in a famine. When we do talk about God’s Word or guidance, we make it into some “grandiose” language such as “And then the Lord spoketh to me saying” or some other crazy talk. I feel that God came for the people, in their terms, in their language. We the church are in the midst of this famine and if we don’t get going, we are going to dry up!

I especially enjoy the “Connie translation” of Amos 6.

What do you think about this “famine”?

-edh-

Amos and injustice

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

Today I am making the “bold move” and not preaching on the Gospel text.  Rather I am preaching on Amos.  I don’t think I have ever done that before, but I am looking forward to it.  I think the reason Amos caught my attention this week was the fact that we served at The Banquet (I’ll write more about this experience later) a couple days ago and then I read Amos talking about injustice.  2 + 2 were put together and the answer came back…preach on Amos.  So that is what I am doing.

One of the questions I hear being asked is:  What does God want? The answer comes in verse 24 of Amos 5 where God says through Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”  I think we miss way too many injustices that go on around us.  We get so focused on doing what we think is so supremely important that we can’t see those who truly need to experience God’s love through us.  We try to let ourselves off the hook by falling for Satan’s excuse that injustices only happen in poor countries thousands of miles away and that there is nothing we can do about it.  Well…that’s not true.  We can do something about it AND injustices don’t just happen across the sea…they happen in our own backyard.  It’s funny…we can see injustices in Africa and Central America, but we can’t see them in our own communities.

I think we need to read Amos more often and listen to this prophet speak to us right now…here in this place so we can “…let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

Have a very blessed day with our eyes wide open.  Amen

-edh-

Fall Theological Conference

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

I am on the road today with The Heart of a Pastor and find myself in St. Cloud, MN (here since Sunday evening).  Thank God for free wireless high speed Internet access.  But believe it or not, I am paying attention to the speakers.  I am one of those people who can multi-task.  I am listening intently (that is a very subjective description), while monitoring my Facebook site, reading the scripture for Reformation Sunday and periodically working on my newsletter article for November (Yes Vicki…I am working on it and will get it to you when I return).  Now we are on a break so I am able to write this post (adding this to my multi-task table would push me over the edge).

Anyway…I wanted to share with you a couple nuggets of information that I heard yesterday.  The speaker was Professor Rolf Jacobson, professor of OT at Luther Seminary.  I had this professor for my Psalms class during my senior year.  Yesterday, Rolf spoke about a Lutheran understanding of scripture.  Here are a couple nuggets that caught my attention:

—Scripture is the living Word of God of what God is doing RIGHT NOW…among us.
The Bible is not just some history book of what God did for his people many thousands of years ago.  I believe there are many people who hold this view.  But God is working among us now, today, right now and the Bible shows us what God is up to.

—If people don’t know the stories of scripture, then they won’t know who they truly are.
When we listen to stories from grandpa and grandma, from aunts and uncles, etc, we are not only hearing about stuff that happened to them in the past, but we are learning about who we are in this family.  When we hear the stories from scripture we are learning who we are in the family of God.  God’s faithfulness in the OT is not just some good story, but reminds us that, imperfect that we are, God is still faithful to us today.

I am constantly surprised by how many people I encounter are Bible illiterate.  We need a culture change, but how are we going to do this?

-edh-

“Give to God what is God’s”

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

This week is my week to submit a devotional for the local newspaper so I decided to expand more on what I posted yesterday.  The question I asked was, “do we spend time giving God what is God’s or do we spend way too much time debating/arguing over what belongs to Caesar?”  When it comes to taxes, government and politics, people can get really fired up and passionate but when it comes to God…well…not so much.  I mean…how many times have we heard passionate people get upset over “trivial matters” in the church, but rarely of “Gospel matters”:  “You’re not doing this report correctly”, “I don’t like those new light fixtures”, “I can’t believe so and so is doing that”.  Business matters of the church are important, but not at the expense of “Gospel matters”.

“Give to God what is God’s”
How about all those people who do not know God?  How about those inactive members?  How about discussions on who we can give our money too?  How about a discussion on what service projects we could do next?

What are we to give to God?  God demands and deserves our worship, our trust, our faithfulness, etc.  When we do this, everything else seems to fall into place.  When we give to God what is God’s “trivial matters” in the church seem to become less trivial.  When we give to God what is God’s, love and respect of all God’s people seem to take center stage.

So…”give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” but don’t forget to “give to God what is God’s” Amen.

-edh-

Monday morning check in

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Greetings and salutations…and welcome to another addition of “Monday morning check in” (I have no clue what that was…I guess I am just in a goofy mood this morning).

Anyway…

…if anyone is curious, the Twin Cities marathon web site has some pictures posted of me crossing the finish line.  In a couple of them you can definitely see my pain 🙂  To view these snap shots simply go to the website at:  http://www.mtcmarathon.com.  Once there click on “finisher photos” under the marathon section then enter my bib number: 4387.  There are a couple picture there that are not me.  I am the one wearing the dark long sleeve t-shirt with the red hat (or the one in more pain than the others).  Enjoy 🙂

Paying taxes (Matthew 22:15-22)
How appropriate that we get a text that talks about paying taxes.  In a time of economic hardship the last thing people want to hear about is paying taxes.  Here in Jackson, taxes are a huge issue.  There is a battle currently waging about the proposed construction or renovation of the county Resource Center.  Some want to see a brand new building and others want the current one (the old high school) renovated.  Either way, taxes would go up quite a bit in Jackson.  And this is after the new school referendum passed last year that some people believe the district is misusing.  What a time we live in.

Here in Matthew 22:15-22 the Pharisees are looking for some dirt to nail Jesus with so they try to trap him with the issue of taxes.  If he says that people should pay them then his followers would get upset.  If Jesus says they shouldn’t pay taxes, then the Pharisees could bring that info to Caesar and accuse him of treason.  But Jesus is smarter than this as he responds, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s“.  So the question is what is Caesar’s and what is God’s?  Discuss…

…to be continued…

-edh-

Where is your hope?

/ The Pastor

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

Hope is a scary thing…

…because it is placed in something (or someone) that we can not see.  If we can see it, feel it, touch it, taste it, etc, then we can’t have hope in it.  As scripture tells us, how can you hope in something that you can see?  But even though hope can be scary when viewed in this light, people often have no problem placing their hope in things/people that can guarantee nothing.  An athlete places their hope in their abilities…but one play can end their season or career.  Investors place their hope in their financial institutions, but as we have seen lately…well…I don’t need to elaborate.  People place their hope in one another, but the best of relationships can end with one word.

Hope placed in this world is a misplaced hope.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

As these watchmen stood on the wall, guarding the city, they waited for the morning sun to rise.  When the sun rose it indicated that their shift was over and they could return home…to be with their family and friends.  These watchmen knew the sun was going to come up.  They knew they were going home.  So they waited with a sure and certain hope.

But the hope this psalmist has is even more certain than that of the city watchmen.  This psalmist does not place his hope in things that can fail; in people that can let him down; in institutions that can crumble.  No!  This psalmist places his hope in the Lord.  Someone who is more faithful than the rising morning sun.  So he waits with confidence knowing that he will be going home someday.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Hope placed in this world is a misplaced hope.

Where is your hope placed?

-edh-