Entries for 'Pastor N'

So I'm working on a wedding sermon for a couple of young friends. As I have been increasingly aware of my old-geezerness, I'm tempted to offer all kinds of advice. A sort of Poor Richard's Almanac for marriage. But the truth is, marriages are all different, and people are all different, and the challenges they face are all different. There's only ONE thing that will be the same in every single marriage on earth...

(I'm back from vacation, working from my hotel room at the synod convention in Houston. Internet access is $10 per day here, so these blog postings finally have a real monetary value!)

Jesus replied to a man who wanted to know how to be saved, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" The man answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself." And then Jesus said, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live."

"Do this and you will live." 

Good grief! Have you thought about what Jesus said here? "Do this and you will live." He makes it sound so simple. Even with his parable, he only touches on our love (or lack of it) for our neighbor in the example of the Samaritan. But what about the first half of the command?...

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.

God talks about the city of Jerusalem in highly emotional terms. And obviously, even today Jews, Christians, and Muslims can all be very passionate about this city. But why?

Do you feel that strongly about your old home town?

Perhaps it's because I've moved around so much, but I don't really feel that way. In fact, I sometimes struggle to know how to answer when people ask where I'm "from". Well, I grew up through elementary school in LaPorte, Indiana, so I'm a Hoosier. But I was born in Rockford, Illinois (so I'm a "sucker," my dad said). But then I lived in Wisconsin for several years. Does that make me a Badger? And I've lived in Michigan more years than any of those places, but "Michigander" is the least interesting of all the nicknames.

What difference does it make? How does it change your view of...

Finally! It took me a long time, but after many requests I have figured out how to post a lot of the pictures from my trip to Sudan. Let's see if I can figure out how to embed a slide show directly into this blog post...

OK, it seems to be working. But it doesn't seem to start at the beginning. Sorry about that. I hope you can make sense of it anyway! You can go here to see a full-size version of the slides show.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

We had a great discussion about these verses yesterday in our staff meeting. It revolved around the paradox in the text, the idea that we're free to serve. If we have to serve other people, how can we say we're free? And if we're called to be free, then why can't we go use our freedom to serve ourselves?

Of course, the theological answer is...

"What are you doing here, Elijah"

Wow, sometimes I wonder. Is it that the Holy Spirit arranges for the Word to be eerily appropriate for my circumstances each time I read it? Or is it that passages like this just ALWAYS fit?

Nobody is trying to kill me, but I still think I know how Elijah felt. Do you? Certainly he had seen God's power. He should have had no reason to worry. But it was all just too much. He was overwhelmed...

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus..."

People really seem to focus a lot on identity these days. Did our ancestors spend so much time asking the question, "Who am I?...

To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, "Here am I, here am I."

How do you picture God?

Lots of people, especially non-Christians, think that the Bible gives two very different pictures of God, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. And they think that the OT God is red-faced, angry, judging, and far above us, while the NT God is loving, kind, merciful, and just generally a nice guy.

Nobody ever seems to picture God as eager, pleading, anxious for us to love him...

Where does sin come from?

I've been wondering about this lately. The story of David's sin with Bathsheba is a famous one (although the story of his repentance is a lot less famous), but I don't think I've ever heard anyone explain WHY David sinned? How did things get so far out of hand?...

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

In classical rhetoric there are three types of argument: the argument from emotion (pathos), the argument from logic or reason (logos), and the argument from authority (ethos). We use the first two a lot. But we use the third approach when someone will not listen to reason. That's when we say, "Because I'm the parent, and I say so!"

On more than one occasion, Paul had to defend his authority to speak...

"As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don't have any bread - only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug."

Fundraisers (who are now sometimes called Development Professionals) have got it down to a science, how to raise the largest possible amount of money from any given group of people. One principle they often tell an organization is: start with the rich.

You should start your fundraising efforts with people who can afford to make a "challenge gift." That way the people further down the ladder will be inspired to give more.

Evidently Elijah was untrained in fundraising...

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"Otherworldly."

That's a great synonym for useless, as in the phrase, "So heavenly minded that he's no earthly good." If Jesus' kingdom is "not of this world" what good does it do us?...

 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

People have some pretty strong feelings about "aliens", especially illegal aliens. Without making any comment about the enforcement of our borders, have you ever thought about what it would be like to be an alien?

I don't care what your ethnic background is, at some point your ancestors experienced that. Even those who are called "native" Americans were not always native here. People move. They leave their familiar homes, where they are comfortable and they know how everything works, and they cross some border to a new environment and a new way of life. God says that's us...

He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Do we really want to pray, "Come, Lord Jesus"?

In yesterday's blog post on the gospel lesson we talked about the dilemma of the divisions of the Church on earth. But it's not just the believers in Jesus are divided. It's also that false teachers have led many people... most people... away from Jesus Christ. We struggle against that false teaching, and want everyone to be brought together in Christ. But if Jesus comes today, then what?

All those who do not have faith in Jesus will be lost forever.

Do you want to pray "come, Lord Jesus", or do you want to pray, "Lord, just give me one more year..."

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one... May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them..."

I decided to write about the gospel lesson before addressing the epistle this week, because this will raise an issue that I'd like to address there.

Jesus prayed that all Christians would be "one". ...Are we?

Not exactly. In fact, not at all. The Church on earth is terribly fractured, and it brings no end of pain. It also drives many people away from Christ and therefore has led to eternal pain and loss. SURELY we should all just set aside our differences, agree to disagree, and become one happy family.

But...

Some of you may remember the sermon on Mother's Day, in which we talked about the Bride of Christ, and what it means to be beautiful in Jesus' eyes. In that sermon I talked about how a husband may truly believe that his wife is the most beautiful person in the world, but she won't believe that it's true. He's not blinded by love. On the contrary, it's only when we love someone that we can really know them as they truly are. Just as Jesus knows us, sins and all, and loves us, AND he makes us his beautiful bride.

Well... I just found an interesting bit that supports that idea from an unlikely source. Artie Shaw...

So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed...

I've already written on this blog about Abel and the other men at the seminary in Sudan, and about their willingness to answer the call of the church, leave home and family, and go into seminary training. I've also talked about it in Bible classes and at a congregation meeting. I guess this must be one of the things about Sudan that struck me most!

But why is that such a powerful example? I think because it's so different here...

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband...

I've had many conversations with people who complain about the masculine orientation of some of the language of the Bible. God often talks about us as his "sons," and of course God is described as our Father, and Jesus was born a man. For some people that is an obstacle to faith. The broken nature of their earthly relationships has tainted those images, so that they find it hard to see God's fatherhood as a blessing.

But sometimes the shoe is on the other foot. God also uses feminine imagery to communicate his truth. We are not only sons (which underlines that we are heirs who inherit God's kingdom), but we are also the Bride of Christ...

After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

How does a person decide if God is calling them into some kind of ministry in the church?

Our church body has whole programs about that. Books have been written. Pastors are asked to encourage young people to think and pray about it. We individually wrestle with the question, "What does God want me to do?" But Paul did not face this issue in the same way. And my friends in Sudan did not see it the way we do either....

I'm back safe and sound from Sudan, and I don't have a clue where to begin to tell about my experience there. I kept a journal of each and every day - but it's almost 40 pages long. People have already been asking me what is the best thing about my experiences there. And I'd have to say...

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing...

Now here is a great irony: Paul asks us to do something impossible - to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus. And yet this logically ought to be very easy for us, since we have no good reason to be proud of anything. It's an amazing thing for the Son of God to have "made himself nothing," but for us that's not such a stretch. After all, we're nothing already!...

"Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in, the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you!

God gets a bit hard on idols - and who can blame him? How would you feel if someone you loved started spending all his time with a photograph of a celebrity, or a statue of someone who didn't even exist?!? What if your spouse confided all his problems and concerns to an imaginary friend?

But now the imaginary friend has failed. The Israelites are in trouble, and the gods they prayed to cannot help them. What should God do?...

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!

Ah... do you remember the good old days? Remember when gasoline was just a quarter? Remember when car bumpers were made of steel, and only toys were made of plastic? Remember when people spent quiet evenings at home - they sat on their front porches and greeted their neighbors - and it was safe for the kids to play down at the park?

What do you miss most about the "good old days?"...

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

I feel old today.

I know. Some of you will think that's ridiculous (especially my older siblings if they ever read this). But aging is not just a matter of the body. It's a complicated set of things that work together to take away our energy and our joy in life. What does it take to make someone new again?...

In that day you will say: "I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me..."

(My apologies for not posting earlier in the week. Lent is not very conducive to regular blogging.)

Imagine doing your home finances. You are carefully making payments on the bills, writing the checks in the right order and timing them so that none of the money will come out of the account when it can't be covered. Things are close. You make payments against your credit card debt. And you're making progress, but you're not retiring it very quickly. And now it comes time to do your taxes...

 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

Do you laugh and roll your eyes at romantic movies, or do you cry? Or maybe both?

I've been reading the novels of Raphael Sabbatini recently. They have bold, adventurous titles like Scaramouche, and Captain Blood. But they're really just love stories with lots of sword play. Sabbatini is just a swashbuckling Jane Austen. But men roll their eyes at Austen and enjoy Sabbatini.

Don't believe me? What was the TV show '24' really about?...

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel..."

Have you ever met a policeman who abused his authority?

Or a school teacher? Or a coach? Or a politician? Or a boss?

This is not exactly a new thing to us, is it? Put a uniform on someone and their character often seems to change. Give someone power over others, even if it's only in a tiny area, like appointing one student to lead a small group of others, and they may become perfect tyrants. I have even known pastors to abuse their "power." But what is God doing, making us watchmen?...

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

Have you ever tried to plan a party, but no one could come?

• The siblings couldn't agree on a date for a family reunion.
• The office staff couldn't find a date for a Christmas party.
• The weekend of your child's birthday didn't work out for his friends.

What a bummer. When you had food purchased, and the house was clean, and the plans were made, but then your guests called to say, "Hey, something came up." It makes for a very depressing evening...

...as I have oftentold you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame...

Um... This is not P.C. Definitely not politically correct, or even polite! I mean, we just do not talk this way, do we?

I am afraid that if Paul were a pastor today he would be given that ultimate label of failure in our society... "hater." We like to say that those whom the Bible calls immoral are simply making different lifestyle choices. And those who believe different things about God just have "another perspective on the truth."

There is, however, one small problem for us to get past. How do we explain Paul's tears?...

As soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say... "You must die!... This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city."

A bumper sticker you would never see on anyone's donkey in Jerusalem, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Jeremiah (and 600+ years later, Jesus) simply point out the sins of the people of Jerusalem, and their opponents say, "You must die!"

In our country it's popular to criticize the government, or even the entire populace. But only for certain things...

We're all looking forward to seeing the mural that is being created for our worship service at the school. If you're not familiar with this project, it will be a very large mural on the south wall of the gymnasium. It will show the Apostle Paul preaching to the gentile philosophers in Athens and pointing them to the risen Christ. And it is a symbol of our ministry in Ann Arbor, preaching Jesus in the "Athens of the West."

Click 'more' to see a couple of shots of the mural in process...

A dear friend is attending the funeral of his father today. I woke up thinking about it.

Have you experienced a loss like that? Ten years ago, although I had been with dozens of grieving families, I did not really know what that was like. When I experienced that for myself, I discovered that my faith was indeed the comfort I knew it would be - and which I had always preached about. But I also found out there is more to grief than the pain of facing death...

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil...

I've fielded a lot of questions over the years from people who want to know if Jesus *could* have sinned - and if he could not then was it really a temptation to him? For that matter, many people seem to think that Satan's approach is so obvious that it hardly constitutes temptation. After all, they can't imagine themselves being seriously tempted to bow down to the devil or to jump off a tall building.

But the real question at the heart of this is, what is temptation?...

The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming...

Paul makes it sound so easy. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So why does it seem so hard for us? Here in chapter 10 he is talking about his deep desire to win over the Jewish people to faith in their Messiah, Jesus. And surely for the Jews it ought to be the simplest thing in the world. They already know the Law. They already have the word - God's promises...

When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance...

Wow! Talk about advance planning! The Israelites won't be harvesting the fields and orchards of the Promised Land for several years yet. And they won't have full possession of the land until after Joshua's lifetime. But God not only commands them to give a firstfruits offering as a thanksgiving, he tells them specifically what to say when they do it.

What if we were to do this at Thanksgiving?...

Fix your thoughts on Jesus...

I dare say that people obey this instruction more easily now than they did at the time this letter was written. For new Jewish believers in Jesus (the Hebrews to whom the letter was addressed) it might have been harder to get used to addressing prayers to Jesus. Nowadays Jesus' name is on everybody's lips.

Or is it?...

"This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."

You know, in a way, what's the big deal? After all, Abraham didn't get to possess the land (although he lived in it). 400 years of his descendants had that same promise, but they never even saw the land. It might even have started to seem like a dream to them. Like it was unreal. At least Moses gets to see the land from the mountaintop. But he can't enter.

Would that be enough for you?...

James Neuendorf did an interview with KFUO radio in St. Louis this morning (Feb.10) about his recent experiences in Haiti. You can listen at the link.

James serves as Communications Specialist for the Latin American region for LCMS World Mission. In that capacity, he documents and helps to communicate and promote the work of our US missionaries and the work of the many missionaries, pastors, deaconesses, and others from the Lutheran church bodies in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore His sacred name.

There is a very real danger that anything can become a cliche'.

And that's a terrible shame, because there are some things that should always be sharp and real and current - but by our careless use of them their meaning is gradually shifted... drained away... until they are only a faint tincture of their rightful potency.

Of all things, can you imagine this happening to the cross?...

[Jesus] said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so..."

Do you ever find your work frustrating? [Insert sounds of laughter here.] Do you ever feel like you're wasting your life, putting in countless hours without being appreciated, without really accomplishing anything? [Insert groans and lamentation.] Do you ever wish that somebody who doesn't know anything about how your job functions would come along and tell you how to do it better? [Insert sound of silence.]

Maybe not...

Try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

It's funny how we can know something quite well, and yet fail to apply our knowledge or fail to see the implications of what we know in a different context.

For instance, a pastor can know all there is to know about listening skills in counseling but never stop to think that his wife needs the same listening ear. A doctor can master the perfect bedside manner but not think to apply it to his own children. A waitress earns the gratitude and gratuities of her customers by her attention to their needs, but doesn't apply those same skills to her friends. And we all know that...

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send?"

Somehow, it seems to me, we tend to look at verses like this as being directed at someone else - not us. I don't know if you feel this way or not. Maybe it's just me. But things like this happen to people like Isaiah or Jeremiah, not me.

Oh sure, I have a "call" from God. But it's much harder for me. For us. Isn't it? I mean, God didn't appear to us. He didn't speak out loud to us. And most importantly, no angel touched us with a burning coal...

Do you know why a short ladder (only 5 rungs tall) has appeared in every single photo of the main entrance of the Church since the invention of photography?

Back in 1757 (before the Revolutionary War, etc.), the Ottoman Empire issued a ruling that established the status quo at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

You see, the church was owned or controlled by several different divisions of the Christian faith who were constantly fighting over how it was to be treated (repairs, expansions, worship, admission, etc.). So to stop the fighting...

Veritas

That's the Harvard University motto. It means "truth," which presumably is a reference to the goal of education, to pursue scientific, historical, literary, and philosophical truth. There's just one problem... That's not actually Harvard's motto.

Their real motto is...

They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.

What does it mean to say that Jesus' message had authority? Where did that authority come from?

We typically talk about 4 kinds of authority...

You might enjoy reading this Lutheran Witness Reporter article about relief work in Haiti.  Linked here.

And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Alright, let me admit my bias up front. Although I'm a sentimental person, I am intensely suspicious of sentimentality. If tears spring to my eyes when I witness a tender moment in a movie, that's fine. (Although I'll try to hide it.) But if someone wants to make me emotional, or more commonly wants to make themselves emotional, I'm disgusted. Emotions derive whatever value they have from the reality they reflect - they are not worth pursuing for their own sake. In fact, the sweet wine of love is a poison if it does not come from the grapes of sacrifice, selflessness, commitment, and even suffering.

Why do I start with this? Because I've encountered so many people who have jumbled Paul's words, and spend all their lives pursuing a resounding Gong Show of love...

You should be sure to go to these websites to find encouraging information about Haiti relief efforts.

James and Christel's blogsite has an encouraging short video up. You'll love the great recording of a Haitian Lutheran congregation in song after the disaster.

James uploads photos to the LCMS pages at Picassa. You can also find pics there from other synod mission fields.

LCMS World Relief posts up-to-date info about how our church is helping, and how the Body of Christ is serving.

Dr. Al Collver, currently on the ground in Haiti, has interesting posts from his experiences and those of others.

 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant...

Oh, no problem. Paul would be pleased with us, wouldn't he? We always focus on people's different gifts! For instance, we talk incessantly about the people on American Idol and which ones are talented and which ones are not. We talk about peoples' appearance - who looks good - who has good taste - who's strong or weak. We talk about athletic talents ALL the time, even assigning numerical values to them so we can rate them in our fantasy league.

And unfortunately, we evaluate talents among those we work with and those we love. We evaluate whose talents do us the most good...

 No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called [My Delight Is In Her] and your land [Married].

Hola! I'm blogging from my son's office in Panama today. We began the day by driving to the top of a tall hill overlooking the city. From that vantage point James could point out different neighborhoods and areas, each with it's own character. Here an historical district - there a "bad area" - here a busy port or an area with rich Americans - there a dangerous part of town. We can each characterize the cities and neighborhoods we know the same way - although our names would differ depending upon our relationship with them.

The very best name of all for a city or a village or an area is...

I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come...

My sermon planning notes say that this is my text for this Sunday, but I haven't had time to work on it yet. Your input would certainly be welcome.

The direction I planned to go with these verses was the dilemma we face when considering John's "good news." We talk about this as the gospel, but after pointing out all the peoples' sins John tells them that someone even more powerful than himself is about to come who will baptize them "with the Holy Spirit and with fire"!!! "His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Oh yeah. Wonderful news...

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine... I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead..."

Some people have a sense of their place in history. Some people are forever living in the future. And some people are very vividly in the present moment.

I've heard people give strong arguments for the superiority of one of another. Some even insist that only one of the 3 points of view is morally right. But really, all three are advocated in the Bible. Stop and consider, how do you look at your life today?...

The traffic on the roads was awful. Roman soldiers were stopping and bothering people. Mary was uncomfortable bouncing along on the donkey in the last days of her pregnancy, and too tired to walk all those miles. When Mary was riding, Joseph had to carry all the luggage, and when Mary walked Joseph had to support her. They wondered, "Are we there yet?"

Well, I confess, this is not from the Gospel of Luke. But it could have been.

We often bemoan the weary days leading up to Christmas. Frantic housecleaning before company arrives. Trying to get the last of the baking done. Being unproductive at work, and yet deadlines still pressing. Stores overcrowded, long lines, terrible traffice, bad weather, the stress to our credit card... did I miss anything? These are the days before Christmas for us, and they could not have been easy for Mary and Joseph either. And yet...

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

I guess every pastor has his "hobbyhorse," a topic or a theme in God's word that resonates with him and seems to find its way into many sermons. I apologize if I'm beating my personal drum again, but I am repeatedly struck by the hiddenness of God's hand in our lives. Even in Jesus' life and ministry, the glory of God is mostly hidden!

Only at certain times does God's glory break through: the transfiguration, the miracles, Elizabeth's recognition of Mary as the Lord's mother. But what about all of the other times? What are they like?...

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

OK, call me a cynic. But I've just heard one too many facile, superficial, smiley-face sermons on this text. Doesn't it just seem a bit too easy to say, "Rejoice!"

I know. Easy for me to say. Paul is in prison. He had greater challenges than mine. If he could rejoice, why shouldn't I (or anyone else who is frustrated, depressed, worried, overwhelmed, or discouraged)? If we just tell people to rejoice, isn't that just the same as telling them, in the famous words of Bobby Ferrin, "Don't worry. Be happy." Or in the more famous words of James, "Be warm and well fed."

Ah... but I wonder if one explanation for Paul's rejoicing is passed over by starting at verse 4. Did you look at the verses ahead...

Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy...

It's already Wednesday and I haven't posted yet this week. It's hard to look forward at the lessons for Sunday when you're busy preparing a different message for Wednesday. (And on Friday and Saturday I will be at an out-of-town meeting, so I may not get to all the lessons this week.)

These verses stand out strangely in their context. Zephaniah is unrelenting bad news from the first verse. And then all of a sudden, here almost at the end of the book, is this burst of rejoicing. Why?

God has judged his people - but after his judgment on their sin he will bring forgiveness and restoration. And he tells them to SING and to SHOUT aloud. Somehow, does it seem like we're missing that spirit?...

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves..."

First thought: Wow, preaching has really changed.

Who would dare preach like this today? Only somebody who didn't need to make his salary from the offering plate - who could live in a cave in the hills (or under a bridge) and subsist on bugs (or pine cones - many parts are edible). But to insult the very people who are coming to you to be baptized? I hate to say it, but...

What would it be like to be a member of the congregation in Philippi? They were begun in turmoil, including a riot. Their founding pastor run out of town after only a few days. Their newest member at that time the local jailor. But look through these verses to see the shepherd/pastor's deepest desire for his flock.

I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel... You might not believe how true that is, but a pastor understands that you don't have to listen to him, you don't have to attend, you don't have to volunteer or cooperate or give. But you do, and you make the ministry of the congregation possible. I can't believe that I am privileged to serve as a shepherd to our congregation...

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure his coming? Who can stand when he appears?...

Although for the month of December we are not publishing the SPOTS devotions (we're using our Advent devotion book instead), I will try to continue blogging on the lessons for the coming Sunday.

This is another of those interesting verses that we may not usually think of when we're looking for proof of Jesus' divinity, but which, kind of sideways, help to backup that Biblical teaching. It is "the Lord Almighty" that is speaking, and he says that he'll send his messenger before him to prepare his way. That is, of course, pretty well accepted to be John the Baptizer who came to "prepare the way for the Lord" - which is, of course, Jesus...

Jonathan had two coupons for McDonalds breakfasts. They were 2-for-1s so he needed someone to go with him. So I started my day with breakfast with my son. That was nice.

But God gave us an extra bonus. While we were eating, we overheard two men talking a couple of tables away...

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith...

Like last year, and the year before that, we asked all of our children to come up with a Christmas list, and of course mom and dad did the same. How do you write a Christmas list?

If I wrote what I REALLY wanted no one could afford to get it for me. At least my children certainly couldn't. And if I just write what I think would be easy to buy then I might not be that thrilled to open it. (Although I DO need more post-it notes.) So I shoot for the middle. What am I lacking that I would really like?

It's not hard to identify things that we lack. We would like more stuff for the tool box and more things for the kitchen. We'd like more clothes and more entertainment. We'd like nice things for the house and an accessory or two for the car. But what about spiritual things? What do you lack in your faith?...

In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved...

Some people are going to think this is political. I guess I can't avoid that because it does have some application to current events. But really my interest (which is almost always my greatest interest) is historical more than political. I think it's most useful to look at current things (like even within ourselves) from a long-distance perspective.

So... what did the Israelites think when the prophet Jeremiah gave them these words from God? A righteous Branch would sprout from David's line. You KNOW what that had to mean...

I've been wanting to write about this or use it as a devotion somewhere for months. A clipping from the hymn has been in my Bible for a long time, carried to all my hospital visits, but it hasn't ever seemed right at the time. But yesterday's post about the gospel reading and the strange contrast between the anticipation of summer and the expectation of the world's end encouraged me to go ahead and write something. (And phooey on all the other stuff I'm not getting done.)

The words of this hymn are great. But the coolest thing is the strange contrast between words and text. Notice how each verse is in two parts...

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door."

I know, I'm repeating what I wrote in the SPOTS devotion booklet, but this is worth thinking about more deeply. Jesus is making a funny comparison here. First he talks about all kinds of awful things happening - wars, rumors of wars, parents and kids betraying each other, pestilence, lots of terrible stuff - and all of this description is in answer to the disciples' question...

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire adn save them; to others show mercy...

Wow - I hate it when I finish writing a long and wonderful post and then the computer somehow loses it. Aaaarghhh!!!

OK, deep breath. Let me reprise what I already tried to say.

What does a normal job description normally say? Most often it consists of stuff like this:

• Make or Fix stuff.
• Put out fires.
• Write a report on what you made or fixed.
• Plan the next period of making and fixing.

Variations on that theme should pretty well cover what you do. But Jude has a very different description of what God has called us to do...

My salvation is on its way... Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.

I've always thought that it was this kind of language that most bothered non-believers. Judgment stuff. Verses about death and destruction. Watch comedy skits that mock Christians and how are we portrayed? As fire-and-brimstone, the-end-is-near crazies.

But look at the "prophecies" of secular wise men...

As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." ..."Tell us, when will these things happen?"

In the SPOTS devotion I focused on Jesus' warnings, "Watch out... be on your guard," etc. In my sermon (which I'm still working on, by the way) I am focusing on the destruction of these buildings and what it means, the removal of a form of idolatry. So let's consider here a different aspect of the text, the attitude of the disciples...

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins...

It is perversely appropriate that I am writing this post for the second time.

I wrote a post on these verses yesterday, but today I discovered that my work somehow disappeared. If the internet had an Amber Alert, you would all be on the lookout for my blog post, hoping to rescue it and bring it home before it wanders onto some bad page somewhere. But there is no Amber Alert for our words and work that evaporates into the ethernet. They just disappear.

A lot of our work is like that. And it's not very funny...

At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will come a time of distress...

St. Michael Lutheran Church in Richville, Michigan has a stained glass window that I love. It's very tall and narrow, and it depicts the angel Michael, with Satan the serpent wrapped around his body attempting to crush him. And Michael is plunging a long spear down through Satan's body.

I'm not a big fan of Frank Perretti (he writes fiction books about angels and spiritual battles among us). But I do believe that we should be more aware of the unseen war in which we are engaged...

"I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others..."

There are a thousand different directions a person could go with this text. Too many interesting things to discuss. But let's think about one side issue that occurred to me.

This woman's offering was NOT an investment in the church...

But now he [Jesus] has appeared once for all...

"Once for all," that's a great phrase. Can you think of anything that you do that STAYS DONE?

I raked the leaves last Wednesday, worked hard and hurt my shoulders doing it (your expressions of sympathy would be appropriate here), but I got it done in time for the collection that was supposed to happen the next day. The yard looked great! Neat and green and trim.

Unfortunately, the city didn't come around when they said they would. The wind picked up out of the south. The neighbor's leaves blew across from the other side of the street. My neatly piled leaves blew back towards the yard. *Most* of them are still in the street. But my yard is no longer neat and tidy...

[The widow] went away and did as Elijah had told her...

I haven't been blogging all week. It's funny - I check in on a number of other blogs about various (mostly news) topics. And when the authors of those blogs are undergoing some personal turmoil they usually share it - or at least some part of it - in their writing. Their blogs are, to at least some extent, expressions of their personal lives.

That's not what we want this blog to be. We want it to be focused on God's Word and how it applies to your life, not about how the pastor's life is going today. And yet, it's not possible for anyone to write in a completely dispassionate way. All that we say and do is affected by our own experience.

I wonder what that meant for Elijah...

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I always dread preaching on the Beatitudes. They're beautiful words. And many people find them encouraging. But they are a bit of a puzzle to me.

First, are they law or gospel?

You'd say gospel right away because they sound so encouraging, and they talk over and over again about blessing. But who can do these things? Who can be meek enough, or merciful enough, or hungering and thirsting enough for righteousness?

If only Jesus had said, "Blessed are the depressed..." that would have been much easier for me to take. Or...

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Often in his three letters John uses the phrase "dear children." He writes to his audience of grown men and women as if they were 4 and 5 year olds. He speaks tenderly, eagerly, excitedly about God's love for them and their future in him.

It's good to be a child sometimes, isn't it? Remember when people were always asking you what you would be when you grew up? Few of you could have predicted that you would be where you are now. (I know I certainly didn't.) And John says that as God's children we can't comprehend what we will be, except that we will be like him.

Let that thought sink in. Jesus will come again - and we will be like him! Purified. Perfected. Past all pain and sorrow. We will be with him forever!

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced...

"But..."

"But it's not my..."

"But I didn't do..."

Sound familiar? When a child is caught in some bad behavior, he or she will immediately deny responsibility. "He hit me first." "She took my toy." "He was on my side." Adults do it too, but we're so much more subtle. Even if we know that the failure was our own, we like to focus on the "mitigating circumstances."...

...For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than a double-edged sword...

These are the words of the chapter that we all recognize, but you'll notice that I put an ellipsis at the beginning of the verse too. The author's conversation doesn't begin here. This famous passage about the Bible being like a sword is actually the conclusion of a long discussion about something else.

It's about the promise of rest, but the possibility of...

Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun...

I hate work. I always have. But I love to write. I love to meet and talk with people. I enjoy preaching and teaching. I just hate work, that is, everything that someone else makes you do by a deadline.

What IS work, anyway? Many of the things that we do for recreation look more like work. A couple of years ago, I did a bunch of landscaping in our back yard...

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

Feelings are funny. In the church we tend to talk more about our thoughts, our beliefs, teachings, all more objective things. We understand that feelings rise and fall and are pushed this way and that by many things. Eating certain foods (sugar, caffeine, etc.) can affect our mood. Memories, experiences, changes in our bodies, can push our feelings one way or another.

It's a familiar experience for me now to spend a long time teaching someone about God's love and his plan of salvation only to be rejected because they cannot get past some feeling they have...

You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them.

Amos was called to preach to the northern kingdom, Israel, during a time of unprecedented prosperity. As Elisha had prophecied, they enjoyed greater wealth and power than at any time since King Solomon. And what did wealth bring? It brought to them exactly what it has brought to us...

Some Pharisees came and tested [Jesus] by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

The SPOTS devotion takes the easy part of this Gospel lesson, the last few verses about having faith like a little child. But for our blog post let's try to tackle, at least in part, these hard verses about divorce.

Jesus tells the Pharisees...

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers... Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death...

OK, I know. In the SPOTS devotion I used the wrong text. The appointed lesson is from Hebrews 2, and I used the same verses in Hebrews 1. Do you know what that means? It means that only the readers of this blog will get the real deal!!

Boy, are you lucky.

I've got a book in my collection of books about the creation/evolution controversy. It's called One Blood. The theory that people evolved gradually from more primitive creatures necessarily includes the idea that different races and groups of people must evolve in different ways and at different rates. Some might be "more evolved" than others. Darwinism has a dark past in that regard. But God's Word says...

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Well, of course! Why should they? One part of me wants to say that - and yet another part of me understands perfectly well why it is remarkable (that is, worth pointing out) that they felt no shame. They were un-selfconscious. And that is the most truly remarkable thing...

My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

You probably know the term "political correctness." We usually use it to refer to certain words or phrases that are acceptable - and others that are not acceptable. People have debated over the terms pro-life and pro-choice, or pro-abortion and anti-abortion. (Not to mention the more inflammatory options, pro-death and anti-choice.) In polite conversation these days we are often on edge, careful not to say the wrong thing.

That's why it's so hard for us to even approach this important issue that ends the letter of James. Turn a sinner from the error of his way??? We can't even say the word...

Is the Lord's arm too short?

When I was a kid, growing up and going to church at St. John Lutheran Church in LaPorte, Indiana, there was an old man in the congregation who used to tease me. He was short and bent with arthritis, but he had a giant smile. His name, as I recall, was Molly Melenthin. (I assume "Molly" was a nickname, and his last name was pronounced mel-an-teen.) He used to come up to me and throw a punch at my shoulder that would stop just short of hitting me. And then he'd say, "You're lucky my arm is so short!"

He made a joke of his small stature, but in reality he was tougher and stronger than he looked. Is God? 40 years ago Time magazine ran a cover...

[Jesus said] "The Son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But [the disciples] did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

OK, we've all seen this before. The teacher says something - the kids don't understand it - but nobody raises their hand to get clarification. Why? Why are they afraid to ask???

I suppose they could be afraid to ask if they think the teacher will yell at them for not getting it - but in my experience that's pretty rare. They might be afraid to ask if they think that maybe they're the only one who didn't understand - but that doesn't seem to apply here. Or they might be afraid to ask if...

Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it... I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter...

People sometimes call Isaiah the evangelist of the Old Testament. We quote Isaiah a lot because we find a lot of encouraging words there and predictions of the Savior. But Jeremiah? He is called "the weeping prophet." The turmoil that Isaiah warned about, Jeremiah had to experience. He was the prophet who had the very unhappy task of....

{5} Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

Have you ever thought of doing or saying something unthinkable? (I guess that means it's not unthinkable, doesn't it?) Walking along a high place and thinking about what it would be like if you stepped off - driving on a busy highway and realizing that a small turn of the wheel would cause a fiery disaster - speaking to a loved one and knowing that certain harsh words could cause terrible and irreparable pain. It is so easy to cause pain...

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement.

Lots of people have speculated about why Jesus instructed people who witnessed some of his miracles not to tell anyone. I don't buy the idea that it was a clever "reverse psychology" and that this was his way of getting them to tell even more people. Notice the route that Jesus took to get to this place...

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in...

It's funny - the second half of this reading, about the relationship between faith and works, has generated a TON of comment, controversy, and conversation. I wrote briefly about it in the SPOTS devotion and I don't think it's that complex.

But this first section is usually considered a slam dunk. Of course, we all know we shouldn't discriminate against the poor. Next question? And yet, I believe we have a far bigger problem in this area than we admit - and I don't know what to do about it!...

Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance..."

OK, this is uncomfortable. This has got to be among those least popular verses of the Bible - the kind of stuff that makes people squirm. We all agree that it's bad to get revenge, right? We get visions of the Hatfields and the McCoys shooting each other, the Valentine's Day Massacre. But is that what this is about?...

Wow - I was sick all week with that flu that causes a fever (up and down and up and down). I think I'm back in the saddle. Let's go!

Observe [my laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to thenations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

OK, rule #1 as we start this, we won't get political. But this text just begs us to ask, does OUR nation have laws that would inspire other nations this way?...

Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother." But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is 'Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition...

The proper understanding of the role of a lawyer is that he or she is an advocate, a defender of the rights of the weak. Unfortunately, there is a darker side. Most of us, even without being attorneys, are prone to acting like "jailhouse lawyers," the sort of character who grabs a bit of the law to use for his own purpose and to gain something for himself. This is what false religion does - it makes new laws, or it takes even God's law, and twists it into a self serving shape...

Wives, submit to your husbands...

That's the headline-grabbing part of these verses. If a Christian group mentions them or affirms them, they get hammered in the newspapers and painted as neanderthals on the evening news shows. Why does the second part of this passage so often go unnoticed?...

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men...

What kind of rules is God talking about here? It should be plain that God doesn't have anything against rules. He made plenty of them himself. But his people had changed the nature of their worship - the character of their relationship with him - so that they had lost the substance and kept only the form.

In the previous chapter God describes their religion nicely, "Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there." That is what people have made of their faith...

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Sometimes you just want to stop talking and think about the words just spoken. They seem so perfect that they can't be improved upon. I feel that way some Sundays when I say, "Christ is risen!" And the congregation responds, "He is risen indeed!" And I almost want to stop there because I can't think of anything more important to be said.

But, of course, we need to go deeper. We need to think about it more in order to understand, appropriate, and apply the truth to our own lives. So what about Peter's words here?...

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Citizens are arguing, sometimes loudly, with their legislators over the promise or threat of nationalized health care. Michigan union members are protesting proposed changes to their health insurance. Consumers quickly spent $1 Billion of government money in the Cash-For-Clunkers program, too quickly for even the government to keep up with the spending. Thousands of welfare recipients in New York raced to ATM machines to get $200 per child, given them by the government stimulus, some shouting, "It's free money!" I drove past the "Firekeepers" casino the other day where the parking lot was packed with players.

"Be careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise..." What does that mean?...

[Wisdom says,] "Let all who are simple come in here! ...Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live; walk in the way of understanding."

Translations can get tricky. Our English versions often use the word "simple" here - but "foolish" might have been better. A simpleton might be a fool for many reasons, but God's reasons for considering someone a fool are usually not the same as ours...

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.

What would it be like to be in Jesus' position, trying to teach people about something of ultimate value when all the students can see nothing but what's right in front of their face? James Lamb, writing in Portals of Prayer for this month, has a good illustration...

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

I know. Strange choice for a title, isn't it? But my first thought when I read Paul's words here, especially where he says, "Be completely humble and gentle..." was about how hard this is to do. Paul wants us to be humble and loving toward one another, to make every effort to get along with each other. But what if you are living in a submarine? What if there is just no personal space - and you're with the same people day after day and week after week - how can we keep such unity?...

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt!" ...Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven..."

Grumble, whine, growl, moan, complain, kvetch, kick, sound off, mutter, argue, murmur, grouch, gnarl, let loose, gripe, yammer, nag, moan, quarrel, crab, bellyache, rail. Wow - isn't it interesting how many synonymns we have for grumbling?!

It's a good thing God gave the Israelites quail for meat. They didn't need any more grouse. (Ha! Get it?)...

"All You Works of God, Bless the Lord" from the Lutheran Service Book, hymn #930, was the devotion text in our SPOTS that Karen and I followed this morning. We sang it together at the piano. It got me to thinking:

1st - How blessed...

Mark 6:45-56 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

It's funny, the different ways we look at things at different times. My wife was unsurprised that I immediately focused on Jesus having to send people away in order to have some time alone for prayer. (my focus in the SPOTS devotion) But she latched onto something quite different...

We (I) fell behind in getting recorded sermons posted to the website, but various problems have been fixed and most of our recent sermons are now available at the Sermon Audio link above (under the "Church" tab).

In Ephesians 3:16 Paul wrote, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Paul writes huge, long, run-on sentences. They work in Greek, but they're tough to follow in English unless you really pay attention to what you're reading. But hidden in these 2 long sentences is a wonderful truth. Want to see it? Look at it this way...

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

Some people don't believe that the flood of Genesis 9, a flood to destroy the entire world, really took place. Many suggest that this is just the story of a bad local flood which was exaggerated with the telling over the years...

"Send the people away..."

How many times have you heard someone say that their work would be great if it weren't for the people? It would be great to work in a restaurant if it weren't for the customers and the other employees. It would be wonderful to work in a hospital if it weren't for all the sick people...

Jesus' disciples loved following him - being with him - listening to him. It was just all those crowds of people they didn't like. Oh... and the other 11 disciples too. But if it weren't for the people you don't like...

Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household...

When Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Ephesus, he was talking to gentile people who had previously been rejected and ostracized by the Jews. But that's a bit of a stretch for us, isn't it? Yes, most of us are gentiles even today, but I doubt that any of us has felt any pain about being excluded from the synagogue. In fact...

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: 'Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away... I myself will gather the remnant of my flock...'"

You might know, or you can imagine what it's like when the boss comes out onto the factory floor. Everyone straightens up and acts busy. I once had a boss who would leave his office and walk around the outside of the building to look in the windows to see who was working and who was goofing off. But when I worked for my father I had a boss who did something very different...

[Jesus] said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

This gospel lesson is actually for a week from Sunday. It was included in this week's devotions by accident. But it fit so very well this morning that I thought I'd venture an early comment or two.

I can never read this without noticing that the disciples and Jesus never did get to rest...

Some passages of the Bible are hard to read. I think Paul is the worst this way. His sentences are so long, and they flow from one clause to another so continuously, that I just get lost in them unless I work extra hard to pay attention and take the sentence apart.

That's how these early verses in the letter to the Ephesians seem to me. So let's just take them a piece at a time and see what they say...

And the Lord asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people..."

An interesting coincidence - while I was at my mom's house over my vacation last week, I happened to rummage through an old toolbox in the basement, looking for something I needed for a minor repair. In one drawer I came across a "plumb bob."

(Turned out to be harder than I expected to be free to blog during my vacation - so here's a July 4 thought from my son in Panama...)

While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"

Ouch. That's against everything I've learned about making "notifications." Did you know that there are instructions available for how to break bad news? The police officers who show up at your door to tell you, "There's been an accident..." have received training in making notifications. The military officers and chaplains who come to break bad news have gotten the same training.

They all learned that you never just plop the news out there. First you tell the story. You let it out a bit at a time. It may only take 2 or 3 or 4 sentences, but you never, never, ever give the bad news in the first sentence.

How-Not-To-Do-It example #1... "Your daughter is dead."

So what does Jesus do? He breaks the rules too!...

And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

Our district, the Michigan District of the LCMS, is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign. Commemorating the 125th anniversary of the district, we're trying to raise $13 Million together. But one feature of those campaigns that I've always been uncomfortable with is the whole process of hyping the gifts.

You know what I mean. Every week or two a newsletter comes out telling us what this congregation or that congregation has done. These people raised this much. And this church gave that much.

I grew up with a natural reluctance to talk about my giving publicly. Although my parents were generous givers, who supported many charities in addition to the 10% to their church, I didn't learn about their giving until I was an adult. So naturally I'm reticent. And yet, the Apostle Paul was not...

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed...

Jeremiah has been called "The Weeping Prophet." How would you like that for a nickname? But he had a lot to weep about. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem twice - once in prophecy and once in person. He saw the terrible consequences of rebellion against God when the city of Jerusalem was beseiged, the people starved and reduced to cannibalism, the nation overthrown, the king blinded and taken away along with most of the population in chains.

The book is called, in our English translations, "Lamentations." Outcries. Weeping. In the Hebrew it is called 'ekah, "How..." A poignant beginning that expresses the yearning for an understanding of these tragedies.

And yet the Gospel is here too. It begins at last, after pages of pain, in chapter 3 verse 21. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope..."

What do you "call to mind" when you are in despair?...

On what were [the earth's] footings set, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

First of all, I'm glad to be back after 3 days of an intense workshop on funding Lutheran schools. I apologize that my ancient laptop was unable to connect to the wi-fi. It would have been refreshing to use some of that time to write to all of you. (...both of you?)

Have you ever looked around in church to see if anyone else was singing? Last Sunday, at one of the less-attended services, I noticed a sudden drop in the volume of the hymn as I was distributing Communion. I looked up and noticed that 2 rows of people who had been singing with gusto had gotten up to approach the altar rail. The loss of just those 8 or 10 people had cut the volume of the church in half!

What's up with that?...

Now we know tha if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling...

Jon and I went backpacking last week in the Smoky Mountains. We drove down there on Sunday afternoon, arriving too late to rent a campsite or get a camping permit. I thought of this Bible passage as we slept in the car. (Those seats are not made for sleeping.) And I thought of it again as we lay on our sleeping pads in our tent after a long day of climbing. My left elbow touched the tent wall. My right elbow touched Jon's left elbow...

I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it...

In commencement addresses given at this time of the year I have often heard speakers say that the students before them have been given "roots and wings" with which to move into the future. (It's a rather funny mental picture actually, to imagine someone with roots trying to fly.)

Their intention is to say that the students have roots in the past, but have wings to fly toward a grand future. But God uses these metaphors differently...

"Men of Israel, listen to this..."

You've got to know that a pastor's mood has got to, at least a little bit, affect his preaching and teaching. That's a real challenge, because I don't always get up on Sunday mornings feeling particularly ready to be "up" and enthusiastic and encouraging. And your mood affects how you listen, and what you hear in God's Word.

Today, for instance, as I read these verses the part that stands out are the very first words. "Men of Israel, listen to this!" Of course, Peter was blessed with a large audience that did listen to his message. But over the years that plea would become increasingly anxious.

"Men of Rome, listen to this!" People of Persia, listen to this! Citizens of France, listen to this! People of Great Britain, of America, of New York, Chicago, Ann Arbor, LISTEN to this!!! And yet...

"Woe is me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

My son and I were standing on top of a mountain where we had stopped to take our lunch break, when 3 more backpackers came up the trail. We got into a conversation about equipment (a favorite topic of backpackers), "What are you doing for water?"

Jon and I were using a good quality ceramic water filter that removes bacteria, especially giardia lamblia. Before we bought it we studied up quite a bit about what would keep us healthy and this filter would work for every single danger except one - viruses. (Mainly a problem if you're hiking in Africa or a country with serious ground water problems.) That's why these other 3 hikers used chlorine and iodine tablets instead.

However, chlorine is...

In the weekly SPOTS devotion sheet our fourth devo is based on the hymn "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest." And I mention there that every single hymn in our Pentecost section refers to the Holy Spirit's comfort and relief from sadness. Of course, that's because Jesus says, in John 15 (yesterday's verse) that he will send us a "counselor" (in the NIV), or a "comforter" (in the KJV), or a "helper" (in the NASB), or a "friend" (The Message).

Well? Which is it? What does this comforter/counselor/friend really mean?

Oddly, I couldn't find an English translation that got it right...

...[the Holy Spirit] will testify about me. And you also must testify...

Do you know someone who incessantly harps on just one topic? Boy, I sure do. Certain people, as you see them coming toward you, you know what they're going to say. We used to make a game of it with some college professors. How long did it take in each class before he or she used a certain word?

We think that such people are dull, but that's not necessarily so. What if the one thing that they keep harping on is the ONE THING that we all need?...

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Task number one, remind yourself that this is not a parlor trick. It's not intended to be entertaining. It wasn't a "prayer language" or anything the benefited the recipient directly. In fact, the real recipient of the "gift of tongues" that day was NOT the disciples... it was the crowd.

The gift of tongues is a gift for the listeners.

That's worth remembering, in view of all the arguing over the gift today. Stop for half a minute and think....

Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live...

It's a bad habit that some people have, to spiritualize Bible verses. That is, sometimes people take a miraculous promise and remove the physical miracle in order to make it seem more plausible. But in this case, that's exactly what we need to do with these verses - and we do it in order to understand a greater miracle that God promises, not in order to have a lesser miracle.

Yes, there is a physical resurrection from the dead, and that's taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. But in this case God is promising a different kind of resurrection. The vision that Ezekiel has of an army being raised from the dead is intended to teach him that God can raise the nation of Israel - not from a literal physical death, but from their spiritual death.

Does this apply to people today in any way?...

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

In our printed devotions I focused on the first sentence above (verse 15). I was struck by the idea that we were deliberately "left behind" by Jesus. He left us here in the world, and did not even pray that the Father would take us from it, but only that we would be protected from the evil one (Satan).

There are lots of things to think about from those startling words. They suggest a lot about the purpose for our lives here. But this morning when I read these verses again my mind moved on to verse 16. "They are not of the world..." Here Jesus doesn't just suggest why we're left here, but he suggests how we should live here...

Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son...

Wow! Who would have the chuztpah to accuse God of being a liar? That was my first thought when I read this. Then I got to thinking... I've been here before. This is a familiar situation.

The boss says, "At our last meeting we decided to do such-and-such." And you're thinking, "That's not what we decided." What do you do? If you disagree with the boss, he could say, "Are you calling me a liar?" Then what?

My own co-workers know what to say when this happens to us...

"Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry..."

Tonight (May 19)  there's a congregation meeting that will include election of officers. It's funny. In a way we'll be doing the very same thing that these disciples were doing - choosing people to assume places of leadership in the church. And yet there will be one big difference that doesn't show up in the New Testament.

It seems that they easily chose 2 people to put forward who were capable, strong, faithful, met the qualifications for preparation, and were willing to risk their lives. We'll have a hard time nominating even ONE person for each office...

"...test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God..."

We've talked about this warning against false prophets several times recently. But now John gives us a test to use in order to tell who's a false prophet and who is not. But doesn't it seem like an odd one?

"Every spirit that acknowledges the Jesus Christ has come in the flesh..." What in the world? Doesn't nearly everyone acknowledge that Jesus Christ came "in the flesh"? All but the most radical theologians would say that Jesus was at least a flesh and blood person. So are they all OK?...