CREDIT: Gam Ol

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Have you ever struggled to get words out of your mouth? Sometimes you can’t remember the word for or name of something. Perhaps you’re making a presentation on a complex subject. Or maybe it’s just a tough situation where you’re trying to comfort someone. Whatever the case, the words in your head won’t come out of your mouth. Then, what comes out is a noise, a grunt, a groan. That hardly makes for good communication for most of us.

When it comes to prayer, we know God wants us to pray. But sometimes we’re not sure of the words to pray. Frankly, God doesn’t care about the words. He just wants us to trust Him by knowing He will hear our prayers and answer them in accord with His good and perfect will. Yet, often we aren’t sure what to say – which is understandable given who we’re speaking with … God!

If you happen to find yourself here, take comfort from Paul’s letter to the Romans. He writes, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to His people (John 16:7-13). In Baptism, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our souls, helping us in all things – especially our belief in Jesus and His promises to hear our prayers. 

In those moments when you’re feeling distraught and all you can do is say, “UGH … ARRGH … UGH!” These are groans. We’re stuck and don’t know where to go. But “He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27) Our groans are the words of the Holy Spirit making our needs known to God. And God … He completely understands. So, don’t worry about what to pray – keep groaning. The Holy Spirit will translate.

                                                                                       Your Brother in Christ,

                                                                                        Pastor Jim

CREDIT: Creazilla

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

If most of us were asked, “What do I need to do to make a garden grow?” we could give a good answer – something like, “Well, you need some good soil, a little fertilizer, and regular watering.” I admit, the details might escape many of us, but that’s the basic start. You need to make sure the environment is adequate for the garden to grow. Without the basics, the garden might have a promising start, but soon, it’ll simply die away.

Jesus uses the image of varied types of environments to make a point on how God’s word grows from the first seed planted in a person’s heart into a rich life of faith in His Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9) and His explanation (Matthew 13:18-23). A Sower scatters his seed all over the place. He doesn’t seem to worry about the kind of ground he’s scattering his seed on though. And most of it does sprout up. But most of what sprouts fails to mature into the desired fruit.

Like the ground where the seeds fall, our hearts, upon which God’s word falls, isn’t always ready to receive it. Too often, we desire to hear it, but our motives and intentions aren’t in the proper place. If we treat God’s word like a set of “magic beans” that’ll automatically change everything in our lives without our willingness to truly hear and understand it, His word will get snatched up, wither away in tough times, or get choked out by the worries of the world.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Like poor soil conditions can be improved by adding rich soil, fertilizer, and water; our hearts can be improved by the Holy Spirit if we subject our hearts to constant exposure to God in worship, regular devotions, and bible studies with other Christians. God plants in and transforms our less than fertile hearts, through His word, into lives of fertile faith producing much fruit today while we mature into eternal life in God’s heavenly kingdom.

                                                                        In Christ’s Love,

                                                                        Pastor Jim

CREDIT: Sergey Kozak

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“Why didn’t I think of that!?” Sometimes, when I’m trying to solve a problem, my knowledge and wisdom can blind me. While the answer is obvious, my “engineering brain” can overthink and make things harder than needed. Then someone like my wife says, “Did you ever think about (insert obvious answer here)?” Well, what do you know, that was easy! “Why didn’t I think of that!?”

We all have problems in our lives. But the most critical problem of all is the same for all of us. And the solution is quite easy. Yet we can make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Our wisdom, knowledge, and pride combine to lead us to ignore the only remedy – and it is a simple one.

This problem? Our sin and the eternal separation from God it causes. Our solution? We try all manner of things to ward off sin’s eternal effects – elaborate prayers bundled with good deeds … packages of complex rituals and worship practices … or some other over-complicated set of things. Yet for all our efforts, we’re still unsatisfied. There must be more to it! And so, we and many others continue our search, ending up caught in an endless cycle leading right back to where we started.

Jesus prays, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” (Matthew 11:25) It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want us to see the solution. But He doesn’t want us trying to figure out how to make it happen on our own. Or to say, “That’s too easy! There’s gotta be another way I can try.” The solution to our problem is simple, trust in our Father’s promise of forgiveness through Jesus. The truth – it is that easy for us, there is no other way. Let’s thank God that He thought of it and trust Him to free us from our sins and eternal death through Jesus Christ, His only Son.

                                                                        In Christ’s Love,

                                                                        Pastor Jim

CREDIT: Gerd Altmann (geralt)

Dear Sinners and Saints,

As a junior Captain, a grizzled Master Sergeant schooled me saying, “Sir, I can take bad news. At least I can react to it. It’s no news that bothers me.” It was his way of telling me to be honest with him. If something needed fixing, he needed to know. Unfortunately, people too often soft peddle bad news to make it seem not so bad. Or worse, keep bad news hidden.

As Judah entered exile in Babylon, the false prophet Hananiah said, “Within two years, we’ll be back in Jerusalem with our kings and our treasure.” To make his lie even worse, Hananiah claimed God had told him so. (Jeremiah 28:2-4) This may’ve been what Judah wanted to hear, but it wasn’t what they needed to hear. Jeremiah corrected Hananiah with some bad news, “I wish you were right. Previous prophets told us this would happen, and it did; that it would be bad, and it will be.” Jeremiah also said, “As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent that prophet.” (Jeremiah 28:9)

God told Jeremiah to speak the cold, hard truth of the impact of disobedience so Judah could see their errors, react to them, and repent! They had to hear the bad news to change. The lies of false teachers might make us feel good. But, in the end, things just get worse until the smell of death overwhelms us. 

God’s law doesn’t often sound like good news. We may not want to hear it. But we need to hear it to see our sin and the death it brings. Only then do we turn to God, receive His forgiveness, and make our way to eternal life with Him. Let’s pay attention to the bad news God’s law lays out so we can grab hold of His good news, the gospel, found in His mercy on account of Jesus and the change only He can make in our lives.

                                                                                        Your Brother in Christ,

                                                                                        Pastor Jim

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Fear has many forms. There’s “fear of the unknown” … those things our imaginations conjure up that might hurt us — something, we’re not sure what, we think might cause us great harm. There’s also “fear of the unlikely” … bad things that could happen, but likely won’t — the proverbial bus that might hit us. Then there’s “fear of the known” … those things that if they happen, will most likely negatively impact us — telling someone bad news we know they don’t want to hear. It’s this last fear that often paralyzes us when we know we need to do something unpleasant, while also knowing a terrible consequence likely awaits.

Jesus calls His disciples to proclaim the truth - God’s law and His gospel - to all those who don’t put their full trust in God ahead of all things besides Him. He knew they’d suffer when they “proclaim (this truth) on the housetops” for all to hear. (Matthew 20:27) He knew this because it had happened before — to God’s boldest prophets, like Jeremiah. Jeremiah knew God had called him to speak to Israel about God’s hard, unpopular truth and the impact of their godless, sin-filled ways. Even Jeremiah found it difficult to carry out God’s will. He cried out to God in anguish, “O Lord, You have deceived me … I have become a laughingstock all the day, everyone mocks me!” (Jeremiah 20:7) 

Jesus also calls us to proclaim His truth — the uncomfortable law, as well as the comforting gospel — to a disbelieving world from the housetops. But He encourages His disciples then, and us today, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Proclaiming God’s truth to a hard-hearted, sin-filled world might cause pain — even death. But, for Jesus’ faith-filled followers death isn’t the end of the story. The end of the story for us is eternal life in God’s new creation, His eternal kingdom. Therefore, have no fear!

                                                                        In Christ’s Love,

                                                                        Pastor Jim

CREDIT: Lewis W. Hine, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

A devotion I read had this little anecdote about a church sign in “farm country.” It said, “Pray for a good harvest, but keep on hoeing.” There’s a lot of truth to those words. It shows faith in God’s promise to hear prayer. And it reflects the truth that God gives us all gifts to be used to fulfill His will in the world.

Jesus began His ministry without any disciples. However, as He gave people the gift of His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) the number of disciples grew. Then He let His disciples witness His divine power through healings, mastery over nature, and exorcising evil demons (Matthew 8-9). But these gifts simply set the stage for what Jesus truly intended for His disciples. Yes, He wanted them to believe in Him and His work. Yes, He wanted them to follow His example and live according to His teachings. But, more importantly, He wanted them to use these gifts to lead others to saving faith in Him.

Jesus selected twelve of His disciples to be Apostles, from the Greek word ἀποστέλλω (apostello) which means “sent out.” They were to go into the world using the gifts He’d given them to say, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:7) Jesus taught them to pray and called them do so that God would save the lost sheep of Israel. He also called them to be the means, the workers, God used to bring His kingdom to fruition.

Two-thousand years later, we’re Jesus’ disciples. God has blessed each of us with many gifts, including the gift of saving faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We know God hears and answers our prayers. However, we also need to realize that we are quite often the answer to prayers — our own and others. As we pray for family, friends, and neighbors to come to Christ, remember to “keep on hoeing.” God has gifted us to faithfully work the fields, so He can bring in the rich harvest.

                                                                                                In Christian Love,

                                                                                                Pastor Jim

Dear Disciples of Christ,

“When do you go to a doctor?” The obvious answer – “When you’re sick.” We might try home remedies or cures we’ve found on “Life Hacks” websites. But when we try to heal ourselves, and fail, it’s time to see the doctor. That’s why we have them – to heal us when we can’t heal ourselves. Unfortunately, we must usually make an appointment to see them. They rarely come to see us. Nevertheless, at the doctor’s office or our home, the doctor can bring healing when we can’t heal ourselves.

Left untreated, disease can lead to death. Which is why Martin Luther used the analogy of disease, doctors, and medicine to explain sin – the disease we all have – and forgiveness – the healing we can only receive from “the doctor”, Jesus, the Son of God. Fortunately for us, Jesus makes house calls!

Right after calling a dreaded tax collector, Matthew – also called Levi, to be one of His disciples, Jesus went to Matthew’s house for dinner (Luke 5:27-29). There, all kinds of tax collectors and other sinners gathered with Him … Jesus was exposed to them all. The Pharisees questioned Jesus’ choice of company, “Why is He hanging out with all these sinners!? Doesn’t He know that’s a good way to catch sin-itis too?” Jesus responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick … I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13) 

Jesus, the Son of God, not only made a house call to Matthew and his friends to bring them His healing grace and mercy; but He also comes into our lives to bring us healing from the deadly disease of sin. Despite being immersed in a sin-filled world, Jesus never caught the disease. His perfect life, suffering, and death brings the cure for our sin – His Father’s forgiveness. And His resurrection eliminates sin’s effects – restoring us to eternal life. We can’t heal ourselves. Thank God for His love and sending His Son to make a house call and bring us healing.

                                                                        In Christ’s Love,

                                                                        Pastor Jim