Blog Archives - St. Michael's Lutheran Church, School, & Childcare Richville, MI

Fear and Faith

8/31/2021

4 “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. 5 But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.
6 “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. (Luke 12:4-7 NLT)

We are living in a culture of fear. Bad News leads almost every news broadcast. Politicians use fear to try to gain our support. The Covid pandemic has raised the level of fear throughout the world.

Jesus tells us not to be afraid of people. He tells us to "fear God." Without Jesus we would have to be afraid of God judging and condemning us. But through Jesus we receive God's love and forgiveness. To "fear God" for us means to worship, honor, respect and obey the Lord because we know God will never forget about us and is always watching over us.

Integrity or Hypocrisy

8/30/2021

Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy. 2 The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. 3 Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear! (Luke 12:1-3 NLT)

We are living in a time when secrets are hard to keep. The big electronic search companies like Google and Yahoo and the social media platforms know more about us than we want to think. Our smart cell phones track every place we take them. Our computers track every search we make on the internet.

Jesus warned the Disciples that a time will come when secrets will be revealed. The context is a warning about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus warns us that we can't say one thing and do another, we can't look good on the outside when we are rotten on the inside. We need to be people of integrity.

Keys

8/27/2021

52 “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”
53 As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. 54 They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him. (Luke 11:52-54 NLT)

Keys are important for locking and unlocking doors. I was given a wad of keys when I came to St. Michael's for the school, church and parsonage. Some of them I don't use very often, so I have to look through the keys to find the correct one I need.

Jesus gave the Keys to the Kingdom of God to His Disciples. Forgiveness unlocks the door. Those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus lock themselves out.

The Pharisees could have had the same keys. They could have proclaimed God's love and forgiveness to the people. But they blocked the way with their insistence that people follow their traditions, keep their rituals and obey their rules. They even wanted to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against Him.

God gives us the key, the Gospel of Forgiveness, to unlock His kingdom. Are we locking or unlocking the door?

Guilty

8/26/2021

46 “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. 47 What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. 48 But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments! 49 This is what God in his wisdom said about you: ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them, but they will kill some and persecute the others.’
50 “As a result, this generation will be held responsible for the murder of all God’s prophets from the creation of the world-- 51 from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, it will certainly be charged against this generation. (Luke 11:46-51 NLT)

Jesus' words of warning to the Pharisees bother me because they were religious leaders of His time, and I am a "Pastor" or religious leader today. Jesus condemned their legalism. He challenged their hypocrisy. He warned them about wanting to be the center of attention. He confronted them for demanding that people follow their rules, rituals and traditions instead of helping them to grow closer to God.

I hope and pray that I never do any of these things. But I know that I am guilty. I don't live anything close to a perfect life, although I try to follow Jesus and ask for His forgiveness every day. It is important for people to know that Jesus loves them and return His love. It is not that important that people like me, even though I want to be liked. I have been called to be a "Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." The good news is that God still loves and forgives me when my personal agenda or sinful nature get in the way.

I am guilty, but not charged because Jesus paid for my sins and yours on the cross. With His help, I hope to grow closer to Him and His people every day and to reach out to those who don't know Him and help connect them with Jesus.

Ouch!!!!

8/25/2021

43 “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces. 44 Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.”
45 “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.” (Luke 11:43-45 NLT)

The truth can hurt! Jesus told the truth about the Pharisees and they were insulted. But the majority of them did not listen to Jesus and change. They tried to look good on the outside, but were corrupt inside.

We don't like it when people point out our faults. But sometimes they do for our own good. My wife Joan has done that for me. I don't like it at the time, but need it.

God's Law points out our faults, our sins, our rebellion, our self-centeredness. The Gospel of Jesus Christ points us to God's love and forgiveness that we depend upon. It is better to hurt a little now than to suffer forever.

More Important Things

8/24/2021

42 “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." (Luke 11:42 NLT)

Sometimes the good gets in the way of the best. We can occupy our time doing good things, but fail to do the best things God wants us to do.

Sometimes urgent matters keep us from doing the important things.

The Pharisees did good things, but failed to be just or to share and act on the love of God. Rules and rituals can never replace our relationship with God with others.

August 23rd, 2021

8/23/2021

37 As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. 38 His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom. 39 Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! 40 Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? 41 So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over. (Luke 11:37-41 NLT)

Have you ever gotten a call telling you someone was coming over or had some one show up unexpectedly at your house and did a quick pick up before the person came in? That happens at our house. Picking things up quickly so the house looks good is not the same as a thorough cleaning.

Jesus said the Pharisees were like that. They cleaned the outside of cups to look good but did not wash the whole cup. They did things to make themselves look good to people but were not clean on the inside. Their religion was a façade.

Jesus warns us that it is not enough to be considered "religious", to look good on the outside. We need to people of integrity, the same inside and out. We can be faithful to God because He is faithful to us.

The Right Light

8/19/2021

33 “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.
34 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. 35 Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. 36 If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” (Luke 11 33-36 NLT)

Lights are not all the same. Full spectrum lights can reveal anything that we can see with our human eyes. But other lights can be used to filter out one or more colors. A laser light pointed at a TV screen disappears.

There are times when people use the light of their own logic or the light of a changing culture to keep people from seeing God's light. Some false lights filter out God's Law. Others dismiss the Gospel. Still more try to hide God completely.

But Christians not only see God's light, we live in that light. God created light on the first day of creation. Jesus is the Light of the Word. The light of God's Law reveals our sins. The Gospel light reveals the Savior. We need the right light.

Do You Need a Sign?

8/18/2021

29 As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah. 30 What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man will be a sign to these people that he was sent by God.
31 “The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen. 32 The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent." (Luke 11:29-32 NLT)

Some people kept asking Jesus for a sign to prove that He was the Promised Savior. They were not content with Jesus feeding thousands, healing the sick, driving out evil spirits or even raising the dead. I wonder, do we want God to give us a sign, too, that Jesus is the Savior.

Jesus pointed to Jonah, who lived three days in the belly of a large sea creature before being spit up on the shore. He pointed them to the people of Nineveh who heard Jonah's call to repent and did. Their city was spared.

Jesus calls us to repent and paid for our sins on the Cross. He rose from the dead on the third day. (Jewish thought is inclusive, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday make three days.) He has the power and desire to forgive and to save us.

Do you need a sign? Look to the empty cross and empty tomb. Repent and return to the Lord. I need to do that every day.

Two Points

8/17/2021

24 “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ 25 So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. 26 Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
27 As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!”
28 Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:24-28 NLT)

There seem to be two main points in these verses. The first is that unless the Lord drives the unclean or evil spirit out of a person, it may not work. People do all kinds of things to break addictions, to try to make changes in their lives. But when these efforts are based on what we try to do, not on the power of the Lord, they can fail and people end up worse off than they were before. Think of it with a different example. How many times do people loose and then regain weight? We need the Lord's help for real change in our lives. That help comes from God's Word, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness that Jesus gives to set us free.

The second point is that hearing and doing what God says is more important than what people see on the surface. Pretending and Practicing are two different things.

Author

My name is Larry. Right now I am serving as the Intentional Interim or Transitional Pastor at St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Richville, MI. This blog is part of my daily personal time reading the Bible and talking with God. It is more of my personal thoughts than a deep theological discussion. Thanks for taking the time to join me in reading and thinking about what God has to say to us today.

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