Sorry it’s been a few days. Yesterday we had the LCMS pastors from Racine and Kenosha here at Trinity. Pastor Gehne did his sermon from a few weeks ago on controlling the tongue. It went well. And then we had the pastors in the fellowship hall for snacks, coffee and discussion. It was a good visit, but hosting the event always sends my insides a crazy. So, after that, we went to the baseball game and watched the Cubs win. It was enjoyable.
Today it’s back to routine and normal: thank you Jesus.
Our Psalm is all about unity. One would think that churches could be unified. What is it the Bible proclaim, “one faith, one church, one baptism?” Surely people gathered around God’s Word should be able to get along. What we forget is Satan’s influence in the mix. Satan doesn’t like unity. He likes disorder. So he causes trouble and causes disharmony in the church.
We are thankful that we are fairly untied at Trinity. We have our challenges but there isn’t a lot of politics running around, just people coming to hear the Word of God and being fed and that is a good thing.
So, the wall of the city is complete. That was important. You can’t rebuild a city if you don’t have a wall because all the raiders come in and destroy what you have built. But if you have a wall, then you can work on the inside and life will be fine.
But it’s not just the physical plant of Jerusalem that needed work. The people had not been following the Law of the Lord, the first five books of Moses. So, the make a start in our lesson for today. They read the Law and they celebrate the Feast of Booths (evidently they like camping). They had not been faithful for a while, but now it is time to start being faithful.
Paul gives practical advice to Timothy. It was not easy running the church back then. The church was new, Christianity was new. They were exploring new ground. So, the older St. Paul has advice for young Timothy. Respect older men. Honor widows who are truly alone. Enroll a widow over 60. Let the widow who is younger, remarry and carry on with life. We don’t want her gossiping, becoming idle and causing trouble. It is so interesting reading this stuff, taking note of what is similar and different from today.
Have a blessed day. It’s picture day at Trinity and we have a Voter’s meeting tonight.
No Judy, I had not given up. Just got busy and distracted. When I know I’m going to be away, I try to read and write in advance, but sometimes even that doesn’t work. I may miss a few days, but I will be back. Thanks for reading.
I think I created a monster. I got the computer game Bejeweled and loaded it on my computer and my wife’s computer. Well, she was up till midnight last night playing and beating her latest high score. And of course, she kept me up and now I’m so tired this morning. I may just have to delete it off her computer.
I think about once a week all Christians need to read through Psalm 51. It just reminds us of our sin and guilt and it reminds us that God is faithful to us. Our beginnings were in sin and yet our Lord cleans us and washes us so that we are whiter than snow. Through His life, death, and resurrection, we are made clean in the blood of the Lamb. Each Sunday in worship we our Lord, “restores to me the joy of your salvation and upholds me with a willing spirit.” This is indeed a great blessing.
In Nehemiah they continue the process of turning back to the Lord and they hold a great assembly. For a quarter of the day, they read from the Book of the Law. And for a quarter of the day, they confessed their sins. And then, they remember the deeds of the Lord going back to Abraham and through the Exodus. This is a good reminder for us to remember every day how the Lord has blessed us. If we remember His blessings as we are faced with temptation we should ultimate ask ourselves, “Since God has done this and this for us, why would I do that to Him.”
Paul reminds Timothy that workers in the church deserve their reward. But so also, those who sin, deserve their punishment and their sin may be rebuked in the presence of all. It’s okay to have a little wine for the sake of the stomach. But obviously, not too much.
Anyway, have a blessed day and enjoy the humidity.
It’s almost the end of the week! And tomorrow is my day off! The big question of the weekend, what am I going to make my wonderful wife for dinner Friday night? I’ll have to think on that.
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful, marvelous sight, to look up to the sky and see, with your very own eyes, God sitting on his throne in heaven? I remember a number of years back, our family was camping up at the state park in Three Rivers and we had gotten word that the space station would be visible to the naked eye at night. So, at the appointed time our family walked across the road to the beach and found a picnic table and sat and looked up into the clear sky watching for the space station. We were not disappointed. It flashed across the sky. We were so far from the lights of Racine and Milwaukee and the sky was brilliant with stars, but we were able to see the space station as it moved across the sky. As fun as that was, looking up to the sky and seeing God would be a billion times more awesome.
In our Nehemiah lesson our history lesson of the Israelites sin and up and down relationship with God continues. Not really much to say about it except that we run the same history EVERY DAY. Martin Luther was a big advocate for daily repentance and daily remembering our baptism because he knew the struggle we have with sin on a daily basis. One minute we are following our Lord, the next minute we are influenced by the world, Satan and our sinful nature. So, we may tired of the up and down of the Israelites, but we live the same history daily.
Our lesson from Timothy is filled with material. So much of it is familiar to us. Paul warns against wealth warning, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” This has to be the most misquoted passage of the bible. Most people memorize or quote the Bible as saying, “Money is the root of all evil.” But that’s not what it says. There is nothing wrong with money in and of itself. The problem is the LOVE of money. When money becomes god for people. When money is worshipped and put above the One True God then that is when it becomes a problem. As Paul states, “It is through this CRAVING that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Instead, we are to, “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” Paul encourages Timothy to, “Fight the good fight of faith.” Our focus is on our Lord Jesus Christ and to Him be all honor and eternal dominion. This is a great text to read on one of those nasty days when nothing seems to go right.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
PSALM 51:5-13
MALACHI 1:1-14
MATTHEW 3:1-17
Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. I don’t think so. Keep raining. We need it. It sounds pretty too. Opps. I forgot. I’m writing on Saturday. It’s didn’t rain until late Friday. Fortunately, on Friday I cut my grass. Guess I did it just in time.
You know, it’s not easy to write something each and every day. And it is even harder when you have to write about the same exact text twice in one week. Why would the people who organized this Treasury select Psalm 51:5-13 twice in a mere three days? I have no clue. It is a great text and we do need to look at our sin each and every day in repentance. We sin daily and we need to repent and remember our baptism on a daily basis, not because that is how we earn our way into heaven, but because Christ died for us and won eternal life for us, we want to show Him our thanks through our actions and behavior.
And now we get to read the last book in the Old Testament. Once again, things are not good. I’ll share some background on Malachi once I’m writing this from my office and I have my bible with me. It is significant that the books open with the Lord declaring His love for Israel. But then, we see the Lord chastising Israel for their offerings. Can you imagine offering blind, sick, diseases animals to the Lord? God doesn’t want our ruined stuff. He doesn’t want what we don’t want. If we don’t want it, why give it to God? Our Lord gives us His best in His Son. So our Lord wants our best, firstfruit, proportional giving, is what we share with the Lord.
We jump into Matthew very quickly with the appearance of John T. Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. Okay, maybe this text is why we have Psalm 51 again this week. John’s message was a message of repentance, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There is no better Psalm about repentance than Psalm 51. So, I understand now. Beat me over the head with a 2 x 4 and I will get it.
So, Jesus gets baptized. No, He didn’t need to be baptized, He had no sin. But if our Lord was going to use baptism as a Sacrament to provide for us the Holy Spirit and forgive our sin, then it would be wise for Jesus to give His blessing to this Sacrament by being baptized. Jesus says, “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In other words, this is the way it is supposed to be. This is a wonderful gift from our Lord where He gives us many gifts.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2009
PSALM 16
MALACHI 2:1-3:5
MATTHEW 4:1-11
What a nice, relaxing morning! No pressure to get out and cut the grass. No errands to run, just my Treasury, my laptop and a tall glass of soda. Yeah, and probably a cup of hot tea next.
Psalm 16 isn’t one of the Psalms people memorize and recognize right away like Psalm 23 or 51. But it is a wonderful Psalm. “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Now that’s the truth. Apart from God, there is no good in us. Our Lord is the best part of our life. If we jump down to verse 10, we see a passage about Jesus, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” This is a passage about Jesus’ resurrection. God will not let His Son stay dead. He would and did rise again to the joy of all people. His resurrection will be our resurrection. Do I hear an, “Amen!”
No, things were not right in Israel during the time of Malachi. Who would have every thought that a prophet of the Lord would write, “Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.” Can you imagine how upset the Lord must have been to instruct His prophet to proclaim something like that? But, the priests were leading the people away from the Lord instead of to Him. They were leading the people away.
So the Lord sends Malachi to warn the people. He warns the people to bring them back. He wants to preserve a remnant through whom the Christ would be born. God’s goal is to bring salvation. And that is how He works with us too. He wants us to have salvation as well. He warns us to bring us back home. He warns us to forgive.
Our Lord goes right from His baptism into the wilderness for temptation. What good would a Savior who was not tempted be? Thankfully, Satan doesn’t come and tempt us like he did Jesus. But we have enough temptation each and every day. Our Lord was tempted in every way we are tempted. Nothing we endure is unique to us. Jesus endured the same things. The big difference is that He did not sin. He was perfect. He kept the Commandments for us on our behalf.
Finally, we read, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” We are not alone in our resisting temptation. Our Lord is with us and His angels are with us. We can ask the Lord to help us resist through His angels. We can ask God to take the temptation away. We can ask God to send the evil spirits away. But all of our requests are made to God. He will decide how to help us. Just being in conversation with God during temptation will help ease the temptation.
Give it a shot. Make it your habit. When tempted, be in conversation with God.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009
PSALM 133
NEHEMIAH 7:1-4; 8:1-18
1 TIMOTHY 5:1-16
Sorry it’s been a few days. Yesterday we had the LCMS pastors from Racine and Kenosha here at Trinity. Pastor Gehne did his sermon from a few weeks ago on controlling the tongue. It went well. And then we had the pastors in the fellowship hall for snacks, coffee and discussion. It was a good visit, but hosting the event always sends my insides a crazy. So, after that, we went to the baseball game and watched the Cubs win. It was enjoyable.
Today it’s back to routine and normal: thank you Jesus.
Our Psalm is all about unity. One would think that churches could be unified. What is it the Bible proclaim, “one faith, one church, one baptism?” Surely people gathered around God’s Word should be able to get along. What we forget is Satan’s influence in the mix. Satan doesn’t like unity. He likes disorder. So he causes trouble and causes disharmony in the church.
We are thankful that we are fairly untied at Trinity. We have our challenges but there isn’t a lot of politics running around, just people coming to hear the Word of God and being fed and that is a good thing.
So, the wall of the city is complete. That was important. You can’t rebuild a city if you don’t have a wall because all the raiders come in and destroy what you have built. But if you have a wall, then you can work on the inside and life will be fine.
But it’s not just the physical plant of Jerusalem that needed work. The people had not been following the Law of the Lord, the first five books of Moses. So, the make a start in our lesson for today. They read the Law and they celebrate the Feast of Booths (evidently they like camping). They had not been faithful for a while, but now it is time to start being faithful.
Paul gives practical advice to Timothy. It was not easy running the church back then. The church was new, Christianity was new. They were exploring new ground. So, the older St. Paul has advice for young Timothy. Respect older men. Honor widows who are truly alone. Enroll a widow over 60. Let the widow who is younger, remarry and carry on with life. We don’t want her gossiping, becoming idle and causing trouble. It is so interesting reading this stuff, taking note of what is similar and different from today.
Have a blessed day. It’s picture day at Trinity and we have a Voter’s meeting tonight.
Glad you’re back. I was afraid you had given up the Blog. I may not always comment, but I do read it everyday. Thank you for your insights.
No Judy, I had not given up. Just got busy and distracted. When I know I’m going to be away, I try to read and write in advance, but sometimes even that doesn’t work. I may miss a few days, but I will be back. Thanks for reading.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
PSALM 51:5-13
NEHEMIAH 9:1-21
1 TIMOTHY 5:17-6:2
I think I created a monster. I got the computer game Bejeweled and loaded it on my computer and my wife’s computer. Well, she was up till midnight last night playing and beating her latest high score. And of course, she kept me up and now I’m so tired this morning. I may just have to delete it off her computer.
I think about once a week all Christians need to read through Psalm 51. It just reminds us of our sin and guilt and it reminds us that God is faithful to us. Our beginnings were in sin and yet our Lord cleans us and washes us so that we are whiter than snow. Through His life, death, and resurrection, we are made clean in the blood of the Lamb. Each Sunday in worship we our Lord, “restores to me the joy of your salvation and upholds me with a willing spirit.” This is indeed a great blessing.
In Nehemiah they continue the process of turning back to the Lord and they hold a great assembly. For a quarter of the day, they read from the Book of the Law. And for a quarter of the day, they confessed their sins. And then, they remember the deeds of the Lord going back to Abraham and through the Exodus. This is a good reminder for us to remember every day how the Lord has blessed us. If we remember His blessings as we are faced with temptation we should ultimate ask ourselves, “Since God has done this and this for us, why would I do that to Him.”
Paul reminds Timothy that workers in the church deserve their reward. But so also, those who sin, deserve their punishment and their sin may be rebuked in the presence of all. It’s okay to have a little wine for the sake of the stomach. But obviously, not too much.
Anyway, have a blessed day and enjoy the humidity.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009
PSALM 123
NEHEMIAH 9:22-38
1 TIMOTHY 6:3-21
It’s almost the end of the week! And tomorrow is my day off! The big question of the weekend, what am I going to make my wonderful wife for dinner Friday night? I’ll have to think on that.
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful, marvelous sight, to look up to the sky and see, with your very own eyes, God sitting on his throne in heaven? I remember a number of years back, our family was camping up at the state park in Three Rivers and we had gotten word that the space station would be visible to the naked eye at night. So, at the appointed time our family walked across the road to the beach and found a picnic table and sat and looked up into the clear sky watching for the space station. We were not disappointed. It flashed across the sky. We were so far from the lights of Racine and Milwaukee and the sky was brilliant with stars, but we were able to see the space station as it moved across the sky. As fun as that was, looking up to the sky and seeing God would be a billion times more awesome.
In our Nehemiah lesson our history lesson of the Israelites sin and up and down relationship with God continues. Not really much to say about it except that we run the same history EVERY DAY. Martin Luther was a big advocate for daily repentance and daily remembering our baptism because he knew the struggle we have with sin on a daily basis. One minute we are following our Lord, the next minute we are influenced by the world, Satan and our sinful nature. So, we may tired of the up and down of the Israelites, but we live the same history daily.
Our lesson from Timothy is filled with material. So much of it is familiar to us. Paul warns against wealth warning, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” This has to be the most misquoted passage of the bible. Most people memorize or quote the Bible as saying, “Money is the root of all evil.” But that’s not what it says. There is nothing wrong with money in and of itself. The problem is the LOVE of money. When money becomes god for people. When money is worshipped and put above the One True God then that is when it becomes a problem. As Paul states, “It is through this CRAVING that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Instead, we are to, “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” Paul encourages Timothy to, “Fight the good fight of faith.” Our focus is on our Lord Jesus Christ and to Him be all honor and eternal dominion. This is a great text to read on one of those nasty days when nothing seems to go right.
Hopefully today won’t be one of those days…
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
PSALM 51:5-13
MALACHI 1:1-14
MATTHEW 3:1-17
Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. I don’t think so. Keep raining. We need it. It sounds pretty too. Opps. I forgot. I’m writing on Saturday. It’s didn’t rain until late Friday. Fortunately, on Friday I cut my grass. Guess I did it just in time.
You know, it’s not easy to write something each and every day. And it is even harder when you have to write about the same exact text twice in one week. Why would the people who organized this Treasury select Psalm 51:5-13 twice in a mere three days? I have no clue. It is a great text and we do need to look at our sin each and every day in repentance. We sin daily and we need to repent and remember our baptism on a daily basis, not because that is how we earn our way into heaven, but because Christ died for us and won eternal life for us, we want to show Him our thanks through our actions and behavior.
And now we get to read the last book in the Old Testament. Once again, things are not good. I’ll share some background on Malachi once I’m writing this from my office and I have my bible with me. It is significant that the books open with the Lord declaring His love for Israel. But then, we see the Lord chastising Israel for their offerings. Can you imagine offering blind, sick, diseases animals to the Lord? God doesn’t want our ruined stuff. He doesn’t want what we don’t want. If we don’t want it, why give it to God? Our Lord gives us His best in His Son. So our Lord wants our best, firstfruit, proportional giving, is what we share with the Lord.
We jump into Matthew very quickly with the appearance of John T. Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. Okay, maybe this text is why we have Psalm 51 again this week. John’s message was a message of repentance, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There is no better Psalm about repentance than Psalm 51. So, I understand now. Beat me over the head with a 2 x 4 and I will get it.
So, Jesus gets baptized. No, He didn’t need to be baptized, He had no sin. But if our Lord was going to use baptism as a Sacrament to provide for us the Holy Spirit and forgive our sin, then it would be wise for Jesus to give His blessing to this Sacrament by being baptized. Jesus says, “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In other words, this is the way it is supposed to be. This is a wonderful gift from our Lord where He gives us many gifts.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2009
PSALM 16
MALACHI 2:1-3:5
MATTHEW 4:1-11
What a nice, relaxing morning! No pressure to get out and cut the grass. No errands to run, just my Treasury, my laptop and a tall glass of soda. Yeah, and probably a cup of hot tea next.
Psalm 16 isn’t one of the Psalms people memorize and recognize right away like Psalm 23 or 51. But it is a wonderful Psalm. “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Now that’s the truth. Apart from God, there is no good in us. Our Lord is the best part of our life. If we jump down to verse 10, we see a passage about Jesus, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” This is a passage about Jesus’ resurrection. God will not let His Son stay dead. He would and did rise again to the joy of all people. His resurrection will be our resurrection. Do I hear an, “Amen!”
No, things were not right in Israel during the time of Malachi. Who would have every thought that a prophet of the Lord would write, “Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.” Can you imagine how upset the Lord must have been to instruct His prophet to proclaim something like that? But, the priests were leading the people away from the Lord instead of to Him. They were leading the people away.
So the Lord sends Malachi to warn the people. He warns the people to bring them back. He wants to preserve a remnant through whom the Christ would be born. God’s goal is to bring salvation. And that is how He works with us too. He wants us to have salvation as well. He warns us to bring us back home. He warns us to forgive.
Our Lord goes right from His baptism into the wilderness for temptation. What good would a Savior who was not tempted be? Thankfully, Satan doesn’t come and tempt us like he did Jesus. But we have enough temptation each and every day. Our Lord was tempted in every way we are tempted. Nothing we endure is unique to us. Jesus endured the same things. The big difference is that He did not sin. He was perfect. He kept the Commandments for us on our behalf.
Finally, we read, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” We are not alone in our resisting temptation. Our Lord is with us and His angels are with us. We can ask the Lord to help us resist through His angels. We can ask God to take the temptation away. We can ask God to send the evil spirits away. But all of our requests are made to God. He will decide how to help us. Just being in conversation with God during temptation will help ease the temptation.
Give it a shot. Make it your habit. When tempted, be in conversation with God.