Day in - Day out. We get worn down by life and wonder if there's hope. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, there's all the hope in the neighborhood and in the world to come!! God says, "Don't lose heart!" God renews you day by day!

Jesus prayed for His disciples - and for you and me - that God the Father would protect and sanctify His disciples. He prayed for their protection from the evil one in the world; and to set them apart for His purposes of making disciples of all nations for Jesus, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Raise your praise to God, for He has done marvelous things! Sing Joy to the World in the middle of the Easter season - for Christ has come, Christ is risen, and our joy in Jesus is to permeate all the earth - and the heavens above - until Jesus returns!

The LORD is my Shepherd - and yours, too! "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand!" (Psalm 95:7) When King David was led by His Good Shepherd to write and pray this psalm, God knew that David would remember and pray it throughout his lifetime, as do we. Receive the comfort that the LORD gives you as He makes you lie down in green pastures, and leads you to quiet waters while He restores your soul.

The enormous love of God gives us the best gifts: freedom from fear forever through faith in our Risen Savior! Jesus meets us to fulfill our hopes and drive out our fears with His perfect love. Thanks be to God, who gives us the Victory in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Just how large is the love of God for sinners, in Jesus Christ? That's the theme that we have been exploring during this Lenten season. And this week, we consider this dimension of God's love: how broad and wide it is! 

Your sins that separated you from your God and which stood between you and your God, and between you and joy in God's presence forever--they are gone! What remains between you and God is His enormous love in Jesus Christ!

How great is God's love for you? Deeper than the ocean's depths. Broader than the universe. Higher than any mountain. Shown on the cross of Jesus Christ - so that you can know that you are loved by God and He is preparing a place for you in His heavenly home. Yes, for you!

Moses met with God face to face on Mt. Sinai - for 40 days and nights. God talked. Moses listened. Moses talked. God listened - and talked some more and sent Moses to talk to God's people. While we probably won't be climbing Mt. Sinai ourselves anytime soon, you and I are able to have a daily walk and talk with God, thanks be to Jesus who reconciled us with God the Father! How will you meet with God face to face in the coming 40 days and nights of Lent?

Praise the Lord at all times, for He is worthy of praise! Even in a pandemic? Yes, EVEN MORE SO in a pandemic, as we rely on the Lord and rely on Him to see us through. St. Paul praised God from prison. Joseph honored God throughout years in prison and separation from family. Job pursued wisdom and knowledge of God even in the midst of loss of nearly everything. King David sacrificed to the Lord during a plague. When we praise God, we take our eyes off of ourselves, and thank God that He still has His eyes on us! Hallelujah - Praise the Lord!

God loves life! He prizes what the world sees as invisible or not worth looking at, and reminds us how indispensable each and every one of us is, from when life begins in the womb all the way to the tomb and beyond into eternal life in Christ!

What is God's will for you to do in 2021? Walk with Him in His Word for insights into His will, for the two are intertwined. Who better to learn from than the two wisest men in the Bible - King Solomon and Jesus in 1 Kings 3 and Luke 2 - and everything that Jesus taught!

What would the ripple effect be for you and for everyone else if Jesus had never been born - or had been destroyed by Satan????? Thank God that He is always at least one step ahead of all of us, and he is walking with us leading us to Our Father's Eternal House in heaven! Jesus, lead Thou on, 'til our rest is won. And although the way be cheerless, we will follow, calm and fearless. Guide us by Thy hand, to our Fatherland." (Lutheran Service Book Hymn 718, Concordia Publishing House)

What would the ripple effect be for you and for everyone else if Noah had never been born, or if he had told God "NO WAY" when God instructed him to build an ark to save all humankind and animal kind? Thank God Noah and Mrs. Noah and their sons and daughters-in-law believed God and trusted Him to save them and keep them afloat in the boat.

Advent is about getting ready for Christmas - AND being prepared for Jesus' return! In It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey contemplated the value of his life - and found out his life was wonderful and that he made a difference in the lives of others. As we contemplate our lives this Advent, we are reminded that our lives are of great value - so valuable that Jesus gave His life so that we might have eternal life. So let's go back to the very beginning and see what impact Adam and Eve's lives have had on us and all people! Thank God He created Adam & Eve - and you and me!

We love because He first loved us. We give because He first gave generously to us - and for us to share, because our cup runneth over! We focus on God's goodness as He enables us to give our own generous gifts of our time, talents, and treasures He has placed in us and our hands to flow towards Him and others.

Let us not grow weary of doing good! And not just to those we like, but to everyone, as this shows the world Jesus' love for everyone! What is at the heart of Christian service? Christ - and His sacrificial service of love! 

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are transformed into grace-filled stewards who seek to honor and serve the Lord with all He's entrusted to us. Through faith, we acknowledge that all we are and have are gifts from God. As we serve and give, we are filled with joy, compelling us to serve and give even more! What a wonderful privilege we have as saints and stewards of the Lord and His varied grace and gifts!

Be Still, and know that I AM God! God reminds us, comforts us, refuges us (to verb a noun) that He is our ever present help in trouble - and is with us always! What a word of comfort in this time of pandemic and uncertainty on earth! Be Still! And know that I AM God! The God of Jacob is our Fortress!

Going through Good Grief with God and His HOPE, Acceptance of our loss comes when we look at what we have lost in light of what God has gained for us and gives us freely in Jesus Christ, who is still with us every moment and wipes away every tear. God comforts us with Christ and helps us go on living despite our loss. We may still bounce back and forth through grief's stages as memories come back to heart and mind, yet acceptance helps us heal as we await the Great Reunion at the Resurrection on the Last Day! As we go through Good Grief's Acceptance, we also comfort others with the comfort we have received from Christ!

"The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Psalm 23

After the AAUGH! of anger and bitterness often comes grief's stage of bargaining. Guilt can often be behind the bargaining, and the best place to take guilt is not to a bargain basement, but to the throne of God's grace and mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord!

One of grief's stages is the AAUGH! of anger and bitterness. It's healthy to experience it and healthily release it, but not to bottle it in. We may get angry at God, but He's BIG enough, and God can handle our anger with His love, listening, and patience. Psalm 4 gives us help and hope in our times of grief and anger, too, so that we can lie down and sleep in peace rather than let the sun go down on our anger.

What's good about grief? God gave us emotions and promises to guide us with His grace and mercy as we go through grief and loss in life. We'll look at the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) and see others in Scripture who experienced these stages as well during their life's journey.

God's Greater Plan for you is for you to be living life here on earth in light of Christ's eternal rule, until you live under Him in His eternal Kingdom in heaven! We are reminded that when we live in Christ, we look at one another and life differently - through the eyes of Christ and His love!

God has transformed you for service...in CHRIST! You may wonder if you matter to the world, but you matter to God, who sent His only-begotten Son to save you! Now you  - and each follower of Jesus - is transformed to serve this world with Jesus' love!

God has proclaimed you righteous through Jesus Christ your Savior! He wants you to have a deep, trusting relationship with Him as your God and Savior, as well as for people of all nations to be saved. As you live by His proclamation of salvation, know that He is calling you to be Jesus' hands and feet and heart to all people!

People of the Promise is for all people (yes, you!) to know that it's not by birth but by believing God's promise that you are adopted into His family along with "Father Abraham." When we read God's Greater Story, we also hear and see how we are part of that entire story and joined with our ancestors in the faith, awaiting the "Eternal End of the Story" with Jesus' return!

God, in Love, Ruling over Ruins, reminds us that no matter how messed up our world and lives may get from the effects of sin and the spiritual war that we're in daily, God is still rescuing and making things new. He is ruling from His throne, and is also with us through it all. Nothing can separate you from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord! [To view the selected portions of the video towards the end, click on the link to the Archbishop of Canterbury's webpage that is embedded in the PDF and scroll down to the end of the page for the video. You may also click here.]

Christ, Our Deliverer rescues us from our sinful cycle to live a new life in Him and His true freedom! Our reading through Romans continues to release us from the power of sin through Christ's redemption and resurrection!

The Resurrecting Christ brings His resurrection power, life, and hope to all. We continue to read through Romans and hear the Gospel, which is the power of God for the salvation of all.

Commissioned by Christ and Never Alone! When Jesus met His disciples in Galilee after His resurrection, He commissioned them with the greatest mission of all - to make disciples of all nations. "There is no 'Plan B'!" as some have said. This can be a daunting thing for us - but the One Who commissioned His followers is the One who is still with us until the end of the age, when we and all who believe will be with Him forever in eternity in His HOME. Life can be lonely at times, but with Jesus, you are NEVER alone!

Tongues to tell...Ears to hear...Lives Saved & Changed! We hear the account of the first Pentecost and continue to learn how God empowers our saved and changed lives by His Holy Spirit as He sends us on His mission to make disciples of all nations as they hear with their ears, confess with their tongues that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!

Jesus Christ came to rock your world! We hear from St. Peter again that we are precious and prized, and are living stones being built up in Christ. Also, as we celebrate Mother's Day - we just want to say, "Moms - you rock, too!!!!"

As we live in this world, when we suffer, from pandemic or persecution, or anything else, we learn from Jesus, who suffered while trusting the Father, as we follow in His footsteps to eternal life.

Peter, one of Jesus' 12 Apostles, wrote a letter to those followers of Jesus scattered around the world to encourage them in the midst of persecutions and trials. What a fitting section of Scripture to remind the "Scattered Church" that we still gather with Christ in our midst, while being separated during this worldwide pandemic - poised to bring the HOPE of the Risen Lord Jesus to this world. These slides go together with Pastor John's sermon posted on the YouTube section below.

Lent Sermon Series - Go and Be Reconciled - What Does This Mean?

[Cross image and various portions of sermon slides are reprinted or adapted from “Go and Be Reconciled: What Does This Mean?” (Ambassadors of Reconciliation, 2016). www.aorHope.org]

GaBR_Receive_God_s_Forgiveness_1_John_1_9.pdf

Lent_2_Repent_Before_God_Psalm_51_17.pdf