Advent - Coming - We Are All the Work of Your Hand - December 3, 2017 - First Sunday in Advent - Text: Isaiah 64:1-9

We might begin this morning with the words, “Happy New Year.” Today is the first Sunday in our New Church Year. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent is the Latin word for “coming” and it is the time we use to get ready for the coming of our Savior. How fitting that our Church year begins with the birth of Jesus, because our whole church year calendar centers around Jesus; His birth, His life, His suffering, death, resurrection, and His promise to come again to take us to heaven with Himself.
 

Our text actually begins at the end of the previous chapter with Isaiah’s reminder to God of His promise to send a Redeemer. We read verses sixteen and seventeen (v. 16-17) of chapter sixty-three, “But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.”
 

God is our Father. In the beginning He created all of humanity. He created each one of us, personally, at our conception. Way back in the Garden of Eden God made His promise to send a Savior, a Redeemer. He made His promise immediately after Adam and Eve sinned. God’s promise was that a woman would have a Son who would crush the head of the Devil with a mortal wound and would Himself, in the process, would also suffer a mortal wound, that is this promised Savior would die, yet this Savior would rise from His wound. Notice also, that this Savior was promised to Adam and Eve, that is to all people. This promise was made before there was a Jew or a Gentile, before there were other nations, ethnicities and cultures. This Savior was promised to all people of all places of all times.
 

So that the world would not forget the Lord’s promise, He continually reaffirmed His promise with His people. In particular, the Lord reaffirmed His promise and at the same time narrowed the line of fulfillment of His promise with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the children of Israel. Notice that the promise was not changed, nor was a new promise made, simply the line of fulfillment of the original promise was declared. Because of man’s state of sinfulness, because of man’s always being about the things of this world instead of being about God’s work, because humans are forgetful, because of all these reasons and more, God had to continually remind His people of His promise and how He would keep His promises.
 

We see an example of how all humanity is in the lives of the children of Israel. The children of Israel were continually wandering away from God, from His promises, forgetting them, ignoring them, or outright refusing them. And then, when things would go wrong they would cry out to the Lord for help. Only after things got too rough for them, only then would they remember Him. We are really no different. When our lives are running rather smoothly, when things in life are going great we tend to forget God. It is not until something “bad” happens that we are snapped back to reality, the reality that God is the one who continually cares for us.
 

Our text begins with Isaiah’s prayer for the coming of the Lord’s judgement. We pick up at verses one (v. 1-5), “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?”
 

These verses contain harsh words of Law and judgement. Isaiah’s call for judgement is meant to frighten the nations who hold them captive and at the same time his words were meant to renew the faith of the children of Israel.
 

Isaiah wants God to show Himself with His mighty deeds in order to frighten the nations who oppress the children of Israel. Here we see the difference between God’s usual way of doing things and God’s unusual way. God’s usual way was a way of not showing Himself physically to people, rather that they saw Him through His mighty acts, and especially His mighty acts of judgement. Isaiah wants God to show these heathen nations that He alone is God by bringing down on them His worst. Isaiah also believes that if the children of Israel see the Lord’s judgement they will be snapped back to their senses and what little faith they might have will be strengthened.
 

God’s usual way of dealing with the children of Israel when they wandered from the faith was that He would confront them with there sin. They would deny their sin. He would then allowed for them to suffer the consequences for their actions, and when they returned, He was always gracious and forgiving.
 

What Isaiah wants in these verses is what we might call vindictive salvation, or salvation that kills. It is very much like what we see in the treatment of cancer patients. Radiation is used to kill the disease, but it also kills the person. It kills to bring life. Isaiah wants God to kill to bring life. He wants God’s harsh judgement on the heathen to bring life to the children of Israel.
 

Picking up at verse six (v. 6-9) Isaiah helps us better understand how God works. We read, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.”
 

God is perfection. He is holy, blameless, without sin. Because we are imperfect and because God is perfection, anything on our part that strives for being good, or close to perfection, only looks bad, unclean, and as a filthy rag, in God’s eyes. That is why we do not strive to get to heaven by perfection. Our original sin puts a soiled mark on any of our attempts at perfection. Thus, we look forward to heaven, not because of anything within us, but rather, we look forward to heaven because Jesus has been perfect for us and because He has clothed us with His prefect righteousness. By faith in Jesus, His robes of righteousness become ours.
 

Isaiah also reminds us that we do not go looking for the Lord. We are not seekers, at least not in the sense that many suggest in our world today. We do the exact opposite. We sin and then we run away from our sin, or try thinking that it will go away. We sin and we try to hide. Why do you think most robbers do their work at night, so they will not been seen. We close the door when we sin so we will not be seen. We forget the God sees us always, even when we are in the midst of our sinning.
 

Lastly, Isaiah remembers that the Lord is God. As God, Isaiah reminds Him that He can do whatever He wants. He created us, He can recreate us. He is the potter, we are the clay, we are the work of His hands. And He does recreate us. He makes us new by the faith He puts in our hearts, faith in His Son who He sent to die on the cross for us.
 

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. How is this text an Advent text you might ask? Advent is the time we get ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth. We look forward to Jesus’ birth because without His birth our lives would only lead to physical death and eternal spiritual death. During Advent we are reminded that God created the world in the first place. We are reminded that He created us at our conception. And He recreated us spiritually through His Word and the waters of Holy Baptism. We are reminded that He gives us forgiveness through confession and absolution as well as forgiveness and strengthening of faith through His Holy Supper.
 

Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection is what God used to recreate the world.  Jesus’ atoning death on the cross made us whole again. His death became ours when He recreated us at our baptism.
 

Advent reminds us that the Old Testament people were looking forward to the birth of the Savior. As New Testament people, we know what happened as we can look back with twenty-twenty vision and at the same time, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas morning.
 

At the end of the church year our eyes were focused on Jesus’ second coming. At the beginning of the church year we look forward to celebrating Christ first coming, His birth in Bethlehem, as we look forward to celebrating His first coming, we cannot help but also look forward to Christ’s second coming, when He will take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity.
 

Isaiah does a wonderful job of reminding us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. The first sin happened in the Garden of Eden immediately following creation and that sin still infects our world today as sin still happens today. And yet, just as immediately as God promised to send a Savior, His one and only Son, to redeem us, to buy us back from our sin and to mold us into His divine image so God’s promise is just as immediate today, that is that even before we sin our sins have been forgiven. By grace through faith in Jesus we are recreated as children of God. And to that we respond, to God be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

New Heaven and a New Earth - November 26, 2017 - Last Sunday in the Church Year (Proper 29) - Text: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Today is the last Sunday of our present church year. Next week begins a new church year and as always it begins with the season of Advent, of preparation and getting ready to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child and the fulfillment of God’s first promise to send a Messiah. As we have been hearing for the last three Sundays, as we are in the final throws of this church year, so we are reminded of God’s promise of His second coming, the day He would come and gather all the saints and judge the world taking to heaven all believers in Jesus and sending to perdition all those who refuse and reject the gifts He has to give, so we hear even more of God’s Word of warning and encouragement to always be ready because no one knows the day nor the hour of His return.
 

Our text begins with God speaking through Ezekiel expressing the difference between God, the one true God of all and those that were in charge of Israel (v. l1-16), that is the leaders of Israel, both the government and spiritual leaders. The main difference was in the fact that the rulers of Israel did not really care about the people. They mistreated the people, often enslaved the people or simply neglected them altogether.
 

On the other hand, God cares for His people. He searches and rescues His people. As He expresses in verse eleven, “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” Much like the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one lost sheep so our Lord searches for us to find us and bring us back into His fold. It is not we who go searching for God, but always it is He who comes searching for us.
 

Of course, as we hear these words we are reminded of the ultimate fulfillment of God’s care for His sheep in that He will send a Messiah, a Savior, a Christened One, His own Son. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came as the Good shepherd. Jesus came to lay down His life for His sheep. Jesus came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
 

Indeed, unlike the leaders and rulers of Israel, God cares for His sheep, for His people. He will feed His people. He will watch over them. He will bring back the stray and bind the injured. He will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong He will destroy. He will feed them in His justice.
 

Moving on in our text we get a prophetic look into heaven (v. 20-24). God says, “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David.” This one shepherd, this servant David points us to the Messiah. The Messiah, first promised in the Garden of Eden, was promised to be born from the line of Judah, from the line of King David. As we hear God’s Word of prophecy we are constantly reminded that although there were many instances of earthly fulfillment to the promises of old, there was the constant pointing to the ultimate, heavenly fulfillment, that of a Savior who would save His people from their sins and who in the end would judge the living and the dead and give eternal life to all who believe.
 

Jesus is the ultimate son of David, Son of God who would unite all people in heaven. The promise first made in Eden to send a Savior had been fulfilled many times in one civil or political Savior through Israel’s history, in other words there were many times that God would send someone to rescue and save His people from one conquering nation or another. However, God’s promise of a Savior, of a spiritual Savior has only one spiritual fulfillment and this is its fulfillment in Jesus. It was Jesus’ perfect life, His perfect obedience, His perfect suffering and death that brought forgiveness of our sins. His life for our life. With His resurrection He defeated sin, death and the devil.
 

At His ascension Jesus promised that He would return. His return will be the day of judgement. His return will mean sending unbelievers to their eternal perdition and taking all those who believe in Him to heaven. In heaven He will rule for eternity.
 

What does this mean? Still today, we face many false teachers in our world. We face false teachers as in those who actually espouse other gods, that is other religions, such as the Muslim faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, atheism, agnosticism, and many other religious isms of faith. There are many who would easily misguide and misdirect those who are searching for some meaning to life in all the wrong places.
 

There are false teachers who misuse and misinterpret the Bible leading many astray through faith in false Messiahs and Christs such as the Jehovah’s Witness and the Mormons as well as many cults and sects as we have seen come and go over the years.
 

And even in the Christian church there are those who mislead through their misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misguided good intentions, who strive to lead other to believe that their good works might bring them righteousness and favor before God. Thanks be to God that we have His Word, that we can read His Word and that He gives us His Holy Spirit to rightly understand His Word.
 

God’s desire is to seek the lost. God’s desire is that all people are saved, that all people come to the knowledge of Jesus as the Savior. His desire is carried out through the means He has given to carry His message to others, His means of grace. Through the very Word of God He works to give, strengthen and keep us in faith. Through Holy Baptism He gives faith. Through confession and absolution He gives forgiveness of sins. Through His Holy Supper He gives forgiveness and strengthening of faith.
 

And we rejoice that through us, his broken and sinful people, working in our vocations, serving God by serving others, as we have the opportunity and as we are asked, so with all gentleness we share His Word with others. And as we share His Word, the Holy Spirit gives us the words to speak and He gives faith, when and where He pleases.
 

What is this message we are to share. First and foremost as we have been hearing for the third time in three weeks, that is that we need to get ready and be ready because the Lord has promised to return or He will take us to Himself, and either day is probably sooner than We know and sooner than we might imagine.
 

Thus, we proclaim that Jesus was born and He lived for us. God’s demand is our perfection and because we cannot be perfect, Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place. Jesus actively obeyed all God’s laws and commandments and passively allowed Himself to be crucified.
 

Jesus was obedient for us. We cannot be obedient. We are disobedient. We sin and often we sin boldly. We break all the commandments and even do so on a daily basis. Left to ourselves we would be eternally lost. But Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place.
 

After living in perfection, Jesus took our sins, all our sins, our sin of commission, doing the things we should not be doing and our sins of omission, failing to do what we should be doing. He took our sins and then suffered and died for us.
 

Yet, as we know, death and the grave had no power over Him. On the third day Jesus rose for the dead, for us. Because Jesus rose we know that we too will rise again.
 

So now back to the message, to the warning and to the encouragement to get ready. We know that it is not we who get ourselves ready but it is God who gets us ready. And He gets us ready through the same means He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith, His means of grace.
 

God gets us ready as we remember our baptism. We need only to be baptized once yet as we daily remember our baptism we are reminded that we were buried with in His baptism, even drowned, so that we also rise with Him in His resurrection.
 

God gets us ready through our confession and absolution. As we confess our sins, that is we are sorry for our sins meaning that our desire is not to return to our sin, but go in the opposite direction, we hear God’s most precious and beautiful words, often spoken by the one who stands in the stead and by the command of Jesus, our pastor, as he declares our sins forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
 

God gets us ready through His Word. Through our own personal and family devotions, through our attendance at Divine Service and Bible Study, through our reading and hearing His Word through these means the Holy Spirit works through that Word to get us ready, to give, strengthen and keep us in faith until Christ comes again.
 

And God gets us ready through Lord’s Supper. The Lord‘s Supper is His Supper. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He won and paid for our forgiveness on Calvary and now at His table where He is the Host and the Meal He distributes His forgiveness to us. Just as the sinner ate the lamb that was sacrificed so to we eat of the Lamb of God so that He becomes a part of us, so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect suffering and death become our perfect suffering and death. And His perfect resurrection become our perfect resurrection.
Today we end our present church year calendar. We are reminded as we well should be constantly reminded that our life on this earth is short, a mere blip on the screen of eternity so that rather than spending, even actually wasting our time focused on this earth we would do well to spend our time getting ready for our more and most important eternity in heaven, where we will eat eternal manna and drink of the river of pleasure forever more. Where there will be no more sorrow or tears. no more hunger or thirst and where Jesus will rule in perfect splendor and majesty. Where we will rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Vocational Witnessing, An Update

Fifteen years ago you, the members of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, helped me work on my Major Applied Project (MAP) for my Doctor of Ministry Degree. The project was titled Developing and Implementing a Lifestyle Evangelism Culture. You may remember that our Sunday morning Bible Class was a part of the course work, and there was a series of bulletin inserts drawing attention to the principles of the thesis.

As is often the case with one’s work and passion, I have continued personal study and thought in this area of Witnessing and Evangelism, which I believe are one in the same, that is that one is a witness of the evangel (Good News). Today I lean more to calling what we do in our lives as vocational evangelism, and I know many of you have heard me use that term especially in Bible Class.

In my personal life I live this concept by serving as the Shepherd of my daughter’s American Heritage Girls Troop and as Chaplin in my sons’ Trail Life USA troop. The principle is that as we live our lives, as we have opportunity, and as we are asked, we are always ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Jesus. The personal difficulty that I have is that God does not always work according to my plans, but He works when and where He pleases. I have had ample opportunities, not only conducting the Sunday services for these groups but also giving a personal answer to those who have asked about the Lutheran Christian faith.

I know there are some in the congregation who are doing the same, giving an answer, and inviting others to “come and see” Jesus in our Divine Service. This vocational evangelism is how a congregation truly grows, that is in our own personal lives living lives as Christians and always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. That is why I believe we need to be thinking more in these terms and why I am bringing this update.

Beginning in the new year I have prepared an new set of bulletin inserts bringing before you these principles of vocational evangelism, and I am working on plans to conduct an area Vocational Witness Workshop for a Saturday in February 2018. I have conducted such workshops of congregations in the past, but I plan on updating my material for this workshop. I plan on inviting any and all members from our circuit or surrounding congregations to attend, as well as any from as far as they might want to travel. The workshop will be on a Saturday and will be from a 9 am (8:30 am registration, coffee and donuts) until either noon or shortly after including a light noon meal (sandwich and chips). Anyone interested in being a part of planning and carrying out this workshop, please talk to me (Pastor Bogs).

Finally, please remember, you are the church. You are the priests in the priesthood of all believers. You are witnesses of your faith through your actions, as well as through your words and thoughts. People look at you and decide what Christians are and what a member of your church is like by you (whether you like it or not). Now more than ever, as we are living in the last days and as there are many souls that are not saved, now more than ever is the time to be ready, to give an answer and to invite your unchurched family and friends to “come and see” Jesus. You may be the only person who they know who will invite them.

Let Justice Roll Down - November 12, 2017 - Twenty-third Sun. after Pentecost (Proper 27) - Text: Amos 5:18-24

Today is the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Today is also the third to the last Sunday of the Church Year. In three weeks this Church Year will end and we will begin a new Church Year. As is the case every year as we reach the end of the year, our Scripture lessons point us to the end times. Our Scripture readings remind us that Jesus is coming again and that we need to be ready. This fact also reminds us that every day we live we move one day closer to the Lord’s return, or, as I have often reminded you, even if the Lord does not return during our life, we will go to Him and we do not know the day or the hour that will happen either, so either way, we need to be ready! It will happen, we will meet the Lord and we need to be ready.
 

In our text for today, Amos brings word to the children of Israel concerning the day of the Lord, that is, the day of the Lord for Israel. There were those among the Children of Israel who were looking for the day the Lord would return, not that He would return as a spiritual Savior, but that He would return to overthrow their captors and make them their own nation again. They thought it was their birthright that would bring them this earthly salvation, in other words they believed that God’s promise had nothing to do with their faith, only with their being born as children of Israel. So they believed that the day the Lord would come would be the day the Lord would judge those who were not from the children of Israel, condemning them and saving those who were born as Israelites.
 

So, they called on the Lord to deliver them from the nations. Notice that their hope was not in the One the Lord promised to send. Their hope was not in the promised Savior, the promised Messiah, rather their hope was in themselves. Their hope was not in forgiveness of sins and eternal life, but in an earthly kingdom. Their hope was in what they believed to be their birthright. Their hope was in their being children of Israel. And so, in this hope, they called on the Lord to deliver them. They called on the Lord to come and judge their enemies.
 

The Lord’s response to their call for judgement came though Amos. Through Amos the Lord reminded them that they really were not His people because of their lack of faith. Certainly there were those who exemplified an outward show of faith, that is they went through the motions, offering sacrifices, burnt offerings and the like, but their hearts were far from the Lord. The Lord was more interested in their having hearts of faith than in their outward show of following ceremonial rites.
 

And so, through the prophet Amos, the Lord proclaims that the day of the Lord would come and it would bring judgement and not necessarily the kind the people would be looking for. The judgement would be on those faithless Israelites.
 

Fast forward to today, November 12, 2017. We are looking forward to the Day of the Lord, that is we are looking forward to the day the Lord will return, the day of judgement. We know the Lord will return. Jesus fulfilled God’s first promise to come to earth. He fulfilled that promise by being born as a baby in Bethlehem. He fulfilled all God’s promises concerning the Savior He would send. He fulfilled all God’s law perfectly. He took the sins of all people, including our sins, our sins of omission, failing to do what God would have us to do and our sins of commission, doing those things God commands us not to do, He took all our sins upon Himself. He paid the price, He suffered the eternal death penalty for us and He died on the cross. Yet, death and the grave had no power over Him as He rose on the third day.
 

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, from where He descended to come to earth, He promised He would return on the day of judgement. We know, we believe, we have confidence that as He kept His first promise to come and take care of our sins, so He will keep this promise and He will return on the last day, on the day of judgement to take us and all believers to heaven.
 

As Christians, then, we look forward, in faith to that day of judgement. Or, as we have been saying, we can look forward to our own passing because we do not need to fear either. By faith in Jesus, faith given to us, we do not need to fear either our own death or the Lord’s return.
 

However, for those who do not believe, they do not look forward either to their own passing or to the Lord’s return, rather they show their unbelief in believing the Lord will not return. They show their unbelief in not being ready.
 

The fact is, the truth is, ready or not, the day of the Lord will bring judgement. Just as Jesus first coming brought judgement even to many of the children of Israel, especially to those who failed to look for a spiritual Savior, so Jesus second coming will bring judgement for those who fail to believe in Jesus as Savior. For those who do not believe they will receive eternal spiritual death in hell. For those who do believe they, we, you and I will receive eternal life in heaven.
 

What Does This Mean? First and foremost, our text for this morning, all our lessons for today, our lessons for the next three weeks will remind us that we will meet the Lord. We will meet the Lord, either at our own passing or at His return. We will meet the Lord, it will happen, and I would suggest that it will happen sooner than we know and sooner than we might expect. Thus, it is important, it is imperative that we are ready.
 

Our text for this morning reminds us that our salvation is not determined by a birthright. Just as being born as a child of Israel did not and still today does not save a person, so we are not saved simply because we are born from a certain line of descent. Being born of Christian parents will not save us. Having our name on a church membership list will not save us, nor will simply being in church on any number of Sundays.
 

Our text for this morning reminds us that the Lord takes no delight in outward religion. Being a good person is good, but it will not save anyone. Doing good things is good, but it will not save you. Trying not to sin, trying to be like a saint or even to be like Jesus, all these are admirable, but they will save no one.
 

The Lord’s desire is to have us, to have all of us, our heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. As we learned in the close of the commandments, God is a jealous God that is He demands that we worship Him and Him alone, that we have no other God’s before Him. God does not want us just on Sunday mornings. He does want us on Sunday mornings, but not just on Sunday mornings. He does not want us just to be in divine service with our minds wondering elsewhere, He want us to be in divine service engaged in listening and in being given the gifts He has to give. God does not want us just to have our names on a membership list of some congregation, He wants us, heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. It is only as He has us, all of us that all these other things will happen.
 

Actually, we might well say, God does not want anything from us, at least as if we are giving something to Him thinking that He is in need of something from us. God does not need anything from us as if we have anything to offer that He does not have already. God want us, all of us. And unless the Lord has us, we are not saved.
 

Thanks be to God that He covers us on this as well. It is the Lord who calls us to faith, who gives us faith, who gives us forgiveness of sins, forgiveness earned for us by His Son. He gives us life, and He gets us ready. He does this through the very means He has given us to get us ready, His means of grace. I cannot stress this enough, it is only as we make regular and diligent use of the means of grace that our Lord comes to us to get us ready and to keep us ready, to give us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

This morning we are reminded once again, as we will be reminded again next week and week after, that we are to be always ready and watchful. Jesus’ story of the ten virgins in our Gospel reading are His Words of encouragement to us to be watchful and to be ready. We do not know when the Lord will return. We do not know when our last hour on this earth will be and when we will pass on and go to Him. All we really know is that it will happen. And as I have said before it will happen sooner than we know and sooner than we might imagine.
 

Paul’s words in our Epistle lesson are words of encouragement as well. Paul’s words give us hope, that is a certainty concerning our eternal life. For, even if we pass on before the Lord returns, we need to be ready. And should we be alive when the Lord returns, we should be ready. There is salvation to all those who believe, but only to those who believe, that is only to those who believe in Jesus as their Savior. We have this hope, we have this confidence and Paul urges us to encourage one another with these words.
 

To summarize our reading for this morning, these are the Lord’s Words. The Lord, through the prophet Amos warns the children of Israel and us for that matter, that His desire is faith and faithfulness not simply an appearance of faith through hypocritical worship. The Lord’s Words, especially to us, are that we are not saved simply because we have our names on a church membership role, nor because we are born of Christian parents of a certain family line, God’s desire is not that we simply attend divine service, in a thoughtless manner, rather His desire is that we, with our whole selves and our whole being engage in divine service, being given the gifts God has to give and responding in faith and living lives as priest in the priesthood of all believers, living lives as a living sacrifice to the Lord. God has given His all for us in the death of Jesus for us for the forgiveness of our sins so that we might have eternal life. In response, God wants us, all of us. My prayer is that the Lord will accomplish His desire. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.