The Blessed Life

Matthew 5:1-12
The beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12, our gospel lesson for today, are often misunderstood. They're often seen as a list of virtues we need to pursue. But that isn't really what they're about at all.

In them, Jesus isn’t saying, “Act this way and you’ll be saved.” Instead, He’s saying, “Because You have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Me, this is how You’ll be set free to live.”

The beatitudes show us what disciples set free from sin, death, and the darkness of this world, look like.

Disciples, Jesus will say repeatedly to us today, lead blessed lives. Scholars tell us that the word we translate as blessed, makarios, means to be favored by God. This blessed life is connected to having faith in the God we meet in Christ. To live in a faith relationship with Christ is to be blessed, now and in eternity. That doesn't mean that everything in this life will go well. Remember that Jesus has told us: "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

But in Revelation 14:13, part of John’s vision of heaven, we’re also told: “‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”

According to Jesus, the blessed life depends entirely on faith in Him. So, let’s look at Jesus’ portrait of how He blesses the lives of disciples.

Matthew writes: “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said: ’Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’”

When people spoke of being poor in first century Judea, just like today, it meant to be without, to be impoverished or beggarly. But Jesus here (unlike in Luke’s gospel, where Jesus' sermon on the plain is recorded) says that those who are "poor in spirit” are the blessed ones. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?

It means to be utterly dependent on God’s grace. It means to have no pretense of personal perfection.

In a parable in Luke 18, Jesus shows what unpretentious dependence on God's grace this looks like. Two men go to the temple. One is a Pharisee, who tells God: “I thank You I’m not like other people,” then goes on to catalog all the rotten things other people do and lists the good things he does. But Jesus says that in the temple is a tax collector, a member of a class of people known for their shifty ways and their vast wealth. The tax collector, Jesus says, is so humble before God that he can’t lift his eyes toward heaven and prays simply, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus says in Luke 18:14: “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Despite his wealth, the tax collector was “poor in spirit.” We are poor in spirit when we recognize that we’re nothing without God, that we desperately need the crucified and risen Jesus to justify our existences.

Arrogance leads to hell; humble faith in Christ yields everlasting life with God.

Verse 4: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

The word translated as comforted is, in the original Greek in which Matthew wrote, paraklethesontai. It means to come close beside or to call, encourage, or exhort from nearby. To me, it brings to mind the image of a coach like John Wooden, his hand on the shoulder of a player, either exhorting him to do better or encouraging him to buck up under the weight of it all.

This word translated as comforted is related to one of the words that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit, Paraclesis, the Comforter.

When disciples grieve over loved ones lost (or over any loss), the Holy Spirit comforts them with the promises of God, promises authenticated by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Promises like: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." [Deuteronomy 31:6]

Or, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” [John 11:25-26]

Christians grieve their losses, of course. But we “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” [1 Thessalonians 4:13] Even in our mourning, we are blessed, favored, by the reality that the Savior in Whom we trust has secured everlasting life for all who turn from sin and follow Him. That’s true comfort!

Verse 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

The word translated as meek doesn’t mean weak. To be meek is to be gentle, reserved, to exhibit God’s strength under God's control. Picture a jet engine that possesses enormous power. But that power is harnessed for the the purpose of carrying people or goods from one place to another. Jet engines are, except in tragic situations, subject to the will and the dictates of the pilots who fly them and the engineers who design them.

Meekness is like that. Jesus' disciples--you and I who believe in Jesus Christ--are filled with the power of God. But God calls us to only use that power for His purposes, according to God's will.

When the meek brag, it's only to brag about how good God is. Paul exhibits meekness in 2 Corinthians 11:30 when he writes: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” Paul knew that God shines through, not our arrogance, but our weaknesses.

The meek don’t bully or gossip. They don’t need to play those games: The meek are confident of their place in God’s kingdom because they know what Christ has done for them and they place their total trust in Christ.

The meek look out for others because they know that God is already looking out for them.

Our world, our country, and our churches would be better off if there were more people who lived out the meekness of Christian discipleship.

Verse 6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

There is nothing a disciple of Jesus Christ more craves than being in a right relationship with the God revealed in Jesus. It's to give us and to keep giving to us that relationship that Jesus tells us to “repent and believe in the good news” of new life through Him. [Mark 1:15]

It’s why daily repentance and renewal--daily midcourse correction--is to be part of the Christian’s life.

Those who hunger and thirst for rightness with God pray with the psalmist: “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” [Psalm 25:4-5]

This is the disciple's prayer because disciples want nothing to stand between them and God. In Psalm 73:25, Asaph confesses to God: “earth has nothing I desire besides you.”

This is why a daily quiet time with God, in which we repent for our sins, read and reflect on God’s Word as it applies to us each day, and ask for God’s help has become like breathing for many Christians. It helps to satisfy the disciple’s longing for God!

Verse 7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

To be merciful is to be compassionate, living in the light of what God has done for us in Christ. The disciple says, “Because God is eternally merciful to me through Jesus Christ, I will be merciful to my neighbor.”

Verse 8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Disciples pray with King David: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” [Psalm 51:10] To be pure in heart is to be a sinner covered in the forgiveness God makes available to us only through Jesus.

Disciples know the truth of Acts 4:12, which says of Jesus: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

From the perspective of heaven, a peacemaker isn’t someone who negotiates the ends of wars, important though that is. A peacemaker isn't someone who refuses to argue because, truly, there are some things worth arguing about.

To understand what Jesus means when He talks about being a peacemaker, we have to understand the Bible's understanding of peace.

Peace, or shalom in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, eirene in the Greek of the New Testament, is peace with God.

To have peace is to be in sync with God and His will.

We lay down our rebellion against God’s will.

We accept the Lordship of Jesus over our lives.

We accept that, as our Maker and Redeemer, the God we know in Jesus has every right to tell us what do in our relationships, our work, our leisure, our money, even our sex lives.

Peacemakers are ambassadors for Christ. One scholar says that a peacemaker “bravely declares God’s terms [for peace] which makes a person whole.”

Those terms are simple: Repent and believe in Christ.

Paul says that God “has committed to us the message of reconciliation [or peace with God]. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” [2 Corinthians 5:19-20] Peacemakers are evangelists, witnesses for Christ. That’s what peacemakers do.

Verses 10 to 12 tell us: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

It seems a strange thing for Jesus to say that we are blessed or enjoy God’s favor when we’re persecuted. We think that we’re blessed when everything goes our ways. But sometimes the things we want, the things that we’re sure are what’s best for us, aren’t the things that God says are best for us. “‘...My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD” in Isaiah 55:8.

Our ways are often easy, selfish, self-destructive.

But God’s ways always lead us life, to becoming our better selves. Jesus calls disciples to take an eternal view of things.

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Jesus asks [Matthew 16:26]

The world may applaud or even reward people for being self-promoting egotists. But all the money and security this world may give to those looking out for number one will vanish the moment we draw our last breaths.

And eternity is a terrible place to go without God!

Sometimes, those who follow Jesus are persecuted or put down for their faith. They may lose their lives. They may have to make sacrifices of their time, money, or status with others. They may run into opposition when they tell others about Christ, read God’s Word, pray in public places, stand against injustice, fight on behalf of those who can’t fight for themselves, feed or house the homeless, or welcome those hated by others. But Peter, one of the first to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, writes: “...if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” [1 Peter 2:20]

Disciples know that the God Who has saved us from sin and death through Jesus Christ will have the final say in our lives. We are blessed!

Let’s pray each day that God will help us to display God’s grace and goodness through lives devoted to loving God, loving neighbor, sharing Christ, and making disciples. Around here, we call all of that reaching up, reaching in, and reaching out. That’s the blessed life for which Christ has saved us.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was the message during worship this morning.]

Truly Remarkable

[This was shared during a memorial service for Gertie this week. She was the mother of a high school classmate I have known since we were in the fourth grade. Gertie was also my Cub Scout den mother.]

Psalm 116:12-16
2 Timothy 4:6-8
John 11:21-27

On Thursday, Eric said something about his mother that stuck with me. “Her life was remarkable for being so unremarkable.”

By that he meant that Gertie’s long life, though not always easy, wasn’t marked by much in the way of tragedy. Born and raised in Jackson County, she and her husband Frank came to Columbus in search of greater opportunity for themselves and, eventually, for their sons, Jan and Eric, on the west side. They raised their children. Gertie doted on her grandchildren and loved her great-grandchildren. I understand what Eric meant by saying Gertie’s life was remarkable for being unremarkable.

But I can tell you this afternoon that from the perspective of heaven, Gertie’s was also a remarkable life! In Psalm 116, which we considered a few moments ago, we’re told: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of one of his servants.”

Part of the problem with living in this world is that we’ve grown too accustomed to death. We look at the death of someone who has reached nearly ninety-eight years of age and say, “She lived a good life. She was healthy almost near the end.”

And that’s true in this world. But in judging things from the perspective of this world, we display a lower standard for our lives than God has for us.

The book of Genesis tells us that we were “made in the image of God” and in Ecclesiastes, we’re told that God has set eternity in human hearts.

God built us not for death, but for eternity. With Adam’s and Eve’s fall though, we have become inheritors of things like aging and disease and death, along with an inclination to rebel against God just as Adam and Eve did. We’ve become accustomed to death.

But God never has!

That’s why He sent His Son Jesus on the first Christmas to bear our sin and mortality on a cross, then raised Him from the dead so that all who believe in Him can have forgiveness for sin and life with God, life as it was meant to be. As Jesus put it to His friend Martha as she grieved the death of her brother, Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

God hates death!

And that’s why the psalm tells us that the death of one of His servants is precious to God.

And Gertie was a servant of God. Her servant heart could be seen in the three most important realms of her life: her church (the same church in which Eric and I were confirmed together), her family, and the west side.

My personal recollection of her is that she never, in a phrase I learned from my Jackson County mother-in-law, “put on the dog.” Over the years, my mother has remarked more than once that Gertie  was one of the few women in the Westgate Elementary PTA who didn’t spend most of the meeting time bragging on her kids.

Now, I’m sure that Jan and Eric did many things that she could have bragged about. But bragging isn’t what servants of God do.

They let their serving and their lives of steady commitment to God and to the important things in life do their talking for them. Like the apostle Paul in the New Testament, a servant’s attitude is “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness,” because it’s in the recognition of our weaknesses and vulnerability that we become more dependent on God and His power will shine through lives of service and love and good humor.

I know that in making these observations about Gertie, I’m preaching to the choir, so to speak. The people here at the apartment complex knew what kind of person she was.

Her family also know what kinds of people you have been for her: warm, caring, considerate friends with servant hearts.

The community you share, in fact, may be remarkable because it’s so unremarkable. No great drama. Just aging children of God living in the kind of fellowship, community, and mutual encouragement and support for which God made each and every one of us.

You have been Gertie’s cheerleaders and God wants us all to be cheerleaders to each other. You’ve exhibited the confidence in God’s grace and goodness that makes it possible to live life as the apostle Paul said believers should live. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,” he writes. “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves…” Your love for Gertie has been a witness to her family!

A few moments ago, I said that we’ve grown too accustomed to death. That’s true in one way. But in another way, it’s not. If we were as accustomed to death as we often seem to be, family and friends wouldn’t grieve over the loss of a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend. You will miss this woman who has been such a remarkable (and long-time) presence in your lives. It would be unnatural for you not to grieve!

But there is good news! God did send Jesus into the world to ensure that death need not be the end of our life stories. Jesus says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” For all who turn from sin and trust in Christ, that is a promise to latch onto today and for all eternity. We may endure all kinds of griefs and deaths in this world, but God has crashed into this world and destroyed the hold of griefs and death over us. He has set us free to be servants of God, who even as we face our own deaths, can say with the apostle Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

The good fight to which Christ calls us, the good fight I believe that Gertie fought each day, was the fight to hold onto Christ. To trust in Jesus, to believe in Him.

To those willing to trust in Him, Jesus gives the power to believe, the power to hold on, the ability to be servants of God who don’t need to “put on the dog” because God has already proven their value on Christ’s cross, and the privilege of living with God forever.

Hold onto Christ today and always.

He will be your comfort, your strength.

He will dry your tears.

And one day, Jesus Christ will give you happy reunions with Gertie and with all the saints who have trusted in Him. God bless you. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

The Need for Humility

Luke 17:1-10
A prominent New Testament scholar jokes about the man who wrote a book titled, Humility and How I Achieved It. Of course, a truly humble person would never be so wrapped up in themselves as to identify themselves as exemplifying humility.

And yet, for the Christian, cultivating humility is both central to our faith in Christ and reflective of Christ living in us because, despite being God, Jesus was always humble.

Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Zechariah, wrote of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly [or humble] and riding on a donkey...” [Zecharaiah 9:9]

And, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” [Philippians 2:5-7]

Jesus humbled Himself, making Himself our servant, going to the cross to bear the condemnation for sin we deserve, then rising from death to open God’s eternity to all who repent of sin and believe in Christ.

It was humility that set Jesus free from allowing the certain horrors of the cross to keep Him from fulfilling His mission of saving the human race.

Humility can set us free to be the people God made us to be.

C.S. Lewis once observed that humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves, it’s thinking of ourselves less.

In true humility, there’s true freedom. When we follow Jesus Christ and know that we have God’s forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing us God’s presence with us now and in eternity with God, we’re set free from operating out of the pathetic human desire to be our own gods. Since we know that God is already looking out for us, eternally, we don’t need to “look out for number one.” We’re set free to live out of God’s love and truth revealed in the crucified and risen Jesus.

The call to humility is a common thread running through the seemingly disconnected set of sayings from Jesus that make up today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 17:1-10.

Unlike the parables of Jesus that have absorbed our attention over the past few weeks, which were addressed to people who followed Him and people who didn't, Jesus’ words in today’s lesson are spoken only to His disciples, followers of Jesus like you and me. Jesus is telling us how we disciples should live each day. Let’s take a look at what Jesus has to tell us this morning, starting at verse 1.

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’

“[Jesus goes on] “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

I once spoke with a man who told me that he couldn’t put any symbol of His Christian faith--like a fish or a cross or a bumper sticker saying something like, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”--on His car for fear that if he cut someone off in traffic or engaged in a fit of road rage or failed to forgive someone who had wronged him, people would think less of Christianity. “That’s too much pressure,” he told me.

I appreciated his honesty. It’s not easy being a Christian. As Christians, we know that we’re sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, not because we’re such great and holy people. (I know that I’m not.) Sin still lives in us and a big part of the Christian life involves daily enlisting God’s power to overcome our sin. “Daily repentance and renewal” is what Martin Luther called it.

Because we know how unchristian we can be in our thoughts and actions, we might well think, “Who am I, an ordinary, garden variety sinner, to represent Jesus Christ to the world? Who am I, someone who muddles along in life, sometimes with only the tiniest wisp of a faith, to be, in the words of 2 Corinthians, an ambassador for Christ?” The truth is, it probably only makes sense to Jesus that we should be His representatives in the world.

And if we find fulfilling that role daunting, so did Jesus’ first disciples. After hearing Jesus say that if they led others into sin and away from God, it would be better to be deep sixed with a millstone around their necks and that, if they were going to bear His name, they needed to forgive those who apologized to them without keeping score, they reacted as maybe we react. Verse 5: “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”

The disciples thought that they could be better Christians if they had bigger faith. We're inclined to think that too.

But Jesus’ response to the apostles shows us that the size of our faith should never prevent us from faithfully seeking to do His will. Verse 6: “[Jesus] replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

We can do the big things that Jesus commands of us as individual Christians and as a Church, whether our faith is large or small. We can love God. We can love our neighbor. We can make disciples. We can forgive those who have hurt us. We can share the good news of new life for all who believe in the crucified and risen Jesus. We can reach up, reach in, and reach out.

We can do all of that with just a little faith in a great, big, omnipotent, omniscient, compassionate, loving God.

With a little faith in a big God--no matter our age, our training, our gender--we can do the will of God and bring God’s kingdom to the people in our lives. It all begins with the humble recognition that God is God and that, by God's grace, we are His people.

When I first came to faith in Christ, I was hesitant about sharing Him with others, especially my old school friends and classmates. In my imagination, I could see them rejecting the message of Christ coming from me because they remembered what a big-mouthed, overbearing loser I was.

Through the years, I’ve prayed for the opportunity to share Christ with the people with whom I grew up and I’ve asked God to get my brain off of me, onto Him and onto others.

In recent years, I’ve had the chance to share Christ with many members of my graduating class. And when we had our most recent reunion, after we’d all gotten our food and sat at our tables, one of my classmates approached me and asked, “Mark, would you say grace for us? I think it would be a really good thing to do.”

There’s no way self-absorbed Mark ever would have been asked to do that. When we let God set us free from worrying about how little we are and trust in how much He can do, God can use us for His good purposes. A little faith in a big God can accomplish a lot!

This is why Jesus commends humility. “Get out of the way and let me work through you,” Jesus is saying.

Christians know that our single mission in life--the mission of the Church of making disciples--is only accomplished when we recognize that it’s about God and not about us!

That, I think is why Jesus wraps up this section on humility in the way that He does, starting at verse 7: “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Listen: Every disciple of Jesus Christ lives in the daily assurance that by God’s grace through our faith in Christ, we are saved from sin and death and are living in an eternal relationship with God. It doesn’t get any better than that! But there are no personal bragging rights in that. Christians aren’t better than other people, just freer than other people, more alive than other people, because of what Christ has done and our faith in Him. With Paul, we can say: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” [2 Corinthians 11:30] Like Paul, we know that when we are weak, the strength of Christ empowers us and is visible to others. God’s power is perfected in our weakness, our humility. [2 Corinthians 12:10]

And when we strive to live out of our faith in Christ, to trust in Him and heed the Bible’s commands, weak though we are, we do it only in the power of God.

Once, I singled out a person at a church I served as pastor for having undertaken some particular act of service. The congregation applauded. But after worship, the person told me, “I appreciated your words. But don’t ever do that again. Whatever good I do comes from the Lord and He’s the one who deserves the applause.” I didn’t entirely agree with that person: Holding up faithful examples to others can help the faith of us all. But I appreciated the humble reliance on Christ and the fact that she refused to take credit for what she knew God had done through her.

James writes in the New Testament: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” [James 4:10]

Peter says something similar: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” [1 Peter 5:6]

Humble reliance on Christ is essential to being a faithful disciple.

Jesus tells us that “with God all things are possible” [Matthew 19:26]. The fact is, there is no limit to what impossible things God can do through those who lose themselves in Christ’s grace and make themselves His servants.

May Christ teach us humility. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during worship earlier today.]

The Church: A Fellowship of Recovering Sinners

Church isn't a place for the perfect, but a fellowship for recovering sinners.

After I posted that on Facebook earlier today, a high school classmate wrote to ask, "Mark do we ever really 'recover' from sinfulness?"

If by "recover," it was meant to "get over," the answer is no. Just as with any addiction, we never fully get over the common human condition of sin this side of the grave. We depend on God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to help us resist temptation and to enable us do better when we "fall off the... wagon" and any sin, from taking God's Name in vain to engaging in sexual intimacy outside of marriage, from gossip to thievery. 

Just as an alcoholic who has given up drink is still only a recovering alcoholic no matter how many years it's been since their last drink, Christians are nothing more than recovering sinners. 

But, thank God for the process of recovery--what the Biblical theology calls "sanctification"--that happens for all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

That's why Christians, mindful that we are sinners saved only by the grace of God given through Jesus Christ, should never look down their noses on unrepentant sinners. Instead, we should befriend them, tell them God's truth in love, pray for them, and ask them, one sinner to another, to "come and see" what it's like to be set free from sin's power, to live today as recovering sinners, and to look to an eternal future when we will live the sinless lives for which God first made us. 


The Church exists as the fellowship within which we hear God's Word and receive the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, confess our sins, receive forgiveness through Christ, and learn together to follow Jesus in our everyday lives. While Christians boldly confess, as Jesus Himself has taught, that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God, arrogance is inconsistent with being a Christian. As Paul puts it in the New Testament: "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness...", that is, my complete dependence on Jesus Christ.


So, if you're looking for a church home, find one where neither pastor nor people think they're "all that," but who freely acknowledge their imperfections. It's in the fellowship of other "recovering sinners" that you can really experience what it is to be set free from the power of sin.

Church isn't a place for the perfect, but a fellowship for recovering sinners. Want to be a part of that?

[If you live in or near Logan or Hocking County, Ohio, you're invited to "come and see" how Jesus is living in our congregation, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church. Sunday School for all ages--and we have a great adult Sunday School class--meets at 9:15AM each Sunday. Worship happens at 10:15AM. If you currently have no church home, we would love to welcome you!]