Listening: A Consequential Thing

[Below you'll find live stream video from this past Sunday's 8:45 AM traditional and 11:00 AM modern worship services at Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. Also below is the text of the message. Have a good week!]





Luke 10:38-42

As we begin our consideration of today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 10:38-42, let’s be clear about what Jesus is not saying. Jesus is not telling Martha (or us) that hospitality is a bad thing. The Bible tells us repeatedly that it’s God’s will for us, both as an expression of our love for Him and our neighbor, that we show hospitality to others.

Our Old Testament lesson this morning, for example, recounts how three strangers showed up at the tent of Abraham and Sarah, the father and mother of ancient Israel, and how they bent over backward to welcome and provide for these visitors. Those visitors turned out to be, I believe, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s this incident that informs the call to we Christians found in Hebrews 13:2, in the New Testament: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” On many occasions, Jesus says that in our hospitality toward strangers, more than anything, we extend hospitality to Him. We welcome Him. And that’s a good thing.

But, friends, there are different ways to welcome Jesus. 

One way is exemplified in today’s lesson by Martha, who is busily involved in seeing to it that everyone is fed, everyone’s glass is filled, and everyone has a place to sleep. 

Another way of welcoming Jesus is exemplified by Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His Word.

There are times and places for us to show each kind of hospitality to Jesus, times to get busy with serving, and times to sit and listen to God’s Word. 

Martha did a good thing by inviting Jesus and His entourage to the home she shared with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus. 

But Jesus says that Mary did the better thing, chose “what is better,” by sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to His Word. (Luke 10:42)

Mary seems to understand that when Jesus, the Word of God, came to the place she lived speaking His Word, telling all who will listen that He has brought the free gift of forgiveness and new life for all people and calling all to trust in Him, it’s time to set down the pots and pans, time to forget about the roast, time to forgo even treasured leisure time activities and listen. 

It was time, in the words of Psalm 46:10, to “Be still, and know that [Jesus is] God…”

Martha seems to think–in the same way that we modern Christians, concerned about the apathy or even hostility toward God that exists in our world, sometimes think: that she had to serve Jesus, that she had to prop Jesus up, that Jesus needed her to throw herself into frenzied action. 

But there are times when the greatest act of service and worship we can render to God is to hear His Word, receive the assurance of His love and forgiveness, and receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says: “...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) God transforms us from His enemies to His friends and brings His grace into our lives not by what we do for Him, but by what He has done and still doing for us!

Jesus didn’t need a scrap of the food that Martha was preparing for Him; but she needed the Word of life He was serving up as a free gift right there under her roof! So do we…week in and week out.

So what about us? 

Are we too busy to listen to Jesus? 

Are we so involved in activities and projects, at work, at home, even good and laudable ones, that we can’t keep still long enough to hear from Jesus and His Word? The fact that you're here, placing yourself under the Word of God is a very good thing!

That we need Jesus and His Word is a central teaching of the Bible. In the demands of daily life and in the face of overpowering temptation, it can become hard for us to remember that Jesus, God the Son, has already conquered our sins, conquered the power of temptations to separate us from God, and conquered death. It becomes easy when we become absorbed in mountains of activity, some of which may be designed to prove how wonderful we are or even to lift Jesus up to the world that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) 

At the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of God the Father told Peter, James, and John (and us), “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” (Luke 9:35) 

Both for our own salvation and to lend the power of God to our witness and service to others, we need to push the pause button on our sometimes frenzied lives to just listen to Jesus and His Gospel Word. “...faith comes from hearing the message [the message that Jesus, God in the flesh, took our punishment for sin on the cross, then opened up eternity to all who turn to Him], and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17) 

Listen, friends: It’s the Word of Jesus and the Word about Jesus, not our work or our serving or our good deeds, but the Word of Jesus and the Word about Jesus alone, that creates and sustains and grows the gift of faith in Jesus that saves us from sin, death, and hell and saves us for life with God that never ends.

This is why God created the Sabbath day for His ancient people. God wanted them to hear His Word of Law that reminds us of His will and His Word of Gospel by which, through the crucified and risen Jesus, He saves us from the consequence of our complete inability to keep His Law. God commanded ancient Israel in the Third Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” (Exodus 20:8) 

Even though today Jesus has liberated the Sabbath so that the grace and new life He brought into the world on the first Easter Sunday is ours every single day of the week, we still need, like Mary, to sit at Jesus’ feet to hear His Word. Regularly.

Being in worship regularly when we could be tailgating at a Bengals game, sleeping in (like I did in the early years of Ann's and my marriage when, she would go to worship, and I'd stay at home worshiping at Saint Mattress of the Springs), or catching up on chores around the house can seem onerous. 

But one pastor pushes back on all that with a little scenario. Imagine, he says, that you’re part of a family that’s had a long day without the time to eat. You’re famished. Then, back home, a family member takes the time to go to the kitchen and fix a meal. Eventually, you’re told, “Come and get it.” It’s unlikely that you’d say, “Do we have to eat again? I ate yesterday.” No, you’d gladly come to eat up the food offered to you because you know you need it to live! At one level, the call to "Come and get it!" may be a law, a command: "You need food. Here it is. Now start eating." But in reality, it's a gracious word of promise, of good news: "Here's the food that I've prepared for you to give you strength and good health." That's why the Sabbath call to worship with God's people and to welcome the Word and Sacraments isn't onerous, but life-giving!

No matter what else happens in your week, you know that on at least one day of the week, Jesus will come to you and His Church just as He came to the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. 

And, as was true then, He will come to you through His Word: read, proclaimed, and even imparted to us in, with, and under simple elements like water, bread, and wine. 

He invites us to feed each week on His grace, forgiveness, and love. 

This is why in his explanation of the Third Commandment–to keep the Sabbath day holy–Martin Luther writes not of a day of grim obligation, but of a day of stillness and humble receptivity to Jesus. “We should fear and love God,” Luther says, “so that we do not despise His Word and the preaching of it, but acknowledge it as holy, and gladly hear and learn it.” 

When we worship with God’s people as often as circumstances allow, whether here in our home church or at another church when we’re on vacation, we join the apostle Peter who once said to Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Friends, let’s be fair to Martha. 

There are times for the kind of hospitality she wanted to exercise the day Jesus visited her home. 

But every Sunday, in the Word and the Sacraments, Jesus comes to His Church to call them, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. “ (Matthew 11:28) 

In His Word, Jesus works the gift of faith in Him within us. 

He gives us rest in Him. 

He gives us the assurance that He has died and risen for us. 

He announces that He has already done everything needed for our eternal salvation. 

In the end, there is only one thing we really need–Jesus and His Gospel. 

We need His Word and His Sacraments. 

Sunday worship may not seem like much to an unbelieving world. Sometimes, it may not seem like much to us. But, friends, joining our sisters and brothers to sit at Jesus’ feet and welcome Jesus and His Word into our hearts and minds and wills each Sunday is the most consequential thing we can do during this and every week we live in this world. Martha’s sister Mary knew that. May we always know it too. Amen

Be still...

A good word from God in the midst of a lethal pandemic: "[God] says, 'Be still, and know that I am God.”

God is still sovereign and as we place ourselves in the loving hands of the crucified and risen Jesus, God the Son, we have nothing to fear.

That, of course, is not a license to take stupid risks. And it doesn't mean that we should not listen to the medical professionals and public health officials when they tell us to maintain social distancing, self-quarantining, frequent hand-washing, and the use of sanitizer.

After all, Christians believe our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple over which we are called to exercise good stewardship.

Nor does God promise that believers in Christ are immune from the realities of this imperfect and fallen world.

But in the midst of it all, we can be still, knowing that we belong to the God Who saves all who trust in Christ for life with Him that begins now, even in the midst of uncertainties and grief and will be made perfect in the day of the Resurrection.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

Call on God...He Will Fight for You!

After God’s people, terrified by the Egyptians who were pursuing them, cried out to God for help, Moses assured them: “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14)

May this same Lord, now revealed to all people in Jesus the Christ, bring stillness and peace to everyone who calls out to Him today.

This God we know in Christ wants, among other things, to fight for you: for your salvation from sin, death, and futility and for your peace in the face of a crazy, chaotic world.

Call on the Father in Jesus’ name. He will hear. God says elsewhere, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Showing Christ (Part 3, 'Bearing Fruit for God's Kingdom')

[This was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, during worship today.]

Luke 13:6-9
Two weeks ago, we first showed the congregation what we call a “video postcard,” displaying the pathway to the destination of full maturity as disciples of Jesus Christ. 




Now, why are we making such a big deal about growing as Christ’s disciples?

In Luke 13:6-9, Jesus tells one of His parables. He says, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Here, Jesus paints a picture of a vineyard-owner upset that one of his fig vines hasn’t grown. Impatient, the owner tells the caretaker to cut the tree down. The way he sees it, the tree is just taking up space, using water, nutrients, sun, and life that might more productively be used by a new tree that will actually produce figs. But the caretaker wants to give the fig tree more time to do what fig trees are supposed to do, to show the result of all that’s been put into it. He says that he wants to put more manure on it, water it, and dig some space around it to give it the chance to grow. If, after all of that effort, the tree won’t bear fruit, then it will be time to cut it down.

The point Jesus is making is clear. Through His Word, which we can read and hear proclaimed, as well as taste and see in the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, we can know Jesus Christ and the new life that He brings to all who believe in Him; we can grow in Christ, as we mature as followers who daily die to self and rise to the new life God has in mind for us; and we can show that Christ lives in us and so, bear fruit. 

Some see the caretaker in Jesus’ parable as being Jesus Himself. Jesus shields us from the condemnation for sin and hard-heartedness that we deserve and keeps pouring His Word into our lives with one aim in mind: that Christ will so fill us that we will show Christ to the world. We will be people who live for Christ, serve in Christ’s name, share the good news of new and everlasting life through faith in Jesus. The people around us will know that we follow Jesus. That’s what it means to show Christ.

Let’s be honest, taken together, most people in the churches of North America and Europe are like the dormant fig tree in Jesus’ parable. Despite being able to freely receive the Word of God, the word of new and everlasting life that when embraced and trusted, fills a person with the very life of God, most church-goers are indistinguishable from the rest of the world. They’re dead stumps. They’re “go through the motion Christians.” 

And one day, such lukewarm Christians may be cut down, eternally separated from God, because they refuse to let Jesus take up residence in their lives, refuse to let the Word they repeatedly received from the crucified and risen Jesus fill them and impel them to lives of love, service, and witness to the dying world around them.

In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” But something miraculous happens to us when we let Jesus, the blazing, luminescent Author of all life, get to us, to enter into us, when we open the door and let Him into the center of our lives. 

We become lights that show others Jesus so that He can change their lives the way He’s changing ours. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says. “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matthew 5:14-15) Are we giving light to the whole house? The whole world? The whole community?

God’s grace given in Christ is not our private possession and faith is not a private matter. We’re to show it, not with arrogance, but humility; not with pride, but with love. 

1 Peter 2:9 tells you and me as baptized believers in Jesus, “...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” In other words, God has poured all of this grace and life made available to us through faith in Jesus not just for our own personal assurance, but so that we can let others know and grow in Jesus too. That’s our purpose in life! There is no other!

This message up to this point is apt to engender two main responses. 

One is indifference. 

The other is an anxious desire to know how we can show Christ, as though showing Christ to others was an item on a holy checklist, the successful completion of which will earn us a place in eternity with God. 

Both reactions are human and understandable. And both of them are completely wrong. 

Nothing I’ve said today alters the truth that we are saved by God’s charitable grace through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. But what I am saying is that if you have been saved by Christ and your faith in Him, you will want to show others how you, although a sinner worthy of eternal condemnation, have been made a saint in God’s kingdom because of the death of Jesus on a cross and the faith in Jesus created in you by the Holy Spirit. In other words, what we should be asking is, How can we get out of God’s way so that Christ is shown through us? Here are a few thoughts on how that happens.

First: We consciously, daily invite Jesus into every part of our lives. The New Testament book of Revelation begins with the resurrected Jesus interacting with seven ancient Christian congregations, one of them Laodicea, a church filled with people indifferent to Jesus. “Here I am!” Jesus tells them. “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20) We show Christ to others when we let Jesus in.

Second: We spend time in God’s Word so that Christ can take root in our lives. Psalm 1:1-2 uses the term law in the Old Testament sense, meaning God’s Word or the way of life God reveals to His people in His Word when it says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” We need to let God’s Word go deeply into our lives each day if Christ will be shown by our lives.

Third: We worship and receive the sacrament every time we can. I’m so happy to be part of a church that offers Holy Communion every Sunday. And to be part of a church that take God’s Word so seriously. We need God and we need God’s people if we’re to bear fruit for the kingdom.

Fourth: We build listening into our prayer lives. It’s a noisy, busy world. If you can, take time to let God speak to you, to assure you of His presence and His love for you, to guide you, and to challenge you each day. Psalm 46:10 famously tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God…”

Fifth: We don't ignore what God tells us. Some people spend their lives wringing their hands, wondering what God wants them to do. But there’s really no need to wonder! God calls those who trust in Jesus to love God, love neighbor, and make disciples. This is God’s will for our lives, which Jesus expressed in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. When we’re not sure what to do in situations in our lives, Martin Luther tells us to “sin boldly,” meaning seek God’s guidance, ask wise Christian friends, and then do what we think shows God’s love or helps us share Christ with others. We can’t show Christ to others if we get mired in what’s been called “the paralysis of analysis.” Think and plan, of course. But “Do not quench the Spirit,” 1 Thessalonians 5:19 tells us. In other words, be bold about sharing Jesus in your family, among your friends, and in the world.

These are steps of faith we can take in order to get out of God’s way to show the world the Savior Jesus we want everyone to know.

At Living Water, we’re committed to creating opportunities for everyone touched by the life of this congregation to know Christ, to grow in Christ, to show Christ and so, bear fruit for God’s kingdom. This is the entire reason for our being. Let’s continue to seek to follow Christ faithfully so that together we can fulfill our purpose as a church. We conclude our series next week.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

When Your World is Rocked

[This message was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, earlier today.]

Mark 13:24-37
As Lutheran Christians, we follow what’s known as a lectionary, an appointed set of Bible lessons for every Sunday of the Church Year. 

We have the freedom to break away from the lectionary, to be sure. But, over the course of a year, it provides a balanced diet of God’s Word for us to grow on as disciples of Jesus. 

Oddly enough, the gospel lesson for this Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church Year, is the same one we had for the first Sunday of the Church Year when we kicked off Advent last December 3. Do the scholars and church leaders who put the lectionary think that we’re slow learners?

Well, speaking for myself, that’s probably the case. 

But I think that there’s a more important reason for having the same gospel lesson bracket the Church Year. 

A lot can happen in our lives over the course of a year. When I consider the twists and turns that our lives--Ann’s and mine--have taken the past twelve months, I have to say that not everything that has happened was expected. 

Some things have been good. 

Some not so good. 

I know the same is even truer for many of you. You’ve experienced joys and successes, grief, loss, good news, encouraging news, bad news. 

And now, at the end of one Church Year, on the cusp of a new one, which will start next Sunday, we encounter Jesus at the same place we met Him on the First Sunday of Advent, Mark 13:24-37.

Our lesson falls in the same chapter of Mark that absorbed us last week. 

I’m thankful for faithful Christian Bible scholars who agree in upholding the main tenets of our faith. But even they can disagree when it comes to Mark, chapter 13. 

It begins, you’ll remember, with Jesus talking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Some scholars say that that’s all that Jesus talks about in Mark 13. Others say that Jesus only talks about the end of this world. 

Others say basically, and I agree with them, that Jesus, God incarnate, was capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. 

As I read His words in Mark 13, I see Jesus talking about both the destruction of the temple--an event that would happen about four decades after He was crucified and rose from the dead--and the end of the world. 

Jesus talks about the end of the temple as a way of telling the early Church, that when those still living four decades later saw the destruction of the temple and all the things He told them that would lead up to it, they would know, if the resurrection wasn't proof enough, to trust what He told them about the coming of His kingdom in its fullness when He returned, bringing an end to this world.

Jesus was also saying that now eternal life and a relationship with God don’t come to human beings through temples made of stone, but solely through faith in Him. In a way, Jesus is here reiterating what He said at the end of last Sunday’s gospel lesson: “...the one who stands firm [in Him] to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13)

How firm are you standing today? 

Confession: I’m feeling a bit rocky. There are new challenges in our lives. And my dad was hospitalized this past week, coming home with a new friend, an oxygen tank. And there are other things going on in my life, just as there is in yours. 

Here’s something God has been working overtime to teach me in the past year: If I try to stand firm in my own power, I will surely fail. I'm learning the truth of Jesus' words, "Without Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). And I'm also learning what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote, "I can do all [things] through Him Who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

As surely as I am saved from sin and death, not by my attempts at being a good person, but solely on the basis of what God has done for me in the crucified and risen Jesus and the faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit has given to me, I am also filled with God’s strength for living by this same gracious God revealed in Jesus.

I’m able to face life’s uncertainties, and grow as a person of faith ONLY because of the faith in Jesus that He keeps pumping into my life by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

I can stand firm in this life and be ready for the end of this life or the end of this world because Jesus Christ has taken up residence in my life, just as He did in Your life the day you were baptized. 

Through Isaiah 40:31, God promises: “...those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

This is the essential message Jesus gives to us this morning in the gospel lesson. We’ll focus on the first few verses, then survey the rest of the passage in which Jesus undergirds His message. Take a look at the lesson, Mark 13:24-37. “But in those days [the days Jesus spoke of last week, the days of the world being the world, full of earthquakes, famines, and wars], following that distress, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’”

Jesus speaks of a world in “distress.” That word in the Greek in which Mark wrote, which is translated as distress is thlipsin. This word originally referred to the pressure people feel when trying to slide their bodies through narrow slits between two rock formations say in a cave. That describes, I think, the pressure we all can feel in the daily uncertainties and challenges of life. 

When one of my sisters called to say that my dad had been taken to a hospital ER, I didn’t know what to say. I'd just had dinner with him a few days before and he'd eaten like a horse. I wasn't prepared for him to be so sick. I was taken by surprise and felt the pressure of uncertainty. So much so that my sister asked me at one point, “Are you OK?” Here's the deal: I am OK not because I’m OK, but because of Jesus living in me.

Jesus borrows Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah to talk about the judgment God is going to bring on the unrepentant after the pressure of this uncertain world has been felt by those who trust in Him. The stars will fall from the skies. And, as one commentary puts it, “those great unseen forces of nature by which the universe is now held in equipoise” will be shaken. Jesus says that life in this world can sometimes be confusing and scary. Have you noticed that to be true?

But we have Jesus’ promise that God will never cease to act in and on the lives of those who turn to Him. He won’t let chaos, confusion, or uncertainty have the final say over our lives. 

Verse 26: “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.” 

Jesus, the Son of Man, will return and bring an end to sin, death, futility, and uncertainty and to finally establish His eternal kingdom to all who have trusted in Him.

“Great,” we may think. “Someday, Jesus will make everything right. What are we supposed to do in the meantime? And what’s He going to do for me until then?”

At this point, the preachers of religion would tell us that now it’s up to us, that we need to get busy, do good, be good. That, in some form, is what every religion of the world will tell you, from Scientology to Islam, from Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness to Hinduism and Shintoism. “Work hard,” they all say, “to please God, to please your ancestors, to please the forces of the world.” And, I have it on the authority of God's Word that all of these preachers of religion are dead wrong!

The preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (and the disciples of Jesus Christ) will tell you, “Stop trying to be good. Let Jesus live in you. Let Him enter your life, trust in Him, and He will work good in and through you.” 

“The work of God is this,” says Jesus, “to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29) 

Even more radically, the preachers of the Gospel say that even our faith isn’t something we do, even our faith is a gift from God. It’s a simple matter of daily letting Jesus into our lives. “Here I am!” Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Disciples know that when the goodness and grace of God given in Christ go to work in us, God will accomplish things in and through us that we can’t accomplish on our own. 

As my colleague Pastor Steve King writes in the latest issue of Connections magazine, “The hammer does not pay back the carpenter by doing its own work, apart from the carpenter's hand; the hammer is used by the carpenter to do his work. In the same way, we are simply a tool in the Carpenter's hand…” 

God isn’t looking for us to do good works to pay Him back for the gift of His Son Jesus. And He isn't looking for you to undertake good works to be ready for Jesus' return. 

He’s looking for access to our hearts, minds, wills, and lives. He wants to take up residence in our lives to daily re-form us in Christ’s image, to ready us for eternity, and to bring His gospel to the world through us. He wants us to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). He wants to daily love us into a life of being made ever new by His grace.

This really is the crux of Jesus’ message for us today, a message I need as much at the end of this Church Year as I did at its beginning. 

When Jesus tells us to, “Be on guard! Be alert!” and “...keep watch” and “...do not let him find you sleeping” and “Watch,” what He’s really telling us is this: Don’t let the pressures or the pleasures of this world, don’t let anything, prevent you from turning to Him for the strength, the peace, and the life only He can deliver and that we need to live each day. 

Don’t let the guilt you may feel for past sins keep you from turning to Him. 

Don’t let the pride that may lull you into self-sufficiency keep you from turning to Him. 

Don’t let life’s uncertainties frighten you so much that you forget that you can always turn to Him. 

Don’t let the disapproval of others keep you from turning to Him. 

Whatever the coming twelve months may bring, turn to Jesus, God the Son, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. 

Moses confessed, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). 

This is the God Who, in Christ, claimed you as His child in your baptism and Who wants to be with you now and forever. Let His love and strength fill you each day. Let Him in and keep watching for Him. He will always show up and He will never let you go. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]