Humble Submission, the Way to Life

"Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah." (2 Chronicles 12:12)

This verse struck me during my quiet time with God this morning.

The background: The nation of God's ancient people, the Israelites, split in two after the death of King Solomon. Rehoboam, like Solomon, an heir of King David, took over as king. But the tribes in the north formed a separate country known as Israel (and later as Samaria), while Rehoboam reigned in Judah.

But instead of gratitude to God for His faithfulness to His promises to David and to God's people, we're told, "After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 12:1)

It's baked into our human sinful nature to seek God and His help when things are going poorly, then to forget Him when they're going well.

But when his kingdom was assaulted and nearly all was lost, Rehoboam realized his need of God. He humbled himself before God and the wrath to which Rehoboam was subjecting his nation and himself diminished. God recognized that in Judah, which had fallen into idolatry and the sin which always goes with idolatry, injustice, there still were those who recognized the fundamental fact of life: God is God and we're not.

Arrogant leaders, who rely on the world's idols--money, brute force, crafty schemes, the applause of the crowd, the myth of personal, national, or racial superiority--incur God's wrath, whether they're the leaders of churches, corporations, universities, or nations. They and those they lead are eventually adversely affected by the evil of self-reverence. Because God loves the human race, He won't long allow the empires we build, even those built by individuals to keep themselves and their families comfortable with no thought of their neighbors, to stand for long. They will topple, break, and die.

When these things happen, what good are our privileges or power? The answer: Nothing!

Our call is to humble ourselves before the God revealed to all people in Jesus Christ, to acknowledge Him as our only Lord, God, and source of hope or peace and grace.

Our call is also to share this God we meet in Jesus with others so that they too can have a share in God's kingdom, the eternal reign of God that cannot be entered by those who live by force, arrogance, good works, indifference to others, or acquiescence to injustice.

It comes to us only by faith in Jesus.

And because of our impulse to self-worship, idol worship, arrogance, and injustice, we need to daily turn to Jesus, admitting our deficiencies and our desperate need of Him to turn us away from the paths that incur wrath and turn us to Jesus, "the way, and the truth, and the life."

Arrogance doesn't work. Humble submission to Jesus does.

Father, this day once again, humble into following Jesus alone. Amen

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 4

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 3

The Right Time To Do The Right Thing

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap."

This bit of wisdom from Ecclesiastes 11:4 spoke to me during my quiet time with God this morning.

If we always delay doing the right things until "the right times," those right things never get done.

Some tasks require preparation. Bounding into new enterprises, relationships, jobs, or purchases without prayer, seeking wisdom, and consideration makes little sense.

But the fear of failure also doesn't make sense. If, as a disciple of Jesus, I truly believe that He is with me always, I know that failure isn't the end of the story for me. Failure should hold no fear for me.

The fact is, if I try to do the right things, I WILL fail sometimes. Maybe most of the time. But I'll still be--eternally--in the hands of the Savior Who has made me His own.

It's always the right time to do the will of God: to know God better through His Word, the Sacraments, the fellowship of the Church, and the daily repentance and renewal Christ affords us as we fellowship with Him; to love God and love neighbor; to make disciples.

Putting off following Christ, which is God's will for all of us, according to John 6:29, for a better time, is like putting off breathing until it's convenient.

And what about those things you think God may be calling you to do, the things that employ the gifts, the passions, and the work God has given to you to do?

These words from Ecclesiastes tell us no more waiting for the right times.

God is calling you to speak out against injustice? Speak.

God wants you to write? Start writing.

God wants you to check up on an elderly person, help raise your grandchildren, serve on a committee for the betterment of your community? Go for it.

And, if you're a Christian and you've been putting off sharing the good news of new and everlasting life with God through faith in Jesus, it's time to ignore the wind or the clouds.

People need to know how desperately and passionately God loves them, so much so that God the Son came into the world and immersed Himself into our darkness and the chaos of human sin and death in order to retrieve life, peace, forgiveness, and an eternity of hope for those who trust in the Son, Jesus.

You don't want to put off looking for ways to share the best news anyone could ever receive! This is a good time to share this good news message (the gospel) with love and abandon: "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Lord God, fill me with faith in Christ, and with it, both the assurance that I am forgiven my sins and You are with me always. When it's time for me to plant, don't let me be thwarted by noticing the wind. When it's time to reap, don't let me be stopped by clouds portending rain. Help me to be faithful to You right now, today. In Jesus' name. Amen

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2

'The Other America,' a speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This 1967 message, delivered at Stanford University by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is sadly as relevant today as it was when he first made it.

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Second and Third John

Lord, Give Me Self-Control

[This is the journal entry from my quiet time with God earlier this morning.]

Look: “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28)

In ancient times, cities were places of refuge from thieves and muggers who waited to assault the innocent from hiding places beyond city walls.

It’s open to debate whether walls provide much protection for cities and nations today. But the point of the proverb holds: When we lack self-control, all manner of sins and struggles ensue. Chaos fills our lives.

I have trouble controlling my mouth, my appetite, and my ego/desire for affirmation,  among other things. They are the sources of abiding sins for which I’ve asked God for help and the violation of which, in mind and/or action,  I have repeatedly repented over the decades.

Listen: The vivid imagery of the proverb shows how serious the lack of self-control is. Personally, I’ve seen people destroy their lives because they had no self-control.

And lack of self-control in one area seems to set off a domino effect in people’s lives. Because of one breach, incessantly indulged, all self-control breaks down. Such breakdown separates us from God and others, blowing us in every direction, filling our lives with chaos and noise that prevent us from hearing the soothing, eternity-transforming Word of God about Jesus.

According to the Bible, self-control is the gift of another “wind,” the Holy Spirit. (1) Paul says, “...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

If I try willing myself to control my natural impulses and appetites, I may have momentary “success.” But the success usually breaks down. The fate of New Year’s resolutions on about January 3 testify to that.

Far more accurate is the insight on which the first two steps of all 12-Step programs are built. The first step is recognizing the destructive or sinful impulses we have that are beyond our control. The second step is understanding that a “Higher Power” can restore us to “sanity.”

Of course, the Twelve Steps, were directly derived from the steps propounded by the Oxford Movement, a Christian movement meant to help people get free from slavery to alcohol. It applies to anyone seeking freedom from the finite things of the world that rob us first, of our self-control and then, of our lives. And the Oxford Movement recognized that the only source of freedom from an out-of-control, chaotic, enslaved life is in the God we meet in Jesus. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to free us to live with self-control.

Self-control is, according to Galatians, the fruit of a life that’s persistently planted in and gains its growth from the God revealed in Jesus.

Respond: Father, I come to You again today in the name of Jesus. Conquer more of my life so that I can live more fully in Your grace. Grant, by Your Spirit at work in me, the fruit of self-control. Amen

(1) In both the Old and New Testaments, the word Spirit can also mean wind or breath. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament is ruach. The Greek word used in the New Testament is pneuma.

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of First John, Chapter 5

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of First John, Chapter 4

Because I was unable to log onto Facebook Live last night, the study was moved to Zoom and the recording wasn't very satisfactory for sharing here. But we were able to meet tonight as we considered 1 John, chapter 4. The word for the night might be, assurance, as you'll see.

When Evil People Are In Control

These days, I'm reading Proverbs for my daily quiet time with God. (I'm using The One Year Chronological Bible and am once again be reading the Bible over the course of the year.

Today, I was struck by several passages that, despite not being situated together, seem to go together, each successive couplet of two proverbs building on the previous one and forming a more complete picture.

Take a look at them here to see what I mean.

"Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." (Proverbs 23:17-18)

Anyone who seeks to humbly follow God and love their neighbor has had those moments when, like Jeremiah, in one way or another, they ask God, "Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?" (Jeremiah 12:1)

We can ask these questions self-righteously, seeing the splinter in our neighbor's eye without acknowledging the log in our own, as Jesus says. (I know that I do anyway.) We wonder why some people seem to "get away with murder," doing cruel things, saying cruel things, and yet enjoying ease and sometimes, the approval of the world.

But what the verses from Proverbs tell us is that we shouldn't fall prey to anger at the evil people in the world for their prosperity or other advantages.

We need to remember that all who daily repent of sin and keep on trusting in the God we now meet in Jesus, God the Son--all who keep pursuing Christ and endure in trusting in Him--have infinitely and eternally more than the arrogant rich and powerful of this world.

The apostle Peter says that believers in Jesus have "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:4-5)

To waste our time on envy of the evil people who gobble up more of the dead and dying stuff of a world ticketed for destruction doesn't make sense.

(By the way, as our current Facebook study of 1 John reminds us that some of these evil people we might be tempted to envy claim to be Christians themselves. They're the folks who twist the truth of the Gospel or exploit Christians to get the earthly things they want, like power, wealth, and advantage. John says that people like these are among the "many antichrists" that do evil in these last days [1 John 2:18-29] and who we need to ignore.)

The next couplet of verses from Proverbs that seems to go with the one mentioned above is Proverbs 24:1-2: "Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble."

While in Proverbs 23:17-18, we're told that it's ridiculous for those who trust in the God now revealed to all in Jesus to be envious of evil people because we know that God stands with those who trust in Him always, here we're told to stay away from the wicked because of the rotten things they say and do.

When we see the wicked exploiting others for big bucks or manipulating people to get or keep power, we may be tempted to befriend them. We may think that we can get some of their money or power for ourselves.

But these aren't good people. They spend their time devising ways to hurt people or stir up chaos to their own advantage. If we associate with people like these, they're likely to exploit us or, even worse, influence us to become like them!

Proverbs warns us to stay away from evil people who view others either as objects they can use or can discard.

We can pray for people given over to evil like Proverbs is talking about, asking that their hearts will be changed.

But we should never envy them.

We shouldn't do business with them.

We shouldn't trust them in any way.

We shouldn't emulate them and we shouldn't even mention their names in public.

And we shouldn't, by entering into their orbits, allow them to take us to hell with them.

The third couplet of verses from Proverbs that seems to go with the previous two is Proverbs 24:19-20: "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out."

The idea here seems to be: Don't spend a moment stewing over the advantages that evil people may have in the world. Fight for justice and fair treatment for your neighbor, by all means. That goes with loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

But our call is to get on with lives by trusting in Jesus, Who empowers us to live in love toward God and others and to share the good news of new and eternal life for all who entrust their lives to Jesus.

For us to spend any time being resentful of the evil is a waste.

They're on the losing side of history no matter how much they may think they're winning.

Do what you can to keep these types from hurting your neighbor.

Pray that God will bring them to faith in Christ.

Pray even that you might have the chance to share Christ with them.

Otherwise, give them no thought. And don't be envious of them!

These six verses seem especially appropriate for me to heed today.

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of 1 John, Chapter 2

The Holy Spirit, Living Water

Below, you'll find online worship for yesterday, Pentecost Sunday, from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. Below that, is the text for the message presented during the service. Have a good week. God bless you!



John 7:37-39
When I woke up a few mornings ago, my mouth was so dry I felt my lips were cemented together. I couldn’t wait to get a drink of water! I screwed open a bottle of Ice Mountain and practically poured it down. It tasted so good! It was exactly what I needed.

When Jesus, truly God, but also truly human, lived on the earth, He did so in an arid land. Among His last words from the cross, hanging beneath the harsh Judean sun, were, “I thirst.” Jesus knows what it is to thirst, to crave the life that water gives.

That’s part of what gives such power to what He told the Samaritan woman at the well. She was tired of going to the village water source under the midday sun. Jesus tells her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)  

And in John 6:35, Jesus tells the crowds He has fed with a bit of bread and a few fish, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

In passages like these, Jesus uses the need we all have for water for life to talk about something we need even more desperately than mere water, now and in eternity.

Our short Gospel lesson for this Pentecost Sunday finds Jesus in Jerusalem on the last day of the Festival of Tabernacles or the Festival of Booths. It was one of the three great festivals of the Jewish year. It lasted, as it even does today among modern Jews, seven or eight days. In ancient times, it celebrated several things: the just-completed harvest, God’s provision for His people during the forty years in the wilderness, and the giving of God’s Law, the ten commandments, at Mount Sinai. 

The Mishnah, a collection of Jewish rabbinic oral traditions about the Old Testament, tells us that one of the most important temple rituals each morning of the Feast of Tabernacles was “the celebration of water libation.” Priests would circle the altar in the temple, carrying freshly drawn water from the pool of Siloam. This was done with prayers that God would provide the water needed for a good harvest the next season.

This helps to explain why Jesus expresses Himself as He does in today’s lesson. Take a look at it now: “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

When Jesus cites Scripture here, He seems to be referring to a number of different passages of the Old Testament that refer to life-giving water, life-giving wisdom, and even the life-giving Spirit. 

One place is Isaiah 43:19-20 in which the prophet quotes the Savior Who would come hundreds of years later in Jesus as saying, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen…” God promises refreshment and renewal--living water--to people born dead in sin, like you and me. 

And in Jeremiah 2:13, God tells ancient Israel: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” In other words, God’s people had gone to their idols of choice rather than drawing life--living water--from its only true source, the God now revealed to all in Jesis.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus tells us that it’s God the Holy Spirit Who quenches our greatest thirst. It’s a thirst that every human being has...

• a thirst for hope and peace amid the suffering and uncertainty of our world, 
• a thirst for life where death seems to have the final say, 
• a thirst for forgiveness for the sin with which, we know--deep down--we’ve broken God’s heart and harmed ourselves and others, 
• a thirst for the meaning that every busy day seems sometimes to drag right out of us. 

In a clip from the classic movie, Key Largo, that I shared with our weeknight Facebook Bible study this past week, Edward G. Robinson plays a murderous thug named Johnny Rocco. When asked by another character what he wanted, he admitted that he wanted, “More! Yeah, that’s it. I want more!” 


This desire for more that we all have has its roots in two human desires, one legitimate and one illegitimate. 

On the illegitimate side of the ledger is the desire, like Adam and Eve, to “be like God.” We think that if we take on more experiences, more money, more financial security, more health, that we’ll be gods unto ourselves: independent, strong, self-sufficient. If we don’t learn the futility of this fantasy when we’re young, growing older has a way of forcing the lesson down our throats. Yet we're born with this desire to be like God.

But the legitimate side of our desire for more lies in the fact that it makes us realize that there’s something missing in our souls, a yawning need, that persists no matter how much money, security, health, acceptance, or strength we have, no matter how many amazing experiences or friendships we attain in life. Saint Augustine expressed our common human yearning for more in this way: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in You.”

It is God the Holy Spirit Who fills the holes in our souls. 

The Holy Spirit quenches the thirst we all have, the emptiness that can only be filled by the God Who made us and Who saves all who trust in God the Son Jesus from the sin, death, and futility that marks the lives of those Who don’t trust in Jesus. 

It was the Holy Spirit Who emboldened the praying, but still frightened, first disciples of Jesus to speak the Gospel Word that all who repent and believe in Jesus have everlasting life with God on the first Christian Pentecost. 

It’s this same Holy Spirit Who enables us to believe, despite the horrors of a world dying in sin displays each day, that God is with us and will have us with Him for all eternity. 

It’s the Holy Spirit Who gives us God’s Word in the Bible and Who creates and sustains faith in Christ through the humble witness of loving parents, children, friends, co-workers, and even inadequate, ineloquent preachers. 

The Holy Spirit is living water for souls dying of thirst for Jesus, even for the souls of those who already know Jesus and realize with special clarity just how desperately and constantly we need Him!

In 1 Corinthians 12:3, the apostle Paul tells us, “...no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” 

If you can confess that Jesus is your Lord, even on the days when you’re not feeling it, then you know that the Holy Spirit is filling you with the Living Water, with life with God through Christ. 

And if that’s so, you also know that each day, whatever your circumstances, whatever you’re feeling, you can turn to the Father in Jesus’ name and be filled again and again with the Holy Spirit Who brings you all that we confess the Spirit brings in our Creeds and Confessions: 

• the Word of God, 
• the life of God, 
• the Baptism by which God claims us as His own, 
• the Communion by which we abide in God and His people and they in us, 
• the assurance that Jesus, God the Son, is with you always, the resurrection of the dead from God, and
• the life everlasting with God. 

Each day, bring your thirsty soul to God in the name of Jesus and the Spirit will fill you again with Living Water! Amen

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Language of the Unheard

Some food for thought and prayer.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, "A riot is the language of the unheard." King, the leader and architect of the non-violent Civil Rights movement, said this by way of explaining the pent-up grief and rage of African-Americans in the mid-60s that led to riots. King wasn't condoning rioting; he was explaining it.

The murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street has set off a variety of reactions: peaceful demonstrations at the killing of another innocent black man; rioting and looting by some genuinely aggrieved and harmed by a system of justice that puts targets on the backs of African-Americans, with whites often facing no punishment for perpetrating murder; rioting and looting by opportunists, white and black; and, as so often happens, those effectively condoning systemic racism by saying things like, "What happened to George Floyd was wrong, but what 'they' did to that Target store was awful."

I do not condone rioting and looting. But to put that on the same plain as the systemic, constant, and historic danger to which African-Americans are subjected each day is a false equivalence. For African-Americans, it's dangerous to walk on the street, drive in a car, go to a restaurant or a store, do bird-watching, or pray in their church, among other things. The sin of racism causes white people to threaten and call the police on African-Americans engaged in the innocuous activities of everyday life and to see many George Floyds, although not so publicly, killed with sickening frequency.

Can we white Americans muster sufficient empathy and can we who confess faith in Christ, ask God to create enough love for our neighbor for us to see how centuries of being unheard could lead to grief, sadness, distrust, anger, rage, and even rioting?

There ARE opportunists among those who have been stealing merchandise, destroying and defacing buildings, menacing people, and, in at least one case, with the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, destroying history. Some of those opportunists are white, many doing their desecrating work as part of a "cause" while blacks beg them to stop.

But if we allow our minds to wander from the real issue here, we only stoke the fires of more frustration, anger, and rioting in the future.

The real issue is that it isn't safe for African-Americans to live in the United States.

It isn't safe for my great-niece and my great-nephew, whose father is African-American, to live in the land of their birth, where they've already achieved so much. All they have to do is be at the wrong place at the wrong time--African-Americans who dare to live and breathe--and they can be harassed, arrested, or worse.

How do people speak who haven't been heard, when all the modes of expression that others enjoy are blocked to them?

It's long past time for we white Americans to listen.

And for Christians, the act of listening is a faithful way to heed our Lord's call to love our neighbor.

We need to demonstrate by our commitment to love and justice that we value life more than we do property or convenience.

Every life.

Pentecost Thoughts: Learning to Speak with One Another

During the pandemic, we're celebrating online Holy Communion synchronously with members of our congregation. This evening, I read Psalm 51, David's great psalm of repentance, and a portion of the Biblical account of the first Christian Pentecost, Acts 2:1-4. Then, I shared the thoughts contained in the video below.

Below that yet, you'll find the Malcolm Guite video I mention.

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of 1 John, Chapter 1

Tonight's Weeknight Study of Ephesians, Chapter 6

Caught in the Act: Jesus, Praying for You

Here's the video of this past Sunday's online worship from Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio. Below it is the text of the message shared during the service. 



John 17:1-11
One morning a few years back, I was alone in our bedroom, on my knees next to the bed, praying. Ann didn’t know I was there and opened the door. When she saw me and realized what I was doing, she was apologetic. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s OK,” I told her. But again she said, “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

Christians can and do pray with others, of course. Our first lesson for today tells us of the first Christians disciples that after the risen Jesus ascended into heaven, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” (Acts 1:14)

But, through Jesus, God also gives us the privilege of doing just as Jesus often did, pray directly to the Father as individual believers. Our private prayers can be intensely intimate conversations with God. We confess our sins, reveal our deepest insecurities and secrets, entrust our most heartfelt requests, and own our doubts. I think that’s why Ann kept apologizing when she opened our bedroom door and found me in prayer.

In today’s Gospel lesson, John 17:1-11, we’re privileged to listen in on one of Jesus’ intimate prayers. The lesson is composed of the first portion of what’s known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer, the prayer that John says Jesus offered on the night of His betrayal and arrest. This section has four petitions. What’s remarkable about them is that, in the final analysis, each of the petitions is offered on behalf of believers in Jesus like you and me, disciples who live in this world right now. When Jesus prayed on the night He faced the greatest agonies imaginable, He was thinking of you and everyone for whom He was going to die and rise.

The first petition is in verse 1: “‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.’”

The hour to which Jesus refers is the one in which He would be glorified by God the Father through His death, resurrection, and ascension. In the gospel of John, Jesus calls these three things, Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, together as His glorification. It may be hard for most people to see any glory in a sinless Savior being nailed to a cross to die. But for the Christian, the cross displays the immensity of God’s love for the human race. On the cross, Jesus faced the wrath and endured the death that we deserve because we are born sinners incapable of making ourselves fit for life with God. And that’s a glorious, weighty thing! This is what the apostle Paul celebrates at another place in the Bible's New Testament, Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In this first petition, Jesus prays that the Father will help Him to see His mission of dying for us through. Jesus wants all people to be saved from sin, death, and futility. That can only be accomplished through His cross.

Jesus then prays in verse 5: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” This too, is a prayer for us. Jesus knew that after He was glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father, He would send His Holy Spirit to believers. In John 16:7, He already told the disciples, “...it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Many of you know the comfort that the Holy Spirit gives to you. He’s the One Who brings God’s Word to you, prompts you to pray, gives you faith in Jesus, inspires you to share your faith, empowers you to serve others in Jesus’ name.

I enjoy doing the live weeknight Bible studies on Facebook these days. But I would be lying if I said that they’re easy. I generally put in two to three hours of preparation for each night’s session. More than that, I daily pray that God will help me to explain the sometimes complicated things people need to know to more fully understand and appreciate the greatness, power, and love of God that are revealed in the books of the Bible we study. And though I’ve been an ardent student of Scripture for forty years now, there are things that I don’t understand as well as I would like to. That’s why the most important part of my preparation is begging the Father in Jesus’ name to send the Holy Spirit to make something out of what feels like the nothing I have to impart. Whatever good is coming of these studies is because Jesus ascended back to the glory He had before coming into the world and because He is constantly sending His Spirit to needy believers like you and me.

Jesus' next petition is in verses 6 through 9, where He prays for us, believers who have received the powerful, eternity-changing Gospel Word of new life through faith in Jesus. He says in verse 9: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” Earlier in the gospel of John, we’re told that many people who had initially believed in Jesus deserted Him. Jesus asks the twelve apostles if they intend to turn away from faith in Him too. Peter responds for all of them, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68) In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prays that we will stay connected day-in and day-out to Him through His life giving Word. It’s His Word that can guide us, assure us, bring forgiveness, and sustain us until the day we see the Lord personally, face to face.

Jesus’ fourth petition builds off of this. It’s in verse 11: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” God the Father, the New Testament tells us elsewhere, has given Jesus “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) The name of Jesus has power! Martin Luther said that the mere utterance of Jesus’ name by a believer will subdue Satan. Calling out to Jesus when we’re in trouble, when we’re tempted, when we need guidance or inspiration, will ensure that He is present with us, leading us on the resurrection path. The protection that Jesus asks the Father to extend to us may not prevent us from things like accidents, cancer, heart failure, COVID19, or being rejected by others for believing in Jesus. But, as we flee to Him for all our hope and help, Jesus will protect our faith, our justification, our eternal life with God. Anyone who can speak Jesus’ name with trust in Him as their God and Savior has exactly what He came into the world to bring, something we don’t deserve and could never ear, life with God that never ends. This week, ask God to renew you each day in your faith in the Savior Who, as He faced the cross, prayed for you and even now, wants you with Him for all eternity. Amen

Tonight's Midweek Bible Study of Ephesians, Chapter 5

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Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Ephesians, Chapter 4

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Ephesians, Chapter 3

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Ephesians, Chapter 2

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Ephesians, Chapter 1

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Romans, Chapters 15 and 16

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Romans, Chapter 14

Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of Romans, Chapter 13

The Hour Is Getting Late

Today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Below, join the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, for worship. Beneath the video, find the written text of today's message. God bless you!



Acts 17:29-31
The Bob Dylan song, All Along the Watchtower, famously covered by Jimi Hendrix, contains an apocalyptic vision that plays out in the dialog of a joker and a thief. In the second verse, we hear,

“‘No reason to get excited,’ the thief, he kindly spoke 'There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.’”

“The time for having a false view of reality is through,” Dylan’s thief tells the joker. Life isn’t, to paraphrase Jesus, about eating, drinking, and being merry. It’s not about acquiring the most toys before the hearse takes our bodies to the cemetery. Like the thief crucified on the cross next to Jesus, who repented and turned to Jesus in faith, Dylan’s thief insists, “It’s time to get real. The hour is getting late.” That truth has a special urgency for me today. Maybe it does for you too. We all know that the conditions Jesus said were necessary for His return had already been met during His time on the earth: That’s why He said that His return to bring an end to the life of this old, dying universe could come at any time. But these days of the most lethal pandemic to visit the planet in one-hundred years remind us that we are mortal, that this life is fragile, that, whether for us as individuals or as the human race, “the hour is getting late.” And that’s true whether every one of us gathered for worship today survive this dangerous moment and this world continues for another million years or if Jesus returns tomorrow. The promise of God’s Word is, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32). God’s Word tells us that faith comes when we hear the gospel Word of Jesus, the Christ and, through our hearing of this good news and the faith in Christ this Word from the Holy Spirit creates within us, we are saved from sin, death, and eternal separation from God. But, are we listening? Are we paying heed to this Word from God, the Word about Christ, that can save us? Or are we speaking falsely? Are we among those who treat all talk about God, Jesus, life, death, judgment,  salvation, or the lateness of the hour, like a joke?

Our second lesson for today, Acts 17:16-31, presses these questions on us. Acts, you know, is the New Testament book of the Bible that tells what the Holy Spirit did in the lives of the first believers in Jesus through the first three decades or so after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. In today’s lesson, the apostle Paul enters the city of Athens. Athens was a major center of thought and debate. It was also, as Paul noticed while walking through the city, a place in which people worshiped all sorts of gods, a bit like today, when people have “pick and choose” religion, even when their religion is atheism in which they worship human brains, will power, or cunning. Paul, who believed in God and had encountered the risen Jesus, may have been tempted to lash out at the Athenians for their idolatries. But Paul had bigger fish to fry. He needed to share the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent--turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ as their God and Savior--with these people.

All of which brings us to the last three verses of Paul’s message for the Athenians, a message for you and me and for the whole world this morning. Take a look, please, at verse 29. After quoting one of the Greeks’ poets who said that human beings were the offspring of a Deity the Greeks themselves didn’t know, Paul says: “Therefore since we are God’s offspring [as we are, since Genesis assures us that you and I are made in the image of God], we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.”

“Let us not speak falsely now,” Paul is saying. Human beings worship false idols like money, security, power, and status. Why? For some, it’s because it’s easier to worship a god you can see--whether it’s a statue erected in the town square or Ben Franklins in our wallets--than to worship the God you can’t see. But the bigger reason that human beings worship idols is our love of control. All of our favorite godlets are things that, if we can acquire them, we think we can control to our own benefit. We’re prone to idolatry because we worship ourselves: our comfort, our freedom, our power. But, Paul says, this is a lie we tell ourselves. We are not in control and the quicker we realize that, the better off we’ll be.

Then Paul says in verse 30 of our lesson: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” God is compassionate. God is patient with us. But Paul tells the Athenians (and us), “Now that you’ve heard the truth that you’re born in bondage to sin and can only be freed from God the Son Jesus, Who has overcome sin and death, you can’t go on living like you’ve been living.” Paul says it’s time to repent. To repent is to turn to God in sorrow for sin and in recognition of our need of God. When we repent in Jesus’ name, God not only forgives us for our sin, He gives us new and ever-renewing life with Him that never ends. Because of the power of sin and death, The Small Catechism reminds us that we need to live in “daily repentance and sorrow for sin” so that “the new person should come forth every day and rise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”

Finally, in verse 31 of our lesson, Paul tells us, “For [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” The phrase translated as with justice is more literally, with righteousness. When Jesus returns, an event which His resurrection from the dead assures is going to happen, He will see two kinds of people. He will judge each person according to the version of righteousness they cling to in this life.

• To those who have clung to the notions of righteousness or right living favored by this world--whether it’s salvation by good works or material wealth or influence or ease, God will give this world and the eternal destruction for which it’s ticketed.
• To those who, like the thief on the cross at the last moment, cling to Christ alone for righteousness, God will give everlasting life in His kingdom.

The times for speaking falsely, for treating life as a joke, for putting Jesus off until some other time, for unrepentant sin, or for keeping Jesus at arm’s length have ended. In the next months--and likely in the next two years, if Jesus still hasn’t returned to judge the living and the dead, our lives, our worship, our church gatherings will look and feel different from what they have. Masks, social distancing, online worship and online small groups: Love for God expressed in love for neighbor and an unwillingness, like Jesus, Who refused to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, to put God to the test, will make precautions like these necessary.

But all of this only makes the call that Paul issued to the Athenians and that he issues to us today all the more urgent. First, we must understand that the God we know in Jesus is a living God not to be ignored. Second, we need each day to turn from sin and turn to the God we meet in Jesus. He alone gives life to those who trust in Him. And third, we need to cling in faith to Jesus. As a gracious gift, He covers us with the perfect righteousness of God so that when it comes our time to be judged, God won’t see us in our sin but will only see the Savior Jesus to Whom we cling. Dear friends, the hour is getting late; today and everyday, cling to Jesus Christ alone. Amen