Do Good to Zion

Psalm 51: 18 says : "Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem."   Here the Psalmist reminds us that it is God who builds HIs Church.   He requests that God would be gracious and merciful to His Church.  It is God's good pleasure to fill His Church will love, to build it up in love, forgiveness, and the peace that surpasses all understanding.   Jesus says that He will build His Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.   Jesus is speaking about the Christian Church, the Church Catholic.   In our day and age when we see churches closing and the Church losing its influence in society, it is good to be reminded of God's promise.   We tend to rationalize and think that the Church can only move forward and succeed due to our planning, efforts, and works.   But God reminds us that He alone builds the Church.   And so we pray that God will continue to build His Church, rooted in the teachings of the Apostles and Prophets (the Word of God, the Bible), so that the Spirit will be living and active in and through the Word.   May God so grant to the Church, and each congregation, the refreshment and life of the Holy Spirit, leading people to Christ, through the preaching and teaching of the Word, and the use of God's Sacraments.

My DNA

I recently received a gift from a member that researched my DNA to determine my ancestry.   After submitting my saliva sample, the results came back that I am 75% Scotch-Irish.  Tell me something I don't know (insert LOL smily face here).   I was told by my parents that this was my background and it is good to know that they weren't lying, although my grandma McCormick insisted that she was part American Indian (and this didn't show up in the DNA test, so sorry, Grandma Mac).   While it is interesting to see the results, my thoughts turn into thanksgiving, not just for my ancestry, but for the godly influences I have had from my family over the years.    I am a pastor because I had parents and grandparents who were Christian and who influenced me to enter the ministry.    So while my roots are from Scotland and Ireland (and part Scandinavian) my spiritual roots lie in ancestors who believed and lived for Jesus.  Thanks be to God.

Hope for the future

"You with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not my their own sword did they win the land nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your face, for you delighted in them." Psalm 44: 2-3.


Here our Lord reminds us that God delivers His people.   In the days of old, God chose Israel and saved Israel from all of her enemies.  God drove out the nations that were in the Promised Land, God planted Israel in the Promised Land, He saved them and won an overwhelming victory for them.  He delighted in them, giving them everything they needed.   The response God wanted from them was to love Him and follow Him.

Even today God reminds us that He delivers His own.   He chose us in Baptism, we are chosen in Christ.   He forgives us and leads us to the Promised Land in heaven.   He has won an overwhelming victory for us in Christ and delights in forgiving us and providing for all our needs.  And what is our response?  Do we worry, fret, and have anxiety over the future and what we do not have?  Or do we thank and praise God for what He has given us and how He has blessed us?  Will we live in faith trusting in God to lead and provide, as He has shown in the past?   Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness.   Trust and follow Christ.   God gives us hope for the future when we trust in Him.

An Abomination to the Lord

"There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him...one who sows discord among the brothers."  Proverbs 6: 19

On the Festival of All Saints, the Gospel reading is from Matthew 5.   Jesus says "blessed are the peacemakers."   Who is the true Peacemaker among us?   His name is Jesus!   For the Devil stands before the Lord God accuses God's people, and Jesus stands to advocate for sinners.    Even as Jesus advocates for us and has made us at peace with the Father, so now our joyful task is to seek peace with one another.    

The Fool on the Hill

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.  Proverbs 26:4

The fool stands out for all to see.   He is proud and arrogant.   He is one who thinks only of himself.  God here in this passage instructs us to measure our words when speaking to a fool.   How can we do this?    By stepping back and reflecting on what we are going to say, and do.  It means that we take some time to consider the weight of our words and actions, and their possible consequences.   We live in a time of great anger and division.  People are apt to speak off the top of their head, venting and showing their anger without stepping back and considering what affect their words or actions might have.    We live in a time of fools, where angry emails, tweets, and rants seem to be the norm of the day.    So take a step back and pray, ask God for the proper God pleasing response.  Consider your own words and actions before you say and do them.   Reflect on the mercies of Christ and how Christ would have you answer and act.  Pray for the wisdom of the Spirit.   Then you won't be seen as a fool or play the part of a fool, but you will seek to live and act as a disciple of Christ.  

Waiting patiently for the Lord

The Psalm today is from Psalm 37: 3-11.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
    though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  How hard this is to do!   When we are wronged and wish to seek revenge, the Lord instructs us to leave it to Him.  Note verse 8, retain from anger and forsake wrath.   The Lord says vengeance is mine, says the Lord.   Satan seeks to tempt us by causing us to fret and think of ways we can take matters into our own hands.   But this is not to be!   In doing so, it only leads to evil, as we, sinful people, seek to do sinful things to those who have wronged us.   When we do that, we pile sin onto sin.  And yet the Lord tells us a better way.   Wait for the Lord.    Turn the matter over to God, and let Him deal with the matter.  Turn all things over to God.   He is merciful and ready to forgive.  He forgives us in Jesus Christ, even though we do not deserve it.   As God is merciful to me, I am to be merciful to the one who wrongs me.   And a way to do that is not to seek revenge, but to turn that person over to the Lord and let Him deal with the person the way He sees fit.  

At the proper time God says the wicked will be no more.   He will come on the Last Day and make all things right.  It is amazing how the Old Testament people waited for the Lord.   They waited literally centuries to see God fulfill HIs promises in Jesus.   And yet they waited and trusted.  SHouldn't we do the same?   For when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His strength, when we are meek instead of having hearts filled with anger, then we will truly be at peace not only with God, but with others, and we will delight in the peace that God gives that surpasses all understanding.

I'm back, I think

I read recently an article in a Journal from a pastor who said that he writes daily devotions for his congregation.  The reason he does this is that he is able to reflect on the Scripture he reads for the day and put those thoughts into writing.   It helps him become a better writer.  I read that and thought to myself, "I should do that, but how?"  So I return, hopefully more regularly, with thoughts springing from my reading of the Scripture.   May all who participate in this, writer and reader, be blessed.