Considerable time has been spent by our school board and staff to safely re-open our school for the 2020-2021 school-year under the theme “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8
By these words we are reminded Christ is ever present abiding with His church. You are not alone. Christ remains present and He will not change. Yesterday, today and forever you are His.
The Ascension teaches us this. 40 days after His glorious resurrection the Savior returned to reign in glory. He may seem to be absent, but He’s not. He's here. He is here through His promises, in His Word.
The Ascension teaches you God's faithfulness to bring you back to Himself. God is committed ever to refocus you on His promises. So, gaze here, gaze into His Word, and you will find Jesus.
By the power of the Gospel, the disciples came to believe He wasn’t gone after all. He was with them in Word and Sacrament and would return on the last day to fulfill all He said He would do. This gave them the confidence to break their gaze and continue with the lives God had in store for them. May this Gospel free you too, from whatever you gaze at, and give you the confidence to move forward in the Christian life God has planned out for you.
After He rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus presented Himself
alive to the apostles, “appearing to them
during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). When He
ascended to the right hand of the Father, He did not orphan His Church, but He
fills all things in heaven and on earth and gives gifts to His disciples. Even
now, through His Church, He continues “to
do and teach” (Acts 1:1), preaching “repentance
and forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47), even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Though the cloud hid Jesus from the sight of His
disciples then, and He remains hidden from sight even now, He remains with His
people through His Gospel and Sacraments. He comes to us by the word of His
apostles, by the promise of His Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit,
whom He pours out upon “the church, which
is his body” (Ephesians 1:22–23).
Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.[1]
[1]
Collect for Ascension, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House,
St. Louis
Lift High the Cross copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
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