Day 5: Tower of Babel – Genesis 11

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world.

Why does the world speak different languages? Why does the world do anything? It’s because we messed up. We wanted to be near God. We decided that we would make a gigantic tower reaching to the heavens. When the Lord heard this He was not happy. He decided that He would make the people stay as close to the world as they were before. The people wanted to build the Tower. But the Lord came down on them and made them speak different languages. The people were scattered around the world and they didn’t understand a word each other said. It’s just like when you go to the store and someone in front of you is speaking Spanish and you have no idea what they are saying. To me it’s really weird and funny at the same time. But they are really unique at the same time and they speak really fast, too.

Two points come from this story. One reason that the Lord did this was so the people would depend solely on Him and not on each other. The more we trust in God the more we grow in our faith. The other point we must remember is that God made was that He alone is Lord. We can’t get to heaven until your time here on earth is done. That’s when He decides, not you.
-Timberlee Weiland

O God, You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all thing and evermore to rejoice in His Holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Sources:
Schnorr von Charolsfeld woodcuts © WELS permission granted for personal and congregational use.

Collect for Pentecost Series C – Lutheran Service Book © 2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis

Lent 1

Prayer of the Day
“Lord God, our strength, the battle of good and evil rages within and around us, and our ancient foe tempts us with his deceits and empty promises. Keep us steadfast in your word, and, when we fall, raise us up again and restore us through your Son.”

Few people stop to think about temptation. Some may not recognize temptation when it comes. People are in need of knowledge and understanding about temptation. The text tells us all we need to know about it. If we know about it, we will be equipped to confront it.

What do you need to know about temptation? Let’s ask the Who, What, Why, and How of temptation.

1. Who tempts you — V. 1. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. The reality of Satan. He is very much alive. St. Peter the Apostle warns us, “Keep sober and alert, because your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) His existence is confirmed by the evidence of temptation and wickedness. Satan is a personal enemy of God and humans who deceives: "Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?"’ (Genesis 3:1)

For Jesus, the devil was a reality in the wilderness experience. The origin of Satan is not the question. Our problem is overcoming Satan’s temptation lest we sin. Eve believe the lie the devil was telling her. Satan, the father of lies, continues this tactic to this very hour. He puts a little truth in every lie, and a little lie in every truth so that we become convinced that his fibs are worth believing.

Jesus, as a man, was tempted by all the things that any other man has been tempted with; however He only spoke and did the will of God the Father. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

2. What tempts you — Vv. 3, 5, 8. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.” “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Consider the source of temptation. Jesus was “tempted by the devil.” Satan is the author of temptation. Why do we pray, “Lead us not into temptation”? In this petition, we pray for strength to withstand temptation.

Trust not in your own self. Trust only in Christ. The old song sings, “Trust not in rulers; they are but mortal; earth-born they are and soon decay. Vain are their counsels at life’s last portal. When the dark grave engulfs its prey. Since mortals cannot help afford. Place all your trust in Christ, our Lord.” (Praise the Almighty LSB 797 stanza 2)

3. How you can overcome temptation — Vv. 4, 7, 10. Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Never underestimate the power of the Word. Jesus turns away each temptation by quoting the Bible. The power of God’s Word is in its truth. Since Satan is the father of lies, he cannot tolerate the truth. He can’t handle the truth and so, he lies. In the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” Luther says, “One little word shall fell him.” And that “one little word” is Jesus.

By definition, sin is doubting God’s Word. “Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Eve’s yielding was the result of Satan’s causing doubt in her mind. Doubt causes us to hesitate. Doubt causes us to become suspicious of the Father’s clear word. Doubt causes us to become skeptical of the Savior’s clear words. Doubt causes us to question what the Spirit has clearly inspired the holy writers to speak.

How do we defeat the devil’s wiles? Remember, the Savior’s words are both valid and certain. "...the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 4:8-10). Have faith in God’s promises, which is nothing short of taking God seriously – taking Him at His Word.

4. Why are you tempted — Vv. 1, 10. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. God allows temptation as a test of our faith. Temptation forces us to cling to Christ alone. Though Jesus was filled with and led by the Spirit and was pronounced at his baptism the Son of God, his temptation indicates that he was truly and fully human to be tempted as a man. If he were only divine, Satan would have known there was not a chance to succeed. At least, Satan considered him a human being capable of being tempted. If tempted, there was the possibility of yielding to the temptation and sinning. And sinning would have put Jesus on Satan’s side. Though Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, He never sinned.

Learn humbleness of heart as we come broken before the Father’s throne, and plead for mercy, clemency, compassion and pity. We come in our brokenness and plead for the Lord to have mercy. Adam’s fall is the fall of every man. In Adam we are all one. Adam fell because of himself. If we are to live, with God and for God, we must look to a second Adam – Jesus Christ our Savior – for salvation rescue and life. Our victory over temptation leaves us stronger with angels ministering to us.

Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Woodcuts © WELS Permission to use these copyrighted items is limited to personal and congregational use.
Artwork by Ed Rojas, © Higher Things

Day 4: Noah – Genesis 6-9

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

God commanded Noah to build an ark. Noah built the ark and brought two animals of every species on the ark. Noah’s ark provided a shelter and a place to go for the animals and Noah’s family. God saved the world through Noah and the ark. God helps us by providing a church as a shelter where we can go and learn our faith and thus be safe.

-Madilyn Baumann

Jesus, Savior pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll.
Hiding rock, and trech’rous shoal.
Chart and compass come from Thee.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.


Sources
Jesus Savior Pilot Me from Lutheran Service Book © 2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcusts © WELS permission for personal and congregational use.

Day 3: The fall – Genesis 3

Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

One of the foundational doctrines that separate Lutherans from the rest of Christianity is our understanding of the fall and original sin. We believe that because of original sin inherited from our first parents we are utterly hopeless and unable to do anything to fix our relationship with God in heaven.

When we read through the account of the fall in the third chapter of Genesis, it’s hard to find any redeeming qualities in mankind. Because our fist parents believed the devil’s lie, they put themselves and all of their decedents under captivity to sin and death. They traded in their perfect relationship with the Father for one of slavery under the devil.

In the same way we daily fall victim to the devils lies and find ourselves trapped in sin. But the third chapter of Genesis does not leave mankind in perpetual captivity to death and the devil. Instead there we receive for the first time a promise of deliverance, a first word of Gospel. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15).

God gives our first parents and us a promise that we will be rescued by a “woman’s seed,” according to the Hebrew. And that Seed is none other than Jesus Christ who was born of a woman and bruised his heel by suffering a sinner’s death on the cross. But the Father vindicated Christ by raising him from the dead to prove that the serpent’s head has been crushed for good. This Lenten season meditate on perpetual promise of the Gospel that has been with us since our first parents and continues to sustain us from birth to death.
-Brian Flamme

Almighty Father, You have given us the promise of salvation in Your Son Jesus. Grant that through you Spirit we stay strong in faith so that we may have everlasting life with you.
Sources:
Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS permission granted for personal and congregational use.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Day 2: Creation – Genesis 1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.(NIV)

“In the beginning God created… These are the first words in the first book of the Bible and what follows is the story of creation. In just six days, God made everything and “it was good.” It was more than good, it was perfect; it was beautiful.

How often do we take the time to really appreciate the world around us? Do we take it all for granted? If we answer those two questions honestly, the answer to the first question is probably not enough; the answer to the second, too often.

God provided us with five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. How awesome that we can explore our world in so many different ways. How rich our experience can be when we view the world around us. There is so much beauty to the world—too much to even mention.. Yet, each of us has favorite places triggered by our senses. Some of mine: sight—pristine snow with a touch of frost on the tree limbs, a blooming flower garden in mid-summer; a loved one’s smile; hearing—laughter, Christmas music; a train whistle; smell— a baby right after a bath, a newly mowed hay field, cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven; taste—a strawberry just picked from the patch, the first sweet corn of the season, homemade ice cream covered in chocolate sauce; touch—a child’s hand in mine, a warm fleece blanket, mud between my toes on a hot summer day. Often my favorites bring back memories of special people, special times, and special places. What would be on your list of favorites? Take a little time to make your list and thank God for the blessings that He has given you through the world that He created for you.

Luther said, “God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in flowers, and clouds and stars.” We need to take the time and appreciate this beautiful world around us—to see in everything God’s love for us.
-Shirley Buuck

Dear Lord, THANK YOU. You have created all that we need. It is an amazing, awesome gift that you have given us. Let us learn to be good stewards of what You have given us so that future generations may also enjoy all of Your marvelous gifts. Amen.


Sources:
Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS used by permission for private and congregational use
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Day 1: Faith – John 3:1-18

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 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (NIV)

Today we begin a forty day pilgrimage we call the season of Lent. It is a journey of faith as we watch with the Savior observing his passion, suffering, death and resurrection. In the famous conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus we are reminded of the reason why Jesus suffered and died. He came as the Father’s gift. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. In love the Father sent His only Son for you. Jesus came to this world take your sin to Himself. Believing in Him you now have life in His name. Thanks be to God for this most precious gift. Thanks be to God that your sin is paid for and the guarantee of heaven is yours.

As you walk with the Savior during this Lenten pilgrimage keep your focus on Calvary’s cross and the empty tome in the garden. There you will find the marks of your salvation. Thanks be to God for this generous gift.

Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Sources:
Collect for Ash Wednesday Lutheran Service Boom © 2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis

Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS used by permission for private and congregational use

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Don't Be Afraid...To Love

Ash Wednesday
March 9, 2011
1 John 4:18-21
"Don't Be Afraid…To Love"

Introduction: On this Ash Wednesday evening we set our sights towards Jesus' trip to the cross. During these next 40 days we will be looking at exactly what Jesus had done for us to redeem us.

For our mid-week Lenten services we will turn to the theme "Don't Be Afraid."

What a fitting theme this is for us to consider for there are so many people in our world who are living their lives in fear. Some live in fear of what tomorrow will bring. Then, there are those who are afraid of loosing a job due to down sizing or a loosing family member or a friend due to serious injury or death. During these forty days of Lent we will be looking squarely at our fears.

Tonight, we look at the fear of offering and obligating ourselves to love. Some are simply afraid to love because of what has happened to them in the past when they have opened themselves up to others and found themselves misunderstood, and in some cases rejected.

Our text for this evening tells us simply that we don't have to be afraid to love. The reason for this is that God in Christ was not afraid to love. If we look at the life of Jesus we will quickly see that He showed love to all men. Christ showed His love to those who were considered to be "unlovable."

It is quite interesting to see that Jesus was criticized for loving those who were rejected and forgotten by others. The Pharisees, who were always trying to fault Jesus, who, on more then one occasion, criticized Jesus for eating with and associating with tax collectors and sinners.

Yet Jesus' love was never selective, or circumstantial, as our love tends to be when we put limitations on our love saying, in essence, "I will love you if you do certain things for me "or" I will love you if you love me first". Contrary to our often-circumstantial love Jesus showed love even to those who rejected Him and nailed Him to a cross. This is the first reason why we don't have to be afraid to love for we see that while even Jesus' disciples were often self-seeking and loveless Jesus loved them to the end.

Jesus never once refused to love, even when His disciples forsook Him and turned their backs and ran from the Garden. Jesus continued to love.

While we were yet sinners, separated by guilt and the shame of sin, Christ Jesus loved us. Even before we loved Him, Christ was intent on expressing His love for us by going the way of the cross to suffer and die for us. Even before we loved Him, Christ was intent on expressing His love for us by going the way of the cross to suffer and die for us.

Jesus loved you so much that He sacrificed Himself for you. He died in your place. Recall, once again, the words of our text for this night "We love because He first loved us". What that simply means is that Jesus is the one who initiates us to love. Because He moves and directs us, He enables us to love. Jesus' pattern of love becomes our pattern to love. Because Jesus loved, we are able to love.

It is at this precise point where fear enters our minds and when we so often fall short. There are some people in our lives that, quite frankly, just rub us the wrong way. Possibly they have hut us in the past. There may be some that we have tried to love, but we couldn't get through. To those who have hurt us, to those who have ignored us, to those who seem indifferent, we simply say, " I am unable to love you!"

Then fear comes! We become afraid of opening ourselves to others and letting them know just how we really feel. Will they listen? Will they understand? Will they close themselves off when they see what I'm really like?

What do we do? Moved out of fear of not being loved we can quickly become phony and plastic where we paint a picture of ourselves that really isn't true because we're afraid we won't be loved.

We see this in relationships where people break and drift apart because one or both people were not completely honest with each other. How many times have we found ourselves disappointed because we were acting and playing a role in the hopes that the other person would accept us but the acceptance didn't come, or, if it came, it didn't last?

While all of us have been afraid to love, or have failed to love out of fear that we wouldn't be loved in return wed can find reassurance and hope in our text on this Ash Wednesday night.

If God wasn't timid about opening His heart to us in love, then we don't have to be timid about showing love to others, for there is no fear in love.

What John is saying is that the more we love the less we will have to fear. One of the purposes of God's love is to free us from the fear of the judgment that is to come.

That is why Jesus came, to suffer and die for us so that we could be freed from our fears and made able to love as we ought. Jesus Christ came into this world to die on the cross. There, at the cross, He hailed all of our fears to the cross once and for all.

As we begin then to reflect on Christ's suffering and death we remember that because of God's love for us we really have nothing to fear. As Jesus Christ came and conquered all, you and I can remain confident in the love of God that we are free even in our relationship with others.

The love that we show to people is actually the love of God acting in us. It is Christ living in us that enables us to love, even those who we often find difficult to love. What's more, the love of God in us enables us to love openly and freely and in a genuine way without any worry of our rights and privileges being taken for granted.

What this simply means is that the love of Christ dwelling in us will be able to stand and bear up to the criticisms of other people. As Jesus Christ lives in us, each and every day of our lives, the love of God, which was demonstrated through the life and death of His Son is being perfected in us.

What that means for you and me is that if God has shown His love toward us by sending us His Son, and if the love of God dwells in us, then what else can we do but love?

Sure, it will sometimes be difficult to love. Love is not always nice or pleasant. Sometimes love has to be firm and tough. Sometimes it isn't easy to condemn that which is wrong in the sight of God. Speaking in love might make us feel at times uneasy and sometimes some people become angry at that expression of love. However, words that are spoken in love, and deeds that are performed out of love will always prevail.

St. Paul quite possibly put it best when he wrote to the Corinthian congregation: "These three will always remain…faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love"
Don't be afraid to love!