The Kingdom Of God; Our Ultimate Concern

We should have no other gods!

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 

                                                                  (Matt 6:20-21 KJV)

Money is a necessity. We need it in this world today to eat; to have shelter; to have medical care. We even need it to find a job in order to have enough money to take care of these necessities as we may need gas for a vehicle or enough cash for Uber, appropriate clothes for the position, water for bathing before the interview, and the list goes on.

But, in Matthew we hear Jesus tell us not to set our hearts on these things. He is not telling us that we do not need them or should not have them. We do need them and we should trust God to provide these things. Of course, we don't get to sit at home doing nothing but watching television or playing video games in order to have these necessities. They are not going to drop from the sky like the manna fell for Moses' clan. St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:  

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. (2 Thess 3:10-12)

Yes, there is a need to focus on taking care of those things to sustain physical life while we live and breathe here on earth. But, money and things cannot be our  only focus or our ultimate concern. We are not only physical beings with expiration dates; we are also spiritual beings and all who believe in Jesus belong to that eternal Kingdom of God.

What Jesus is reminding us in the verses from Matthew is that we must be careful. As we amass earthly treasures, things like greed can sink into our hearts and the treasures we seek can easily become false gods taking over our whole lives. It is a reminder that the one true God and His Kingdom should be our ultimate concern. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul!

God's Peace - Pr. J.

He Cares

Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

                                                                      Psalm 144:3-4 KJV

We are most blessed! Why, indeed, would the Lord care for us? We strut about like we are the center of the universe and nothing and nobody else matters.

Yet, we all matter to the Lord. His love and concern for us is so great that he was willing to die for us.

We fail to recognize that our lives are like fleeting shadows upon the earth. We are here one day and gone the next. Only the most prominent of men and women will be remembered centuries from now. In the end; by ourselves, we are of little consequence to the world. But, in Christ and with Christ we have hope for ourselves and for others.

Our lives in this world may be like fleeting shadows; but, all who abide in Christ receive eternal life with him. We are most blessed! The Lord, indeed, cares for us. He cares enough to die that we might live.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Ultimate Concern?

The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Matt 19:20-22 NRSV)

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. (Matt 10:5-10)

I often fall asleep listening to something on YouTube and I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night listening to something horrific! Last night it was a televangelist wife saying things like:  Do good for your own self; and something to the effect of, you don't got to church to worship for God's sake, you do it for yourself.  She is right in part. God does not actually "need" us to worship Him.  He desires and even expects our devotion; but, He does not actually "need" anything from us. And, yes, because of our sinful nature we probably do go to church for our own sakes. We are selfish, self-centered people and a whole lot of what we do, if not all that we do, is truly for our own sakes. But; just because we are self-centered, that does not mean make it right. 

As I rolled this late night sermon  around in my head for awhile and considered with great discomfort all those very rich pastors, I decided I should get out of bed and see what kind of budgets their congregations actually have. What I found was pretty interesting and pretty disconcerting. I decided to compare the estimated budgets of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Congregation with the budget for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). I chose the ELCA because it is one of the largest denominations in the country. I found what I wanted. The ELCA has about 4,000,000 members. Lakewood Church has about 50,000 members. The ELCA's estimated budget for 2018 was around $90,000,000.. Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church budget was also estimated at about $90,000,000.. Amazing! How does it happen that one congregation; albeit a very large one, has a budget comparable to an entire denomination? I have only served small congregation so maybe I simply just don't understand budgets for humongous congregations.

It is the fall and the fall tends to be the time when many of us begin looking at stewardship of finances and our budgets. Unfortunately, budgets and numbers in the pews are all that some pastors, councils, and congregations worry about. They have not yet figured out that the church is not about surviving and surviving happily, happily, happily. We are supposed to be about sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God given to us freely through the sacrifice, the bloody sacrifice of our Lord and Savior. 

Please, don't get pulled into the happy, happy, happy and wealthy, wealthy, wealthy theologies that false preachers present to you. It is not all about you. It is not all about me. It is not all about being happy and wealthy in this world. It is about Jesus willingly giving his life so that all who believe in him might receive eternal life in his presence in the Kingdom of God. It is about Jesus who died for you.

Although; we do have to deal with them, budgets are not our ultimate concern. Proclaiming the Good News through Jesus the Christ is or at least it should be.

May the whole church on earth focus on our ultimate concern, who is Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Ultimate Concern: Last Day?

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1 John 2:18-19 NKJV)

Was it the last hour? I guess that depends on what John meant by last hour. Most people today appear to believe the last hour is when the world will come to an end and Christ will come again; not necessarily in that order. How long did John figure the last hour was going to last, anyway? I do not know the answers. I do know that unless the world ends before then, my last hour on earth will be when I breath my last breath. The world did not end in St. John's day or any where near it. Many people today also believe that the world is about to come to an end and that we are indeed in the last hour. Way too many preachers focus their whole ministry on it. Maybe we are in the last day. Maybe we aren't. In the whole scheme of things, does it matter? Is our ultimate concern really the end of the world? 

Yes, we know that many antichrists have come. There are many who dwell so much on the "last day" that they forget that Christ is with us even now. They forget to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom for you through Jesus Christ. They dwell so much on the signs of the times that the Good News of salvation through Jesus is often neglected. This causes me to wonder if these fearmongers are some of the many antichrists that were predicted to come. If not, why then are they not preaching that Jesus was crucified, died, and yet lives again? They preach as though he were still dead and will rise again or that maybe he's in hiding someplace. Do they not believe that he truly lives and reigns today? Do they not believe that he lives in and through all who believe in him? Why are they not preaching that the Kingdom of God has indeed come to all who believe instead of worrying about the end of this world? 

Yes, this world is a mess! There are days I would like to see the last day. But, it will come when God decides it will come. In the meantime; let us rejoice that we have been reconciled to God our Father, in His Kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Let us rejoice and share the Good News. God is with you!

God's Peace - Pr. J

He Will Come Again

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Matt 24:29-31 NIV

It is Advent. No, it is not Christmas. It is the time before Christmas; the time that we prepare to celebrate that Jesus, our Savior, came to us as little child born in a barn. During the season of Advent we remember how Israel waited and watched and prepared themselves for the Messiah. He came humbly to us and he died a horrible death on the cross at the hands of the very people who had waited so long for him to come. In these weeks before Christmas we hear John the Baptist call us to repentance; to turn around and worship the one true God; to recognize that Jesus is the only one who can save us. 

Jesus came to us as a little child. During the Advent season we focus not just on his coming as that little child; but, the promise that he will come again in great glory. Hopefully, we are preparing for that day. Scripture would remind us that it will be a joyous day for his elect and definitely not so joyous for those who have rejected him; turning their backs to him, to worship other gods. I know... I have heard it before. "But, I don't have any other gods!" The truth is we all worship something. We all have something that is our ultimate concern. Each Advent season I look around and I grieve as I recognize that most often that ultimate concern is ourselves. We want our backs patted and our bank accounts padded. The Advent season for many is more about making themselves the center rather than making Jesus the center; the reason for the season. We can fake it all we want. We might be able to deceive some of the people all of the time. But, God know our motivations. He knows whom we love. He knows whom we worship. He knows what our ultimate concern is.

I pray that you are preparing your heart for the day when he will return to gather his elect. Please remember that Jesus is the reason. It's not about me. It's not about you. It is about the greatest gift that was ever given to humankind, Jesus the Christ, our Saviour and our Lord.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:1-3 NRSV
Sometimes not allowing your heart to be troubled is a whole lot easier said than done. I spend a whole lot of time in prayer so that I can be reassured by God's presence that He is actually with me and with those whom I love. I spend a lot of time in the word so that I might be reassured of God's promise of eternal reconciliation with the One who loves me and the whole world enough to die for us.

As I consider what most troubles my heart, I find that it is concern for those who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord. My heart is most often troubled with concern for those who do not follow in the Way. My concern is that their hearts will be indefinitely troubled. My concern is that they might never know Jesus as I know that there is no healing for the broken heart except in Jesus the Christ.

I can do nothing except for pray and continue to encourage, with the Word, those who do not follow Jesus to turn around and follow him.

My heart is troubled. Yet, there is still peace to be found in the promise of eternal peace in the home that Jesus has prepared for all who believe.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Value Others Above Yourself

Youth Choir at Zion Lutheran, Skanee sing to

help children in need at the Toys for Tots Concert.

According to their calendar, this year's concert at Zion is on Sun, Oct 30 at 2 pm.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:3-4 NIV

The world around us just seems to work a whole lot better when we look out for each other. We are not to be considering our own desires before the very real needs of others. They, in turn, ought to be looking to support us in our needs. Some call it is karma. Others might say that they have each others back. Others, still, call it love. Love is truly the summation of the law and the prophets. Without this loving concern for the welfare of others the world is in chaos. Look around you. Is your world filled with loving concern for others or filled with dissension because everyone is putting their selfish ambitions before the love of God and neighbor?

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matt 7:12

May God fill your life with caring neighbors even as He empowers you to be a good neighbor.

God's Peace - Pr. J