The Beloved Son Forgives

Genesis 50:15-21 KJV; 16th Sunday after Pentecost; The beloved sons forgive. Joseph forgave his brothers. Jesus forgives us.

He Frees His Children

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 

                                                                              (Exod 14:19-22 KJV)

Pharaoh had let the people go and then had a change of heart. His army pursued the Israelites to bring them back into slavery. But, God had another plan. He intended for His people to be set free. The Lord parted the Red Sea so that His children could pass through unharmed and then He drowned Pharaoh's army when they tried to pursue them.

God intends for His children to be free; to be free to worship Him; to be live in freedom from bondage to those who would use and abuse them. If you feel trapped at the present time know that there is a path to freedom. God who parted the Red Sea for His people to pass through will also open up a path for you. The enemy of God's children will not prevail. 

Trust Him and follow in The Way that He has shown you. Trust His Way who is Jesus the Christ!

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Free To Serve

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
                             (Gal 5:1, 13 NIV)

When we are children we can barely wait to be free from our parents' watchful eyes and their control. Family can be a burden and so often divorces happen because one or both partners blame the other for the lack of personal freedom that they have. If we find ourselves working in a position that we really do not enjoy; we cannot wait to find another one and be free from the burdens and restrictions of the present one. There are so many things in this world that we would like to be free from. 

Sadly, many times the reason we want to be free from parents or other responsibilities is because we want to indulge our own personal desires; so-called pleasures of the world, and we simply cannot fully indulge them when we have commitments to others.

St. Paul reminds us that we have indeed been set free in Christ. We have been set free to be a child of God. As a child of God, we would truly desire to serve God, our Father, even as Jesus did. We will not use our freedom to indulge our weaknesses; our self-serving desires. We will use our freedom to freely serve one another humbly in love. 

May God help us to use our freedom to more fully love Him and one another.

God's Peace - Pr. Judy

Live Life Freely; By God's Grace

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

                                                                                                                  (Galatians 5:1-6 NIV)

Abandon your life to the grace of God! There are so many laws and traditions, I find it virtually impossible to keep to the traditions and letters of the law that are set forth by humankind. Can anyone possibly know them all? Can anyone abide by them all? 

The church on earth, in Paul's time, spent a lot of time worrying about the law of circumcision; whether gentiles should be circumcised or not. Paul said no. Others said yes. Paul insisted that keeping this law would not justify one person. His claim was that if we are trying to be justified by the law then we are alienating ourselves from Christ. The only justification that we have is Jesus the Christ. He died on that cross so that we might be justified in our Father's eyes. The law had to be satisfied. We could not do it by anything that we did or did not do. Jesus satisfied the law for us. We have been saved by grace through faith in the Word of God, who is Jesus the Christ!

Mistakes will be made; sins will be compounded, laws will be broken. Much time will be spent worrying about it and trying to justify our own actions. If we continue to attempt to be justified by our own good works in keeping the law (which none of us ever have) we have fallen away from grace. We must abandon our lives to God's mercy and grace! We must trust Him! Our help is found only in Him. Give thanks and praise that your sins are forgiven for "the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;  we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets."  (Dan 9:9-10)

God's Peace - Pr. J

No Other Gods!

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." Ex 20:2-3

The First Commandment as taught to our children from Luther's Small Catechism
"You shall have no other gods.

What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things."

I spent many, many, years as a wife of a U.S. Marine. They have a saying: "God, Country, Corps." That is the proper order. God always comes first. There can be no other gods. There can be no other priorities. When faithfulness to God comes first, faithfulness to our other obligations just falls into place, with the help of God. But, if we cannot be faithful to God, then we will not be faithful to anything or anyone else, either.

As a Marine Corps wife, I spent a lot of time raising two sons alone as my husband was deployed for far more than half of his career. I had no other family near. As bad as that might sound, it was a good thing. Through this time, I learned that there is one I can trust all of the time and that is God. Through this time, I learned that there was one who loved me like no other. God was there when no one else was. I wasn't always thrilled with the way He worked things out; but, I came to know and trust that no matter how He was working them out; they were being worked out for the good.

The best thing that we can do for our loved ones, for our country, for our world, is to fear, love and trust God above all things; to put Him first in our lives; and to follow in the way that He would have us go. His plan is perfect for us. Ours is not.

God's Peace - Pr. J