Christmas Preparations

Wrapping the gifts and getting the feast ready is a part of celebrating Christmas. We get so wrapped up in the all the frills of the season that we often put the real reason of Christmas on hold or forget about it all together. We can also get caught up in all the giving and being nicer and kinder to our fellow man and still miss out on the real reason. Even remembering the story of the Christ child in the manger is not enough if we do not remember why He came in the first place. When Christ was born, he came for the reason of dying. Christmas day means nothing without the death of Jesus on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday. We do not celebrate those for a couple of months but let that not be a reason for not looking ahead and being thankful for the reason he came. To redeem us all from sin. Praise be to God.

Winter Soltice

The Winter Solstice will arrive at

Winter Solstice 2007: Dec 22, 6:08 am Universal Time

Be sure to adjust for your time zone:
EST: Dec 22, 1:08 am
CST: Dec 22, 12:08 am
MST: Dec 21, 11:08 pm
PST: Dec 21, 10:08 pm

You may be wondering why I am pointing this out in my Christian oriented blog. Solstice is usually either seen as a pagan holiday or an astronomical event. It is seen to be the first day of winter. I also see it as an interesting time to celebrate the birth of Christ. That during this time of darkness (at least for the northern hemisphere) the light of the world came into the world. The darkness is that more banished by His light. This imagery is pointed out to me by the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. It is really a strong and powerful thing to be in nothing but candlelight to celebrate the Savior's birth. We are in spiritual darkness. Christ is the light of our lives. It is neat to watch the candle light in the service going out from the Christ candle and going to all the candles in the congregation. Christ is the source of all light and we are to tell and spread that light. What a wonderful parallel between worship service and reality.

This play between light and dark comes back over Easter weekend. The Good Friday service gets slowly darken until totally dark at the end. The pascal light is taken out and brought back in to emphasize that Christ has died and has risen from the dead. At the Easter Vigil especially, the opposite happens. The service starts in darkness. The Christ Candle is the only light. The congregations candles are lit from there. During the service it slowly lightens until there is a explosion of light at the gospel reading. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!

I just enjoy this wonderful imagery so much.

God Bless!

Memoware.Com

Memoware.com was brought to my attention just recently. Not only there is secular books for your PDA to read but also religious. There is scripture as well as Christian authors. It is another neat way that technology aids with life. It sometimes hinders more than helps but this is one case of being able to carry the info you need with you. Not going to add much more. Check out the site.

Winter Weather

We got a foot of show last night and church was canceled today. Not a surprise when there were snow emergencies being declared. Felt sorry for the Sunday school kids. The Christmas program was suppose to be today. If I heard right, they were planning of delaying it a week if they had to cancel out. Some of the more mundane problems with trying to have regular worship. Things interfere. At least there are plenty of option for devotions at home so the day can still be set aside for God. Feels a little odd when all you do is listen to the Lutheran Hour at home and then go out to dig your driveway out.You do what you can do as you can do and God's mercy and grace is what truly saves. Our salvation depends on Christ and not if we are in church every single Sunday. However, we are still called to worship in a community. At least, for this week, we had the at home option. God will provide for next Sunday.

Lutheran Service Book

Today was the first Sunday that we used LSB at our church. It's been a long time coming and we are not done yet. I almost thought we were not going to get it done today. On Wednesday, it was pointed out that the embossing with the church name on the hymnal were crooked. There was one that was a little out. The others looked crooked because of the way the design of the cover looked. I am grateful that it was pointed out but the journey of getting the hymnals has been such a long trip of making sure we did it right. We did not want the repeat of Lutheran Worship fiasco. Lutheran Worship is a good hymnal but a lot of the way it was put together and presented could have been done so much better. I truly think that taught us what not to do when presenting a new hymnal.


The service went well today. There is an adjustment that needs to done but I think it will be done relatively easy. One of the issues is that the congregation is use to the service being printed out in the bulletin. Now we are using the hymnal and we are not use to the layout. The service also has some minor variants. We need an insert to help guide people so they can get up to speed on the new hymnal. God provides. At least the proposing phase is done and the implementing phase has begun.

Bible Quiz

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
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Tired and dried out down to the soul

I think we all been here. Burned out by any other name is just as wearing. It can also happen in our faith life. Whether it is just the same old routine or just been doing much for too long, our faith walk can also get old and wearing. I think this is the most dangerous place to get burned out. Not only is your faith at stake but our faith is the rock on which our life stands. Sometimes it is just a matter of getting away for a while or changing your routine. It is definately is a time for more prayer and reliance on God. He is the perfecter and author of our faith. That's hard to remember. It's hard to do when most of us think everything depends on us personally. If something is going wrong, it either is my fault or my problem to fix. That doequitets help in a lot of cases but when it comes to faith, it is time to hand it over to God to handle. Work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God. I don't know if that phrase is entirely right but it rings at least close. Do your best and realize that so much is beyond us and is in God's hands. Even if it is just taking 5 minutes of quiet time for prayer.

Happy New Year!

You might be thinking I am saying this early but I am not as early as you may think. This Sunday for a lot of churches is the first Sunday of the Church year as well as the first Sunday of Advent. It definately a different way of reckoning time. Not only is it on a different day that the secular world says it is but it also changes days. The Sunday in Advent and New Year is determined by what it the Sunday closest to Saint Andrew's Day. Another weirdness for me is that even though Saint Andrews determines the date, I have not seen the saints day celebrated. If I have, it has been so infrequent as not to remember.

The other weirdness about the changing of the church year is the focus of the readings. For one, the last Sunday of the year for some is Christ the King Sunday has the gospel reading focus on the crucifixion of Christ. This happens in the midst of getting several weeks of readings looking at the second coming of Christ. When Advent comes, we switch from his death and his second coming to his first coming in the manger. It is a jarring shift of gears. Yet when you start putting it together, it makes perfect sense. Christ is a King but not a normal king- he came to serve and save to die and to rise. His cross is a unique, perfect throne for this Savior, King. It also brings together that Christmas is all about Easter. If there is no Easter, then Christmas is for not. Both of these combine and we look forward to his second coming.

Happy New Year and Come, Lord Jesus!

Reading The Psalms with Luther

This book was originally published as Psalms with Introductions by Luther in 1993 by Concordia Publishing House. The translation of the Psalms used is the English Standard version. The edition I am reviewing is the 2007 printing by Concordia Publishing House by the name of Reading The Psalms with Luther.

This book has several helpful features. It has a section on how to sing the Psalms so that can become a part of your daily devotions. There is a power to singing scripture especially the psalms which were written to be sung. There is both an explanation and prayer with each psalm to help dig further into the psalms. There is also a list that categories the psalms as well as two different reading schedules for going through the psalms. You are not limited to using the schedules suggested.

At least for my style of devotions, this is a great aid in my devotional life. It is aid for personnel worship as well as learning God's Word. Definitely a great way to deepen your devotional life.

Giving Thanks

I got an email from my pastor last night saying we made our target fund raising to get the new hymnals. Another showing of God provides and what timing, just before Thanksgiving so we can another reason to thank God. (there is always enough reasons but one more never hurts). It is also in time that we can get it used for Advent and/or Christmas. Good way to start the church year. Worship is so important in the life of the church and each Christian. We were never meant to be a believer in isolation. The Lutheran Service Book, I think, will be an excellent resource in our corporate worship. It will also be a great resource for at home. Having a single book as private and public worship resource is fantastic. That topic is a blog post in itself. Now if I can only remember, then I have a topic to flesh hout.

Thanksgiving- Blessings from the Mundane

Giving thanks can be hard. Work is hard. Family is not the Cleaver's from the old 50's show and how can you give thanks when two problems pop up for every one dealt with. how do you give thanks when you being trampled under.
For safe, clean water that comes without thinking, I am thankful.
For bread, I am thankful.
For work and pay, I am thankful.
For friends, t am thankful.

There are so many good things that are so common and we are blessed with them as makes them common and mundane, we ought to be thankful.

It's not that easy. Life is hard. Life is also so blessed. Even the hard things of life are a blessing. Without being hungry, how would we know how good full is. Without struggle, how we become strong.

God is a good God and he provides. Itis not that easy to see. This world, our friends, neighbors, goods and all things are from him. In that we should be grateful.

Transcendance In the Mundane

Bread and wine. Two everyday items that are common for meals. Bread is so common that it is a staple and taken for granted. Depending on the culture, the same could be said for wine. Yet, in these two mundane items we do an extra ordinary thing at church- we actually touch, feel and taste the real presence of Christ. It is not just a memorial . If it is just a memorial, then there is no real presence and no power or means of grace. How sad to take the meat (pun intended) out of the meal. The old testament sacrifices called for the shedding of blood. No blood, no forgiveness. This is just a foreshadow of the new testament once and for all sacrifice of Christ's death and resurrection. The Lord's Supper is that blood of atonement once for all time and for all man. Once again, no blood, no forgiveness.

Some may say God is harsh for demanding this. If God did not demand amends for sin, he would cease to be holy. God in his love and in his holiness, provided the lamb of price for our sins. This is celebrated in true power and true physical presence in the Lord's Supper. It is a meal we share with the saint in heaven. During communion, heaven and earth move closer and are connected over these mundane items. If that is not transcendence in the mundane. I do not know what is.

Holiness in the Mundane

It is so hard to do the Christian walk when you are caught up in the daily rush of everyday mundane life. There's work, bills, sports, TV, family and so much more that eats away at your time that time for your spiritual life can not only be put on the back burner but shoved right off the stove. Yet, it is in the mundane of daily life that I think the height of spirituality is. We are not called to be in solitude (although solitude is needed from time to time) but to be the salt of the earth. Salt is not useful unless it is in the meal. A Christian is not useful unless they are living in the world but not a part. We need to live the life that sets us apart as Christians. At least that is our calling.

I don't want to sound law oriented by stating this in a way that sounds like we do this if we want to earn our salvation. We can not earn our salvation. Christ on the cross and resurrected has done that. It is out of our response to this gift of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we do this calling. It is a gift of God. We are called and empowered by God to live our daily vocation to His glory. Since we are still sinners, we will fail miserably. Thanks to God's gifts, wonderful things will happen despite our sorry selves.

The challenge is that you don't do your job for your boss or for the paycheck but for Christ. You care for your child not only for the child but for Christ. Sometimes when life seams so meaningless and difficult, if you can see the things in front of you for God's Glory, some of the drudgery goes away. It's not always that easy to see that. Our humanness can make seeing that impossible. Faith is going out on what is unseen. May God provide that faith in us especially when we are weak.

It is easy to think and see God in the grandeur of things but God is truly everywhere. Even in the more mundane of things.

Reformation and All Saints

The leaves are falling and children are picking out costumes for halloween. Reformation Day and all Saints must be close. Reformation Day is taking on a different significance for me lately. A lot of people put their lives on the line for the reformations Luther put forth. Important issues were at stake. They still are. Many people are not willing to take a stand on these either to keep peace or don't want the fight. I agree that some things are not worth fighting over but there issues that are. There have been Christian saints dying for the faith since the beginning. Until Christ comes back, we are still in the church militant and need to defend our position and our faith. I am not saying we need to be antagonistic but we do not need to be door mats either. Here I stand, I can do no other.


Picture above is the statue of Martin Luther At Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne.

Suffering

I think the hardest question about Christianity is why is there suffering. If God is all loving and all powerful, why does he allow suffering? To say it is due to sinful fallen man is true but inadequate. Not all suffering is punishment although alot of it is. Some of it is to teach. some of it it is beyond my reason or any reason that anyone can see. Life would be alot easier if we new knew why everything happened. It's hard to see that God will take care of everything when all you see is your pain and fear. God is there. I believe that absolutely. I don't always feel that with my heart.

Devotion Tips

1) Be consistent- This will work best if it becomes a habit. Having it at the smae time everyday will help make it so.

2) Be flexible. This sounds like it goes against the first but let's face it. Life interferes. You don't have to be perfect. There will be times you will eithere be behind, work ahead or just have to skip that days devotions. Accept it but continue the study the next time.

3) About 20 chapters a week will get you through the bible in a year. You don't have to do this or at least not necessaruily the bible in a year. IT IS A GOOD THING TO TRY TO GO THROUGH THE BIBLE AT YOUR OWN PACE.

4) gO AT YOUR OWN PACE. It is better to do 5 minutes a day consistant than try to do 30 minutes or an hour and give up.

5) Don't be afarid to not understand everything. There are places where the bible is clear and plenty of paces where it is challenging to say the least. Use bible aids or ask your pastor when you got a tough nut to crack.

In the Beginning

I have been blogging for a while and have been hesitant about mixing some topics together, Not that I am worried about criticism but because I thought the topics would not go together well. It felt like I was trying to eat a steak with a single bite. I will attept to relay my Christian walk in this blog. Hopefull it will be full of tips and hopes and struggles. I will try to deal with doctirnal issues as well as the daily struggles of the Christian walk.