Rejoicing that you are forgiven

In Sunday morning Bible class we are studying the book of Philippians. If I was to say what the theme of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi might be, I would say it could be found in the words, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice" (Phi.4:4 ESV) As Paul writes to the believers in that Roman city, he was encouraging them to rejoice in whatever the situation of their lives.

Rejoice! Rejoice! I will say it again rejoice. God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good. Rejoice in all that He has done for you. Live in the joy of the Lord. Celebrate the wonder of what God does for you day after day. The life of the Christian is a life of joy. Paul lays all that out and helps you and me to know how to go about living our lives. Rejoicing in Christ, we go about our day.

It isn't that he is saying that everything in this life is going to be good and sunny. He showed again and again that he lived in the joy of the Lord. Read Acts 16, the time when Paul and Silas first went to Philippi. It was far from a joyous time. In fact, Paul gets frustrated by the servant girl that was possessed by the evil spirit, the one that kept following him around, telling everyone that Paul was serving the God in heaven. It sounds good at first. Hurrah! The word is proclaimed. But then it started getting on his nerves. Imagine someone who is always there, talking, interrupting you, telling others part of your story. Everytime you sit down to talk to someone, there was that person, chattering away. Sometime making sense, sometimes not. Driving you nuts. Paul finally tells the evil spirit to leave her - in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Savior, the Victor! Hurrah! Freedom. Freedom for Paul. Freedom for the gal. Everyone was happy. Except for her owners. They lost a fortune no longer having a slave girl that could foretell the future. They got upset. They got so upset that Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten with rods and thrown in prison. Rats! That is terrible. How awful. 

So what do they do? They sit in prison and sing and praise God. They pray. They talk about the wonder of the message of Jesus Christ. They sing some more. They rejoice in the Lord. Always. Even in prison. Even when hurting from being beaten. Even when abused. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.

But what if I don't rejoice? The question was raised, "What if I am not very good at that attitude when I am sick and suffering? What then?" Does it mean I am not a very good Christian? Does it mean I have missed the point of the sermon? Does It mean that I need to go back to confirmation class and learn some more stuff? What does this mean? (All right, that was thrown in for all you folks who remember Luther asking that question in parts of the catechism.)

It means that you are human. It means that you are a sinner. It means that you have the very same need that Paul had, that the folks in Philippi had - you need your Savior. 

Understand, I am not saying that you not rejoicing is a sin. That is not what I said. It is not a sin to not feel joy in every situation. It is not a sin to be upset. It is not a sin to be filled with dread in a situation. It is not a sin to be overwhelmed by what is going on. It is not a sin to sit in that prison at night and cry. 

What it shows is that you, like everyone else, need Jesus. You need what He brings to each person, hope, peace, comfort, healing, strength and a whole host of other things. 

I answered the question (after thinking), with this thought.

I face a difficult situation. I face a hard time. I face a life-threatening disease. I face the challenge of the day. And at times, I do so poorly. I get upset. I grumble. I growl at those around me. I tear others poorly, saying harmful and hurtful things that are not filled with rejoicing. I hurt others feelings. I do and say sinful things because I am upset, unable to rejoice. 

When I realize I am doing that, I need to stop and first and foremost, ask God to forgive me. I am wrong to act that way. I might be upset. I might be filled with fear. I could even have terror of the unknown filling my thoughts and actions. But I need to admit I was wrong, asking God to forgive me.

Then I need to talk to those I have treated poorly (the wife, husband, children, parent, friends, nurse, cleaning lady, food service working, whomever), and tell them, "I am sorry. I was wrong for treating you that way. I was reacting to how I was feeling at the time. It was not right. Please forgive me. Please try to understand me. Please help me as I go through this difficult, hard, terrible, awful, deep sorrow time." In that situation, while you might be unable to rejoice, you are able to show that being a Christian doesn't mean that you won't sin, you won't say the wrong thing, you won't hurt someone's feeling with unkind words. Being a Christian is realizing that, admitting you were wrong (making no excuses) and asking the person/s to forgive you. 

That becomes a witness to the life of the Christian. Being a Christian does not mean that you won't get upset in a situation. It means that you will admit that you acted wrongly and ask for forgiveness from the one you have wronged. Being a Christian means that you will face how you act, apologize for it, and then try to change how you act.

Rejoice in the Lord always! Yes, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will try to rejoice in each situation. I will seek the joy of the Lord. I will have difficult times. I will fail at it (because I am a sinner). And I will be forgiven by my Lord Jesus. The Spirit will help me to change. 

So, in the end, I come back to "rejoice in the Lord always." You are forgiven. You are loved. The Lord watches over you. That, is what we share with others. 

A full moon makes me think

 Opening the door to let the dogs out this morning, I looked to the west, and saw the full moon. What a beautiful sight!

To see the full moon reminds me of how the Lord has put together this wonderful world, solar system, and universe. Each month, you can know exactly when the full moon will take place. It is not a surprise. It isn't - well, I wonder when the full moon will be? Will it happen this week? Perhaps today? No, it is regular, constant, and will always be that way. Every 28 days, we can be certain the full moon will take place. That also means that every 28 days, there will be a new moon. 

What is my point? God has made the natural laws, laws that we do not control but that we can figure out. There are those who spend their time figuring out these things. Scientist are able to figure things out. Sometimes it is pretty easy and done very quickly. Other things are much more difficult to figure out. We have seen that with this corona virus. We think we have things figured out. Then we realize that we don't. It has taken time to figure out this virus. And we still don't have that done. Welcome to fallen world. Viruses, disease, body failings, all are a part of this fallen world. This has been shown to us again and again. Just as we think we are in control, we come to realize we are not. Over and over again we are taught that the more we know, the more we think we control this world and all the things that take palce, the more we realize that we are not in control.

So if we are not in control, who is? God. Plain and simple. God is always in control. Never does He turn His back upon any one of us or anything that is taking place. He is with you, with me, with everyone. Notice I did not say He is with those who believe in Him. I said, He is with everyone. He takes care of all people. He watches over all people. He cares for and loves all people. That is the wonder of God. You and me, we like and care for those who are in our circle of family and friendship. If we don't like someone, we often don't take care of them (which is wrong! God wants us to care for all people, but as sinners, we fail miserably at this.). The eternal God is not like that. He cares for all people, believer or not. He loves all people, for all have sinned and fallen short of His will. He sent His one and only Son to suffer and die for ALL people, to pay for the sins of all people. Then He sends the Holy Spirit to each person to bring them to faith in Jesus. Unfortunately, people can harden their hearts, turn their backs upon Jesus and not believe in Him. (Here we get into objective and subjective justification, but that isn't my point today).

In this world, in our lives, we are assured that Jesus is our Savior. We are assured that God is with us. We are assured that the laws of nature that are sure and certain. 

I thank God for the full moon, because it reminds me that He is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Provider, the One who takes care of all people and this entire world, day after day. Thanks be to God.

(All right, so I rambled some today. That is what happens when I start typing. I am not like God, I don't know what is going to happen at all times. Have a great day.)

Cleaning up the yard made me think

 I don't know about you, but I think of things at strange times. The other day, I was out cleaning up the yard. This is something that I need to do regularly. Penny and I have two large dogs, Zeb is a golden retriever and Wrigley is a chocolate lab. As such, they leave many things around the yard. And it is important to clean up that which they leave. 

As I was picking up the yard, I began to think. Cleaning the yard up of that which they leave around is much like life. What do I mean? Let me put it this way.

As I go around the yard, looking for the gifts that they have left in the yard, I have to watch my step. I need to pay attention to that which is laying around. Just when I think I have it all cleaned up, I find another one that I missed. As I am stepping around, I have to be careful where I walk, for I can accidently step into their mess. Some of the mess is old and some is new. No matter how careful I am, I will miss some, and I will step in other (yuck). When I have it all cleaned up, it will begin all over again. The dogs will begin to leave things for me to clean up again. And if we do not clean it up regularly, we will soon have a gross, nasty, messy yard in which we don't even want to walk. I know this sounds kind of gross, but bear with me.

Isn't that just like life? Our lives are much like that. There is always the yucky sin that we leave laying around. It is gross. It can create such a mess for us in our lives. We try to avoid the mess, but often we find ourselves stepping right into it. We think that we have it all cleaned up, only to find there is some sin that we have missed. Some sins are old and some are new. Some aren't too messy and others are totally and completely nasty. And just when we think we have the yard of our life cleaned up, more is left. Sin just keeps coming back, it needs to be cleaned up all over again. If we fail to work at cleaning up the sin in our lives, it just gets nastier and messier. 

Daily, we need to return to that very place that cleans up the sin in our lives - our Baptism. Daily we return to those blessed waters, that clean us once again, washing away the mess of sin. If we don't return to the Lord, to our Baptism, the mess of our lives just gets worse and worse. Soon our lives are filled with sin, messy, nasty sin. The Spirit takes our lives and cleans us daily in the water of Baptsim. We confess our sins, and we are forgiven for those sins. He cleans our lives. He washes us daily. And we can't stop. We need to return to our Baptism over and over again. Being cleaned by the Lord.

Those were the thoughts running through my mind the other day as I cleaning up the yard. Yes, even in the nasty job that needs to be done, you can find the love of God. He gives that cleansing and love to us. Stop at this moment, return to your Baptism, and let the forgiveness of the Lord wash you clean.

Then it happened!

 It was October 4, 2021. The day started like most other days. The sun came up. The birds sang their songs. The squirrels were skittering about looking for the acorns and other nuts that they could store away in a various ways - in the trees, buried in the ground. People were up and moving, heading to work, to school, to the store, to the coffee shop. What a lovely day!

Then it happened. No one saw it coming. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it stopped. And there was nothing you could do without it. Facebook crashed. No warning. Nothing. 

I sat there looking at my screen. Nothing. Run the diagnostics. Still nothing. Now what would I do? My day came grinding to a halt. I did not know what people were having for breakfast or lunch. I did not see the sunrise from around the nation. I did not get to see pictures of dogs, cats, giraffes, elephants or birds. I was shocked. I was sitting there, just looking at the screen.

All right, so that isn't really what happened. Yes, Facebook crashed. But life went on. I still accomplished the tasks that were needed. I was able to do the work needed. 

And yet, there were some of the positive things that were missed. I missed the positive posts about how God was with me and was going to help through the day. I missed the posts that told me about how someone needed a pray because of the struggles or illnesses they were facing. I missed getting caught up with what took place in someone's family. I missed seeing how the Gospel was being shared in a variety of ways by a variety of people. 

We can complain about Facebook. Yes, there are problems with it. Yet, there are also good things. When Facebook came back, she was able to post about the butter braids being delivered on Tuesday for Noah's Ark. I was able to see that another person was growing stronger after the treatments for cancer. I am able to share a prayer each day. Friends were able to show the wonder of God in sunrise as they proclaimed His glory. 

So Facebook went down. We survived. It came up later in the day. And we went on. 

And now, it is time to stop, and write a prayer that will be posted shortly. I pray that you will see the blessings of God in your life, in your day. Share that love with others, as you share your posts on Facebook!