Day #3 of Advent devotions "Song of the Season"

Continuing the thoughts on the Songs of the Season.

Day # 3 “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”

Redeemer, come and open wide

My heart to Thee; here, Lord abide!

O enter with Thy grace divine;

Thy face of mercy on me shine.

Thy Holy Spirit guide us on

Until our glorious goal is won.

Eternal praise and fame

We offer to Thy name. LSB # 342 vs. 5

Eternal praise! That actually seems like an overstatement. We know that we are going to let slip away from our attention that which Advent and Christmas are all about. We will forget because we will become wrapped up in the colorful paper, the pretty ribbons, the tasty cookies, the fun parties and life in general. There will be those glorious fun times. And there will be those times that just wear on us – going to work, housework, washing clothes, driving the kids around, doing homework, facing the problems of health, the heart that hurts, the cancer that sucks away our life, the diabetes that challenges our every meal and movement. Yes, we will forget to praise the name of the Lord.

But wait! That doesn’t stop the eternal praise. The saints in heaven, those who are free of this world, will be praising the name of the Lord eternally! They will praise Him even as we start to crumble under the pressures of life. And then we will remember that is exactly what the King of glory has come, because we are so weak, because we cannot do it ourselves.

Come Redeemer, buy us back from our pains, our sins, our sufferings. Redeem us! Holy Spirit, open wide my heart. Open wide my life. Even as I do not feel like opening my heart up, I know that You will be the One opening it for me. Come to me, guide me, help me. I am weak but You are strong. Come through this glorious Word. Come through the waters of Baptism. Come through the gifts of Communion. Come and give me what I am unable to give myself. Open my heart wide!

Abide in my heart, dear Lord. Come to me so I may lift up my thoughts, my voice, in praise to You! May I join with all those who have gone before me, those who are already in heaven, those who have received that crown of life from the King of glory, those who are singing the eternal praises! Yes, show my Your face of mercy so that I will be able to face tomorrow, or maybe tonight. Until that time when I so receive the goal of all that You have promised to me. The goal…ah, that blessed goal. Yes, I long for it.

Until then, come to me, abide with me, King of glory, righteous Helper, Redeemer, Lord of my life.

Prayer: Lord, I come to You today, asking You to guide me in my life. Help me to face today with a heart that is wide open to Your love, Your mercy, Your guidance. Send the Holy Spirit that I might be guided to that promised goal of heaven. Amen.

Devotion Day #2 Lift Up Your Heads, vs. 2

We continue our series of devotions on the Songs of the Season. The first Wednesday service, this song was one that we looked at. May the Lord bless you as you continue to prepare for His coming.

Day # 2 “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”

A righteous Helper comes to thee;

His chariot is humility,

His kingly crown is holiness,

His scepter, pity in distress,

The end of all our woe He brings;

Therefore the earth is glad and sings,

To Christ the Savior raise

Your grateful hymns of praise. LSB # 341 vs. 2

The song continues, as does our praise. It is all about the King of glory who comes. And our hearts can do no more than praise His name. As we asked, “Who is this King of glory? It is that little child in the manger. Wait? A little child in a manger? Yes indeed!

He is the righteous Helper, the One who comes to help each one of us in the midst of our lives. We often feel that we are strong enough to carry the full burden ourselves. We believe that we are filled with a strength of body, a strength of mind, a strength of spirit and a strength of soul. But are we? When push comes to shove, we come to realize how weak we truly are. We crumble when we are struck by the pains of this world. When our health fails, we try to show others how strong we are, while on the inside we are wasting away, weak as could be. Holding fast to the belief that we must put on a strong face, not let anyone know our weakness. But we need our King of glory. We need Him to come to us.

Our Helper comes, his chariot is deep humility. He doesn’t come with a mighty war horse, or a beautifully carved and jeweled chariot. Instead, He comes in humbleness, born as a child, born to Mary and Joseph in the humblest of places, a stable, with the animals, beasts of burden, animals who know nothing more than to struggle all their lives. He is placed in a manger, a feeding trough for these poor animals. Yet He does so willingly. He is so humble. The King of glory in humblest of settings.

Why? To bring the end of all our woes, all our sorrows, all our struggles, all the pains that we face day after day. Struggling under the load of this fallen world and the fallenness of our very being, the Helper comes to free us from all our sorrows and woes! Praise be to God! He has come to be our Helper, the One who does what we cannot do. Like the helper engine pushing the train up the mountain, a train that would stall and be unable to move at all by itself, the King of glory is the righteous Helper giving us life, love and grace. Hope! Advent 1! In Him is hope.

Prayer: Come to us, abide with us, King of glory! Be with us during this Advent season as we focus our attention on all that You have done for us in our lives. May Your Spirit help us to lift up our voices in songs of praise in every situation of our lives, knowing that You are our righteous Helper. Amen.

Daily Devotion in Advent Series - Songs of the Season

On Wednesday evening we began the 3 week series on the Songs of the Season. Last night we studied and sang 4 Advent songs. There is more that can be said about the songs. I wrote a few devotions to accompany the series. I will post one each day, except for Sunday. May the Holy Spirit guide your walk of faith as you prepare for the Advent of the King.

Day #1 “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”

Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!

Behold the King of glory waits.

The King of kings is drawing near;

The Savior of the world is here.
Life and salvation He doth bring;

Therefore rejoice and gladly sing.

To God the Father raise

Your joyful songs of praise. (LSB # 341 vs. 1)

To begin Advent with this song is to reach deep into the meaning of the season. With the song, we come to the house of the Lord to praise our God for all that He has done for us, for our salvation. Whether you read Psalm 24 or Isaiah 60, you get the same feeling. There is praise and worship in the air. For what? Why would the people of Israel offer such times of praise?

The Psalmist asks, “Who is this King of glory? That is the question that you must ask yourself as you start this Advent journey. Who is the King of glory? Why should you praise His name? After all, in this world, we often focus on ourselves, on our desires. We think it is all about what I want. We see that in the world around us. If you don’t like a phrase, change it. If you don’t like a song, ban it. If you don’t like a movie, refuse it. It doesn’t matter what others think. It is all about what you think. Don’t see that in yourself? If that is the case, praise be to God. But for most of us, we would have to say that we are really mostly focused on ourselves. We would like to sing our own praises. We would like others to sing our praises. We fall into the self-centered trap that the is laid for us by the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature.

But isn’t that why we need the King of glory? Who is this King of glory? It is none other than the Lord of hosts, the Lord God of Sabaoth. He is the King of Glory. As we slide our way through this season of Advent, we focus our attention on our inability to save ourselves and the need for a Savior. Here in this song, we meet the Savior. He is the King of glory, the One that comes into this dark world to bring salvation. Or in keeping with the 1^st Sunday in Advent theme, to bring “hope.”

The ancient doors are lifted up to welcome the King. The people in Isaiah’s day are lifting up their eyes to see the wonder of what God is doing for them (Isaiah 60:4-5). We lift up our eyes from the hustle and bustle of the Advent/Christmas season to see the King of glory, the very One who comes for us, for our salvation. Rejoice! Celebrate! Sing those songs of praise! For your salvation comes in the form of the Christ-child, the Son of God incarnate. Thank the Father for all that He has done by sending His only-begotten Son to be the Savior.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we lift up our voices in songs of praise to You. At this time of the year, we recall the wonder of that which You have done for our salvation. You have given to us a Savior, the King of glory. May we open our hearts to welcome Him. Amen.

Crazy where ramblings take a person.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday. I had never heard of such things until recent years. They just keep growing. First there was Black Friday. Growing up, it was never called that. It was the day after Thanksgiving. A big shopping day. I remember when we delivered the Herald & Review in Decatur, IL, the newspaper for Thanksgiving was HUGE! I mean really big. There were so many sale ads. We had to stuff the papers to get them ready for delivery. There was no Internet, no online shopping, none of those things. It wasn't even called Black Friday. I don't know when it became Black Friday. I guess someone decided it was a good thing and it stuck. Not sure why it is "black" but that is what it is.

Then came Cyber Monday. Why? Because folks started shopping online. Sitting at home on the comfy couch, you could spend your money. You could get what you wanted without facing the crowds. Stores began to run special sales on Monday after Black Friday. So it became "cyber" Monday. Shop, shop, shop! Spend, spend, spend. The more you shop, the more you save, every day at Shop and Save. Wait, that was a store ad. Guess it really plays into Cyber Monday. Save big money by spending big money. I guess it makes sense.

The came Giving Tuesday. What is it? The chance to help not-for-profits. After spending all your money, maybe you will feel a little guilty about focusing so much on the self, on the material, that you just might want to quell the conscience. Give to some organization that could use your financial help. So now, the email is filled with Giving Tuesday requests. Give to this one. Give to that one. I would suggest LWML if you are looking for somewhere to give on Giving Tuesday. Or perhaps your local church. Think about how much that would help here at St. Paul's if you were to support the local congregation in the work it does. Makes me think, maybe St. Paul's should get into Giving Tuesday next year, send out the emails, mailings, and all in order to gain your dollars.

Then I thought, is that really good stewardship? Who cares? As long as you get the money. As long as you meet the budget, who cares about stewardship? The Lord does. I do. And you should. Christian stewardship is not seen in guilt giving. It isn't taking part in Giving Tuesday. It is regular use of the resources that the Lord has given you. It is continuing to use your financial resources in a way that gives glory to your Lord and helps your fellow man. In reality, if members of congregations would be faithful in their giving to the local congregations, if they were tithe in a faithful manner, most congregations would not have any financial problems. Churches wouldn't have to beg for money to meet the bills. They wouldn't have to do fundraisers in order to make ends meet. That is poor stewardship. Terrible stewardship. It betrays either poor giving stewardship on the part of the members and/or poor stewardship use of the financial resources of the leaders of the congregation. Yes, it goes both ways. Members have poor giving habits. Leaders have poor spending habits. It is terrible stewardship for a church to spend more than it could ever support. Ask for more money, to spend more. It might be that the reason it is spending so much is that it feels like it is doing the right thing. But perhaps each congregation should take a hard look at what it is doing and ask, "Is this really what we need to be doing?" It is hard because it might mean giving up a sacred cow.

How did I get there? I don't know. That is what rambling does. It takes you places that you weren't expecting. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and faithful Christian stewardship. All tied together somehow. I will let you wrestle with it. I know that I do. I wrestle with it regularly even without realizing that is what I am doing. Lord, give me guidance. Give each of us guidance and wisdom these days.

Give Thanks

"Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Jesus asked. (Luke 17:17) This will be the Gospel reading in many Lutheran churches this week as they have the Thanksgiving Eve/Day services. The lepers crying out to Jesus to be healed, then, as they follow Jesus' command, leave to go show themselves to the priests. As they went they were cleansed. The Samaritan returned to Jesus and gave thanks to Him for the healing. The point is made that we need to return to to the Lord and give Him thanks for the many blessings He has given to us.

That is heavy law. Truly it is. It is not telling folks that they should focus on the wonder of the Gospel and give thanks for the healing, the forgiveness, the love of Christ. It is saying, "Get yourself back to church and thank God for the blessings. Do it now! Or you are ungrateful!" Now there is truth in this. We should be giving thanks to God for the blessings He has given to us. But we do that out of joy and not out of obligation. To do it out of obligation is to begin to place our thankfulness under the Law, making it a necessary action in order to show that we truly thank God.

I often wonder about the other 9. Did they not give thanks? Did they go to the priest and not once utter a word of thanks to God for the healing? I know what Jesus is saying. He is showing the importance of giving thanks, and we should give thanks. But the other 9 were only doing what they were told. "Go and show yourselves to the priests," Jesus said to them. And they did. That was what they were doing. When they went and saw that they were cleansed, did their steps pick up? I doubt they drug their feet heading for the priest. They were cleansed! The leprosy was gone. Amazing! I often think that as they went, they were praising God for this healing. They lifted up their voices in songs of praise. They went to the priests and told them, "Jesus healed us!" When they spoke to their families, they told them what Jesus had done. And together they worshiped and praised God.

When you come to Thanksgiving worship this year, don't do it out of obligation, because you are told that you must return otherwise you are like the 9 lepers who did not appreciate what Jesus did for them. Instead, go to worship because you are healed! Because Jesus has healed you of the leprosy of sin. Because you know that without Jesus, there would be no blessings in your life. Because your heart is filled to overflowing for the many blessings of life.

Then don't stop there. Continue to thank God. I know that I thank God daily for the blessings He has given me: Penny, Rachael, Brandon, Matthew and Chelsey, Shirley and my brothers and their families, Penny's sisters and their families, my birth family, their children and grandchildren, my church family at Troy, as well as the families of Harvel, Ferrin and Altamont, my extended family in the LWML, more people than I can count. I give thanks for the blessings of faith and love, hope and peace that are given me despite the sins that I do and the unthankfulness that might reside in my heart. The forgiveness of sins! The wonderful, peace giving, life fulfilling forgiveness that is truly a gift of His grace. So much more. Luther would begin to list out even more things to give thanks for, and that would only touch the surface of that for which I give thanks.

I give thanks with a grateful heart, not because I am told to, but because I want to. I look at my Lord, fall to my knees before Him and thank Him for His love, for all that He has done and continues to do for me in my life. What a great God, an awesome God, a loving God, a wonderful God He is.

Yes, thank You God. I am one of those 9 who follow Your command and praise You as I continue on my daily way. I am that 1 who returns to You and thanks You. I see myself in both because both are folks who are healed, blessed and made clean.

So when I have eaten and had my fill, and I sit back in my chair and look around the table at the family, and the carnage of a meal well eaten, I will give thanks to God.

Yes, God is good. All the time!

Thank you veterans, a mite challenge and snow - random ramblings.

Veteran's Day was yesterday, Sunday, Nov. 11th. I want to thank each veteran who served our country in both peace time and war time. They have given of themselves. They have served with distinction. I thank God for each one. You, as a veteran, may not have received the recognition that you deserve, but know that you are greatly appreciated. I give thanks to God that there are men and women who are willing to serve in the armed forces in some way. I want to give a special shout out to Christian Engelbrecht as he took the oath yesterday (what a day to take the oath!) to become part of the Ohio National Guard. Very proud of him to take this step. God bless all our veterans.

This last week I attended the various meetings of the LWML in St. Louis, MO. Convention Planning Committee (CPC), Executive Committee (EC) and Assembly of Leaders (AOL). Each one had a special focus and work to accomplish. I give thanks that I have been able to serve the Lord as junior pastoral counselor of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League. What a blessing this has been for me and how it has pushed me to grow in faith and service to the Lord.

Pastor Bob Mundahl, senior pastoral counselor, has challenged me to lose 20 pounds by the time we have the Board of Directors (BOD) meeting in later January. I accepted that challenge. Now comes the hard part, to accomplish it. 2 months, 10 pounds a month, during the holiday season. Am I crazy? Penny bakes so many wonderful Christmas cookies. How will I lose weight when I have a wife who bakes such great things? It will take discipline and hard work to accomplish this feat. Oh yes, we have committed ourselves to giving $10 a pound that we lose - to the mites of the LWML.

Here is a challenge for you. Would you join in supporting the mission of the LWML at this time. How about you commit yourself to giving a certain amount over and above your regular mite offering, a certain amount per pound that I lose. $1 a pound, $5 a pound, whatever you are able to do. This in not a requirement but something that you might want to do. I will also put this challenge out on Facebook, to see if we can raise more for the mites of the National LWML so that we can reach our mite goal of this biennium.

We wait to see if it will snow today. I hope it does. Penny and I love snow. We like to see it coming down, to see the landscape turn white. If only we could have it snow just on the grass and trees and avoid the roads, wouldn't that be grand? And wouldn't it be even better if it could snow when it was around 50 degrees rather than under 32? Is that too much to ask? Well, maybe it is too much to ask. I guess we must accept the laws of nature that the Lord has put into place.

Whatever - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

For all the saints...

All Saints' Day. November 1st is the day when we remember those dearly departed who have entered into their eternal rest. It is a day that has really disappeared from the thoughts of folks, Christian folks. The focus is on Halloween, All Saints' Eve, Hallowed Eve.

I find that to be amazing. Why? We, Christians, have lost the focus of that which is to come for us - life eternal in heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For that is what All Saints' Day reminds us of - the fact that as we remain in faith, believing in Jesus as our Savior, we will go to heaven for eternity. This world, this world in which we live and breath and work, is but a temporary place. When our Lord Jesus comes on the Last Day, this world, this universe, will cease to exit. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, whatever that truly means. I know, we have ideas about what it means, as theologians, we come up with our best explanation, using Scripture to give us parts of what it means, but in the end, all we know is that the current earth will be no more and there will be a new life, a new place, which will be perfect, holy, just as our Lord Jesus Christ is holy. Now, before we get into a discussion of what Jesus means when He talks about heaven, eternity, let's agree that we know it is coming, it is perfect but in the end, we really can't understand it.

Stop for a moment and think about that loved one who has passed away, either recently or in the years gone by. Who is it? What was their relationship with you? What was their relationship with the Lord? That last question becomes the important one. What was their relationship with the Lord? Strong faith? Weak faith? A faith that held to Christ in the midst of pain and suffering? A faith that was there when needed but was struggling through the mundane days of life? It doesn't matter. Was there faith? Did they believe in Jesus as their Savior?

Faith of a child - that is all it takes. The faith that says, "Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ as my only Savior." That is what it is about, not how much faith, how strong faith. But a faith in Christ. Period. Actions that follow the faith are wonderful. But they don't save. Remember yesterday, Reformation day? Justification by grace through faith? The hallmark of Scripture? Salvation is a gift to those who believe. It is not earned by how much you do. Grace. Period. Did he/she believe? Yes, then they are saved. They have eternal life.

They are one of those that we sing, "For all the saints, who from their labors rest..." They are one of those in the white robes before the throne that John sees in Revelation 7. All praise to God for the salvation He gives through His Son.

All Saints' Day is a day of the proclamation of God's grace and mercy. It is a day in which we say, "Thanks be to God that He saved that person." That person, your loved one, your friend, did not save themselves. They did not get themselves into heaven by being faithful or by doing the right thing. They were saved by grace through faith. All Saints' Day reminds us that God saves. That He gives eternal life. That He is the One who takes sinners and makes them saints, gives them life eternal.

I think of my loved ones who died in faith. I rejoice for them. For they have received the crown of eternal life. One day, through Christ, I too will enter into heaven. One day, this heart will stop, this life on earth will cease, and I will begin life eternal with my Savior. Until then, I confess that Jesus is my Lord. And I thank Him for saving those who have gone before me.

A blessed and happy All Saints' Day.