Weakly or Weekly?

man-plugged-into-bibleWe are beginning into the hectic season of the year.

Fall parties, ok Halloween parties, just ended, or are in the works, and we are all preparing for the 2 months of the year we binge eat and go to so many parties we cannot get time to sleep.

And in all of the hecticness of parties and seasonal celebrations what happens to our faith life?

We seem to want to make it all work on the one hour we get in on Sunday mornings, and if we make 4 Sundays of worship, then that 4 hours out of the month will carry us through!

If we only got 4 hours of sleep a month would that be enough?

We need more than 4 hours of sleep to survive, now one could get 4 hours of sleep a day and function, but only 4 hours of sleep in 31, 30 or even 28 days? That is 744, 720 or 672 hours in a month depending on the number of days. And 4 hours is only 0.537%, 0.556%, or 0.595% of the month!

Is our faith going to grow or survive on a half of a percent of our time?

A devotional life, according to Frogs Without Legs Can’t Hear, is “essentially a way of living in the world connected to the saving work and message of Jesus Christ; the intersection between the eternal with the mundane in a way that personalizes God’s saving work and word.”

We need to be connected to God more than 1 hour a week, more than 0.595% of the time!

St. Paul wrote, “Pray without ceasing!” All of life is to be connected to God and that is what our devotional life must be.

If we are going to survive as disciples of Jesus, and grow in that discipleship we need to spend more than 1 hour a week with God. If you spent 1 hour a week with others would there be a vital relationship?

So as we dig into the busy party season, let us also dig into devotional time with Jesus.

Be on the look out for our Advent Devotional at St. John’s, and the picture a day Advent devotional I put together. And if you need other resources, ask! I would be over joyed to help.

And God wants more than 0.595% of your time… And your life and the lives of your family will be better off with more time with God also.

So Happy Party Season! And don’t forget about God, because He will never forget about you!

Did I not tell you…

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:32-44, NRSV)

Did I not tell you if you believed you would see the glory of God?

So do you not believe?

This passage pushes the limits, but only if you understand society and customs and norms of Jesus’ day.

You see Jesus knew that Lazarus was going to die, but did not go and waited to go, so that Lazarus would be in the tomb for four days. You read that right, go back and read it again.

Did you see Martha said, “he has been dead four days and he stinks!” Now I can imagine a sister saying her brother stinks, but the point is the four days.

And what does it matter if it has been four days?

Well in Jesus day the belief was a person could seem dead, and within three days they could wake up. But on the fourth day they were really dead. So Lazarus was dead and not coming back. That is why Jesus was not there until the fourth day.

And Jesus told the people to unbind him, to let him go. Jesus gave him life and it is the communities job to unbind him and set him free. Jesus gives life and the community sets free.

So do you believe?

 

Fortress

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the LORD;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.”
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
(Psalm 46, NRSV)

God is our very present help in danger. He is our fortress that keeps us safe in the midst of this world.

We can rest in Him, even when it seems there is no rest.

In the darkest night He is a light to our path.

In the scariest fight He is our protection.

He is our shelter and our strength.

Be still and rest in His might hands!

new creation

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NRSV)

We are new creations in Christ!

The old sinner has been recreated into a saint able to stand in the presence of God!

He became what we were to make us what He is, and in Him we are new creations.

So live in the new you in Christ and not your old self.

Live the life Christ has given to you!

nothing we can do…

saved-by-grace-through-faith-buttonYou were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:1-10, NRSV)

This is the verse Martin Luther used to talk about our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, and this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God, not because of works so that no one can boast.

And as Lutherans that is where we stop and we do nothing because there is nothing I can do to earn my salvation.

So we do nothing…

But this verse does not end there. And this verse is not an excuse for us to use to sit on our butts and not do the work God has called us to do.

You see we are very good at quoting Ephesians 2:8-9, but we forget about verse 10, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

Yes we are saved by grace through faith, but just because there is nothing we can do to earn our way to heaven does not mean we do not do works, because God created us to do His good works, which He prepared for us before we were created.

So go and do, because that is why God saved you!

sinner!

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:15-21, NRSV)

I love the way this passage starts, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners…”

We are fine the way we are and not like you thankfully!

Ha if only that were true!

You see we are all short of the glory of God as we are. We will not be able to stand by our own merits.

We will not be able to stand by our birth, our nation, our works, or anything!

We are justified by Christ and only by Christ.

the law merely helps us know what our sin is and helps us to know what is keeping us from being with God.

So do not think too highly of yourself, your works, or your birthright, but wholly and fully lean on the grace you receive from Christ.

can you do enough?

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. (Romans 3:19-28, NRSV)

No one will be justified by deeds prescribed by the law.

You can not earn grace.

There is nothing you can do to get into heaven, or merit the grace that God freely gives you.

It is not of your own works, it is because of the faithfulness of Christ to follow through on the plan that God laid out.

It doesn’t make sense and isn’t logical, but that is what it is.

You can not earn it. It is completely up to God.

So trust in the promises and have faith in giving your life up to Him.