What can I give?

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, Look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk! And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:1-10 ESV)

What do I have to give?

I have nothing to give…

As I type those words I think of the story from Christmas, which is not biblical, but has taken the hearts of many, the Little Drummer Boy. When he is ushered to see the new king, he asks what he can give. And he has a gift. He has something to do that is a gift given to him.

People look to us to fill there need. They know what is best for their lives and they want us to be the one to fill that need. Does that sound familiar?

How many times have you gone to God and told Him if you will only give me what I want everything will be great? Now you may not use those words, but the sentiment is there… We think we know what we need and God like Peter says to us, Jesus is enough.

Do you know that Jesus is enough? And that God will handle every situation in your life. So trust in the life that God has laid before you. And give God to the world!

Who?

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:1-11 NRSV)

Has something ever happened in your life that you did think was fair?

Jonah went to Nineveh and told them to turn because of their ways and they did. Jonah did not expect this and was upset when God turned His anger into compassion.

Have we ever been upset about what God does, because it is not a part of our plan? But God created everything and wants everything to be redeemed, and yet we get upset when God brings in someone we think is unworthy.

Yet the old joke is true, when you get get to heaven and you look around you will see all the people you did not expect and they will be staring at you. You will ask St. Peter why are all of these people here, they are the ones that bullied me, and treated me wrong, they lied, and cheated me. And St. Peter why are they staring? Well my child they are as surprised to see you as you are to see them! God decides what needs to be done and does not consult with us, because He is in control and He decides who…

My Faith

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. (Luke 7:1-10 NRSV)

Have you ever prayed for something and not gotten it?

I think we all have. And someone has probably said to you, “well if your faith was stronger you would have gotten is.” And is that true?

We place a lot into our own faith, and the faith of others. As Lutherans we profess we are saved by grace through faith. It is because of our faith that we will make it to an eternity with God. But is is because of my faith?

We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is a gift from God and if it is a gift it can not depend upon how good our faith is. If it is really a gift from God it can not depend upon me or what I do or do not believe. It is a gift from God. Well yes but it is not just we are saved by grace, it is we are saved by grace through faith. Yes but is it our faith?

We are saved by grace through faith just like the faith of the soldier above, our faith is in knowing that things we were told would happen will happen. That the promises we have been given are real. The faith here is not ours but Jesus’. It is His faithfulness to follow through on the plan that was set forth.

So,let go of your faith and join the community around you in a communal faith given to usall through Jesus. And pray Our Father…

He’s got the whole world…

He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Let us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm. They were all amazed and kept saying to one another, ‘What kind of utterance is this? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and out they come!’ And a report about him began to reach every place in the region. (Luke 4:31-37, NRSV)

In the light of all of the tornadoes recently, some that have caused damage to property and lose of life, and some that have been occurring in places they do not normally occur, like Victoria, TX. I saw a funnel cloud here in Victoria back earlier this week. It was not a normal occurrence here, but what is really normal. We usually here when natural disaster strikes that it is the wrath of God coming down on this group or that group. Why does God never do anything that is good for the people?

Here in our reading Jesus frees a man from an unclean spirit. He releases him from the bondage that is holding him. A few days ago I got to see to picture of a miracle. One of my dearest friends had a baby. Well people have babies all the time, what is the miracle? This friend of mine was told at a very young age that she would not have children. She has lived her life thinking that she will watch those around her have kids, and raise families, and now in her late 30 she has a child, when it was not suppose to be possible! Does God do good things for people? Yes He does! Has He done something miraculous for you?

Well that is an interesting question isn’t it? We all want to see the big things happen in our lives, for us to get that big job we are going for, or to have a big family. We look for the big miracle every day, as if we are not seeing the miracles all around us…

How many of you are able to read this blog?

How many of you were able to get up out of bed this morning?

How many of you were able to walk to get a glass of water?

Just getting a glass of clean water in some-places is a miracle…

How many of you are breathing?

There are so many things that are miracles that happen in our own lives everyday that we miss because we are looking for something big. We forget that God created all of this world and He holds it all in His hands, and controls what happens… He has all of creation under control, allow Him to have control and live in the greatness that He has for you! A freedom from bondage, and a life you can’t possibly fathom on your own!

Sing His Praise

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. (Psalms 96:1-13 ESV)

With this psalm, the psalmist is telling us to sing the Lord’s praises every where we go for He alone is worthy to be praised.

But the psalmist also tells us not to do this the same way we have always done it. The psalmist starts the dissertation with sing to the Lord a new song… Not the same old same old, but a new song! We are to not always do it the way we always have, but to do it a new way, led by the spirit to sing about His love, mercy and grace for all the world!

Are you in your right mind?

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all,that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:11-17, ESV)

Have you ever heard the old saying that only left handed people are in their right mind? The right side of the brain supposedly controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, so left handed people are controlled then by the right side of their brain. But is that what Paul is talking about here?

We know that left handed and right handed people are different, they do things differently and think about things differently. But so do many right handed people. We all seem to be controlled by something, so what is that?

Our intuition, or is it something else? Some people are more passionate and artsy, and creative it seems than others, but they are not all left handed. We are driven by our inner desires to achieve something, be that notoriety, or success. We are driven to be the best we can be, and these desires lead us to follow our intuition, but maybe our intuition is not what we should be following.

Paul tells the Corinthians if we are beside ourselves, then we are doing what we need to be doing. If we are outside of ourselves, and allowing someone else to have control over our life, then we will be doing what we need to be doing. If we are controlled by someone else, not our boss, or our friends, or our parents even, but controlled by God. Not a puppet on a sting, but a coworker with God in the kingdom. You see it is like this cartoon from Radio Free Babylon:

waste the day

You see Jesus is always there. We are not left alone, and we can only be in our correct place when we are controlled by Him and beside ourselves. If anything else controls us we are not following after Christ, and doing our own will. So be besides yourself and allow Him to have control.

Level it out..

20130529-195039.jpgAnd Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (Luke 1:46-55 ESV)

This is a well known piece of scripture read every year by most people. It is the song Mary sings when she finds out she is pregnant and visits Elizabeth, or is it Elizabeth’s song… That is a blog for another time…

Today I saw brought the mighty down from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. God leveled the playing field in Jesus! Like it talks about in Corinthians 12 that all the parts of the body are equal, it is a lowering of the members we think are the most needed and a raising of the lower members so we are all on the same level. God has made us to be equal. No one is better than anyone else. We all have our part to play, that we need to play, but our part is not better than any other and we are all equal.

God made us and wants us to be on a level playing field.

Who is on your side…

20130528-185737.jpgIf it had not been the Lord who was on our side— let Israel now say— if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Psalms 124:1-8 ESV)

Have you ever felt like something was just waiting in the wings, like this tiger crouched in the tall grass ready to bounce and pounce upon you?

Many things in our lives are just waiting in the tall grass to jump up and over take us. So why don’t they?

Our lives seem to take turns and go up and down, like a roller coaster. For instance our finances have not been the best since I have been on leave from call, and this past weekend I went to get a tire repaired and was met with, the tread is to low, we can’t repair it. The tires in question should have had 40,000 more miles of tread left. Of course they can’t warranty them. And new ties that would replace what we had would be $240… Our bank account hiccuped at even the thought of this. So I asked about lower tread life, and that was $170. My bank account still did not like that. So I left that place and went to another store, and here they had a lower tread life tire for $222 and 6 months Interest free on their credit card. And we just got $220 for mileage to an event we went to for our congregation. I also had to replace glasses for me and 2 of our daughters and that was $150.70. And I had just recently gotten $150 for being a supply pastor for a congregation. Many would say these are coincidences, but I say there are no coincidences, these are Godincidences.

You see we re not given over to the avenger, because we are not to be prey, when the Lord is on our side. So who is on your side?