who has qualified you

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-14 ESV)

The author of Colossians tells us as Paul does at the beginning of most of his letters that he is praying for the community. This letter says that from the day they heard that Christ/the Holy Spirit had come to them they were praying for them. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know that people are praying for you? Even if you don’t know it at the time, but find out later that people were praying for you during a time of trial, or just any time makes a sort of warm fuzzy feeling well up inside of you (at least it does me). And I believe that there are people praying for all of us every moment of every day. Anytime we pray that God’s will be done, we are praying for all of the children of God and all those who still are seeking where they belong… God is doing wonderful things in and through His people when they pray.

But then if others are praying for you, are you praying for others? And when you are praying for others how are you doing that? I mean really who qualified you to be able to pray in the first place?

Did you see what the author of Colossians said? “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father,…” They are praying that the Lord would give the believers strength with power and might and that they might have endurance and patient in all things with joy and always giving thanks to God. Power, might, strength, endurance, patient, joy are wonderful attributes and are reasons to give God thanks, but the real reason in my mind is what follows this and this is also what qualifies you to be who you are and a child of God. “…who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” You see God, the Father, has qualified you to be a part of the inheritance, and He has delivered you from darkness and given you redemption and forgiven your sins!

He has qualified you to share the good news and to build up the saints!

So pray hard saint of God we all need it!

Lost Sheep…

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:1-7 ESV)

We talk about Jesus telling this story all the time and about the sheep the shepherd goes looking for, but what about those the shepherd left behind? Here in Luke the 99 are left in the open country, where predators can get them and the one who protects them is not to be found. They can get into all kinds of trouble and follow each other off a cliff… Jesus says the shepherd leaves the sheep in the open to go and look for the one that is missing. They are left in community, but unprotected by the shepherd. They have to look out for each other.

This story is the first in a chapter filled with stories of lost things, but it is not really about the lost things. Or about those who need to repent repenting. Not that we all do not need to repent, but I do not think this chapter is about the lost things. This first story is not about the sheep that is lost. I mean really how does a sheep repent if it is about the lost thing repenting?

So how does a sheep repent…

They say “I’m sorry I’ve been baaaaad…”

And the next story in the chapter is about the woman who has 10 coins and loses 1 of them and she tears the house apart looking for it. If this is a story about the lost repenting how does the coin repent?

They say, “I promise I’ll change!”

Neither of these stories is about the lost item repenting. They are about the person who has lost them searching for them. Risking everything or staying up all night and moving everything and doing everything possible to find that thing that was lost. It is not about the item repenting.

And the third story in chapter 15 you may know as the prodigal son…

Again this is not a story about the son repenting, or being lost. Yes the son repents and is lost, but that is not the story…

I mean does the story start ‘there was a boy who had a brother and a father…’

No the story starts ‘there was a man who had two sons…’

The story is about the father! It is not the story of the prodigal son, but it is the story of the loving father who goes to great lengths to search out the son he had lost!

So worry not lost sheep, God your heavenly father is searching for you, and all you need to do is turn around and he will be right behind you waiting to welcome you home.

goodness and beauty are his…

Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar. On that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.

Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to everyone. For the teraphim utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams, and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they suffer for lack of a shepherd. (Zechariah 9:14-10:2)

What has the Lord done for you?

Or maybe a better question is what hasn’t the Lord done for you?

Yet even though He has given everything for us, and given us everything we have and need (not want but need), we still wander through life a s a people as a flock without a shepherd. But the Lord gives us rain for the field and the grain of the field to everyone! Everyone gets to eat the bounty of His good work.

We are the jewels of His crown and we will shine in His land forever. (And remember forever is a very long time!) We will be the shining jewels that He treasures for all time in the land He is going to inhabit with us. So always remember that you are His and you are treasured by him as a precious stone that could never be replaced.

He wants to be your shepherd and fulfill your needs in this life, just cling to Him and allow Him to be your shepherd.

Forever

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:1-5 ESV)

Forever is a mighty long time!!!

We talk about things lasting for a long time and how long we have been suffering or dealing with things we don’t want to wish on our worst enemies.

But psalm 100 says that the Lord is good and his love endures forever! And not just his love but his steadfast love. Love that is not shaken by the troubles of this world or anything. God’s love for you will not be changed by anything that happens to you or anything you do. His love will always be there for you to see you through everything that will come your way.

So shout to the lord even in the dark valley because his steadfast love for you will endure forever!!!

5 Things Lutheran Camps Can Teach the Rest of the Church

Wonderful article on camps and how we can do what they do to help make our gatherings more responsive to the needs of the communities we are in…

geoff sinibaldo's avatarsinibaldo.wordpress.com

I love camp. I truly do. I spent five summers in the midst of college and seminary on summer staff at Crossways – Pine Lake Camp in Waupaca, WI, (under the tutelage of Penny Christensen [current Executive Director of Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio]) and a year in-between college and seminary on year round staff at Lutherdale Bible Camp in Elkhorn, WI. I haven’t worked at a camp in a dozen years now, yet every summer I crave that intentional Christian community. Last week my family spent two nights among friends at Camp Calumet in Freedom, NH. In August both of our kids will go for a session of youth camp at Crossways (where my wife and I spent those five summers, and got married in the chapel). For years we’ve gone to family camp with friends at Luther Crest in Alexandria, MN where one of those friends, Dave Holtz, is the…

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Know leisure…

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 (NRSV)

Christ healing the multitudes

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. …

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Have you ever felt like there was no time for you to rest? Like the work was never going to end and even when you saw the end, that is when some one or something pops up that needs you to do another task…

That is exactly where Jesus and the disciples are in our reading today. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. They had no time to eat or rest. So when your work is overwhelming Jesus knows your pain…

Yet when we are ready to give up, Jesus keeps going. Now you might say that there is a difference between my office work and what Jesus did. Maybe…

You were given a gift to use for the betterment of the body of Christ, so doing what you do is what Jesus did. Jesus came to show us a better way to follow what God had asked the people to do yo be in a relationship with him…

So do what you do so the world will change! And know that your leisure will come!

Complain to the Lord…

Jeremiah 12:1-13 ESV

Righteous are you, O Lord,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O Lord, know me;
you see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because they said, “He will not see our latter end.”
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
For even your brothers and the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherously with you;
they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
though they speak friendly words to you.”
“I have forsaken my house;
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my soul
into the hands of her enemies.
My heritage has become to me
like a lion in the forest;
she has lifted up her voice against me;
therefore I hate her.
Is my heritage to me like a hyena’s lair?
Are the birds of prey against her all around?
Go, assemble all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled down my portion;
they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
but no man lays it to heart.
Upon all the bare heights in the desert
destroyers have come,
for the sword of the Lord devours
from one end of the land to the other;
no flesh has peace.
They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;
they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their harvests
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”

Complain to the lord surely not! Who would have the gale to complain to the lord?

But haven’t we all complained to the lord? Haven’t we all belly ached about or plot in life? Haven’t we all complained about the circumstances we are living in?

God is ready to listen to you to you complain about your life and give him a hard time. He is big enough to take your anger and hard feelings. God is ready to listen to you talk about the injustice you see in the world and the injustice you see in your life.

But be ready. God’s reply to you asking about why there is injustice and where he is he will probably respond where are you? God wants you to be the change in the world…

Seek God

Acts 17:22-31 ESV

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Seek God in the hope that you might feel your way toward him and find him.

Paul spoke to the Greeks about the unknown God that was talked about in idols around Athens. The Greeks worshiped the creator of the universe yet did not know who he is…

Now part of me has problems with this because I believe I am saved because of grace and I can not seek God to obtain my salvation. Yet that does not mean we can not seek God to grow closer to him. We can hope that he will find us and draw us closer to him. We can seek him in our life to draw closer to him.

We are his offspring and he seeks us and we will be drawn into him if we seek him.

That is something we are assured of and cab hope in