5-1-2014

 Good Morning All,

          Jeremiah 29:11; ”For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

     If you receive an ad or an offer in the mail in which you can buy something you need for a discounted price, do you take full advantage of the offer or not?  If you get the chance to buy 10 gallons of gasoline for $2.00 a gallon, would you buy all 10 gallons or would you only buy 5 gallons?  It may seem like a silly question yet, is it?  If you had in your possession a winning lottery ticket, would you settle for less than the full amount that you were entitled to?  Again, it sounds silly, but is it?

    Yet so often that is what we do with our faith.  We take just a little and live with it rather than live it. We go to church, most of the time anyway.  We go to a Bible Study class, once in a while.  We may even read the Bible on our own, if the satellite TV isn’t working right.  We pray, when all else has been done.  We believe that God forgives our sins but we don’t let it or maybe don’t want it to change our lives.

    God has a great and wonderful life planned out for you.  He gives us all we need to live it and live it to the fullest that he gives us.  Jesus told his disciples that he came to give life and give it abundantly; yet too often we only take advantage of a portion of it.  We fail to grab onto the wonderful life of love that he gives to us.  We hold back, thinking that the things of this world are so wonderful and, like a moth gets drawn to the flame, it entices us until we get burned, sometimes seriously burned. 

    God gives us the gift of life eternal and with that we need to understand that our life here on earth is but a twinkling of the eye when measured against eternity.  Yet he gives us the tools to face this life.  He gives us his Word both spoken and then the held and eaten Word.  Jesus nourishes us with his precious body and blood.  We have the adoption of sons of God.  We can call upon his name for hope, for comfort, for direction, for peace or for any one of a myriad of things that we need to support this body and life.  God gives us all we need, he gives us the desire to trust in his promise but we have to trust that promise.  When we hold back, we lose.  When we hold back, we are showing a weakening of faith and it is faith that truly makes us strong.

    So pray for faith and more faith.  Use the tools that God gives you.  Go to worship and really listen and experience God’s love spoken to you.  You can hear it in the hymns, you can hear it in the liturgy, you can hear it in the absolution, you can hear it in the sermon, you can taste it in the sacrament.  You can hear the voices join together in God’s praise and then you can take it with you and use it throughout the rest of the week.  God has great plans for you; grab them and live!!

Father of all grace, you give us life.  You have wondrous plans for us to give us life and hope.  Guide us by your Spirit to live that life in faith that we may enjoy the sweetness of your love.  Be with those who are lost and missing the tenderness of your mercy.  Bring them home safely.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen  

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret