5-14-2018

Good Morning All,

             Isaiah 43:1; “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

    This verse is a very common confirmation verse.  It is also a common “favorite verse” for many people.  When this verse is used for a sermon, it is common for someone to come up later and tell you that this verse was their parent’s or grandparent’s confirmation verse and that is why they chose it for theirs.

    Isn’t that the way it should be.  Shouldn’t the Word of God bring back good memories of loved ones from our past?  Shouldn’t the Word of God bring us hope and comfort at all levels of our life?  We spend a lot of time on the “biggies”.  We look to Scriptures for salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  These are the main points we look to and they are the main points.  Yet we live most of our life in the smaller points.  We live in the now and current.  We look forward to heaven and our time of glory but right now we live in this world.  We live today.

     So God takes you and He gives you the “biggies.”  He redeems you and calls you by name.  He solves all our big problems, we see this as his mercy.  Mercy, in the Old Testament, meant the kind of love a mother has for a baby or a small child.  But what about the little ones?  How do we view the little things in life?  What about the joy of true friendship?  What about the love of your family?  What about a Church family that loves you and cares for you?  What about the comfort we get when we read God’s Word or receive His Holy Communion or take time for prayer?

     These gifts are God’s grace to us.  Grace, in the Old Testament, refers to a bonus paid to an employee by his employer.  It is over and above and is unearned.  This is the part of our life where we often miss the “best stuff.”  God gives us these wonderful gifts which give us comfort and peace and satisfaction with our life.  It is these gifts that make our life enjoyable as we go through this life.  The gift of companionship gives us someone to share and enjoy life with.  One of my joys is watching my grandson grow but without a loving wife and a son who has a loving wife; this is a joy I would never know. He gives us these gifts out of love. 

    You are God’s redeemed child.  With this certainty, God chooses to bless those whom He loves with his grace.  He loves you because you are His.  Even in times of earthly struggle, we see God’s grace in action.  We see it in the cup of coffee with a neighbor or in the loaf of bread given by a friend.  We see it in the visits from friends or in the offer to help from those around us.  We see it when family and friends come together to celebrate the joys and to mourn the sorrows.  These are all God’s grace actively and aggressively at work in your life.

Dear Father, your grace rolls over us like a river.  We are covered by this grace our whole life and yet we often miss it and fail to use it.  Give us the wisdom to seek your comfort and trust in your grace to be sufficient for us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret