Pastor’s Notes

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We were blessed once again to have worshipped in the Lent/Easter season.  To see the dichotomy between those who wanted Jesus killed and those who believed in Him as the Messiah.  Think what it must have been like for the people of that time.  Who could they trust?  Could they share the faith with a neighbor or a friend?  The disciples didn’t even know who they could trust as they denied and hid.

The news of our world has been filled with the death of Christians practicing their faith.  In many parts of the world – whom do you trust?  I read of a missionary on the border of China who also did mission work in North Korea.  Pastor Han ended up being murdered and the crime has not been solved or probably not even looked in to.

Mrs. Han was also part of her husband’s ministry.  She had visited North Korea in 1998 and had brought people rice that they had shared the Gospel with.  But in a culture where people generally don’t help each other without personal incentive, her act of good will was viewed with suspicion.  And in North Korea, suspicion leads to arrest.  She was arrested.  Held in solitary confinement for 60 days and continually interrogated.  After 72 days she was finally released to Chinese authorities.

The Han’s continued their mission work with Pastor Han at the front line of their North Korean mission work.  Some North Koreans that had been led to the faith were executed, arrested and never heard from again, or are still in prison.

On April 16, 2016 Pastor Han received a phone call and left around 1:30 p.m.  By 7:00 p.m. that evening they had found his body.  He was found in his car in a remote area near the North Korean border.  He had been stabbed in the heart and an artery in his neck had been slashed – a method commonly used by North Korean assassins.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world need our prayers.  Where atheistic communism exists, where the Muslim faith dominates, where apathy and selfish motives enslave, and where people turn from the Bible to their humanistic philosophies.  Then let us not forget what a blessing and privilege we have to worship in freedom.  Will it always be this way?  Signs point to the fact that it won’t.  Who will we trust?  Our trust is in the Lord.  The Lord who rose again so we might live.  The Lord who overcame suffering and death with His suffering and death.  The Lord who loves us into eternity.

As you worship never take it for granted.  The Lord gives us these opportunities in freedom.  What are you doing with them?

In Christ,

Pastor

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

Do you ever get distracted?  Some of you are thinking, when don’t I Pastor!  This morning I made my hot chocolate like I always do and I went to sit down and I hadn’t prepared my bowl of cereal.  What distracted me?  I was thinking about an editorial that I want to write to The Pantagraph.  Don’t be looking for it in the near future.  I won’t be writing it for a year and half from now.  God still has some planning to do.  Yes, we get distracted.  I write myself notes.  Some of you text yourself.  In our human nature our minds can wander even in a 9-minute sermon!

 

What about Jesus?  Did He ever get distracted?  If He did, it would be hard to find it in the words of Scripture.  He was the guy awake on the boat in the storm and in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The crowds or the Pharisees or the teachers of the Law didn’t distract Him.  Pontius Pilate and Herod and Caiaphas couldn’t deter Him from His eternal mission.  We would say He had a laser focus.  Death.  Dying.  The Cross.  The Resurrection.  Forgiveness and Eternal Life.  Before that the beatings and the mocking’s and the crazy justice system.  None of this could get Him to detour from the path the Father sent Him on.

 

Why?  Because of His love for you and me – the crown of His creation.  When He was tempted to take His eyes off the cross, He saw you.  He saw me.  He loved the whole world.  Nothing, not even the power of the devil, could get Him to waver from what He needed to accomplish.  The next time you get distracted, maybe even while reading this, thank your Savior that He didn’t.

 

In Christ, Pastor

 

Lenten – Holy Week Schedule

 

April 5                          Lenten Meal – 5:30 p.m.

Lenten Worship – 7:00 p.m.

 

April 9                          Palm Sunday Worship – Holy Communion in both Worship

Services – Sunday School and Adult Bible Class at 9:15 a.m.

 

April 13                        Maundy Thursday Worship w/Holy Communion – 7:00 p.m.

 

April14                         Tre Ore (Brief Service of the Word) – Noon

Tenebrae (Service of Darkness) w/Holy Communion – 7:00pm

 

April 16                        Easter Worship w/Holy Communion – 7:00 a.m.

Easter Breakfast served after the early worship until 9:00 a.m.

Sunday School and Adult Bible Class – 9:15 a.m.

Easter Worship w/Holy Communion – 10:30 a.m.

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

When Manhattan criminal defense attorney John Jacobs died, his wife, Marion Seltzer buried him with his cell phone fully charged.  It has been a few years now but she still pays the monthly phone bill and she still leaves him frequent voice mails.  Marion actually went so far as to have John’s cell phone number engraved on his headstone, so that people stopping to visit the grave site can ring him up and leave a message.  He, of course, never gets the messages.  The phone’s battery – not to mention operator – stopped working years ago.  But Marion is hardly alone in this.  Being buried with one’s cell phone has become commonplace in our tech-savvy culture.  It is just one more way that society tries to cope with death.

Jesus offers a better way, a way that works.  He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25-26).  Can we hear Jesus now?  Yes!  And forever!

In Christ,

Pastor

 

LENTEN SCHEDULE IN MARCH

 

Mar. 1, 7:00 pm – Ash Wednesday worship with Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes

 

Mar. 8, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal

Mar. 8, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship

 

Mar. 15, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal

Mar. 15, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship

 

Mar. 22, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal

Mar. 22, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship

 

Mar. 29, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal

Mar. 29, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship

 

The theme for our messages during Lent is “The Ironies of the Passion.”  See you in church during this penitential and humbling season of the church year.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Did you ever stop to think that you have the United Nations hanging in your closet?  I recently did laundry and as I was hanging up my shirts I noticed where they had been manufactured:  Bangladesh, Honduras, Egypt, Hong Kong, Guatemala, and Mongolia.  These are all brand name shirts from Chaps, Geoffrey Beene, and Nautica.  It was a reminder once again of how our world is shrinking.  I wish I could trace back where just one of my shirts came from.  What an interesting story that might be!

The Lord has brought us to this time and place in history.  Instant communication.  World travel.  Much of the world knowing English.  Our recent international student from half way around the world in Indonesia had seen many more recent American films than anyone in our family.  Yes, it is a different world from when I would watch the Olympics growing up and the only people speaking the language I knew were the people from the United States.

While the world continues its rapid changes, the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not change.  We are blessed with so many opportunities to share the saving message of the cross and grace and mercy.  Because of weather delays the Lord opened up doors for us to do this last month.  I just sent an e-mail to the Hilbert’s, Lutheran Bible Translators in Botswana that made it there in an instant.  They say letters can still take up to two months!

While some doors may be closing in our country, many doors are being thrown open in other parts of this grand sphere.  People clamoring for the Bible and the message of a Savior.  Men and women who want to confess Jesus as Lord.  Children who want stories about the man who walked on water and healed the sick.  We continue our prayers for missionaries and others on the front lines doing this work.

What might the Lord be calling you to do?  Now where did I hang that shirt from Vietnam?

In Christ,

Pastor

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

After the birth of Jesus, how did everyone leave?  The magi departed another way because of what they had been told.  The shepherds left singing the praises of God.  Joseph went on his way knowing that he needed to protect his Child.  Mary was pondering all of these things in her heart.

How will we leave another encounter with the Christ Child?  If no change takes place then we have missed another opportunity like the innkeeper who could not find room.

The guiding star was not meant to flicker for a moment into the Baby’s cradle.  Its light was to lead men to Bethlehem and Christ eternally into our hearts and lives.  The song in the air was meant to continue as we add our voices to the melody.  Christmas joy is meant to be ours.  We become a new creation in Christ each time we gaze upon the infant Savior born to save the world from sin, Satan, and death.

Christmas is forever because Christ is an eternal gift.  A presence to adore, a Savior to worship, the King of kings to bow down to in honor and respect, Son of Man and Son of God that leads us into victorious living.

Will you be traveling the higher way this Christmas season?  May the Holy Spirit grow your faith as you go to Bethlehem once again.  Returning home reminds you of the eternal home that awaits you and all Christians who believe in the “Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.”

In Christ,

Pastor

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Have you ever had one of those days where what you had scheduled gets changed but the Lord still uses the day for His purposes?

A month or so ago I had worked ahead and gotten my work done for the week because I knew I would be going to a surgery at the end of that week. I like to have a prayer with the patient and family and many times, if time permits, I sit with a loved one during the surgery. This particular morning I got a phone call that the surgery had been postponed. What to do now? Well, I had recently received some money for my birthday and I thought that I would go to the mall over the lunch hour and do some shopping. One of the few times that I ever do this.

I made a stop or two at a few stores and as I am walking the mall I pass a small store and it looks like it is someone I know. It is! I stop and have a nice chat and catch up on what they had been doing. Now this particular person was someone who had attended our church, had a death in the family, and then I had lost sight of them. I had written them a letter after phone calls were not returned and I was praying that they were all right. I was looking for an opportunity to invite them back to church.

That day the Holy Spirit provided it. In my original plans I was not suppose to be at the mall that day. Circumstances and God’s leading put this person and me in the same place at the same time. I recognized such as I walked away from the conversation. I chuckled to myself about how the Lord had done it again. He knew that encounter was going to happen even though, when I got up that morning, it is not something I would have been expecting.

Do you notice these same God-induced instances in your life? What encounter are you praying for with a person that maybe hasn’t come to be yet? Be ready because, like me, it may come when you least expect it. The Lord has a way of doing that, doesn’t He? Take advantage of the opportunity given knowing that our Savior will provide the words and thoughts.

By the way, nothing was bought that day at the mall. Something of greater value was received.

In Christ,
Pastor