Using God's Gifts

"Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received." 1 Peter 4:10 NRSV

We have all received gifts from God that can and are to be used to serve God and God's children. The Holy Spirit has not left anyone without at least a gift or two or many to be used for the glory of God and in the ministry of the gospel of  Jesus the Christ for all people.

If you are gifted with musical talents; there is always plenty of room to join with others in ministering through music. If you teach, we need teachers. There are also those gifts and talents that some might think have nothing to do with the ministry of the Church. But, you would be wrong. We need people to plow the parking lot so people can get into the church to worship or to study and hear God's Word. We need janitors and sextons to help with the general upkeep and cleaning of the property that God has given to us. The Body of Christ needs people who work well with youth or really enjoy visiting our seniors. There are those who cannot, for whatever reason, are home-bound. You can pray. You can make phone calls to reach out to others who may be alone and lonely. Not one person in the church on earth has been left without gifts or talents to serve one another.

May God help us to joyfully serve the Lord and one another with the gifts that He has so graciously given to each of us.

God's Peace - Pr. J 

Love The Lord Your God

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."

Deut 6:4-5

Lonely, frustrated, tired?

Thoughout my life I have spent a lot of time alone mainly due to either my husband's or my careers. I am often asked if it bothers me to be alone. The answer is no. I am never alone. I have lived long enough to know that there is One who loves me more than all others. He is with me always. He is there for you always.

When we find ourselves tired and weary; lonely or frustrated, there is one we can turn to. Love the Lord your God, who loves you, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might even when you think you don't need him. That is when you really need Him the most.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Matthew 17:14-26 - Mustard Seed

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt 17:20-21 NIV)

It is almost unbelievable to me that we do not have the faith of a mustard seed. I said, almost. The evidence is there. No mountains have been moved that I know about, lately. There are plenty of sick people to be healed, hungry to be fed, and a world full of lonely people who know no peace.

But, again, I said "almost unbelievable." Remember the story of the mustard tree? "Then Jesus asked, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.'” (Luke 13:18-19)

The mustard seed does not miraculously grow into a tree overnight. It takes times. It is more of a process.  A seed is planted. It is watered and fertilized. The mustard seed actually has to do nothing to make itself grow. It grows because that is in the nature of the mustard seed. Such is the Kingdom of God. All our hard work at trying to fix things and create a utopia here on earth amounts to nothing without faith in the One who provides the increase. It is God who provides the blessings.

Indeed, I have seen some pretty miraculous healings in my lifetime. I have seen things accomplished for the good of man that many would have thought were not possible. But, like the mustard seed growing into a full blown tree that will feed the multitudes of birds, so the Kingdom of God is growing. Slowly (at least according to our reckoning of time), but surely it is advancing bringing with it wholeness and peace.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Isaiah 58 - Fasting Is About Giving and Living

I don't know too many Lutherans who actually fast, today, except for many during Lent. We give up chocolate or soda pop or some other consumable. Some give up other bad habits, at least for the season. But, what is fasting?

Isaiah suggests fasting is not so much what we don't do (eat), but about what we do and ultimately how or why we do it. Fasting is not so much about what does or doesn't go into our bodies, but what comes out of them. Fasting is not so much about starving ourselves, as it is about giving of ourselves. It is about giving our lives in service to God and to others - dedicating our lives to helping other - to feeding others - rather than feeding our own egos.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,    and your night will become like the noonday." (Isa 58:6-10 NIV)

Fasting is about using our time and our resources to help our neighbor, rather than our own selfish desires, so that God might be glorified. It really would not hurt many of us to do with a little less so that others might have enough. It really would not hurt to give more of our time to help a neighbor in need... to visit the sick, those in prison, those who are alone and lonely, those in need. It would not hurt and we might even find joy in these relationships.

Fasting is not so much about what you don't do, but about what you do. It's not about living in the dark as you walk about "bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes" (vs 5), acting as though you are humble, starving yourself. Fasting is about living - living in the light of the LORD, rather than the darkness of world. It is about living, even in the darkness, as you "let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  (Matt 5:16)

God's Peace - Pr. J