Christian Lessons from the Life of the Great Theologian Dr. Martin Luther

In 1501, at the age of nineteen, he entered the University of Erfurt — which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.[14] The schedule called for waking at four every morning for what has been described as "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."[14] He received his master's degree in 1505.[15]

In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the same university that year but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law represented uncertainty.Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel. Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason.

For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.

He later attributed his decision to an event: on 2 July 1505, he was on horseback during a thunderstorm and a lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to university after a trip home. Later telling his father he was terrified of death and divine judgment, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!"

He came to view his cry for help as a vow he could never break. He left law school, sold his books, and entered a closed Augustinian friary in Erfurt on 17 July 1505. One friend blamed the decision on Luther's sadness over the deaths of two friends. Luther himself seemed saddened by the move.

Luther dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession. He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul."

Johann von Staupitz, his superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career. In 1507, he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508 began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.

He received a Bachelor's degree in Biblical studies on 9 March 1508, and another Bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509. On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on 21 October 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having been called to the position of Doctor in Bible.

In 1516–17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to raise money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica in Rome.[1] Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man;[2] and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man.[3] The benefits of good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," which came to be known as The 95 Theses.

Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire." Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs." He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. He saw no Scriptural basis for the sale of indulgences. He began the back to the Bible movement that was the Reformation.

The 95 Theses were posted on the door of the local church and then were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press.[9] Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe.

Luther began the movement that ended up shaping of ideals of freedom and liberty that lie at the heart of the 21st century.

Martin Luther stands as a hero, the man who built the bridge between the two halves of the last millennium, the Medieval and the Modern. Martin Luther was born into a world dominated by the Catholic Church. For the keenly spiritual Luther, the Church's promise of salvation is irresistible - caught in a thunderstorm, terrified by the possibility of imminent death, he vows to become a monk.

Luther wrote: The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us...Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31).

Luther with resounding forcefulness in 1545, the year before he died, "Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scripture" (see note 5). Earlier he had said in his lectures on Genesis, "The Holy Spirit himself and God, the Creator of all things, is the Author of this book"

The Word of God that saves and sanctifies, from generation to generation, is preserved in a Book. The central part of our work is to wrestle God's meaning from a Book, and proclaim it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luther knew, that some would stumble over the sheer conservatism of this simple, unchangeable fact. God's Word is in a book, and as we study it the Holy Spirit in us giving life and light.

Luther was a great lover of the Holy Spirit. In 1533 he said, "The Word of God is the greatest, most necessary, and most important thing in Christendom" Cherishing the Book implied to Luther that the Holy Spirit is a beautiful person to be known and loved, not a buzz to be felt.

Prayer was the root of Luther's approach to studying God's word. Prayer is the echo of the freedom and sufficiency of God in the heart of powerless man. It is the way he conceived of his theology and the way he pursued his studies. And it is the way he died.

At 3:00 a.m. on February 18, 1546, Luther died. His last recorded words were, "We are beggars. This is true" (see note 72). God is free—utterly free—in his grace. And we are beggars—pray-ers. That is how we live, and that is how we study, so that God gets the glory and we get the grace.


FAMOUS SAYINGS OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER:

All which happens in the whole world happens through hope. No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he did not hope it would spring up and bring forth the ear. How much more are we helped on by hope in the way to eternal life!

Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see.

Christian life consists of faith, love and charity.

Faith, like light, should ever be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren

God writes the gospel, not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.

If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.

If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn't do anything to you, but since you aren't wise, you need us who are old.

Nothing good ever comes of violence.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

A wicked tyrant is better than a wicked war.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

Becoming a Fully Realized Acts 16:5 Church

As we work toward becoming a fully realized Christian church, which we call an Acts 16:5 church. we seek God;s guidance to those goals that God may have in mind for our congregation as we seek to become one with a dynamic vision. Dr. Stan Ott, our adviser for our presbytery, stresses developing discipleship, a missional focus, and an insight about friendliness and hospitality that is critical. Ott makes a distinction between friendliness and hospitality: "friendship is warm, sociable and pleasant" while hospitality invites people into our lives in meaningful ways. Hospitality is the key to keeping new attendees and making them a part of the congregation.

Ott urges us to look at making worship responsive to many needs and explore the importance of small-group ministry. Ott also advocates shared ministry between the pastor, the leaders, and the members of the congregation.

Ott offers seven signs of a vital congregation and six principles for going about the practice of vital ministry. Ott is practical and inspiring, hopeful, and confident that God is at work in every congregation. Ott urges us to use scriptural references that support the ongoing message he preaches to us about mission, vision, and God's presence in the church.

The practices of discipleship Ott lists are the "Seven Habits of the Burning Heart." These are spiritual practices that support and sustain the growth of disciples. Ott's habits are concerned with relationships, both with God and with others; well-being--spiritual, physical, and emotional; stewardship; and ministry and work. He reminds us that these tools of discipleship are the work of God's Spirit among us that forms Christ within us.

Ott recognizes that the church is in a time of transition today but reminds us that this is not a new state, that the church is always in some state of transition. Ott offers a very positive definition of transition. He writes, "But I want to offer a new definition of the transitional congregation--a church in transition to a positive, future-embracing vision that says, 'We have not yet experienced this congregation's greatest ministry. Let us bless what God has done among us and add the ministry we believe will touch another circle of people'"

Heaven is Our True Home -- What a Day of Rejoicing That Will Be!

Heaven in our destination when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior!In John 14 Jesus tells us He is going to prepare a place for us in His Father's abode, where there are many mansions. In John 14:6 He tells us how to get there -- THROUGH HIM!

The Bible is the most beautiful book ever written. It tells us some things about heaven and all are awe-inspiring. What a day of rejoicing that will be!

The Bible does not say a lot about heaven. Reinhold Niebuhr once said, "The Bible tells us very little about the temperature of hell, or the furniture of heaven."

But it tells us enough to get us excited. In John 14 Jesus says He is going to prepare a place for us. And LET ME EMPHASIZE THIS FACT -- In John 14:6 He tells us how to get there -- through HIM! There is no way that human language can capture the majesty and the grandeur of heaven.

The Bible does tell us though, everything you and I need to know. We can see great insight into the very heart and the essence of what heaven is really all about. Turn with me to Paul's letter to the Philippians, the third chapter; and let's take a look this morning at verses 17-21. This is the Word of God. Paul writes to those early Christians in Philippi:

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their physical being, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on early things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

There is a story about the two guys who were dying to know if there would be baseball in heaven. They made a pact with each other. The first one to die, he would try to come back and communicate to the other person whether or not there was baseball in heaven. Well, one of them dies; and sure enough the remaining friend one night hears a familiar voice, "Jim! It's Fred! I've come back to tell you whether or not there is baseball in heaven. I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news, there is baseball in heaven. The bad news, you are the starting pitcher tomorrow night."

What is heaven like? Probably a better place to begin is to ask ourselves the question, "Will we be ready for what heaven is like?" In the third chapter of Philippians, Paul has spent a lot of time talking with those early Christians about what eternal life in Christ is like. In verses 17-19 of our text, he hones in on the fact that the reality of heaven ought to impact the way you and I live in the world as Christians. In fact, he urges those early Philippian Christians to model their lives after him, and after other Christians who are living godly lives.

Then he warns the Philippians, 'Don't model your life after some Christians inside the church, who call themselves Christians,' but who in reality Paul says, 'are enemies of the cross.' These are men and women within the church but they are enemies of the cross; not because they deny the existence of heaven; but because they have been perpetrating a myth. The myth that there are other ways to heaven other than through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Friends, let us be clear here this morning. There is no other way to heaven than through Jesus Christ and his once and for all sufficient, perfect, sacrificial death on the cross. Not Ron Scates, not the Presbyterian Church, but Jesus says, 'I am the way. I am the road. No one comes to the Father, but by me.'

But there in that Philippian church, and in the church right here, there are those Christians who in reality are masquerading as Christians, who are enemies of the cross. 'Oh, there are all kinds of ways other than Christ to get to heaven.'

Paul says, their destiny is not heaven but destruction. Their god is their gut. And Paul says they have fallen into what we might call the Jerry Springer Syndrome: They glory in their shame.

If there is a just criticism of some Christians that they are so heavenly-minded that they are not earthly good, then just the opposite is true for these folks. Their minds are totally focused on this world. They have forgotten, or they have lost that transcendent vision of a godly, Christ-centered life.

Now remember that Paul is writing to Christians here. He is not saying that the way you and I live determines whether we merit heaven. No, not at all. You and I are saved solely, totally by grace alone, through faith in Christ. But what I think Paul is saying here when he urges them to model their lives after him and after other godly Christians, is that the way you and I live our lives here on earth, has an impact on us as we make the transition into heaven.

Think about it. If you are going to spend eternity with a God that you do not passionately love right now; if you are going to spend eternity subject to a God who in this life, you continually refuse to surrender all of your life to; then at best heaven is going to be somewhat of a wearisome place, if not a miserable place. Our lives lived here on earth are to be lived in preparation for life in heaven. We are to seek out men and women of integrity, and authenticity, and compassion, and courage, and faithfulness; and then pattern our lives after them. Seeking to live in ways here and now that glorify God through eternity. So ask yourself a question. Who or what is your life modeled on?

Let's get back to the original question. What is heaven? In verses 20 and 21 of our text, Paul gives us some great insights into what heaven is really all about. In verse 20, the first thing he tells us, he reminds us to check our spiritual passports as Christians. He says, 'Our citizenship, is not in this world. Our true citizenship is in heaven.' This earth is not our real home.

If you are a Christian, ask yourself this, 'Am I a pioneer, or am I a homesteader?' A pioneer is never settled. They are always moving on. They know that wherever they are is not their home. They are always heading toward a final destination. They are just passing through. But so many Christians have, in relationship to this world, become homesteaders. They have circled the wagons. They have sunk down roots. They invest themselves so much in this world, that they have almost totally forgotten where their true home is.

Where is your true home? It is not here. If you are a Christian, you are at best a resident alien. You are a sojourner. You and I need to remember that this world is not all there is.

In September when Anne and I are in Scotland, I don't think we are going to be confused about Scotland being our home. At every turn we are going to be reminded that we are tourists. We are just passing through. We are just resident aliens there, and we will only be there for a short time.

Let me confess, I like this world. I am in no rush to get to heaven. I need to be reminded that I am a resident alien. I am a sojourner. I am just passing through. This is not my home.

Max Lucado tells a story about flying home to San Antonio one evening and as the wheels of the plane hit the runway, he said all through the plane you could hear the unfastening of seatbelts. As the voice came over the intercom saying, 'Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the plane comes to a complete stop,' he said, no one was paying attention. People were already out of their seats, opening the overhead compartments, getting their stuff out. Why? Because they were home. Their final destination was not that plane. They wanted to get off of that plane, and get out, and get home with those they love. He said he didn't see any of the stewardesses having to struggle to pull people out of their seats, with people going, 'Wait a minute. I want to stay on the plane for a few more hours. The food is really good. These seats are so comfy, I want to stay.' No. They were home. They wanted to get off of that plane.

Why then, as Christians, are we so clutching when it comes to this world? This is not our true home. By the way, if you are a Christian when you die, where do you go? You don't go to heaven. When Jesus died He didn't even go to heaven. He went to hell. He went to hell to close the gates of hell for all who place their trust in him. But if you are a believer, when you die you don't go to heaven either. Where do you go?

Paul says that Christ one day will return, and take you and me home to heaven to be with him. If you don't remember anything else about this sermon, remember this. This is the most important thing about heaven: that you and I will be with Christ.

Join me as we pray:
Father we thank you that as we pass through this world as sojourners you are our companion, you are our pioneer and perfecter of our faith. We follow hopefully in your footsteps. Lord, give us a healthy appreciation of the beauty and wonder of this world. May we pour ourselves out, living for you; binding up the wounds of those who are hurting, ministering to the poor. But also may we be so fueled by the reality that this is not the last word. This is not our true home. We are here to do what we can. But our destiny is eternal life with you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and him alone. Amen.

There is a Heaven and There is a Hell -- Hell is a Spiritual Reality

Hell is a spiritual reality that can be countered only by the Cross of Christ.
Introduction

• Read Matthew 13:47-51 47"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.

• Jesus uses a commercial fishing illustration to teach about the afterlife: (1) there will be judgment for everyone, (2) people will be separated into two groups, and (3) the saved will be destined for heaven and the unsaved for hell.
• Jesus speaks often of hell, and other biblical writers do, too.
• In Scripture, justice demands a hell.

WHY IS HELL NECESSARY?
A. Its necessary for the devil, who it was created for in the first place-Matthew 25:41.
B. Its necessary for those who do not trust Jesus to pay for their sin-Romans 6:23 and II • Thessalonians 1:5-9.

Hell involves emotional anguish.

• Hell is like gehenna, the smoldering trash dump outside Jerusalem, and in hell, people will be consciously aware that they have been deemed trash--worthless, irredeemable, fit for no good purpose.
• Hell involves gnashing of teeth-
•
• Hell is described as fire, flames, furnace-a pain so intense that in the parable in Luke 16, a man begs for a few drops of water.
•
• Preachers of the past thought it was a terrible place to go. An example comes from the great speaker Gharles Spurgeon…

“There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have a real body, a fire exactly like that which we have on this earth except this: it will not consume you though it will torture you. You have seen asbestos lying amid coals but not consumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that it will burn forever yet without being consumed, with your nerves laid raw by searing flame yet never desensitized for all its raging fury. And with the acrid smoke of the sulfuric fumes searing your lungs and choking your breath you will cry out for the mercy of death, but it shall never, never, no, never come
•
Even Billy Graham is uncertain about the literal nature of hell being on fire.
In Time Magazine on November 15, 1993, he said, “I think that hell essentially is separation from God forever. And that is the worst hell that I can think of. But I think people have a hard time believing God is going to allow people to burn
in literal fire forever.”

A few years before that Billy Graham said in his book, “A Biblical Stand for Evangelists”,1983, pp 45-47….. “When it comes to a literal fire, I don’t preach it because I’m not sure about it.”
•

Be Thou My Vision: Having the Eyes of Christ -- Open My Eyes So That I Might Have "People Eyes"

The Acts 16:5 concept of looking at people as Jesus would see them, with eyes for people and their hearts. We catch His vision for helping and loving and nurturing people. We see people through the eyes of Christ, as people with needs to be met – physical, spiritual, emotional, social, relational – and look for ways to meet those needs in the mission of Jesus Christ in our time and place.

To see people the way Jesus saw them is to look beyond failure to another chance.
In a world in which it’s “three strikes and you’re out,” to see people the way Jesus sawthem is to believe in redemption, really believe in it, not just as a religious idea but as a fact of real life. To see people the way Jesus saw is to put hope back into the equation. Jesus saw people differently. And we, as new creations in Christ, are called to see people the way he saw them.

Jesus would have us look beyond the obvious and the superficial. He would have
us look deeper into the soul and spirit.

What do you see? What do you see when you see an autistic child? What do you
see when you see a homeless man selling newspapers at the intersection? What do you see when you see a poor person in the line at a food pantry? What do you see when you see a black man or Mexican man or an Arabian man? What do you see when you see a senile senior adult, once proud and accomplished but now reduced to repeating over and over, hundreds of times every day,“Please help me. Won’t somebody help me”? What do you see?

Or, more importantly, through whose eyes do you see? Do you see through the
eyes of a society in which worth is based on what one can produce or generate, and
therefore one in which there is no place for the non-productive – senile senior adults, the mentally ill, the unemployed, the poor? Do you see through the eyes of a selfish, greedy society in which hedonism, the belief that the satisfaction of one’s physical and material desires is the highest good, has become so much a part of our lifestyle that we scarcely notice it any more. Do you see through eyes that align with social Darwinism, (the survival of the strongest, the richest, the financially fittest), rather than Christ's law of love?

Or do you see through the eyes of Christ and the eyes a Christian society in which we have a sense of responsibility for one another, for people we don’t even know but who share something important with us, namely that we are all humans,that we are all people with Christ in common. Are you caught up in the radical individualism, or do you follow the teachings of the radical Savior Jesus Christ? Do you see through the eyes of the world or through the eyes of Christ?

The fundamental challenge for us as followers of Jesus Christ is to recognize that
if we do nothing, if we float along through life, we will see through the eyes of the world. To see through the eyes of Christ requires a conscious decision on our part, a choice.

That decision must be followed by a lifetime of being alert to the ways the world has of shaping our vision and a lifetime of perpetual learning what it means to see through the eyes of Christ.

May God call us to that decision today and every day so that the prayer of the
hymn writers might be our prayer:

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart...give me the vision you have for my heart!
Open my eyes that I may see,glimpses of truth thou hast for me. Lord, give us eyes to see the way Jesus saw. In his name, Amen.

Jesus Calls on Us to Help the "Least of These" Part Two

There are people going hungry in Africa and Asia but also right down the street. There are people who cannot heat their homes this winter and people who don’t even have a home. We will go eat lunch today but there will people who haven’t eaten since Friday. This is the last parable Jesus tells his disciples. These are the last words he conveys to them as a group. He looks at them and says that these people are our family and we need to be taking care of them.

We cannot forget that but we in order to do that we need to stop the judgment. We have a huge tendency to look at people in need around us, the least of these in our community, and pass judgment on them. We constantly pass judgment but Christ tells us to stop and have compassion.

Brothers and sisters, we all are sinners and the majority of us are lucky enough to escape paying for those sins for the rest of our lives. Instead of seeing the just the sin, we need to learn how to see the person, the child of God, as Jesus did. Instead of imparting judgment to impart compassion. In the parable, Jesus the king is the judge. We do not need to do that. He is quite capable of judgment. He calls on us to do the compassion part with the least of these, for Him in His Name.

When we start with compassion then we start to take care of those people’s needs. When we start with compassion we start to have a heart that looks like the King we serve.

Mother Teresa once said: “When I die and I meet Jesus I can see him upset that I judged too much but I cannot envision him telling me he is angry because I had too much compassion.”

.So what does all this mean for us as members of Burt Presbyterian Church? Well, one of our core values is acceptance of others and hospitality ot others in the name of Jseus Christ. That’s why we’re an Acts 16”5 congregation – because we as a congregation feel
that we should be a welcoming place to everybody regardless of race, color, economic status, letting Jesus tear down the barriers between us.

But it means more than that. It means that each one of us should take that core value of acceptance and love and try to live that value in our daily lives. It means that when we go out into the world, we don’t look at the world as a world of “us” and “them,” but that we look at the world as composed of children of God, and potential church members with us, either here or in other churches. And we respect other religions, too, because we with for them to respect us and to live in peace with us. The Bible calls on us to live in peace if we possibly can.

The church cannot preach acts of loving kindness to the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned and the naked unless it is composed of congregations of people who live out those acts of loving kindness in their everyday lives.

Those acts of kindness don’t just happen here at the church building on Sunday morning.

Those acts of kindness need to happen in our everyday lives, in our everyday encounters, when you entertain a stranger, when you refrain from thoughts of hate or ridicule, and stay away from those who say and do such things,, when you stand up for the rights of the poor, the down and out, those who are struggling to survive.

Judgment day is coming – and we must be people of the cross. And, God knows that a people of the cross are so much needed in our world in where fear of terror seems to be ruling. However, fear not, and see that there is much Good News in today's text. A final judgment is coming, and may it come soon. For Christ's judgment will cast out fear, and war, and terror, and poverty, and inhumanity.

And because that day is surely coming, we can continue to live our lives with hope. Having children and baptizing them into the mission of Christ, sharing with them the stories and the life of faith, so they might tell others that there is indeed a leader who is worthy to give our true allegiance to. And we may face death with hope, knowing that it is Jesus Christ who will complete the work of the Church and the mission of the Kingdom of God, and that one day, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be raised imperishable, to share in a new Heaven and a New Earth.

For we have faith in the one with the nail pierced hands and feet who walks among those who suffer, pouring out a promise made in his blood, loving all who come to Him regardless of their background – and one day we believe that all of the creation will be set free from slavery to fear and death.

Believe in Jesus the Christ, our Judge and our Hope!
AMEN! AMEN!

Jesus calls on Us to Reach and Help the "Least of These" Part One

Today is World Communion Sunday, and it reminds us of missions and the communion we have with Christians around the world – many of whom do not look like us or even live in cultures like ours. Our Scripture lesson today reminds us that all of us, all over the world, are linked by a love for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, which the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is all about!

The Scripture reminds us who is the one in charge, and it reminds us there is a coming Judgment Day. We are ruled by a generous, forgiving, loving, and grace filled king. That king is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is righteous and holy and we are not. And He is the mighty judge on the coming Judgment Day. And in this powerful parable He again tells us what he values most of all, after our allegiance – how we live in the way we treat others. Remember the great commands He gives to love others as yourself and to love one another. Well, he is always consistent – and He tells this parable to drive the truth home to us.

This parable starts on judgment but it then flows into compassion. The compassion comes when we learn what the sheep did to inherit the kingdom. Let’s be clear again, there is nothing we can do to earn our way to heaven but if you remember last week we need to live into our gift as well. In the parable of the talents,

Jesus reminds the disciples that they will receive a tremendous gift, the gift of salvation. We are told that we need to share that gift with others and it will come back to us with a 100% return. We can’t do anything to earn salvation but we do need to do something once we have. To live a life with Christ means you have to go where Christ is and that is what the rest of the parable is about.

Each Sunday, when we gather here, we celebrate the resurrection. Each Sunday is a break to be still and enjoy the presence of God, remembering the resurrection. We call it the Lord’s Day for that reason. We, as Christians, believe that Christ is all around us. We just need to have the eyes to see him. “I heard a story at the General Assembly from a missionary to the inner city of Detroit -- one morning when the volunteers who would feed the hungry gathered early to get things ready for the long line of homeless folk that stood outside waiting. Someone asked one of the workers to pray and she prayed, “Jesus, help me to see your face when you come through the line.”

When we look at the people around us we need to be on the lookout for Jesus. When he is talking to the sheep he tells them that they were the ones who had compassion on the least of these around us. The hungry, they gave food. They thirsty, they gave them something to drink. The sick, they took care of. The naked, they clothed. The stranger, they welcomed them in. The prisoners, they visited. They took care of the members of our family, the other children of God.

A professor from Utah State University has reduced the world’s population proportionately from 6 billion to 100 people. If the entire world’s population was 100 people then:

57 would be Asian
21 would be Europeans
14 would be North and South Americans
8 would be Africans
70 would be non-white
50% of the world’s wealth rests in the hands of the 6 US citizens.
70 would be unable to read
50 would be malnourished
80 would live in substandard housing
Only 1 would have a college education

We have to constantly remind ourselves that the world is a lot bigger than what is in front of our eyes each day. There is life outside Burt and Kossuth County and Iowa and even outside the United States and our television channels.

Lessons from the Story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well -- Breaking Down the Barriers!

We can learn a great deal from story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John Chapter 4. Jesus went to where she would be, He broke down barriers, and he met her need in spite of all of her previous bad choices. And then she became a very effective evangelist for the Lord!

In his encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus broke three Jewish customs: first, he spoke to a woman; second, she was a Samaritan woman, a group the Jews traditionally despised; and third, he asked her to get him a drink of water, which would have made him ceremonially unclean from using her cup or jar. This shocked the woman at the well. But Jesus tore down barriers between people, and he still will, if we let him.

Then Jesus told the woman he could give her "living water" so that she would never thirst again. Jesus used the words living water to refer to eternal life, the gift that would satisfy her soul's desire only available through him. At first, the Samaritan woman did not fully understand Jesus' meaning.

Although they had never met before, Jesus revealed that he knew she had had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus now had her attention!

As they talked about their two views on worship, the woman voiced her faith that Messiah was coming. Jesus answered, "I who speak to you am he." (John 4:26, ESV)

As the woman began to grasp the reality of her encounter with Jesus, the disciples returned. They were equally shocked to find him speaking to a woman. Leaving behind her water jar, the woman returned to town, inviting the people to "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did." (John 4:29, ESV)

Meanwhile, Jesus told his disciples the harvest of souls was ready, sown by the prophets, writers of the Old Testament, and John the Baptist.

Excited by what the woman told them, the Samaritans came from Sychar and begged Jesus to stay with them. So Jesus stayed two days, teaching the Samaritan people about the Kingdom of God. When he left, the people told the woman, "... we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." (John 4:42, ESV)

The Samaritans were a mixed race people, who had intermarried with the Assyrians centuries before. They were hated by the Jews because of this cultural mixing, and because they had their own version of the Bible and their own temple on Mount Gerizim. The Jews saw their religion as impure, but Jesus reached out ot them anyway!

The woman at the well came to draw water at the hottest part of the day, instead of the usual morning or evening times, because she was shunned and rejected by the other women of the area for her immorality. Jesus knew her history but still accepted her and ministered to her.

By reaching out to the Samaritans, Jesus showed that his mission was to the entire earth, not just the Jews. In the book of Acts, after Jesus' ascension into heaven, his apostles carried on his work in Samaria and to the Gentile world. Ironically, while the High Priest and Sanhedrin rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the outcast Samaritans recognized him and accepted him for who he truly was: the Savior of the world.

Our human tendency is to judge others because of stereotypes, customs or prejudices. Jesus did not judge people as a groupm but rather Jesus treats people as individuals, accepting them with love and compassion. Do you dismiss certain people as lost causes, or do you see them as valuable in their own right, worthy of knowing about the Gospel?

Let Your Light Shine So Folks Will Give God the Glory!

Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

Jesus clearly commands that the goal of our lives should be to behave so that God gets the glory. Live so that men will see your life and give your Father in heaven glory, not you. So it should be very clear that glorifying God is not merely an act of worship on Sunday. It is a peculiar kind of living.

Let us look at 1 Peter 4:10, 11. Probably no other New Testament book besides James reflects an acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus as clearly as 1 Peter. In 2:12, Peter gives a loose quotation of Matthew 5:16, "Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles so that in case they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." But in chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, Peter shows more explicitly what it is about the good deeds of Christians that makes them a means to God's glory.
He says:

We see in Isaiah 43:7 that God's great goal in creating and governing the world was to be glorified. That is, he created us for his glory. Not to increase the beauty of his perfections or fill up some emptiness in God, but rather to display his glory in the way we live and to win praise for himself, which in turn brings Him closer to us and His power more evident in our lives.

To maintain the honor of his name and display his glory—these are the driving motives in all that God does in history, in the church, and in individual lives.
At the end of last week's message two crucial questions remained:

In order for God to get glory from the way we live, we must be engaged in good deeds. It is not so much by avoiding gross sins that God's people display his glory, but rather in the pursuit of good deeds, acts of generosity, works of kindness, ways of love. Since it is God's goal to be glorified in his people, and since Jesus says this happens when his people do good deeds, we would expect the Bible to tell us that God's goal in redeeming a people is that they might do good deeds. And this is exactly what we find.

Paul says in Titus 2:14 that Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." Christ died that we might do good deeds and so bring glory to our Father in heaven.

God created us for his glory, says the prophet Isaiah. We bring him glory through our good deeds, says the Lord Jesus. So we are not surprised when we hear the apostle say, God created us for good deeds. Ephesians 2:10: "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Created for his glory, and created for good deeds, because it is by our good deeds that God gets glory.

One final observation from Matthew 5. It is possible to be a kind of do-gooder that brings no glory to God. There are philanthropists and benefactors and others who for one reason or another spend time and money to alleviate suffering, but who may not even believe in God let alone do it all for his glory.

So when Jesus says, Let your light shine that men may see your good deeds and glorify God, the light must include more than the mere action of the good deed. "You are the light of the world!" (5:14). Not just your bodily motions but your attitude and your motivation also. There is a spirit from which the good deeds must flow if they are to bring God glory and so be pleasing to him.

Remember: To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. AMEN.

God Is Doing A New Thing! Keep Pressing on Toward the Goal!

The prophet Isaiah quotes our God as saying: "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19)

The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians: …. straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

God is still moving, still speaking. Faith, therefore, should not be static either. But rather a process, a journey, a Way of life.

Isaiah proclaims: I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Or are you set in seeing and knowing God the same way you did five years ago? ten years ago? thirty years ago?

Paul writes: pressing (straining) forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Do you share that goal? Are you mindfully on a journey toward that heavenly prize?

In our prayers we regularly pray that, as a people, we might be transformed and conformed into the mind of Christ. There are many reasons, of course, to go to church. But the most important is that going to church makes transformation happen. In church we have an abundant opportunity to cultivate what Walter Brueggermann calls a “healthy imagination.”

There are, in our world and environment, all kinds of images and words, reports and data that can fill our minds and take over our eyeballs with unhealthy things that sap our lives. In church, we have the opportunity to engage our hearts, our minds, our souls, our bodies, in healthy and life-giving ways. Let us become the people God calls us to be. May we be transformed! May we know Whose we are and Who we are in Christ!

The Chief End of Man is the Glorify God and Enjoy God Forever!

“Enjoy Life, Enjoy God: This is Our Chief End”
Life is meant to be enjoyed. God declared it good. Yet we know that the wholesome earthiness of life is best savored by a robust faith in God through Jesus Christ. Healthy followers of Christ are learning to do both well: enjoy life, and to enjoy God…they are not in opposition, but inseparably connected. May you be encouraged in God’s love. Encouragement, at its root meaning, involves not only a pep talk, or pat on the back, but sometimes a candid voice of exhortation. But it’s all cloaked in the grace of God.
Acts 16:5 leader Rev. Dale Patterson notes that the Westminster Catechism, one of the great documents the church ever produced, is a series of one hundred Q&As. But the first question is the most famous:
Q: What is the chief end of man? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever."
As Paul writes: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” - Romans 11:36
In light of this truth, there is nothing that deserves our greater care than to fulfill the great end for which each of us was made—to glorify God and enjoy Him forever! ""Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4)

The Amazing Gift of the Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper is an amazing gift from God.  We are urged to do this sacrament in remembrance of Christ.

We Are To Remember A Suffering Lord - The blood and juice represent the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we partake of this observance, we need to remember the awful price that Jesus paid to save our souls. Please remember that when He died on the cross, He was dying in your place, and that He suffered greatly when He did, fie you and for me. 

We Are to Remember An Achieving Lord - As we take the bread and the juice today, we need to remember that Jesus Christ died, but that three days later, He arose from the dead. He lives, Matt. 28:1-6; Rev. 1:18!

We Are To Remember An Appearing Lord - After Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended hack to Heaven and sat down at His Father's right hand to await the day when He will return to this earth to receive His people unto Himself. Every time we take the Lord's Supper, we are declaring to a lost world that we believe in a returning Lord, who will surely come again!  And, if we really believe that Jesus is coming again, we will live like we are looking for Him to come back any day now.

The Lord's Supper service is sacred for several reasons. By sacred, I mean that it is to be held in high regard by those who participate in it. It possesses no saving power, but it is still holy unto the Lord. There are 2 basic reasons why the Lord's Supper is sacred.

A. It Was Instituted By Christ - Jesus inaugurated the first Lord's Supper before He went to the cross and He intends for His people to follow His example. It is sacred simply because Jesus set the example.

B. It Witnesses To Christ - Paul makes it clear that when we participate in the Lord's Supper service that we are declaring our faith in the death, burial, resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus.
While the Lord's Supper declares the faith of those who partake of it, it also points to the truth of Gospel to those who do not know the Lord. Every time we gather at the Lord's table and observe the Lord's Supper, we are serving up a witness to a lost and dying world that 2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus went to a cross and died for the sins of humanity, that He rose from the dead and that He lives today and will return for His people. It is a powerful witness.

When we come to the Lord's table, we need to remember not just ourselves, but also our brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling, Gal. 6:2. We need to consider those who are outside the family of God. Those outside the faith need someone to cast them a lifeline. God help us to remember this time is a time to remember and to repent.

We Have The Opportunity To Renew - The Lord's Supper service is a wonderful time for the child of God to his vows and his vision. It is a great time to remember why we are here. It is a good time to renew our vows unto the Lord. Many allow sin to creep into their lives and hinder their walk with the Lord. This is a good time to get al of that fixed up and get back on track with the Lord.

When we come to the Lord's table, there is nothing or no one to get glory but the Lord. When His Supper is received with faith and gladness, Jesus will be glorified, the saints will be edified, sinner will be evangelized and God the Father will be exalted! When we call to mind the price Jesus paid for us and the fact that He lives for our justification, it will bring us to the place of praise and worship.

Be Sure You Are Right With The Lord - If you are saved, then be sure you examine yourself and that you confess your sins before the Lord. He will receive you and forgive you and make you ready to receive the Lord's Supper.

Be Sure You Take It In The Right Spirit - Please focus your heart and mind on the Lord and do your best to be in communion with Him as you receive His Supper.  He did it all for YOU!

Random Acts of KIndness -- Spreading the Love of Jesus One Kind Action at a Time

  Helping others at the moment of need -- Do Random and PLANNED Acts of Kindness!

Nearly every day we encounter people that, for whatever reason, could use a little help. As Christians,we need to be prepared to offfer that help to others.  We need to be known by our love and kindness.

Suppose you are standing in line at a pharmacy and the elderly woman in front of you is checking out.  You can’t help but overhear the conversation.  The cashier tells the woman that the co-pay amounts for her medication total $60.  The woman hunts through her purse and says that all she has is $45.  She will will have to put one of the prescriptions back. Then you remember you have enough to pay for it in your wallet. You hand her the $45 and say, “I hope this helps.  The Lord has blessed me and He wants me to bless you!"

That is what the Kindness Project is all about; simply helping others at the very moment of their need.   It is a “Random Act of Christian Kindness.”

 Kindness is Love in action.  We are to emulate God: Loving, Merciful, Compassionate, gracious, generous, Long-suffering,  I believe the best word to describe the Christian attitude to those in need is love. Love.....your neighbour, your enemy, the LORD your God, one another, does no harm, fulfills the Law, covers a multitude of sins, forgives all. Therefore we should Love each other.. 1 Cor 13:13 "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." Lets make sure that our acts gain us treasures in heaven and that we dont recieve our reward in full now.

. Jesus of course told us to be kind, compassionate and loving. The often quoted verse of "Love your neighbour as yourself" rings in our ears and our minds spring to verses where Jesus heals people, or talks to prostitutes, or one of the other humanitarian actions he does.

Matthew 7:12"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.": Bracketed by verses 7-8 and verses 13-14, both of which are about becoming and living as Christians. Matthew makes it quite clear here, and throughout his whole Gospel that acts are a natural outworking of faith and that our acts should lead people to Jesus.

Luke 6:31"Do to others as you would have them do to you.": becuase (V35) it emulates God and (Vs 43-45) it is the outworking of our new nature. Following these teaching Luke writes this "When Jesus has finished teaching all this in the hearing of the poepl, he entered Capernaum" (7:1). Queue the first gentile convert, the centurion, then the widows son is raised from the dead in Nain of which Luke writes this: "They [the Large crowd] were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country."(7:16-17)  When we do good works we open an opportunity to share the Gospel.

Finally, St. Francis of Assisi famously commented, "Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words", for our actions often speak far lounder than words.  Do some acts of kindness today and every day, in Jesus Name!

We Reap What We Sow -- So Let Us Not Grow Weary in Doing Good!

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature ^will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Galatians 6:7-8

We will reap what we sow -- so we need to sow good, to sow from the Spirit.  And we must keep doing it!

In June of 1955, Sir Winston Churchill, who was the near the end of his life, was asked to give a commencement address at a British university. At this time he was physically infirm; he had to be helped to the podium. Then he held on to the podium for what seemed an endless amount of time.

He stood with his head bowed down but finally looked up. Then the voice that years before had called Britain back from the brink of destruction sounded publicly for the last time in history: "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."

With that, Churchill turned and went back to his seat. there was silence, and then, as if one person, the whole audience rose to applaud him. They rose to applaud him because here was a man whose life and words were together. During the darkest days of World War II when country after country was being swallowed by the Nazis, when German planes were bombing English cities into piles of rubble, when the threat of invasion seemed imminent, when even the hardiest of souls was giving up hope, Churchill never lost hope and never gave up. Also, again and again throughout his political career, Churchill had known setbacks. Three times, his career apparently over, he was sent off to oblivion. Three times he came back to lead his country. Here was a man who never gave up.

"Never give up. Never give up. Never give up." 

This is excellent advice for politicians and soldiers facing defeat, for students facing exams and papers, for athletes facing stiff competition, for parents despairing over wayward children, for married couples wondering if they should divorce, for those lost in the despair that follows the death of a loved one. To all these people I say, "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."

Especially, though, this is excellent advice for anybody who is seeking to serve the Lord and accomplish His work. In the Lord's service, it is always too soon to quit. In the Lord's service, it is never time to slacken our efforts. In the Lord's service, we never come to the point of giving up. Paul had this in mind when he wrote,

(Gal 6:9) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Whenever we are tempted to do less than our best, or perhaps to quit completely, we ought to remember this verse and the truths that it contains. Whenever we find ourselves getting tired of or burned out from or losing enthusiasm for the Lord's work we need to remember the words of our text.

A Paul speaks to us about our Christian calling. As Christians, what is our calling? It is "doing good." Each one of us is called to do good. That is what Christian life and service are all about. We Christians are not only believers; we also are behavers. As James puts it,

(James 1:22) Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

We are not only called to faith but we are also called to do the will of God and the work of God.

It is clear from the Bible that God expects all of His people to be involved in doing good. Don't forget, in our text Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia. That means he is writing to men and women, adult singles and young people and children, leaders and followers, teachers and students. To all of these church members he says, "Let us not become weary in doing good ..." Every church member is expected to do good.

What it comes down to is that all of God's people are to consider it their calling to do good.

It is also clear from the Bible to whom God expects us to do good. Did you catch what Paul said in verse 10? He writes,

(Gal 6:10) Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

We are to do good to all people. But it starts off with fellow Christians. It makes no sense to do good in the world if we don't first do good to those in the household of faith. It makes no sense to help out our unbelieving neighbor if we ignore our own family.

If there is any book of the Bible that deals with good deeds, it is the book of James. James tells us that

(James 1:27) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress ... (Cf James 2:15-17)

Our good deeds are not to be limited to acts of charity. Also in mind is involvement in the causes of the church and kingdom. I think of such things as being willing to serve on a committee or board or in a leadership function; being willing to work with our youth through GEMS, Cadets, Young People, or Church School; helping out in the nursery; using your talents in worship; leading a Bible Study, and so on.

When we do good, we are simply following the example of Christ. Paul tells us in another place to adopt the mind of Christ, to imitate His example (Phil 2:5). We all should know that Jesus "went around doing good" (Acts 10:38). He healed the disabled – the lame, the deaf, the blind. He embraced outcasts – lepers, prostitutes, tax-collectors (their equivalent today are those with AIDS). He made time for widows, orphans, and children. He took the side of the poor, the little guy, and the underdog against those who were rich, powerful, and influential. He fed the hungry. He befriended the lonely. He went out of His way to minister to the sick. He not only had compassion on the crowds but He also taught them. Every time we do good, we who are Christians are simply following in the steps of the Master.

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest pride.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for some underdogs anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway!

In other words, "Let us not become weary in doing good."
The last thing Paul speaks of is a promise. "Let us not become weary in doing good," says Paul, "for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

The image here is of a farm. If there is one worker who knows what it means to stay on the job, it is the farmer. He must prepare the soil, sow the seed, pull the weeds, and water the plants. He can never afford to give up or quit. Regardless of the long hours, the heat of the sun, or the cold of the rain, he must keep on working. And in spite of all this he has no guarantee of reaping a harvest.

The farmer has no guarantee of the harvest, but the Christian worker does have a guarantee. God promises a harvest to those who not give up on doing good. God promises a harvest to those who do not become weary in doing good.

B What is this harvest promised, guaranteed, by the Lord? Listen to these verses:

(Matt 5:16) In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

(1 Pet 2:12) Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

According to these verses something wonderful happens when God's people do not become weary in doing good. What happens is that people are attracted to us and our God because of our love for each other. You see, there is a whole world out there that is desperate for love. People are surrounded everyday by hate, murder, rape, theft, abuse, selfishness, and greed. They are looking for and crying for love. When they find it in the church they come to God in faith. The result: the church grows and God's name is praised.

In his sermon on the Mount Jesus talks to us about storing up treasures in heaven (Mt 6:20). When we do not become weary in doing good, we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven. By grace, God rewards us for the good we have done. He one day will say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."


"Never give up. Never give up. Never give up." In the Lord's service, it is always too soon to quit. In the Lord's service, it is never time to slacken our efforts. In the Lord's service, we never come to the point of giving up.


You will surely reap what you sow -- sow good!

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You can e-mail our pastor at: Pastor, Trinity United Reformed Church

Jesus Challenges Us to Love the Ones Who are Different From Us and to Love Our Enemies

Sometimes some folks who call themselves Christians spew forth a lot of hate.  Often it is just racism or its cousin radical intolerance -- forms of hate usually caused by fear and ignorance -- disguised behind a Bible verse taken out of context.   Sometimes it is a misguided form of patriotism that wants to keep others from enjoying the freedom we love so much, instead of reasonably extending the welcome that many of our ancestors received when they came here.

As my Native American friends in Alaska remind me -- all of us who are not Native are really immigrants, and many of our ancestors did not come here "legally." Likewise, many of our ancestors came here seeking religious freedom.  If we start downsizing that freedom for some citizens, where will it all stop?

What we need is that Christians, those who profess to follow Jesus Christ, should  actually put his words into action to guide their own actions.  Living by the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) and the Great Commandments (Mark 12:28-31) would transform our national politics and discourse, and work wonders in local situations.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:`12

^"28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"  ²⁹"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a] 30}Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'^{[b] 31}The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^[c]There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31

 Remember, Christians -- God first, country second. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, not a political leader or cable news pundit or television evangelist.  His words must light our path, not the glow of our television sets or our computers or cell phones.

Often the Bible is not mentioned directly, folks just allude to it, as if what they are saying the gospel truth, when it is actually just their own ideas shaped by the political winds of the day.    And when the Bible is mentioned, we need to make sure we are guided by the whole Bible, and especially by the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is in Jesus that the Bible comes together and makes the divine sense it is intended to give us.  Jesus is the theme of the Bible -- and He came because of love (John 3:16).

Often Christians are distracted by hyped up issues thar are used for political purposes, and that is not helpful.  The devil is effective at doing that -- and modern media and the politics of personal attack plays right into his evil hands. And when we let ourselves be distracted, we lose sight of the acts that we should be doing as Christians --acts of love in action.

The Bible says feed the hungry. The Bible says clothe the naked. The Bible says love your neighbor, not to persecute those who differ from you. ..Jesus tells us we need to break through the envelope to show love for those different from us, even our enemies:

 ⁴³"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor^[a] and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies^[b] and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Matthew 5:43-48

Love Extended -- Seeking Forgiveness and Peace

One of the strongest themes in Jesus' teaching is forgiveness. He certainly intends us to forgive each other as individuals. But he was often speaking of the community. In his community there were a number of people who were looked down upon. These included tax collectors, who were regarded as collaborators with the Romans, and prostitutes, whose sin is obvious, but apparently also many ordinary people who didn't have the time and resources to carry out all of the commandments that some considered essential.

Jesus spent much of his time with these people, reassuring them of God's love. However the people who are shown as responding to him are also shown as repenting of their sins. A tax collector who followed him, Zaccheus,vowed to return anything he had fraudulently taken fourfold.

Jesus seems to have accomplished what most of us find nearly impossible: He seems to have accepted everyone on their own terms, but also inspired people to change their lives for the better, without appearing to be judgmental in the process. Christians try to capture this with concepts such as "hate the sin but love the sinner", and "tough love". A more traditional description is to say that Christianity must balance Law and Gospel. I'm afraid that these attempts are not always successful.

Christians are called on to forgive enemies, both Christian and non-Christian. This forgiveness is intended to benefit both parties. In many cases it may win over the other person, and restore (or establish) a relationship with them. However even when it does not, forgiveness is important. Bitterness and resentment are two of the more destructive emotions.

Wars and fights and dehumanizing acts should be a thing of the past for the Christian.. Christians should be able to come up with better ways to deal with conflict. Peacemaking is a priority among Christians. We serve the Prince of Peace.  This goes for national events and personal confkicts.  We need to work for peace. We need to encourage members to study conflict resolution and personal peacemaking techniques.Love and forgiveness and peace are things that Christians must pursue -- and urge others to pursue.

Love is the Necessity of the Christian Life!

Jesus accepted the validity of the Jewish laws of his day. However he encouraged people to emphasize the intent behind the law, and to focus on their motivations. He summarized the law as love for God and for our neighbor. Thus much of Christian practice is focused on finding ways to show love for our fellow men and women on this planet.  How do you show your love?

Are you a person who acts in love, or do you allow the lesser emotions of hate and greed to dominate you and your actions?  Do you allow prejudice and intolerance to win out in your life?  Are you a person who lives in fear, or one who lives by faith?  Do you live in love, or do you live in racism and hate and gossip and the fine art of running people down.  Much of modern media and so-called news is not "fair and balanced," but rather is unfair and imbalanced and oozing hate.  Christians must rise above the culture in this regard.

At its best, Christianity has been characterized by helping people. This ranges from the personal to the institutional. At the personal level, Christians should help others. This includes direct help for friends, and participation in more organized activities such as soup kitchens and help for the homeless. At the institutional level, Christians have been active in creating hospitals, schools, and other institutions to help people.

The term "love" in English covers many things, including erotic love, love between parent and child, brotherly love, etc. Christian love can be modeled on love between parent and child and brotherly love.
We are told to love everyone, particularly enemies. It's useful to start by looking at what this does NOT mean. It does not mean that we will like everyone, bur rather that we purpose to act in love in Jesus' Name. Love is not primarily an emotion, although it often involves the emotions, and is supported by them. It is primarily a commitment to care about someone.

Jesus' teachings are largely a description of what love means. However the briefest and perhaps most eloquent description is from one of Paul's letters, the first one to the church in Corinth:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love is based on our status as fellow children of God. This means that there is at least potentially a close spiritual bond between all of us. It is a reflection of the fact that God loves us, and is an expression of Christ's love active in us.  It is also based on honesty and justice, on compassion and service.  It is God's hand extended through us as we act in love.

Expecting Miracles -- The Faith of Friends -- Extending Your Faith to Help Others

Two of Jesus Christ's seventeen healing miracles involve healing a paralyzed person. The healing recorded in Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; and Luke 5:17-26 is the first of the two. It took place in Capernaum, which Matthew calls Jesus' "own city" because it was His continuous home as an adult and certainly after His rejection by the Nazarenes. The miracle's focus is the issue of Christ as the Son of God, which is shown in an obvious and amazing way.  Friends bring a man in need of help to Jesus -- and Jesus transforms his life!

The healing of the paralytic impressed and excited everyone present. Energetic crowds of interested people pressed in at the door to hear the Teacher proclaim the "new" truths. The Pharisees, the scribes, and the common people were unaware that they were about to

Four men arrive late, carrying a paralyzed man on his bed. When they realize that they cannot possibly get him through the door, they carry their helpless paralytic friend upstairs to the roof and lower the bed in front of Jesus as He is speaking. Their determination to place him before Jesus displays their faith that he would be healed. Instead of being deterred by the problem of the crowds, they see the possibilities for solving it. If they could only involve God, they thought, things would go well. The persevering efforts of the four friends pay off for their paralytic friend as they help make possible his spiritual healing as well as his physical healing. Their actions are an example of the apostle James' statement in James 2:18: "I will show you my faith by my works."

Christ finds faith in the friends, and He honors their faith, rather than any faith the sufferer has. Of course, no one can be saved by another's faith. Yet, another or others can help him along to Christ since only He can deliver him from the bondage of sin. Being pleased with their works, which exhibited their faith, Christ responds to their resourcefulness and perseverance in behalf of their suffering friend. Their faith in Christ, then, is the catalyst in His performing this miracle. Our Savior works where faith is present (Luke 5:20). Obviously, He can perform His work anywhere regardless of human faith, but He often chooses not to act when people lack faith in Him, as happened in Nazareth (Matthew 13:58).

Hope motivates the paralytic's friends to manifest faith. First, their faith is a wise faith in that it brought the paralytic to the only One who could heal. Second, it is a persistent faith because it is undeterred by seemingly overwhelming obstacles. Third, it is a sacrificial faith in that it gives of its time and effort to bring the paralytic before Christ. Fourth, it is an unintimidated faith because it is unashamedly displayed in public. Fifth, it is a humble faith since the friends do not ask Jesus to come to him but take him to Jesus. Sixth, it is a loving faith because the friends willingly expend great effort to get him real help. Finally, it is an active faith in that they take the man to Christ rather than sit around complaining and grumbling about their friend's woeful condition.

Christ deals first with the spiritual problem—the forgiveness of sins—and then the physical problem—the physical affliction. Most people want it the other way around, putting greater emphasis on healing the physical ailment than fixing the spiritual problem. Solomon gives us the answer to which is more important: "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?" (Proverbs 18:14). From God's perfect perspective, spiritual needs are always more critical than physical ones (Mark 8:36), so in this miracle, forgiveness precedes healing.

Jesus tells the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." Seeing his friends' faith, Jesus' first words to the paralytic offer simple encouragement: "Be of good cheer." His comforting support refers directly to the forgiveness of the sufferer's sins. The paralytic, troubled by sin that had caused or was causing his suffering, now had reason for optimism. Having our sins forgiven always brings a deep relief and joy, even if the physical affliction is not healed. David's psalm on the joy of forgiveness speaks of this satisfying comfort: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2).

Now let us look at what the friends did for their paralyzed friend -- According to our text for today, Jesus had a house there in that village. In the story for today, four friends dug through the roof of Jesus’ house and lowered their friend on at mat into the house. Remember the word, “dug.” The friends DUG a hole through the roof.  Sometimes we must dig through barriers in order to help folks to see Jesus, to get close to Jesus.  It is in his presence that healing comes!

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL is important, too!

A SECRET: Attending a Sunday School class is the best way to get involved in the Life of our church and grow closer to God and to other Christians!


There is no better way to become an integral part of our wonderful church family than to attend Adult Sunday School – we have marvelous teachers and a great way of studying the Bible. A weekly small-group Bible study like Sunday School is where you meet people and interact with them as you study God's Word together. This is where masks come off and accountability is shared. It's where burdens are divided and joys are multiplied. It's where we get to know each other well enough to encourage each other to develop and use our spiritual gifts. None of this can happen in a corporate worship service because we experience little or no interaction with other Christians as we sit in these chairs and sing or listen to sermons. Worship is key, for sure, but it needs to be coupled with Sunday School for Christians to grow richly in God.

Well, the sad truth is in these "less is better" days many Christians only attend worship-they never join a Sunday School Class and so they miss out! They never really taste the church because you can only do that by being involved in a small group of Christians with whom you meet to study the Bible on a weekly basis. Someone once wisely said, there are two things you can't do alone: be married and be a Christian-and they were so right because to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ we need interaction with other Christians. Proverbs 27:17 refers to this principle when it says, "As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another."

Sunday School works because each week you spend an hour together studying God's Word-you also meet for fellowship. So if you're not involved in the Sunday School class I would encourage you to join it. I know I am somewhat biased but we have WONDERFUL teachers with fine spiritual depth and instructional capability.. They will stretch you and guide you such that you grow closer to Jesus than you have ever been. Plus-attending their classes will enable you to really get to know this church family. I promise, attending Sunday School will be more than worth the hour it costs you each week. You may say, "Well, Pastor Glenn, worship is enough or me. I mean I just love the music and your sermons." And you can say that as much as you want but I would reply, "! Come to Sunday School and give God another hour of your life. He will multiply it back with many blessings.. There is no better way to do so!"

THE AMAZING IMPORTANCE OF SUNDAY SCHOOL – Read What God Did!

Sunday School is important. A Sunday School teacher has a powerful influence for as Jesus said in Luke 6:40, "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." A teacher then becomes a role model for his or her students-talk about influence!

How many of you have heard of a man named Edward Kimball? Well, if you haven't don't feel to bad because he lived over a hundred years ago and his name does not appear in any history books that I know of mainly because most historians would say that Mr. Kimball never did anything that was all that newsworthy. He was just a "simple" Sunday School teacher in Chicago who taught a class full of teenage boys. Well one day he got a new student-a country boy who didn't know the ways of the city or of the church. When he first came to his class, Edward Kimball handed him a Bible and asked him to turn to the Gospel of John but the country boy didn't know how to find the Gospel of John.

Edward Kimball realized how little the boy knew so he ignored the snickering of the other boys, opened the Bible to the Gospel of John and handed it back. When he asked the boys to take turns reading the Scripture, the country boy always fumbled along. But Edward Kimball saw possibilities in the boy. He worked with him, and after a few months he went down to the store where the boy was working, into the back room where he was stacking boxes, and led the boy whose name was Dwight to embrace a personal faith in Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of a great, marvelous thing that God was doing!

That was the beginning of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody, one of this continent's greatest evangelists during the last century. But that's not the end of the story. You see, Moody, whose international speaking took him to the British Isles, once preached in a little chapel there pastored by a young man named Frederic Meyer. In his sermon Moody told an emotionally charged story about a certain Sunday school teacher he had known who personally went to every student in his class and led every one of them to Christ. That message changed Meyer's entire ministry, inspiring him to become an evangelist like Moody.

Over the years Meyer came to America several times to preach. Once in Northfield, Massachusetts, a young preacher sitting in the back row heard Meyer say, "If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?" And, that remark led J. Wilbur Chapman to respond to the call of God in his life. Chapman went on to become one of the most effective evangelists of his time.

A volunteer by the name of Billy Sunday-a famous baseball player-helped set up his crusades and learned how to preach by watching Chapman. Sunday eventually took over Chapman's ministry, becoming one of the best known evangelists of the 20th century. In the great arenas of the nation, God used Billy Sunday's preaching to turn thousands of people to Christ. Inspired by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, a committee of Christians there dedicated themselves to reaching that city for Christ.

The committee invited the evangelist Mordecai Ham to hold a series of evangelistic meetings there in 1932. And a lanky 16-year-old sat in the huge crowd one evening, spellbound by the (message of the white-haired preacher, who seemed to be shouting and waving his lone finger at him. Night after night the teen attended and finally he went forward to give his life to Christ. His name was Billy Graham-the man who has undoubtedly communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people than any other man in history. And all this started with the work of a faithful Sunday School teacher named Kimball.

So, you see Sunday School teachers have the potential to make an amazing impact on eternity. They have a unique opportunity to disciple people because they meet them one on one. They get to really know them and become a part of their lives. Might you be a teacher or helper?

Being a People of Prayer

Let us be people of prayer and houses of prayer!  God's help through the power of prayer is available for all kinds of requests and issues. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

If you need an example of a prayer, read Matthew 6:9-13. These verses are known as the Lord's prayer. The Lord's prayer is not jsut a prayer to memorize and simply recite to God., but it is also an example of how to pray and the things that should go into a prayer - worship, trust in God, requests, confession, protection, etc. Pray for these kinds of things, but speak to God using your own words.


The Word of God is full of accounts describing the power of prayer in various situations. The power of prayer has overcome enemies (Psalm 6:9-10), conquered death (2 Kings 4:3-36), brought healing (James 5:14-15), and defeated demons (Mark 9:29). God, through prayer, opens eyes, changes hearts, heals wounds, and grants wisdom (James 1:5). The power of prayer should never be underestimated because it draws on the glory and might of the infinitely powerful God of the universe! Daniel 4:35 proclaims, "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'"

Faith Mighty Faith!

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see," (Heb. 11:1).

1.Faith is an important word in the Bible. Faith is where the Promises and Work of God are made real to His redeemed.

A.Ephesians 2:8-9, We are saved by faith.
B.Rom. 1:17, We live by faith.
C.Rom. 4:13, We receive righteousness by faith.
D.Rom. 5:1, We are justified in Christ by faith
E.Rom. 5:2, We have access to God's grace by faith.
F.2 Cor. 1:24, We stand firm in our belief by faith.
G.Gal. 3:14, We receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
H.1 Tim. 1:4, We do God's work by faith.
I.Gal. 5:5, We wait for the return of Christ by faith.

2.What is Faith?

A.According to Webster's Dictionary faith is "an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence."

B.Though Webster's Dictionary says we don'tneed evidence to have faith, as Christians we do have evidence for our faith. Examples are:
We have the Bible: 66 books, 40 authors, written in 3 languages, over 1600 years, prophecy, and moral and spiritual truth, We have the resurrection of Jesus; confidence in His words, and evidence of God's truth in our lives.

The nearest definition we have in the Bible of what faith is is found right here in Hebrews 11:1

A Christian understanding of faith is very different, and John Calvin proves especially helpful in defining faith: "Now we shall have a proper definition of faith if we say it is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence toward us, which being founded upon the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ is both revealed to our minds and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.2.vii).

The Proper Object of Faith
According to Calvin, the object of faith's knowledge is Jesus Christ. He defines faith by proceeding to the center of a series of concentric circles: God's existence, God's power, God's truthfulness, God's will "toward us" as revealed in Scripture, and finally Christ. All these circles are implied in faith, but only the last is properly understood as the object of faith.

Calvin goes so far as to say that those who say that God is the proper object of faith "rather mislead miserable souls by vain speculation, than direct them to the proper mark" (Institutes III.2.i). Christ as mediator is necessary if humans are to know God. Christ is not set over against God. Rather, Calvin asserts, Christ is the means—the only means—by which we can believe in God.

True Knowledge of Christ

To explain what this means, Calvin writes: "This, then is the true knowledge of Christ—to receive him as he is offered by the Father, that is, invested with his gospel; for he is appointed to be the object of our faith, so we cannot advance in the right way to him, without the guidance of the gospel…The gospel certainly opens to us those treasures of grace, without which Christ would profit us little" (Institutes III.2.vi). Christ, who is the object of faith, is understood in terms of the gospel, which, in turn, is explained by reference to grace.

Faith That Pleases God, Part Two

YOU MUST BELIEVE THAT GOD REWARDS THOSE WHO DELIGENTLY SEEK HIM (Hebres 11:6)

Most people have been raised to not believe in a positive outcome concerning anything, and actually, taught to believe in a negative outcome. It's a safety mechanism that says, "Don't get your hopes up, so if it doesn't work out, you won't be disappointed."

There's no logic in that because you will be disappointed anyway. Now, it's normal to feel disappointment. It's what you do with the feelings of disappointment that's important, but that's another subject.

Beleiving in a positive outcome is vital to our success. If we could only believe that God has our best interest in mind and simply trust that everything will work out, we would see great results. Life would change in ways we'd never thought possible. But, most people just can't believe things will work out for them. They look at past results and judge their future based on their past.
s a fact that the best predictor of future behavior, is past behavior. The good news is, that your behavior is a choice. Your past does not have to equal your future! Just change your expectations and have faith.
James 2:20 tells us that faith without works is dead, which means "faith" is an action word. The word "faith" in Webster's Dictionary is also translated as "belief." So, believing is an action. And, it really doesn't take any more effort to believe, than to not believe. It's just an attitude.

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters."

The Bible is clear; what you believe is what you get. Jesus said in to the man who needed healing in Matthew 9:29, According to your faith, let it be done unto you. Faith is important. The just – the righteous – those made righteous by Jesus, shall live by faith it says in Romans 1:17, quoting Habakkuk 2:4. We need to live, we need to walk by faith.
Jesus didn't say we would see the manifestation of our prayers immediately. We must keep believing and not waver, "For a man who wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord" (James 1:6-7).

Expectation is the key to receiving from God when you pray! If you are not going to expect God to act, then don't pray at all. It's ineffective and displeases Him when you don't believe. Remember, Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God."

God will do His part when we pray, but our part is simply to believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him – and we must seek Him daily!/
The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.

Luther said: The true, living faith, which the Holy Spirit instills into the heart, simply cannot be idle. It must be used! A little faith in God will take your soul heaven, but great faith in God will bring the power of heaven to earth!

That is the kind of faith that pleases God.  Charles Wesley put it this way:

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to God alone;
Laughs at impossibilities, A
nd cries it shall be done.!

Hebrews 11:6: Faith That Pleases God, Part One

We have a great blessing – prayer. Prayer has power! It connects us with the Lord of the Universe, Jesus Christ. We are to pray, to trust and obey, and He promises to take care of us. Jesus taught us to pray daily (Matthew 6:11).


Does prayer actually change things? Well here in the Burt Presbyterian church we believe in the power and impact of prayer. How about you? Do you personally believe that?

The Bible gives many examples of God’s intervention in the lives of those who seek Him and trust in Him! Note the example of the prophet Daniel: "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days" (Daniel 6:10). Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, but God rescued prayerful Daniel and preserved his life (vv. 11–12)!

Your Bible also reveals the power of prayer. Many recall that Jesus’ prayer raised Lazarus from the dead (cf. John 11). But His disciples also experienced such power in prayer. When the Apostle Peter was in Joppa, he saw a dead Christian woman, much beloved by the widows who mourned her death. We read that "Peter put them [the mourning widows] all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, ‘Tabitha, arise.’ And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord" (Acts 9:40–42). Yes, the Apostle Peter raised a woman from death!

"But these were great men of faith," you may say. "What if I don’t have that much faith?" God’s Word gives us the good news that we can have faith. Your faith grows by hearing and reading and studying the Word of God (Romans 10:17)

We can grow in faith as we read the Bible. Hebrews 11 is called the "faith chapter." Here we read about the men and women of faith. You can have faith in God. God promises that if you seek Him sincerely, you will find Him: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

Martin Luther said: God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.

But first you will have to acknowledge the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful Creator God who loves you and every human on earth! We read: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:1–3).

Let what the Bible says become a part of your being and the way yout live:, Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is God, and a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. said the great theologiuan Augustine

Therefore, expectation is the key to receiving from God when you pray. Jesus said in Mark 11:24, Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.

Believe you receive when you pray! What good does it do to pray without expecting to receive? You might as well not pray at all, for faith is required to receiving what you desire.

Surely, God will do His part when we pray, but we must also do our part. Our part is simply to believe. So many people are busy asking God, but never really believing what they are praying for will come to pass. You can tell by the way they talk, or act. But the Bible says you must believe that HE REWARDS YOU WHEN YOU DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM!