GRACE TO YOU
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:2 December 2015
“Can You Trust the Weatherman?”
That was our question on Thanksgiving Day. We had plans to go to Nebraska to celebrate our grandson’s birthday. However, the Omaha weatherman said, “Winter Storm Warning -- Freezing Rain will accumulate – Travel will be treacherous.”
What to do? You know the weatherman sometimes goes overboard, making things sound worse than they are. We called our daughters and the interstates were fine. What to do? Can you trust the weatherman?
In this Advent season, we turn our attention not only to Jesus’ first coming as an infant, but also to his second coming as judge. In connection with that second coming, Jesus issues lots of warnings – warnings about being caught unprepared, warnings about how suddenly He will appear, warnings about how serious it is to stand before Him for judgment. What to do?
What to do? Can you trust Jesus’ warnings? Yes, with absolute certainty! His coming will be sudden! His coming will catch many unprepared! His coming will leave many filled with regret!
What to do? Can you trust Jesus’ promises? Yes, with absolute certainty! Until that day comes, He will use His Word and Holy Communion to continue to nurture and keep strong that faith in Jesus that He created in Holy Baptism. He died! He rose! He forgives your sins through His Word and Holy Communion!When that day comes, He will save those who trust in Him!
Can you trust Jesus to save you? Can you trust Jesus to pronounce you holy and blameless when He comes again? Nothing could be more sure! It’s as sure as His Word!
GRACE TO YOU
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:2 December 2015
“What’s on Your Schedule Today?”
That’s an often asked question, isn’t it? We usually answer with our long lists.
What does God want on that list? Let’s review items that God wants on our daily schedule. This month it’s:
“Watch for Jesus’ 2nd Coming”
Mark 13:35 “Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—“
This is a big one! Jesus preached so often about His second coming. And in those sermons, he put an enormously high amount of importance on the fact that watching for His second coming must be on our daily schedule. That intense level of importance comes down to two things about Jesus’ second coming. Number one, it will be our eternal destinies that are on the line. Number two, it is a fact that He is going to come suddenly and unexpectedly.
What is the number one nemesis that makes this daily watching so challenging? Distractions! To put it more clearly – earthly distractions. Look what Jesus said in two of His sermons:
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. Matthew 24:38
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with . . . the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. Luke 24:38
What’s on our minds today? What’s on our schedules today? According to the urgent plea and counsel of our Savior, it needs to be and has to be watching for His second coming. For the world continues to sleep in inattentive sinfulness. Satan is powerfully and relentlessly using his last chances to lead many astray. In light of that hear Jesus’ advice:
But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:36
Heed his counsel and take comfort in His promise that you often hear in our liturgy.
And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
Watch daily and do your watching surrounded by the promises of Christ, that in your baptism, in your hearing His word of forgiveness, in receiving His precious body and blood, you are watching as one who is absolutely sure of your salvation in Christ Jesus, a gift of God’s
Grace to You,
Pastor Rempfer
Sunday School Perfect Attendance for November
Pre: Johanna Lesinger
1-2 Kaylie Wright
3-4 Cody Wright, Sarah Wright, Blaze Soquet
5-8 Blake Soquet
2015 November Financial Report
Income:Expenses:
Home17,189.80Charities – CJ Rempfer 630.00
Undesignated 1,101.35Worship 571.96
Missions 390.00Education/Outreach 122.36
Basement Usage 225.00Utilities 474.84
Poinsettia’s 360.00Maintenance 1,404.90
CJ Rempfer 630.00Missions1,969.25
Thrivent 101.00Office Supplies 208.82
Interest Paid on MM 3.11Salaries 7,935.37 Social Security 366.66
Total Income $20,000.26Total Expenses $13,684.16
Checking Account Balance $15,087.26
Money Market Balance $15,161.61
Respectfully submitted by Marilyn D Dellamuth, Treasurer
November Thank Yous
Thank you for your gifts to the Christopher John Rempfer Scholarship Fund: $630
Thank you to all who provided the beautiful poinsettias (35) for Advent and Christmas
Thank youthe 78 members who returned the stewardship surveys
Thank you to those who helped decorate our trees and put up our nativity
Thank you to Linda Vogt for the cornucopia on Thanksgiving Day
Thank you for all the donations for the Benton County Food Bank
Words of Thanks
From the Seminary for participating in the Adopt A Student program: “You are an answer to prayer! Affording the cost of a seminary education is often mentioned by students as the greatest obstacle to coming to the seminary. Thank you for standing with Mr. Benjamin Theiss in prayer and in financial support.”
From Lutheran Family Service: “Please know that gift is put to good use in our work. You have been a part of helping God’s Word be applied to individuals, couples, and families in times where they needed God’s guidance, comfort and encouragement.”
From Benton County Food Bank: “Thank you so much for the paper products and the canned goods. It is very appreciated.” Toilet paper individually wrapped or in sets of 4 and soup are always a need. Thank you again.”
Christmas Season Worship
Dec. 24thChristmas Eve Children’s Service6:30 p.m.
Dec 25thChristmas Day Worship10:00 a.m.
Dec 31st New Year’s Eve Worship6:30 p.m.
Please Don’t Say These Six Things at MyFuneral
(by Chad Bird – Lutheran Blogger)
There will come a day, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, when the man in the coffin will be me. I want the truth to be spoken, the truth about sin, the truth about death, and, above all, the truth about the love of God in Jesus Christ. So, please don’t say…
1. He was a good man. Don’t turn my funeral into a celebration of my moral resume. For one thing, I don’t have one. I’m guilty of far more immoral acts than moral ones. Secondly, even if I were the male equivalent of Mother Teresa, don’t eulogize me. Talk about the goodness of the Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the true faith. Talk about our good Father who’s made us all His children in baptism. Talk about the good Husband that Christ is to His bride, the church. Don’t say, “He was a good man,” but “our good God loved this sinful man.”
2. Chad…Chad…Chad. I don’t want to be the focus of my own funeral. I was not the center of the liturgy on Sunday mornings, so why should it be any different during my funeral liturgy? If anyone’s name comes up over and over, let it be the name that is above every name—Jesus. He is the one who has conquered death. He is the one in whose arms I will have died. He is the one, the only one, who gives hope to the bereaved. Let me decrease that Christ may increase.
3. God now has another angel. Heaven is not going to de-humanize me. In fact, once I am resurrected on the last day, I will be more human than ever before, for my human soul and human body will finally be in a glorified state that’s free of sin. People don’t become angels in heaven any more than they become gods or trees or puppies. The creature we are now, we shall be forever. God has enough angels already. All He wants is more of His children in the place Jesus has prepared for them.
4. We are not here to mourn Chad’s death, but to celebrate his life. So-called “Celebrations of Life” (which I have written against in “The Tragic Death of the Funeral”) do a disservice to the mourners for they deny or euphemize death. The gift of life cannot fully be embraced if we disregard the reality of death, along with sin, its ultimate cause. Whatever the apparent reason for my decease may be—a sickness, accident, or old age—the real reason is because I was conceived and born in sin, and I built atop that sinful nature a mountain’s worth of actual sins. The only person’s life to celebrate at a funeral is the Savior conceived of the virgin Mary, who became our sin on the cursed tree that we might become His righteousness in the blessed font, who buried sin and death in the empty tomb He left behind on Easter morning.
5. Chad would not want us to weep. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. Those tears betoken a God who’s fully human, who experienced the sadness and grief we all do at the death of those we love. To cry is not to deny that our friend or family member is with the Lord, but to acknowledge that in this vale of tears there is still death, still loss, still suffering. I do want those who mourn my death to weep, not for my sake, but for their own, for it is an integral part of the healing process. But while they weep, let them remember that in the new heavens and new earth, God “shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain,” (Revelation 21:4).
6. What’s in that coffin is just the shell of Chad. What’s in that coffin is the body that was fearfully and wonderfully made when our Father wove me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-14). What’s in that coffin is the body that Jesus baptized into His own body to make me part of Him. What’s in that coffin is the body that ate the saving body of Jesus, and drank His forgiving blood in the Supper, that I might consume the medicine of immortality. And what’s in that coffin is the body that, when the last trumpet shall sound, will burst from my grave as a body glorified and ready to be reunited with my soul. My body is God’s creation, an essential part of my identity as a human being. It is not a shell. It is God’s gift to me. And one day I’ll get it back, alive, restored, perfected to be like the resurrected body of Jesus.
Of course, there’s always more that could be added to this list—but I believe these get the point across. I want the beginning of my funeral to be focused on Jesus, as well as the middle, as well as the end, as well as every point in between. I care about those who will attend. Let them hear the good news, especially in the context of this sobering reminder of mortality, that neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord, for He is the resurrection and the life.
Parents and Teachers Working Together to Follow Jesus’ Command
Feed My Lambs
Grace Lutheran Sunday School
December 2015
Pastor to Parents:
“Occupied or Preoccupied”
“Occupied with the Word” is one of my favorite descriptions of the Christian life from Martin Luther. There is just something about that word, “occupied” that describes the role that the Bible has in our lives. It’s more than “reading.” It’s different than “studying.” It’s as though “occupied” carries the connotation of a person for whom the Word of God always has one’s attention. To be occupied with the Word is to be a person always thinking about, always affected by, always coming back to what God has to say in the Bible.
Is there a better word of guidance for our homes than to be occupied with the Word? It’s a good phrase by which we could do some family evaluation. Ask yourselves. Ask your children. Honest answers may lead to repentance for we discover that instead of being occupied with the Word, we are preoccupied with earthly stuff. (Preoccupied is defined as “absorbed in something to the extent of neglecting more important things.”)
Are we preoccupied with our schedule, our children’s events, work, sports, etc.? We are if they keep us from having family devotions. We are if they keep us from attending Sunday School and worship. We are if there is little or no conversation about how our faith in Jesus and its importance impacts us.
Are we preoccupied with earthly stuff or are we occupied with the Word? Being occupied with the Word though, is more than an assignment. Understood properly it is a blessing both in this life and the life to come. Listen to how Luther puts it: “God Himself directs us in Deuteronomy 6:6 that we should always be occupied with His Word while sitting, walking, standing, lying down, and rising, always having it in our minds. It is sure to bear fruit because that is the effectiveness of the Word, whenever it is contemplated, heard, and used, that it is never without fruit, but always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and virtue, and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living words.”
God bless your “occupation!”
Sunday School Perfect Attendance for November
Pre: Johanna Lesinger
1-2 Kaylie Wright
3-4 Cody Wright, Sarah Wright, Blaze Soquet
5-8 Blake Soquet
Reminder: If you are traveling or attending another church for an event, please let us know so we can recognize your attendance. Thank you.
Baptismal Birthdays for December
Jack Niebes (12/10), Alex Pisch, Blake Soquet (12/12), Kinley Zittergruen (12/7)
We will celebrate them on Sunday, December 20