Immanuel Lutheran Church & School

I was doing my personal devotion today, and became convicted in the Spirit.  I was reminded that God’s vision and plan is not always ours.  Nor is God’s timing and plan ours.  My wife and I have spent the last year and a half trying to sell our condo.  And constantly we pray that God would bring the buyer who is perfect for that home…and yet I continue to get frustrated that it is not happening soon enough.  I am reminded that our prayer is that God will bring them when the timing is perfect.  God’s vision is one that is for our best interest and His glory, with that in mind, we sit back and wait patiently for His vision to be revealed and brought to reality in our lives. 

The devotion that I was reading used this analogy, we are the bow, God is the Archer, and His arrow will go right were He is aiming.  As He gets ready to release His love…we say now Lord, now Lord, now…but He will release the arrow when it is perfect for the target that He has in mind.

Wait in the Lord and be amazed by His vision.

I am reminded that love is something people show and do.  It is a feeling, but more importantly it continually needs to be shown .  People constantly need to see that someone loves them.  You can say, but if you don’t act it, then it is nothing.

There has been studies that have proven that love must be acted on to have power and effect.  Babies that are told they are loved, but aren’t hugged, picked up, and kissed will have significant loss of growth and development, possibly even loss of life.

Love is vital for us.  If it is vital for you and I toward one another, then wouldn’t it also be vital for you and I from our God.  God is love.  He continually shows us love.  We are reminded in Romans 5:6-8 that He loved us that He died for us, and His love continues as He calls us in baptism to be united in His love with Him. 

1 John 3:16 says: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”  We are loved by our God, and it is not done only in words, it is done in eternal action, as His death happened once and for all for us, and His resurrection victory was proclaimed and named for each of us as His children.  You are loved by God.  Praise be to our God for His great love. 

God loves you! 

I am continually reminded how blessed we are here at Immanuel to have so many baptisms.  We continually see the very miracle of God as He gives to children that He has called new life.  Eternal life begins in the faith that is given to them through Holy Baptism. 

We are reminded that our life comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.  Romans 6 reminds us that it is through our own Baptism that we receive this life as we are united in death with Him, and united then also in His resurrection with Him.

As a congregation we have the joy of celebrating and witnessing over 100 baptisms per year, God is good as He weekly reminds us that He has beckoned each of us to life through His cross and empty tomb.  May you and I always cling to our baptism, as in it we have faith, faith in Christ and His love and grace for us.

God Bless you this week as you remember Your baptismal faith given to you by our God!

Christ has called us to serve.  We are called to serve others before ourselves.  This is a calling that is preached from our pulpits, and is taught in our schools, and is even shared in our society (not under the calling from Christ, though He is where it truly originated from).  But as we preach this and teach it…do we prepare our kids and ourselves to actually live it?

Actions truly do speak louder than words, and our actions seem to me to contradict  what our words say.  Play this out with me.  With children we teach them to help one another when they are in need, yet in the classroom we teach and act with the primary objective to help yourself, as long as you get good grade, what the person next to you gets is up to them.  There is no success of a class academically, it is success of a class individually.  Also, this carries into our work place, which leads to many struggles in the work place.  We strive to make sure our jobs are complete, and if a co-worker is struggling, we rarely help them as we truly live in a ‘dog eat dog’ world.  The problem with this is that companies close and fail constantly because the team did not succeed, even if certain individuals did.

Christ calls us to serve others, those in need.  This does not just mean the needy, the poor, the oppressed (they are included though), but also the fellow student, the co-worker, the one who quietly is slipping away. 

Serve others, a model for life, a model that we each need to individually live for the good of the body of Christ. 

God Bless you as you serve

This is the greatest confession by any disicple yet in the life of Jesus and it is done by Thomas.  Thomas doesn’t doubt the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, he outright denies it and says that unless he can put his hands in the very holes of Jesus (greek says digitally explore them) and stick his hand in His side (get up in there and feel around), he will not believe. 

Jesus grants to Thomas his wish, He allows Thomas and Thomas alone to know and experience this.  Never ever let anyone call you a doubting Thomas for if you are it means that you do not believe in Jesus, and will not unless you too get this opportunity, and the Lord may not grant that to you. 

We see too thought Thomas going from an unbeliever to one who confesses the Jesus Christ is God.  No other disciple had done this to this point.  It is in this great confession that we share, that our Lord is our God, and gives us all strength, and deserves all praise.  This is what we share with Thomas in.  The confession of faith, of who our Lord is. 

Today, may you see the Lord as your God. 

God Bless your week, through His love for you!

This week as a congregation we will read John 4-14.  I encourage all of us to look with Jesus and his discussion with the Samaritan woman.  The Samaritans were disliked by the Jewish people.  The Samaritans were seen by many as those standing on the outside of God’s love. 

Jesus comes and brings His love to the Samaritan…and now to you and I.  No one is outside the bounds of God’s love.  Jesus wants all people to hear of Him, believe in Him, and live in Him.  This is why Easter is so important for the majority of the world.  God’s love was opened up to the Gentiles, to the Jews, to anyone who believes that the Messiah has come and given His love to the world.

Jesus came and chose His creation for salvation.  Jesus calls all of us to a knowledge, faith, and relationship with Him.  Our church body has embarked on a noble goal of reaching 100 million people with the Gospel, that is that Jesus Christ, came, died and rose for you! 

May you and I this week as we read through the Gospel of John, see God’s love and glory for all people.

God Bless your week!

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

This weekend here at Immanuel we will be celebrating God’s Blessings as we remember and commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Worship Center being built.  I was not here when it was built, but I have definately seen it during its use.  It is clear to me that God is using the facility to bring about His truth to many people.  This past year alone, the worship center continues to hold more and more people in our worship services to our God. 

It is my personal belief that God will continue to bless our congregation as long as we continue to remain faithful to Him, in preaching His Word truthfully (no matter what the Society thinks or says), as long as we continue to seek Him out daily in our congregational prayer life and Scripture life, and as long as we continue to do His will everyday which is to “know Christ is to share His love.”

It is my encouragement for you and I that as we look to celebrations in our lives whether it be for buildings, or for personal joys that we have, we can be reminded that God uses all things, to show His glory and love for us.  Remember that God desires to continue to exhibit His hand and work in our lives and continues to uplift, encourage, support and CELEBRATE with us daily.

This weekend, may we all celebrate His Love and Faithfulness.

Too often Easter becomes like any other holiday.  Fourth of July, Valentines day, Labor day, Memorial day…it comes with great excitement and then it goes!  But our God gave us Easter (His victory over sin, death and the devil) to last permanently in our lives. 

For the Christian Church, we worship because of Easter!  We come and remember Easter every weekend as we worship and praise our God.  May you continue to celebrate Easter not only last weekend, but this weekend and everyweekend as well.  May the resurrection live in your life everyday as Christ lives for His children always. 

God Bless you and your Easter