Summer Time

Summer is approaching soon.  Hallelujah.  As a college student the work load, although certainly fulfilling, can take its toll and leave one feeling burdened.  The best aspect of summer is all of things one has to look forward to.  For me, summer is the ultimate.  The reasons for summer being great are various; beach, friends, family, free time, baseball games, bbq's, etc.  Ultimately however, one reason overrides every other:  The chance to serve God.  One of my favorite things about being home is being able to take on the task of being a part of the Youth Ministry Staff at my home congregation.  There are few things that bring me more joy than seeing people my own age whether through college ministry, or younger through the youth group, be absolutely on fire for Christ.  Now a good Lutheran would say that one needs to keep it even keeled and to not let oneself get carried away to a theology of glory.  No doubt!  But to me, and to many, there is nothing more exciting than sharing/spreading the Good News of the cross of Jesus Christ.  It is undoubtedly the work of God that during the summer young adults and teenagers fight their hardest to get a full week off from work in order to be able to help out at Vacation Bible School.  It is undoubtedly the work of God that makes spending Wednesday nights with junior high and high school kids not only tolerable but fulfilling.  

Where am I going with this rambling?  Fellowship.  Fellowship in the Christian context is of utmost importance.  St. Paul writes that we are a body, with Christ as our head.  And in the body are many members (1 Corinthians 12).  This fellowship has to be on fire.  If you and your Christian friends cannot get excited about rolling on for the kingdom, then what is your life worth?  All of us in the body have our gifts, some share gifts, some have unique gifts, some gifts some don't know about for a long time.  But as part of the body of Christ, those gifts are there.  This also plays into how we should treat other people.  The Lutheran Confessions state that all baptized believers (in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are part of the universal, catholic, invisible church.  These are the saints on earth, or the church militant.  Do some teach false things?  Yes.  Do some do things they should not? Yes.  Does this mean they are not part of the body of Christ? No.  However broken and mangled we are, with Christ as our head, we are the body.  In our mission to bring the Good News to the people, no one and nothing can stop us.  Christianity is not a loner religion.  It is not a "I'll do what I want with it" religion.  It is a family, it is a relationship, it is a lifestyle.  It cannot be a lesser aspect of ones life, it has to be the driving aspect.  Now, does this happen overnight?  No.  It can and will most certainly take time (just ask me).  But, we should always strive, using our faith as our guide, to make it numero uno in our life.  With Christ as our head, life will be abundant.  Does this mean materially and monetarily?  Not necessarily, and most likely not.  One can certainly be a follower and be comfortable, but search to see what their joy truly is.  Is it in their money?  Is it in their material possessions?  Or does it all flow from the head, the Christ, whose blood flowed from the cross and washed us clean from sin?  That is where it flows from.  From those hands, from those feet, from that head.  Likewise our love should flow in fellowship with one another, bringing it to the world.

"Let us rejoice in this coming day, and let us say: Winter has lasted long enough, beautiful summer once more will come, aye, a summer which will never end, a summer in which not only all the saints rejoice, but all the angels as well, a summer for which all creatures wait and sigh, an eternal summer in which all things are made new."

~Martin Luther

"To an unknown god"

Acts 17:22-27, ESV

 22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.

"To an unknown god."  Imagine St. Paul doing this in todays church?  Imagine St. Paul going into the tribes of Africa and noticing they are very religious, crediting that to them and noticing they had an altar "to an unknown god", "What therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you."  Paul, an important figure in the church, holding up the God of the universe to a pantheon of false gods?  Imagine St. Paul had done that today.  What would have become of him if word got back to certain other shepherds in his church body.  What would have become of St. Paul?  He very well could have had charges brought up against him and have to go on for the remainder of his life defending said actions because he was witnessing in the name of Jesus.  Imagine that...

We need not to speak to Jews as though they are Greek, and we need not to speak to Greeks as though they are Jews.  What does this mean?  It means, without bowing to culture, we must recognize and respect the different cultures that people are brought up in and be somewhat sensitive to that in presenting our message of hope.  The culture of the United States is one that is changing fast and furiously.  Teenagers are looking to fulfill their needs with the myriad of empty false hopes out there.  Many have already been turned off or rejected the church, or by the church for whatever reasons.  We need to bring the Gospel, pure and unadulterated, to these teenagers.  Heck, we need to bring the Gospel to lost people in general.  The priesthood of all believers has that responsibility of bringing that message of hope to people who have heard it wrong, not heard it at all, and even those who have outright rejected it.  Be persistent in fervent love toward one another, including those who do not believe.  

This does not mean we are to water down the gospel or tell them "everything is okay."  Because, outside of faith in Christ, everything is not okay.  Everything is blurry, everything is mixed, everything or anything does not make sense.  The cross is not blurry.  The cross stares you in the face and breaks you.  And at the same time, the cross lifts you up next to the One crucified on it and saves you.  This is the message we need to be bringing to the lost.  In fact, this is the message we need to be bringing to our churches day in and day out, lest we forget why we are there.  

Psalm 22

I found this relevant and important.  From the KJV...

1My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

 2O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

 3But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

 4Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

 5They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

 6But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

 7All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

 8He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

 9But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

 10I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

 11Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

 12Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

 13They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

 14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

 15My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

 16For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

 17I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

 18They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

 19But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

 20Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

 21Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

 22I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

 23Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

 24For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

 25My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

 26The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

 27All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

 28For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations.

 29All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

 30A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

 31They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

Gorgeous Psalm.  David begins in lament, works through some struggles, and ends glorifying God.  One of the best Psalm's for its fullness of emotion.  I encourage all to just read it, and read it frequently.  Gives the kind of peace of mind that only God can grant.  Not a surprise it's God's Word.