You have been given the ability to take your concerns, struggles, sadness, and joys to the Lord in prayer not for great reward. You already have that in Christ Jesus. You pray to experience God’s love and learn God’s plan for you.
Read MoreWe all have worries. In our busy and sometimes confusing world we struggle to meet the needs of our families and selves and often forget Jesus. That is why Paul, in the same paragraph, talks about taking your worries to God in prayer and with thanksgiving.
Read MoreWhat he is saying is that we are called to live the life that we have been saved for. That life is a life of following Jesus. It does not mean that we can sit back and let the world go by. It means that we have to be actively involved in the world growing in faith and adapting to the ever changing ways of the world.
Read MoreWhile we grew up with the golden rule – do unto others as you would like them to do to you – and the ten commandments, mass media and peer pressure soon overtook our childhood lessons with the message of selfishness and that we should put ourselves over others because we deserve it.
Read MoreNow [Jonah] sat out in the desert complaining to God that God did not do as he wanted. Jonah was not content with his life and wanted others to pay. He thought that retribution would be the ticket to his contentment. As many throughout history have found, it does not.
Read MoreBut oftentimes we forget that God has called us into community through Jesus Christ and desires that we show mutual love and affection.
Read MoreOur translation tells us we are to love our neighbors. But who are our neighbors? Is it the people who live on the same block that we do? Is it the people who live in our community? We need to look to the original Greek to get a better meaning of our text. There, the word that is translated “neighbor” means “the other.”
Read MoreThe internet has not, as some predicted, made life better. It just made life more complicated by encouraging the “same old same old” peer pressure machine counting friends and clicks as your worthiness.
Paul was not thinking about all this when he called the Romans to lives of genuine love and mutual support but those words speak deeply to our time and lives.
Read MoreOur society emphasizes the individual. You do not need others around you – in fact you are called to, “Pull yourself up by your boot-straps.” But that only leads to loneliness, resentment, and anger. Feelings that can explode with devastating consequences as we see almost on a daily basis. Paul calls us to live a life in community. That community is the body of Christ with Jesus at the head.
Read MoreYour salvation does not rely upon following some set of rules about everyday life such as what you eat. Your salvation depends upon the work of Jesus – his life, death, and resurrection. And in thanks for this gift you choose to live your life as God asks. If you are lost in how to do that, all you need to do is look to Jesus. He is your model, leader, and shepherd.
Read MoreIn this, his attempt at a solution for his dilemma, he quotes Deuteronomy, claiming they are looking for God in all the wrong places. You do not need to go up into heaven or down into sheol – to scour the world – to find God, Jesus is present now in their lives wherever they may be.
Read MoreYou know that feeling. When our lives are disrupted by change, life can become a struggle. We experienced that in the pandemic and the years following it. We see it in our lives when loved ones die. Those things that made our lives - the joys and rewards - seem to disappear and all that is left is trouble and sadness. To you Isaiah is calling. The call is to remember that you have been washed in the waters of Baptism and fed at this table.
Read MoreThese verses, then, are about living life in the present age. It is about the assurance that in the struggles within and without the church God works with God’s people to bring about those things that God has planned (predestined) for the world. The hard part is for each of us to decide what work God is calling us to do. There are plenty of positions open in God’s plan. Which one (or ones) are you being called to?
Read MorePaul is trying to explain God’s work which is, at some point, unexplainable. He also may be quoting a hymn that the Romans sang to share with them that he is not really saying anything that they did not already know. Or, he may be saying that we are, at the same time, children of God and waiting to be adopted as God’s children. As Luther said it, at the same time sinner and saint.
Read MoreAs I have said many times, the law is a set of rules put in place by a people so they can live together in a stable and safe environment. The opposite of law is chaos.
Read MoreInstead of cursing those who anger you, say a prayer for them. Instead of insisting on your rights, be gracious, instead of bravado and commandeering be humble. All in all remember your savior.
Read MoreYou have been freed from the bondage to sin and death and made whole by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You can choose to live your life so that, through you, others see their own bondage and cry out for their salvation.
Read MoreThe Christian faith was dividing families. Jeremiah gives a good description of what it sometimes means to answer God’s call. He was being made fun of and mocked. There were threats on his life. And when he tried to withhold God’s words it was like a fire burning within him. All three of our texts today are a reminder that to be God’s own does not guarantee an easy life. What is guaranteed is that God will not abandon you despite who you are, your mistakes and foibles.
Read MoreThe suffering that Paul is talking about is that suffering that came about because they were Christians and fulfilling the call of Jesus to proclaim that the kingdom of God had arrived. They were suffering for the benefit of others.
Read MoreThey seemed to be fighting with each other over how to be a Christian and even who was the best Christian. They may have been arguing over who should be in charge. If they were constantly fighting and arguing over worldly standards, Paul argues, they were not living in peace. They were not showing how, by becoming a follower of Jesus, they had been changed by God.
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