| Author |
Message |
Lenae Rasmussen (Lrasmussen)
Username: Lrasmussen
Registered: 4-2001
Posted From: 71.1.219.16
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 5:20 pm: | |
Worship with WOW!
Rev. Michael L. Mueller
In a tape entitled “Credibility”, Barry Posner states that people are 6 times more likely to talk about a business they consider a 5 on a 5-point scale than one rated as a 4. If that’s true, Jesus’ public ministry was a 10 even from a “PR” point of view. It made people say, “Wow.” From the wedding at Cana, to the feedings of 5,000 and 4,000, to driving merchants from the Temple, to healings that brought people from miles around, to appearing to the disciples and others in a locked room, He made people say things like, “we never saw anything like this – wow!”
Shouldn’t our worship, too, reflect that sense of WOW that comes from the gifts that we receive from God? The Word of God is described in the Bible as the very breath of God. In Baptism, we become united with Christ in His death and resurrection. At the Lord’s Table we literally eat and drink His body and blood. These are really WOW things! But, we fail to treat them as such. We are sinners and so we stare at these divine miracles, as Luther said, “like a cow staring at a new gate.”
How can we put that “WOW” back into our services? Well, some outward preparations can serve a good purpose. There is nothing wrong in spending some time understanding just what is taking place and why; next, adjusting your attitude, now that you can appreciate the WOW of God’s real presence in what He does for us; finally, letting your actions reflect the awesome joy that you have in receiving His gifts.
And a church that understands its mission will do everything it can to put energy, joy, enthusiasm, warmth, authenticity and WOW into the service from the open parking spaces next to the door, to the warm greeting inside, to the easy to use worship bulletin, to the awe shown in our dress and rites. The pastor will do the same to provide a well prepared, dynamic, biblical sermon.
In the end however, these are just outward preparations. In the end, it is Christ by the power of His Spirit, who convicts our hearts with the Law and then lifts them to the heights of heaven with the Gospel, to the joy of sitting at His Table and feasting together as we will for all eternity. It is Christ who breaks through the locked doors of our hearts and makes people say “WOW! It is He, not me, who puts the “WOW” in worship by making me say, “I believe.” He did it two thousand years ago, and He still does it today. Wow! |
Dick Smith
| | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 5:20 pm: | |
You Are 200%
Your baptism means you are ALWAYS 100% Old Adam (Sinner) and 100% in Christ (Perfect). TO LIVE is not “moral values” or the “10 Commandments,” but CHRIST (Philippians 1:21).
So simple, this is, and yet so profound. Luther said we are always totally justified and totally sinner: “simil iustus et peccatur.” In 2002, I heard Dr. Steve Paulson of Luther Seminary describe it in terms of percentages. He said we are always 200%, which mathematically makes no sense whatsoever. We are 100% sinner, but at the same time, we are also 100% holy, righteous, and perfect in the eyes of God because of Jesus Christ.
Read Romans 5-8. Paul asserts that the Law (read 10 Commandments) cannot make us better but ONLY increases the sin within us (5:20-21). (So much for “moral values” and “free will”!) It kills us. In baptism (6:3-4) you were crucified with Christ (6:6) right up on the cross, died with him (6:8), and then were given new life (6:4) which is CHRIST HIMSELF living in you as a redeeming reality (6:11; Galatians 2:19-20). This means “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11).
Note that word “consider.” This is to avoid misunderstanding. We don’t flip from once 100% sinner, to now 100% perfect. Nor are we 50/50; 25/75, etc. To torpedo that idea Paul includes chapter 7 (especially vs.15-25). Even as a Christian, Paul can ONLY do EVIL (100%) which drives him again and again and again throughout his life to Christ alone (100%)! Always 200%.
How do you live? What say you? By the 10 Commandments? By moral values? By reclaiming the ethical high ground? WARNING: GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED! (Galatians 6:7-8).
NO, not by any of these. YOU LIVE in CHRIST and in CHRIST ALONE! Romans 8:3-4: the law is fulfilled in you by CHRIST ALONE who IS YOUR LIFE!
YOU ARE ALWAYS 200%! |
Lenae Rasmussen (Lrasmussen)
Username: Lrasmussen
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 9:01 am: | |
The Battle
Mark 1:9-15
Mark tells of Jesus "expulsion" (literally, being thrown/projected/driven all at once ...) into the wilderness and tempted by Satan for 40 days. The focus is different from that of Matthew and Luke who speak of specific tests, i.e., turning rocks into bread, a daredevil jump, and a chance to rule the world. The general approach of "being tested" for what appears to be a non-stop 40-day engagement gives one a different picture. No coffee break, 7th inning stretch or time out. A non-stop onslaught, like that of being impulsively obsessed ... the experience of Satan driving, driving, driving ... to what would be my wits end. Jesus prevails, but the image we get is not one of a successful Olympic athlete with a sleek uniform to show off attractive muscles and flowing hair. The picture we get in Mark is more like a demoniac or the "possessed" character (played by Mel Gibsen) in the beginning of Lethal Weapon. Tormented by his wife's death, the policemen is an emotional wreck who looks like a wild man.
Yet, this crazy looking wildman wins the day in a way an Airborne buff can understand. In the Battle of Bulge, US armored forces were being driven back by a Panzer division. In the Ardennes forest one tanker came accross a glider soldier, PFC Martin, as he dug a foxhole with his e-tool. The private looked up and asked, "Are you looking for a safe place?" The tanker said, "Yeah." Martin replied, "Well then get behind me. I'm the 82nd Airborne and this is as far as the ba*****s are going to get."
He didn't look like much. A guy with a dirty uniform and a wild, determined look in eyes. He had a weapon and the raw courage to engage an enemy whose strength and force appeared to be far greater than his own at this given point in time. In reality, Martin had one thing - a Word - the self understanding of who he was and what he'd come to do in France.
Jesus had nothing in the wilderness to protect him from Satan's divisions and temptation -- nothing but the word of his Father: "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." And this was all he needed to win the battle his Father sent him to fight.
In Martin's baptism, and your own, this Word was said as water was poured over your head and God claimed you as his own. God said who you were - HIS - and declared you redeemed. "Fear not. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine." (Is. 43:1).
"Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" is not an empty promise. Jesus stood his ground for forty days. He won the battle with Satan so that nothing could separate you from the love of God. The Son of God drew a line in the sand, dug a foxhole on Calvary, and said: "You want a safe place? Get behind Me. Cling to my Cross. Come to my Font. Come to my Table. It may not look like much against Satan's divisions and the powers of this evil age, but this is as far as the Devil is going to get. Satan is beaten for all eternity. You're mine now, and those whom the Father puts in my hand not even Satan can take away. Your sins are forgiven. Go in my peace."
Lenae Rasmussen
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
(Message edited by lrasmussen on March 21, 2006) |
|
