Podcasts about wherever jesus

The Kingdom doesn't just name the problem; it brings the solution. Wherever Jesus went, things changed. That authority didn't retire at His ascension. It was released through His Spirit and people. We are to live like the Kingdom is real in practice. Speaker: Trip Lee

Series: Mark Part 16Scripture: Mark 5:1–20 In today's episode, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Mark and see Jesus step onto the shore in the region of the Gerasenes. There, He meets a man who is suffering terribly and living among the tombs. This story includes demons, sometimes the Bible also calls them unclean spirits, but we handle this carefully and remind kids of the most important truth: Jesus is stronger than darkness. As Jesus speaks with authority, the unclean spirits must obey Him. The man who had been alone, hurting, and in bondage is restored. When the people come and see him, he is sitting with Jesus, dressed, and in his right mind. What a beautiful picture of mercy and rescue. This episode helps kids see that Jesus does not only save and restore people so they can keep it to themselves. He gives His people a story to tell. Wherever Jesus places us—at home, with friends, at school, or in our community—we can tell others how much the Lord has done. Today's key truth:Jesus is stronger than darkness, full of mercy, and wants us to share his goodness with others. ------------------ The Wonder Project: Subscriber support makes more great content like I Gotta Ask with Annie F. Downs possible. The Wonder Project subscription on Prime Video is available in the U.S. for $8.99/month or $89.99/year after a 7-day free trial. --------------------- If your family would like to support Kids Bible Stories and access ad-free episodes, coloring pages, activity sheets, and more, join the Family Library at patreon.com/kidsbiblestories.   Try it free for 7 days to see what its' all about!

What did Jesus preach first when He began His ministry?Not religion. Not rituals. Not rules.He preached one powerful message:“The Kingdom of God is here.”In this eye opening message, The Kingdom is Here, we discover that the Kingdom of God is not just a future destination, it is God's rule, reign, and authority active in the lives of believers right now.Jesus didn't just teach about the Kingdom.He demonstrated it.He lived it.And He invites us to live from it every day.In this message, you'll learn:

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th April , 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Acts 12:18:”Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.“ Now, folks, I want you to understand something. If you cannot believe in miracles, then you cannot believe the Bible because I'm going to show you a miracle that is unbelievably miraculous. It cannot be explained. If you read Chapter 12 of the Book of Acts, you'll see that Peter the Apostle was arrested by Herod's soldiers and put in prison. Four squads of soldiers were there to keep him from escaping because they were going to kill him after the Passover.He was bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. He was sleeping, and he had a soldier on either side, and he was in chains. Then the angel of the Lord came into the prison and literally set Peter free. When they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to an iron gate that led to the city. It was open to them of it's own accord supernaturally, and it caused no small stir because the next day the guards couldn't find him, he was gone.Folks, I believe in miracles! Wherever Jesus walked on this earth, He caused either a riot or a revival, but nothing in between. Just a few days ago, I met a young man at the airport. His name is Dean. I said, ”Dean, where are you going?” He said,” I'm going to Cape Town.” I said,” Why?” He said, ”Because I'm sick and I have to go to the specialist in Cape Town to see if they can heal me.” So I said, ”Do you believe in miracles?” Of course he did. I prayed for him in the departure lounge, I laid my hands on him and I prayed that God would heal him.Well, not two, three days later, I got a message to say that he has just got a report from the doctors in Cape Town. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him. He is completely healed and he can go home. That is a miracle! Trust Jesus today for your miracle. I want to pray for you: Father, I pray in Jesus name that the person who is listening to this message will claim their healing, their miracle. Be healed in Jesus name, amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. What an amazing, incredible encouragement these words must have been to the disciples —and to us. He told them he was going someplace to which they could not go at that time, but He wasn't going to be apart from them for good. The place He was going to prepare made it possible for Jesus to come be with them again. And in coming to be with them, He would receive them (us) to Himself. Jesus even gave them the purpose for His going away. The place Jesus was going to prepare was going to make it possible for them to be present with Him wherever He was present. This reality is stunning. For the disciples, Jesus was speaking of something to be done and experienced in the future. But for us, this is a present ongoing reality and experience. Jesus has come to be with us! He is the resurrection and the Life. We have been received by Jesus because everything that could separate us from His love and prevent our union with Him was removed at the cross in His substitutionary death. Wherever Jesus wishes to go in this world to love for the glory God, we may go with Him. At any given moment in history, Jesus is loving people with and through each of His own. Jesus has begun to explain to His disciples and to us how it is possible that they can love one another even as He loves them. He comes into us. We become one with Him. We are as He is in this world. Now that's a great encouragement to believe in Jesus and not let your heart be troubled today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

Color: White First Reading: Acts 4:8–13 Psalm: Psalm 118:19–29; antiphon: v. 26 Epistle: 2 Peter 1:1–15 Gospel: Mark 8:27—9:1 Gospel: Mark 8:27–35 Introit: Psalm 89:1, 5, 15–16; antiphon: Psalm 119:46 Gradual: 2 Corinthians 4:5a, 13c; 1 Peter 4:11b; Psalm 113:3 Verse: Mark 8:35 Losing Ourselves in the Confession of the One Name of Salvation   St. Peter speaks for all disciples when he confesses, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29). This confession is the bedrock of the Church, which Christ Himself builds (Matt. 16:18), for “this Jesus,” the stone rejected by earthly builders, “has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11). This was a scandal even to Peter. The Christ must suffer, be rejected, be killed “and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31), for through this work of salvation received by faith, God's “precious and very great promises” are granted, “so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Wherever Jesus is the Christ, His disciples deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him (Mark 8:34). They have been cleansed from their former sins and increase in faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love, effective and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5–9). All who trust in Jesus, the Christ of Peter's confession, will save their life, though for His sake they lose it (Mark 8:35). “For there is no other name … by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, 20th February 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:9. Jesus says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.”Peace (Shalom) - that is actually the name of our farm. It is the hallmark of a follower of Jesus Christ. Now some young people are asking the question, “What does the word 'hallmark' mean?” Well, I looked it up. This is what the literal definition of a hallmark is: It is a mark stamped on articles of gold, silver or platinum by the British assay officers certifying their standard of purity. So when you go into a jeweller's shop, and you want to buy a very special article, you normally turn it upside down, and you will see a hallmark stamped on it to certify that it is pure. Now, the hallmark of a follower of Jesus Christ is peace, and folks, come on let's be honest, where do you ever find peace in these days? Wherever Jesus went, the first thing he would say was “Shalom”, which means peace, the shalom of God be with you. “Blessed are the peacemakers”, the Lord says, “because they shall be called the sons of God”. Not peace-lovers - no, no, no! A peace-lover will do anything to have peace. A peace-maker sometimes has to cause trouble in order to bring peace. Remember before the Lord was betrayed, what did He do? He washed the disciples' feet. Have you ever had your feet washed? I have. It is a very humbling thing. A man came to see me once and he said, “I want to speak to you”, so I went to see him. He was standing outside and he brought out a basin, he brought out a towel, he even brought a container with water in it. He said, “I want to wash your feet, Angus.” I said, ”No, I don't feel worthy, please…” “The Lord has sent me here to wash your feet”. It was a very humbling thing and the peace of God was present with that man. I will never forget it as long as I live. Let us go out today and be a band of feet-washers that tell people and show people the love of God through the peace in our hearts.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday St. John 3:1-17 by William Klock Everywhere Jesus went the crowds followed him.  Everyone had a problem.  Some were deaf, some blind; some were sick, some dying; some were demon-possessed, some were weighed down by sin.  They knew that this is not how the world is supposed to be.  Everyone knew it then.  Everyone knows it now.  And that's why everyone longs for the day when the world is set to rights and the tears are wiped away.  And that's why the people flocked to Jesus.  Wherever he went, there was a little bubble of the world as it should be.  Wherever Jesus went, there was a little bubble of God's future in the present.  Wherever Jesus went, there was a little bubble where the tears were wiped away. And this man named Nicodemus—John says he was a prominent Pharisee and ruler of the Jews—Nicodemus watched from a distance—in the streets, in the temple court.  And as he watched, he saw the hopes of Isreal being fulfilled.  He saw that little bubble of God's future wherever Jesus went.  And he believed.  It's just that he wasn't quite sure exactly what he was believing.  Have you ever felt that way?  You see God at work.  There's no question about it.  But it's not something you ever expected.  And so you believe, but you don't really understand.  That's where Nicodemus was at.  He wasn't one of the simple people who just needed some physical manifestation of the kingdom like the blind and the deaf and the demon-possessed.  He knew the scriptures.  He knew how the God of Israel was supposed to fulfil his prophecies.  And Nicodemus could see that Jesus was fulfilling them.  But Jesus wasn't doing it the way people expected.  So Nicodemus went to Jesus in the night, after the crowds were gone, when Jesus was alone with his disciples.  Knock!  Knock!  Knock! And Peter—or John or James or whoever—opened the door and was totally surprised to see him there.  Everyone knew who Nicodemus was and he was the last person the disciples expected to be knocking at the door.  But here he was, probably with at least a servant or two.  You didn't close the door on someone like Nicodemus, so pretty soon he was inside and seated with Jesus and the questions began.  Nicodemus wanted to understand. “Rabbi,” he said to Jesus, “we know that you're a teacher who has come from God.  Nobody can do these signs that you're doing, unless God is with him.”   If you listen carefully, you can hear the unspoken question in Nicodemus' affirmation.  It's the theologian's equivalent of “Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.”  It was like this for everyone.  The disciples saw, they heard, they believed, but when Jesus pressed them with questions, they still gave the wrong answers.  Peter knew with absolute certainty that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of the living God.  But when push came to shove, he drew his sword and was ready to usher in the kingdom with violence.  Despite three years with Jesus, the disciples were still full of all the wrong ideas the Jews had about the Messiah and his kingdom.  Nicodemus was no different.  It's just that he knew he was missing something and he was here to sort it out with Jesus.  But Jesus doesn't give him the answer he wanted—because Jesus knew that no matter how clearly he connected the dots for Nicodemus, that wouldn't solve the problem.  Nicodemus needed something more.  And so Jesus answers Nicodemus' question with those words so familiar to us, but so perplexing to him: “Let me tell you the solemn truth.  Unless someone has been born from above, he won't be able to see God's kingdom.”   This is John 3.  The beginning.  Jesus gives the answer to all the questions.  And consider how the disciples had three years to mull it over.  And as we've heard in our Gospels all through Easter- and Ascensiontide they still couldn't wrap their heads around it.  Jesus told them he had to leave so that something better could come and they were confused and upset and afraid.  Jesus was a walking manifestation, a walking bubble of the kingdom.  How could anything possibly be better than that?—apart from the kingdom filling the whole world—but how's that going to happen if Jesus is gone?  They had to be born from above, too.  But that's just it.  In being born from above, they themselves would become walking bubbles of God's future in the present.  That's what we celebrated last Sunday at Pentecost.  The God of Israel sent his Spirit to indwell his people.  They were born from above—and suddenly, when that happened, it all made sense.  Peter preached that great Pentecost sermon—something that would have been impossible the day before—and from there the disciples went out to make God's kingdom known to the world. Incidentally, this is why the story of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus is our Gospel today.  Long before there was a Trinity Sunday, this was the Sunday after Pentecost and today's Gospel was chosen to explain the events we read about last Sunday.  When Trinity Sunday came along there was no reason to change the lesson, because here we see the Trinity revealed: the Son reveals that the Father must send the Spirit to give life to and to renew his people. But back to Jesus and Nicodemus: “The central truth you're missing is that you've got to be born from above,” Jesus says to the Pharisee.  Nicodemus understood so much.  He knew the world is not as it should be.  He knew that the Lord had chosen and called his people to be a light to the world.  And he knew that his people had failed—over and over and over.  That's why the Pharisees were so zealous for God's law.  If everyone in Israel would just shape up.  If they'd just remember all the wonderful things God had graciously and mercifully done for them and love him return by keeping his law.  If they would be faithful.  Then God would return and set everything right.  The Pharisees were an “on earth as in heaven” people.  And Nicodemus saw God at work in Jesus, but he was struggling to reconcile what he saw in Jesus with what he expected of God.  Jesus knew this and so he says that what's missing—not just what Nicodemus is missing, but what all Israel is missing—is this new birth.  And, Brothers and Sisters, it's really important that we understand that as much as Jesus is saying, “You, Nicodemus, must be born again—which is how the ears of modern Christians have been trained to hear this in individualistic terms—Jesus' stress is on Israel, on the whole people: “All y'all must be born again,” as they might say in Texas.  In verse 7 he says, “Do not be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.'”  Israel as a people had been born the first time when they passed through the waters of the Red Sea and Jesus is saying that now Israel has to be born a second time.  This is why John was out in the wilderness calling people to repentance and baptising them in the Jordan, but still stressing that water wasn't enough.  Israel had been baptised with water before.  What Israel needed now was water and the Spirit.  Jesus walking around a little bubble of God's future in the present—that's what Israel was always supposed to be—so that the nations could see them and know the goodness of God.  And what Jesus is saying is that it's the Spirit who will finally make the people what God had intended them to be all along.  As Jesus has said over and over in various ways: he, Jesus, was sent by the Father, but that it would be the Spirit—the “Helper”—who would come after, who would testify to them about this truth, and then that through them this Spirit would testify to the rest of Israel and even to the nations.  This would fulfil what the prophets had spoken: a new people, a new Israel through whom the Lord would fulfil the mission he'd begun with Abraham—a mission to fill the world with knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea.  This new Israel, full of God's Spirit, would finally be that bubble of the kingdom, the manifestation of God's new creation here in the midst of the old, so that the nations will flock to the God of Israel to give him glory. But Nicodemus just sat there looking puzzled.  Ditto for the disciples.  Because the Spirit hadn't yet come to testify about Jesus.  So Nicodemus asks, “How can someone possibly be born when he's old?  You're not telling me he can go back a second time into his mother's womb and be born, are you?”  And as Jesus answers him, this is where he switches from saying things like “Unless one is born again” to “Unless all y'all are born again”.  Because it's not such much about one person being born again or even about a whole bunch of individuals being born again.  It's about Israel as a people being born again so that she could be put back on track to fulfil her mission to reveal God to the nations.  Now, this idea of new birth would have resonated with Nicodemus, because to be a Jew was all about being born as part of Abraham's family.  Other things like circumcision and sabbath and diet were really important—especially to a Pharisee—but those things were important because they were the markers of Abraham's family.  They drew a clear line between those who were in the family and all the uncircumcised, unclean gentiles who were most definitely not—the one's people like Nicodemus expected God to destroy with fire and brimstone when he came to set the world to rights. And what Jesus is now saying is that being born into Abraham's family the way the Jews thought of it wasn't enough.  In fact—and this really comes out in Paul's letters—it never had been enough.  And Nicodemus should have known this.  For two thousand years people were born into Abraham's family and the kingdom still hadn't come.  For two thousand years people were born into Abraham's family and still the gentiles hadn't experienced the Lord's blessing through them on the huge scale envisioned by the scriptures.  Just the opposite, in fact.  The Prophet Zechariah spoke of a day when the gentiles would be grabbing hold of Jews by their coattails and pleading with them, “Take us with you, because we hear that God is with you!”  But because of the way most of Abraham's children were living, the nations mocked them and taunted them saying, “Where's your God?”  It takes more than bring born of the flesh of Abraham.  It even takes more than being born of water, as Isreal had been in the Red Sea.  As a Pharisee devoted to exhorting his fellow Jews to be better keepers of the law, Nicodemus should have known that it wasn't working—that the people needed something more.  He, of all people, should have been looking forward to the day when the law would no longer be written on tablets of stone, but engraved on the very hearts of the people by the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says to Nicodemus, “I'm telling you the solemn truth.  Unless someone is born from water and the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God.  Flesh is born from flesh, but spirit is born from Spirit.”  This is what John the Baptist was getting at out in the desert.  God was about to lead his people in a new exodus.  As Israel had been led through the waters of the Red Sea to become a covenant family, so John was calling people to pass through the waters of the Jordan—a step of repentance and faith—and into a new covenant.  They all needed a baptism of repentance.  They need to turn aside, not just from their disobedience, but from their misguided expectations of the kingdom and of the Messiah.  But remember what John promised.  When people asked him if he was the Messiah, he said that he was only the forerunner.  “I baptise you with water,” he said, “but he will plunge you into the Holy Spirit.”  And that's just what Jesus does.  As we remembered last Sunday at Pentecost, Jesus takes those who have repented, who have turned aside from every false god and from every false king and from every false “ism”, he takes those who have instead grabbed hold of him in faith by passing through the waters of baptism, and he plunges them—us—into the Holy Spirit.  And the Spirit transforms and renews and regenerates us.  He takes our old, dead wood and grafts us into Jesus the vine and new life courses into us to bear fruit.  The Spirit makes us those walking bubbles of God's new creation—what God's people were always supposed to be.  That's what it means to be born again or born from above. Brothers and Sisters, think of your baptism as something like Israel at the Red Sea.  There was the parted water and God calling Israel to pass through to freedom and new life on the other side.  There was no receiving the law in Egypt; they had to cross to the other side of the sea to find covenant, to find relationship with the Lord.  And so we stand at the waters of baptism today.  In them Jesus gives his promise: Repent, turn aside from every false way, trust me, follow me in faith and you will find forgiveness of sins and new life through the Spirit.  To pass through the waters of baptism is to take hold of Jesus' promise and to be born again of water and the Spirit—and to be made part of this new covenant people ready and equipped to live and to proclaim his kingdom. But, again, this didn't fit what Nicodemus knew.  “How can this be so?” he asks.  And Jesus asks a bit incredulously, “How can you not know this?  You're one of the teachers of Israel!”  Nicodemus knew the story.  He understood how Israel had so miserably failed in her mission.  As a Pharisee he was abundantly aware of this problem.  Jesus tells Nicodemus: God has heard your cries and is visiting his people and he's doing it in me.  I'm the son of man, the one spoken of by Daniel all those years ago.  I can tell you reliably the things of heaven because I'm the one who has come down from heaven.  Nicodemus is pretty incredulous.  He came wanting to know, but he's not liking what he's hearing and so Jesus is basically telling him, “You have to trust me.”  That's what it's all about.  Sometimes this faith stuff doesn't make sense, but keep trust Jesus and the Spirit will eventually make sense of it.  And in keeping with that Jesus reminds him of the time the Israelites grumbled against Moses—which was really just veiled grumbling against the Lord.  And so the Lord sent poisonous snakes into the camp.  The snakes bit people and many of those who were bit died.  But the Lord also gave Moses the remedy.  He told Moses to cast a snake out of bronze and to mount it on a pole.  Anyone who would look up to the bronze snake would be healed.  It didn't make sense.  How would a bronze snake on a pole heal anyone?  But it did—by faith. So Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, in the same way the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may share in the life of God's new age.”  Jesus is pointing to his own crucifixion.  As the snake was the affliction of the people lifted up for them to look at, so Jesus would take the affliction of Israel on himself—he would suffer the punishment for their sins—and be lifted up on the cross.  He would be lifted up for everyone to look upon—to see the horror and the gravity of their sin, to see that the wages of sin is death.  But they would also see Jesus taking it all on himself and in that, the horror and ugliness of his being raised up would become an act by which he is ultimately glorified.  In the cross we see the love of God made manifest in Jesus.  And Jesus says in the familiar words we all know, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Jesus corrects the central error in the thinking of Israel in his day.  They were hoping and praying for the day when the Lord would come, not just to vindicate his people, but to judge their enemies—to rain down fire and brimstone on the Romans and all the other gentiles.  But instead Jesus tells Nicodemus that he's come not to condemn, but to save all who will look to him.  All.  The Jews thought the Lord, when he came, would vindicate them for their faithfulness, but Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Even the most righteous of you need this new birth, this salvation if you want to know God's vindication.  And it's not just for you.”  The Jews looked forward to the condemnation he would bring, but Jesus says he's come not to condemn, but to save.  And this is where the part about being born again of water and the Spirit comes into play.  Being born of water and the Spirit supersedes biology and genealogy.  In Jesus God opens his arms to welcome Jew and Gentile alike.  It was the Jews first, because if the Lord is faithful—and he is—he had to first fulfil his promises to his own people, but most importantly, in that act of faithfulness, the nations would take note of the God of Israel.  In Jesus, the nations would see that the God of Israel is not like the puny, selfish, fickle, and powerless gods they have known, and they would then flock to this God who is truly good and faithful.  This is what God's future looks like, not just Israel set to rights and everyone else set on fire.  God's future is for everyone who sees Jesus and his people wiping away the tears and forgiving sin, who believes, and who becomes part of it—whether born of Abraham by the flesh or born of Abraham by faith—all born in God's Spirit. Abraham's family is integral to the story and the plan, but Jesus reminds us that genes and DNA were never really what made anyone part of Abraham's family; it was about faith.  It was faith for Abraham himself and it was faith in God's promises for all who followed after: for Isaac and Jacob, for Joseph and Moses and Joshua, for gentiles like Rahab and Ruth, and even for the great kings like David and Solomon.  And God's promise was that through his covenant people, through these people who knew him in faith and were reconciled to him by faith, he would bless the nations.  It happened here and there in the Old Testament.  Rahab and Ruth are two of many small-scale testimonies to that, but here we finally see the Lord's promise coming to full fruit.  It's what we celebrated last week on Pentecost as Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on these men of Israel gathered from around the world.  They had heard Peter preach about Jesus and what he'd come to do.  They rallied to Jesus in faith and in response Jesus poured his Spirit into them.  Finally, through Jesus, Israel became the source of blessing she was intended to be—not by flesh, but by the Spirit—as these men and women took the good news to the nations: Jesus is Lord.  He has conquered sin and death.  In him is the forgiveness of sin, in him is life, in him God has returned to his creation as King.  And in him—the incarnate Word—God makes himself known.  In Jesus, God incarnate, we have the restoration and fellowship with our Creator that he has been working towards ever since the day we rebelled and were cast out of his presence.  In Jesus, God's kingdom—his new creation—has been inaugurated, in us and through us in the world.  Brothers and Sisters, we are that people the God of Israel was working to create and to make new all those millennia.  Jesus and the Spirit have finally made us that bubble of God's future in the present, the bubble where the world is set to rights and where the tears are wiped away, the bubble that shows the world the faithfulness and goodness of God.  May we be that people—God's future in the present, the heralds of his new creation—may we be faithful in being this Spirit-renewed gospel people who make known God's glory to the world. Let us pray: Almighty God we praise you this morning for the grace you have shown us.  Even as we rebelled against you, our good Creator, you were setting in motion our redemption: Father sending, calling, electing; Son speaking, coming, dying, rising; and Spirit uniting, renewing, regenerating, empowering.  In the redemption of the world we see the glory of the Trinity and the majesty of the Unity and in gratitude we fall before you with the angels to sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty.”  By your grace, keep us strong in faith, O Lord, but keep us also faithful in our witness and our ministry to make your redeeming love known to the world.  We ask this through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns together with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.  Amen.

Today, pastor Ray Bentley points out, we often think about getting into heaven, but we don't often think about heaven getting into us. Heaven has already entered you. The Lord is what heaven's all about. Wherever Jesus is is heaven. There's heaven in you. But if you want to experience more heaven, you have to seek the Lord. Those who seek after me with everything they've got will find me spread.

Malachi 4 & Matthew 9March 23rd, 2025Christus Victor. “An element of the atoning work of Christ that emphasizes the triumph of Christ over the evil powers of the world, through which he rescues his people and establishes a new relationship between God and the world. The evil powers of this world are real and active but not victorious. We were once slaves to sin but now we are free from sin.Sin once separated us from God but the victorious Christ has satisfied our sin and restored our relationship with our Father. A.W. Tozer “What you believe about God is the most important thing about you.” “What God did, God still does.” Malachi 4:1-6 (AMP) “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant (proud, self-righteous, haughty), and every evildoer shall be stubble; and the day that is coming shall set them on fire,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear My name [with awe-filled reverence] the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go forward and leap [joyfully] like calves [released] from the stall. 3 You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Remember [with thoughtful concern] the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and the ordinances which I commanded him on [Mount] Horeb [to give] to all Israel. 5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers [a reconciliation produced by repentance], so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse [of complete destruction].”Matthew 9:18-21 (AMP) 18 While He was saying these things to them, a ruler (synagogue official) entered [the house] and kneeled down and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and began to accompany the ruler, with His disciples. 20 Then a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the [tassel] fringe of His outer robe; 21 for she had been saying to herself, “If I only touch His outer robe, I will be healed.” Matthew 8 & 9 records… The healing of a Roman soldier's servant, highlighting the faith of the soldierThe healing of Peter's mother in lawThe healing of a lame manThe resurrection of a Jewish ruler's daughterThe healing of a woman who was bold enough to push through a crowd to get to Jesus. The healing of two blind men:In the broadest of brush strokes, Jesus paints a few pictures in these 2 chapters: Access to Jesus has nothing to do with pedigree or prior Jesus knowledge or experience. Wherever Jesus is, His healing power is. Our faith gets us to Jesus but He is the healer.Tallit - Jewish Prayer ShawlTzitzits - Tassels woven into each corner of the TallitKanafayim – The 4 corners of the Tallit are called “wings.” The woman knew who she is reaching to and what she was reaching for “the sun of righteousness who will rise with healing in His wings.” Mark 5:29-34 (NIV)…29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?' ”32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Jesus' brief address added more healing. “Daughter” – Relationship Affirmed. “Your faith has healed you.” The amplified reads [your trust and confidence in My power and My ability to heal]. Our faith moves us. Jesus heals us. “Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Go forward free! Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV). Surely, he (Jesus) took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Why is it so hard for people today to believe that Jesus still divinely, miraculously heals people? Here are a few reasons…We are stuck in Saturday living with Sunday power available. Because not all healing prayers are met with divine healing but all are met with God's compassion. A Healing Prayer:God, I believe you can. I trust you if you don't. Here I come. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (AMP) 8 Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me; 9 but He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.” Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me. 10 So I am well pleased with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with difficulties, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak [in human strength], then I am strong [truly able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God's strength].Psalm 57:1 (NIV) Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.Psalm 61:1-4 (NIV) Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. 2 From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. 4 I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

Wherever Jesus is considered, questions are raised. Jesus' gravitas and goodness, his miracles and signs, his astounding teaching, and his radical claims come into conflict with the world and its ways. Whether 2000 years ago or today, all must decide what to do with his invitation: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

Monday, 16 September 2024   and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'” Matthew 4:6   “and says to Him, ‘If Son – You are – of God, throw yourself down, for it has been written, “That His messengers, He will enjoin concerning You, and upon hands, they will lift You, lest when You may strike a stone to Your foot”'” (CG).   In the previous verse, the Traducer took Jesus up into the holy city and stood Him on the winglet of the temple. With that, we next read, “and says to Him, ‘If Son – You are – of God.'”   It is the same as in verse 4:2 where the word “Son” is in the emphatic position. As such, it is not a question of “if” but more of an affirmative statement, “As You are God's Son...” With that noted, the Traducer next says, “throw yourself down.”   Wherever Jesus was standing, it was from a high point on the temple. As noted, most translations say “pinnacle,” but it may be some other high point. Some scholars look at what is suggested as a way for the masses to see Jesus and what happens to Him.   If this is correct, then the pinnacle of the temple may or may not be the best location for this to occur. Rather, it may be the winglet where most people gathered at a particular hour. In Jesus throwing Himself down, it would thus be a publicly seen event that would unmistakably identify Him as a miracle worker, or even the Messiah.   Others disagree with this and focus solely on the matter of divine protection. As the psalm that will be cited is messianic in nature, it is probably a mixture of both – a public display accompanied by divine protection. Either way though, the Traducer next says, “for it has been written.”   He cunningly turns to Scripture, having realized that Jesus knew Scripture because He competently quoted it during the first temptation. However, does He know it in context? The first temptation proved that He could quote it to defend His position. However, the Traducer cites a messianic verse, but he does not cite all of it.   Will this be enough to trip up the Son of God? To find out, he then says, “That His messengers, He will enjoin concerning You, and upon hands, they will lift You, lest when You may strike a stone to Your foot.”   The words are taken from the Greek translation of Psalm 91:11, 12, but they leave out the words “to keep You in all Your ways.” This is how the NKJV translated the Hebrew –   “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:11, 12   The problem here is that Jesus' ways are to be God's ways. If the Traducer were to cite that, it would be evident that Jesus should refrain from doing something so outwardly boastful and self-directed. And more, a few verses earlier in the Psalm, specifically in verse 9, it says, “For You, Yehovah, my shelter. Highest – set Your abode” (CG).   In other words, the psalm says that the Messiah would trust in and abide in the Lord. After that, in verse 10, it notes that because of this there would be no evil to come upon Him or any plague to come near Him. However, if Jesus were to trust in the angels to keep Him safe, the Lord would not be His primary trust, only a secondary.   The angels, then, were there not to satisfy the Messiah's whims but to keep Him from dangers that may come unseen to Him. His primary shelter and abode were to be Yehovah. Therefore, Matthew Poole rightly states that this portion of Scripture has been falsely stated and ill-applied.   Life application: It is not just enough to know and cite Scripture but to keep it in its proper context. One should never tear verses out of Scripture to make a point that is not supported by the surrounding context.   For example, one could say, “The Bible says, Judas “went and hanged himself. ... Go and do likewise.” A problem arises with this because the first clause is from Matthew 27:5 while the second is from Luke 10:37.   The thoughts have nothing to do with each other and they have nothing to do with the surrounding context. Because of this, all kinds of problems could arise if the advice was followed. Further, the fact that Judas hanged himself is simply a description of what occurred. There is nothing prescribed for anyone else to do.   When you listen to pastors and preachers, pay attention to what they say, maybe write down the references, and check up on what you hear. The same is true with commentaries, videos, etc. However you are receiving your theology, be sure to check out what you are being told.   Lord God, give us wisdom in Your word, not just to know what it says, but what is the context of what is being said. May we properly apply what we read. And, Lord, keep us from intentionally misusing this marvelous treasure, Your superior word. Amen.  

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday St. John 3:1-17 by William Klock Knock!  Knock!  Knock!  Someone was at the door.  Peter—or maybe it was John or James—got up to see who it was.  It had been a long day.  Everywhere Jesus went the crowds followed.  Some were full of questions, but most of all they were full of problems.  And they brought them all to Jesus.  The blind, the deaf, the sick, the dying, the demon-possessed.  This isn't how the world is supposed to be, full of tears.  Everyone knew it then.  Everyone knows it now.  And everyone then and now hoped for a day when somehow it will all be set to rights.  And so the people flocked to Jesus, because wherever he went, there was a little pocket of the world as it should be, the world as God had made it, the world set to rights.  Wherever Jesus went, there was a little pocket of God's future brought into the present.  A little pocket of the world where the tears are wiped away. Knock!  Knock!  Knock!  There it was again.  They'd found a quiet place to spend the night away from the crowds, but someone had found it.  Peter was getting himself ready to tell whoever-it-was to go away, so image his surprise when he opened the door and saw Nicodemus standing there.  They'd never met, but everyone knew who Nicodemus was.  He was a rich man, he was one of the leaders of the Pharisees, but more than that, he was a member of the Sanhedrin—the ruling council of the Jews.  And here he was at the door of the house where Jesus was staying, standing there with a couple of his servants, politely asking to speak with the rabbi now that the crowds were gone. Nicodemus had seen what Jesus was doing.  Nicodemus had heard what Jesus was preaching.  Nicodemus had watched from the edge of the crowds and listened in the temple court.  In Jesus he saw the hopes of Israel being fulfilled.  He saw that little pocket of God's future following wherever Jesus went.  He believed—he just wasn't sure what exactly it was that he was believing.  Have you ever had that happen?  You see God at work.  It's obvious.  But it's not what you expected.  So you believe, but you don't really understand.  That's where Nicodemus was.  He wasn't one of the simple people who just needed some physical manifestation of the kingdom—like the blind and the deaf and the sick.  He knew the scriptures.  He knew how the God of Israel was supposed to fulfil his prophecies.  And Jesus was fulfilling them, but not in the ways anyone expected.  So the great theologian had come, not to be healed, but to ask how all this can be.  “We know that you're a teacher who's come from God,” Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Nobody can do the signs that you're doing, unless God is with him.” You can hear the unspoken question implicit in Nicodemus' affirmation.  It's the theologian's equivalent of “Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.”  It was like this for everyone.  The disciples saw, they heard, they believed, but whenever Jesus pressed them with questions, ninety per cent of the time they gave the wrong answer.  Peter knew with certainty that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of the living God.  But when push came to shove, he drew his sword and was ready to bring God's kingdom with violence.  Even the disciples were full of all the wrong ideas the Jews had about the Messiah and the coming of the kingdom.  Nicodemus was in the same boat.  It's just that he knew he was missing something and here he was to get it sorted out.  But Jesus doesn't give him the answer he wanted, because even if Jesus explained it all, even if Jesus connected all the dots for Nicodemus, that's wouldn't solve the problem.  Nicodemus would still need something more.  And this is where Jesus answers his implicit question with those familiar words, “Let me tell you the solemn truth.  Unless someone has been born from above, he won't be able to see God's kingdom.” It wasn't just Nicodemus struggling with all this.  Think of all our Gospel lessons during Easter- and Ascensiontide, those lessons where Jesus tells his disciples that as good as it is for him to be with them, he's going to have to leave so that something better can happen.  And they don't understand.  They're confused.  If Jesus leaves, that little pocket of the kingdom that follows him wherever he goes, it will be gone with him.  They didn't understand either.  They, too, had to be born from above in order to see—in order to be part of—the kingdom.  In order to themselves become little pockets of God's future in the present.  And, of course, that's what we saw last Sunday as we remembered Pentecost.  The God of Israel sent his Spirit to indwell his people—they were born from above—and suddenly it all made sense and Peter preached that Pentecost sermon that would have been impossible for him to preach just the day before and from there they went out to make God's kingdom known to the world. This is, incidentally, why we have this story of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus as our Gospel lesson today.  Trinity Sunday didn't come along until the high Middle Ages.  Long before today was Trinity Sunday, it was the Sunday after Pentecost and today's Gospel was assigned to explain the Pentecost events we read about last Sunday.  When Trinity Sunday came along no one changed the lesson, because here we see the Trinity revealed in the exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus as the Son reveals that the Father must send the Spirit to create, to give life to a renewed people. So Nicodemus knew the story.  He knew the God of Israel.  But he knew there was more to it.  He knew the world is not as it should be and he knew that that the people of Israel were failing at what God had called them to be.  And he knew the Lord's promises to set the world and Israel to rights.  He saw the Lord's promises being fulfilled in Jesus and he'd heard Jesus talking about this new work, this new exodus, this new deliverance of the people—this exodus even greater than the one that defined them when the Lord delivered them from Pharaoh.  And Jesus warned about a judgement soon to come on those who refused to repent of their old ways and to get in line with the Lord's plans.  It didn't fit into the expectations of the people of Israel and especially not into what the Pharisees expected, but there had to be something to it, because the Lord was so clearly with Jesus. Again, Jesus picks up on the question implied in Nicodemus' statement.  He says, “The central truth you're missing, Nicodemus, is that you've got to be born from above to see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus understood so much.  If anyone wanted to see God's will done and his kingdom come on earth as in heaven it was the Pharisees.  That's what they lived for.  And Nicodemus saw it in Jesus, but he struggled to reconcile his expectations with what Jesus was saying.  And Jesus says that what he's missing—what all of Israel is missing—is this new birth, this being born from above, this being born again.  And it's important to understand that as much as Jesus is saying, “You, Nicodemus, must be born again—which is how the ears of modern Christians have been trained to hear this in individualistic terms—Jesus' stress is on Israel, on the whole people.  In verse 7 he says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.'”  When he says “You must be born again,” that's plural, it's “you all must be born again”.  Israel as a people had been born the first time when they passed through the waters of the Red Sea and Jesus is saying that now Israel had to be born a second time.  This is why John was out in the wilderness baptizing in the Jordan, but that wasn't all.  Israel had been baptised in water before and it wasn't enough.  Now they needed to be baptised in both water and the Spirit.  Israel was always supposed to be a pocket of God's future in the present—so that the nations could see and know the goodness of God.  And Jesus is saying that it's the Spirit who will finally make the people what God had called them to be.  As Jesus had said over and over in various ways, he, Jesus, was sent by the Father, but that it would be the Spirit—the “Helper”—who would come after, who would testify to them about this truth and then that through them, this Spirit would testify to the rest of Israel and even to the nations…fulfilling the prophets, effectively creating a new Israel, and through this new people, fulfilling the mission the Lord had given to them from the beginning: to fill the world with the knowledge of him as the waters cover the sea and to testify to the nations in such a way that the nations would flock to the God of Israel to give him glory. But Nicodemus didn't get it.  Neither did Jesus' disciples.  Because the Spirit had not yet come to testify about Jesus.  So Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can I be born again?  I know you're not talking about returning to my mother's womb, but what do you mean?  A person is only born once.”  And as he answers Nicodemus, this is where Jesus switches from saying things like “Unless one is born again” to “Unless you—all of you—are born again”.  Because it's not so much about one person being born again or even about a whole bunch of individuals being born again.  It's about Israel as a people being born again so that she could be put back on track to fulfil her mission—the one given to Abraham two thousand years before.  And this idea of birth would have resonated particularly with someone like Nicodemus, because to be a Jew was all about being born as part of Abraham's family.  Other things like circumcision and the sabbath and what you ate (or didn't eat) were important and especially so for the Pharisees, but those things were important because they identified you as part of Abraham's family.  They also drew a clear boundary between those who were in the family and all the uncircumcised, unclean gentiles who were most definitely not. What Jesus is saying now is that being born into Abraham's family in the way the Jews had been thinking about it all this time wasn't enough.  In fact, it never had been enough.  And Nicodemus should have known this.  For two millennia people were being born into Abraham's family and God's kingdom still hadn't come.  For two millennia people were born into Abraham's family and still the Gentiles hadn't experienced the Lord's blessing through them, at least not on the large scale envisioned in the Scriptures.  Just the opposite.  The Prophet Zechariah had spoken of a day when the Gentiles would be grabbing hold of Jews by their coattails saying, “Take us with you, because we hear that God is with you!”  Instead, because of the way most of Abraham's children were living, the nations mocked them and taunted them saying, “Where's your God?”  It takes more than being born of the flesh of Abraham.  It even takes more than being born of water, as Israel had been in the Red Sea.  And as a man devoted to the law, to torah, Nicodemus should have understood this.  The Pharisees were all about exhorting their fellow Jews to be better keepers of the law, but it wasn't working.  They of all people should have been looking forward to the day when the law would no longer be written on tablets of stone, but engraved on the very hearts of the people by the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says to Nicodemus, “I'm telling you the solemn truth.  Unless you're born of water and the Spirit you cannot enter God's kingdom.  Flesh is born from flesh, but spirit is born from spirit.”  Israel needs something more than a biological inheritance.  What does Jesus mean, though, when he talks about being born of water and the Spirit?  This is was what John the Baptist was preaching about.  God was about to lead his people in a new exodus.  As Israel had been led through the waters of the Red Sea to become a covenant family, so John was calling people to pass through the waters of the Jordan—a step of repentance and faith—and into a new covenant.  They all needed that baptism of repentance.  They needed to turn aside from their own misguided expectations of the kingdom and of the Messiah and from their failures to be faithful to the Lord and his covenant.  But remember what John promised.  When people asked if he was the Messiah he said that he was only the forerunner.  John said, “I baptise you with water, but he will plunge you into the Holy Spirit.”  And that's just what Jesus does.  As we recalled last week on Pentecost, Jesus takes those who have repented, who have turned aside from every false lord, from every false god, from every false source of security, from every false way in order to take hold of him in faith by passing through the waters of baptism and he plunges us into the Holy Spirit.  And it's the Spirit who does the work of transforming us.  It's the Spirit who regenerates us.  It's the Spirit who causes us to be born again as he takes our old dead wood and unites it to the life of Jesus, causing us to bear fruit—making us the pocket of God's future in the present.  Through the Spirit we're born again, born from above. The last few months I've been reading Ed Sanders' books on the relationship between the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism.  Sanders was a brilliant scholar and full of deep insights.  His work has had a profound impact on how we understand the New Testament.  But he wasn't a Christian.  He described himself as a “secular Mainline Protestant”.  And it shows.  As brilliant as his insights into Jesus and Paul are, as fascinating as he is to read, it's all spiritually dry as dust.  There's no doxology to any of it.  Sanders even refused to weigh in on whether or not Christianity is superior to Judaism.  And so it was like a breath of fresh air when I finished Sanders' “Paul and Palestinian Judaism” and picked up Tom Wright's new book of Romans and it was full of the same sorts of brilliant and deep insights—many of them ideas that started with Sanders back in the 1970s—but Bp. Wright's work is overflowing with doxology and gospel joy.  That's the difference that Jesus and the Spirit make in us. Think of your baptism as something like Israel at the Red Sea.  There was the parted water and God calling Israel to pass through to freedom and new life on the other side.  There was no receiving the law in Egypt; they had to cross to the other side of the sea to find covenant, to find relationship with the Lord.  And so we stand at the waters of baptism today.  In them Jesus gives his promise: Repent, turn aside from every false way, trust me, follow me in faith and you will find forgiveness of sins and new life through the Spirit.  To pass through the waters of baptism is to take hold of Jesus' promise and to be born again of water and the Spirit—and to be made part of this new covenant people ready and equipped to live and to proclaim his kingdom. But, again, this didn't fit what Nicodemus knew.  “How can this be so?” he asks.  And Jesus asks a bit incredulously, “How can you not know this?  You're one of the teachers of Israel!”  Nicodemus knew the story.  He understood how Israel had so miserably failed in her mission.  As a Pharisee he was abundantly aware of this problem.  Jesus tells Nicodemus: God has heard your cries and is visiting his people and he's doing it in me.  I'm the son of man, the one spoken of by Daniel all those years ago.  I can tell you reliably the things of heaven because I'm the one who has come down from heaven. At this point, I think, Nicodemus starts to connect the dots as much as anyone could in those days before the Spirit was sent.  He started to understand, because now Jesus really starts to correct what was wrong with Israel's thinking about herself, about what it meant to be God's people, and about what it would mean for the Lord to come to deliver them.  Jesus reminds Nicodemus of an event from Israel's time in the wilderness.  The Israelites grumbled against Moses—which was ultimately grumbling against the Lord—and so he sent poisonous snakes into the camp.  They bit people and many of those who were bit died.  But the Lord also gave Moses the remedy.  He told Moses to cast a snake out of bronze and to mount it on a pole.  Anyone who would look up to the bronze snake would be healed. And now Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up that snake in the wilderness, in the same way the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may share in the life of God's new age.”  Jesus is pointing to his own crucifixion.  As the snake was the affliction of the people lifted up for them to look at, so Jesus would take the affliction of Israel on himself—he would suffer the punishment for their sins—and be lifted up on the cross.  He would be lifted up for everyone to look upon—to see the horror and the gravity of their sin, to see that the wages of sin is death.  But they would also see Jesus taking it all on himself and in that, the horror and ugliness of his being raised up would become an act by which he is ultimately glorified.  In the cross we see the love of God made manifest in Jesus.  And Jesus says in the familiar words we all know, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Jesus corrects the central error in the thinking of Israel in his day.  They were hoping and praying for the day when the Lord would come, not just to vindicate his people, but to judge their enemies—to rain down fire and brimstone on the Romans and all the other gentiles.  But instead Jesus tells Nicodemus that he's come not to condemn, but to save all who will look to him.  All.  The Jews thought the Lord, when he came, would vindicate them for their faithfulness, but Jesus says to Nicodemus, even the most righteous of you need this new birth, this salvation if you want to know God's vindication.  And it's not just for you.  The Jews looked forward to the condemnation he would bring, but Jesus says he's come not to condemn, but to save.  And this is where the part about being born again of water and the Spirit comes into play.  Being born of water and the Spirit supersedes biology and genealogy.  In Jesus God opens his arms to welcome Jew and Gentile alike.  It was the Jews first, because if the Lord is faithful—and he is—he had to first fulfil his promises to his own people, but most importantly, in that act of faithfulness, the nations would take note of the God of Israel.  In Jesus, the nations would see that the God of Israel is not like the puny, selfish, fickle, and powerless gods they have known, and they would then flock to this God who is truly good and faithful.  This is what God's future looks like, not just Israel set to rights and everyone else set on fire.  God's future is for everyone who sees Jesus and his people wiping away the tears and forgiving sin, who believes, and who becomes part of it—whether born of Abraham by the flesh or born of Abraham by faith—all born in God's Spirit. Abraham's family is integral to the story and the plan, but Jesus reminds us that genes and DNA were never really what made anyone part of Abraham's family; it was about faith.  It was faith for Abraham himself and it was faith in God's promises for all who followed after: for Isaac and Jacob, for Joseph and Moses and Joshua, for gentiles like Rahab and Ruth, and even for the great kings like David and Solomon.  And God's promise was that through his covenant people, through these people who knew him in faith and were reconciled to him by faith, he would bless the nations.  It happened here and there in the Old Testament.  Rahab and Ruth are two of many small-scale testimonies to that, but here we finally see the Lord's promise coming to full fruit.  It's what we celebrated last week on Pentecost as Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on these men of Israel gathered from around the world.  They had heard Peter preach about Jesus and what he'd come to do.  They rallied to Jesus in faith and in response Jesus poured his Spirit into them.  Finally, through Jesus, Israel became the source of blessing she was intended to be—not by flesh, but by the Spirit—as these men and women took the good news to the nations: Jesus is Lord.  He has conquered sin and death.  In him is the forgiveness of sin, in him is life, in him God has returned to his creation as King.  And in him—the Incarnate Word—God makes himself known.  In Jesus, God Incarnate, we have the restoration and fellowship with our Creator that he has been working towards ever since the day we rebelled and were cast out of his presence.  In Jesus, God's kingdom—his new creation—has been inaugurated, in us and through us in the world.  Brothers and Sisters, we are that people the God of Israel was working to create and to make new all those millennia.  Jesus and the Spirit have finally made us that pocket of God's future in the present, the pocket where the world is set to rights and where the tears are wiped away, the pocket shows the world the faithfulness and goodness of God.  May we be that people—God's future in the present, the heralds of his new creation—may we be faithful in being this Spirit-renewed gospel people who make known God's glory to the world. Let us pray: Almighty God we praise you this morning for the grace you have shown us.  Even as we rebelled against you, our good Creator, you were setting in motion our redemption: Father sending, calling, electing; Son speaking, coming, dying, rising; and Spirit uniting, renewing, regenerating, empowering.  In the redemption of the world we see the glory of the Trinity and the majesty of the Unity and in gratitude we fall before you with the angels to sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty.”  By your grace, keep us strong in faith, O Lord, but keep us also faithful in our witness and our ministry to make your redeeming love known to the world.  We ask this through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns together with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.  Amen.

Wherever Jesus is hated in the world, all who truly follow Him will be hated too. Follow Jesus in such a way that those who hate Him will also hate us, and love one another in such a way that will protect and heal us from the world's attacks.

The night that Jesus was born, light from heaven filled the sky. Wherever Jesus went, there was light. Whoever has Jesus has light. Light that illuminates. Light that enlivens our souls. Light that exposes secrets. Light is necessary for life, but it can also be scary if we're not content with life as it currently is. The light of Christ doesn't just show us how things are and leave us there. The light of Christ overcomes. The light of Christ brings new life. This is John's message that we'll unpack this week as we continue our journey in this epic Gospel.

Wherever Jesus went, sickness had to flee & death lost its sting. Strife, jealousy, bitterness, envy, hatred, unforgiveness and anything that is not of God, cannot stand in the presence of Jesus. This means nothing is more important than the presence of God, in our homes, our church and wherever we go. How do we change the atmosphere?  By ushering in the presence of God because the presence of God Changes ThingsSupport the showThanks for joining us!

As a believer, you have the potential to change the environment you are in. Since Jesus lives in you, wherever you go, Jesus is. Wherever Jesus is, miracles can happen. Tune in as Pastor Dodjiel shares this truth, observing from Jesus's first miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. If you would like to partner with BLVD Church and what we are doing in the community, you can make an investment of support at https://blvd.church/give

Talk 3  Mark 1:14-20  Winning others for Jesus Welcome to Talk 3 in our series on Mark's Gospel. So far we have seen how Mark begins by establishing very clearly that Jesus is none other than God himself who came to make possible the forgiveness of our sins. To prepare for his coming the people were to confess their sins, repent and be baptised. But when Jesus came he would do more for them than baptism in water ever could. He would baptise them in the Holy Spirit.   I also pointed out that in New Testament times repentance, faith, water baptism and baptism in the Spirit would usually have all taken place on the same day, and that, though these are each distinct elements with the process of Christian initiation, they would probably have been viewed as all part of the same event.   In our last talk we saw in the baptism of Jesus, his willingness to be identified with sinners even though he was sinless, his determination to do what is right, and his desire always to do the will of God. And we suggested that, if we truly wish to be his disciples, we must not only repent and believe the gospel, but that we should follow his example and be baptised by total immersion.   We saw too that Jesus' baptism in water also teaches us about the relationship between water baptism and the baptism in the Spirit. The baptism in the Spirit was the gateway to his miracle working ministry. For Jesus, this was received at/after his baptism in water. And this was just what the early disciples expected and, although this is rarely the case today, it is certainly what we should be teaching and believing for.   And finally, we considered five reasons why the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Perhaps the most important of these was that we could learn from his example how to deal with temptation. We saw the importance of keeping full of the Spirit, of being led by the Spirit, and of correctly understanding and using the Spirit's sword, the word of God.   Today we'll be looking at Mark 1:14-20. The passage introduces us to the message that Jesus preached and how he called his first disciples. It also shows us how, like the first disciples, we can get involved in spreading the good news of the gospel – how we can win other people for Jesus. The key, as we shall see, is found in verse 17 where Jesus says:   "Come, follow me, …and I will make you fishers of men."   If we want to win others for Jesus, we must first follow him ourselves. And we must allow him to make us. And as we work through the passage we'll see from the example of Jesus and the response of the disciples several other important principles. But first, let's begin by reading the whole passage.   14. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of (the kingdom of) God. 15. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" 16. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18. At once they left their nets and followed him. 19. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.   After John was put in prison (14) Mark begins by mentioning briefly that John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, had been put in prison. We know from chapter 6 that this was because he had annoyed Herod by telling him that it was not lawful for him to have married his brother's wife. Undeterred by this news, Jesus begins his public ministry. He preaches essentially the same message as John – Repent and believe the good news. Despite the possible danger in doing this – John was eventually executed by Herod – Jesus is determined to do God's will. So the first thing we can learn from the example of Jesus is that if we are going to be used in spreading the good news, we must not be deterred by apparent setbacks. We will need to embrace the danger.   Jesus went into Galilee (14) Before Jesus could proclaim the good news he had to go. Actually, the Greek literally means, he came. I'm reminded that before Jesus could tell us the good news, he had to come. He had to come from the glory of Heaven to a sin-sick world to make our salvation possible. And if others are to be saved, we too need to go. This is what he commanded us – Go into all the world and preach the good news (Mark 16:15). And the world begins right where you are. Jesus went into Galilee. Jesus had been brought up in Nazareth, which is in the region of Galilee. He went to where he had been brought up. If we're going to be used in spreading the good news about Jesus, we must be willing to go. If need be, to the ends of the earth, but at least to those who are already around us. This implies intentionality. To catch fish, you have to GO fishing.   proclaiming the good news of (the kingdom of) God. (14) The message must be proclaimed, announced. Of course, it's no good talking the talk if we're not walking the walk. Nevertheless, living good lives is not enough. Actually I'm not living a good life if I'm not telling others what they need to hear.   The message is good news about God. More specifically, the kingdom of God. It's good news that God's in charge. More of this in a moment.   The time has come (15) For thirty years Jesus had been relatively silent, but now the time had come. How did he know? He lived life in dependence on his Father and in close fellowship with him. He was now baptised in the Spirit and empowered to begin his ministry. It was through the power of the Spirit that the kingdom would be manifested.   In Matthew 12:28, after healing a demonized man who had been blind and mute Jesus says:   If it is that by the Spirit of God I drive our demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (v28).   The kingdom of God is near.  Or, the kingdom of God has come. The Greek verb engizo literally mean to come near. The kingdom is present wherever the king is present. Wherever Jesus was present, there were manifestations of the kingdom like healing and casting out demons. And in Matthew 10:1 he gave his disciples authority to do the same:   He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.   And in verses 7-8 he went on to say:   As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.   They did this with the special authority Jesus gave them at that time. Later, after Jesus had returned to Heaven, to do these things they had to wait until they were baptised in the Spirit. Their authority would come from the Spirit, and the miracles they performed, like those performed by Jesus, would be done through the direction and power of the Spirit. When we're baptised in the Spirit we should expect him to work miracles through us. It's not so much a matter of claiming promises as being led by the Holy Spirit.   Repent and believe the good news! (15) The message we have to share with people is good news, demonstrated by amazing miracles of healing, deliverance, provision and forgiveness. But its blessings are to be received by repenting and believing. When we share the good news with people, we must not dodge the issue of repentance. It's not good news for those who refuse to repent and believe.   So we've looked at the example of Jesus. We've seen that if we are going to be used in spreading the good news: ·      We must not be deterred by apparent setbacks. We will need to embrace the danger. ·      We must be willing to go. ·      We must be willing to speak. ·      We should expect God to work miracles through us as we are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. ·      We must not dodge the issue of repentance.   But now let's look at the response of the disciples.   16. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18. At once they left their nets and followed him. 19. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.   17. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."   The purpose of our calling to follow Jesus is to make us fishers of men (17).   18. At once they left their nets and followed him   At once… they followed him Taken with verse 20 where we're told that Jesus called his disciples without delay, we see three things: ·      We should not delay in telling others the good news. ·      When Jesus calls us to salvation, we should not delay. ·      When he calls us to serve him, we should not put off the decision.   There is a clear sense of urgency in all this, and this is emphasised in verses 18 and 20 where the fishermen left their nets (v18) which were their livelihood, and their father (v20). They left their family as well. They left all to follow him. Their attitude can best be summarised in one word – COMMITMENT.  As CT Studd, a Cambridge graduate and former England cricketer once said: If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.   And Studd lived up to his words. After his father's death, he gave away his entire inheritance and became a missionary, serving the Lord in China, India, and finally in Africa. Now we may not all be called to give up our means of livelihood or our family to follow Jesus, but we should all be willing to do so. We are all called to commitment. So now let's summarise the principles we have discovered in today's passage.   ·      When Jesus calls us to salvation, we should not delay. ·      When he calls us to serve him, we should not put off the decision. ·      We should follow his example and allow him to make us fishers of men. ·      We should not delay in telling others the good news of the kingdom of God. ·      We should expect God to work miracles through us as we are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. ·      We must not be deterred by apparent setbacks. We will need to embrace the danger. ·      We must be willing to go. ·      We must be willing to speak, and we must not dodge the issue of repentance.   Of course, we're all different, but how can these principles be worked out in YOUR life?

Wherever Jesus went, crowds followed. But no matter a person's class or station, Jesus extends compassion and tenderness to anyone who comes to him in faith.

Wherever Jesus goes in this passage, he seems to be creating controversy...and also community! Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy observe Jesus as healer in Matthew's Gospel, the way he twists what people already know, and how we still find a way to touch the power of the divine.Referenced in this podcast:Tim Keller: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Timothy-Keller/author/B001H6SAQW?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true"Touch the Hem of His Garment" by Sam Cooke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReUZ0ye-ESELearn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:32-35). In our text for today, Moses is challenging Israel to do her historical homework. Its unlikely Moses would have appreciated some of the dry history textbooks, imposed on high school students. For him, history was alive with the great saving acts of God. These are the stories Moses wants remembered; remembered so that the appropriate lessons can be drawn. The most important is this: there is only one God, he is the Lord God of Israel. As I read Moses' words, I am reminded that early in its history, the church began to meet on Sundays to remember her own history. Our story as church parallels Israel's story. Let's consider these two stories. The essential question is this: has anything like what Israel experienced ever happened before? ‘Of course, not', it's a rhetorical question. And arguably, nothing like it happened until Christ himself. Early on, God spoke to Israel directly, “And God spoke all these words…” (Exodus 20:1). With this act, God separated himself from the other gods of all the other nations and identified Israel as a nation unique among the peoples. Gods did not speak directly to their people. Moreover, Israel survived the encounter. “You heard God and lived”, Moses reminds Israel. This was another act of God's grace. He desired to have direct contact with his people. Other gods were not interested in such things. They had more important things to do that interact with their worshippers. Humans believed they needed to attract the attention of their god, but only enough to get a few blessings. If a god got to close, there would be human casualties. God's direct speech was too much for Israel. They were afraid and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exodus 20:19). But God desires to speak directly to us. Thus, God came to us in Christ Jesus. This is the burden of John 1, summarized in the famous words of verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In Christ, we see the glory of God and we too live. The gospel accounts want us to recognize that in Christ, something greater is happening. Israel was spared from death when they met God. Wherever Jesus went, he brought life: the hungry were fed, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the dead were raised. When we hear God, we are not just spared from death, we are given the life of Christ himself. Jesus promised the Spirit who would teach us everything he had told his disciples (John 14:26). Paul adds, “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children” (Romans 8:15-16). The miracles Israel saw God perform in Egypt and afterwards, revealed God's omnipotence. He was and is stronger than Pharoah and all his gods. Jesus came, claiming to be God. He came with signs and wonders, showing that he was more powerful than sickness and hunger and even death by raising people back to life. The Gospels present Jesus as the Lord God of Israel, who ushers in the kingdom of God with signs and wonders that climax in his resurrection. Through his death and resurrection Jesus proves his divine identity; he is the Redeemer of Israel. If God's rescue of the Israelites from their slavery to Pharaoh and his kingdom demanded a tremendous act of divine power, how much more our rescue from sin and the kingdom of darkness. This is what Jesus has accomplished for us, and in so doing he has demonstrated that he alone is God; there is no other. That is why Sunday became the church's day. She continues meeting to remember her history and to respond in faith. Moses wanted Israel to remember that only her Lord was God, so that she would believe and live in covenant faithfulness. Christians meet to encourage one another in their faith and in their Christian life. If you have lost connect with your Christian fellowship, I encourage you to get reconnected. Its difficult to go it alone.

Sunday, February 12, 2023 Seeking Shalom Together: “We are Christ-Centered”  Speaker: Dr. Brian Bennett   Notes: We are Christ-Centered: shalom _________ becomes shalom _________ through Jesus [Jeremiah 29:7; John 14:26-27]   We are Christ-Centered: _________ with Jesus and living out of the _________of Him [Acts 3:6-10; 4:1-4] • Wherever Jesus is _________there is power ready to be _________   We are Christ-Centered: _________ Jesus work to _________ _________as we walk by faith [Acts 4:5-13] • Jesus' people are _________, not just _________ • We must _________Jesus before _________for Jesus   We are Christ-centered: _________ the name of Jesus over _________name [Acts 4:14-22; John 16:33]   We are Christ-Centered: _________ for _________ and giving generously   [Acts 4:29-37] • How they prayed:  oGod see our _________ oGive us _________ in it o_________ out your hand to help   Next Step Questions: - Have you received Jesus and centered your life on Him? - Are you living out of the overflow of a Christ-centered walk? - Will you ask for boldness to live the life He has for you?

I love receiving Christmas cards that have a picture of a cozy house nestled in banks of pristine snow. It looks so inviting and welcoming, with every window glowing. Christmas is so much about hospitality – inviting other people into our home. Maybe it's partly because we remember that Mary and Joseph welcomed the visiting shepherds even though they were in a stranger's barn themselves. Is your house full of light and warmth? Do people feel welcome there; not just because you have Christmas cookies and hot chocolate, but because they can sense that Jesus is there? Wherever Jesus is, there is hope, and joy, and warmth. And because of Jesus, we are all welcome in God's family. This Christmas season, let the light of Jesus shine from your windows, sending out an invitation. You don't know who around you needs to come in out of the cold and into God's loving family. This is Andrew Palau. “Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!” Hebrews 13:2 radio.hopewithgod.com

Pastor Vernon preached today with a powerful message titled Jesus The Divider! Wherever Jesus went, he provoked a reaction. Some thought He was the devil, some thought He was divine. It's your choice if you're forgiven or unforgiven.

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:When the introductions are made on Wheel of Fortune, the contestants almost always talk about two things. They talk about their family, and they talk about their job. One's family and one's livelihood are very important parts of who we are. In our Gospel reading Jesus seems to attack both of these sources for our identity. Our identity is precious to us. Jesus makes us choose between being his disciple or holding on to our identity. Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” There's Pat's question about our families. Jesus also has something to say about our livelihoods: “Any one of you who does not say farewell to all his own possessions cannot be my disciple.” Let me add that the word for “possessions” here is much larger than just money and property. A more literal translation would go something like this: “Any one of you who does not say farewell to his own being or existence cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is laying claim to all of us, our entire being. Another thing he says in our reading is: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” This strikes us as being very negative. There are some very negative words like “hate,” “say farewell,” and “carry your cross.” The other side of it, of course, is the possibility of being Jesus's disciple. We hardly ever think of that. The goodness of being a disciple of Jesus must be such that these very important and precious things in our life are not the highest good. The one thing that cannot be dispensed with is being Jesus's disciple. Everything else can go. A rock-solid conclusion that we must draw from Jesus words is that there is no such thing as being a casual Christian. A casual Christian will never put up with such demands. If there is a conflict between family and faith, family comes first. But what Jesus is saying is that such a one is not his disciple. Or what if a person's job makes demands upon a Christian that the Christian cannot agree to with a good conscience? If you will not say farewell to your livelihood you cannot be his disciple. This is very useful to know in our day because you certainly aren't going to hear anything like this from anywhere else. The widespread assumption is that being a casual Christian is perfectly acceptable. If ever a conflict arises between being a Christian and familial obligations, or in order to get a good grade, or to keep your job, or even recreation commitments, all these other things not only can come first, but probably should come first. We tend not to think anything of this, but if we were to think about it we'd realize that a very powerful confession of faith is made by our actions. When everything else in the world comes first and being a faithful disciple is only when it is convenient, you are making your confession before the world and before God where your loyalties lie. On the other hand, so-called fanaticism or so-called extremism in popular understanding is when your commitments towards God are allowed to have an impact on your life. This is very strange, very bad. Over the past 20 years or so a lot of the villains in TV crime shows have been screwy Christians who aren't like the rest of the population. They can't be trusted because who knows how they will act. The rest of the population knows what life is for. Life is for making money and spending money. Anybody who doesn't have that as the purpose for their life is strange and dangerous. I could almost imagine one of those TV villains quoting Jesus after doing something dastardly to his family: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” This reading, therefore, is very useful in the sense that it can teach us something we don't already know or already believe. Our people are so much more thoroughly catechized by what they learn from TV than from anything they might learn from the Bible or from church. Everybody already believes that family has to come first, then the job, then the cabin, then, if there's time and out of the goodness of our heart, we'll offer the leftovers of our life to Jesus. And he should be grateful that we are such good people that we offer him even that! That, I would say, is the widespread mentality. So when Jesus says you must hate your family and say farewell to the life you imagine you've created for yourself if you want to be his disciple, this totally blows out of the water the thinking that we otherwise might have. Discipleship to Jesus is higher and holier and we must not toss it aside for even the best and most wholesome that this life can offer. Wherever Jesus leads, we will follow. That's what it means to be a disciple. A disciple follows the master. Therefore we should count the cost. Jesus says: For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, everyone who sees it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build, but was not able to finish.' Or what king, as he goes out to confront another king in war, will not first sit down and consider if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if he is not able, he sends out a delegation and asks for terms of peace while his opponent is still far away. If you are only going to give the leftovers of your life to God, then you might as well not even give him that. If you were going to build a tower with what you have laying around at your house or in your garage, that's going to be a pretty pathetic and ugly tower. You might as well not even build it because it probably isn't going to be worth anything anyway. So also casual discipleship isn't worth anything either. In the life to come casual disciples of Jesus will look stupid. “Look, they thought they were Christians even though they never followed Jesus.” Either you are his disciple or you are not. There's no half way. Either you are looking for Jesus to take you to himself or you are making the most of this life. If you are making the most of this life, then you will never be willing to sacrifice anything that you really care about because that will decrease your quality of life. The best that can ever be hoped for are the leftovers. Maybe you'll use the stuff that you have lying around, but you certainly aren't going to go out and buy building materials with the money that you could otherwise use to increase your standard of living. The way it is now is the way it was then and vice versa. At the beginning of our reading it says “large crowds were traveling together with Jesus.” The fact that there was a large crowd seems to be what prompts Jesus to say that the cost of being his disciple is very high. And true to Jesus's words, this crowd ended up being unfaithful. In each one of the individual lives of this crowd something happened where they quit following Jesus. We don't know what those things were. For one person it was this. For another person it was that. Maybe some of them followed him all the way to the cross, but then they couldn't believe in the resurrection. So it goes also with us. One person never even learns that being a disciple of Jesus requires anything more than possessing a tiny nugget of knowledge about him. A better informed person tries to be his disciple by learning from him, receiving his sacrament, attending church, but the cares and pleasures of this life draws him away. There are other things he'd rather do with his time than hear Jesus say stuff like he says to us in our reading today. Another person continues on as a Christian until he is forced to choose between doing what is right and doing what is easy or appears to be loving or what seems profitable. Like the three kinds of soil in Jesus's parable about the sowing of the seed, the call to be Jesus's disciple comes to nothing. But it might not seem that way to the persons that I've described. Maybe, in their mind, their tower is fine. Maybe they even still come to church. But all they are doing is honoring God with their lips, while their hearts are far from him. This is where Jesus's words can be very helpful to you. Don't deceive yourself about the nature of being Christ's disciple. If you aren't willing to be faithful to Jesus rather than be pleasing to your family, then don't pretend that you are Jesus's disciple. If you won't say farewell to your quality of life so that you can be a disciple of Jesus, then you better keep  all of that for yourself and enjoy it before your life ends. But if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, then dedicate yourself to him anew today. Jesus says in another place, “Truly I tell you that no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” Note how Jesus says that when we have left behind things for the Gospel that we already receive in this life a hundred times as much. We have brothers, sisters, mothers, and children with our fellow believers. We have a home in God. We have a field in which we may work. Jesus does say that there are also persecutions—this is not some unrealistic fantasy. But persecutions are never as bad as the devil would have us believe. And then, in the age to come, we will receive eternal life. Jesus's words in our Gospel reading today can sound horribly negative, and they always and forever will sound horribly negative to every scoffing unbeliever. But Jesus is not stingy. He has not come to take good things away from us. He comes to take bad things away—idolatry, impiety, covetousness. These things hamper life more than we realize. Instead, as Jesus says, “I have come so that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” With the new life in Jesus, with the forgiveness of all your sins, you are entering ever more fully into life if you continue as his disciple. As he burns off the dross, purifying you, he makes you strong to enter eternal life where love is all in all. This is something that never can happen casually. It involves heat and pressure, bringing about a transformation. Jesus never means evil for us disciples—only good—but we have to trust him.

Wherever Jesus is is the center of power.

John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.     What an amazing, incredible encouragement these words must have been to the disciples —and to us. He told them he was going someplace to which they could not go at that time, but He wasn't going to be apart from them for good. The place He was going to prepare made it possible for Jesus to come be with them again. And in coming to be with them, He would receive them (us) to Himself. Jesus even gave them the purpose for His going away. The place Jesus was going to prepare was going to make it possible for them to be present with Him wherever He was present. This reality is stunning. For the disciples, Jesus was speaking of something to be done and experienced in the future. But for us, this is a present ongoing reality and experience. Jesus has come to be with us! He is the resurrection and the Life.  We have been received by Jesus because everything that could separate us from His love and prevent our union with Him was removed at the cross in His substitutionary death. Wherever Jesus wishes to go in this world to love for the glory God, we may go with Him. At any given moment in history, Jesus is loving people with and through each of His own. Jesus has begun to explain to His disciples and to us how it is possible that they can love one another even as He loves them. He comes into us. We become one with Him. We are as He is in this world. Now that's a great encouragement to believe in Jesus and not let your heart be troubled today.  Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

Wherever Jesus went there were crowds longing to touch him and be healed. And this morning we see the desperation of the crowds longing to touch even “the fringe of his cloak.” Join us as we explore how we might be bold enough to come - even rush - toward Jesus to touch him and be healed.

GOSPEL POWER l JULY 17, 2022 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel: Lk 10:38-42 38As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Wherever Jesus goes, the newness of the Kingdom breaks forth in surprising, at times upsetting ways, as in today's Gospel episode. A cursory reading of the text suggests that Martha is upset because of Mary's failure to assist her in serving the guests, which certainly include Jesus' disciples. But an in-depth reading reveals more. Sitting at a teacher's feet involves not only assimilating the message for one's own benefit but for the sake of transmitting it to others. Thus, one sits at a teacher's feet to be trained to become a teacher to others. But in the context of first-century Palestine, that is a domain exclusive to males. Martha is disturbed because her sister is crossing conventional gender boundaries. She feels duty-bound to draw her back to the women's domain. But Jesus affirms Mary's choice which precisely reveals the newness of the Kingdom. In Jesus, the Messiah, traditional barriers are transcended — “There is no Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man, for all are one in him” (cf. Gal 3:28). Lord Jesus, dispose our hearts to allow the newness of the Kingdom to surprise and amaze us. Amen.

The sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was life-changing event.  It was a milestone!  Pentecost changed the lives of the twelve apostles. The mighty rushing wind, the tongues of fire, and then they began to speak in other tongues, other languages. In fact, everyone heard them speaking in his own native language, undoing the confusion of the Tower of Babel. The Spirit brought to the apostles' remembrance all that Jesus had said to them, and they proclaimed it. It turned them from learners into preachers. And everyone was looking at them - some marveling and some mocking. But clearly their lives had changed. Nothing was going to be the same again. And then there were the 3,000 that were baptized that day, and more after that. Pentecost was truly a life and world-changing event. The Holy Spirit that was poured out on that first Pentecost wasn't just poured out that day - it is a pouring out that started on that day and hasn't stopped since. That first Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out through the means of the mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire. But after that He was poured out through the preaching of the Word and the water of Baptism that changes your life forever. Wherever Jesus as Savior is preached, the Holy Spirit is working. Wherever the water of Baptism is poured out in the name of the triune God, the Holy Spirit is being poured out in that water. Changing lives. Creating faith in Jesus. Making children of God. Forgiving sins. And bestowing the gifts of peace and hope and holiness. Pentecost is a milestone!----Visit our website: https://www.trinitysheboygan.org/​​​​Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person!Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-ASupport the show

It starts by naming us after birth We grow up to know our names and we use that to identify ourselves in this world Some are called Dr. so and so, Prof so and so In our society we have to constantly show prove of our identity. The power of identification. Holding a doctoral degree gives respect to your name. People automatically respect you, for that is the power of identification We know all this as believers in the secular world but forgetting the power of identification which we have in Christ. Just here to remind you of your power of identification. There is no separation between us and Christ.(John 14:20) For as God is a Father to Christ Jesus, He is also a Father to us. Believing is related to the fatherhood of God, and we can benefit on that because we are related to that fatherhood through Christ Jesus. As God is the father to Christ, He is also Father to us. (2 Cor 6:18, Psalm 103:13, Luke 6:36-38) The one that created the earth is your father, why worried, why being scared. He loves us the way he loves Christ (John 3:16) Heb 2:11: 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Both he that sanctified refers to Christ and who are sanctified refers to us believers Meaning, both the sanctifier and the believers are all of one. Being in one family, the family of liberty Hence, Christ is our brother and friend. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the death, lives in us. (Romans 8:14-16) Therefore, Where there is sickness, you can lay your hands the way same Christ laid His Hands. Because the power of God that flow through Christ is the same power that flows through you. When you are face with circumstances, you know that the same Spirit that raised up Christ is the same Spirit that is within you. (Eph 1:18-22) The power of identification So, you overcome at all times. A way is being made for you at all times. Not because of what you have done but because you have believed. The Fatherhood of God towards Us is dependent on our relationship with Christ, for those who have believed and those who will believe. We have no fear because we are one with God and one with Christ. Everywhere you step into Christ is there, For Christ is alive through Us. We are the evidence of Christ on this earth. The power of God is following on the earth through us. We came into the Love of the Father as believers. We are one with God because we are One with Christ. The power of identification Christ is alive through us, and His Power is within Us. God loves us because He Love Christ. The same power that is in Christ is within me. The power of identification. Even on earth identification hold value, how much of we are identifying ourselves with Christ. As you are identified with Christ, in Christ, as Christ. All that He has received we have also received. We are ambassador of Christ (2 Cor 5:20), we are full representative of Christ. You see me you see Christ, just because I believe through the Love of God for us. The power of identification We have Oneness with the Father and oneness with the Son (John 17:21) Wherever Jesus is, that's where we are (Joh 14:3 Greater works than these shall we do. (John 14:12) Whatsoever you shall ask in Jesus's name, that will He do, that our Father, His Father will be glorified in the Son (John 14:13) We have the Glory of God, for we received it in the place of salvation The full resource of the father is available for us believers. When we speak mountain moves, because when he speaks mountain moves. The power of identification --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/assumpta-widak/message

Jesus has taught us in the Beatitudes who we are and what we have in our covenant relationship with Him.  Now He teaches us who we are to be to the world.  We are to be salt and light to a hopeless and dark world. The world is out to rob us of these precious gifts of salt and light.  Salt adds flavor and hope.  Light gives us God's truth and what is right.  We are to keep alive these inspirations of hope and life against the endless onslaughts of humanistic religions and secular humanism. Wherever Jesus went He brought life, which inspired hope.  He has given Himself to us to the same in us.

Wherever Jesus went, he announced that the Kingdom of God had come near. But ironically, His "kingdom" (unlike the kingdom of Caesar) distributed treasure to the sick and needy, the poor in life or poor in spirit. Listen in to our interactive services as we explore how we, too, can inherit and enter this upside-down Kingdom of God.

Wherever Jesus went, he announced that the Kingdom of God had come near. But ironically, His "kingdom" (unlike the kingdom of Caesar) distributed treasure to the sick and needy, the poor in life or poor in spirit. Listen in to our interactive services as we explore how we, too, can inherit and enter this upside-down Kingdom of God.

Wherever Jesus went, He taught in parables, which are typically stories to help make a moral point. But with Jesus, these were not merely stories to teach morality. These were stories to reveal Himself. And the only people who understood that were the ones to whom Jesus chose to reveal Himself.

Enthusiasm When actions and words agree – the message is loud and clear   Titus 2:14 (Amp) – Who [willingly] gave Himself [to be crucified] on our behalf to redeem us and purchase our freedom from all wickedness, and to purify for Himself a chosen and very special people to be His own possession, who are enthusiastic for doing what is good. The oxford dictionary places this word in the margin for Enthusiasm: ENTHEOS: Inspired by God (Inspired means – with Breath)               When God breathed in our lives = we most naturally are filled with enthusiasm. (Watch a newly radically saved person) The oxford dictionary say's it means: Intensity of feeling, Great eagerness, in other words you can't keep it in. Jeremiah 20:9 (NLT) – But if I say I'll never mention the Lord or speak in His name, His word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can't do it! Believe me it shows when you have it, and when you don't Enthusiasm is the excitement of the Spirit It's a supernatural attitude of the heart. One of the obvious signs is Joy: David asks God to “restore his joy in Ps.51: 12 Joy and Enthusiasm cannot be separated. This is the same David who danced enthusiastically in his underpants before God and the nation. Ask yourself these questions: Does your enthusiasm for Jesus encourage other people to want what you have? What kind of world would this be if everyone was just like you? Would you want people to live for Jesus the way you do? Be very honest with yourself on a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your Enthusiasm? Enthusiasm was the very characteristic of Jesus life. Wherever Jesus moved He affected people positively,      do you? Mark 2:2 (NLT) – Soon the house where He was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While He was preaching God's word to them.   Mark 5:24 (NLT) – Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around Him. Enthusiasm is an energy giver its never and energy taker. Enthusiasm will always draw people to Jesus. Galatians 4:18 -  It is fine to be enthusiastic provided the purpose is good and to be so always and not just when I am with you It's not to be “An die brand” (on fire)in the church only. Its to go out of this building: Into your home Into your school and workplace Into your neighborhood Into your social life your sport every part of who you are and where you may find yourself. As a child of God there should be something different about you!!! If there is not something unique and different in your life you should re-evaluate yourself Both Enthusiasm and Pessimism are contagious. The Question is: How much of each do you spread? They say a person who finds the negative seldom finds anything else. Some people always find the bad in a situation Negatives are developed in the dark room. Do you know people like that? Are you that kind of person? Think about it! How many successful Enthusiastic complainers do you know? (Absolutely none) Paul wrote Philippians 2:14 in everything you do stay away from complaining and arguing. To many the cup is half empty, instead of the cup is half full These kinds of people look at what they have lost, instead of what they have left. An Enthusiastic person: Good morning, Lord; the pessimist: Good Lord its morning. If life hands you a bag of lemons make lemonade It's a proven fact that 68% of people do not go back to buy at certain shops because of the attitude of the staff We are ambassadors for Christ, will people want to come to your church? You see an enthusiastic child of God is someone who does things before they have to be asked to do it. Enthusiasm is contagious you can never remain neutral in the presence of an enthusiastic person Ephesians 5:10 (Amp) -  Trying to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him.] Don't you think an enthusiastic Christian bubbling over; witnessing; always positive, pleases the Father when He looks at your life. Right now, as you sit there, what's coming out of your life, is a direct reflection of who and what you are and what you believe to be true. The devil (die vark oor) hates an enthusiastic Christian. Here is a challenge for every one of us for the next week then we must report back how it went at home cells. This is the challenge Stop all negative talk – It destroys enthusiasm Stop saying anything bad about anything or anyone. Make a decision to look for ways to help others and to invest in them – It will boost your enthusiasm Let us consider our enthusiasm for Jesus a new, our joy, and our attitude. (Seek God) Create opportunities to be enthusiastic. If you know you haven't been very enthusiastic, make it a point to pray until you experience the touch of the fire of the anointing of the enthusiastic Holy Ghost it's the very breath of the Father in you start to act like it's real. Decide to rid yourself of that 5Bar pumped up face and stop looking like you suck lemons. AMEN.

Luke 14:34, Jesus says:“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?”Don't lose your flavour! Wherever Jesus went, He caused either a riot or a revival but He was never in-between. You and I must remain salty. People don't have to like us but they must respect us - and they will if we remain salty. Even Jesus said in Revelation 3:16: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”Strong words, spoken by the Master. Jesus put a fire back into Peter when he had lost all hope and had gone back fishing. He can do the same for us today. Father God desires to put new salt back into our very souls today... Giving us something to live for, to get up in the morning for and to die for - if necessary. He wants us to live, not merely exist. He wants us to realize our dreams, He wants us to complete that course. We must be salty. Let's make a difference in this tired and flavourless world we live in today.You know, being of Scottish roots, our national dish in Scotland is porridge... And I want to say something to you, I mean this from the bottom of my heart - If you ever invite me into your home and offer me a nice plate of porridge but don't put any salt in it, I will never come back to your house again. Don't offer me a cup of tea (by the way, I love tea) that is lukewarm because I won't drink it. The tea needs to be red-hot and that porridge must be salty.Have a lovely day today as you make a difference in somebody's life.God bless you and goodbye.

"Reimagined: House" – Mark 2:13-17  Part III of the sermon series, "Reimagined." Sermon by The Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, September 26, 2021. "Wherever Jesus goes, he turns norms and expectations upside-down. From the outside, Mark's house might look simple―but looking in, as the Pharisees saw, it is a glorious scene not just of a hodgepodge banquet table way back then―but of a Table to come."

Today, Tuesday September 21 Prayer – “According to His Will” 1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” As I began writing this blog, I couldn't help but remember two devotionals on this subject by Osward Chambers (Utmost for His Highest), that helped me have a better understanding of the will of God. I trust they will bless and help you also. Please read them carefully! June 7 - DON'T SLACK OFF, "Whatever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do" (John 14:13). Am I fulfilling this ministry of the interior? There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified. Am I allowing my spiritual life to be frittered away, or am I bringing it all to one center—the Atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest in my life? If the one central point, the great exerting influence in my life is the Atonement of the Lord, then every phase of my life will bear fruit for Him. I must take time to realize what is the central point of power. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? "If ye abide in Me"—continue to act and think and work from that center -"ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Am I abiding? Am I taking time to abide? What is the greatest factor of power in my life? Is it work, service, sacrifice for others, or trying to work for God? The thing that ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the Atonement of the Lord. It is not the thing we spend the most time on that molds us most; the greatest element is the thing that exerts most power. We must determine to be limited and concentrate our affinities. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do." The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint. August 20 – COMPLETENESS, "And I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say—Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute. The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong. It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God. When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask—What is Thy will? A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer. If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously. Jesus says, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest," i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself God bless!

If you’ve ever thought church was a drag, I’m afraid you didn’t get a chance to know the real Jesus. When we look at the Jesus revealed to us in Scripture, we find that He was, quite literally, the life of the party. In fact the very minute God chose to launch Jesus’ ministry was at a party. You probably know the story; they ran out of wine and Jesus made more. What He made was better than anything they’d ever had! Wherever Jesus went, He brought life and love. As you listen to this message, What the Holy Spirit Wants to Do for You, think about the parts of your life where you need Jesus to bring life, and invite Him in to do just that.

Wherever Jesus went, says Mark, needy people “begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed” (6:56). Jesus responds to their needs by showing compassion, which raises some questions: Do we have the compassion of the Christ? Are we willing to “suffer with” the hurting people around us? Can we be like the cloak of Jesus today? Check out this message as we explore this important topic. 

Sunday, April 12 - We celebrate The Love Story on Easter Sunday! Reading from John 20:19-22 & Luke 24:37 - 43 we learn 4 simple truths: 1 - Fear Locks the door, but Love Finds a way 2 - Wherever Jesus is… Peace is! 3 - When the disciples saw Jesus, they Rejoiced! “OVERJOYED”4 - The Love Story is a story of living with Purpose!

Wherever Jesus goes, there's a party! We are God's living invitation. In this message we earn to enjoy the party and invite people to it!

Wherever Jesus is born, the stigma of that place changes.

Wherever Jesus is born, the stigma of that place changes.

Today we are beginning a three-part series on the Kingdom of God. The understanding of being part of a kingdom is central to our Christian faith but is often not emphasized or understood by much of the church. We talk about being saved and born again but that is just part of the gospel message. We are not only called to be saved, we are called to embrace and participate in the advancement of God's kingdom on earth. - The understanding of the kingdom lies at the very heart of the gospel. The way you and I live our lives is directly related to our understanding of the Kingdom of God. As a young Christian I was not taught about the kingdom of God. My spiritual goal was to endure until Jesus comes and make it to heaven. Our goal in this study is that we would become more kingdom minded in how we think and how we live our everyday lives. - We want to seek first the kingdom. Live and breathe the kingdom. - We want to become kingdom people that confront the forces of darkness and advance God's agenda on the earth. Jesus message is not just about being saved it is about us becoming part of a kingdom that is invading the earth. Wherever Jesus went he talked to the people about the Kingdom of God. That was his main message. But he didn't just talk about the kingdom he also demonstrated the power of the kingdom.

Wherever Jesus went He brought life. We have the same nature as Jesus, so we too can bring life to others.

In order to give life to others we first must be connected to the true source of life. It is the nature of God to give life. Wherever Jesus went he brought life.