Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Well we are back from the Lake Charlevoix and looking forward to Worship and Praise with our Church family tomorrow. Thanks to Paul and so many others who helped this week, so that we could take Bruce up on his invitation to visit Boyne City again! It was AWESOME!
This Sunday we continue our journey through Matthew 16 as we hear Jesus explain things to his disciples; after St. Peter confessed the truth of who Jesus is: "the Christ, the Son of the living God!" St. Peter was praised by Jesus and told that "upon this confession" Christ would build his church and not even the gates of hell would prevail against it! Jesus said Peter was blessed and that this "confession" came from His father in heaven.
Peter is definitely more confident as we hear him disagree with Jesus, as Jesus lays out the truth of what is going to happen to him in the near future:
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
As a matter of fact Peter is so confident that he rebukes Jesus, his friend and rabbi? Jesus then calls Peter "SATAN?" Why? While he just said he was blessed for his confession given to him by His Father in heaven. Peter is now being told that his worldly desire and his "will" is satanic and a stumbling block. This had to be really hard to hear from the person you love and respect but listen to why he is a "stumbling block" akin to "satan." It is because he does not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Wow! How many times have we done extremely good and nice things because we feel that they are the right things to do or say, yet have we asked the question: "is it God's will?" In order for us to ask this question we will prepare to look at becoming more in tune with the Word of God and what the Holy Spirit wishes us to say and do. As we continue our relationship UP (Belong), IN (Believe) and OUT (Become) we will learn to be sensitive to discerning the things of God and the WILL of God. We will look at the remaining verses of Romans 12 that explain how we can be transformed and by the renewing of our minds, have in mind the things of God. Our challenge is to let the Holy Spirit help us to be living sacrifices, motivated by love and living as R12 (Romans 12) Christians! So that we are a blessing, following the will of our Father in heaven and not a stumbling block! Isn't that our petition in the Lord's Prayer when we pray "thy will be done"?
Please continue to pray for what the Lord wants you to share during the worship time, after the distribution of the Lord's Supper. This is the time to pray and to share what the Lord is putting on our hearts for us and HIS church!
Remember this is "move in" weekend at EMU so let's make a great first impression for the new students.
See you all tomorrow.
Love in Christ Jesus our Risen Lord and Savior,
Pastor
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Believe: GREAT faith! August 14, 2011 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I am writing this after just experiencing the wonderful wedding ceremony of Mr. Matt and Mrs. Brenna Behnke here at Cross and Res! Tomorrow we will be experiencing the amazing love of God in Christ Jesus our risen Lord as we look at the faith of the Canaanite women in Matthew 15 where Jesus comments on her "GREAT faith." I think we can learn a lot from her posture in approaching our Lord, her persistence and her humble request of Jesus. At first Jesus seems uncaring, even unkind, as he ignores her. When the disciples ask to send her away, Jesus explains that his mission is ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel, yet because of her persistence and her faith, Jesus grants her request.
As children belonging to God, do we approach God with pride of position and almost demand things? I think I have been guilty at times, because of our consumer culture, to almost give a shopping list to our Lord and demand that "IF YOU Truly love me then....." I believe if we understood what this lady understood, the heart of our God, then we would humbly ask with expectation not because we deserve it but because of God's mercy, grace and love!
Please pray for GREAT faith! Please pray for the newly married couples Josh and Sarah Brudi, last week, (thanks again for all your prayers and support it went really well!,) as well as Matt and Brenna Behnke today! Please keep Rachael Kleimola and her family in your prayers as she is in hospice care! Please keep Joann Woodward and her family in your prayers as she recovers from a very difficult and stressful surgery!
See you tomorrow! It is going to be an awesome praise and worship time! I can't wait to worship our AWESOME LORD! Please remember to bring God sightings, or the Word at the end of the Worship after Communion.
Love in Christ,
I am writing this after just experiencing the wonderful wedding ceremony of Mr. Matt and Mrs. Brenna Behnke here at Cross and Res! Tomorrow we will be experiencing the amazing love of God in Christ Jesus our risen Lord as we look at the faith of the Canaanite women in Matthew 15 where Jesus comments on her "GREAT faith." I think we can learn a lot from her posture in approaching our Lord, her persistence and her humble request of Jesus. At first Jesus seems uncaring, even unkind, as he ignores her. When the disciples ask to send her away, Jesus explains that his mission is ONLY to the lost sheep of Israel, yet because of her persistence and her faith, Jesus grants her request.
As children belonging to God, do we approach God with pride of position and almost demand things? I think I have been guilty at times, because of our consumer culture, to almost give a shopping list to our Lord and demand that "IF YOU Truly love me then....." I believe if we understood what this lady understood, the heart of our God, then we would humbly ask with expectation not because we deserve it but because of God's mercy, grace and love!
Please pray for GREAT faith! Please pray for the newly married couples Josh and Sarah Brudi, last week, (thanks again for all your prayers and support it went really well!,) as well as Matt and Brenna Behnke today! Please keep Rachael Kleimola and her family in your prayers as she is in hospice care! Please keep Joann Woodward and her family in your prayers as she recovers from a very difficult and stressful surgery!
See you tomorrow! It is going to be an awesome praise and worship time! I can't wait to worship our AWESOME LORD! Please remember to bring God sightings, or the Word at the end of the Worship after Communion.
Love in Christ,
Saturday, August 6, 2011
August 7, 2011 "Believe: How do you learn?" Pentecost 8
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Just had a moment, while everyone is doing hair and getting ready all around me, to write a quick reminder and a big "Thank You!" to everyone who has been praying for me and my family in preparation for Sarah and Josh's wedding at 1pm! We are so blessed to have a great "extended" family in Cross and Resurrection! I hope if you are in the area and forgot that you can join us at St. Luke Lutheran Church for this joyous occasion!!
Tomorrow we are going to hear about Peter getting out of the boat and quickly realizing the fleeting nature of faith or belief when confronted with the storms of life! The text for the message is from Romans 10 where St. Paul tells us that faith comes through the Word! I look forward to sharing this wonderful teaching on "learning styles" with everyone who is here tomorrow at the 10:15 Service. Johannes is back, Thad Polk will continue his study on the St. Paul's letters at the 12:15 service and Paul Knickelbein is going to be in Tecumseh since we are have family over in the afternoon.
Also please check out the announcement that Paul puts up on the website www.crossandres.org under newsletters. You will notice that we are being blessed with multiple babies in our church family. A shower is coming up this week.
Since I truly believe that we are a church "family" I want to invite anyone who able to join us on Monday, yes in 2 days:) at our home 7382 Fosdick Rd Saline for a baby shower for our first grandchild. My wife, having only a million things to do, realized that Meagan and Tim will probably not be back in Michigan until Easter at the earliest. So with our family here for the wedding and with a quick invite to our extended family she is hosting a baby shower at 7pm on Monday. Please don't feel bad if you can not attend, this is short notice and there is so much going on! I just wanted to make sure to invite our whole family!
Love in Christ, our risen Lord and Savior,
Pastor Bryan
Just had a moment, while everyone is doing hair and getting ready all around me, to write a quick reminder and a big "Thank You!" to everyone who has been praying for me and my family in preparation for Sarah and Josh's wedding at 1pm! We are so blessed to have a great "extended" family in Cross and Resurrection! I hope if you are in the area and forgot that you can join us at St. Luke Lutheran Church for this joyous occasion!!
Tomorrow we are going to hear about Peter getting out of the boat and quickly realizing the fleeting nature of faith or belief when confronted with the storms of life! The text for the message is from Romans 10 where St. Paul tells us that faith comes through the Word! I look forward to sharing this wonderful teaching on "learning styles" with everyone who is here tomorrow at the 10:15 Service. Johannes is back, Thad Polk will continue his study on the St. Paul's letters at the 12:15 service and Paul Knickelbein is going to be in Tecumseh since we are have family over in the afternoon.
Also please check out the announcement that Paul puts up on the website www.crossandres.org under newsletters. You will notice that we are being blessed with multiple babies in our church family. A shower is coming up this week.
Since I truly believe that we are a church "family" I want to invite anyone who able to join us on Monday, yes in 2 days:) at our home 7382 Fosdick Rd Saline for a baby shower for our first grandchild. My wife, having only a million things to do, realized that Meagan and Tim will probably not be back in Michigan until Easter at the earliest. So with our family here for the wedding and with a quick invite to our extended family she is hosting a baby shower at 7pm on Monday. Please don't feel bad if you can not attend, this is short notice and there is so much going on! I just wanted to make sure to invite our whole family!
Love in Christ, our risen Lord and Savior,
Pastor Bryan
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