Joy Lutheran Church Ocala, Florida

These are the familiar words of Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” They seem particularly relevant in this season of graduations.

We see young people, many in our own families, stepping out into the world, or stepping forward to the next level of their education. They are proud and well they should be. They have accomplished something. They are also uncertain what the next steps will bring. Will high school be overwhelming? Will they have the confidence to move away from home, to walk onto the campus of large university? Will they find the job they hope for, will they survive in the competitive workplace?

In Psalm 119, the Psalmist tells us that despite his personal sufferings and the presence of his enemies, he comes to his Lord with thankfulness and assurance. With a light for his path and a lamp for his feet, he will not be afraid. God’s Word, His commandments, were the joy of his heart; words that he would obey until the day he died.

Our young graduates need that same assurance. Let’s face it, we all need that assurance each and every day.

I’m very fond of this song by Amy Grant. Perhaps you’re familiar with it too.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path

“When I feel afraid,
And think I’ve lost my way
Still, you’re there right beside me
Nothing will I fear
As long as you are near
Please be near me to the end

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path. ”

This lamp and light come to you personally through God’s Word. They are the gift of the Almighty God who loves you unconditionally.

Judy

”Thy Word”   Words and music by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith

Were you cheered on by your family for schooling efforts or perhaps your athleticism?  My brother was an all-conference guard in high school football, actually GREAT at all sports.  My folks and I would cheer loudly from the stands for him.

A friend and I returned to finish our last two years of college, many years after completing our first two years.  We were now older with families of our own, but we were cheered on by our loved ones, to “keep up the good race,” and finish our degree. Working full-time and with families, we shared our mantra, boosting each other…”come on, we can do this!”

Hebrews 12: 2-3 “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

I love, in this version, the last part of Hebrews 12:3, “…shooting adrenaline into our souls.” With our eyes on Jesus, studying His Word, trusting and building our faith, and reading and rereading His story, we can build ourselves up with “adrenaline in our souls.”  We will become cheerleaders for Jesus! Hooray, hallelujah!  Spread the good news.  Encourage others. Be a good listener. Boost your faith with daily study time. You are loved so unconditionally; you will find your very soul full of adrenaline for our Lord’s story.  Share it.

Jill

In the 1960s the communist government of Romania allowed my Great-Aunt Margaret a visa to come to the US.  She arrived a few weeks before Christmas and stayed until early spring when she insisted on returning home for the potato planting season. This astonished me. My Great-Uncle John explained how important the potato crop was for survival. During the winter his family would line the living room with small shelves holding seed potatoes so they would sprout. That way they could get in an early crop and beat the other farmers to market in the summer.

The intricacies of agricultural life were beyond the comprehension of a city boy like me. I don’t think much about where my food comes from. For many people, however, the planting and harvesting cycle is a matter of life and death. We urbanites miss that in our church life.

In the old church calendar, the Sunday before Ascension Day was called Rogate, from the Latin word “to ask.” On the three days following Rogate, processions with litanies were held to bless the fields. For the most part rogation days are gone. I feel we still need a time for remembering our dependence on the people who do the back-breaking work of growing our food. Many of them are migrant workers who rarely earn enough to keep themselves out of poverty. Let’s ask God this week to bless those who grow our food. May we be grateful for their labor, and may we keep in mind those who are in need.

Read Psalm 65 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

The title of today’s blog may call to mind the 50’s television sitcom of the same name, starring Robert Young. Debuting in 1954, Jim Anderson guided and resolved his family’s problems.

When I think of my own prayers to our Heavenly Father, I think of His names, Father, God, Lord, Abba, Jehovah and many more. Does it matter how He is addressed? Certainly, with no disrespect and only with honor and glory, but the human idea of a “personage” or specific name, may not be of concern.

Our Father, Lord, God is well pleased when we come to Him in prayer with praise and thanksgiving. Giving our prayers and pleas to Him with a specific title is not of greatest importance. What is most important, is knowing in our hearts that He knows BEST! He knows our needs and wants before we even bring ourselves to pray before Him. Your Heavenly Father’s will for you is always the best!

Father’s Day card sales don’t seem to rank as high as those for mothers, but that does not lessen the importance of their roles in our lives. Fathers, our patriarchs, are our teachers in life who set examples for us and love us. My dad may not have been Robert Young, but he was always smiling, always funny, helped us work out all our problems, had an incredibly strong faith, was active in church, and in my eyes my father knew best!

Your Heavenly Father, Lord, God, Abba, Jehovah knows and will do the very BEST for you. Thank Him and praise Him, His love is unconditional.

Jill

I enjoy mystery stories, especially Sherlock Holmes. Recently I was reading “The Naval Treaty” and ran across one of the few places that the great detective talked about religion.  

 “Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

Holmes found the beauty of a flower as an indication of a special gift of a higher power. Of course, a botanist would have pointed out that the purpose of the smell and color of flowers is to attract insects for pollination, but there is something is seeing natural beauty as a sign of God’s benevolence.

Personally, I think the human soul needs some beauty or it becomes twisted. The beauty may be in things we see or smell as in a rose, but it may also be in sound or taste touch. There is also a beauty that goes beyond physical attributes. It may lie in a person’s character. 1 Peter 3:4 says that a person’s beauty, “should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

I hope you find something beautiful that points you to God today.

Read Ecclesiastes 3:11 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Time and time again I read of God’s mercy to His people. Recently Pastor Art, in his sermon, referred to Romans 12 concerning spiritual gifts.

We all have spiritual gifts. What caught my attention was Romans 11. It speaks of God’s mercy for everyone. Romans 11: 31 – 33 is a powerful example of God’s mercy to all people. That brings me to the point of God’s mercy in my life.

At one time, I turned my back on God. It was many years later before I realized I was turning my back on human judgement and rejection. God’s mercy kept me alive during this time. As I slowly returned to God, I could see His mercy in my life. Little by slow, my trust and reliance on God has grown. I can see clearly how God led me from His Mercy to amazing grace

Carson

My wife and I have reached that age that when birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas come around, we no longer need or want…stuff. One might think that the older you get, the more you know what to get a loved one. Shouldn’t you understand what they would want by now?  Truthfully, I’ve always been a terrible gift giver. I can never come to the right decision. So, particularly around our anniversary, Debbie and I try to plan a vacation. We try to check off items (er, places) on our bucket list(s). We are creating memories, not accumulating trinkets that just sit in a drawer or on a shelf.

I believe the same way regarding our Christian faith. The world was changed not by wealth and treasures, but by the day-to-day encounters the disciples and early witnesses were a part of. Being with Jesus. Could there have been any better experience? All of the stories that became part of The Greatest Story. To experience everything God has to offer is the greatest gift. Oh – sorry – the greatest gift was and is Jesus. Come to think of it, I was right. Jesus is everything God has to offer. New life. 

Our churches, if we aren’t careful, get caught up in material and maintenance at the expense of experience and presence. We can’t completely set aside our innate drive to achieve and produce. Too much Martha, not enough Mary (I’m still looking for male counterparts). When we invest in our relationships, the rewards are heavenly. Our aging and dying relatives don’t need more stuff; they just need us.

Inhabit us, Lord Jesus, with your abiding presence. Your unconditional love saves us in this world of needing more yet possessing nothing of lasting value. You show us that to have nothing is to possess everything. May we experience the relationship with you that our hearts and souls yearn for. Amen.

Pastor Art

Last week I shared a few thoughts about our visits to see our friend “Miss Barb” at the nursing home.  I’d like to share another story today.  It touched me as she shared these thoughts, her words more profound than any response of mine.

She related to me a Bible story about Jesus walking down a road, where a sick woman sat along the way.  The woman could not walk; she couldn’t get up off the ground.  But she called out for Jesus to heal her.  Jesus walked over to her. He reached out and told her to stand up.  She did!   Her legs were healed.   Told by a woman in a wheelchair, this story has added poignancy.

“Miss Barb” thought about the story a bit longer.  Quietly she said I wish I lived back then when Jesus was here.  Maybe he would have healed my legs too. Looking down at her lap, she sighed.  But, he didn’t heal my legs.  I could see the wistful look in her eyes.  If only I had been there, maybe he would have healed me.

All my good theology about Jesus walking each step of the way with us, well it began to melt away.  Her legs were not healed.  Jesus had not done that for her and likely would not.  I can only love her and return often to offer assurance of Jesus great love for her.

Thanks be to God for the privilege of a friendship with “Miss Barb.”

Judy

Remember Saul, a persecutor of Christians, was on his way to Damascus (in all probability, to persecute new Christians even killing them if necessary).  While traveling, he was blinded by a bright light, as a result of having a power struggle with God. He could not see, so he was then led by his companions to Damascus.  Ananias, in Damascus, was told by God to go to Saul after three days and lay hands on him to restore Saul’s sight.  With his vision restored, a conversion happened and Saul was renamed Paul and told to spread the true word of God. Many books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul. He wrote letters to encourage the new Christians and even follow up letters to reiterate the importance of following Jesus’ teachings. The conversion of Saul to Paul was a complete 180 ⁰  change.  He was a true believer and evangelist. Silas and Timothy among others were his companions and fellow evangelists, traveling and sharing the Word of the Lord.

Believed to be one of Paul’s earliest letters was the Book of Thessalonians.  II Thessalonians 3:16 “May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways. May the Master be truly among you!”

This sage advice is from centuries ago. Sadly, it is a message WE NEED now. Our times do not seem to be much different. Perhaps your prayer could be for peace, so we can get along with each other at all times. Like the Thessalonians, we need to be reminded of His perfect peace and unconditional love and strive for that peace to permeate our very beings.

Peace, Jill

My father passed away eight years ago.  He was a good man with a great sense of humor, a strong work ethic, a guiding hand and a loving heart. He rarely expressed his emotions which was very common for men at that time. Whatever happened, you dealt with it with a stiff upper lip, didn’t talk about it, grieved in silence and moved on, keeping all of it to yourself.

At his memorial service the pastor’s message was very personal and perfect for my dad. He described him with five words that began with the letter F.  They were family man, father, farmer, fast driver and most important of all, faithful. All five words depicted his life, the first three as an adult, the fourth word as a teenager and the last word, his life-long relationship with the Lord. It was a spot-on depiction of his life.

We were blessed to have experienced and learned from my father being a family man, a father, a farmer and a faithful follower of God. When we came along, his teenage days of being a fast driver were in the rear-view mirror so to speak. We only heard the tales of those days from his high school friends.

We were blessed to have been raised in a wholesome, safe and loving environment where being honest, a helpful neighbor, a good citizen, a hard worker and a faithful servant of the Lord were valued and taught in the way we lived.

Our Father in heaven expects these things from us as well. Like our fathers and mothers, He loves us unconditionally and shows that love to us in all He does for us every day. We can feel safe and loved by Him as well. He offers to take care of us, to protect us, and to guide us. We need to believe in Him and what He promises. Thanks be to God for His love and for the love of our earthly fathers.  Happy Father’s Day in heaven, Dad!

Patty