Easter April 1 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

Our theme for this Lenten Season has been, “Return from Exile: A Lenten Journey.”  Every journey is unique in its starting and ending, and this journey has proven to be unique as well.  Easter Day, our journey is complete.  From the Mount of Transfiguration to the empty tomb, we have come a long way.  We have journeyed through gardens, looked upon trees, explored mountains, traveled through the wilderness, and crossed rivers.  We have eaten meals and descended into pits.  But now we have arrived at the end of our journey, the fulfillment of our journey.  However, while the empty tomb points us to our final destination, the tomb is not the destination.  The tomb is empty; it is not and never will be our home.  Heaven is our home because Christ has risen and ascended; and where He is, there also we shall be!  Heaven is our home, where we gather around the throne of the Lamb in His kingdom.

Good Friday Mar 30 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

Tomorrow night is a night of burdens.  It is black Friday, Good Friday; and we feel the burden.  We feel the burden of our sin.  Yes, we know our sin is forgiven.  We know we are forgiven, and we believe it; but there is still that feeling, that despair, that darkness of this night.  Our Savior, the Son of God, hangs upon a tree, and His lifeblood flows down the wood and stains the ground.  His blood instead of ours.  This is a night of burdens.  Surely He has borne our sin and carried our sorrows—He is the Sin-bearer.  This journey began long ago in the wilderness as a goat received the sins of the people and was led out to the wilderness, to the evil one.  Now the journey has come to a cross and the Scapegoat, Jesus, carries our sins, pays our price, and gives His life for ours.  Jesus is our Burden-bearer, our Scapegoat, our Sin-bearer.  On this day, this Good Friday, we look upon the tree, and we see our sins laid upon the Holy One.  We see our sins, we see our Savior, and we see our salvation.

Maundy Thursday Mar 29 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

This Thursday evening we partake of a meal that the LORD God has prepared with His own hands.  It is a holy feast which nourishes our faith and restores our souls.  It is a rich feast purchased with the most costly coin, the Son of God.  Today we eat and drink; we remember, and we give humble thanks.  Other holy meals have brought us to this feast, all meals provided by the hands of the Holy One.  This day we remember the Passover meal and the blood of lambs on the doorposts that protected the Israelites from the angel of death.  We remember the Day of Passover and the Passover lamb because it points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  It points us to this holy feast of this Lamb’s body and blood.  But there is one greater feast yet to come: the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end.  A feast provided by the hands of the LORD God.  A feast enjoyed in the presence of the Lamb in the courts of His heaven.  A greater feast indeed!

Wed Mar 21 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

A journey through a desolate place causes concern.  In the midst of a desert, we wonder if we have enough water and food.  In the middle of a drive across the wilderness of the Western Plains, we repeatedly check the fuel gauge.  We know that death awaits the unprepared in the wilds and woolies.  Indeed, the wilderness has always been considered a place of death and separation, a place of exile from all that we long for and hold dear, even from life itself.  A journey through the wilderness is dangerous; but what awaits those who arrive at the other side?  New life, a resurrection, a promised land where the Lord provides all good things, all life-giving and life-sustaining things.  These are the blessings that come to the people of God from God’s hand as He brings us out of the wilderness of sin into the paradise purchased by His Son.  From the wilderness to the promised land—from death to life . . . a return from exile!  Join us this Wednesday, March 21 at 7:30PM.

Baptism - Ensley Coover

Heavenly angels rejoiced with us as Christ poured out His gracious water of Baptism upon Ensley Coover daughter of Travis and Kayla Coover.  Her witnesses were Curtis and Amanda Brandt.  May God in His good grace keep her in the true faith by His Holy Word.

Wed Mar 14 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

God created man and woman, and they began their journey in the garden.  In the midst of that Garden of Eden were two trees more beautiful than the rest.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life—what joy for the man and woman to come to these trees and worship God, giving thanks for His good and gracious gifts.  But one day there was an unwelcome visitor to their worship service: Satan.  He had things to say, things which seemed wise.  They were lies, but the man and woman listened and sin came.  Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden and from the tree of life.  How they longed to return to the garden and the beautiful tree, and God promised that He would lead the way.  Jesus Christ leads us from one garden to the next and from one tree to the tree of life in the courts of heaven.  It is a hard and treacherous journey for our Leader, and it required a stop at another tree: the cross.  The evil Satan, who used a tree to bring sin into world, was conquered by another tree, and our sin was washed away.  Join us Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30PM.

Wednesday, March 7 Schedule

Due to weather here is the Wednesday Schedule:

• No 9:30AM Bible Study
• Ladies Aid postponed until March 14th
• Confirmation and Weekday School as normal 4-5:15PM
• Youth Group as normal 6:30-7:15PM
• Lenten Service 7:30PM

Wed Mar 7 - Lenten Journey: Return from Exile

How do you escape from a bad situation?  Where do you turn when you are surrounded by brutality, slavery and death?  We often desire to flee; we want to find refuge.  We need to begin a journey that will set us free, but the result of our efforts is nothing more than going in circles.  We seek freedom, but we receive greater slavery.  We journey toward light and end up in deeper darkness.  How do we escape?  It is God who leads us on the journey out of this slavery to sin and death, and where does He take us?  To water—to the banks of the Red Sea, to the Jordan River, or . . . to the baptismal font.  There we are set free.  The bondage of sin and death, the claws of Satan no longer hold us, for we have passed through the water.  These are the waters of death for our enemies, but they are the waters of life for us.  The enemy of our old Adam is drowned in these waters, but the new Adam comes up to new life.  We have been rescued from the enemy by the waters, and we have been made the children of God.  Join us this Wednesday, March 7 at 7:30PM.