TLC

Trinity Lutheran Church McAlester

October 16, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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How can I have a fulfilled life?

God keeps you occupied with joy in your heart

Solomon is renowned as the wisest man of all time. He wrote the Book of Proverbs from his life collection of them as a hopeful means of looking at life. In later years, he wrote a corrective because all the things people strive for in life — things, experiences, prestige, relaxing lifestyle, and wealth — never brought him lasting happiness. He also saw the same reality in others’ lives. Here’s a bit of his wisdom for a more fulfilling and joyful life. “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” (Ecclesiastes 5:18–20, ESV)

Seek Jesus and know his love

Lots of successful, powerful, and even ultra-wealthy people have spent fortunes on stuff, gathered lots of adoring people around them, and wielded control over vast domains to end by committing suicide! Those things listed in the Bible passage above gave no lasting fulfillment. These people wanted more. They looked in the wrong place. In Jesus, there is fulfillment of body and soul – no matter a person’s place in the world. Dedicating your life to following Jesus, which brings with it utter dedication to love your neighbor, makes a satisfying lifestyle. The more you know Jesus and seek to follow him, the less you treasure stuff that doesn’t last. People and things come and go, but the word of God and his love for you — those last forever!

October 8, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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Why did Jesus have to die?

Someone must die

Hearing about all the gracious behaviors and sayings surrounding Jesus feels wonderful. What’s at the heart of Jesus and his purpose is dealing with the sin problem every human has, even from conception. In the Garden of Eden, God set a rule. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16–17, ESV) Eve and then Adam surely did eat of that forbidden tree. But a gracious God set in motion a plan toward reconciliation of that sin problem. Someone must die to pay for people’s sin according to God’s command. Because of sin, all people will physically die.

Jesus instead of sinful people

However, God sent his son, Jesus, to be a substitute for the lasting part of death that is eternity in hell. “and he [Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:15, ESV) Jesus’ death won the believers over to him. Romans 3 sums up the sinfulness of all people and redeeming from sin that Jesus offers through his dying in their place (propitiation).  “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:23–25, ESV)

October 2, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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When God is silent …

Only God knows and understands all things

Have you ever had a time when you asked God to help with a bad situation or you needed guidance on a major life decision, but God was silent? It’s understandable to feel that you are being ignored by God. For us such stressful times, our world is limited to our plight. God assures us that he is with us. “… I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matt. 28:20, ESV) What can we do, then? Trust that God is a work and that all things will work out for your “good” as he promises. Realize that your good may mean downturns and upturns, losses and gains, losing and prospering. We take comfort in the almighty God that knows all things and has power over all things – God that acts in his way and his time. In the Bible, we see times when God’s solution is simple and elegant and does exactly as he prophesied – yet happened in a totally unexpected way. To hear god, read and study his word in the Bible. Trust him in all things. Know this: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)

God’s time is different than our time

God may be silent because it’s not time for him to act. The people of Israel wondered in the desert 40 years before God led then into the promised land. And this was after they endured harsh slavery in Egypt for several generations before God sent Moses to lead them out of slavery. Consider these verses:

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8, ESV)

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” 1 Peter 5:6 (ESV)

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,” Galatians 4:4 (ESV)

September 23, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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How do I know if I’ve been good enough to go to heaven?

Saved by Grace Alone

There’re several places in the Bible that people point to as they wonder if they have been good enough to go to heaven. The definite one that stands above other ways to read it is “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8–10, ESV) This points to God doing the saving, not the person’s determining level of faith or amount of works. If God has saved the person purely by grace, then even the smallest tidbit of faith that Jesus rose from the dead is enough. Jesus once compared powerful faith to something the size of a mustard seed, which has power to move mountains. So, faith is a gift of God and he promises not to take back such a gift. We say this method is objective because it depends on God’s work, not the person’s good works, which is God purpose for people and demonstrates faith.

What about verses in James on good works?

“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 2:10, ESV) sets the standard for behavior if a person wants to earn it without faith in Jesus. The whole message of James – speaking about the believer that is on the edge of losing faith entirely by not doing works — drives the way to read it. People get hung up on “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17) and “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18) and then there’s the hardest one, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24, ESV) How can this reconcile with Ephesians 2 asserting faith alone and grace alone? To sort this out, consider that no good works are possible without faith because if one does not believe God exists, then that person would never try to please God. So, faith comes first – faith that believes God exists as a Savior from sin and its penalty. Once there is faith, some amount of works happens to please God. When the faith is small, then the amount of works is small. What James is concerned about and addresses in his book is the person that exhibits virtually no works likely has a faith that is nearly gone. His words are exhortation to live the believer’s life by following God’s commands as much as possible.

Should fellow believers judge a person’s works?

God is the one that decides if a person has faith in their heart to be heaven-bound. He doesn’t judge on works. He hasn’t appointed me or anyone else to judge a person by their works. He does set up the church – fellow believers – to support each other with encouragements to follow God’s teachings and live them. This is laid out in one of the hardest to follow verses in the Bible. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1–2, ESV) Help the person see their sin with gentleness and not judgmental thoughts or words. That is the essence of God’s command to love your neighbor as yourself. (James 2:8, ESV).

May 13, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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Is there a hell? What’s it like?

Origins of hell

Revelation 12:7ff describes the ancient war in heaven, in which Michael and his angels fought the dragon and his angels. Defeated, the ancient serpent and his angels were cast out of heaven and thrown down to earth, where they will be tormenting humans until the final judgment to hell. No longer sinless, the evil angels and their leader had to be separated from God’s presence. Something of a parallel, the humans God created and placed in the Garden of Eden were perfect and knew no evil until they ate the forbidden fruit. After that, they knew evil and sin, and they were destined for death. God banned them from the garden lest they eat of the “tree of life” and live forever in that state of separation from God – akin to eternal death (hell). He protected them from that fate to afford them the better future of heaven and being with him forever.

We expect that hell came to be either as a result of the war in Heaven or when humankind received it’s curse for sinning. Before that time, all creation was peaceful and united with God in holiness and perfection.

Names for hell

Other names for hell include sheol, hades gehenna, abyssos and the lake of fire. Hades is the place mentioned for where Capernaum will go for not accepting Jesus as the Christ. It is also where the rich man went after he died as a place of anguishing torment and flame. That story by Jesus (Luke 16) is seen as a parable. It also describes a “great impassable chasm” that exists between Lazarus and his paradise place with God and the “rich Man’ in the torment place. It is most often used as the name for where those destined for hell go when they die to await the second judgment and their final place, the lake of fire – eternal hell.

Hell described

Following the description from Lazarus and the rich man story, we realize that hell is total separation from God. We get that same picture from Jesus suffering on the cross and his enduring hell as he says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus suffered hell as total separation from the Father. Also, similar to Satan and evil angels separated from God in heaven.

When you take to heart the worldview that “all good things come down from above.” And then consider that the world is only evil, broken, and belongs to the devil, the picture of separation from God is a scary, tormenting place of suffering with God not there holding off evil. That world matches the Bible’s descriptive words like: burning sulfur smell, lake of fire, pain, thirst, screaming, crying. These are all the things that God wants to keep anyone from experiencing endlessly in the afterlife.

May 7, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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Is there a heaven? What’s it like?

Heavens initiated

In the beginning. It all starts here. The first verse of the whole Bible. 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 (ESV) The verses following describe God creating the universe according to his design. He established two categories: 1) heavens, and 2) earth. Reading on we see creations and separations. light created to oppose the dark. Land from water, planet from sky and outer space. Most importantly, God saw that it was good! He did not create anything evil, flawed or bad. We say: perfection!

Heaven named?

One separation with the name heaven comes in verses 6-8. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. Genesis 1:6–8 (ESV) Based on our world, we could understand waters above the expanse as clouds and water under the expanse as surface and sub-surface water. Because the Garden of Eden’s plants were watered from sub-surface water, some postulate that the expanse in the sky was a layer of ice that formed a protective filter for the sun’s radiation and light. Their modeling suggests a rain-free, very temperate, constant climate. The theory goes that this collapsed in the flood that happened in Noah’s time. The expanse heaven is the first heaven.

Heavens in the plural?

Good clues help us understand multiple heavens. St. Paul writes of being in the “third heaven.” 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 2 Corinthians 12:2–3 (ESV) From that day, Christians have known the third heaven as “paradise” – the place where saints go in eternal life, where God and the angels dwell. The first heaven, then, is the sky that we see – where birds fly and clouds float, water in all forms falls to the ground. The second heaven covers the universe beyond the second heaven – outer space in our minds.

Heavens is like?

We get some interesting images of the paradise heaven. Heavenly mansions, Jerusalem coming down from it, a fertile land of milk and honey. One overarching description is from Jesus. “I will make all things new.” Rev. 21:5 (ESV) “… he comes to restore.” That word, “restore” occurs 65 times in the Bible. Many Old Testament prophecies speak of restoring Israel – the name for God’s people. The bottom line is this. On the last day, Jesus makes all things new – as in the image of the Garden of Eden. The new heavens and the new earth … it’s all restored to perfection. Our bodies are resurrected along the lines of Jesus. Everything in creation — broken and corrupted by the fall into sin — restored in a perfect way. That means – the paradise heaven is the new Eden, with the heavens also made new and perfect. The Bible gives tiny clues, but St. John’s revelation doesn’t begin to find words and images to describe the new heaven no one living has seen, except Jesus.

April 30, 2024
by Pastor Glenn
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What is sin and how does it concern God?

Sin origins

In the beginning, God created …. It was paradise – perfect, sinless humans in a perfect, holy world. He gave them one rule to follow to show their love and trust for him. “Don’t eat the fruit of The Tree.” But they ate it anyway because they wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3) (they didn’t know evil before). That first sin corrupted everything God had made perfect; and God cursed Adam and Eve and the whole earth (universe) with brokenness. Since then, people struggle to keep from sinning against God and each other. That is, they don’t’ show love for God or humans. If they did show perfect love as God does, then all would be the Garden Eden again. Jesus promises to restore “all things” when he comes again to judge all people and things.

Sin defined and described

Meanwhile, we live in a world where God’s will to love one another needs lots of definition and examples. He gave his chosen people, Israel, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). He gave them lots more direction in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Jesus and the apostles refined them in the New Testament books. Most of these rules/laws are helpful to guide people to act right toward one another and God. Some are ceremonial and later were abolished when Jesus died and rose again. (e.g. the sacrifices, the temple rites, later added rules to keep the Sabbath). Sound confusing? It is unless you have a church scholar trained in Old Testament and New Testament to help understand them. Plus, there’s Jesus’ statement in Matthew that he came “not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” Unpacking that phrase takes a knowledge of the whole Bible and what Jesus does to save people from their sins.

Jesus also simplified what is sinful — what is the law as summed up in the Old Testament — the law and the prophets: “… love the Lord your God for your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mat. 22:36-40)

“The church” helps us to expand on “the law” in the Ten Commandments with the Catechism (particularly Catholics and Lutherans). These books bring in many aspects of each commandment to help us know both what to do and what not to do. As an example, I’ve pulled in from Luther’s Small Catechism, The Eighth Commandment. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.[1] (Luther. (2017). Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (p. 14). Concordia Publishing House.)

What to do about sin

Now, to the person that wants to know what to do about a particular act they feel guilty about as it might be sin, ask a Lutheran pastor. They have training, knowledge and experience to discern and apply God’s law; and to offer the saving Gospel of forgiveness in private confession and absolution — a confidential process.

Sin defined. Sin is an act committed or omitted towards another person, yourself, or God that is not loving.

[1] Luther. (2017). Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (p. 14). Concordia Publishing House.

October 25, 2023
by Pastor Glenn
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How is the Father and the Son one God, yet Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father?

This question comes from verses like: “But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”” (Luke 22:69, ESV). From numerous places we see that son of man and son of God both refer to Jesus. It helps us with “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20, ESV) It means God [the father] is God and his son, Jesus, is God. Not two gods, but one god. This comes from one of the most revered passage of the Bible by the children of Israel was ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut. 6:4, ESV) Hence, a core tenet of God is his oneness. Personhood is the philosophical concept that helped us grasp the son and the father being separate, but one – separate persons, not separate Gods. Being seated on the right of the Father-God helps us visualize the importance and power, and the close relationship of God the son to God the father. This is a mystery of God that will only be revealed to us on the last day when the Son is seen descending from the clouds in all his heavenly glory. Until then, we rely on what we know and trust in the one true God, the one we describe as triune. But, for brevity, we’ll save the topic of God the Holy Spirit (the third person of God) for another blog.

October 18, 2023
by Pastor Glenn
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Why does God allow evil people to lead governments?

Whether you like the person heading the government under which you live or hated them, God uses them for your benefit. We may not like it, but that’s what the Bible says in Romans 13:1–4a (ESV) 1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good.

If you watch world news and pay attention to conflicts and wars, you see places where there’s no government control. Somalia comes to mind. Today, it’s just a battleground for militia groups and pirates. The people are starving – surviving on relief organizations. Other countries are similarly dangerous for citizens, who give everything to immigrate to a safe life in the United States. Even evil governments provide a level of order to punish bad behavior and provide infrastructure that enables life.

We expect that elected governments are better than dictators and democracies than martial law ruling by force. In Jesus’ time, Romans ruled by force, yet allowed the religious rulers of Israel to serve under them, applying their laws where practical to keep order. It was highly unpopular, but God used that  governance structure to fulfill his plan for Jesus to die for the sins of all people as Savior of the world.

October 4, 2023
by Pastor Glenn
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Why might a merciful, all powerful God allow bad stuff to happen?

In the beginning, God created the universe in 6 days and declared that his work was very good. It was perfect. The man and woman he put in the garden of Eden were as perfect and eternal as the world he made. He gave them but one rule – perhaps as a demonstration of their love for him to obey: “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit or you will die.” But, they made the choice to disobey that damned humanity and cursed the world to its imperfect, broken state. It’s all because of Adam and Eve’s sin (see Gen. 3.16-17). When God cursed the formerly perfect, now sinful couple, he cursed their children and the entire universe with the promised death they chose by eating the forbidden fruit. Because of the curse, suffering, deterioration and brokenness exists. That is an underlying factor in bad stuff happening.

But God doesn’t let evil and bad stuff go wild. The wonderful part of our God is his mercy to limit evil and bad stuff. He chooses to intervene at special times in miraculous ways to help suffering. It is only through his goodness and mercy that anything good happens. When it does, we thank him as we see his glory demonstrated. It’s like the case of the man born blind in the Bible. “And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3, ESV) Jesus healed the man to reveal his power to do so as the son of God.

Another example was the children of Israel living in Egyptian exile 400 years. Near the end, they grew so powerful that Egypt, out of fear, made them slaves to control them. They endured the bad stuff life of slavery for decades before God sent them a deliverer. And it got worse for a while before it ended. Why allow it? Why so long to stop it? Only God knows. We can see after the fact how God limited the evil and how he blessed them, even using the events to foreshadow the Savior that would come much later.

Summing up the points, bad stuff happens in the world because we are sinful, broken people living in a broken universe, all brought on by the failure of the perfect first couple, Adam and Eve. Bad stuff happening is the necessary consequence of sins we do and the broken universe that is unruly. Yet, God in his mercy intervenes when it suits his purposes to alleviate or mitigate certain suffering to demonstrate his power and glory. So, God doesn’t deserve our malice for allowing bad things happening that mankind deserves, but only our thanks for his mercy and goodness to care for us, answering our prayer requests with yes, no or wait for my time.