What is important about The Ascension of Our Lord?

 

The Ascension of Jesus Christ     Gustave Dore   1879

Grace, mercy and peace to you, on this day:  The Ascension of Our Lord!

What is important about this day, when we remember & celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, His physical leaving earth?  Isn't it better, that Jesus would stay here with His disciples & us?  

To learn more, please click HERE for a short homily which will attempt to answer these questions.

Peace to each of you on this day!

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pastor Mark's blog page

Pilgrim Worship blog page

Soli Deo Gloria

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.” Psalm 68:19

A prayer for us, and our country

Dear people of God,

In our worship service last night we read these verses from Scripture [Isaiah 59:1-3], and I can't help but hear them as a call against our sinfulness.  

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

     or His ear dull, that it cannot hear;

but your iniquities have made a separation

     between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden His face from you

     so that He does not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood

     and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies;

     your tongue mutters wickedness.

Of course this applies to ​us as individuals and collectively as a nation.  Our "iniquities [sins] have made a separation between [us] and our God."  It is our sins which may have caused God to turn away, to hide His face from us and to not hear for a time.  O how terrible are our bloody hands, our sinful fingers, our lying lips and our wicked tongues:   you, me and US!

But God has already addressed this separation; He sent His Son Jesus to be one of us, to live perfectly without sin, yet to accept punishment of all sins on our behalf!  Because Jesus died to take your sins away, to forgive you and save you, God turns His face TOWARD you and God HEARS us when we cry to Him.  Please join me in a prayer of repentance for our sins.

​Dear Heavenly Father,

Hear our cries​ and allow us come before You, for the sake of Jesus, Your Son.  Amen.

O Father, we have sinned against you in more ways than we can know or imagine, with our hands, fingers, lips and tongues.  Forgive us, we pray, not because we are deserving, but because You love us and have accepted Jesus' death instead of ours.  Heal our nation, O God.  Draw every person to You, showing them their sins and leading them to confess their sins to You.  Turn your wrath and punishment away from our country and her people, we pray.  Instead, raise up prophets and teachers who will turn us away from sin and Satan's temptations.  In all we do, let Your name be glorified and proclaimed to all the people of the world.

In the name of Jesus we pray,  Amen.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pastor Mark's blog page

Pilgrim Worship blog page

Soli Deo Gloria

"The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” Psalm 118:14

Psalm 95

 Hello, Pilgrim Family!

Today, I encourage you to pause and take a few minutes to read Psalm 95, slowly and pausing to absorb each verse.  The Holy Spirit ends this beautiful and praising Psalm with a reminder of our sinful natures, how often we harden our hearts and turn away from our awesome and loving God.  Join me in prayers of thanksgiving, that the LORD is the rock of our salvation, and forgives us for our hardened hearts!

Psalm 95 

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
      let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
      let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the LORD is a great God,
      and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth;
      the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it,
      and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
      let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

For he is our God,
      and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice,

      do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
      as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers put me to the test
      and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that generation
      and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
      and they have not known my ways.”

Therefore I swore in my wrath,
      “They shall not enter my rest.”

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pastor Mark's blog page

Pilgrim Worship blog page

Soli Deo Gloria

"The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” Psalm 118:14

About masks...

Dear Friends in Christ,

We may differ on the health benefits of wearing masks, but one thing is for sure:  masking brings about a more neurotic society.  We are anxious about ever-changing mask rules, anxious & suspicious of each other and anxious about death being carried toward us on every cough.

Hidden behind masks, we can't see or show emotions like friendliness, joy, peace, or comfort in our faces.  Masking faces also makes it difficult to get to know new people.  In fact, wearing masks encourages us to avoid each other; we don't greet or interact with others as much.  Eyes alone are not enough!  Masks hide who we are, they hide others from us, and they prevent us from knowing each other as God wants us to do.

Throughout most of human history, God was completely masked from His people.  After Adam & Eve fell into sin, God withdrew His face, leaving the barrier of the LAW to hide His holiness.  Looking upon the face of God is not permitted while we are in our sinful, unclean condition.  Many Old Testament verses describe this mask, this inability to see YAHWEH, the LORD.  Even Moses was warned: "You cannot see My face, for man shall not see me and live." (Exodus 33:20).  The friendly face of God was not to be found in the LAW, nor in any man's attempts to keep it.

The LAW exposes sin, accuses the sinner and sentences all to death who did not keep the LAW perfectly.  No matter how much we seek God's face (Psalm 27:8, Psalm 80:7), the LAW stands between God and sinners.  God who required this masking, promised to end it one day:  "And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 39:29).  When would God stop hiding His face?  When would God pour out His Holy Spirit?  God would do these things when He would send His Son, Jesus Christ to redeem His creation.  Jesus would become man and be the only perfect fulfiller of God's perfect LAW.  The mask of the LAW would be taken off!

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the LAW, to redeem those who were under the LAW, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5).  The face of God is seen, unveiled, un-masked, and full of love, in the man, Jesus Christ, who said:  "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:8).  

Jesus died on the cross, taking all your punishment for all the times you sinned and broke God's Law.  Because of Jesus, God sees you "un-masked" and without sin!  Because Jesus was sinless and perfectly fulfilled God's Law, you can see the loving, unmasked face of God.  You can see His loving face today every time He forgives the sins you have confessed!  On the last day,  You will see God as He is, and you will continue to see Him and live with Him for all eternity! (1 John 3:2)

Thanks be to God, that by the saving work of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit living in us, we can see the loving face of the Father, un-masked!

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pastor Mark's blog page

Pilgrim Worship blog page

Soli Deo Gloria

"The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” Psalm 118:14

Why These Troubles, Lord?

 Why These Troubles, Lord?

Questions like "Why did You let this happen to me, God?" and many other similar versions come to our minds easily.   Often we become depressed, angry with God and mis-trusting of His goodness and of His promises.  I'd like to share with you how one of the Church fathers addressed this question.  

This is wise and good counsel from God's Word and Martin Luther's pen, as he comments on Psalm 118:1

The good God permits such small evils to befall us merely in order to arouse us snorers from our deep sleep and to make us recognize, on the other hand, the incomparable and innumerable benefits we still have. He wants us to consider what would happen if He were to withdraw His goodness from us completely. In that spirit Job said (2:10): “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job, you see, knew very well this particular verse; for he said (Job 1:21): “As God wills, so let it be; the name of the Lord be praised.”  He did not simply look at the evil, as we would-be saints do; he kept in sight the goodness and grace of the Lord. With this he comforted himself and overcame evil with patience.
We also are to look at our misfortunes in no other way than that with them God gives us a light by which we may see and understand His goodness and kindness in countless other ways. Then we conclude that such small misfortunes are barely a drop of water on a big fire or a little spark in the ocean. Then we understand and love the words: “O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever!”

I challenge you today to see your "small evils" and "misfortunes" through this lens of Job, Luther and most importantly, through God's promises and Word.

Heavenly Father, remind us of Your word from Job:  "And he [Job] said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”  Teach us to accept all Your blessed and good gifts, whether taking away or giving, knowing and trusting that You provide all we need, all for our good.  AMEN.

Peace to each of you in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pilgrim-Burton website

Pilgrim Worship blog page

Soli Deo Gloria

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” Psalm 31:24