Dear Weekly Readers! God’s Peace!
I will endeavor to write a few words for the Diner myself this week. Starting next week, I will be traveling throughout the USA for two months. I will surely attempt to keep an article coming to you each week, but prayerfully they will be written by other willing writers, since my time will be very scarce! The reason for the trip is to raise awareness of what The Foreign Mission of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of America is involved in around the world. We are so thankful that God has seen fit to use us for His Service. Therefore, we want to share what God is doing around the world with others in the USA. We do so with the prayer that more people here in the USA will join us in the effort to bring the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to all people!
We know that all of the spreading of the Word that God wants done, will get done. We just want to be willing servants, ready to be used as tools in His workshop! We totally rely upon our Lord for strength to go on and for the faith to believe. We desire to give all honor and glory unto Him!
This week I went to the funeral of an 85-year-old man. At the funeral, a story was told about what this man’s great-grandson. This little boy had been playing when he overheard his mother talking about the coming death of her grandpa.
The little boy came running and asked, “Does your grandpa believe that Jesus died on the cross for his sins?”
The little boy’s mother told him, “Yes, he does.”
With that the boy let out a big “whew” (a sigh of relief), and went back to play!
The only thing that little Christian boy needed to hear was that grandpa believed that Jesus died for his sins. That boy knew that this meant that grandpa would be going to heaven where everything is joy and happiness forever! Oh the faith of a child!
I pray that each one reading this today would also know that we are saved because Jesus died on the cross for us! Our sin debt is paid in full! The work is over; it is finished; it is accomplished.
“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” Colossians 1:20
The important example that this elderly man left us was that a person needs to believe by faith in this life! We need to be reconciled during this time of grace, to believe the Jesus suffered, bled, died, and rose again for our justification. Do you believe this, dear reader? Prayerfully you do, but if you don’t, then you still have time. The Lord has allowed the world to keep going on; therefore, today if you hear His voice, call upon the Lord! “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
We know that these days are truly the last times; evil, sin, wickedness, death and destruction are all around us. Furthermore, we do not know how many more days each of us has left upon this earth—even if the earth should still stand for another thousand years! It is up to us to watch and be ready for the Great I AM to come calling! “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Matthew 24: 42
We have a song that we sing in English that goes: He is coming again! In power and great glory, He is coming again!
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4: 15-16
Let us all share about this Jesus, for we know that Scripture says: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
May God bless your week!
John Ruotsala, FM Administrator
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Planters and Waterers
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
May the abundant grace of God be upon us today as we rejoice and be glad in this new day that the Lord has made! May the peace of God that comes from the apprehension and the reception of His grace and mercy into our hearts be our experience in this new day of thankfulness, excitement and opportunity as we live in Him, being that which He has made us to be.
As we prayerfully meditate upon the Word of God which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, we remember the writings of the Prophet Isaiah (ch 55) who was given to write in his day that the Word that goes out of the mouth of the LORD would not return unto me( HIm) void, but it shall accomplish that which I (He) please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I (He) sent it. To illustrate that truth, in the previous verse, he had compared the absoluteness of this promise by comparing it to the natural occurrences of our weather, saying, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but it..
The effect of the Word that is sowed into good ground will bring forth fruit as Jesus said in His parable in the 13th chapter of Matthew, saying, But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. It is similar to that which Isaiah wrote concerning the desired effect of the preached Word (upon the messinger) that goes forth from your mouth today as messengers of the LORD, "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
We notice that the Word has two effects: It provides seed to the sower and bread to the eater. As planters and a waterers of the Word of Life, may we be reminded that it is our responsibility to plant and to water, but that the Lord promises to take care of the increase, the increase of and to faith in Christ. May we never forget that. I remember as a young man listening to our minister say, "Don't sow the seed one day, water it for a while, and then take the sickle and began to harvest." I have never forgot that counsel. Let us be patient so that the Word will be able to work freely in the hearts of those to whom we are ministering to, praying for the increase of the Word into their hearts so that their lives would be transformed from within as a result of the Word bringing life to them. The Word is the seed and it is an incorruptible seed. When that Seed is planted, and It is watered, and when the LORD gives It life, It will blossom and bloom. When we are ministering the Word either in preaching or in visitation, may we see with the eye of faith the cypress instead of the thorn, the myrtle instead of the briar as we wait for the Spirit of the LORD to enter into the minds, into the hearts and into the souls of those to whom we are bringing the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Lastly, may we be so filled with the promise of the LORD as to the sureness of the eventual effect of His Word, that we would be enabled to go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. This is what it means to live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for in that knowledge we see souls as through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and that which He desires them to come to know for themselves. May the Lord bless each of us as we continue to labor together in the vineyard of the LORD. Be encouraged that the work that you are doing is bearing fruit unto the LORD. He said it is and therefore, we believe it! And as you minister, may you be filled with the abundance of the joy of the LORD.
May the grace of Jesus be upon you this day in your labors.
Pastor Orval Wirkkala
May the abundant grace of God be upon us today as we rejoice and be glad in this new day that the Lord has made! May the peace of God that comes from the apprehension and the reception of His grace and mercy into our hearts be our experience in this new day of thankfulness, excitement and opportunity as we live in Him, being that which He has made us to be.
As we prayerfully meditate upon the Word of God which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, we remember the writings of the Prophet Isaiah (ch 55) who was given to write in his day that the Word that goes out of the mouth of the LORD would not return unto me( HIm) void, but it shall accomplish that which I (He) please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I (He) sent it. To illustrate that truth, in the previous verse, he had compared the absoluteness of this promise by comparing it to the natural occurrences of our weather, saying, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but it..
The effect of the Word that is sowed into good ground will bring forth fruit as Jesus said in His parable in the 13th chapter of Matthew, saying, But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. It is similar to that which Isaiah wrote concerning the desired effect of the preached Word (upon the messinger) that goes forth from your mouth today as messengers of the LORD, "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
We notice that the Word has two effects: It provides seed to the sower and bread to the eater. As planters and a waterers of the Word of Life, may we be reminded that it is our responsibility to plant and to water, but that the Lord promises to take care of the increase, the increase of and to faith in Christ. May we never forget that. I remember as a young man listening to our minister say, "Don't sow the seed one day, water it for a while, and then take the sickle and began to harvest." I have never forgot that counsel. Let us be patient so that the Word will be able to work freely in the hearts of those to whom we are ministering to, praying for the increase of the Word into their hearts so that their lives would be transformed from within as a result of the Word bringing life to them. The Word is the seed and it is an incorruptible seed. When that Seed is planted, and It is watered, and when the LORD gives It life, It will blossom and bloom. When we are ministering the Word either in preaching or in visitation, may we see with the eye of faith the cypress instead of the thorn, the myrtle instead of the briar as we wait for the Spirit of the LORD to enter into the minds, into the hearts and into the souls of those to whom we are bringing the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Lastly, may we be so filled with the promise of the LORD as to the sureness of the eventual effect of His Word, that we would be enabled to go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. This is what it means to live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for in that knowledge we see souls as through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and that which He desires them to come to know for themselves. May the Lord bless each of us as we continue to labor together in the vineyard of the LORD. Be encouraged that the work that you are doing is bearing fruit unto the LORD. He said it is and therefore, we believe it! And as you minister, may you be filled with the abundance of the joy of the LORD.
May the grace of Jesus be upon you this day in your labors.
Pastor Orval Wirkkala
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)