April 30 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…teachers

Ephesians 4:11,12

4/30/20

Pastor John C. Berg

¹¹ He himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, ¹² for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ.

This is your daily devotion for April 30^th.  We’ve been discussing overlooked blessings for almost two weeks.  You may have noticed a fairly consistent theme running through these overlooked blessings.  With many of them, God may be using the worldwide crisis to help us not overlook them. Today’s blessing is one of the clearest examples of that.  There are some pretty funny jokes being shared on the internet about how the distance learning is going for some families.  There have also been some very sad news stories about how it’s just too much for some parents to handle and how many lower income and rural kids don’t have the technology to really be able to participate.  There also is a lot of talk right now about parents appreciating teachers more than ever. 

In Ephesians 4 Paul wrote, ¹¹ He himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, ¹² for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ.  To be clear, the teachers Paul is talking about are those who teach the Word of God.  If you are able send your children to a Lutheran school I challenge you to think of a blessing that has a greater and longer lasting impact.  Teachers who teach everything in the light of God’s Word.  Bible history classes, regular chapel services, Catechism classes, memorizing hymns and Scripture.  It’s worth every penny and then some.  Jesus has given us these teachers to build up the body of Christ.  Keep them in your prayers.  Support them with offerings. 

Even though Paul is specifically talking about teachers of the Bible, we can still recognize how God blesses the world with public school teachers.  What would our world be like without free public education?  It’s not very enjoyable to think about, is it?  If you are a teacher, we thank you for serving our children and we thank God for blessing us with teachers.

We pray:  Dear Jesus, thank for blessing us with teachers of your Word.  Protect and provide for them during this difficult time.  Thank you for blessing our country with teachers who dedicate their lives to teaching our children. Amen.

Good Newsletter!

April 2020

Easter is Reason to Celebrate!

This year in our monthly articles we are considering favorite verses from the Bible.
This month’s favorite Bible verse is: 

John 14:19
“Because I live, you also will live.”

“Happy Holidays!” Does this sound out of place in April? It doesn’t have to. This month marks, arguably, the most important holiday of the year—Easter. Why? Because at Easter we celebrate that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This miraculous event is certainly a reason for celebration. It proves that Jesus has power over even death.

And, what’s more, he promises that he has power over your death. You may not be thinking about death at Eastertime. You may not like to think about death at all. (Who does?) Still, we are all facing that reality. Sooner or later, our lives will end.

Then what? Plenty of people have plenty of ideas about what happens after we die. But there is one person who can tell us with certainty what will happen because he has already been there and done that. Jesus experienced death...and came back to life! Now, listen to what he promises all of his followers, “Because I live, you also will live.”

Could there be any better news? Could there be anything more worth celebrating? Through Jesus, you do not need to be afraid to die. You can be sure that one day he will raise your body back to life. And you will never die again.

What a reason to celebrate!

Upcoming Events at St. John:
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we have temporarily suspended our worship services.
We pray that God will keep us safe from sickness during this outbreak and calm our fears.  You are in our prayers

To watch our online services visit our Facebook page at St. John Lutheran church or visit our website at stjohnev.net
For more information or to unsubscribe go to newsletter@stjohnev.net or call us at 651-771-6406

April 29 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…spring rain

Psalm 145:15,16

4/29/20

Pastor John C. Berg

¹⁵ The eyes of all look eagerly to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ He opens his hand,
and he satisfies the desire of every living thing.

This is your daily devotion for April 29^th.  Is food an overlooked blessing for you?  Maybe not.  Many of us routinely pray “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good” before or after a meal.  Then again, you may be like me and realize you haven’t always appreciated the access you have to a tremendous variety of food.  I think many of you know that I drink what a reasonable person would call an excessive amount Diet Coke.  You can pour Diet Pepsi down the drain.  Only Diet Coke.  Actually I’m even more ridiculous than that.  What I really want is Coke Zero.  Talk about first world problems, right?

Even during this time of disrupted global supply chains I have had no problems getting my cola of choice.  We are so blessed.  We get a little silly with preferences in my family.  I try to eat Keto.  A couple of us eat vegan, which is like the opposite of Keto and then my son prefers an all candy diet.  And still, we’ve been able to eat what and how we prefer. 

Is this going to change?  They are disturbing reports about the unsafe conditions in meat packing plants and how many have closed.  Some experts say our choices in meat are going to decrease and the costs will increase.  Will it be enough of a change to really affect our daily lives?  Maybe, maybe not.  Either way Psalms 145:15,16 is still true,

¹⁵ The eyes of all look eagerly to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ He opens his hand,
and he satisfies the desire of every living thing.

What a blessing it is that we can trust God to provide us with the food we need.  I may not be able to get Coke Zero or a nice ribeye, but God knows what I need and in his love he will provide. 

We pray:  Dear God, our maker and provider, remind us of how you bless us with food in abundance.  Bless our efforts to help those who have less than us. Amen.

April 28 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…spring rain

Psalm 147:8

4/28/20

Pastor John C. Berg

He is the one who covers the sky with clouds.  He determines rain for the earth.  He makes grass sprout on the mountains.

This is your daily devotion for April 28^th.  Overlooked blessings…I’m sure many of you today are thinking the same thing I am.  You’re enjoying this spring rain.  It can be an overlooked blessings.  But when it doesn’t rain for a while and we have a day like this we remember what a blessing rain is.  My lawn did not look this green even yesterday. 

Spring rains are such a blessing.  They’re a blessing from God.  Psalm 147:8 He is the one who covers the sky with clouds.  He determines rain for the earth.  He makes grass sprout on the mountains.  Our world and our lives can see like so much chaos.  Bad things happen unexpectedly.  So it is easy for us to miss how much structure and order there is in this fallen world, tainted by sin.  Still, God sends rain.  God makes the crops grow.  God determines this incredibly complex system so that we can live, breathe, eat and even enjoy life in a world that is certainly less than perfect.

Rain of course reminds us of something else, the most famous rain fall of all time.  A giant tremendous deluge that wiped the earth clean.  God preserved Noah and his family.  He preserved the promise of a Savior through that family.  But then God also did this amazing thing when he gave us a symbol, a naturally occurring symbol that when we see it, it’s a reminder in the sky of how much God loves us. Genesis 9:12-15 ¹² God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort, and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

I’m sure this particular rainfall is not going to last for days or weeks.  But even if it did go on and on you and I could be confident that God would not destroy the world with a flood.  Nor will he allow a pandemic to completely wipe out humanity.  We don’t need to fear earth-destroying events.  God will destroy the earth, but after Jesus has returned and raised us from the dead.  The he will give us a new earth.  Personally I think there will still be rain, because isn’t rain a beautiful thing, a reminder, just like the end of rain is a reminder, of God’s great love for us.  Don’t overlook that blessing.

We pray:  Heavenly Father, we thank you for a simple blessing today. Thank you for this rainfall.  Now things will green up, the trees will start to bud and spring will come in full force, remind us that all life comes from you. Amen.

April 27 Devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…the church of your childhood

Colossians 3:16

4/27/20

Pastor John C. Berg

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.

This is your daily devotion for April 27^th.  Today I’m in my hometown of Winona, MN to talk to you about another, often overlooked, blessing.  When’s the last time you realized how blessed you were by the church of your childhood?

Some of you may not have enjoyed this particular blessing.  Maybe you didn’t come to faith until later in life or maybe the church of your childhood was something less than Bible-believing.  But many of you had the experience I did here at St. Matthew’s Lutheran.  This is where Paul’s words in Colossians 3:16 came to life for me: Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.

St. Matthew’s is where I was baptized and confirmed.  Here I attended Sunday School and Lutheran Elementary School.  I was part of Youth Group and Vacation Bible School.  I heard hundreds of sermons and sang hundreds of hymns.  In other words, I was taught the Christian faith, encouraged in the Christian faith and admonished when I needed it.

If you had a similar experience it means many people sacrificed so that you and I could receive such blessings.  Many of them are now with our Lord in heaven.  How wonderful it will be to see them again and say “thank you.”  Right now we have the blessing of being part of the same process for the young people in our congregations.  God is good!

We pray:  Father, thank you for blessing many of us with the churches of our childhoods and for the people of those churches who sacrificed much for our spiritual benefit.  Use us to bring the same blessings to the children of our present congregations. Amen.

Member Mary Bearsley

Dear members of St. John,
Mary Bearsley, mother of Brad Bowman, and a member of St. John, suddenly went to her eternal home (where she is now singing with the angels) earlier this week. Mary resided with the Bowman family.  They are experiencing some difficulties right now for various reasons.  Please keep this St. John family in your prayers.  We would like to set up a meal train for them, but that is not possible under the current stay at home orders.  If you would like to help them out, we are suggesting grocery gift cards or cash gifts sent directly to the family.  Their address is 1048 McLean Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55106.  Thank you in advance for your Christian love in caring for one of our own. If you have questions, you may call Jean Koepsell at 952 353 5969. For gift card ideas, the family shops at Aldi, Cub, or Target.

April 24 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

April 23 devotion and announcement

You can watch today's devotion here.

Our sister in Christ, Mary Bearsley, has been called to her heavenly home.  Pastor Berg will hold a small, family only service tomorrow.  Blessed are those who die in Christ.

Overlooked blessings…the beauty of creation

Romans 1:20

4/23/20

Pastor John C. Berg

In fact, his invisible characteristics—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, because they are understood from the things he made.  As a result, people are without excuse.

This is your daily devotion for April 23^rd.  The weather right now is really cooperating with me as we talk about another often overlooked blessing—the beauty of creation.  The sun is shining, the temperature is comfortable and life is returning.  Charlie and I got out on one of our favorite trout streams yesterday.  We didn’t have a lot of luck with the fish, but it was just perfect out.

One of the reasons I love trout fishing is because it gets me into some amazing places that I otherwise would not experience.  Trout need really cold and clean water and so we trout fishermen can often be heard saying, “trout don’t live in ugly places.”  Here a few pictures I’ve taken on fishing trips over the years. 

Is it not amazing that God has given us such a beautiful world?  We don’t deserve such beauty.  And this is the world twisted by sin!  What it must have been like before mankind brought evil into God’s creation!  That’s hard for us to really comprehend.  We can better understand, and marvel that God’s creation is still so pleasing, so moving and so relaxing. 

I don’t commune with God while fishing.  The hunter who says his tree stand is his church is speaking like a pantheist rather than a Christian.  It’s through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament that God speaks to me.  And yet, there is something to learn about God from nature.  In Romans 1 Paul wrote, “In fact, his invisible characteristics—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, because they are understood from the things he made.  As a result, people are without excuse.”

This beautiful world did not come about by accident.  That’s preposterous.  Clearly a powerful God created it, a God who appreciates beauty.  Let the blessing of living in a stunning world move you to learn more about your creator in the Bible. 

We pray:  Almighty God, thank you for blessing us with the beauty of your creation. May we always see it as evidence of your power and love. Amen.

April 22 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…freedom

Galatians 5:1

4/22/20

Pastor John C. Berg

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again.

This is your daily devotion for April 22^nd. Let’s talk about another overlooked blessing—freedom.  We Americans talk a lot about freedom.  We treasure our freedom of speech.  We’re thankful that we have the freedom to worship God and to share our faith.

I’m talking about a different kind of freedom, what we often call “Christian freedom.”  In Galatians 5 St. Paul wrote, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again.  The context of this is that there were people telling the Galatians they had to do certain things to be Christians.  Of course, God’s law does tell us “do this” and “don’t do that.”  But if we go beyond what his law actually says we are putting on a yoke of slavery, to use Paul’s word picture. 

Let me give you two examples of how this freedom is such blessing.  Why is it that Lutherans have the reputation of liking beer?  It certainly has something to do with the Lutheran church’s origin in Germany.  But it’s also because the Lutheran Church has a proper understanding of Christian freedom and alcoholic beverages.  Drunkenness is certainly a sin.  But we do have the freedom to enjoy beer, wine and liquor.  We can have a couple beers and enjoy that as a blessing from God rather than something to be ashamed of. 

Christian freedom is freedom from guilt.  Example #2:  Christian freedom is crucial when it comes to ethical dilemmas like the ones we are finding ourselves in now and maybe even more so in the coming months.  What is the right thing to do?  Should I go out and do this thing that seems necessary to support my family?  Should I go to work, to get supplies or is that irresponsible and selfish because I might spread the Coronavirus to someone who is vulnerable?  Depending on all the little details this can be an almost impossible choice.  What is the right thing to do?  I don’t know!  That’s a terrible situation to be in.  Here’s where Christian freedom comes in:  Make your choice as a Christian informed by God’s Word and go forth in freedom and confidence.  If you choose poorly, that sin is forgiven.  Jesus died for that too.  Live your life in joy and freedom!  What a blessing.

We pray:  Dear Jesus, you earned freedom for us with your life and death.  Give us the courage to live freely and responsibly.  Amen.

April 21 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…clothing

Matthew 6:28-30

4/21/20

Pastor John C. Berg

²⁸ Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, ²⁹ but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?

This is your daily devotion for April 21^st. The current theme for our devotions is “overlooked blessings.”  I’m going to give you a little overlooked blessing that will lead us to a more significant one:  If you are working from home a fair amount aren’t you loving the dress code?  How are we going to go back to not wearing sweat pants every day?  When I do go to church I try to wear what I used to wear and I feel like my clothes are trying to strangle me! 

The greater blessing is that we have clothing at all!  In Matthew 6 Jesus said ²⁸ Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, ²⁹ but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?  Overlooked blessing?  How about the fact that most of us have never had to seriously think about if we will have clothing?  Our closets are full.  Going out and buying some more clothes is usually not a very big deal for most of us.

This is a picture my mother sent me to use as a moment of joy, but I think it works really well to illustrate Jesus’ point.  Is that not a stunningly beautiful flower?  Trust that your God loves you more than he does a plant.  He’s proven that to you your whole life by providing you with so much clothing.  And yes, right now he’s really blessing us with stretchy fabric and elastic waist bands! 

We pray:  Heavenly Father, open our eyes to see the many blessing we’ve received that we often overlook.  Thank you for this simple but crucial blessing of clothing.  Amen.

April 20 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

Overlooked blessings…home

Psalm 5:11

4/20/20

Pastor John C. Berg

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you be glad.
Let them sing for joy forever.
You cover them with protection,
    so those who love your name rejoice in you.

This is your daily devotion for April 20^th. The typical route that I walk with my dog is a blacktopped path that winds through my neighborhood.  A couple weeks ago all sorts of chalk art appeared on it.  Most of it is inspirational and comforting sayings.  One I’ve seen a couple other places and maybe you have too:  “You don’t have to stay at home.  You get to stay at home.”  We may have different opinions about how long shelter-in-place orders should last but this is a powerful reminder of a blessing, isn’t it?

I hope you enjoyed our walk through 1 Corinthians 15 last week.  Today we begin a new series I’m calling “Overlooked Blessings.”  Every day we’ll talk about a blessing that is easy for us to take for granted, but is powerful evidence of God’s love.  You get to stay at home.  In other words, you have a home in which to shelter. 

We spend more time in our houses or apartments than anywhere else.  Your home is your safe place.  It’s where you are in charge.  You decide what’s in it and what’s not.  You control the thermostat and the TV.  It’s where you family is and where you can be yourself.  And yet, don’t we often take it for granted?  Here’s what I mean.  Think of how excited you were when the offer you made on your house was accepted or when you signed the lease on your apartment.  And now I can go many days without even thinking of what a blessing my house is.

How can we better appreciate our homes?  By being reminded why we have them.  Yes, we work hard to pay the rent.  We spend a lot of time and money maintaining the house.  But it’s all from God.  He provides us shelter.  Psalm 5:11 is a great example of how the Bible usually talks about this:   ¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them sing for joy forever. You cover them with protection, so those who love your name rejoice in you.

Since it’s God who provides it all HE really is the shelter, the refuge, the protection.  That’s why you need not fear if you lose your house or if you can no longer afford your apartment.  Be thankful that God will always protect you.

We pray:  God Almighty, you always keep your promises and so we are thankful now and forever that you provide us with homes.  Use us to be part of the process of doing so for others.  Amen.

Your moment of joy is this:  look away from your screen and see the home God has given you!

April 19 worship

You can watch today's worship service and download a copy of the bulletin here.

Note from Treasurer, Jim Connolly

St John Members:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I hope you and yours continue to be safe and healthy during this time.  I also pray that because of technology, you are able to take advantage of the devotions and services that Pastor Berg has posted to the website so that we are able to stay in the Word even though we are not able to worship at the church.  What a blessing it has been to be able to hear the message.  Hopefully, we will be able to return our church and worship together again.  Even though we cannot be at church, there are monthly expenses that don’t stop and we must continue to pay both at the church and the parsonage.  We still have salaries, utilities, insurance, office expenses, and other repairs that may occur.  Even though we are coming into the spring and summer where we will not be needing the have the heat on, we are on a budget program so that in the winter depending on how cold it is when our heat bill could exceed $5,000.00, we still only have to pay the budgeted amount each month.    Another fixed expense we have each month is our copier machine.  We lease the copier and pay a monthly lease expense for that.  There are a couple of reasons that organizations lease copy machines.  One reason is that because of new technology being developed all the time, copiers become outdated rather quickly and when your lease is up you can replace the copier with something new and updated. Also, if something goes wrong with the copier, we just have to call the copier company and they come and fix it and there are no charges.  Another reason that most organizations lease a copier is because it is more affordable to lease a copier that to buy one.  A copier like the one we have at St John would cost over $50,000 to purchase and we would also need to purchase a maintenance agreement in case something goes wrong.  Even though we are not making a lot of copies printing bulletins and other things, we still are required to pay the monthly lease.  This is why I am encouraging you to consider using your offering envelopes and make your contributions just as you would if we were holding services at church.  Some of our members have already decided to do that.  You can mail them to the church or if you wish, you can mail them to my home address.  My home address is 17151 Eagleview Way, Farmington, MN  55024.  The mailbox at church is a locking mailbox so they are safe.  I am also working from home in my regular job but I am going up to the church at least once per week to pay bills.  I will also take the offerings to the bank and deposit them into our account.  If you wish to mail your contributions bi-weekly or monthly to save postage, that is fine too.  I just want to be sure we are able to maintain God’s property.  Hopefully, this pandemic will be over shortly and we can return to our normal lives if there will ever be such a thing as normal again.  Thank you for your consideration. 

God’s blessings,

Jim Connolly, Treasurer         

April 17 devotion and announcements

You can watch today's devotion here.

The next devotion will be on Monday.

Worship video posted by 9:00 AM on Sunday.

In a couple of weeks Pastor Berg will take over teaching the online Tuesday night Bible class.  Thank you so much to Tom for everything he does for the people of St. John!

Any moment now.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

4/17/20

Pastor John C. Berg

⁵¹ Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

This is your daily devotion for April 17^th.  How long will we have to shelter in place?  Will normal school start when it’s supposed to?  When will a vaccine be available?  For many of us one of the most difficult aspects of this pandemic is that the end date is so open ended.  If we knew when it will end it would be much easier to deal with it right now.  I’m that way about a lot of things.  If I’m going through something hard it’s much easier for me if I know when it will end.  If I have something really good to look forward I also have an easier time dealing.

Yesterday we heard in 1 Corinthians 15 that when Jesus raises believers from the dead he will give us glorified and imperishable bodies.  We certainly have that to look forward to!  But when will that happen?  In Matthew 24 Jesus said, “no one knows when that day and hour will be.”  So no, we can’t look forward to that the same way we look forward to Christmas or something else that is firmly scheduled.  But what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 is helpful:

⁵¹ Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

It’s not just dead believers raised to life who will be given perfect bodies.  Even those of us who are still alive when Jesus returns will be blessed this way!  It will happen in the blink of an eye.  It could happen before I am able to upload this video or before you finish watching it.  No, we don’t know the date Jesus will return.  It’s actually better than that.  He could come back at any time. 

It’s good to make plans and prepare when it seems like hard times might be coming.  God has given you responsibilities.  But isn’t dealing with hard times so much easier when we remember that Jesus will return for us, and it could be at any moment?  It’s imminent!  Rejoice, Jesus is coming! 

Let’s pray:  Jesus, fill us with hope in your return and the eternity of peace that will bring with you.  Amen, come Lord Jesus!

Your moment of joy is good news for our friend John Elliott.  You may remember that John was transferred from the V.A. hospital in Minneapolis to the V.A. hospital in St. Cloud.  There was some anxiety about this because John had developed some good friendships here and would be leaving them behind.  It turns out that John’s friends got transferred along with him and John is receiving better care in St. Cloud.  Praise God!

April 16 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

I haven't received very many pictures of everyone to share.  If you don't want to do it, that's fine.  If you do, please do so soon.  Thanks!

Also, if you want to be part of the "filming crew" on the Saturdays we record worship at St. John please let me know.

Imperishable.

1 Corinthians 15:42-43

4/16/20

Pastor John C. Berg

⁴² That is the way the resurrection of the dead will be. What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

This is your daily devotion for April 16^th.  This week we’re spending time in 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter of the Bible. Yesterday we were comforted with the fact that because Jesus rose we too will rise.  Death is not the end.  The Bible says all people will rise, both believers and unbelievers.  But there is a difference.  In 1 Corinthians 15:42-43 St. Paul wrote, “⁴² That is the way the resurrection of the dead will be. What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” 

The bodies we have right now are only going to get worse.  Anyone older than 20 knows that.  They are perishable.  Just as a tomato plant dies and eventually rots so it will be with my body, and the road to death is filled with all sorts of aches, pains and indignities.  But in the resurrection Jesus will give believers glorified bodies that do not perish! 

What exactly does that mean?  Those of us on social media have been encouraged to share our senior pictures to honor all the seniors this year who are being robbed of their proms, graduations and all those other memorable senior year festivities.  Well, here you go.  Yes, some of us peaked early!  I wouldn’t mind looking like that again when Jesus raises me.  Perhaps most of us will look like we did at 18 or 25.  We can say a few things for sure.  I won’t have asthma.  You won’t have arthritis.  Never again will there be a pandemic.  Your loved ones won’t have to watch cancer slowly kill you.  That slow but inevitable decline of perishable bodies will be a thing of the distant past.  The future, for eternity, will be glorified, perfect bodies.

Today we pray for Tim White, Darrel Crider’s niece’s father who is in the ICU in Duluth with kidney failure brought on by COVID-19.  We also pray for Tim’s daughters, Rachel and Mackenzie and their mother Jen who is Darrel’s sister.  Dear Jesus we ask you to bring healing and relief to Tim.  Bless the doctors and nurses caring for him.  Comfort his family with your promises of forgiveness, salvation and eternal life.  Amen.

April 15 devotion

You can watch today's devotion here.

We sleep and then we rise.

1 Corinthians 15:17-20

4/15/20

Pastor John C. Berg

¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished. ¹⁹ If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all. ²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

This is your daily devotion for April 15^th.  I’m seeing more and more of it, not in my real life but online-that criticism of Christianity that goes something like “Where is your God now?”  How can you believe in a loving God when he kills people with a virus all over the world?

There is of course a false premise to this question.  God does not kill people.  Death is the result of sin.  There is a legitimate concern, though.  How can we believe that God is powerful and loving when he allows terrible things like pandemics, terrorists attacks, hurricanes and famines?  Part of the answer is perspective.  When we are in the middle of a tragedy we often can’t see the full context of God’s influence in the world.  What about all the blessings we experience?  Consider how it’s really impossible for us to know how much God restrains tragedies from being even worse. 

Let’s be honest. If that’s all we can say, it’s a little bit lacking, isn’t it?  Fortunately there is much more we can say.   It’s all about the resurrection.  1 Corinthians 15:17-20 says ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished. ¹⁹ If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all. ²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

If the only blessings God gave us were for this life than we would be pitiful.  If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead than all of Christianity is pointless.  But Jesus did rise from the dead.  If you have some questions about that fact please watch yesterday’s devotion.

Jesus’ resurrection means you too will rise from the dead.  For the Christian death is but a sleep.  As I hear the news of how many people have died in New York and Italy, as I see images like bodies stacked in vacant rooms in a Detroit hospital I can’t help but consider how terrifying this must all be for people who think this life is all there is.  It’s the resurrection of Jesus Christ that spares you that terror.  He who conquered death with raise you from the dead and give you a perfect, glorified body.  That’s where God is. 

I have two moments of joy to share with you today.  Haden Werner of Divinity has been working at Target and recently had a customer give him a gift card and say “This is for you.  Thank you for stepping up and working through this.”  Today is baptism birthday of Moira Julian from St. John.

Let’s pray:   Heavenly Father, through baptism you adopted Moira as your child. Preserve her in faith so that she may spend eternity with you.  Thank you for moving people to show kindness and appreciation to essential workers like Haden.  We also praise for bringing Carole Edwards home from her recent hospitalization.  Amen.