All Saints Lutheran Church is collecting school supplies for the LSSI (Lutheran Social Services of Illinois) Single Parent Program. Single Parent families can really use our help in sending their kids off to school this fall with supplies and support. Imagine what it would feel like to show up at school w/o a backpack or paper or pencils…we can make sure some central Illinois kids don’t experience that. If you would like to donate supplies, bring them to All Saints Lutheran Church at the Sunday Service, 4:15 p.m., 8/1 & 8/8.

You might include:
Crayons (24 ct)
Markers (all size boxes – thin and regular)
Colored Pencils
Wide ruled notebook paper
Spiral notebooks (70 pg)
Mechanical pencils
Black OR Red pens
Glue Sticks
Blunt end scissors
Backpacks

Summer is a season for “keeping on.”
You could say that about winter, too, but right now we’re trying to cope with heat and humidity, and “keeping on” is a matter of enduring long, soggy days that never seem to cool off or dry out, and longing for the crisp, clear days of autumn.
Enduring is the word I’m looking for, and the quality of character I’m trying to cultivate.
It’s not easy.
But then, keeping on is never easy, is it?
It’s difficult to keep on doing what is right when hardly anyone seems to notice. It’s difficult to keep on doing what is just when it puts me at some kind of disadvantage. It’s difficult to keep on doing what I know I should do when I’m tired and there’s no end in sight.
Endurance is difficult.
It’s difficult because endurance is often a long stretch of self-denial. One definition of “endurance” is “the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions.”
It’s those “adverse conditions” that make endurance difficult.
In his book Plan B, Pete Wilson writes, “I’ve found it’s much easier to fall into temptation when our needs are not being met. When we feel as if God has abandoned us, why not just go ahead and abandon him?”
And often, the temptation is to just quit trying and “go with the flow.”
But Scripture tells us “ . . . God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:5b).
Our feelings might deceive us into believing that God has abandoned us, but the truth is He has not.
The truth is that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1).
Not only is God ever-present, He is also our refuge. He is our strength. And refuge and strength come in pretty handy when we are trying to endure.
Turning to God in a tedious, trying season sounds like the best way to keep on keeping on.
Especially in the heat and humidity of a long, hot summer.

We’ve begun something new at All Saints Lutheran Church.
The first Sunday of each month is now “Collection Sunday.” Each month we will take a practical offering for a local ministry.
This month we’ve collected groceries for Clare House, a food pantry distributing food to community families who need a bit of help, and we offer them with our prayers that God will meet the needs of these families, and that they will experience the comfort and joy of His presence.
Our next Collection Sunday will be August 1. We will be collecting baby food, disposable diapers and wipes for the Home Sweet Home mission.

a practical offering . . .

A few comments regarding all manner of congregational deliberations:

From Luther’s Small Catechism – 8^th Commandment – Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

From Luther’s Large Catechism

…observe the order according to the Gospel, Matt. 18:15, where Christ says: “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Here you have a precious and excellent teaching for governing well the tongue, which is to be carefully observed against this detestable misuse. Let this, then, be your rule, that you do not too readily spread evil concerning your neighbor and slander him to others, but admonish him privately that he may amend [his life]. Likewise, also, if some one report to you what this or that one has done, teach him, too, to go and admonish him personally, if he have seen it himself; but if not, that he hold his tongue.

From Proverbs -

10:18 He who conceals hatred has lying lips, And he who spreads slander is a fool.

10:23 Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool, And so is wisdom to a man of understanding.

12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

14:7 Leave the presence of a fool, Or you will not discern words of knowledge.

18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind.

18:6 A fool’s lips bring strife, And his mouth calls for blows.

19:1 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity Than a fool who is perverse in speech.

20:10 A double standard of weights and measures– both are disgusting to the LORD.

23:9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

26:10 Like an archer who wounds everyone, So is he who hires a fool…

From James 1:19 This you know, my beloved… everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Some words make me think, and stewardship is one of them.
Maybe it’s the result of “Stewardship Sunday”s — those Sundays each year when a nervous pastor reminds everyone about the virtue of giving, usually just before the annual stewardship drive designed to help the church council plan the church budget for the next year.
I’m not fond of Stewardship Sundays because I think they encourage us to put all our stewardship emphasis on financial stewardship, and I think stewardship is about much more than money.
When we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord, we submit ourselves to Him. Everything we have, everything we are — His. That casts stewardship in a different light.
Traditionally, a steward is someone who oversees assets — someone who cultivates, nurtures, and, when necessary, spends an asset in ways that are most advantageous to the owner of the asset.
As Christians, we are stewards of the gifts — the assets — God has trusted us with. When you consider that life itself is a gift, that makes stewardship a significant issue for us to consider; God trusts us to manage our lives in a way that reflects His goodness, demonstrates His salvation, and builds His kingdom.
A tithe of our earnings is only one small part of that kind of stewardship.
Here are four “Cs” to reflect on as you think about stewardship:
Confession: When we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives, we are confessing that He is entitled to some kind of good return from us. Are we investing ourselves in ways that yield a good return for Him?
Cultivation: In order to invest ourselves in ways that yield a good return for God, we need to cultivate the things that honor Him in our lives. What gifts and talents do you have? What are you able to do? What do you cultivate in your life?
Conservation: How do you spend yourself? Are you poured out in ways that serve and honor God, or do you pour yourself out in service to your own self? Do you spend your life pleasing yourself, or do you conserve your gifts and talents for the things that honor God?
Confirmation: Does the fruit of your life confirm your stewardship? Is your life bearing good fruit for God’s kingdom?
God is gracious to each of us, giving us gifts to manage and use as we live our lives. What we do with those gifts is an expression of our everyday stewardship — not just on Stewardship Sunday.

Down through the ages the church on earth has often been assailed from without, but generally from within. Jesus predicted false teachers, and the apostles soon discovered the reality of His words. Early attacks revolved around questions of salvation via faith in Christ’s work on the cross alone; or should it be coupled somehow with keeping the Hebrew legal code, the Law? We easily gravitate toward polarities; on one hand we would like to do something in order to impress God with our goodness, (salvation via good works); or on the other extreme, we simply shrug off our sinfulness and need of a Savior, (I’m OK, you’re OK, we’re all OK.)

Paul’s opening in Galatians 1 is telling: “I marvel that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.”  The test of the gospel message is Scripture itself. If the proclamation excludes or downplays God’s grace alone, His calling us to faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone; if it denies the reality of our sin, or negates Christ’s atonement on the cross on our behalf, it is “another” gospel.

Today, we seem to have gravitated to a “new” gospel of acceptance, instead of the “old” gospel of divine redemption. In preparing for this Sunday’s sermon, I ran across a relevant article which fully delves into these issues.   http://wordalone.org/docs/wa-grorud08.shtml   Check it out. What do you think; have we left the “old” gospel for another?

I’ve been re-reading Eugene Peterson’s book, Eat This Book, and he’s got me thinking.
Peterson talks a lot in this book about how we read and understand Scripture. One of the things he considers is the “live”liness of the Word.
That is, how Scripture reveals the living Lord.
It’s easy to fall into the habit of reading Scripture as if it’s about old things — old stories, old people, old truth. We get so familiar with Scripture that we don’t really “see” or “hear” anything new and alive in it.
Peterson advocates reading the Scripture with an awareness that it speaks of all our lives in a way that makes all things new. “So,” he writes, “lectio divina. A way of reading that guards against depersonalizing the text into an affair of questions and answers, definitions and dogmas.”
In other words, we read Scripture in a way that isn’t about religious arguments or proving our point, but is instead a way of getting to know our best Friend.
Now, that’s a way of reading Scripture I think I’ll enjoy.

I’ve always wondered about Lot’s wife; what little we know of her seems such an odd story.
If it’s been awhile since you read it, here’s a quick-read version of Genesis 19: God decides to rain destruction — “brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven” — on Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sins greatly offend him. But God allows Lot to escape with his wife and two daughters before the destruction begins. In fact, God sends angels to make sure they leave, and despite Lot’s initial reluctance to go, the angels insist that he leave, and leave quickly.
So Lot, his wife, and their two daughters make their escape. But as they flee, Lot’s wife looks back, and as she looks back, she becomes a pillar of salt.
Huh? What’s that all about?
Scripture doesn’t give extensive explanation, just a very brief description of what happened. That brief description is enough to terrify anyone, though, so I can only imagine what it must have been to experience it.
The angels who came to be sure Lot and his family left warned Lot and his family not to look back, but the temptation to do just that proved too great for Lot’s wife.
So why did Lot’s wife look back? Was she trying to make sense of what she was hearing or smelling or feeling as brimstone and fire fell on Sodom and Gomorrah? Or was she merely reluctant and sad to leave that familiar place she had known as home?
Looking back resulted in her own personal disaster.
When God tells us it is time to leave, we need to leave and not look back. That’s easier said than done, as anyone who has tried to do it knows, but the alternatives are not attractive.
If Lot and his family had stayed in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would certainly have been caught up in the destruction.
That’s my take-away from this Scripture lesson. There have been times and places God has asked me to leave, and I’m learning not to look back.
I’m learning to trust God to deal with and care for those situations, places, and people, and I’m learning to look forward, not back. I’m learning to pay more attention to where God wants me to go than to where I’ve been. I’m learning to listen and obey rather than keep trying to do what God wants me to be done with.
Lot’s wife couldn’t do anything about what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, but if she’d looked forward instead of back — if she’d trusted God instead — she certainly would have gotten farther.

This is a season of hospitality.
It seems as if only December can rival May as a season of family events, programs, and parties, and that means coming together as family, friends, and even strangers to spend time together on bleachers, in folding chairs and pews, in living rooms, kitchens, and back yards to observe and mark special events, to celebrate.
One of my favorite books about hospitality is Radical Hospitality, by Father Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt. I like this book because it doesn’t pretend that hospitality is just a matter of having the right napkins or appetizers. Instead, this book addresses the importance of opening your heart to others.
That’s not to say that napkins and appetizers, as well as all the other things we associate with gracious hospitality, aren’t important — they offer us an opportunity to exercise creativity as well as any skills we might have in cooking, decorating, or gardening. To exercise creativity in those ways is a gift, and to receive such a gift is a blessing. Such a gift, freely offered to others, gratefully received, can be refreshing.
But hospitality does not rely on those things. Hospitality relies on our heart.
To open the door of one’s heart to welcome another, to include another, to care for another — that is hospitality.
What good is it to be invited into a lovely setting, knowing that you aren’t really welcome?
How much fun is it to be included in an event, knowing that you aren’t really wanted?
Of what value is it if you end up at some big event, knowing that no one cares about what you need?
On the other hand, what do your surroundings matter, if you are welcome, wanted, and cared for?
We have the opportunity to extend hospitality to others wherever we are, by treating them as if they are honored guests in our day. Everyone — from the waitress at our table to the grocery store clerk to the difficult neighbor down the street to our own beloved family — everyone in our lives is someone we can welcome into our heart, offering hospitality, offering refreshment, offering love in the name of Jesus Christ.

************

Speaking of hospitality, we’d like to invite you to join us this summer — for worship, for fellowship, or for Bible study. We’d like to welcome you in the name of Jesus Christ, to tell you the good news of His love for you, to share the stories of His presence in our lives.

Please join us on Sunday afternoons at the Marquis Chapel of Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington at 4:15 p.m., or for Bible study on Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings — you’ll find details in the bullet points to the left on this page.

We’re hoping to see you soon!

Gal. 6:7…for whatever one sows, this will also be reaped. For the one who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.   (see also Gal. 5:19 for contrasts between flesh and Spirit)

Christ’s great earthly church throughout the ages has always been in need of, and subject to, ongoing reform. This is part of what the Holy Spirit does among us. (John 16:12) I suspect it also has something to do with Jesus’ teaching in Luke 8:16 “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” God has ways of bringing things to light… if we have eyes to see, and ears to hear.

Pray for the churches, that we remain faithful and true to Jesus Christ, His Spirit and His word. And may we always take care with what we sow in our countries, our communities, our churches, our families and ourselves. The law of sowing and reaping has not changed. This Pentecost season, may we remember: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Gal. 5:25  Thanks be to God!