July 24, 2011

7-24-11 Sunday, 5:34 am Springfield, 78 degrees, last quarter moon and morning star bright overhead.

I am looking forward to this morning. The house is quiet, and my heart is stilled before God. Due to the tragic 92 deaths in Norway at the hand of a 32 year-old I have been reading about the history and people of Norway. Its population (4.9 million) is about a million less than the population of Missouri. It officially remained neutral during WW I and II, but suffered much in both wars, being occupied for 5 years by the Nazis.

Last night at 10 o’clock I took a collect call from the Greene County jail. My homeless friend Skip has been there for a couple of weeks, and read me something he had written yesterday, about playing catch when he was a kid with another kid who turned out to be Satan. He has struggled with drugs, addictions, and crime all his life. I will write him today, and visit him on Friday evening.

As I was working on my sermon yesterday I developed a real excitement, a passion for the three applications – read your Bible, salvation by grace through faith, and love the church, risking all to reform it. My challenge today (as it was last week) is to cover the historical material and have enough time to develop the personal application points.

Ephesians 2:4-10

“For we are his workmanship (poema) created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Verse 10) This section of scripture (Eph 2:4-10) is packed with richness and meaning. It is not too long to be read at once, but even this 10th verse has so much in it that I could chew on it all day and not exhaust its spiritual substance.

Bonhoeffer, writing in Life Together comments on how much is too much scripture to be read. “Not only the young Christian but also the adult Christian will complain that the Scripture reading is often too long for him and that much therein he does not understand. To this it must be said that for the mature Christian every Scripture reading will be ‘too long,’ even the shortest one. What does this mean? The Scripture is a whole and every word, every sentence possesses such multiple relationships with the whole that it is impossible always to keep the whole in view when listening to details. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the whole of Scripture and hence every passage in it as well far surpasses our understanding. It is good for us to be daily reminded of this fact, which again points to Jesus Christ himself…”

Guide me Holy Lord today as I point to You, through the scripture, Luther, Bonhoeffer and my own life experiences. May your Holy Spirit be preparing hearers throughout the morning to experience You in a fresh, new way today.