John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Restaurants with public restrooms feature signs indicating "EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK." Such a sign has dual purposes: to remind staff to wash and to assure patrons that this business takes cleanliness seriously. Those who disregard this injunction endanger not only themselves but also everyone and everything they touch. Sadly, many Christians display the same indifference concerning Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is so vital that our Lord commands it. Holy Baptism is concerned not with preventing the common cold or warding off food-borne illness, but rather with salvation, eternity, heaven, and hell. Yet, like the callow youth who is too busy to wash before returning to work, we care little for Jesus' injunction to take this saving Sacrament to the world.

Hand soaps found in many bathrooms include both a germ-killing agent and a moisturizer. Such a soap takes away but also adds. So it is with Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism removes our sins, past, present, and future. God doesn't stop there. In this Sacrament, God creates saving faith, grants eternal life, and gives us His Holy Spirit. He makes us His child forever. Our own Baptism connects us to Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan River, to His sinless life and innocent suffering. In other words, God sees His Son when He looks at one who has been baptized. God commands His Cgurch to baptize, not that man's efforts would save, but rather that sinner would be saved through Jesus' efforts.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Ephesians 4:4-6  There is one body and one spirit - just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Luther talks of casting sugar into water to make delicious drinks.  Many dollars are spent today on our sugary sodas, juices, coffees, and teas. If you take away the sugar and call them diet, they're just not the same. When it comes to Baptism, the minute you take away the Word of God, you make it nothing. If we don't have the Word of God with that water in the baptismal font, then all we have is a silly and meaningless ritual.

God's Word makes the water of Baptism sweet. When the Israelites tried the desert water at Marah, it was bitter. But God's Word made it sweet when He told Moses to toss in a piece of wood (Exodus 15:25). During the time of Elisha, the men of Jericho came to him because their water was bad and causing sickness and death. At God's word, Elisha took a bowl of salt and threw it in the water. The water was healed (2 Kings 2:22).

How sweet the water of Baptism becomes when the Word of God is added! Sweeter than honey and sugar (Psalm 119:103)! This "Word-water" of Baptism becomes living water that has the power to drive away our bitter sin and death and open the doors of sweet paradise. Even more than that, God Himself comes to us in the "Word-water" and makes His home with us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Be assured that there is nothing silly or meaningless whenever God's Word is present.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Romans 2:28-29  For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is on inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

In the Broadway musical Annie, Daddy Warbucks came to love the orphan Annie as if she were his own daughter. He planned to give her the gift of a new locket to replace her old and broken one, then reveal his desire to adopt her. When she opened the gift, however, Annie quickly explained that her broken locket was more than it appeared to be. It was a gift from her parents, given to her with a promise attached to it: that they would come back for her one day. Apart from the promise, Annie's locket would have been an ordinary necklace. But because it was attached to a promise, it was of great value to her and simply irreplaceable.

Our God has given us His Word attached to things that may look ordinary - water, bread, wine - but through them, He delivers to us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Unlike Annie's parents, who left her at an orphanage and could not deliver on their promise to return, our God never leaves us and always keeps His promises.

Through the Word and the waters of Baptism, God delivers on His promise to wash us clean from sin by connecting us to Jesus' death and resurrection. Through the Word in, with, and under bread and wine, God delivers on His promise to forgive our sin by connecting us to the body and blood of Jesus. There is no better gift we could receive than eternal life and salvation from our loving Father!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Romans 10:17  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Blueprints. Lists. Tools. Materials. Workbench. Patience. Determination. Care. Discipline. Joy. All of these put together by a master craftsman produce a work that is meant to be both artistic and functional for daily living. The master craftsman "sees" what he will create and then creates what will be seen in the world.

God, our master craftsman, working through His Means of Grace, brings to us the materials and tools by which our very lives are saved for His best works. With written and spoken Scripture, with water, and with bread and wine, we are worked on faithfully by the Holy Spirit to bring the love and grace of Jesus into and out of each of our lives. We are made into new, beautiful creations through which the very life of Jesus functionally works in the world. We are crafted in ways only God can do to be the works of God in our homes and communities.

We are invited to be miniature craftspeople. We are to use the very Word made flesh who lives in us to share God's love and grace in the artistic, functional ways that God has created for us in our lives. For the joy set before Jesus, He saved us. For the joy set before us, we live Him out. Let's get to work!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

2 Corinthians 1:20  For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.

Take a moment and make a list of ten circumstances that signal an ending. What did your list include? Maybe you thought of checking the last box on a to-do list or a curtain falling after the closing act of a performance, or perhaps you flashed back to the sound of the final bell on the last day of school. Take a moment and notice something about your list. Very often, the end of an event mirrors the beginning. Fireworks shows are one of my favorite examples. A loud, colorful bang signals the beginning. The tempo and intensity build until the grand finale culminates in a glorious burst of sound and color. When done right, the ending leaves you shaken and awestruck.

Reading the Lord's Prayer also brings us full circle while providing a thrilling conclusion. The prayer begins with our eyes turned heavenward toward our Father. The focus then turns earthward as we acknowledge our desire to live in a world where God's name is revered and His perfect will is done. Realizing that our sin separates us from this reality, we humble ourselves before God, asking Him to provide first for our earthly needs, then for our spiritual needs as well. Our eyes once again turn heavenward as our requests turn to praise, declaring with renewed vigor the might and majesty of our heavenly Father. The amen caps it all off with a proclamation in the certainty of God's attention and intervention. It's truly a moment that leaves you shaken and awestruck.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

1 John 5:19  We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

When God created the world, it was very good. And it was for us. He made plants for us to eat, animals to accompany us, and the sun and moon to mark time and give us light. He instituted marriage so we could delight in our spouse and in the children who spring from our love. And in the beginning, we had Him. He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, and He talked to them face-to-face. It was all very good.

But Satan, who had already rebelled against God, could not abide God's good creation. KNowing God's command to Adam and Eve, he entered the garden and tempted them to eat what was forbidden. They did, and they brought on themselves the curse: division from each other, separation from God, death. And death still stalks us, wreaking havoc through natural disasters, human pride, violence, disease, and the like. We are mostly safe - until we are not. We suffer, and Satan rejoices.

God, however, suffered with us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. He died under our curse and rose again victorious. In Him, we also have the victory over death and Satan. We therefore pray to God that He would protect us from all the evils that Satan so gladly sees us suffer. And we know that, whatever evils we experience in this life, we will overcome them in Christ and once again see God face-to-face on the Last Day.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

1 Corinthians 10:13  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

God wants an actual relationship with us, not a false relationship, not half a relationship, and not a pretend version of relationship. Because God values relationships with us so highly, He presents His actual self to us in His Word, rather than a version of Him that may be more comfortable and more palatable to handle. Temptation, God's anger, how they interact, and our sinner/saint reality can be confusing and can lead us to despair. Satan likes to kick us while we're down and put lies in our ears about who we are and who God is. Satan whispers, "God doesn't want you. God doesn't want to hear your sin. You should despair, fall into shame."

The Word in our lives saves us from despair, shame and vice. The Word tells us who God is and all that He has done for us. We cling to God's Word not to avoid temptation, but to walk through temptation with Christ before us and beside us, the sword of the Spirit valiantly swinging, the helmet of salvation firm on our heads, our feet shod with God's peace even when we have a hard time finding exact answers to our questions.

Temptation is common. It will come to us. But our triune God is anything but common, and we trust that His promises are better, brighter, and stronger than anything Satan can toss our way. To Him be glory forever. He saves us!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,