ST. JOHN LUTHERAN CHURCH
(The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod)
Alma, Kansas
A family united by faith in Christ gathering around God's Word and Sacraments.
To reach out in Christ-like concern and Christ-borne love to each other and to those without Christ!
In This Month's
St. John Witness
APRIL WITNESS
Pastor's Message
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 4:17
A duck hunter was with a friend in the wide-open lands of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon, he could hear the brush crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the horrible truth: a brush fire was advancing so fast they could not outrun it.
Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for – a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them, and soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come.
They didn’t have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs, and squatted low. The fire came near – and swept over them. But they were completely untouched, unhurt. Fire would not burn where it already had consumed its fuel.
The Law of God is like that brushfire. It is greater than we imagine, and more potent in its ability to consume sinners who have been caught in a dangerous place, for they have been found opposing the truth of God. But if you stand in the burned over place, where it has already burned, not a hair of your head will be singed.
Christ’s cross is the burned over place. God’s wrath against sin has done its worst. God’s own Son has died because sin – my sin, your sin, and all the sin of the world – has provided much fuel for God’s wrath to blaze against it and to consume it. And Jesus took that upon Himself, so that we would not endure the fires of hell.
There we huddle, at the foot of the cross, hardly believing, yet relieved. The law is powerful, yet powerless. Christ’s death has disarmed it, and we are spared. Trust Him. Be devoted to
the cross. Let Him spare you from hell and damnation – that’s what He wants. He wants you to live in heaven. He wants you to repent, and to believe the Gospel that God’s wrath is appeased.
Who will deliver us? Paul Zahl, © 1983, Seabury Press.
Rejoice for God's grace!
Pastor Grimm
