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

DECEMBER WITNESS

Pastor's Message

 

“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation,

the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;” (Psalm 65:5)

  Advent is a season of hope. Hope is longing for something greater, better, and more lasting than what we have. It is not merely longing for a return to the “good old days”, nor a wish for a “a better tomorrow.” Hope is based in the reality of Christ. Salvation is given by God Himself; the Savior redeems us from sin and death, and releases us from the power of Satan. The reality is that the days of this world are numbered. Truth: this world, and all its flaws will be destroyed. Likewise, all the world’s fleeting pleasures will also be destroyed. Only joy found in the eternal things of God will remain. They have been redeemed by Christ!

  CS Lewis writes about hope in this way:

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not

(as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant

to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the

Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles

themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages,

the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their

minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they

have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get

neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters.

(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, Harper edition, 2001), pp. 134-135.

  Hope is waiting for what is coming. Our lives are waiting for something better, and our hope is sure, because Jesus Christ died and rose again. From Him we have hope; with Him we live in hope; through Him we pursue hope.

  “Endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:4

 

  Live in His grace!   

Pastor Grimm

We are 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!

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:11-14