Friends of Immanuel,
Yesterday we were thinking about weariness – and you should know that I was preaching to myself as well! The fatigue, exhaustion, and weariness is real, isn’t it? Whether that’s some of the personal things swirling in our lives that’s causing us to feel worn out or some of the big stuff of our world that is wearing us down, it’s hard to escape the weariness. So as we sing about that reality in the hymns, songs, and Christmas carols of the season, we can use that as an opportunity to give thanks and praise to God for who He is and all that He offers us.

We focused on Isaiah 40:21-31 and promises of the Lord’s “great exchange” – His willingness and desire to take our weariness and weakness and trade it in for His strength. What a gift! Know that our Savior understands fully all that we go through – He knows and He cares. Take to heart these beautiful promises the Lord speaks to us from Isaiah 40:28-31 –
²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

My prayer for all of us today and in these weeks leading up to Christmas is that we receive and experience the Lord’s strength as He provides us with all that He knows we need. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” I included a picture of the Christus Consolator (“Christ the Consoler”) sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen that was part of yesterday’s sermon.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
This is a great time of year to share your faith, Jesus’ love, and the hope we carry in our hearts. Whether that is a simple, “Merry Christmas!” to the cashier in the store or purchasing gifts and other items for Immanuel’s Giving Tree or extending an invitation to one of the many Christmas worship services or Immanuel School Christmas programs, people are more open this time of year to hearing the real story of Christmas.

As the culture and our world at-large continues to struggle and fight and grope in the proverbial darkness, wondering where to turn and what to do in the face of so much confusion and chaos, we have something to offer. “Jesus” isn’t just a simplistic solution that we throw at any situation yet at the same time He truly IS the solution – and the real hope that is needed. As I so often preach, just because we believe in and follow Jesus, it doesn’t mean that our lives are going to be trouble-free and easy. We, too, battle our own demons, struggle to make ends meet, have challenges and heartache within our relationships, and don’t always make the “right” or even the best choices. And yet… we know what Jesus brings to the table.

We look to Jesus not as the fixer-of-all-my-problems as but the One who offers His grace, His forgiveness, His guidance, and His love. He brings real healing to our real hurts. He brings real forgiveness when we blow it. He brings real hope when life looks bleak. As we’ve been hearing already in this Advent season, Jesus is “Immanuel,” which we know means, “God with us.” He is here. We are not alone. And we are most certainly not on our own. We literally thank God for that promise and that gift.

Be intentional in the weeks leading up to Christmas to be bold in sharing Jesus – in big ways and in small. Extend those invitations for others in your life to come and worship and celebrate Jesus in what we offer here at Immanuel. And show to others just how real Jesus is and the true difference He can make when He is part of our lives.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
The season of Advent has begun! Yesterday we started our new series called, Be Born in Us Today, from the fourth stanza of the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” In worship yesterday we started this series by talking about blessings. Based on the opening verses of Genesis 12, which is God’s call to Abram and establishing His covenant with Abram, what we focused on was how Abram was blessed in order to be a blessing. Coming off our Thanksgiving celebrations, thinking about the blessings in our lives can be pretty easy – in fact, take a moment to think about some of those again right now. Then give thanks to God for those gifts!

But what God was speaking of very specifically was The Blessing, which is Jesus. This covenant was a continuation of the promise that God made in the opening pages of the history of the world, namely, that He would save us. God promised He would come again and not leave us destitute or on our own or without hope. I used the painting by Pieter Bruegel, The Census of Bethlehem (you can see it below), which he created in 1566, to demonstrate how God continues to come into our midst – to be born in us today! Amidst the mundane Renaissance world in which Bruegel was living, he painted in Joseph and the expectant Mary (on a donkey in the center-foreground), to remind us that this is how God works. He comes to us, abides with us, and is right here in the midst of the lives we’re living. What a gift! What a blessing!

These Advent and Christmas seasons, be mindful of how you and I have been blessed by God – we’ve been given the gift of faith in baptism and the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Jesus is The Blessing and as we receive Him each day (or, as He is Born in Us Today!), let Him not only remind us of how blessed we are but help us see opportunities to share Him, His love, and His message of hope with the people in our lives. In other words, may we look for ways that we can bless others just as we’ve been so richly blessed.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
This Sunday we start a new season of the Church Year – the season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation that leads us up to Christmas and the celebration of our Savior’s first coming into His world. Below you can read more of what resources we are offering to help in your preparation as well as all that is in store for us in the month ahead.

As we all know, this week is also Thanksgiving – and Thanksgiving is a great holiday! It provides an opportunity for all of us to say, “Thank you!” For us as followers of Jesus, the awesome thing is that we know to Whom our “Thank you” is being directed – that’s it’s not just a generic thank you but a thank you to the Giver and the Creator of all things. With that in mind, I’m going to stop writing and share with this collage of pictures some of the many things for which I’m thankful!

Serving together - with MANY thanks - in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
I love this time of year, both personally and ministry-wise. We’ve spent the last several weeks winding down the Church Year with celebrations of the Reformation, All Saints Sunday, talking about the realities of these End Times, and then yesterday, Christ the King Sunday. Later this week we celebrate Thanksgiving and then the start of the season of Advent. With all of these celebrations and observances, I can’t help but have some emotional connections to all of them. I’m not going to expound on all my personal connections but I share that with the assumption that you also have some connections and share a variety of emotions that are related to this time of the year.

As we talked about and celebrated Jesus as King yesterday in worship, I do hope and pray that for all of you who are reading this today, Christ IS King in your heart and in your life. If you’re not sure what that means or what that’s all about, I’m always in for a good conversation about that – just get in touch with me and we can talk! As we shared yesterday, knowing without a doubt that Christ IS King can bring so much to us in the day-to-day of our lives. Knowing He’s King can help us to live in these wild and crazy and uncertain and unsettling times with a confidence that can be found nowhere else. We can be sure that no matter what happens to us, to our friends or family, even to our country or world, we’re going to be OK because we know who sits on the throne.

If you didn’t hear the sermon yesterday, I’d just point you to Colossians 1:9-20. Take a look at those verses and hear in them some of the many rich promises the Lord gives to us about what it means for us that Christ is King. Let Him rule in your heart and over your mind. Trust Him to guide you, to lead you, to be with you, and to be faithful to His many promises of love, mercy, justice, and grace.

Here’s this week’s “What Now?” that I hope you can take to heart and put into practice this Thanksgiving week!

What Now?
Begin each day this week by thanking Jesus for being your King. Think about one way you can acknowledge His Kingship in your life this week.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
With this year’s election cycle nearing closure, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, and with so many needs that people have right now, I thought it would be prudent to reflect again on some basic truths that our Lord lays out for us in His Word.

As we prepare to celebrate Christ the King Sunday when we’ll be thinking more about what it means for us that Christ IS King, we also read in Romans 13 that God has called us to be subject to the governing authorities. He’s clear in stating that the authority that our government holds is authority that He, and He alone, has given. Obviously, the United States did not exist when St. Paul was inspired to write these words but the relationship and subsequent tensions between God’s people and the varieties of “governing authorities” that have been in place throughout all of history have always existed. We give respect to our governing authorities today and, as you know, we pray for all of them every week in worship here at Immanuel.

This is where perspective is important for us as followers of Jesus. God has put governments in place for order and safety – not for our salvation. We are not to put our hope in governments, presidents, supreme courts, or constitutions. Our hope must lie in the King who has no term limits, who understands and provides true justice, who is compassionate and merciful, and whose rule is supreme.

This Thanksgiving, among so many other things, we offer our thanks to God for our country and all who are serving as elected or appointed officials within it. We offer thanks to God for His wisdom, His guidance, and His promises. We offer thanks to those who have fought for and who are continuing to fight for the freedoms we enjoy which are such profound blessings to all of us who live here.

The needs of people in these times can be a bit overwhelming. From basic needs of food, shelter, and transportation, to the anxiousness and fears that are crushing so many people’s hearts and lives, what are we to do? Again, our hope is not to lie in our government to send us more relief checks, or to create more programs to take care of all our needs, or to make laws or render decisions that will “fix” all the problems.

While we as followers of Jesus are called to be “in the world” but not “of the world,” that calling does not give us the excuse to ignore what’s going on in the world. We are called to be light in the darkness, the hands and feet and voice of Jesus “declaring the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9), pointing people to the Hope of the world. So we use the gifts, abilities, and time with which we’ve been blessed to serve when and where we can. We give money to various ministries. We look for the opportunities to relieve suffering, bring encouragement, and help others in tangible ways. And we do all these things for the purpose of showing and sharing Jesus and His love to a world in need of so much.

Let’s continue to be the people we’ve been called and created to be, especially in these times. Let’s keep perspective, not lose hope, and remember constantly where we need to keep our eyes fixed. And rejoice! Always! Because we know who we are and whose we are. (Philippians 4:4-9)

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
Yesterday in worship we went deep as we talked about End Times and some of the challenges that are before in these days as we experience life in the End Times right here and now. Admittedly it got pretty heavy and a little dark as we looked at some of the realities we’re living with. I want to start by encouraging you and reminding you that we’re going to be OK and that we’re not alone in this. Yes, as followers of Jesus we may find ourselves facing persecution, ridicule, and hardships of all sorts because of our connection to and faith in Jesus. But Jesus has promised us that He will give us what is needed when we face those times in our lives, including His very presence along with the words and wisdom needed (Luke 21:15)!

One thing that I didn’t have time to touch on is what we heard from the Lord through the prophet Isaiah in yesterday’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah 65. In verses 17-18, the Lord says, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.”

In the midst of the mystery of End Times and also THE end of time, when Christ will finally return again, we’re told that the Lord will indeed be creating something new – new heavens and a new earth. What are we not going to remember? Weeping, crying, pain, heartache, hardships, misfortunes, brokenness, death, animosity, contentiousness, etc. Those will all be gone, the Lord assures us, and they’ll be out of our minds.

And what will we experience instead? From what we read here in Isaiah, we’ll experience long life (eternal!), we’ll enjoy the literal fruit of our labor, and in every regard we’ll enjoy the work of our hands; before we call out, the Lord will speak to the requests of our hearts; all creation will live in harmony (the wolf and the lamb and the lion will be together); and there will be nothing or no-one causing harm or destruction. It’s going to be awesome in this new, restored creation.

This is one of many different pictures and images the Lord gives to us about what eternity with Him is going to be like. Quite honestly, it’s all a bit beyond even our wildest imaginations because all we can think about is what we experience firsthand on this side of eternity, living with the effects of sin and the limitations of time and space.

For us as followers of Jesus, we have so much to look forward to because we know the victory that Jesus won for us, a victory that is ours by grace through faith in Him. In the meantime, we live in this world. As dark a picture as Jesus painted for us and that we talked about on Sunday, this is a pretty good and amazing life. We’ve been blessed to live in a part of the country that is an absolutely beautiful and stunning part of creation. We’re surrounded by people in our lives – family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. We’re blessed with purpose and vocation and meaningful things that we can do – both big and small. We have material blessings to enjoy. And we have the promises of a Savior who loves us and who has assured us of a future with Him that is filled with hope.

Here's this week’s What Now? that I encourage you to use as we share that powerful hope that we know because of Jesus:
“Look for at least one opportunity this week to speak Jesus – His love and the hope we have because of Him – into the life of someone you know who may be anxious, unsettled, or afraid because of the times in which we’re living.”

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
In response to my article in Monday’s email update, I received something from Pastor Robin that I really appreciated. Monday (and in last Sunday’s sermon) I was trying to drive home the point that our lives as followers of Jesus are ALL about Him. There are no exceptions, no places where He isn’t or doesn’t want to be involved and engaged. He is our life. I feel that’s an especially important message with all the attention on the elections and so many other issues and ramifications surrounding these elections. We need to keep perspective. With that, here is what I heard back from Pastor Robin – Enjoy! Take it to heart! Let’s live it together!

Jesus Jesus Jesus
Make disciples who are followers of ... Jesus. Not followers of doctrines, opinions, or even church visions. Not reciters of religious points of view. But followers of the One. Followers who follow because they know Him. They have tasted, touched, and encountered Him and now they want to continue to develop that closeness, intimacy, and relationship with Him. They know no greater joy. They are not turned into members of denominations, attenders of services, or clones of the latest way to do Christianity or church. They remain His and they pursue Him, and they follow Him and obey Him out of a loyalty and passion that comes from deeply knowing Him. They learn His voice because they love Him. They lay down their own, personal agenda because they value Him. They take up His vision to see the restoration of His Kingdom come to all people because they experience His everyday encounters that restore and free their own soul and they are driven to see this love transform others. They love as He loved, serve as He served, sacrifice as He sacrificed, give as He gave…Jesus. They know Him, they serve Him, they have found life, and they continue to find life through Him. And because they know Him, they love Him. And because they love Him, they follow Him... Jesus!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen