Friends of Immanuel,

On Sunday we tapped into another of the miracles of Jesus that is loaded with enough storylines for multiple sermons! From Matthew 14:21-33 we hear about Jesus walking on water and then Peter walking on water. There are a couple of things at the end of this account that I didn’t have opportunity to speak to in my message yesterday.

The most significant of these is how clearly Jesus demonstrates, and the disciples witness to the fact, that Jesus truly is the Son of God. How? He defies the natural laws of gravity and the make-up of land and water as He walks on water. When Peter is sinking, he cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” Without a word, Jesus calms the wind and the waves. And we’re told in the last verse of this account, “those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” The significance of this takes us to the very core of our faith. If Jesus is not true God and true man, our faith means nothing. But as true God and true man, He fully accomplishes the mission all of Scripture makes clear – that Jesus, by being born without sin, by living a perfect, sinless life, by being the perfect human being, He can be the needed sacrifice for the sins of the world. And it is that sacrifice Jesus willingly made, giving up His very life, that brings us hope. The fact that Jesus is fully God gives him authority to offer us and all who believe in Him eternal life through His victorious resurrection from the dead. Because of that, we, like Peter, can cry out in our sinking state, “Lord, save me!” and He does!

On this side of eternity, Jesus’ question to Peter and, by extension, to the other disciples and to us, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” is a valid question. Peter had faith – how else could he have walked on water as Jesus invited him to come to Him? But our faith is an imperfect faith. And at the same time, our imperfect faith is enough faith to be saved (search your Bible for what Jesus had to say about faith and a mustard seed!).

As I emphasized in the sermon, the focus of this miracle must be on Jesus and not on Peter. A focus on Peter takes us down paths we dare not go, such as: if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you won’t ever sink when you face difficulties; if you don’t get out of the boat, you’re not a real Christian; you have to get out of your comfort zone to really follow Jesus; if you have enough faith, you can do anything! What a heavy burden that can be, if we try to live by these unbiblical “mantras.”

Instead, as we walk through this life, let Jesus be the one to walk on water, die on the cross, rise again, pay the price for our sins, and love us with an unconditional love. He is our Savior – a Savior who invites us to follow Him. Sometimes the invitation may take us “out of the boat.” Other times it may prompt us to do the mundane things in life that have to happen – shop for groceries, pay bills, go to your child’s game or concert. Still other times it may ask us to walk alongside a spouse, friend, co-worker, or family member who is hurting, struggling, scared. As we take up Jesus’ invitation to follow Him, we can take comfort and encouragement in the fact that, even in those times, we are not alone. He is with us in all those moments, using us, speaking through us, helping us to share His love, His hope, and the Good News we know because of Jesus.

Is there hope in all of that? I pray that there is, for you and for all of us! Take this week’s What Now? and let it lead us to the hope our Savior brings us:

What Now?

I urge you to cry out, “Lord, save me!” with whatever you may be facing right now and in the week to come. Whether it is a life-threatening situation or a momentary stumble, let your faith and your hope rest in the One who is here for you to rescue and to save!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Are you like me, feeling the last vestiges of summer quickly slipping away?! I know emotions are all over the board with this. Some parents are more than ready to have school start up and for their kiddos to get back into the regular routines of school and after-school activities so they stop hearing, “I’m bored, what can I do?” (LOL!) Children, depending on their age and personality, are either excited about getting back to school and their friends or are holding out as long as they can, not wanting to let go of summer freedom. And those who don’t have children (or who don’t have children in school any longer), are likely ambivalent because not much changes whether school is in session or not. While the weather certainly isn’t giving any indication of summer being done, other activities and events are pointing us in the direction of this annual change of seasons.

Our teachers at Immanuel reported back last week and have been working hard in meetings, room preparation, and getting themselves ready for the start of school. Today we had our annual All-Staff Kick-Off as 16 of us (church staff and teachers) met to worship together, to enjoy some fun team-building, hearing some encouragement about messaging and marketing from Ashley Jones, Immanuel’s part-time Director of Communications and Marketing for our church and school, laying some groundwork for creating a new Staff Covenant, getting updates and reminders about some of the basics (security, submitting work orders, our new phone system, etc.), and enjoying time to eat together and catch up from the summer. It was a very good morning – we are blessed with a very gifted, dedicated, and faith-filled staff here at Immanuel!

We, along with the Thompson School District, will start school next week, welcoming over 100 children through our doors. I’m looking forward to the privilege I always have of leading our opening chapel next Wednesday at 8:30am in the sanctuary (you are all invited to join us each Wednesday for chapel at that time!). See the article below for an awesome update on where Immanuel’s enrollment is currently at – praise God!

The other indicators of a change in season are football season right around the corner (the Packers’ first preseason game is tonight and the Broncos’ is tomorrow), Immanuel’s summer softball teams wrapping things up with their end-of-season tournaments tonight and next Tuesday, and writing about the start of various fall ministries. Stay tuned for more information coming on many of our regular ministries picking back up, which will be happening over the next two months.

To that end, I’ll put in a quick note for everyone’s calendars – our last summer worship schedule will be Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 6^th. The following Sunday, September 13^th we will have ONE combined worship service that morning at 9:00am. Worship will be followed by brunch for everyone in the gym and a Ministry Showcase where, during brunch, we’ll be sharing some information on the fall and some neat opportunities that’ll be coming. Put it on your calendar now and plan to be here! If you’re interested in bringing something to the brunch, here is an online signup: https://signup.com/go/sdWXRgL)

Our Savior’s richest blessings to all as we walk together through these last days of summer, anticipating some of the awesome things the Lord has in store for us in the months to come!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

I’m going to offer a few follow-up comments from yesterday’s message on “Hope with Empty Hands” that I didn’t have time to address during the sermon.

Yesterday I didn’t travel down the path of speaking to those things that we thirst for that are not good for us. But that is an important part of the discernment that I alluded to when I said that we have to thirst for those things that are truly important. The Lord’s questions to us in Isaiah 55:2 – “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” But we do, don’t we? That is part of the battle we have to fight each day against the devil and the temptations he is constantly throwing our way to try to divert us from what truly is important. He’d rather us focus on the trivial, on self-serving matters, on those things “I want.” So often we try to fill our empty hands with things that are not helpful or good. Here, again, is where grace has to come into the picture. We need our Lord’s grace, that undeserved love He shows to us, to bring us the forgiveness we need when we lose focus on Him and when we stumble and fall into those temptations rather than listening to the Lord.

We need to keep our guard up. It’s not just a matter of living a strict straight-laced life. It’s not that the Lord doesn’t want us to have fun and enjoy His amazing creation and everything in it. But let’s keep first-things first! With Jesus, we know the love He has for us. Not only are His hands full, but He insists on filling our empty hands, not just with what we truly need, but He insists on filling our empty hands, as evidenced by the miracle of the Feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21), far beyond what we can even hold. He truly is a God of abundance – abundant grace, abundant love, abundant life, and abundant hope!

Our living, loving, hope-filled Lord is eager and ready to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger – no, not with every want and desire we may have, but with what He knows we truly need. I pray that day after day we seek to be attuned to His desires for us as we, with eyes on Jesus, continue to follow Him.

As I wrapped up yesterday’s message, that’s what I want to leave you with again today. Wherever you’re at right now – however thirsty, hungry, empty, uncertain, confused, angry, sad, or hopeless you may feel – take the Lord up on His invitation to you to come to Him and let Him give to you what you need, without cost and without money. Because He loves you and He’s got you – He’s holding you in His full, strong, powerful, and loving hands!

And to help with that, here’s this week’s What Now? for you to consider:

What Now?

This week thirst for what you truly need, listen to God speaking into your life through His Word, and let Him speak into your ears, into your mind, and into your heart, the hope He desires for you!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

I love that our congregation’s name is “Immanuel” – which means, “God with us” Immanuel is one of the many names attributed to our Lord. Most often, we hear these verses in the Bible about Immanuel around Christmas. We have the prophecy from Isaiah (7:14) about the birth of the promised Messiah – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” And then we have the account of that prophecy fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23, immediately following the Lord assuring Joseph that it was OK that he take Mary as his wife – “²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).”

We have witnessed the Lord fulfilling the promise connected to our congregation’s name, namely that He is with us, in so many awesome ways throughout the summer. I thought today would be a great time to just pause and reflect on how we’ve seen God present and at work right here in our midst.

This Sunday we have two baptisms – a 1-year-old named Violet and a 2-month-old named Grant. It has been a summer filled with baptisms, celebrating the miracle of God working in the hearts and lives of families, individuals, and little ones! Going back to mid-May and counting this coming Sunday, we’ve celebrated 8 baptisms – from infants 5 weeks old to children of early elementary age to two college-age youth. With every baptism, we’re reminded of God’s promise to us in baptism that He will always be with us – and that is awesome!

This Sunday we have a first-communion of a high schooler who was baptized this past December. It’s been a joy to walk with this young lady and her family and her journey of faith and growing in Jesus and the certainty she has that Jesus is always with her.

We’ve celebrated the weddings of two couples this summer, both in July – wonderful opportunities to celebrate the gift of love and especially the gift of God’s love and God’s presence in the homes of His beloved.

We’ve had 9 funerals since May with several more to come very soon, giving thanks to God for His faithfulness in the hearts and lives of His faithful and faith-filled people. Those funerals include a 99- and a 101-year-old.

We celebrate a growing prayer ministry. With commitments from many of you to be part of my email prayer group, being willing to pray for the many requests that come in throughout each week, this group has grown to 264 people. So when you email me a prayer request and I send that out, you can be assured that you are not alone in whatever it is you may be going through or whatever you may be celebrating. At Immanuel we are “A Family Place,” a community, brothers and sisters in Christ. While you may not know everyone who is here by name, we can be assured that we are a family in Jesus, praying for each other, walking together, encouraging, helping, and supporting each other however we can. And through those relationships, God’s presence is felt!

I’ll only briefly mention the financial miracles that I wrote about last week at length – all of us walking together, joyfully giving our offerings to the Lord through His ministry here to see that we carry out His Mission and Vision, furthering His Kingdom in this greater Loveland area.

And throughout these summer months, there have been so many events, ministries, and activities that you’ve read about in all these email updates that reflect God’s powerful promise to us – happenings with children, youth, young adults, and older adults; Bible studies and fellowship times; parades and baseball games; our huge Kings Kids Summer Camp and working on enrollment for our school; giving and serving and worshiping together; and so much more!

Thank you for calling Immanuel your home and for being an integral part of this awesome Family Place! Join me today in giving all thanks and praise, glory and honor to Immanuel, God with us, for His presence, His promises, and the hope we have because of Him!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Yesterday in worship we focused on the 12 Kingdom of Heaven stories that Jesus told in Matthew’s Gospel, the majority of which are found in Matthew 13.  There most certainly is hope to be found in the Kingdom of Heaven – hope which comes to us from two different angles. First, in knowing with certainty that we and all believers will be with our Savior and King when we die. That hope and that certainty are gifts God gives to us through faith – faith given in baptism and through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

And second, that hope comes to us as we live each day as Kingdom people with the victory we know was won by Jesus through the cross and the empty tomb – His victory over sin, death, and the devil. We experience that hope in the forgiveness that we receive, in the encouragement that comes to us through God’s Word, in the relationship we have with our Triune God, and in the many practical ways we live out our faith every day.

In my sermon I shared some basic information about why Jesus used stories and I also shared some of the many truths we need to know as His children with regard to the Kingdom of Heaven. But yesterday’s sermon was far from an exhaustive treatment of this important topic. If you’d like to dig further into God’s Word about what eternal life entails, what the new heavens and the new earth are all about, as well as exploring more of the imagery of eternity that the Lord speaks about, I encourage you to take Kathy’s class, “Heaven on Earth: There’s More to Come!” which she will be teaching again this fall during the Sunday morning Education Hour. That class will start, along with all of the Education Hour opportunities, on Sunday, September 20^th.

Here is this week’s What Now? with my encouragement to live with these Kingdom of Heaven stories from Jesus this week:

What Now?

Take time this week to read and ponder all of Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven parables in Matthew. As you read them, put Jesus as the main character, the Do-er, the One acting on our behalf. Listen for what unique facet of hope each one can bring to you. (Matthew 13:1-52; 18:23-35; 20:1-16; 22:1-14; 25:1-30)

I pray that the hope we’ve been given by our King will be a hope that permeates everything in your life today and in the week to come, no matter what you may be going through right now!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

God has been at work in some pretty awesome and amazing ways over the course of this past year. As we step into our new fiscal year following last night’s Voting Assembly meeting, join me in giving thanks to God and celebrating His faithfulness, provision, and love! Wow! Here’s what I shared at last night’s meeting:

I want to start tonight’s Voting Assembly meeting with the bigger picture and a reminder of Immanuel’s Mission and Vision.

Our Mission – Transform Lives by Loving, Learning, and Living in Jesus
Our Vision – We reveal the love and grace of Jesus to our community by our Radical Hospitality, Transformational Learning, and Fearless Living.

We’re here to carry out this Mission and Vision with the Holy Spirit leading us, guiding us, and directing all that we do, keeping Jesus front and center – in our church, in our school, and in the lives we’re blessed to lead as followers of Jesus.

I love opportunities like this Voting Assembly meeting to take a brief pause and reflect with a true sense of wonder and awe, thanks and praise at what God has been up to. Travel back with me over this past year and let’s remember.

One year ago, our Executive Council (EC) was struggling mightily with the budget, trying to walk that fine line of cutting expenses but not so much as to negatively impact ministry. The EC ended up presenting a $154,000 deficit budget with some good plans in place to make it through the upcoming year, plans that included securing and using a Line of Credit from Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF), working with LCEF in other support capacities, and continuing to be creative.

Then shortly after school started, we learned that about 10 children who were enrolled had to pull out for various legitimate reasons. But that posed a major problem. Now the anticipated deficit cash flow suddenly ballooned up to $280,000. What were we going to do?! This was serious.

Both the EC and Board of Christian Day School (BCDS) continued working in earnest, looking for things we may have missed and trying to be creative in making up this deficit. We enlisted LCEF to do three studies for us – a land-use study, a study of our school, and then later a church study – all to try to help us see things in a different light and to put some outside eyes on our ministry here at Immanuel.

One of the strong recommendations from the church study was to conduct a ministry campaign. The decision was made at the December Voting Assembly to enlist LCEF to help us do just that. In the meantime, our leaders continued to work hard to be transparent with our financial situation and share that information regularly with all of you.

While all this was happening, almost under the radar, month after month, several things were happening. There were many of you who were praying about this situation; many of you, in response to this, made the decision to increase your giving; there were others of you who made some significant and generous gifts. All of which was amazing!  And that anticipated year-end deficit was going down – month after month, little by little! To the point we’re celebrating today the miracle that God worked in front of our very eyes. He not only wiped out a $154,000 anticipated deficit but He practically doubled that, and we ended the year basically even, including having the Line of Credit being paid off. Miracle upon miracle.

While all of that was happening, we were working on our Run with Perseverance ministry campaign, hoping to receive $950,000 in financial commitments over the next three years. And you responded – more specifics to come but right now we’re standing at over 90% of that goal! Miracle!

Then, as I shared in last Thursday’s email update, there was an anonymous gift of $240,000 that is being given in $10,000 increments every month over the coming 2 years. The intent of that gift is to inspire all of us to reflect on our personal, ongoing tithes and offerings and to raise those in gratitude to the Lord. Another miracle of God’s grace and provision!

And one final piece of miraculous work we’re privy to – this year’s budget. More on that in just a moment. But, as you’ve likely seen in my recent updates, to be able to present a proposed budget that is basically balanced, with your leadership looking to set aside money in this budget for reserves to help us through lean months and unexpected emergencies is almost hard to believe. Miracles!

And we’ve been able to witness all of this firsthand – you and I have been part of all these miracles, this working of God using us, the ordinary everyday people we are. Let’s thank and praise God! And I also want to thank all of you for your faith – a faith and trust in the Lord that keeps our feet on solid ground; I thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord and His ministry here at Immanuel – engaging, giving, being involved, using and offering so generously your gifts of time, of talents and abilities, and of your finances. It truly is a joy to be here as your pastor and to serve our Lord alongside of all of you.

Let’s not ever lose sight of the mission and vision He’s given us and let’s continue to keep Jesus at the forefront of everything we do. Give thanks to God as we hear the additional updates that are coming and will be part of tonight’s meeting. And in your heart, be thankful for His miracles, His provision, His love.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Romans 8 has to be one of those “highlighted” chapters of the Bible because of how much the Lord packed into it. It’s been fun preaching on it the last couple weeks and being able to talk about hope in such real and practical ways.

Having said that, I want to share just a few more significant things that I didn’t have time to address in my message yesterday about the second half of Romans 8.

I first want to reaffirm what this section of Scripture says about who our God is and all that He has done. St. Paul is always so thorough when it comes to speaking about the centrality of Jesus in everything we are and do. I touched on a few of those verses but I certainly was not exhaustive in pointing them all out. I’d encourage you to do another read-through of Romans 8:26-39 and to pay attention to all the references to Jesus and His work on our behalf.

Closely tied to that is how much of what is talked about here is related to “gift.” So often we’re tempted to think about all the things that we as followers of Jesus are supposed to do. But far too often we take what the LORD does and offers us as gift and we turn around and make it something that we think we have to do. Examples of that in this section of Romans 8 include the acknowledgement that we are weak and need the Holy Spirit to help us (Romans 8:26-27) – whether it comes to prayer or simply following Jesus.

Another example that comes into play is in Romans 8:29 in reference to us being “conformed to the likeness [or image] of His Son.” I’m currently reading a wonderful little book titled, “We Are Engaged: Our Love Story with Jesus,” by Craig Parrott, who is one of the theology teachers at Lutheran High School in Parker. (Craig also worshiped here at Immanuel for a time before receiving the call to teach at LuHi.) Craig wrote several things about Romans 8 that tie in beautifully to our summer series on hope that I want to share with you here.

First, regarding Romans 8:24-25 (from the previous week’s sermon about Hope that is Unseen), Craig writes, “Biblical hope is a future certainty. It is not mere wishful thinking. Hope will happen. We can bank on it. But it is not going to be here and now. It will be there and then, when our Beloved returns and ushers our new, resurrected, and glorified bodies into the new heavens and new earth with him. The best is yet to come.” (“We Are Engaged,” page 42)

Speaking specifically about Romans 8:28-29, he writes, “Our Beloved turns ‘all things’ into good for us. Our sin, our failures, our foolishness, others’ sin against us, tragedies that naturally befall people in a fallen, cursed world. God uses all things to mold and shape us to become increasingly like our Beloved. And I suspect that much of the transformation happens on the inside, in our hearts and minds. We become a little more compassionate, more empathetic, more humble, more forgiving, more grateful, more Christ-centered… A theology of the cross maintains that God has revealed himself most fully and significantly in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God’s power is most clearly seen in the ‘weakness’ of the cross. God’s wisdom is most clearly seen in the ‘foolishness’ of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18). The trials and tribulations in our lives are thus illuminated with great meaning when seen through the lens of the cross of our Beloved. Moments of difficulty are used to complete the good work he has begun in us. ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,' Jesus told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9. He is working in and through those trials. He uses our weaknesses, hardships, persecutions and calamities to demonstrate his power, grace, mercy, love, and glory.” (“We Are Engaged,” page 56)

And finally, to the beautiful section of Romans 8 that ends the chapter, the reminder that there is nothing that “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:39), Craig speaks these truths that are helpful for us to keep in mind: “Our enemy wants us to believe the lie that our Beloved does not actually love us, that he doesn’t care, and that he can’t be trusted. But our Beloved is the only one who loves us with the kind of unfailing, steadfast love we deeply crave. This is the only love that will be with us to, through, and beyond death. It is only fully discovered, however, in the pains and heartaches of this world.” (“We Are Engaged,” page 57) I hope you hear these powerful and important promises loud and clear that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can separate us from our Savior’s love! I hope Craig’s insights were as helpful to you as they were to me – and if you want to read more, I would heartily recommend his book to you!

Praise God for His promises, His love, and the assurance that “we know that in all things God works for” our good! Here is this week’s What Now? to take to heart:

What Now?

This week, and in the weeks to come, lean into Romans 8:28 and the hope it offers, especially when you’re going through difficult or challenging times.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

I have some amazing, miraculous, and what will definitely be encouraging news to share with all of you. Immanuel has received an anonymous gift of $10,000 each month for two years – a total of $240,000!! Praise God! When I received this news, I was humbled – humbled at the generosity of the family who has given this (who is anonymous even to me) and humbled by the goodness of God who moved this family in such a way.

The family who is giving this gift wishes to inspire the rest of us – that is their intent. This is a family who loves the Lord and who loves what He is doing here at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School. The hope and prayer behind this gift is not just to provide financial help and support over the next two years. The intent is to inspire faith-filled, faithful, and generous giving in all of us who call Immanuel home.

You know that we have just entered the Fulfillment Phase of our three-year Run with Perseverance ministry campaign and 119 of you have made sacrificial and generous commitments. Thank you for doing that. This family’s specific desire was not to take away from this important campaign which is why I am just now sharing this wonderful news – we started receiving this monthly gift in April. This large and very generous gift was targeted toward inspiring everyone to raise their level of regular (weekly, monthly, or twice-monthly) giving to the Lord so that once the two years of this gift are completed, the hope is that we have all raised our regular tithes and offerings to a level that the additional $10,000 per month is being provided in a regular, ongoing way by all of us.

For us as followers of Jesus, we are no longer under the command that we must tithe, that is, give 10% of our income to the Lord as an offering. Jesus fulfilled the commands and demands of the Law for us. What that means with regard to our offerings is that we are now free to give whatever we may choose, not because we are compelled, but in thanks and praise to God for His goodness, mercy, and love that we know in Jesus. While a tithe is no longer commanded, many Christians still use it as a guide when considering what to give as an offering today. The thought is that we can live on the 90% of what we earn and receive as income and, as the Old Testament tithe, we offer our first and our best (10%) to the Lord, trusting that the Lord has provided and will continue to provide as we live on the 90%.

Kathy and I were very blessed to have grown up in blue-collar, middle-class Christian homes that practiced tithing and helped us to learn the joy of that spiritual discipline. We carried that practice into our marriage and have always given at least 10% of our income back to the Lord, joyfully raising that percent over the years. It has been quite the journey as we’ve witnessed firsthand how the Lord provides, sometimes in miraculous ways, other times in very ordinary ways, but He has always provided. I know that many of you have had similar experiences when it comes to the blessings we receive and experience as we give freely, generously, and joyfully to our Lord.

If you want to hear real encouragement when it comes to giving and what giving for us as followers of Jesus is all about, take time to read 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 where Paul encourages generosity in very powerful and beautiful ways. And that’s the point that the Lord drives home through Paul in these chapters. It’s an opportunity we have to give freely and joyfully to help others come to know Jesus and to further His Kingdom. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the true goodness of our Lord and all that He has and continues to pour into our lives – by way of the people in our lives, the financial and material blessings, the faith we’ve been given, and the blessing of knowing Jesus.

I share all of this with you not to throw guilt your way! Rather, in the spirit of our generous donor and their intent, coupled with the many promises of our Savior and His love, His generosity, His provision, and His promises, I share it to ask that we all take time over the coming days and weeks to look seriously and prayerfully at our offerings to the Lord. Through numerous conversations that I’ve had over the course of this campaign, I know there are many of you who have in recent months already raised your level of giving to the Lord through His ministry here at Immanuel. If you are one of those families, thank you!

If you have not, my practical encouragement would be to take a close look at exactly what you do give to the Lord by way of your offerings. Then consider raising your level of giving a percentage or two, or even to consider making a faith-filled jump to giving a full tithe (10%). Whatever you choose to do, please do not do this out of compulsion or perceived pressure. All of our offerings should be given with gratitude in our hearts. None of what you may choose to do will be tracked – I’m not asking that you share with anyone what you intend to do. But as we go along this journey, I would love to hear your stories of how God has used this moment in time to inspire and encourage you!

I thank and praise God for this family and truly pray that they inspire you to reflect on the goodness and love of our God and to respond in kind – to experience the joy He has in all that He has given and continues to give to us. May God be praised in all that we are and do through His ministry here at Immanuel, for the furthering of His Kingdom!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

As you’re reading this, Kathy and I are enjoying a couple of days of family time doing some camping up at Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. On this trip, we’re able to give one of our Colorado grandkids her first camping experience!

We talk a lot about Immanuel being a Family Place, and that is very intentional. We know throughout His Word, our Lord stresses how important relationships are – first and foremost our relationship with Him, and then the relationships we enjoy with each other. Families here at Immanuel take on all different shapes – from singles to couples to traditional families with dad and mom and children to single parents to blended. And each of these family types are a blessing!

I also know that for many, including Kathy and me, Immanuel is very much our family! We love the relationships we have with so many of you who call Immanuel home. Over the years a good number of you have shared with me that you look forward to coming to worship every Sunday to be able to see so many people that you know as friends and your family. I’ve especially heard this comment from those of you who have lost your spouses – that Immanuel truly has become family!

Thank you for being part of this amazing Family Place, helping to extend and express Jesus and His love to each other in our community of faith, as well as to others in our greater northern Colorado area! Let’s continue to show our Savior’s Radical Hospitality and love with all that we do in ministry and in life together!

From yesterday’s message and the reminder that we are children of God through faith in Jesus, here is the What Now? to reflect on through this coming week.

What Now?

As a child of God and an heir of the Kingdom, how does living patiently in hope look for you? Reflect on that as you go through this week, whether you’re going through difficulties, challenges, and struggles, or joys and celebrations.

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen