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| FAITH WALK | BIBLE STUDY | JOIN | GIVING BACK | ARE YOU SAVED? | Devotions | |
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Holy Communion is celebrated in
our midst as the closest touch with our Lord Jesus Christ, this side of
heaven. In this Supper, the Lord Himself promises us He is present: present
to give Himself to us and thus to forgive our sins, to strengthen our faith
and faithfulness, to strengthen our fellowship,
For those who are visitors and not a part of a Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod congregation, please speak with one of our pastors before receiving the Lord’s Supper. Thank you and God bless your worship of Him.
One Voice - - One Life Have you ever felt
insignificant in the battle to preserve our Judeo-Christian traditions? Have
you ever said, “I’m just one voice…and my opinion doesn’t really make a
difference”? As Christians called to serve our Lord, we often feel adrift in
a ‘sea of sinfulness’ - - overwhelmed by the world and its misguided belief
system. Our desire may be to fight gallantly, but our courage fails when
opportunities arise to proclaim God’s truth. We believe the right
things, but in reality, we do almost nothing about it. Transforming
the truth regarding the sanctity of life into action that will change our
nation begins with just ONE. The following account of a 4th century Christian named Telemachus, is recounted by Charles Colson in his book Loving God: Telemachus, an Asian hermit, lived in a remote village, tending his garden and spending much of his time in prayer. One day he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome, so he obeyed, setting out on foot. Weary weeks later he arrived in the city at the time of the great festival. The little monk followed the crowd surging down the streets into the Coliseum. He saw the gladiators stand before the emperor and say, “We who are about to die salute you”. Then he realized these men were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowd. He cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!” As the games began, he pushed his way through the crowd, climbed over the wall, and dropped to the floor of the arena. When the crowd saw this tiny figure rushing to the gladiators and saying, “In the name of Christ, stop!” they thought it was part of the show and began laughing. When they realized it wasn’t, the laughter turned to anger. As he was pleading with the gladiators to stop, one of them plunged a sword into his body. He fell to the sand. As he was dying, his last words were, “In the name of Christ, stop!” Then a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at the tiny figure lying there. A hush fell over the Coliseum. Way up in the upper rows, a man stood and made his way to the exit. Others began to follow. In dead silence, everyone left the Coliseum. The year was A.D. 391, and that was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. Never again in the great stadium did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd. All because of one tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the tumult. One voice - - one life - - that spoke the truth in God’s name. The account of Telemachus teaches us two things:
The fight to preserve our Christian value system - - and specifically to Lutherans for Life, the sanctity of life - - requires much commitment and many sacrifices. In the pro-life battle, every voice is extremely important. Pray that God will use you to save one person from the horror of abortion, to encourage one legislator to be consistently pro-life, to make one visit to a sick or elderly person. Just ONE - - but you can make a difference. Joining together with God’s ‘ONES’… Connie Davis, Former President – Michigan Lutherans for Life
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our
“communion” with Him and with each other. Because St. Paul encourages us to
“examine” ourselves (1 Cor.11:28) before we partake of this blessed meal,
St. John’s follows the centuries long custom of “close” (or closed)
communion whereby we ask those who are not in “publicly” expressed
fellowship with us to await receiving the supper at our altar until we have
had an opportunity to sit down and go through the Scriptures together. There
is an opportunity to do just that in the