El Paso, Texas LCMS
Pastor Emeritus Howard Patten and Pastor Stephen Heimer examine the upcoming scripture lessons for July 3, 2022, the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture:
Repetition yields memorization, contemplation, and deeper understanding. Draw from these scriptures, prayers, catechetical materials, and hymn(s) throughout your week of personal and family devotion, prayer, or homeschool family instruction. Then let them resonate in new ways as we all gather together in worship on Sunday.
We invite you to help us sort and organize our new and older books, create signs and labels, after church on July 10th. Let us know you’ll be helping and we will coordinate ahead of time for a quick lunch together as we gather after the worship service to get started working.
This project will prepare the library for the launch of our mid-summer reading program. Let’s read more Christian and Bible themed books!
Many thanks to Thrivent Financial and the $250 action team grant that is helping this effort. Would you like to help us grow our library? see below
Check out our “Wish List” and order additional books for Zion’s lending library. Order from this registry and books will be delivered to Zion’s office. Zion’s Concordia Publishing House gift registry
Pastor Emeritus Howard Patten and Pastor Stephen Heimer examine the upcoming scripture lessons for June 19, 2022, the Second Sunday after Pentecost .
Scripture:
“Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1–2
For fifty-seven years, Steve Henning of Huntley, Illinois, could not hear music, laughter, or human speech and longed to hear the voices of those he loved. In the winter of 2001, he learned of a surgical procedure that would allow sound waves to bypass the nonfunctioning part of his ear and travel directly to the auditory nerve. On January 30, he was operated on, and after a six-week recovery the day arrived to activate the device. As Steve waited nervously, the audiologist programmed the cochlear implant. Then he invited Steve’s wife to say something. Pat Henning leaned toward her husband and gently said, “I love you.” Able to hear for the first time in six decades, Steve’s face broke into a smile. The first words he heard were of love. (adapted from Greg Asimakoupoulos,“Hearing God’s Word of Love)
The Holy Spirit calls us to faith by the Gospel and enlightens us with His gifts. This means you can know God’s love and be the first to speak of God’s love to someone, to show God’s love to someone! By God’s working, they can truly hear and see! How? Imitate Christ. Humanity doesn’t naturally know God’s love. We learn it from the Bible and also by observing others do the unnatural works of love that are empowered by the Holy Spirit: the repentance and a daily denying of self and bearing their cross while following Jesus (Luke 9:23). “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us… (Ep 5)” if not for the personal joy of it, than for the goal that the world would encounter truths of God, of His love through it. (May you know the joy, though, and the world know the truth of God.)
The actions of God’s love through His children take place everywhere. Your treatment of others at home, at work, while shopping, while vacationing, while worshiping… The parent preparing food for a child, a police officer stepping into harm’s way to prevent a crime, a child saying “thank you” to the baby sitter for a safe, enjoyable evening…
The actions and words of Christians don’t always reflect God’s true love. We know this as we review the ten commandments and other scripture and realize we haven’t been true to the mind and ways of Christ. This realization returns us to God’s call to repentance. It returns us to God’s baptismal assurances: sin will have no dominion over us (Rom 6). In the grace won by Christ, we return to the joy of a new day in service to God.
This summer, dive deeply into God’s Word and Sacraments and the renewal, transformation of your mind in the depths of His true love (Eph 4). Oh Lord, open our ears to hear of You, of Your goodness and love. Open our hearts to want to repeat your loving words and imitate your loving ways.
—Pastor Stephen
Repetition yields memorization, contemplation, and deeper understanding. Draw from these scriptures, prayers, catechetical materials, and hymn(s) throughout your week of personal and family devotion, prayer, or homeschool family instruction. Then let them resonate in new ways as we all gather together in worship on Sunday.
Repetition yields memorization, contemplation, and deeper understanding. Draw from these scriptures, prayers, catechetical materials, and hymn(s) throughout your week of personal and family devotion, prayer, or homeschool family instruction. Then let them resonate in new ways as we all gather together in worship on Sunday.
If God sees the sparrow fall,
paints the lily short and tall,
gives the sky its azure hue,
surely then He cares for you
-author unknown, inspired by Matthew 6:25-34
What are the Words of scripture that stir up joy in your heart? Tell someone about it this month.
Each week in May we will read and sing at Zion about the dramatic events that challenged Christ’s followers after His resurrection. Surprisingly, joy and the promise of joy surrounds the hard that we will read about. Christ is risen! Get ready to rejoice with them as Christ lifts us up also amid our present struggles. Every Sunday touches on an element of joy that Christ brings to our lives. Christ is risen, which means our Good Shepherd holds our present and future life in His grace, dominion, and love.
Reading together from the Psalms, the book of Acts, Revelation, and the Gospel of John, we will meditate on the surprising context for Christian joy in the Bible. Joy, enduring joy, is rooted in Jesus, His death for us, His resurrection, His ongoing rule and shepherding, and His sending us to be witnesses of salvation to others near and far. Joy surely is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5). Joy in Christ overcomes:
If joy seems absent in your heart. Don’t worry, Christ will renew your joy. Now in Easter awe, let us together consider the witness of those first followers of Christ and, “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Each of this month’s weekly memory verses contains an element of Christ’s gift of renewed joy:
In Christ’s Joy,
Pastor Stephen
Repetition yields memorization, contemplation, and deeper understanding. Draw from these scriptures, prayers, catechetical materials, and hymn(s) throughout your week of personal and family devotion, prayer, or homeschool family instruction. Then let them resonate in new ways as we all gather together in worship on Sunday.
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:8-9 (ESV)
Today on this first Sunday in Lent we ask Jesus to walk with us in life and into eternity in His love. Our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 4 reminds us that Jesus knows what it is like to walk alone in life under the attack of the devil’s temptations. Jesus overcame temptation during His forty days in the wilderness, employing scripture against satan’s lies.
(“Thank you, Jesus for your purposeful walk in human flesh and perfect resistance to sin and satan. Thank you for taking our sin to the cross so that we may call upon Your victorious name in our journey and know You will save.”)
Today’s Gospel reading reminds us of the powerful weapon and shield that God gives us against sin and satan and how important it is to learn it and use it. This weapon and shield is God’s Word.
We observe the devil using God’s word, trying to tempt Jesus away from His mission to save us. Jesus responds to the temptations with His perfect understanding of the divine truths of scripture, undoing the devil’s distortions. It has been satan’s tactic from the beginning, even in the garden of Eden, to twist scripture and mislead humanity. We have an enemy that was so bold as to walk with Jesus in the wilderness and try to turn Him toward dark, evil paths. Don’t think this evil one would not try to tempt us. Fortunately the same Jesus who overcame satan in the wilderness remained steadfast in His mission to defeat sin, satan, and death itself. “It is finished!” He declared from the cross. (John 19:30) Gods promises that, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13). This Word from God to us emboldens us in our life journey to confront our sin with repentant prayer, turning it over to Jesus. “Forgive me, Oh Lord! Save me, Jesus!” Because Jesus is victorious, is risen, and is our Good Shepherd, King of heaven and earth, we rejoice in perfect forgiveness and salvation and are invited to walk boldly through life, praying, “Lord, walk with me.”
Jesus does walk with us. When our flesh and satan would tempt us we remember the Lord’s promise, “I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). When sin and satan attempt to turn your eyes away from Christ’s victory, God’s Word reminds us to live as champion warriors whose home in heaven is won:
Ephesians 6:10–18: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
If we are at a loss for words in these times of attack, pray,”Lord walk with me. Or Lord, save me.” Or as Jesus teaches, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (deliver us from the evil one)
In John 16:33 Jesus encourages His disciples, and it is also an encouragement to us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The Lord grant you strength in His Word and presence, in His forgiveness and mission calling as He walks with you today and into eternal glory.
HYMN: “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
1. I want Jesus to walk with me; I want Jesus to walk with me; All along my pilgrim journey, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
2. In my trials, Lord, walk with me; In my trials, Lord, walk with me; When my heart is almost breaking, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
3. When I’m troubled, Lord, walk with me; When I’m troubled, Lord, walk with me; When my head is bowed in sorrow, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
(Hymn Text: Public domain found in the hymnal: One and All Rejoice #200 Concordia Publishing House)
