Pastor Thomas Schuelze

COVER STORY – Lent

“But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.’” 

(John 12:23-24)

As you read this article, the weather is probably not looking very springlike. If you live in a northern region of our country, the temperature outside may be downright frigid. Snowflakes may be floating in the air. Even if you live in a region that enjoys warmer temperatures, you’re probably not thinking about engaging in outdoor gardening activities like planting flowers or sowing vegetable seeds. The time for doing such things is spring, and spring is a long way off.

It’s interesting, though, that the church year season we recently entered (Lent) comes from the Old English word, lencten, which means “spring.” And though it is true that we aren’t thinking about outdoor gardening work now, there is a seed-sowing that we love to think about especially at this time of year: the seed-sowing that Jesus speaks about in the Bible verse above.

It was Tuesday of Holy Week. Two disciples had just placed before the Savior the request of some Greeks to see Him. Apparently these Greeks had heard about Jesus’ reputation as a prophet and were looking forward to meeting Him. When Jesus heard about their request, His mind turned immediately to the work of redeeming mankind that He was soon to bring to completion. In three days He would be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, condemned, crucified, and His body buried in a grave. The result of it all would be that souls out of every nation (Greece and countless others!) would be saved for eternity, a thought that filled His heart with joy.Read More »Time to Think About Seed-Sowing

“‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ . . . And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

(Ephesians 4:8,11-13)

The day was Maundy Thursday. The location, an upper room in Jerusalem. Jesus was gathered with His disciples to celebrate the Passover. At the outset of the evening’s festivities, He stooped over, took a towel, poured water into a basin, and started washing the disciples’ feet. Peter tried to stop Him, thinking that this act of service was beneath his Master’s dignity. Jesus told Peter, “What you don’t understand now, you will later.” After completing the chore, He told His disciples, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15, for the full account see vv. 1-17)

Jesus was teaching a spiritual lesson that He wants His believers of all times to take to heart: He calls us to serve Him in those around us by kindhearted deeds. This is to be a response to the work of love He performed for us all by washing us clean of our sin by His blood shed on the cross. We rejoice to know that He views the acts of loving service we do for others as having been done for Him (see Matthew 25:40).Read More »Called by Christ to Be Servants of His Servants

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” 

(Ephesians 1:18, NIV).

As you read this article, there’s a festival fast approaching on the church year calendar. It’s a festival that doesn’t receive much attention these days. It is “All Saints’ Day.” It falls each year on the first day of November.

How and when did the Festival of All Saints originate, and what is its significance? In the days of the early church, when Christianity was an outlawed religion, followers of Jesus were subjected to bitter persecution. Many were killed for refusing to knuckle under to the authorities and renounce their religious beliefs. It was during this period of open hostility toward Christians that the church chose a day of the year on which to remember those who had been martyred, and to praise God for His mercy in preserving them in faith amidst the fiery trials they faced. The name they ascribed to the day was All Saints Day. Later, all who died while anchoring their hopes in Jesus were remembered on this day, with thanksgiving to God.Read More »All Saints’ Day A Minor Festival With Major Comfort

It’s the “Same Old Same Old”

“Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said,  ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”

(Genesis 2:22-24 NIV 84).

“Same old same old.”

This is the answer I received from a friend when I asked how things were going for him at work. He went on to share that he was feeling a bit burned out and yearning for something new and different from his daily work routine.

People generally use the phrase same old same old in a negative sense to describe situations that are boring or annoying (and which they might like to have changed). Yet there’s a sense in which it may be understood positively. Take God’s institution of marriage, for example. Though large segments of our society are attempting to morph it into something new (the thinking goes something like “Why should we stay mired in the same old tired ideas of yesteryear? We need to change marriage’s definition so that it includes couples of the same sex”), yet for us Christians, marriage remains the “same old” lovely institution God ordained at the dawn of time when He created Eve for Adam (Genesis 2:19-22). We hold fast to what God teaches about marriage and His “same old” definition: marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman living together as husband and wife.Read More »God’s Institution of Marriage