Vacation Bible School 2014 - Gangway to Galilee - God's Own Child

Above are our Vacation Bible School kids singing "God's Own Child I Gladly Say It," one of the hymns we taught them during this years VBS.  We had 72 kids from ages 4 to 13 from our community who all learned words and actions to this song.

We are working on teaching both of our congregations this hymn as well.  As we work on teaching it, I thought a little background on the hymn would be helpful.

From Issues ETC:

Pastor Will Weedon on "God's Own Child"

From the Witness, Mercy, Life Together Blog:

The tune was written by Johann Caspar Bachofen and first published in 1727. He studied theology but served the church and community as a musician, teacher, music director and composer his whole life. Johann, who grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, served in the Reformed Church and he published several collections of hymns that were very popular in his day. 

The lyrics were written by Edmann Neumeister and published in 1718. Neumeister was a German Lutheran theologian, poet, hymn writer, and strong opponent of Pietism and is best known for writing the texts for five of Bach’s cantatas. 

“The main ideas of the hymn are taken directly from the section on Holy Baptism in Luther’s Small Catechism, which, in answer to the question “What benefits does Baptism give? says: “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare”[ii]. 

The hymn was translated (below) in 1991 by an LCMS pastor, Rev. Robert E. Voelker who was a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne (1984) and, according to the LCMS church worker directory, currently is a pastor at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Windsor, Ontario.
The Hymnal Supplement Handbook paints a perfect picture of the hymn stating that “one cannot escape the impression of a child standing by an adult protector and ridiculing the neighborhood bully.”[iii]

Lyrics:  God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It 

Stanza 1 

God’s own child, I gladly say it: I am baptized into Christ!
He, because I could not pay it, gave my full redemption price.
Do I need earth’s treasures many?  I have one worth more than any
That brought me salvation free, Lasting to eternity! 

Stanza 2 

Sin, disturb my soul no longer: I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger: Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me, since my baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood, sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood? 

Stanza 3 

Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ!
Drop your ugly accusation; I am not so soon enticed.
Now that to the font I’ve traveled, all your might has come unraveled,
And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me! 

Stanza 4 

Death, you cannot end my gladness: I am baptized into Christ!
When I die, I leave all sadness to inherit paradise!
Though I lie in dust and ashes faith’s assurance brightly flashes:
Baptism has the strength divine to make life immortal mine. 

Stanza 5 

There is nothing worth comparing to this lifelong comfort sure!
Open-eyed my grave is staring: Even there I’ll sleep secure.
Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising:
I am baptized into Christ; I’m a child of paradise!

What a great Hymn!  God's Blessings!

Child Care Survey - Corrected Survey Link

Dear Friends,

We are conducting a survey to determine the need for Child Care in the Hankinson area.

If you have children who are of child care age, would you click on the link and fill out the survey?  If you don't have children in that age range, but know someone from town who does, would you forward the link to them and ask them to fill out the survey?  

We are looking for responses from surrounding communities as well, including Lidgerwood, Great Bend, Wyndmere, Mantador, Fairmount etc.  If you know anyone from those communities who would help us spread the information, please pass it along to them as well.  

This will help us assess if there is a need for child care, and whether we should further study starting a center in Hankinson.  

Here is the correct link:  Hankinson Child Care Needs Assessment

The survey will be open through June 1st, please fill out before then.  

June News and Views Article

On May 18^th, our epistle lesson was from 1 Peter 2:2-10.  We didn’t hear much about this text in our Sermon, but it still is one that I think is worthy of our attention.

Peter begins with these words, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up into salvation.”  When reading these words, I can’t help but think of the Dairy Council and their advertising campaigns from the last 20 years or so.  When I was a kid, I remember the commercials during Saturday morning cartoons that taught us “Milk.  It does a body good.”  After that campaign, they also had the long running “Got Milk?” campaign. 

One of the commercials for these campaigns remains one of my all-time favorites.  Two kids are sitting down for lunch, which their mother has dutifully prepared.  The mother tells them, “Drink your milk.”  The older brother replies, “I don’t want milk, milk’s for babies.”  And the younger sister quickly agrees, “Yeah, for babies.” 

The mom is undeterred.  “Well, I happen to know that milk builds strong bones.  So drink up.”  The brother looks out the window at the neighbor doing yard work.  “Well Mr. Miller told me he never drinks milk and look at him.”  At that moment, Mr. Miller waves at the family, and proceeds to pick up a wheel barrow full of dirt.  And as he does, his arms falloff at his shoulders in a puff of smoke as he says, “That’s not good.”  The final scene of the commercial is the family – mom included – chugging down milk as fast as possible. 

Peter’s opening statement is similar to the “Got milk” campaign, but instead he’s using a “God’s milk” idea.  “Long for the pure spiritual milk,” he says.  Otherwise your spiritual life will fall apart.  Yet pure spiritual milk is so hard to find today.  So much of the “spiritual milk” we find out there has been curdled and soured with false teaching. 

You see it in T.V. evangelists.  “You can do it” instead of “Christ has done it.”  “God wants you to find your purpose in this 40 day process.”  “God wants you to live your best life now.”  “God wants you to all just get along”. 

None of these things are in Scripture.  None of these things are true.  They are all green, chunky, sour spiritual milk.  They do not build up the Christian’s soul.  They do not do his “body good” or his soul good. 

You too have received and distributed sour milk at times.  When things go well for you, you are quick to pat yourself on the back, and when things go wrong, you’re quick to blame God.  You seek compliments to build up your self-esteem – as if that was the most important thing.  You tell people what they want to hear when they are in your presence, and tell lies about them behind their backs.  You’re a sinner fed on the lies and deceit of Satan.

Being fed with this sour milk, your sinful nature has been self-serving, self-praising, and self-justifying.  You’ve become self-focused and self-righteous.  So, dear friends, repent!  Your selfish sinful nature will only lead to self-trust, self-indulgence, and self-destruction.  The impure spiritual milk is the poison of Hell that seeks to destroy you forever. 

But God’s Word is pure spiritual milk.  And God’s Word, as Peter records it for us, says this:  You are a chosen people, redeemed by Christ, forgiven by His suffering and death.  His blood, shed from that Old Rugged Cross, has purchased and won you.  It has drawn you out of the darkness of this sinful world into His marvelous light.  Now in Christ, you are God’s people.  Now, you have received mercy for your sin. 

How?  Not by your works, or your self-focused pride.  But like newborn infants, Christ has fed you the pure spiritual milk of His grace. 

It reminds me of my own children as infants – and even of Gabe right now.  A baby gets hungry and begins to cry.  But no matter how much he cries, not matter how much he wags his arms in the air, or how pathetic he makes himself look, he cannot feed himself the milk he needs.  He is incapable of walking to the refrigerator and pouring himself a glass of milk.  He cannot even roll over, and must remain where he was placed. 

But a loving parent picks up the child with love and care and brings the milk to the child.  The bottle is placed in the babe’s mouth.  The milk is given, not earned.  The child does nothing to feed itself; the loving parent must do everything necessary. 

You are the same.  You can’t find the pure spiritual milk on your own.  You can’t feed it to yourself.  You must receive it as it is given to you by others – like an infant receives its food.  God cradles you in His own nail pierced hands, and washes you in water and Word, feeding you the pure spiritual milk.  He gives you body and blood to eat and drink for forgiveness of sins.  He proclaims His Word to you through the mouth of a fellow sinner, your pastor, so that by receiving pure spiritual milk, you might be fed and built up as a child of God, ready to inherit eternity.  Christ does it all, apart from your work.

Dear friends, “like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk – God’s Word and grace – that by it you may grow up into salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 

In Christ,  Pastor

Hebrews Bible Study Notes 03

Hebrews Bible Study notes Chapters 1-2

Easter 4 - P - 2014 - In Psalm 23, God Does Everything

Fourth Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

May 11, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline

Acts 2:42-47,   1 Peter 2:19-25,   John 10:1-10

Hymns – LSB 710, 709, 711   Communion – LSB 740, 480

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  Amen.  Our text for today is from the psalm we prayed together earlier, especially these words, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  Thus far our text for today. 

Dear friends in Christ.  We speak these words so often.  At funerals.  In times of struggle, or if we ever want to prove that we are able to memorize a bible passage.  “The Lord is my shepherd.”   And it is good for us to have these words memorized, because they are the truth.  Jesus himself says, “I am the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep.”   And so these words give us great comfort is all sorts of times of sorrow, because these words are a confession of what we believe:  namely that Jesus is my Lord who has redeemed me by his suffering on the cross. 

We need the promises of the Good Shepherd Jesus.  We cannot live on our own, we can only die.  We can’t trust our own decisions as sinful people.  We sinful sheep cannot make ourselves lie down in green pastures.  We can’t find our own quiet waters.  We cannot restore our own souls.  We need a shepherd to do all those things for us, to care for us. 

And the reason is, ultimately we are incapable.  Oh, yes, I know we can scrounge out a measly existence for our time here on earth.  But we never really feel safe or secure here do we?  We are always just one accident away from our life falling apart.  We’re always just a few dollars away from bankruptcy, or a few words from a fight with family that won’t be solved for 20 years.

We sinful sheep wander about, trying to find what will finally make us happy in this world, and we fail.  We try and try to keep a grip on all the events and people of our life, and they fall apart, far beyond our control.  We take pill after pill, eat right, exercise, and yet still we ever grow day by day closer to our own death.  If we sheep are left to our own devices, we will not survive to make it to eternity, but will perish is the harshness of this world. 

But we are not just loose sheep, we are sheep of a flock, sheep of our shepherd’s hand.  And our shepherd is the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  It is he who leads us, restores us, and guides us through the terrors of this world, at times even carrying us upon his own shoulders.  We hear the voice of our shepherd and we follow him.  He knows us each by name, for it is his name that is upon us in our baptism. 

And he leads, and we follow him.  When we wander he calls us back with his own voice.  And we follow him no matter where he goes.  And that’s the thing about our Shepherd Jesus.  He gives up his life for the sheep, and we follow him through it.  He goes to the cross, and as baptized people, we go to the cross with him, following our good shepherd.  He bleeds and die, leading us the whole way, suffering in our world as he suffered on the cross.  He leads us to the tomb, mourning as we stand at the graves of our loved ones, and as we ourselves await our tomb. 

And Jesus leads the whole way – by his cross, and death – through the valley of the shadow of death that we live in.  And he leads us through death, into life.  We hear his word, gently calling us, and leading us into life everlasting.  He leads us to the heavenly pasture land that our psalm speaks of.  It is because of the Shepherd Jesus that we are beside still waters.  It is through the suffering of Shepherd Jesus that our souls are restored.  And it is Shepherd Jesus who sets a table before us, here on this altar, in the midst of the enemies of sin, death and the power of the devil, to feed us with his own body and blood for forgiveness. 

You see, in the words of the 23rd Psalm, it is God who does everything through Jesus.  It isn't our work, it isn't our desire, it isn't our decision.  It's all Jesus.  Jesus leads us.  Jesus calls us.  He is the gate to heaven.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He is the reason we have hope beyond this world.  A hope to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  He calls us each by name, and he leads us through death into life forever.  The Lord is truly my shepherd, and I shall not want.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

Easter 3 - E - 2014 - Ransomed from Futility

Third Sunday of Easter

May 4, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline

Acts 2:14a, 36-41        1 Peter 1:17-25            Luke 24:13-35

Hymns – LSB 475, 483, 805  Communion – LSB 480, 490, 633, 466

Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father though our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Epistle lesson, especially these words, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed alleluia!  Amen.  You were ransomed from the futile ways you inherited from your forefathers.  Our text is clear – St. Peter’s word’s proclaim this message.  We are ransomed not with gold or silver, but with the holy precious blood, innocent suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Ransomed.  It’s a word that we often quickly skim over.  Ransomed is a word that deals with slavery and imprisonment.  When someone is kidnapped, they are held for ransom.  When the ransom is paid, they are set free.  When someone is a slave, they may be set free if they can pay their purchase price – a ransom.  So if our text tells us that we have been ransomed, that means we must have been in bondage.  We must have been held captive.

As modern day Americans we don’t like that idea.  We like to think we are not slaves and have never been slaves.  We have done so much to earn our worldly freedom.  But still our text tells us we have been captives, telling us we were under the authority of futile ways inherited from our forefathers.  We were slaves to useless things.  And what is more useless and futile than our own sin.  What has more held us in captivity and yes even slavery than “those thing we do not want to do, but yet do.” 

Yes, in sin, we are slaves.  We are slaves to sex.  We are slaves to our desire to do it our own way, even when God’s word and even modern social scientists say our way isn’t the best way.  We hold up and glorify sex outside of marriage, and so often we just accept it as a part of our modern life instead of taking a bold stand to what is right by God.  We are slaves to sex as we look at things that are inappropriate on our computers and televisions.  We are slaves to sex as we read novels that depict things that we wouldn’t want our young children to read.  Friends, sex is a beautiful gift from God that he has given and that has its place.  In our sin, we have corrupted it, and become slaves to it. 

We are slaves to sin!  We are slaves to our greed, always wanting more and more.  Always wanting what our neighbor has or always wanting what we don’t have ourselves.  We know it isn’t fair if someone else has what we want.  So often we will do whatever we possibly can to get our hands on the mammon of this world.  The things we are so greedy for are the things that will not last, the things that moth and mold will destroy, but that we so badly want anyways.  God gives us everything we need to support this life and body, and yet we want more, more, more!

We are slaves to sin!  We are slaves to our own indifference as we care mostly about what is beneficial to our own selves, and ignore those who are around us and really truly in need.  We ignore those who are sick, so that we can have time to watch our television shows.  We ignore those who mourn so that we can take care of our own business.  We ignore those who have serious struggles, saying, “to each his own, let each take care of their own issues.”

We are slaves to sin as we tell lies about those around us, or pass on “information” we have heard without knowing if it is the truth or not.  We put others down, we spread vicious rumors and lies.  We ourselves lie about things, taking advantage of the kindness of people to benefit ourselves.  We are slaves.

In all of these things and more, we are guilty.  In all these things and more we are slaves to sin.  And as slaves to sin we are also slaves to sin’s counterpart – death.  As slaves to sin we must also submit to death and the grave.  For the wages of sin is death.  Through sin, death entered the world.  And if we are slaves to sin, we have no choice but to obey, we must die if we are slaves to the sin of this world. 

But friends, our text is so clear.  You have been ransomed.  You have been set free.  You have been rescued from the futile ways of your forefathers, the futile ways of sin.  You don’t need to submit to them any longer.  As St. Peter says, and as we quote in our Small Catechism, Jesus Christ has ransomed you, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood, innocent suffering and death.  He has set you free from slavery and made you a child of His kingdom.  You may now live and reign with Him to all eternity, just as Has risen from the dead, and lives and reigns himself.  In Jesus, you are no longer a slave.  You are free.

Being free, when faced with temptation, be they sexual, be they in regards to gossip or greed or selfishness, we don’t have to give in.  We may declare loudly and boldly – I DO NOT BELONG TO YOU SIN OR SATAN, BUT I BELONG TO JESUS!  I will be free, for Christ has made me so.  I am baptized into him.  I partake in His body and blood!  I am God’s own child!  I gladly say it! 

Friends, you are God’s child, no longer a slave.  Why do you turn back to your slavery?  Why do you give in to the struggles of this world?  You are ransomed.  You have been purchased by Christ.  You belong to Him, and nothing else matters here in this world.  What great news!!  What a great Word that has been proclaimed!  You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.  You may now serve your Lord and your neighbor freely knowing that you do not have to submit to the sin of this world. 

Can you imagine what this means?  Picture a slave out working in the field, doing the will of his master without being able to care for himself.  Long hard days of labor, from dawn until dusk doing the will of his slave driver.  Finally, the news arrives!  You are free!  You have been ransomed!  Does the man return to his slavery and say – “well this is easier!?”  NO!  The man goes forth celebrating and sharing this news with all!  I once was a slave, but now I am free.  I once was captive and now I am ransomed!

Friends, you are ransomed.  You are free.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, you may leave your slavery behind forever and every and ever – even unto eternity.  Amen.