... for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.[Philippians 4:11b-13]
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is a spectacular and an incredibly fascinating place.
With its bubbling paint pots, its geysers which perform, more or less, according to schedule, and an abundance of flora and fauna, Yellowstone has something for everyone to see. It's not an exaggeration to say it offers a kaleidoscope of ever-changing vistas and experiences.
That being said, it's easy to understand why more than three million people will make the pilgrimage to spend some time in one of the Lord's pretty-near perfect places.
Did you notice the carefully chosen words in that last sentence: pretty-near perfect places?
I wrote "pretty-near perfect" because there are some folks who find Yellowstone disappointing. For example, this year a suggestion was turned in by a person who apparently stayed at Yellowstone Lodge. The note said, "Our visit was wonderful but we never saw any bears. Please train your bears to be where guests can see them. This was too expensive to not get to see bears."
Although I have not spoken to any Yellowstone rangers, I believe it unlikely they will be implementing this suggestion any time soon. I guess it all goes to prove that you can't please everybody.
Years ago, during a confirmation discussion on the Lord's omnipotence, a student raised her hand and said, "I know something God can't do. God can't please everybody." She was right. God couldn't please Adam and Eve with a perfect Garden and He hasn't pleased most people since the fall into sin.
All too often sinners believe God does too little, too much, too soon, or too late.
Sinners believe that because they think they know better than the Lord when it comes to how and when things should be done. I am afraid it takes some maturing and experience for people to get to that point where they can join their voices to that of St. Paul and say, "I have learned in whatever situation I find myself to be content."
It takes a bit of faith to sincerely pray, "Nevertheless, Thy will, not mine be done" (see Luke 22:42).
Still, contentment with and acceptance of God's wisdom is the Christian's goal. We need to strive for a faith that knows the Heavenly Father who sent His Son to give His life as a ransom for sinful humanity is always going to do what is right and best for us -- always, every time.
And that may even mean we are content when we don't see bears when we go to Yellowstone.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let me be content to trust Your grace and mercy in every situation of life. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is a spectacular and an incredibly fascinating place.
With its bubbling paint pots, its geysers which perform, more or less, according to schedule, and an abundance of flora and fauna, Yellowstone has something for everyone to see. It's not an exaggeration to say it offers a kaleidoscope of ever-changing vistas and experiences.
That being said, it's easy to understand why more than three million people will make the pilgrimage to spend some time in one of the Lord's pretty-near perfect places.
Did you notice the carefully chosen words in that last sentence: pretty-near perfect places?
I wrote "pretty-near perfect" because there are some folks who find Yellowstone disappointing. For example, this year a suggestion was turned in by a person who apparently stayed at Yellowstone Lodge. The note said, "Our visit was wonderful but we never saw any bears. Please train your bears to be where guests can see them. This was too expensive to not get to see bears."
Although I have not spoken to any Yellowstone rangers, I believe it unlikely they will be implementing this suggestion any time soon. I guess it all goes to prove that you can't please everybody.
Years ago, during a confirmation discussion on the Lord's omnipotence, a student raised her hand and said, "I know something God can't do. God can't please everybody." She was right. God couldn't please Adam and Eve with a perfect Garden and He hasn't pleased most people since the fall into sin.
All too often sinners believe God does too little, too much, too soon, or too late.
Sinners believe that because they think they know better than the Lord when it comes to how and when things should be done. I am afraid it takes some maturing and experience for people to get to that point where they can join their voices to that of St. Paul and say, "I have learned in whatever situation I find myself to be content."
It takes a bit of faith to sincerely pray, "Nevertheless, Thy will, not mine be done" (see Luke 22:42).
Still, contentment with and acceptance of God's wisdom is the Christian's goal. We need to strive for a faith that knows the Heavenly Father who sent His Son to give His life as a ransom for sinful humanity is always going to do what is right and best for us -- always, every time.
And that may even mean we are content when we don't see bears when we go to Yellowstone.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let me be content to trust Your grace and mercy in every situation of life. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Isaiah 5:1 I want to sing a song for someone I love,
The Lutheran Hour
660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Isaiah 5:1 I want to sing a song for someone I love,
a song about my loved one and his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug up its stones and cleared them away,
planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and carved out in its rock a winepress.
He expected it to produce good grapes,
but it produced only sour, wild grapes.
3 Now, citizens of Yerushalayim and people of Y’hudah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard
that I haven’t already done in it?
So why, when I expected good grapes,
did it produce sour, wild grapes?
5 Now come, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,
and [its grapes] will be eaten up;
I will break through its fence,
and [its vines] will be trampled down.
6 I will let it go to waste:
it will be neither pruned nor hoed,
but overgrown with briars and thorns.
I will also order the clouds
not to let rain fall on it.
7 Now the vineyard of Adonai-Tzva’ot
is the house of Isra’el,
and the men of Y’hudah
are the plant he delighted in.
So he expected justice,
but look — bloodshed! —
and righteousness, but listen —
cries of distress!
8 Woe to those who add house to house
and join field to field,
until there’s no room for anyone else,
and you live in splendor alone on your land.
9 Adonai-Tzva’ot said in my ears,
“Many houses will be brought to ruin,
large, magnificent ones left empty;
10 for a ten-acre vineyard will produce
only five gallons of wine,
and seed from five bushels of grain
will yield but half a bushel.”
11 Woe to those who get up early
to pursue intoxicating liquor;
who stay up late at night,
until wine inflames them.
12 They have lutes and lyres, drums and flutes,
and wine at their parties;
but they pay no attention to how Adonai works
and never look at what his hands have made.
13 For such lack of knowledge
my people go into exile;
this is also why their respected men starve
and their masses are parched from thirst.
14 Therefore Sh’ol has enlarged itself
and opened its limitless jaws —
and down go their nobles and masses,
along with their noise and revels.
15 The masses are lowered, the nobles are humbled —
proud looks will be brought down.
16 But Adonai-Tzva’ot is exalted through justice,
God the Holy One is consecrated through righteousness.
17 Then lambs will be able to feed
as if they were in their own pasture,
and those wandering through will eat
from the ruined fields of the overfed.
18 Woe to those who begin by pulling
at transgression with a thread,
but end by dragging sin along
as if with a cart rope.
19 They say, “We want God to speed up his work,
to hurry it along, so we can see it!
We want the Holy One of Isra’el’s plan
to come true right now, so we can be sure of it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who change darkness into light
and light into darkness,
who change bitter into sweet
and sweet into bitter!
21 Woe to those seeing themselves as wise,
esteeming themselves as clever.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
men whose power goes to mixing strong drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for bribes
but deny justice to the righteous!
24 Therefore, as fire licks up the stubble,
and the chaff is consumed in the flame;
so their root will rot,
and their flowers scatter like dust;
because they have rejected the Torah
of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
they have despised the word
of the Holy One of Isra’el.
25 This is why Adonai’s anger blazed up against his people,
why he stretched out his hand against them and struck them
[so hard that] the hills shook,
and corpses lay like trash in the streets.
Even after all this, his anger remains,
his upraised hand still threatens.
26 He will give a signal to faraway nations,
he will whistle for them to come
from the ends of the earth;
and here they come, so fast! —
27 none of them tired or stumbling,
none of them sleeping or drowsy,
none with a loose belt,
none with a broken sandal-strap.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung,
their horses’ hoofs are like flint,
and their [chariot] wheels like a whirlwind.
29 They will roar like lions —
yes, roaring like young lions,
they growl and seize the prey
and carry it off, with no one to rescue.
30 On that day they will growl at them,
like the sea when it growls —
and when one looks toward land,
one sees darkness closing in;
the light is dissipated
in the obscuring overcast.
6:1 In the year of King ‘Uziyahu’s death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 S’rafim stood over him, each with six wings — two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying. 3 They were crying out to each other,
“More holy than the holiest holiness
is Adonai-Tzva’ot!
The whole earth is filled
with his glory!”
4 The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! —
because I, a man with unclean lips,
living among a people with unclean lips,
have seen with my own eyes
the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”
6 One of the s’rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Here! This has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is gone,
your sin is atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying,
“Whom should I send?
Who will go for us?”
I answered, “I’m here, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
‘Yes, you hear, but you don’t understand.
You certainly see, but you don’t get the point!’
10 “Make the heart of this people [sluggish with] fat,
stop up their ears, and shut their eyes.
Otherwise, seeing with their eyes,
and hearing with their ears,
then understanding with their hearts,
they might repent and be healed!”
11 I asked, “Adonai, how long?” and he answered,
“Until cities become uninhabited ruins,
houses without human presence,
the land utterly wasted;
12 until Adonai drives the people far away,
and the land is one vast desolation.
13 If even a tenth [of the people] remain,
it will again be devoured.
“But like a pistachio tree or an oak,
whose trunk remains alive
after its leaves fall off,
the holy seed will be its trunk.”
2 Corinthians 13:1 This will be the third time that I have come to visit you. Any charge must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.[2 Corinthians 13:1 Deuteronomy 19:15] 2 To those who sinned in the past and to the rest I say beforehand while absent the same thing I said when I was with you the second time: if I come again I will not spare you — 3 since you are looking for proof of the Messiah speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but he is powerful among you. 4 For although he was executed on a stake in weakness, now he lives by God’s power. And we too are weak in union with him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by God’s power.
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living the life of trust. Test yourselves. Don’t you realize that Yeshua the Messiah is in you? — unless you fail to pass the test. 6 But I hope you will realize that we are not failures. 7 And we pray to God that you will do nothing wrong. We are not concerned with our appearing successful, but with your doing what is right, even if we appear to be failures. 8 For we cannot act against the truth, only for it. 9 So we rejoice whenever we are weak and you are strong; indeed, what we pray for is that you become perfect. 10 I write these things while away from you, so that when I am with you I will not have to use my authority to deal sharply with you, for the Lord gave it to me for building up and not for tearing down.
11 And now, brothers, shalom! Put yourselves in order, pay attention to my advice, be of one mind, live in shalom — and the God of love and shalom will be with you.
12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
13 All God’s people send greetings to you.
14 The grace of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah,
the love of God
and the fellowship of the Ruach HaKodesh
be with you all.
__________________________The Lutheran Hour
660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
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