May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
“Love,
love, love, all you need is love”. This
lyric by the Beatles ran through my mind as I read this week’s Epistle Lesson. Yes it dates me, but it is a classic that I
know Jesus Christ and John would agree with.
And this is exactly what we here at Emmanuel have shown this week.
Thank
you to the congregation for the love and spreading the Gospel message of Jesus
Christ by supporting Sky Ranch. This
week, we as a congregation opened up our doors, our hearts and our love for our
fellow brothers and sisters in Christ here in Goodland by sharing the Gospel
message of Jesus Christ. By providing a
place to stay for the staff, giving of food for the snacks for the kids,
donating your time and effort for God’s message of ‘Growing in Christ’ and
‘Fully Rely On God’ we have honored God.
Thank you!!
What
we have committed to with our bringing Sky Ranch here to Emmanuel is a Kingdom
Commitment! We as the congregation of
Emmanuel have stepped up and out and made a commitment to not only the
community but to ourselves as well that we will not be silenced about the
message and the mission of Jesus Christ! I am proud of Emmanuel Lutheran Church!
The
message of love shared this week of Sky Ranch Day Camp is extremely clear from
the singing of the songs, the sharing in the bible studies and the kids being
kids, but learning about Jesus Christ.
John in the epistle from this morning shares this as well. At first John warns us that the world will
hate us, why, because it takes commitment for a program like this, it takes
time and it takes investment. John
writes, “Do not be surprised, bretheren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into
life, because we love the brethren.”
By our not only sponsoring Vacation Bible School, but opening our doors,
we will be ridiculed, even questioned by some who wonder if the output of money
is worth the cost. But the questioning
and ridicule is worth it, because what we are doing is kingdom work here at
Emmanuel and for Goodland.
John
says, “We know love by this, that He [that is Jesus Christ] laid down His life
for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Yes, this is about what Jesus Christ did on
Calvary and He did that not only for the kids we invited to come, but also for
each of us here today. God came in order
that we might be set free from that which binds us and lead kingdom lives as we
have this last week with Sky Ranch.
Some
of you may have heard about the man who saved a little child from certain
death. While performing his duty as of
all things a tow truck driver, this man saw a little baby crawling and about to
enter the highway. After stopping and
insuring this little girl would not be harmed, he spent the next four hours
cuddling, caring for and being exactly what John wrote about for this little
girl. When she would get antsy and not
want to settle down, he played gospel music on his phone for her, because it
helped him settle down and the same was true for this little girl. This self-sacrifice was clearly a gift from
God for the little girl, but it was a result of God in this man’s life.
Previously,
he had been a drug addict, been in jail and did not have anything to look
forward to in his life, but one day through the work of God in a strange and
mysterious way, he was set free from his former life. And on this one day, he understood why God
had freed him from his former life. It
was so he could be the angel looking out and seeing and rescuing this small,
fragile little girl who would have certainly become the victim of certain death
if it were not for him.
This
is the impact that we with our Sky Ranch Day Camp and counselors have had upon
Goodland this week. Unknown to us right
now is the impact we will have, but we have definitely followed God’s plan for
us and John’s ending statement in the reading this morning. John concludes, “Little children, let us not love
with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” We have done that for countless children this
week here at Emmanuel and thank God for the gifts He has given us, especially
of His Son Jesus Christ who died for all of mankind, but especially all of us
saints gathered here to celebrate Sky Ranch this week here at Emmanuel. AMEN.
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