Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity LutheranChristmas prompts praise, of course.

There’s no other festival of the Church Year that owns so many celebrative songs and hymns. Even the Father splits the barrier between things seen and the unseen, letting His choir of angels erupt in praise in the sky (Luke 2:13).

Christmas also prompts prayer.

How so? Jesus became your Brother in the flesh.

What does this mean?

The author of Hebrews (4:15) says it well. “For we do not have a High Priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who is every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven; He took His ears (and body) with Him. He, the Son of God, makes His ears available. Always. He offers a sympathetic hearing. Why?

In the very Body His Father gave Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He suffered all that humanity ever suffered. Loneliness, hunger, temptation (without sin), and so on.

He does not listen to you in a condescending way. He feels what you feel and is joined with you in your weakness.

While sin’s poison poisons you, Jesus’ purity cleanses dirty hearts, hands and consciences. His Word makes clean (John 15:3).

You don’t need a hammering word. “Look who’s coming; it’s Golter again. Can You believe it, My Father” No. He takes you as you are and rejoices over you.

He hears and takes your prayers along with you to the Father. The One who stands before the Father is His Son, the Obedient Son, and His brothers and sisters, covered by His own holiness. This is the holy family, with Jesus as Brother. How could it not be a favorable hearing by the Father!

Christmas prompts prayer.

Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

In his “Marching OFF the Map” book, Tim Elmore writes: Today’s young people are the first generation that don’t need adults to get information. It’s coming at them 24 hours a day. What they need from us is interpretation, (p. 53). 

And, then Elmore writes: Teach them how to think.

Likely, you won’t gain much ground these days if you just tell them what to think. They’re taught they don’t really need you. Why would they if, as taught, each person determines what is right and wrong.

Rather, listen and learn and, perhaps ask: How do you know this? What’s your go-to place for what’s right and wrong?

Consider the assault upon them—and us—daily over the topic of gender.

Brenda Lebsack, a public educator in California, laments over the proposed changes in the California Health Framework new draft, 1,000 pages in length (who’s going to read this!). She writes:

“In Chapter 3, Line 1847, the draft recommends the book Who Are You? For pre-K-3rd graders as a ‘guide’ for developing their gender identity…Gender is described as, “boy, girl, both, neither, trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, transgender, gender neutral, agender, neutrois, bigender, third gender, two spirit…’” This ever-changing spectrum, the document asserts, leads to a: LGBTQQIAA. (EdSource: Highlighting Strategies for Student Success, Dec. 19, 2018).

What happens in California likely is coming to your front porch!

The center for truth, of course, is not in a person’s heart or imagination. Consider God’s word, as recorded by Moses: “For the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” (Genesis 8:21).

The only reliable source of truth is the Holy Scripture. Jesus used it for teaching and correction (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; Luke 24:25, etc.) If the One who is the Truth used—and uses—the Bible for His salvation and mission work, well, that preaches.

Listen all the way through the thinking of the young people. Have compassion. Test, however, their logic and ask for the source of their thinking. Gently lead them to consider what the Holy Spirit says in the Word.

“Have you thought about the fact that Jesus Himself used the Word?”

Teach them how to think.

Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

The Church’s opposition is rising. Do you not at least sense the onslaught? Surely.

The outright rancor at Vice-President Pence’s wife for teaching at a Christian school, which publicly holds forth the bible teaching of God-created gender and marriage is not surprising. The assault is not with steel, but the power of words, threats and logic. Steel bars may come, in the form of jails and prisons.

If gender is separated from how God designed the body biologically and anatomically, then it’s the individual’s choice to judge and choose. If the culture sets the pattern for the design of marriage, then the culture owns the final word. Absolute truth, which is only found in the Bible, is now moved to the individual’s heart. There is no absolute truth, only as it is perceived by each person.

How about the arena of life within the womb from conception? New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that legalizes abortion up until birth. He has hailed it as a landmark decision and celebrates this act. How sad.

Irrationality. Aggression. Hostility. Aligning of forces to attack the Christian Church.

Don’ be surprised.

It’s a spiritual war.

The Devil is making war against the Church (Rev. 12:17). He uses the power of government and the corrupted churches that sing the same doctrine as the culture.

The Church’s only hope is not steel, but her Christ and His powerful Word. Hostility and aggression expose any idols of Christians, and how powerless these idols are.

Believers only have Christ; He is sufficient. The Church is always most useful for Christ when she is most exposed and weak.

You better ground your kids and grandkids in Holy Scripture and prayer, or else they’ll be overwhelmed.

And, remember, there are those who need rescue, who need to hear of Jesus, who will listen.

Opportunity abounds to make a defense, a humble witness to the Lord of life.

Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran