“Serving the LORD Grows on You.”

The veterans of the Cross, those who’ve been through the ups and downs of the Christian life, they give wisdom. We better listen.

The words above are from Margaret Duling, who also is pictured above, 90 years young, who spoke these words to Trinity’s eighth-grade class.

She added: “Whatever you do, make sure you are involved in your church. I didn’t know I would like volunteering and being involved in the church until I started doing it…It’s something that grows on you and becomes a family thing. Being involved in the church is so important because you know what’s going on in the congregation, and you get to meet so many people.”

“There was no one to do Altar Guild, so I decided to do it.”

So far, Margaret Duling, pearls of wisdom for us younger believers to ponder.

St. Peter writes: “The end of all things is at hand…As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace,” (1 Peter 4:7, 10).

The “end” of which he writes is God’s Second Coming to bring all His saints home to the new heaven and new earth. Since all sins have been done to by Jesus’ death and resurrection, believers do not need worry about the certainty of their salvation; it’s been done by God.

So what should we do? Margaret’s and Peter’s words describe: serve, help others, in this is profound joy.

Two big needs presently for your prayerful consideration here at Trinity:

1.      Youth – The Lord moved Tony Dixon, our Director of Christian Education, to Cedar Rapids; he oversaw the youth. We have a marvelous Youth Ministry Team presently working and praying. A big opportunity is for someone—individual, couple—to lead and work with our Youth Ministry Team. Consider the cultural prophets who daily attack, attempting to cause God’s youth to doubt His sure and certain Word. What an opportunity!

2.      Work Club – What is this? Glad you asked. A big need: for someone to lead and/participate in a volunteer group to address weekly facility needs: leaky faucets, tightening chairs, replacing lightbulbs, etc. A church in south Denver has a group of volunteers who gather every Tuesday morning for coffee, solve the world’s problems, and then attacked the list of needs.

What about you? Remember Margaret’s words: “Serving the LORD grows on you…I didn’t know I would like volunteering and being involved in church until I started doing it.”

What about you? 

Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

Seeking happiness is a common pursuit by everyone. Bars invite customers to their Happy Hour. Churches have a “Happy Hour,” also.

It’s called the Divine Service, where those gathered by God meet His Son through the Word and the Sacraments, and hear of their sins forgiven.

Now, I have nothing against bartenders and their profession. But think with me, can you even imagine how many confessions the bartenders hear, night after night after night? What is likely absent, most likely absent, is an Absolution. “God has forgiven you in Christ.” I suspect some have said, “I wonder if you should go see a pastor.”

Happiness is elusive unless you discern what your true problem is. Right away in the Divine Service, the Holy Spirit teaches the gathered to confess sin, but not in the way Adam and Eve did it. Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the serpent (Genesis 3:8-13). You know the routine so well, me, too. Bottom line: sin is the problem, yours and mine. We can’t blame others.

One theologian labels this living by faith as “calling a thing for what it is.” No skirting the truth, I am the sinner. “The” is purposeful, because it follows what the tax collector said to God in church, “God be merciful to me, the sinner,” (Luke 18:13). The English translation misses the definite article, by putting an “a” before sinner. No. The tax collector wasn’t looking right or left to make comparisons with other sinners. He was not one sinner among many. He was the sinner. He simply knew—he knew!—that he was unworthy.

Jesus says of the tax collector, “This man went down to his house justified, rather than the other” (Luke 18:14). God’s word forgave this sinner because of the shed blood of Christ. The tax collector went home justified, that is, happy.

Happiness is elusive to those who play the blame-game, as Adam and Eve. Happiness is also not found by those who don’t know the cause of their unhappiness. One must know to whom to go and where to find Him, His words of forgiveness.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” (John 6:69), are words stuck right between the Epistle and Gospel readings in Divine Service Setting One, pp. 156-157 of the Lutheran Service Book.

Perhaps, we should call the Divine Service the “Happy Hour.” It would take some explaining…

You might take a peek at the Trinity church sign for the next few days. I wonder what it says?

Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran