Look forward to the Day of the Lord's Appearing! (Daniel 12:1-3)

November 18, 2012

 

Dear friends in Christ.

For some reason it seems that it is about the third week in November when we start to look forward to Christmas.  I don’t know why it is, exactly.  Perhaps it is the fact that by this time many of the malls have at least started, if not finished decorating and putting out their Christmas inventory.  Perhaps it’s the fact that so many advertisers have been airing commercials that make us think more concretely about the coming Christmas holidays.  Or perhaps it simply comes down to the fact that by the third week of November, most of us have our Thanksgiving plans well in hand and we can actually start looking ahead to Christmas time.  But whatever the reason might be, our looking forward to celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas can serve as a lesson for us today in the way that we as Christians also look forward to the day of the Lord’s appearing.  For the truth is, in the same way that we look forward with excitement to upcoming holidays, we can look forward to the Lord’s appearing with confident expectation, excitement and joy.  We can look forward to the Lord’s appearing, because we know that on that day we will be revealed as the Lord’s triumphant saints who will live with the Lord in heaven, forever.

This, in fact, is the very message that the Lord conveyed to his servant Daniel, in our lesson today.  Through the angel that appeared to Daniel the Lord revealed the time of his appearing, when he said, “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:1–3, NIV84)

Now, when the Lord revealed these words to Daniel, Daniel was a captive in Babylon.  He was serving King Nebuchadnezzar as a governor of the Babylonian Empire.  He was looking forward to the end of the 70 years of captivity when the Lord would allow his people to return home to the Promised Land, and now, because of these words, he was looking forward to the day of the Lord’s appearing.  Well, as Christians who are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in just a few days and Christmas a little more than a month later, we are also looking forward to the day of the Lord’s appearing, because we know that we belong to the Lord.  We know that on the day we came to faith in the Lord Jesus, he wrote our names in to his book of life.  In the same way that I have books in my office that have the names of previous owners written in above my own, so also our names have been written into the Lord’s book of life.  Whether it happened on the day that we were baptized and called to faith in Jesus through the Water and the Word, or it happened when we were called to faith later in life when we learned that Jesus is our personal savior from sin; on that day, when the Holy Spirit created faith in our hearts, Jesus took the quill of his love, dipped it in the inkwell of his blood, and tenderly inscribed our names in his book—marking us as his children through faith in him.

It is because our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, that we, like Daniel, are looking forward to the day of our Lord’s appearing.  We are looking forward to the day when our Savior will appear in the sky in glory and judgment, because we know on that day, our Savior will publicly proclaim us to be his children, and he will deliver us to everlasting life, were we will live in his heavenly home by his side, forever more.

Yes, we are looking forward to the day of our Savior’s return with confident expectation because we know what our Savior did to make us his own.  We know how he sacrificed himself on the altar of the cross to pay for the sins of the world.  We know how he rose again from the dead to prove that he is our all powerful Savior.  Now, through Jesus’ triumph over death and hell we have been made heirs of eternal life through faith in him.  We have no reason to be afraid of anything, because Jesus has saved us.  We do not need to fear the day of our death, because we have been cleansed of our sins by Jesus’ blood.  We do not need to fear the Day of Judgment or worry that we will not be worthy enough to enter heaven, or worry that we have not done enough to gain God’s favor, because Jesus has made us worthy.  We know that Jesus himself has already delivered us from death to life, and when he returns on the last day, he will once again deliver us to eternal life.  This is exactly what the Lord is revealing to Daniel this morning when he says: “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:1–3, NIV84)

On the last day, when our Savior returns, all who sleep in the dust of the earth will be called forth by the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our souls will be reunited with our bodies.  We will stand before the Lord as he pronounces his judgment on all people.  But we do not need to fear that day.  We do not need to worry about what will happen, for when Jesus looks at us, he will say to them, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world,” (Matthew 25:34).  Then he will take us to live with him forever in his heavenly kingdom. Not because of anything we have done, but because Jesus himself has washed us clean with his blood. This is why we are looking forward to the Lord’s appearing, because we know that through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be delivered to eternal life.  Though we are living in the last days, and we are beginning to feel the love of the world growing colder; though we are beginning to feel indifference toward God move to hatred of God; we do not need to fear.  Though we may be facing hardships on every side, financial burdens, business problems, health concerns, we are able to rejoice.  Though it seems that the only thing we hear on the news is sad and depressing news, we do not need to be troubled.  Though each day we deal with our own mortality as we grow older, we have nothing to be concerned about. We have nothing to be concerned about because Jesus has already delivered us to eternal life.  What a comfort it is to us that Jesus himself will deliver us to eternal life.  For heaven is our true home and there we will shine like the stars just as the Lord prophesied to Daniel: “Those who are wise  will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever,” (Daniel 12:3). 

What an amazing promise!  When the Lord calls us home, we will go to live with him forever and ever.  We will live with him in his heavenly kingdom and we will shine like the brightness of the heavens!  How amazing it will be on that day when the Lord returns, as he takes us to live with him forever in our new homes in heaven.  But what will it be like on that day when he calls us home?  Can you even begin to imagine the glory that we will see?  Can you even begin to conceive of what heaven will be like?  Though none of us can even begin to contemplate the glories of our true home, we are able to perceive a small part of that glory now, and picture what it will be like.  In fact, each and every one of us holds a different idea in our minds of what heaven will be like, just like Miss Kaltin’s kindergarten class.  One day for art class, Miss Kaltin asked her students to draw a picture of what they though heaven would be like.  Some of the children drew pictures of Jesus and angels living in the clouds, others drew big walls and golden gates, but Hannah drew a big golden castle with towers and spires and battlements, which she covered with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and many other precious stones.  That was her picture of heaven, a huge fortress where she would be safe with God forever.

So, what is your picture of heaven?  What do you see when you think about it?  What would you draw if I asked you to draw a picture of it?  We all have a different idea of what heaven will be like, and nobody knows exactly what the Lord has in store for us.  But I can tell you, heaven will not be a boring place.  It won’t be a place where we stand before St. Peter making excuses for each of our sins as he reads them out of a great book.  It won’t be hectic and frustrating like Wal-Mart, packed with panicky shoppers two days before Christmas.  It won’t even be a place where we are issued a pair of wings and a harp, escorted to our own personal cloud where we are expected to remain all day long singing praises to God every fifteen minutes. That’s nothing like heaven will be like.  For when we are called home we will be carried to our Lord’s side where he will greet us with open arms.  Jesus himself will place a crown on our heads and show us the place he has lovingly prepared for us.  We will be reunited with all our loved ones who have been called home to heaven before us, and indeed all believers.  We will see the river whose streams make glad the city of God.  We will see the tree of life, we will see the multitudes from every tribe, people, and language, and we will live with the Lord in the city of God, where He will spread his tent over us.  Never again will we hunger, never again will we thirst, the sun will not beat upon us nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our shepherd.  He will lead us to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.  This is what heaven is all about, and this is the reason we are rejoicing today, because when the Lord calls us home, we will shine like the brightness of the heaven in our glorified bodies.

Yes, one day soon, we will see our Savior returning in the clouds and all the angles with him.  But we do not fear that day.  Rather, we look forward to that day knowing that our names have been written in the Lamb’s book of life.  We look forward to that day knowing that our Savior will deliver us from this life to his side forever in heaven.  We look forward to that day knowing that when we are with the Lord we will shine like the brightness of the sun in our Father’s heavenly kingdom.  So, as you leave here today looking forward to both Thanksgiving and Christmas, continue also to look forward to the day of your Savior’s returning.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Remain faithful to the Lord (Daniel 6:10-12, 16-23)

October 28,2012

Dear friends in Christ.

I don’t know if you realized it when you came to church this morning, but today is a very special day.  Now, I admit, it may not be as special as Christmas or Easter, but it is still an important day.  It is still an important day, because today we are celebrating the festival of the Reformation.  We are celebrating how the Lord used a simple man named Martin Luther to preach the Light of the Gospel to a world that was darkened with false teaching and sin.  We are celebrating the fact that it was the Lord who enabled Martin Luther to remain faithful to the Lord even when it seemed that death was certainly coming down upon him.  And, as we celebrate this festival this morning, we will do so by taking a look at another man who also faithfully served the Lord, even under the penalty of death.  For this morning, we will remind ourselves of Daniels life, how he remained faithful to the Lord and how he trusted that the Lord God would, indeed, deliver him.  Just listen to the situation in which Daniel found himself in our lesson today, “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”" (Daniel 6:10–12, NIV84)

Now, as you undoubtedly remember from your Sunday school lessons, the decree Daniel mentions was the decree which some of the governors had persuaded the king to put into effect.  It was the decree that stated that anyone who prayed to any god other than the king for the next 30 days would be thrown into the lion’s den.  It was a decree that they had persuaded the king into making, because those specific governors were jealous of Daniel, who would soon be promoted as head of all the governors, and they simply couldn’t stomach the fact that this captive Israelite would now be their boss.  Yet even when Daniel heard the decree had been made, he remained faithful to the Lord.  Even though he knew it might cost him his life, he went home, opened the windows of his house that faced east, knelt down on the floor and began to pray, just as he always had.

But now comes the question:  “What would you have done if you were in Daniel’s shoes?  Would you have gone home, gone up to your upper room, opened the windows which faced Jerusalem, and prayed to the Lord as you always had?  Or, would you have gone home, closed all your shades and blinds, and timidly prayed to the Lord?”  It’s a tough question to answer, and I have to admit, I don’t know what I would have done.  I hope and pray that I would have had the courage and the faith to remain faithful to my Lord even when my life was on the line, and not hidden out. 

Thankfully, we are not living in a land that passes such laws.  Rather, we are living in a land where we are free to worship the Lord any way we wish to.  We are living in a land, where praying to the Lord does not constitute a danger to our lives.  However, we are living in a land where satan is continually setting subtle traps designed to lead us away from the Lord our God.  For example: how many times this week did a love scene on TV draw your attention that much closer to the program you were watching?  How many times did you laugh at a joke which had sexual connotations buried within it?  How many times did foul language echo from your lips?  How many times did you enjoy hearing and passing on the latest gossip you heard while down town?  How many times did the thought of reading your Bible completely fail to cross your minds?  These are but a few of the traps satan uses to lead us away from the Lord.  For he is truly a crafty advisory!  Rather than hitting us with an all out assault, which threatens our very lives, he comes to us in subtle, tricky ways.  Rather than trying to knock us off the path to heaven in one foul swoop, he patiently moves us away from the Lord.  Inch by grudging inch he works to move us from faithfulness to complacency and from complacency to rampant unbelief.

This is why our God is calling on us today to remain faithful to him, because even though our physical lives are not being threatened, our spiritual lives are on the line.  If we should fall to our enemy’s temptations, we could easily be led into unbelief.  If we should be led into unbelief, we would miss out on the forgiveness which Jesus alone can offer.  If we miss out on the forgiveness which Jesus offers, we will miss out on eternal life all together.  This is why our Lord calls us to remain faithful to him, because the only way to fight against temptations like these are to remain rooted in the Word of God.  The only way to avoid the traps that satan continually places before us is to make regular use of the opportunities we have to worship the Lord our God here in church and to partake of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  When we do these things, we will be growing in our faith and knowledge of God.  We will be better prepared and equipped to fight against the assaults of satan.  We will even find that through the working of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, our desire will be to remain faithful to the Lord whatever the cost.  For even if we should lose our physical lives in faithful service to him, we know eternal live awaits, because as we know, he alone is our Salvation.  This is why the Lord is calling on us to remain faithful to him even though it might cost us our lives here on earth.  Remain faithful to him, trusting that the Lord our God will indeed deliver us.

This is exactly what Daniel did!  Even though he knew his faith might cost him his life, Daniel remained faithful to the Lord and trusted that the Lord would indeed deliver him.  He trusted that the Lord would either deliver him from the hand of the king and the paw of the lion, or the Lord would simply deliver him to eternal life where he would never have to face the troubles of this world ever again.  For Daniel, the outcome didn’t matter, he remained faithful to the Lord and the Lord delivered him from the paw of the lion, as we learn in our lesson today: “At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21 Daniel answered, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.” 23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God." (Daniel 6:19–23, NIV84)

Well, in the same way that Daniel remained faithful to the Lord, the Lord wants us to remain faithful to him in how we live our lives.  He wants us to remain faithful to him all the days of our lives, trusting that he will deliver us from whatever calamity befalls us.  But how do we do this?  How do we remain faithful to the Lord in any and every situation trusting that he will deliver us just as he promised?  We dive headlong into the Word of our God!  Though our faith is strengthened by regularly gathering together for worship, when we realize that we are awake for an average of 120 hours each week, spending only one hour with God means that there are 119 hours each week that you are being bombarded with worldly ideas and philosophies.  That’s 119 hours each week that satan is working to confuse us and cause us to doubt the Lord’s promises to deliver us from every circumstance.  That means that during those 119 hours each week, satan is doing everything he can to keep us from remaining faithful to the Lord.

Sadly, this is the type of faith-life that the average Christian has.  1 hour with God a week, and then the rest of the week is spent without even thinking about him.  Would you even think about feeding your family only once each week?  Yet this is what many Christians do and struggle all the harder to remain faithful to the Lord because of it.  This is why we need to be in the Word of God each and every day.  For it is in the Word of God where we receive the soothing balm of the Lord’s comfort; the comfort that we receive through the gospel message of salvation.  For it is in the Gospel that we are reminded of Jesus Christ our Savior. It is in the Gospel that we are reminded how God took us from our dry, dusty and dirty existence as sinners and led us into the cool refreshing showers of Jesus blood which washed away every spot and stain of our sins.  It is in the Gospel that we are reminded how Jesus has already delivered us from the curse of our sins and the punishment of eternal death by bringing us into a right relationship with our God.  This is the comfort we find in the Gospel, and this is the comfort, which moves us to remain faithful to the Lord, trusting that he will indeed deliver us.  Though we may not be facing the threat of death at the paws of hungry lions, though we may not be facing a room crowded with people who are calling on us to renounce our Savior, we do face many things which satan uses to lead us away from the Lord.  Knowing this, continue to stand fast in our Savior’s teaching!  Continue to remain faithful to the lord trusting that when he does deliver you, it will either be from harm while in this life, or it will be to his side in the life to come.

This is how Daniel was able to remain faithful to the Lord.  He remained faithful to the Lord in all things because he was rooted in the Word.  This is how Luther was able to do it.  Though there were many people who wanted to take his life and many temptations to turn from the Lord, because he was constantly in God’s Word, he, through the power of the Holy Spirit was able to remain faithful as well.  So then, heed the examples the Lord has given you.  Dive into the Scriptures so that you might continually strengthen your faith, and remain faithful to the Lord in all things.  Remain faithful to the Lord even if it should one day cost you your life.  Remain faithful to the Lord trusting that he will indeed deliver you from harm.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Remain Faithful to the Lord (Daniel 6:1-28)

July 22, 2011

Preached as Daniel

Dear friends in Christ.

If you’ll permit me, I’d like to tell you a story this morning.  It is a story filled with danger, struggles, hardships, and yes, even a little adventure.  It is a story with which you are very familiar, because it is a story that you learned when you were just little children, and it is a true story, which makes it all the better.  For the story I want to share with you this morning is the my story—my story of the things I endured as I sought to remain faithful to the Lord my God.

The year was 605 BC (roughly 400 years before the Savior would be born) and the time for Israel’s captivity was at hand.  The captivity which the Lord had promised through prophets like Jeremiah, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah began as King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land of Israel, bound King Jehoiakim with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.  (2 Kings 23:36-24:7; 2 Chronicles 34:5-8)  But not only did he take the king into custody, but he also took gold and silver articles from the Temple of the Lord, along with some of the young men from the royal family and nobility; “young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.” (Daniel 1:4, NIV84)

I was one of those men brought to Babylon where I was trained for three years before I entered the King’s service, and where, from the moment I arrived in Babylon, I was challenged as to how I was going to remain faithful to the Lord.  For you see, Babylon was the city that Nimrod had founded some years after the flood.  It was a great city in the very area where the Lord had confused the languages of the people after they had tried to build a tower to their glory so that they would not have to follow the Lord’s decree to spread out over the earth.  It was a city and an empire filled with all sorts of wealth and riches, peoples and nations, pleasures and diversions, and even though the name Babylon carries the meaning of “gate of god” it was clear that the Lord God was not worshiped in this city.  Rather people were “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  (2 Timothy 3:2-5 NIV84) 

Interesting, isn’t it that the people of my day fit the very description of people that Paul spoke about in his letter to Timothy.  Yet the truth is, the people of my day were no different than the people of Paul’s Day nor than the people of your day.  It was because of this that I determined that I would do everything within my power to remain faithful to the Lord my God, and from the very moment that I determined to remain faithful to the Lord, I faced one challenge after another.  If I had time today I could take you through each one of them and show you just how the Lord blessed me as a struggled to remain faithful to him.  But since we don’t, let me take you through the story that has so often been called, Daniel and the Lion’s Den.

The year was 539 BC.  66 years had passed since I entered into the service of the Babylonian government.  The Babylonian empire had recently been taken over by the Medes and the Persians, who quickly set about establishing their empire in the place that the Babylonians so recently ruled, and it pleased King Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was [me]. The satraps were made accountable to [the administrators] so that the king might not suffer loss. Now [I] so distinguished [myself] among the administrators and the satraps by [my] exceptional qualities that the king planned to set [me] over the whole kingdom. (See: Daniel 6:1-3, NIV84)

This was something that just stuck in the craw of the other satraps and administrators.  They couldn’t stomach the idea that a foreigner, a Jew, no less, someone who did not worship their god Bel or any of the other gods of the Babylonian Pantheon, could possibly be placed in a position of authority over them.  They plotted and the schemed, and finally they came up with the plan to trap me in my faithfulness to the Lord.  They persuaded the King to sign a decree, a law if you will, stating that no one could pray to any god other than the king for the next 30 days.  They did this because they knew my heart, and they knew that I would not listen to the decree or pray to the king let alone other gods. They knew that I would remain faithful to the Lord.  Now, I cannot say that I wasn’t tempted to stop praying in my normal way, when I learned of the decree.  After all, the punishment was death by lions.  But even though I was tempted to be less than faithful to the Lord, the Lord gave me strength and the ability to remain faithful.    So, I simply did what I had always done.  I went upstairs to my room where the windows faced east toward Jerusalem, and I got down and prayed like I always did.  This time, as I expected, I was “discovered” by the others and tossed to the Lions.

You know how it happened.  You know how the Lord sent his angel to close the mouths of the lions and protect me, but the truth is, it could have gone the other way.  The Lord could have decided to let me be devoured by those lions, and allowed me to die in his name.  If he would have allowed me to die there, I was ready to go because I trusted in the Lord my God and knew that the Lord my God had the power to rescue me from the lions, and even if he didn’t I would remain faithful to him because I knew that he would carry me to his side where I would live with him forever.  Though the lions were not able to make a meal out of me, they made a very delicious meal out of those who sought to be rid of me when the King ordered that they take my place in the den and before they even reached the ground they were overcome by the lions. 

Now, why am I telling you all of this?  I am telling this to you because my story is not all that different than your story.  Just like me, you live in a great city and a great nation filled with all sorts of wealth and riches.  You live in a nation filled with all sorts of pleasures and diversions.  You live in a nation that though it was founded on Christian principles and values, it is quickly becoming more and more godless.  You live in a nation where shrines and temples to false gods cover the landscape. I’m not just talking about those religions that are obviously false and have absolutely no connection to the true God; I’m also talking about those churches that are supposed to be Christian, but no longer teach a Christ centered message.  You live in a nation where Atheism, which is the belief that there is no god, and Agnosticism, the belief that one cannot truly know if god exists, are becoming more and more popular.  You live in a nation that has blessed you with the freedom of religion, but certain groups are working very hard to make sure that this becomes a nation that establishes the freedom from religion.  You are living in a nation that is not that much different from ancient Babylon and the Lord your God is calling on you to remain faithful to him. 

But how do we do that?  The answer is simple!  We remain faithful to the Lord by remaining in his Word, for it is only through the Word of God that our faith is strengthened and our faith grows.  Just think about how your faith grows when you are regularly in church and you are regularly hearing the Word of God.  Just think about how your faith grows and how it is easier to avoid certain temptations when you are regularly partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  Just think about how your faith grows and how you are better prepared to remain faithful to the Lord when you are reading his Word for yourselves on a regular basis.  Just think about how your faith grows when you do these things, because you are convicted of your sins, and assured forgiveness from Jesus Christ your Savior.  Just think about how the Lord works in your hearts and how the Holy Spirit strengthens your faith and gives you that stronger conviction to live for your Savior, simply because you have been in the word. 

These are but a few of the blessings that the Lord gives when we remain faithful to him.  He blesses us with the assurance of the forgiveness of sins.  He blesses us with the assurance of life and salvation. He blesses us with the assurance that not only are our prayers heard, but they are also answered.  He blesses us with the power for Christian living.  He blesses us with the association of fellow Christians who are facing similar struggles so that we can encourage each other and build each other up as we remain faithful to the Lord.  He gives us the ability to stand up against temptations through Jesus Christ our Savior, and when we feel that we cannot stand up he assures us that we can hide ourselves in our Savior who will fight for us.  Though there are times when we do fail to remain faithful to the Lord and we fall into sin that one sin is never the end, because when we turn to the Lord in repentance, he forgives us.  He washes us clean.  He lavishes his grace on us, and he enables us to stand faithful once again.

Though remaining faithful to the Lord was not the easiest thing to do in Babylon, it was a very important thing for me to do.  Not only was it important for my own salvation, but it was also important that I remained faithful to the Lord to encourage my fellow Israelites who had also been brought to Babylon.  The same thing is true for you today.  Because you are living in a world where your Christian beliefs are being challenged, it is all the more important that you remain faithful to the Lord.  Because you are living in a land where Atheism is becoming more popular, where sexual sins are becoming normalized, where sexual perversions are thought of as alternate lifestyles, and where certain groups are seeking to do all they can to legislate Christianity to the point of nonexistence, it is all the more important for you to remain faithful to the Lord your God.  Though you may not have been threatened with lions because of your faith, we all face different kinds of persecutions because of our beliefs.  Yet, it is the Lord who delivers us from those persecutions. Though sometimes he uses them to help us grow in our trust of him and someday he might allow those persecutions to take our lives as he did with so many of the heroes of faith in his Word, we know that when we remain faithful to the Lord it is the Lord who blesses us.  We know that no matter what we face in this life, heaven is waiting for us.  We know that no matter what hardships the Lord brings into our lives, he is the one who will deliver us from them, either in this life or in the life to come by his side forever.

This is why it is so important for us to remain faithful to the Lord our God, because the Lord is our salvation.  Though I know you know my story so well because you learned it as little children, I hope that it has been a blessing to you.  I hope it has been a blessing to you and an encouragement to you to remain faithful to the Lord who always remains faithful to you.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN