Lent 5

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and go give his life as a ransom for many.”

Not what you’d expect when God comes to earth is it? God doesn’t need your good deeds. He needs to serve you. Hard to let the most important man in human history serve you? That’s ok, you’re not alone. We’ve been trying to help God out since time began.

Realize this. He doesn’t need your help. But you need His. So He sent His Son, Jesus, to help you out to serve you by serving up His Son, very God himself, on the cross. It is the greatest act of service ever that this God/Man would give His life for you. It was the dirtiest job that only Jesus could do. And He did it for the whole world. Even you.

These Seeds of Faith have been sown by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Bridgeport, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Allen Strawn.

Lent 4

Grumbling and complaining over what they had and that they could have it better, so were the people of God. And with this unbelief came punishment, in the form of poisonous snakes and many died.

The people recognized their sin against God.

And God commanded Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and whoever is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Moses did it, and “if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Recognize your sin and your grumbling against God. Look to Jesus, the one who was lifted up on the cross, believe that His cross takes away your sin and live eternally!

These Seeds of Faith have been sown by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Bridgeport, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Allen Strawn.

Lent 3

Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Yes, that is the message of Lent from John 2. Yes, destroy the temple of Jesus’ body that is heavy laden with your sin. Yes, destroy it there on the cross. Gone with that glorious destruction is your sin.

See His glorious resurrection just as Jesus promised? He has raised it spotless, clean, new. Believe the good news that your sins are removed from you forever.

These Seeds of Faith have been sown by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Bridgeport, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Allen Strawn.

Lent 2

Jesus looked at His disciples and asked “Who do you say that I am?”

You are the Christ! Peter boldly proclaims. Good answer Peter, now let me tell you what that means. That means I’m going suffer at the hands of the people you normally look up to. I am going to be killed then three days later I’m going to rise again.

No way, Jesus! Never, we won’t let this happen to you. After all, you are the Christ!

Get behind me Satan, says Jesus.

Anyone who doesn’t want Jesus to go to the cross, to be a suffering savior, is wanting the things of Satan not the things of God.

Jesus had to be the suffering, dying, and rising Messiah so that you can have eternal life by the forgiveness of sins.

These Seeds of Faith have been sown by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Bridgeport, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Allen Strawn.

Lent 1

“The devil made me do it!” cries the child, trying to convince his parents why he shouldn’t be punished. Parents quickly see through that charade knowing that the only thing that made their child disobey was their own selfish desire to do what they should not do.

Temptations to do what we should not do abound. They come in forms as subtle as TV commercials and as blatant as friends saying, “c’mon give it a try.” Jesus as He walked this earth was not exempt from temptations. And He even had a batch handed out by the Devil himself.

Jesus overcame all of these temptations by using God’s Holy Word to live a spotless life in our place. When we succumb to our own temptations, cling to God’s Holy Word of promise of forgiveness of sins in Jesus death and resurrection.

These Seeds of Faith have been sown by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Bridgeport, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Allen Strawn.

Ash Wednesday

Even though we are in the midst of cold temperatures and an occasional snow shower, we are coming upon a dusty season. No, I’m not predicting another dry spring, although I could be, since God cursed the ground when Adam and Eve first sinned thus meaning that we would have to labor and toil all our days. Instead, though, I am talking about the dusty season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday.

God punished our first parents Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:19, “for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” We also live under that same punishment. Ash Wednesday then is a reminder of our mortality caused by our first parent’s sin and yes even our own sin. “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” You hear this at nearly every Committal Service just before the body is lowered into the ground. Death.

God sent His Son, Jesus into the dust of our human flesh so that the dusty mortal’s curse would be placed on Him. Jesus came into our flesh that dies and returns to dust. He surely did die our death on the cross. As we begin this season of Lent, a time of our repentance from sin and seeing anew the suffering that our Lord bore for us, it is good to see our mortality in light of our Suffering Savior. Our mortality is swallowed up with His immortality won by Jesus sacrifice on the cross. We look forward to the victory of immortality won as Christ’s tomb burst open, empty on Easter morn, showing the entire world that our sinful mortality has been purchased with the blood of Jesus.