St. Luke Columbus

Alisha joined the St Luke staff this year as Children and Families Ministry Director. Her message today centers on relating joy and finding joy at different times in her faith journey and the impact it has had on her. We hope this message encourages you.  Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Jesus is called a prophet, teacher, miracle-worker, Messiah, the Christ, Savior, and Redeemer among other things.  The writer of Hebrews adds two more, “Pioneer and Perfecter” of our faith.  (The King James Version uses the word “author” instead of “pioneer”.) This week we’ll lean into the implications that Jesus is truly what Hebrews testifies to, that he writes the story and perfects the same story, of our individual and collective lives lived by faith. Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, when Christ calls us, he bids us to come and die. Pastor Mike taught last week that we church for a cause bigger than ourselves, but first we must be transformed by Christ and that takes sacrifice. To live and love like Jesus will take sacrifice. In a move that is incredibly counter-intuitive and countercultural, we church because Jesus bids us to come and die and live a life that is sacrificial for the sake of the world. It is here that we find our purpose.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

The church is a cause greater than ourselves, the Kingdom of God.  As the church, we are invited to participate in the ongoing revelation of the Kingdom of God in this world.  We pray for its coming weekly and, at times, daily, in the Lord’s Prayer, and we participate and co-create the Kingdom where we are with God by the Holy Spirit.  Just as Jesus sent the 72 out to do the work of the Kingdom to places maybe they had never been and with people with whom they had never spoken, and to do things they couldn’t ever do on their own, so Christ sends us out as ambassadors for the Kingdom.     Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

The community and friendships we experience in church are immeasurably life-giving. The love we show one another is a witness to the world. The most profound aspect of our family of faith may be that each of us church with people who are different from ourselves - people with whom you would not easily choose to hangout. It is a great witness to the world that each of us church with people who are ethnically, culturally, politically, economically, and other ways different from ourselves. This reflects the kingdom of God that Jesus ushered into the world, that is the body of Christ today, and is to come in the paradise of eternal life. Being in a church with different people helps us to grow to be more like Jesus, who was often criticized for churching with people that the religious leaders thought he should not be with.    Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

St Augustine said the church existed from all eternity whenever people loved one another.  The unconditional love and acceptance we share with one another is where Christ dwells fully among us.   The church is an alternative community where we love as Christ loves.  Out of this love flows genuine community established on the foundation of unconditional love and acceptance.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

In our lives that are so often fickle and uncertain, the discipline of regularly attending church fills us with God’s unwavering and certain hope. Each week, as we hear, see, taste, smell, and feel the gospel of Jesus, the solid foundation of a confident hope is fortified within us. Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

One of the most fundamental skills in life is to be able to adjust well to things beyond our control.  Our lives are filled with circumstances beyond our ability to control them.  We experience situations that are adverse, often we end up feeling helpless and frustrated, wondering what to do next.   Psalm 131 and Jesus’ experience before his crucifixion show us how to adjust our attitudes and outlooks as we experience adversity. Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

As we grind through our daily lives, we screw up. In our self-centered drive, we violate God’s values and hurt others. In the mirror of honest self-reflection, we see what we intuitively know about ourselves – we fall short of God’s way of living. If we were left with only the mirror of honest self-assessment, we would have no hope and we would fear our deserved judgment. In Christ, the condemning mirror becomes a window to see God’s unfailing love for us.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

In this new post-pandemic/resurgence world, the need for the touch of community seems even more important than ever.  After a year and a half of keeping our distance from one another there is a hunger to be in the presence of one another.  Community cannot be fully formed at a distance, or through a screen.  True community and the blessings of community occur when we are present with and for one another.  We were designed for community and in community we find grace, peace, and belonging, and extend the same to others.    Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

In our culture, we have a tendency to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship. This leads to work that can be anxious toil. Psalm 127 and the other passages point towards God’s way out for those of anxious toil.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Life can be overwhelming at times, so much so that we search for relief from the fears, pressures and worries that face us.  Psalm 121 invites us to focus on God who not only gives us all things, but also protects us everyday of our lives.     We abide in peace as we trust God   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

We repeatedly grow physically hungry when we have not eaten physical food. In this sense our appetites are insatiable. The same is spiritually true when we find our primary satisfaction and security in the work we do and the fleeting experiences of this world. We continue to hunger for more to fill the black hole inside of us.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

This past year has been a year unlike anything we have had to deal with. Our world has changed, but God never changed. This Sunday we will look at what God did in the lives of these students in midst of the change we’ve all experienced.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

In the midst of unrelenting change and challenge in our culture today, many people are feeling overwhelmed, tired, and burned out.  It can be a challenge to flourish in life today, especially spiritually.     One-third of church-going adults have seen a decline in their spiritual life over the past few months, according to a Barna Report of the spiritual state of Columbus.    The wisdom of Psalm 1 and the teaching of Jesus show us how we might all deepen our spiritual lives and flourish even during challenging times like these.    Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Eugene Peterson writes, “We live in a culture where a new beginning is far more attractive than a long follow-through. Images are important. Beginnings are important. But an image without substance is a lie. A beginning without a continuation is a lie.”   Although Gideon had been a faithful leader, he made a move near the end of his career that had unintended consequences. He made an ephod that the Hebrews prostituted themselves by worshipping it. The ephod became an image without substance and a snare to Gideon and his family. This set up the Hebrews to fall into the same old trip trap of rebellion against God.   We can avoid this trap through a life-long follow-through of remaining obedient to God’s Word and not get caught up in a continual chase after what is new.   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

“Take nothing with you,” Jesus tells the disciples before they are sent by twos to heal and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. Gideon now faced a massive Midianite army camped in the valley with 300 men armed with trumpets and empty clay jars. The victory was certain, “I am going to give it [the camp of the Midianites] into your hands,” (Judges 7:9) God tells Gideon. The question remains, will Gideon act on the promise.  Will we?   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Gideon has a newfound strength and trust within him, one that moves him to radical trust in God and God’s guidance.  He has a new name, “Jerub-Baal” meaning, “Let Baal contend”.  Internally, Gideon has become the mighty warrior and he is now ready to go toe to toe with the Midianites.  What would our name be as we face the overwhelming forces against us?  The army God chooses will be like Gideon, internally strong, whose strength is found in God alone.  Who has God chosen to fight with us?   Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

When facing the overwhelming military strength of the Midianites, Gideon’s faith faltered and he was no longer certain that God would save Israel through Gideon. So, Gideon asked God for two very specific signs that were counter to nature. Without hesitation, God gave Gideon the exact signs Gideon requested. What are the spiritual values and pitfalls of requesting signs from the Lord?    Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website

Gideon, the mighty reluctant warrior, acts.  He’s commanded by God to do something that frightens Gideon, “Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it” (Judges 6:25).  Sometimes, the first boldest move God asks us to do isn’t feeding 5000, it is internal, as we self-differentiate ourselves from our families and friends to become the people God asks us to be.      Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content. Follow St Luke Lutheran Church: YouTube Instagram Facebook Website