Trinity Lutheran Church

10/18/2026

https://youtu.be/wHSC5egPMFo

This sermon was inspired by a young man whose faith is being challenged right now. I have never met him, but have only heard about him. He needs our prayers and his name is Chance.

October 18, 2026 - 4 Philippians 4:4-7 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

These times remind me a lot of the early 1970’s in that there is a lot of people on line who are saying that all the signs are present that the end of the world is near; the 2nd Coming of Christ is imminent.

In the 1970’s the anticipated 2nd Coming gave birth to what came to be called “The Jesus People Movement.” Christian young people from all denominations would gather together in a basement somewhere, have Bible studies and sing folksy Christian songs until their faces hurt from smiling.

And, yes, I was one of them. It was “feel good” church. It was “church” for hippies. You could be young and proud of it. No one made fun of your long hair at Jesus People meetings, nor did they laugh at your bellbottoms. At least one person there played the guitar and we’d clap our hands and sing folksy songs about Jesus until we’d get a warm and fuzzy feeling. Everyone believed that that warm and fuzzy feeling was of God and it meant “touched by the Holy Spirit.” Because Jesus People spirituality was so feeling based, it wasn’t long before the Jesus People Movement became charismatic and people began speaking in tongues at meetings and there were always a few exorcisms. The movie, “The Exorcist,” was released in 1973 and, as young people are now, young people then were greatly influenced by the media. It was assumed that, if you had a bad habit, you were possessed and needed an exorcism. Everyone I saw exorcised at Jesus People meetings acted just like Linda Blair in “The Exorcist.” They’d growl, thrash around, talk in a deep voice and always with a heavy Eastern European accent. Always. That’s what they thought you were supposed to do if you were demon possessed. (Why don’t demons ever speak with a Southern accent or a British accent?)

And, in case you are wondering if I even believe that there is such a thing as “demon posession”, yes, I do. Did you know that at least one-third of Jesus’ ministry was spent on delivering people from demonic posession?

And then, of course, there was the whole “Praise the Lord!” thing at Jesus People meetings, based on Philippians 4:4. No matter what happened in your life you were supposed to say, “Praise the Lord!” “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praisethe Lord!” (It was a form of self-hypnosis I think.)

Well, the older we became, the more difficult it became to say “Praise the Lord!” all the time because, the older we became, the more difficult lifebecame! We turned into our parents! Suddenly there was a lot more to deal with in life than just planning the next Jesus People meeting and sitting around and signing happy, clappy Jesus songs until we felt warm and fuzzy.

Now, we focus on Philippians 4:7 – “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Because we had to grow up and face the same realities that our parents had faced, life wasn’t cozy anymore and our faith was challenged in ways we had never anticipated and those challenges have doubled their efforts in these times. As a result it can, often times, be very difficult to “keep the faith,” because we’re so desperate for that warm and fuzzy feeling. (Remember, we taught ourselves to believe that “warm and fuzzy” meant God was present.)

“And the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds…” That New Testament Greek word translated as “guard,” means “to protect by a military guard, either to prevent hostile invasion, or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from taking flight.”

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take flight, anyway. Free will. I have taken off more than once in my life.

While I was much younger and spiritually immature there were countless times in my life when, besieged by overwhelming problems and I couldn’t feel the Lord’s presence, I’d panic and, of course, the Enemy would take advantage of that and try to convince me that God had forsaken me and I’d stop believing in God.

But the Lord Jesus, the incarnation of the Peace of God, pursed me every single time and brought me back.

And that is something we need to realize about the Peace of God. He pursues us, no matter how far away we run, and His presence in our lives invokes fear in the Enemy. And, when the Enemy becomes afraid, our lives become increasingly difficult. Therefore, The Peace of God isn’t a peaceful feeling. It’s not standing there and smiling like a simpleton while your life is falling apart.

God is very much in touch with the reality of our lives as they really are and that is why The Peace of God is described as something militant. “And the Peace of God will guard…” What good is a guard who’s a scardy cat?

No…The Peace of God is The Rider on the White Horse, described in Revelation 19:11 and following. He will pursue us when we “flee the city” and end up captured and a prisoner of war in a spiritual concentration camp somewhere.

That’s why, most of the time, things get worse before the get better. The Enemy sees Him, (the Peace of God, the Rider on the White Horse), coming, tightens its grip on us and threatens to do even worse if the Rider on the White Horse doesn’t back off. The Enemy does not give up easily; never has and never will; especially if the Enemy has its hands on someone the Enemy knows would be a serious threat if that person returned to the City of God and took his or her stand beside the Rider on the White Horse.

I’m not suggesting that every bad thing that happens is of the Devil, but this much I know is true: Because we have made a commitment to following in the footsteps of Jesus, the Christ, our lives and our Lord’s Church have been declared a spiritual war zone.

My generation got hooked on “warm and fuzzy” in the early 70’s.

Let’s not pass that addiction on to the next generation.

“Warm and fuzzy” is what the Enemy promises. It’s what seduced us out of the City of God in the first place.

No, let’s not incapacitate the next generation by handing on to them a feeling based spirituality. Let’s become the warriors our parents were, because if it wasn’t for them, for their strong faith not based on feelings, we wouldn’t be here today.

It is imperative that we spend time everyday praying for the people in the past, the present and in the future, whom the Enemy has seduced into believing that the misfourtunes in their lives are proof that God doesn’t even exist, because if God did exist God wouldn’t have allowed those things to happen.

There weren’t any guitar players playing Kumbaya in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was just Jesus in agony as He lived out every moment your life as you lived it and that includes every second of the times in your life when you felt forsaken by God.

Every new moment of your life that you walk into, every new threshold you cross; He’s already been there before you arrived there.

Those are His footprints.



Hey, Chance.

I heard Him saying your name while praying in Gethsemane.



Hey, Chance. Those are His footprints.

Amen.

10/11/2026

https://youtu.be/YTy0n7XLkYk

10/11/2026

https://youtu.be/sw_h4frghcE

October 11, 2026 - Matthew 26:36-56 - The Message Bible

36-38 Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, “This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”

39 Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?”

40-41 When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

42 He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, “My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I’m ready. Do it your way.”

43-44 When he came back, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open. This time he let them sleep on, and went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground one last time.

45-46 When he came back the next time, he said, “Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s get going! My betrayer is here.”

Whenever you feel overwhelmed by the fact that you can’t be that person your religion insists you have to be to be accepted by God, run as fast as you can to the Garden of Gethsemane. You have an appointment there with Jesus and it’s a standing appointment. It never expires.

Jesus’ experience in Gethsemane exists outside of time, so it is always accessible. Always. I go there frequently and that is where I take some of you to pray for you.

Yes, I know it’s dark in the Garden…and, yes, the Apostles are there but trust me they won’t bother you. They won’t even notice you. They are sound asleep. (Please don’t judge them. They have just finished a big meal with lots of w**e. You’d be asleep, too.)

As you stand there on the periphery of the Garden you can hear a Man having a very intense conversation. You can’t make out what He’s saying, but he’s dead serious about whatever He is talking about.

And now He’s crying~~~

Listen carefully and walk in His direction.

(Yes, I know it’s dark.)

Suddenly a man steps out from behind a tree and shouts, “Stop where you are!”

He shoves a big, leather-bound Bible in your face and tells you that you have no business being there; he insists that you leave at once.

“Who are you!” you ask, stepping back, poised to turn around and run for your life.

“I’m “Father so-and-so, Pastor so-and-so, Minister so-and-so, Brother so-and-so, Elder so-and-so. Our churches are the guardians of this Garden and under no circumstances are the likes of you allowed anywhere near the Man you are searching for!”

However, the Man you are searching for has been searching for you. He heard all the shouting, and He steps in front of that self-appointed guardian of the Garden, grasps you by the hand and pleads with you, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death! Stay here and watch with me!" (Mark 14:34)

Still grasping your hand, He pulls you past the sleeping Apostles and deeper into the Garden.

He lets go of your hand and falls to His knees. He begins to pray and it’s not long before He has collapsed face first on the ground. He is praying with such intensity that He is crying, and now He is rolling around on the ground because He is in so much emotional and spiritual agony.

Why is He so upset? Why is He in such agony?

This is why: In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus experienced everyone’s life as if it was His own, and that includes YOUR life.

He experienced it as if it was His own, every moment of it. That is why it can be said that He completelyunderstands how you got to the point you are at today.

He lived your life as it really is, and therefore He knows why you feel the way you do today, why you will feel the way you will tomorrow and why you will feel the way you will feel throughout the rest of your life. In the Garden He is already living your life in the future. He’s even living the day your life in this world will come to an end and He is already there and He will wait for you.

He understands how every experience, every relationship; every situation in your life fits together. He experienced your life the way you experienced it and continue to experience it, and He processed all of it the same way you did.

That means that because He has lived your life as you lived it, even though your religion may not be able to understand you or accept you, He understands you and He loves and accepts you unconditionally.

But how can you experience that kind of love in this life? And once you do experience it, trust me, it will change you. You will feel such compassion for other people that you will no longer be the center of your universe.

This is what I do to be able to experience God’s love and acceptance of me as I really am: As you may know, I have quite a few names on my prayer list. I have the names of twenty children on my current prayer list, as well as the names of twenty-five adults, and I frequently update my prayer list, but I keep all the previous prayer lists, all 23 of them, in a folder with my current prayer list. Some of the people on my prayer list are in such a desperate situation that they don’t have the strength to even try to connect with God or they feel completely abandoned by God and many feel so bad about themselves that they find it impossible to believe that God could possibly love them, and some of them feel that way because of what churches that claim to speak for God say about people like them. Some of them don’t even believe in God! But I don’t care. I take them there anyway!

When I pray for them, I picture them in my mind, and I invite them to follow me to Gethsemane. When we arrive, we walk through the trees to where Jesus is praying and we stand there together watching Him rolling around on the ground, in agony. It is VERY difficult to watch. It’s heartbreaking.

After a while I turn to the people I invited to go to the Garden with me, and I ask them to listen. “Listen carefully to what He is saying while He is praying.”

And when those people do, they hear Him saying their name.

“He’s praying for you,” I tell them. “He’s praying for you.”

We stand there until that experience has had time to soak in, and those people I brought with me to the Garden are changed; but the changes won’t manifest themselves in their lives until they bring someone as broken as they had been, back to the Garden to hear Jesus praying for them.

If you want to be able to feel God’s unconditional love for you then you have to pray for other people to be able to feel God’s unconditional love for them.

I urge you to begin spending some time every day in the Garden of Gethsemane, and not just by yourself, but make sure that you take someone with you when go who needs to know that their Heavenly Father loves them unconditionally.

If you will do that you will be changed. Forever changed.

How do I know this is true? How can I stand here and tell you to pray like that?

I KNOW because, not long ago, the Holy Spirit told me to begin praying for people in the past, the present and the future who have no one to pray for them. They are the people in the past, the present and the future who are absolutely broken. They are desperate! They are terrified! They are people in concentration camps, people who are in abusive relationships, people all alone in this world and in unspeakable situations. They are children who don’t have anything to eat, or who are huddled in a closet listening to their parents arguing at the top of their lungs. They are teenagers who don’t fit in because they are on one spectrum or another.

I turn to the left when I pray into the past and face straight forward when I pray into the present and I turn to the right when I pray into the future and I always go to my favorite live-streamed chapel when I pray because I see people praying there and I pray for them. We are all ONE and praying for people in the past, in the present and in the future, CHANGES THEM. IT CHANGES THEIR LIVES!

I conclude with this quote from Peter Kreeft. “I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers to God make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those effects down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.”

Amen.

Peter Kreeft

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, The United States

March 16, 1937

Peter Kreeft is an American philosopher and prolific author of over eighty books on Christian theology, philosophy, and apologetics. A convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, his journey was shaped by his study of Church history, Gothic architecture, and Thomistic thought. He earned his BA from Calvin College, an MA and PhD from Fordham University, and pursued further studies at Yale. Since 1965, he has taught philosophy at Boston College and at The King’s College. Kreeft is known for formulating “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God” with Ronald K. Tacelli, featured in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics. A strong advocate for unity among Christians, he emphasizes shared belief in Christ over denominational differences.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

10/06/2026

https://youtu.be/30xzz8Snt88

October 4, 2006, Matthew 21:33-46

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a w**epress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir.Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

In ancient Israel, landlords would often rent out their property and never visit it themselves. All they really wanted was that the rent be collected on time. The rent could be paid in a couple of ways; with money or with a certain percentage of the property’s crop.

Because life in Israel has always been violent, the way the characters in this parable acted wasn’t uncommon. Those who listened to Jesus tell this story understood everything he was talking about; and it wasn’t until Jesus added the part about the “stone the builders rejected” that the story really became interesting and made the point it was intended to make. The religious authorities knew that Jesus was comparing them to the wicked tenants and they became furious. They decided to try to arrest Jesus but, as Matthew says, “they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that Jesus was a prophet.”

I don’t think that the Pharisees were afraid for themselves because of the crowd. It’s just that the Pharisees knew the actions the Roman empire would take if a riot started in the Temple area. The Romans were always swift to strike down any kind of uprising among the Jews. The Roman riot squad would simply move in and begin killing people. The religious authorities didn’t want that, because they’d be blamed for allowing a riot to ignite.

This parable is part of a whole section beginning with verse 23, when the religious authorities came up to Jesus in the Temple and asked him, “Who gave you the authority to do what you did?” What Jesus had done is in verse 12 – “drove out all who were buying and selling in the Temple area and overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.” Matthew adds that immediately afterwards Jesus healed many of the handicapped people who had been watching everything that had been going on; all the while, in the background, children were singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” the political title of the religious figure expected to someday come and organize a military victory over Rome.

It’s in the Temple that we see Jesus becoming as violent as he would ever become; striking out at the social and spiritual injustice that was so much a part of life in Israel at that time; social injustice and spiritual injustice permitted and even nurtured by Israel’s spiritual leaders, because they had allowed the Temple to be used as a place where Jews could take advantage of their fellow Jews.

Every Jew had to pay a Temple tax for upkeep on the Temple, and it had to be paid in Temple currency. So, if you had made the pilgrimage to the Temple from a foreign country, you had to exchange your currency for Temple currency; and the money changers, who were Jewish, were cheating other Jews, with the blessing of the religious leaders and because they were getting a kick back from the money changers.

On top of that, every Jew had to have an animal for sacrifice in the Temple, and those who had come from faraway places would, naturally, purchase an animal for sacrifice once they arrived in Jerusalem. The prices charged for animals sold in the Temple area were at least twice what you would pay elsewhere; and the priests, who’d get a kick back from the Temple animal merchants, would look for the little mark put on animals sold in the Temple. The priests would know if anyone brought in an animal for sacrifice from outside the Temple and would then tell the person that there appeared to be a problem with the animal making it unfit sacrifice. Then they would refer the person to the animal merchants set up in the Court of the Gentiles.

What was going on in that place Jesus called “a house or prayer of all nations” had nothing to do with the worship of God. The religious leaders had become corrupt and with them, their religion. The reason why they had been able to get away with their corruption for so long was because they had hidden it behind the mask of religious authority; an authority they had taught the people to never question because if they did question them, they’d be excommunicated; which meant eternal damnation.

What had corrupted the religious leaders in the first place was their involvement in politics and, in particular the politics between Israel and Rome. To better control the Jews, the Roman Government overlooked the injustice of what was going on in the Temple and even kicked in some money of their own to help support the extravagant lifestyle of the priestly aristocracy. In return, the priestly aristocracy kept the people in check with countless religious rules and regulations and temple fees that kept the people’s pockets empty.

The common people, the sick and the poor and the oppressed, were looking for a Messiah who could lift the burden they imagined was only the result of Roman oppression. Jesus, however, knew better; and that’s why he caused such a scene in the Temple; fully conscious of the fact that what he was doing might very well set off a confrontation with the Roman garrison stationed there. It didn’t matter to Him. The religious leaders, on the other hand, had a lot to lose if Jesus initiated a conflict with Rome; so, they did everything they had to do to put an end to his ministry.

Religion and politics do not mix, because politics is mostly about money and power; and money and power can corrupt even the most religious of persons. Mixing religion and politics has meant disaster for Yugoslavia, Iran, Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel. In the United States, the mixing of politics and Christianity has made the Christian Religion much less of a spiritual influence on our society that it used to be. In a lot of ways Christianity has become so infected with politics that many churches no longer represent the reality of things spiritual. In fact, in a lot of cases, there are churches that look like, sound like and act like any other public service organization in this country. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many churches are losing members. A lot of churches no longer offer something that people couldn’t get anyplace else. That has always been my dream for this church: That we offer something here that people can’t get in a lot of other churches. This is and will continue to be, a holy place; and you are a holy people. The world “holy” means “set apart”. Therefore, and above everything else, we should be a people “set apart” from the rest. A people who, by how we live, how we interact with those around us, represent the spiritual truths revealed to this world by Jesus, the Christ; spiritual truths not popular in a world where politics give people permission to do whatever they want to do to the poor and to people whose ideas conflict with the thoughts and beliefs of those in power.

We are a different breed; a spiritual people living in a material world where money and power are more important than anything else.

I pray that we will always have the guts to live lives and worship like a people whose, “citizenship is in heaven.” *

Amen.

*I guess that makes US “the aliens.”

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/27/2026

https://youtu.be/EKcFAJ1fBwk

September 27, 2026

John 1:29-34 - English Standard Version - Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The origin of the devotional tool I use when I pray dates as far back as the third century A.D. It has evolved into the most powerful spiritual weapon on the planet because it inspires praying with an intensity that brings Heaven’s to its feet in response to who is being prayed for and it inspires praying with an intensity that terrifies even the most ferocious demons in Hell.

However, that doesn’t stop Hell from fighting back when I pray using this devotional tool. I get “beat up” spiritually, and sometimes brutally, but like it says 2nd Corinthians 4:8-9 - The Living Bible “8 We are pressed on every side by troubles but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. 9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.*

The devotional tool I use is based on the life of Jesus and it’s divided up into what are called “The Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries.” When I pray the Sorrowful Mysteries, the first of the Sorrowful Mysteries is time spent meditating on what Jesus went through in The Garden of Gethsemane. That meditation is where I take the people on my prayer list who are living in a private hell. Something has happened in their lives that crushed them. Their lives will never be the same.

In the Garden Jesus told His disciples, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me." (Matthew 26:38).

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus, the Lamb of God, took upon Himself the “private hells” of every person in the past, the present and the future, and it almost killed Him.

Here is the exact meaning of that New Testament Greek word translated as, “deeply grieved” – “overcome with sorrow so much as to cause one's death.”

Jesus almost died right there in the Garden of Gethsemane!

Jesus carried all of those “private hells” with Him to Golgotha and He felt their full fury there on the cross. That is what caused Him to cry out, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me!?

And that is exactly what it feels like in a private hell: It feels like even God has forsaken you.

It’s what people trapped in debilitating mental illness feel. It’s what people trapped in dementia or Alzheimer’s feel and it’s what people feel before they take their own lives. It’s what people feel when they’ve been scammed out of practically every penny of their life’s savings. It’s what people often feel when they’ve lost a loved one in an accident or even under natural circumstances, and its most certainly what couples feel when they’ve lost a baby like Katie, Keith and Dawson Comer did.

Yes, Jesus rose from the dead, triumphant; but His wounds remained, and it’s in His wounds that He continues to draw near to and minister to people in private hells. In the Apostles’ Creed we say, “He descended to the dead.” We used to say “He descended into hell” ** and that certainly means that He went there to proclaim His victory over sin and death; and all hells are connected, even the ones we drag around within ourselves.

Our Lord is there with us. He is present in that private hell you drag around inside yourself. I promise you that! You can’t find Him? Just look for the Man with the wounds! Or just look for the slaughtered Lamb.

Revelation 5:6 tells us that Jesus still has His wounds in Heaven. “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…”

That word translated as “slain” literally means “slaughtered”. That is not a cute little lamb with some flesh wounds. It’s a Lamb that is still standing even after being slaughtered! And its wounds are still present and bleeding!

When in Matthew 25:40 and 45 Jesus says, “Whatever you did to one of the least of these, you did to Me” and “Whatever you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do to Me”, He is making it clear that our actions towards each other affect Him just like they affect the person we are interreacting with. He feels the effects of those actions in His wounds.

I know that we have been taught that Heaven is someplace peaceful, but it’s not for the Lord. He is constantly ministering to the people who are calling on Him for help. His wounds will continue to bleed until that Day His Father has set for His sudden return and all of history comes to a screeching stop. Every eye will see Him. EVERY eye! (How? Most everyone has a cell phone do they not? It’s called live streaming.) Furthermore,*** the Lord’s return will be with a shout heard by every single person on earth at that time and everyone in their graves will hear!

If the powers of Hell can be at work in our lives trying to discourage us, then the powers of Heaven can be at work in our lives trying to encourage us.

What separates us from the people in this world who choose to be clueless about what is really going on in the spirit world, is our connection with our Heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, that slaughtered Lamb of God the Apostle John saw in his vision while exiled on the island of Patmos, a vision handed down to us as the Book of Revelation.

All Christians have that connection, but it can only be realized through the power of praying.

I encourage you to find a devotional tool that will keep you grounded in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ while you pray like the devotional tool I use when I pray does.

And one more very important thing: Pray for other people****. The more you pray for other people the deeper you will feel the presence of the living Lord in your life. Praying for other people is participating in the life and ministry of the Holy Spirit. What a privilege that is! What an honor!
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” Ephesians 6:18 – New Living Translation

Praying for other people, having a prayer list and sitting down every day at an appointed time to pray for those people whose names are on your prayer list and using a devotional tool that works best for you, will enable you to become fully aware of the fact that you are living with one foot in this world and the other foot in the unseen world we call “Heaven”. *****

Praying is how Jesus, Himself, remained connected to the Father.

How many times do we read that Jesus had taken off to be alone someplace to pray? Because Hewas in this messed up world just like we are, even Jesus had to keep reconnecting with the Father and He always did that through the power of praying.

We would do well to follow His example.

Amen.

* 11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

**When our liturgy became “modernized” the “powers that be” changed it to “He descended to the dead.” It appears that “modern” Christians consider believing in the existence of Hell as an ancient superstition. In a lot of churches, Christianity has been watered down so it fits in better with what our modern culture’s mindset. Modern people think that they know better than people who lived in ancient times. But the early Christians wouldn’t even recognize what Christianity has become in these times. No wonder why so many churches are emptying out. Modern Christianity has turned Jesus into just another of countless other teachers of countless other spiritual traditions. The internet encourages people to just pick whatever spiritual teacher suits you best. However, Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through Him, Jesus.

***1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 - New International Version16 “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

****Find a live streamed channel on YouTube and pray for the people you see there; people on the other side of the world, people you will never meet in this life, but who will thank you for praying for them when you meet them in Heaven.

Here is an example of what I mean by a “live streamed channel.” Copy and paste this in your browser. Pray for the people you see walking there in St. Petersburg, Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUsJZTHeZn4

Each and every person you see on that live streamed channel matters to God as much as you do. We are all ONE. We are all family.

The internet exposes us to the reality of the fact that we are not the only people in this world!

Attachments area
Preview YouTube video LIVE Nevskiy avenue St. Petersburg Russia Anichkov Palace Невский пр. Аничков дворец Санкт-ПетербургPreview YouTube video LIVE Nevskiy avenue St. Petersburg Russia Anichkov Palace Невский пр. Аничков дворец Санкт-Петербург

https://rutube.ru/live/video/a996e6508b2ff81cd523dae2d14f7bf6/Dea...