Bethany Lutheran Church LCMS

Bethany Lutheran Church LCMS Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Bethany Lutheran Church LCMS, Lutheran Church, 1105 E Mullan Ave, Osburn, ID.

12/25/2023

Church Service Sundays at 11 am

09/11/2022
From Dorothy Amonsons church albums she made. First photo of church alter was taken 1949. Second photo was 1953. This wa...
12/21/2021

From Dorothy Amonsons church albums she made. First photo of church alter was taken 1949. Second photo was 1953. This was the little white church located on the corner of 3rd and Pine Streets in Wallace. This church closed in 1964 when the new church was built in Osburn.

08/03/2020

We are having a huge yard sale.

August 6-8
8a.m.-2:00 ( noon on Saturday)

Our sale is in honor of Regina Horning who recently passed away, she was encouraging us right up to the end. She donated and helped every year and her family gave us many things in honor of their mother.
Too many to list.
The proceeds will go to benefit the Shoshone Servant Adventures work locally .
Stop by Osburn Church building at 11th and Mullan August 6-8th.

04/04/2020

Confession and Absolution

Hymn of Invocation

Stand

The sign of the cross may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism.

P In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.

P Beloved in the Lord! Let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching Him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.

P Our help is in the name of the Lord,
C who made heaven and earth.
P I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,
C and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Silence for reflection on God’s Word and for self-examination.

P O almighty God, merciful Father,
C I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.

P Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.

Stand

Service of the Word

Introit Psalm 24:7–10; antiphon: Psalm 118:26
Blessèd is he who comes in the name | of the Lord!*
We bless you from the house | of the Lord.
Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O | ancient doors,*
that the King of glory | may come in.
Who is this King of | glory?*
The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in | battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O | ancient doors,*
that the King of glory | may come in.
Who is this King of | glory?*
The Lord of hosts, he is the King of | glory!
Blessèd is he who comes in the name | of the Lord!*
We bless you from the house | of the Lord.

942 Kyrie! God, Father
1 Kyrie! God, Father in heav’n above,
You abound in gracious love,
Of all things the maker and preserver.
Eleison! Eleison!
Kyrie! O Christ, our king,
Salvation for all You came to bring.
O Lord Jesus, God’s own Son,
Our mediator at the heav’nly throne:
Hear our cry and grant our supplication.
Eleison! Eleison!
Kyrie! O God the Holy Ghost,
Guard our faith, the gift we need the most,
And bless our life’s last hour,
That we leave this sinful world with gladness.
Eleison! Eleison!
Text: © 1941 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: bethany no. 1001015

Salutation and Collect of the Day
P The Lord be with you.
C And also with you.

P Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C Amen.

Sit

Old Testament Reading Isaiah 50:4–9a
4The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
5The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
6I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
7But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?

A This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.

Psalm Psalm 118:19–29; antiphon: v. 26
19Open to me the gates of | righteousness,*
that I may enter through them
and give thanks | to the Lord.
20This is the gate | of the Lord;*
the righteous shall enter | through it.
21I thank you that you have | answered me*
and have become my sal- | vation.
22The stone that the builders re- | jected*
has become the | cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s | doing;*
it is marvelous | in our eyes.
24This is the day that the |Lord has made;*
let us rejoice and be | glad in it.
25Save us, we pray, | O Lord!*
O Lord, we pray, give | us success!
26Blessèd is he who comes in the name | of the Lord!*
We bless you from the house | of the Lord.
27The Lord is God,
and he has made his light to shine up- | on us.*
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the | altar!
28You are my God, and I will give | thanks to you;*
you are my God; I will ex- | tol you.
29Oh give thanks to the Lord, for | he is good;*
for his steadfast love endures for- | ever!

Epistle Philippians 2:5–11
5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

A This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.

Stand

Holy Gospel Matthew 27:11–66
P The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the twenty-seventh chapter.
C Glory to You, O Lord.

11Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 12But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” 14But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
15Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. 19Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” 20Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” 23And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
24So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
27Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
32As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
55There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
57When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
62Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

P This is the Gospel of the Lord.
C Praise to You, O Christ.

954 We All Believe in One True God
1 We all believe in one true God,
Who created earth and heaven,
The Father, who to us in love
Has the right of children given.
He in soul and body feeds us;
All we need His hand provides us;
Through all snares and perils leads us,
Watching that no harm betide us.
He cares for us by day and night;
All things are governed by His might.

2 We all believe in Jesus Christ,
His own Son, our Lord, possessing
An equal Godhead, throne, and might,
Source of ev’ry grace and blessing;
Born of Mary, virgin mother,
By the power of the Spirit,
Word made flesh, our elder brother;
That the lost might life inherit,
Was crucified for all our sin
And raised by God to life again.

3 We all confess the Holy Ghost,
Who, in highest heaven dwelling
With God the Father and the Son,
Comforts us beyond all telling;
Who the Church, His own creation,
Keeps in unity of spirit.
Here forgiveness and salvation
Daily come through Jesus’ merit.
All flesh shall rise, and we shall be
In bliss with God eternally.
Amen.
Text: Public domain

Sit

Sermon

Stand

Prayer of the Church
P Friends in Christ, I urge you all to lift up your hearts to God and pray with me as Christ our Lord has taught us and freely promised to hear us.

God, our Father in heaven, look with mercy on us, Your needy children on earth, and grant us grace that Your holy name be hallowed by us and all the world through the pure and true teaching of Your Word and the fervent love shown forth in our lives. Graciously turn from us all false doctrine and evil living whereby Your precious name is blasphemed and profaned. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P May Your kingdom come to us and expand. Bring all transgressors and those who are blinded and bound in the devil’s kingdom to know Jesus Christ, Your Son, by faith that the number of Christians may be increased. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P Strengthen us by Your Spirit according to Your will, both in life and in death, in the midst of both good and evil things, that our own wills may be crucified daily and sacrificed to Your good and gracious will. Into Your merciful hands we commend [name(s)] and all who are in need, praying for them at all times: Thy will be done. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P Grant us our daily bread, preserve us from greed and selfish cares, and help us trust in You to provide for all our needs. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us so that our hearts may be at peace and may rejoice in a good conscience before You, and that no sin may ever frighten or alarm us. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P Lead us not into temptation, O Lord, but help us by Your Spirit to subdue our flesh, to turn from the world and its ways, and to overcome the devil with all his wiles. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P And lastly, O heavenly Father, deliver us from all evil of both body and soul, now and forever. Lord, in Your mercy,
C hear our prayer.
P We trust, O Lord, in Your great mercy to hear and answer us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
C Amen.

Sit

Offering

Stand

Lord’s Prayer
C Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.

Pax Domini
P The peace of the Lord be with you always.
C Amen.

Agnus Dei LSB 198
C O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, grant us Thy peace. Amen.

617 O Lord, We Praise Thee
1 O Lord, we praise Thee, bless Thee, and adore Thee,
In thanksgiving bow before Thee.
Thou with Thy body and Thy blood didst nourish
Our weak souls that they may flourish:
O Lord, have mercy!
May Thy body, Lord, born of Mary,
That our sins and sorrows did carry,
And Thy blood for us plead
In all trial, fear, and need:
O Lord, have mercy!

2 Thy holy body into death was given,
Life to win for us in heaven.
No greater love than this to Thee could bind us;
May this feast thereof remind us!
O Lord, have mercy!
Lord, Thy kindness did so constrain Thee
That Thy blood should bless and sustain me.
All our debt Thou hast paid;
Peace with God once more is made:
O Lord, have mercy!

3 May God bestow on us His grace and favor
That we follow Christ our Savior
And live together here in love and union
Nor despise this blest Communion!
O Lord, have mercy!
Let not Thy good Spirit forsake us;
Grant that heav’nly-minded He make us;
Give Thy Church, Lord, to see
Days of peace and unity:
O Lord, have mercy!
Text: © 1941 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: bethany no. 1001015

Benedicamus LSB 218
A Let us bless the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.

Benediction
P The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and T give you peace.
C Amen.

539 Christ Is the World’s Redeemer
1 Christ is the world’s Redeemer,
The lover of the pure,
The font of heav’nly wisdom,
Our trust and hope secure,
The armor of His soldiers,
The Lord of earth and sky,
Our health while we are living,
Our life when we shall die.

2 Christ has our host surrounded
With clouds of martyrs bright,
Who wave their palms in triumph
And fire us for the fight.
Then Christ the cross ascended
To save a world undone
And, suff’ring for the sinful,
Our full redemption won.

3 Down through the realm of darkness
He strode in victory,
And at the hour appointed
He rose triumphantly.
And now, to heav’n ascended,
He sits upon the throne
Whence He had ne’er departed,
His Father’s and His own.

D 4 Glory to God the Father,
The unbegotten One,
All honor be to Jesus,
His sole-begotten Son,
And to the Holy Spirit—
The perfect Trinity.
Let all the worlds give answer:
Amen! So let it be.
Text: Public domain

Acknowledgments
Divine Service, Setting Five from Lutheran Service Book
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

09/29/2019

Here is this weeks message. A parable we have heard before,

Jesus is speaking with the chief priest and the Pharisees
and about them.
The reading we just heard
is just one of the parables that Jesus told
while He was in the temple that day.
Keep a few things
in the back of your mind
as we go through this parable.
Many of the events represented in the parable
would happen in less than a week.
In a few days,
Judas will betray Jesus.
In less than a week,
Jesus will suffer, die on the cross,
and rise from the dead.

The chief priests and the elders
were already having secret talks
about how to destroy Jesus.
Jesus knew that this was coming
when He told this story.

Jesus painted a word picture for His listeners.
He said,
“Hear another parable.
There was a master of a house
who planted a vineyard
and put a fence around it
and dug a winepress in it
and built a tower and leased it to tenants,
and went into another country.
34When the season for fruit drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants
to get his fruit. (Matthew 21:33–34)
The setup for this parable is very familiar territory.
No doubt many of the Passover Pilgrims
who listened to Jesus
had seen vineyards
just like the one in this parable.
His listeners would be very familiar
with the idea of renting land
for a share of the crops it produced.
There may even have been vineyard owners
and workers
listening to Jesus
when He told the parable
Within the context of this parable,
the landowner represented God.
The vineyard represented Israel.
The many details involved in the planting of the vineyard … the fence, the tower, the winepress,
and so forth show that God has blessed Israel
with all it needs to thrive and grow.
The tenants
represent the spiritual leadership of the nation.
In the current circumstances,
that would be chief priests and the elders of the people
… the same people
who asked about Jesus’ authority.
The servants who came to collect the crop
would be God’s servants
… especially His prophets.
The fruit they expected
would be repentance and faith.
After Jesus setup the backdrop of the parable,
He started making His point.
“The tenants took his servants and beat one,
killed another,
and stoned another.” (Matthew 21:35)
The tenants turn out to be violent,
insane criminals.
There is no sense to what they are doing.
Only the most stupid and arrogance
would believe they could get away
with such a crime.
This sentence
represents the violent history of Israel
towards God’s prophets and other servants.
The writer to the Hebrews
describes the life of the prophet very well.
Some were tortured,
refusing to accept release,
so that they might rise again to a better life.
36Others suffered mocking and flogging,
and even chains and imprisonment.
37They were stoned,
they were sawn in two,
they were killed with the sword.
They went about in skins of sheep and goats,
destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
38of whom the world was not worthy
—wandering about in deserts and mountains,
and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:35–38) Israel’s history toward the prophets
was one of unbelieving rebellion,
violence, and torture.
Under these circumstances,
the landowner had the right
to punish these tenants with death,
and that is exactly
what the ordinary landowner would do.
However, the landowner in the parable
is not ordinary.
Again, he sent other servants,
more than the first.
And they did the same to them. (Matthew 21:36)

Here Jesus illustrated
the incredible mercy and grace of God.
Instead of judging Israel and destroying it,
God sent more prophets.
This teaching is consistent
with the words God gave to Ezekiel.
As I live, declares the Lord God,
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his way and live;
turn back,
turn back from your evil ways,
for why will you die,
O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

God offered life to Israel.
Never the less,
God’s prophets continued to suffer
cruel violence.
At this point the landowner
in the parable did something insane.
Finally, he sent his son to them, saying,
‘They will respect my son.’ (Matthew 21:37)

Given the history of these tenants,
no earthly landowner would do this.
An earthly landowner
might send his son
at the head of an army
with orders to destroy the tenants,
but he would never send his son
to collect the fruit of the vineyard.
The amazing thing is
that Jesus was teaching about Himself
at this point in the parable.
He Himself is the Son of God.
He has come just as the prophets came before Him.
The parable is about the person
who first told it.
As Jesus continued,
the tenants reveal the extent of their insanity.
When the tenants saw the son,
they said to themselves,
‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him
and have his inheritance.’
39And they took him
and threw him out of the vineyard
and killed him. (Matthew 21:38–39)
Who in their right mind
would believe that they could become
the heirs to an estate
by killing the current heir to the estate?
To the best of my knowledge,
there has never been a legal system
in the history of the world
that would allow such a thing.
Never the less,
this parable is eerily accurate in its detail.
The tenants threw the son out of the vineyard
before they killed him.
In a similar manner,
Roman soldiers will lead Jesus
out of Jerusalem and crucify Him.
The parable illustrates the events
that will happen to Jesus by the end of the week.

Jesus closed the parable
by asking His hearers
to judge the tenants in the parable.
When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes,
what will he do to those tenants?”
41They said to him,
“He will put those wretches
to a miserable death
and let out the vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Matthew 21:40–41)
The judgment is death.
The owner will kill the tenants
and replace them with faithful people.

This parable is terrifying in its judgment.
The sad thing about this parable
is that it is God’s intent is to
make all people fellow heirs with Christ
So, within the context of the parable,
it was the landowner’s intent
to make the tenants heirs with His son.
The landowner intended
to freely give them the very thing
that they tried to take by violence.
The insanity of their evil
not only caused them to lose this gift,
but their lives as well.
They could have had it all,
but they lost it all instead.
The parable in today’s Gospel is a true tragedy.
It ends with a dead son
and damned tenants.
Jesus was not satisfied with this ending
so He followed it with a quote from Psalm 118.
Jesus said to them,
“Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’? (Matthew 21:42)
With these words Jesus made it clear
that the fate of those in the parable
need not be our fate.
Just as the rejected stone
became the corner stone
so Jesus Himself did not remain rejected.
Although Jesus died in rejection,
He did not remain in the grave.
He rose from the dead
to become the cornerstone
upon which the church depends.
Under God’s grace,
even the evil tenants
need not be damned.
It would not surprise me at all
if some of those who voted to crucify Jesus
later repented.
It would not surprise me at all
if they heard the preaching of the Apostles
and received the gift of faith
from the Holy Spirit.
It would not surprise me at all if they,
through that gift of faith
in the one whom they crucified,
were now in heaven praising God.
God’s grace is for all.
He wants to give it to us freely.
If a person insist
that God must save us on our terms,
then we shall follow the example
of the wicked tenants in the parable.

But We who have received his gift of faith
will not remain in the grave,
but will rise from the dead just as Christ rose.
We are Sons of the living God.
Jesus has clothed us in
His righteousness
and we will live with him forever. Amen

09/17/2019

Message from this past Sunday

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

In chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews
the writer reminds us
of the stellar faith of the saints of old.
Many of them,
because of people’s disdain for God and His Word, were martyred for the faith.
“They were stoned (to death),
they were sawn in two,
they were killed with the sword.
They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
of whom the world was not worthy.”

The Church is both militant
and triumphant at one and the same time.
The saints who fought of old
have come to their labors rest.
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
We, that is,
we who remain in the fight,
are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” and we are strengthened by Christ
that we might fight
as the saints who nobly fought of old.

Life in Christ is a battle,
not that we might win the approval
and the favor of God,
for that blessed gift
has already been laid upon us
in holy baptism,
but that we might confess Christ
to a world that does not know Him.
On the one hand,
the battle is fought in a very public arena.
The Christian Church,
as always, is under assault
because it dares to speak truth to lies.

Thus, among many others,
added recently to the list of the martyrs of Hebrews 11,
is Pastor Alfrery Cruz Canseco,
a Mexican pastor,
who was gunned down in the pulpit on Sunday, as he preached to the members of his congregation
in Southwest Mexico.
Indeed,
“they were stoned to death,
they were sawn in two,
they were killed with the sword,”
and they were gunned down.

While the battle for faith
is oftentimes fought in the public arena,
it is perhaps more frequently fought in
the quiet recesses of our hearts and minds.
Sin is always with us,
as are the flaming arrows
and the fiery darts of the evil one.
The concern
we feel over the presence of sin
in our lives
often leaves us weary
and discouraged.
We reason that we should make greater strides
in holiness
as we live out our lives
as children of God.
And yet,
as we take two steps forward,
we take steps backward.
We need to remember
that we are Sanctified, that is,
holy in the eyes of God,
but in our own eyes,
and by our own experience,
we are plagued by sin
and rebellion against the Almighty.
We cannot but agree with St. Paul
who bemoaned the sin in his own life,
saying, “the good that I would do I don’t do,
but the very evil that I hate this is what I do.”

Satan
would have us believe
that our keen awareness of the sin
within is evidence
that the Holy Spirit has abandoned us,
leaving us to our own devices,
to the contrary,
the awareness of our sin
is evidence that the Holy Spirit
is very much alive and well in our hearts.
Those who are dead in their trespasses
and sins fear not the wrath of God,
nor the sinfulness of their heart,
nor the loss of their salvation.
Rather, they revel in their own supposed righteousness and they find solace
and consolation
in their perceived superiority over others.

Still, the struggle with sin is wearisome.
At times, we think of ourselves
as having fought to the point where
we just can’t take it anymore.
Again, we join St. Paul in his lament.
“O wretched man than I am.
Who will set me free from this body of death?”

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Our help in such situations
begins with the counsel of God
through the Holy Spirit
who helps us to properly
and soberly assess
the fight in which we are embroiled.
First, we are called to,
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself,
so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Our eyes on Christ,
we see One who was
and is without sin,
suffer for sin!

We see the greatest injustice
the world has ever known.
And in Him, we find hope.
The sin we most loathe in ourselves
has been credited to Him
and His righteousness
has been credited to us, to YOU!

Secondly, “In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted
to the point of shedding your blood.”
As much as you may bemoan your sins,
you have not been called by Christ
to make atonement for them!
To the contrary,
you have been told
that you need not, indeed,
that you cannot make atonement for your sins.
“In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted
to the point of shedding your blood.”
Why?
“Because God made Him who knew no sin
to be sin
that you might be the righteousness of God
in Him.”

Third,
“Have you forgotten
the exhortation that addresses you as sons?”
The struggles you endure
are not caused by happenstance.
They are not mere inconveniences
in your otherwise carefree walk with God!
No, they are the discipline of God
who treats you as sons and daughters.
Sometimes He treats you with firm love,
what we sometimes call tough love,
but other times
He simply wipes away your tears
and enfolds you in the comforting assurance
of His forgiveness and grace.


The blood of Jesus
has redeemed the whole world.

Let us take that message
To a world in need of such good news.

Address

1105 E Mullan Ave
Osburn, ID
83849

Telephone

+12086957595

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