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A week of lasts - 23 minutes with the Bible

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  This is a week of lasts.  The last day in the office, the last full sermon to the WCC congregation, the last Tuesday morning men's group, the last fish on Little Hills Lake, the last WCC staff meeting, and the one that hits probably the hardest is the last coach call with the man who has walked with me through these 3 intentional interims, Lynn Kent.  I know that I will be in contact with Lynn in the future but his counsel has been priceless over these 5 years and 3 interims.  I wish I had taken a picture of us both but we have actually only met in person 2 times over the 5 years.  The role of a coach is so important to fulfilling a demanding task.  At times I truly felt like the player on the bench being sent into the game by my coach standing at the end of the bench but this coach many times was kneeling in prayer on my behalf.  A huge thanks to Lynn! The top picture tells the story of this blog post.  A new name is on the sign for WCC!  God has provided another shepherd to joi

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

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  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlier in  Ga

Galatians #14 - Galatians 6:7-10 - One word for each verse

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  I sometimes can't believe I get to help in such ways in a local church.  The picture above is my opportunity to walk with this church and this man, an associate pastor of the church for 24 years, to receive his ministry license from the denomination.  Many autonomous churches don't realize the freedom and the opportunity they have to train, evaluate and launch people into ministry under the authority of the local church.  More of this should be happening in the local church.  We gave Robert his ministry license certificate; a new Bible with a commitment to continue to teach and preach with clarity, conviction, and a call to Jesus; a basin and towel with at commitment to continue to serve the flock with his very example; and a shepherd's staff with the commitment to continue to tend the flock with leading them to green pastures and still waters of God. We are nearing the end of our study of Galatians.  We started the first Sunday of October and we will end the last Sunday

Galatians #13 - Galatians 6:6 - Attendance, Attention, & Acceptance

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  This was our one verse this Sunday.  It was also a Sunday to prepare for a candidate weekend of a possible next teaching pastor at the church where I am an intentional interim pastor.  If you listen to the second half of this sermon/talk you can get a glimpse of what I have been doing for the last 5 years.  It is humbling to be used of God in this way to walk with part of God's family through a transition. The verse above begs of application.  How do we fulfill this command?  Again we have two parties represented, the one who has received the instruction from the word and the one who has given the instruction from the word.  The one is sharing and the other needs to receive to fulfill this verse.  Both can have their difficulties. For a start we can be in attendance on a more regular basis when the instructor is teaching us the word.  We can also make sure our attention is given to the instructor whether it is a Sunday morning gathering or some other type of communication he give

Galatians #12 - Galatians 6:1-5 - The Very Practical of a Christian Life

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  Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1 (NIV, 1978) If you have an opportunity to listen to this sermon, you will not only hear me with a very raspy voice from recovery of the Rhinovirus and acute bronchitis but you will also hear the overlay of some other Scriptures onto this verse.  I take the Parable of the Good Samaritan of Luke 10, the woman caught in adultery of John 8, the Galatian account of being caught between Peter and Paul of Galatian 2, and the passage about church discipline from Jesus of Matthew 18.  It was a great exercise to take the principles of this one verse and see it played out many times. 2 people are involved here.  The one caught in a sin and the one who is spiritual.  Interestingly, the bulk of the instruction in this verse and the following ones is for the one who is spiritual.  Paul is instructing those who are walking with, being led by, and ke

Galatians #10 & #11 - The Manner of Life - Galatians 5:2-15 & 5:16-26

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  Paul is pointing the way for the Galatian Gentile Christians to live.  This is a two-fer post because of being under the weather.  The common cold morphed into something else that took my mind away from functioning properly to type out a blog post.  On the mend enough to catch us up on our trek through the book of Galatians. Galatians has basically 3 parts.  Chapters 1 & 2 are about the man, Paul.  Chapters 3 & 4 are about the message, the Gospel.  Chapters 5 & 6 are about the manner, the manner of life.  We have started this 3rd part. How then shall we live as Christians?  What does a Christian's life look like?  How do we navigate as "free in Christ fully justified by Him" in a world that is in "slave to the curse of the law and unjustified by works?" The first illustration is found in 5.7 (NIV, 1978) - "You were running a good race.  Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"   We,  freed in Christ, have a lane we are ru
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https://pixexid.com/profile/cjxrsxsl7000008s6h21jecoe What a fantastic picture by this artist!  It is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to sing the carols.  So...I added a whole sermon of carols this year to show the difference between the " red " songs, the " relax " songs, and the " religious " songs of Christmas.  I titled the sermon, " There's A Song In The Air! " We didn't touch the " red " songs about the plump man in a red suit.  I figured he has plenty of air time.  It is quite a shock to move from " I'm dreaming of a white Christmas... " to " O holy night, the stars are brightly shining ..."  You switch from songs that focus on you to carols that point you to the Kings of kings and the Lord of lords.  You move from a perfect setting of snow and everyone happy to being told of a world in sin and error pining and Satan's power which influences our going astray.  The " re