The emptying of our nest of 4 beautiful children has allowed us to reset our lives by living light for the sake of spreading the Light through the local gospel ministry of the Stillwater Community Chapel. (https://stillwater-chapel.org/) This blog is the musings and ministry of the Wolfgangs as we have gone wherever God leads. May we always live light and in the Light, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Finishing up chapter 1 with another great James' illustration...sermon post
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I thought this might be an eye catcher. This is Jacob B. Wolfgang, my great, great grandfather who served in the 138th Indiana Infantry in the Civil War. Do you see any resemblance to me? I keep looking at how much hair he has! Maybe I will share soon about my recent search on the Wolfgang side to 1583.
I love it when I can make charts and pictures of what the passage is speaking about. We have been building some chains. God's chain has a trial that leads greater spiritual maturity because we are calling on Him for wisdom from above who gives every good and every perfect gift. Man's chain has a trial that leads to sin because we are looking within ourselves for another answer other than His and we suffer the consequences of it.
James gives us that beautiful definition of salvation in v.18 and then he gives us another picture of what that salvation looks like lived out. Here are the charts I created.
Looking at these now I realize that I should have switched the chains and put God's way on the right and man's way on the left to line up with the two charts that followed. I am always amazed how the authors of the Scriptures, carried along by the Holy Spirit, put together for their original audiences their communication of God's word to them. We are so blessed to have God's word in its present form before us.
The challenge this week was to see how the salvation provided and given to us by God is manifested in our lives as His children. We do not just "do" the Word but we are "doers" of the Word and the same is true of not just "hearing" the Word but being "hearers" of the Word. It goes beyond identifying a one time action, do and hear, to proclaim a transformation that has happened so we are called doers and hearers.
When we are "hearers" of God's word we are fulfilling the first great command to love God. We are quick to hear, to grasp more of, God's very words. This is a keeping or guarding of ourselves to be unstained by the world.
When we are "doers" of God's word we are we are fulfilling the second great command to love others. We are slow to speak and anger, a proper time and way to respond, with God's words to others. This is a visiting or giving physical attention to those God has brought around us who are in need.
May we see that these two concepts need to be married together if we are to participate in what God calls religion that is pure and undefiled. Otherwise, we go with what we think is religious and religion which leads us down a worthless path.
Below is posted the video of the sermon but for some reason the audio and video get off toward the end. Here is also the link to the church website and the full service.
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 earlie...
Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass. It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24. We give God all the glory for this happening. So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog. One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service. I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks. I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months. I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years. It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip. No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas. Of course e...
Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel . We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20. It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track. This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together. The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs. Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
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