It’s Friday

It’s Friday

It’s Friday…

And so how is your faith today?

We are in fact better off than in other times.

Why?

Because if we didn’t realize it, we are not ever to “grow up” with God. This we need to understand, in the right way, though.

It is not that we don’t grow in faith and become mature Christians, gaining wisdom and some modicum of stability…

Yet this is compared to what we were at the start. What others can say about you who have a discerning eye and a good knowledge of the faith.

Again, this is a tough thing to do, and we should not dwell here or seek to do any measuring. All sticks, even Scripture is not safe in our hands to make sound judgment when it comes to ourselves.

Luther would call himself a sack of worms and say we are all beggars before God.

Washed by Baptism. Yes.

Forgiven child of God. Yes.

Doer of Good Works. Yes.

Heading for Heaven, then raised on the last day to live on a new earth forever with Christ. Yes!

But, even though this is Yes in Christ, it still remains a NOT YET!

And we cannot stand on our won. Ever!

In some ways it is like the way we seem in our parents eyes, even when we are 50. I am still 12 to my mother!

To God we are always babes in arms—and thank God for that. Yes, because we give a lot of lee-way to babies for not understand or doing all that well when it comes to tough things.

So never grow out of the need to beg and plead with God. He does not want us to, nor can we. Just not enough time nor strength within us. This will take eternity. Just wait.

So again, a Yes, but not yet.

Back to your faith. My faith.

Faith is not something we look at. We look at Christ, and Him Crucified. That is what we look to for salvation. Who we look to for all things. Because of Him. Because of that event.

THAT AND ONLY THAT IS WHY WE CAN!

We are always in need of that. It is dangerous when we think are doing quite well. To us it seems we were less in need. Not true, and because of that, it is the very place where we can fall down from.

And so, that is a prime reason why we go through trial and tribulation. It is to keep us on the straight and narrow. It is to keep us dependent and always looking to Jesus.

These things do not mean God is punishing us. Jesus took all the punishment that was necessary.

Well, unless it is. I mean, if you drive drunk and hit a tree….

But even then and there God has kept us from our stupid many, many times. We will see all of this one day and have to thank a few angels I think along with our Lord for His Grace and Mercy for just HOW STUPID we all can be.

And anyway, we can’t see the substance of faith, only its effects, and that only sometimes. It believes IN, and ONLY IN Jesus… else it is a false faith.

And there is plenty of that going around. And also… no, we are not born with any. The false kind, sure. Buckets of that! We will naturally believe in anything and everything other than the One True God. We will have plenty of trust in those.

No, true belief only comes from God and through on VERY SPECIFIC means—vehicles, ways… through WATER, BREAD and WINE, that are filled with His WORD. It is the Word of God that creates this needed faith in us.

And it is only this kind of Faith that pleases God, says Scripture… says God—Hebrews 11:6.

So, believe Him because of Him, because of what He has done, as He has Said. As it has been caused to be written, and so it is done.

Yes, it is Friday and we might be desperate for some assurance… well accept that: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the Gospel, and it is the power for us unto salvation.

This until we meet again, receiving all that He has to offer us in Word and Sacrament on His day…

Because even though it is only Friday, Sunday is a’comin… in just 2 days…

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Eleventh Sunday after the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity –  August 16nd 2026

Readings –     2 Samuel 22:21-29 – Old Testament

1 Corinthians 15:1-10 – Epistle

Luke 18:9-14 – Gospel

Theme – CLAIM WHAT IS YOURS – Based on the Old Testament reading

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Prayers: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. Between the US and Iran. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cites and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone.

From Luther: “Over against all that reason suggests or would measure and fathom, yes, all that our senses feel and perceive, we must learn to cling to the Word and simply judge according to it …. For if you insist on judging according to what you see and feel and, when you are told God’s Word, urge your opposite feelings and say: You have good talking, but my heart talks quite another language, and if you felt what I feel, you, too, would talk differently, etc.: then God’s Word is not in your heart, but by your own thoughts, reason, and musings you have smothered and extinguished it.

In short, if you will not esteem the Word above all your feelings, eyes, senses, and heart, you will inevitably be lost, and there is no help for you …. I also feel my sin, and the Law, and the devil on my neck, that I lie prostrate under it as under a heavy load. But what should I do? Were I to judge according to such feelings and my strength, I and all men would have to despair and perish. But if I desire to be helped, I must verily face about and look at the Word and learn from it to say: I indeed feel God’s wrath, the devil, death, and hell; but the Word says otherwise, namely, that I have a gracious God through Christ, who is my Lord, superior to the devil and all creatures.” (St. L. VIII:1102.)