Northwoods Table Talk

Lection for Sunday after Trinity III  Joshua 3:1-17        Acts 9:1-22 I am presently away on vacation with Pauline. It means I should truly take a break and not write a devotion for this space today. So, I am not "writing" one. Instead, I am recycling something I wrote awhile back. It is a 3-part series on "Denying God". Even those of you who read it in the newsletters they ran it, that was back in 2007, so maybe it will be fresh for you. Here is installment #3.          Have You Ever Denied God?    Part III    —    In The Name Of Religious Pluralism Have you ever denied God?   Christians don't intend to, but sometimes they do, as we discussed in the last two pastor’s pages.   Sometimes we follow the example of the world and decide, since it is OK by the world's standard today, it must be OK for us too.   Or, even though we know something is sinful, we fail to speak out against it as we ought.   In either of these cases, we deny God. How many

Lection for Saturday after Trinity II  Joshua 2:1-24       Acts 8:26-40 I am presently away on vacation with Pauline. It means I should truly take a break and not write a devotion for this space today. So, I am not "writing" one. Instead, I am recycling something I wrote awhile back. It is a 3-part series on "Denying God". Even those of you who read it in the newsletters they ran it, that was back in 2007, so maybe it will be fresh for you. Here is installment #2.      Have You Ever Denied God?   Part II    —    Walk the Walk and Call Others To Repent Have you ever denied God?   Surely not!   We looked at this question last month and discovered that we are denying God when we try to take credit for God's gracious gifts.   We refreshed our understanding, that our good works are not our own, but God's work.   We even learned that our faith is God's gift to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.   Salvation, all of it, is based upon Chris

Lection for Friday after Trinity II  Joshua 1:1-18        Acts 8:1-25 I am presently away on vacation with Pauline. It means I should truly take a break and not write a devotion for this space today. So, I am not "writing" one. Instead, I am recycling something I wrote awhile back. It is a 3-part series on "Denying God". Even those of you who read it in the newsletters they ran it, that was back in 2007, so maybe it will be fresh for you. Here is installment #1. Have You Ever Denied God?    —    Part I    —    Your Works -vs- Christ’s Work Have you ever denied God?   Most Christians would claim that they haven’t.   It is for this reason that we will examine some hard questions in the next three articles occupying this space. What does it mean to deny God?   There are the Biblical examples of Peter and Judas.   Peter denied God by denying Christ, vehemently claiming that he did not know the man.   Of course, then the rooster crowed.   Peter fled in sh

Lection for Thursday after Trinity II  Proverbs 31:10-31       John 21:1-25 I want to meditate upon a few verses today from this final chapter of John’s Gospel. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep. (vv. 14-17) Imagine you are Peter, and ever since the night you denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest on the night when Jesus was betrayed, neither He nor you have mentioned tha

Lection for Wednesday after Trinity II  Proverbs 30:1-9, 18-33        John 20:19-31 Imagine the disciples’ conversation in that upper room. “They killed Him! They finally went and did it! They’d been looking for a way to arrest Him and silence Him. They’d been talking about how they were going to do it for a while. Didn’t you know they were out to get Him? We warned Jesus not to come into Jerusalem, but He didn’t listen.” “It’s been three days since He died, now! Yeah, John and Peter saw the empty tomb. Mary says she’s spoken with Jesus, that He’s alive. What about those who claim spoke with Him on the road to Emmaus, that He broke bread with Him. How can we be sure it isn’t a ghost, that it wasn’t some vision or wishful thinking? “What are we going to do? Will the Sanhedrin come after us next? Will we be called before the High Priest? Will we be dragged before Pilate, flogged, beaten, crucified?” “Hey, someone want to check and make sure those doors are locked one more t

Lection for Tuesday after Trinity II  Proverbs 27:1-24        John 20:1-18 Mary Magdalene was first to the tomb, and seeing the stone rolled away, she left hurriedly, in a state of shock. Meeting Simon Peter and John, she exclaimed, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!” They run to the tomb, John looks in, but doesn’t enter. Peter arrives after John and enters the tomb. They find evidence of the resurrection: the strips of cloth in which Jesus has been wrapped were lying there, and the burial cloth from around His head folded and lying separate. Peter walked back to his home, wondering. We are told John saw the evidence and believed, but neither one it is said, understood the significance.   There is much speculation on what John means when it says that he saw and believed. Did he, now seeing the empty tomb, now believe Mary’s words that Jesus was gone? Did he believe that Jesus had arisen? The way the clothes were folded was the

Lection for Monday after Trinity II  Proverbs 25:1-22      John 19:23-42 Τετέλεσται – Tetelestai.   It is my favorite word in all of the Scripture. It is the proclamation of Christ that we read in the 30 th verse of John’s 19 th chapter. It is the “word” Jesus spoke, and has been translated, “It is finished.” That is a great translation, but our English understanding of language seems to miss some of the force of the word which is conveyed in the Greek. Τετέλεσται – Tetelestai (it is finished) has the force of “all is accomplished/fulfilled/completed.” Of course, this raises the question of what   exactly is Jesus proclaiming to be “finished?” What is Jesus proclaiming to be accomplished? What is Jesus proclaiming to be fulfilled? What is Jesus proclaiming to be completed? What was promised in the garden of Eden to Satan and Eve, that her offspring would crush the head of Satan is accomplished. Satan’s head, Satan’s power is the seduction of temptation into sin,