December 26 - Christmas 1

Text:Matthew 2:13-23

A king and a baby. One with soldiers and armies available at his summoning, the other enjoying only the safety and security offered by his peasant father. One wise to the ways of the world the other still in diapers. What chance did the baby have? Yet our text shows the baby squaring off with the king as that king seeks to destroy him, to murder him as a rival and do away with the threat to his throne. The king, it would seem certainly has the advantage.
But you and I, as people of faith, know better. We how this story goes, and while we note it miraculous nature we are not surprised. For this is the way of our God. This is how he operates. His miracles never cease to amaze, they should never surprise, but they do catch us off guard when we stop to think about it.
The miracle in our text is quite miraculous. Jesus the little baby continues to evade the designs of a very wicked and a very evil man. History tells us that Herod was a paranoid king. He ruthlessly murdered anyone and everyone whom he perceived might be a threat to him and to his power. His wife, his mother in law, two of his sons, his brother in law all murdered when Herod began to suspect they had lost loyalty to him and his throne. His atrocities are well documented elsewhere in antiquity. And it is this wicked and paranoid king who turned his eye toward this helpless and humble infant. No prophesied king would have his throne. HE would see to that. When Magi from the east came with news of a newborn challenger to his power he intended to murder this child the same way he murdered his own.
But God's salvation can't be stopped. No power in heaven or on earth or under the earth can stop the salvation God has prepared from the beginning of time. This was His Son, His own and only Son whom he sent miraculously into the womb of Mary and who would not die until he had fulfilled his purpose and come to his appointed time. No King driven by the demons of his paranoia would stand in God's way once he set his plan of salvation in motion. This child had a job to do and a mission to fulfill and God would see to it that the mission was complete.
So, God made sure that the work got done. Quietly. Unobtrusively. Almost hidden from site. While Joseph slept. God sent word that the step father, the legal guardian and protector of his Christ should take this child and flee. Get up and go. To Egypt. So he did. That very night, under the cover of darkness Joseph took his family, gathered them together and left the little town of Bethlehem as it lay still that quiet night so that he might escape the soldiers of Herod.
And they came. Bethlehem was a small town, a population of only about a thousand, probably about the size of Milford Center. How many boys 2 year and younger do you suppose live in Milford Center? Imagine if the Army showed up with guns and bayonets and murdered our children in the middle of the night. One is too many. This was maybe 15 to 20. Little babies, and a feeble attempt to rid the world of the would be king.
The words of the prophet came true. The still night was suddenly interrupted with the screams of young mothers mourning the death of their children.
But not Mary. Not Joseph. Not on that night. Mary would see her son murdered but not now. On that night he was preserved because he had to survive. For your sake and mine. He had to fulfill the law. He had to fulfill God's purpose and plan. He had to live his life to earn our place. He had to do those things we could not do because we would need his acts of righteousness to count for us and to provide for us that righteousness that is not our own. He needed to live so that he could live that life of good works that would cover us in Baptism.
And he did. The Lord saved him from this moment in view of the next. God preserved him from the swords of the soldiers and spared him for the nails and the spear and the thorns. He was destined for the cross and Herod would not stand in his way. God had in mind the salvation that this baby would provide and he would not allow it to be stopped.
The significance of today is that today follows on the heels of Christmas. A day ago you were home, probably waking up to packages and paper. Wrapped with your name printed on the tag. That gift was purchased with you in mind. Before it sat under your tree, before the tag was printed with your name on it, before it was wrapped, before it was purchased, it sat on a shelf in some store until it was selected specifically for you, with you in mind and no one else. Someone saw it and thought of you. Selected it with you in mind. Picked it up, paid for it, brought it home to give it to you.
Your salvation is no different. God knew the gift he wanted to give to you. He saw it, knew the price - just how much it would cost and so he selected it purchased it paid for it and got it ready for you. Your Christmas gifts were purchased before they were given, with you in mind, and in the same way God purchased this gift, knowing you would need it on into the future. And just like the holiday shopper who braves the crowds searching high and low until the perfect gift is found God went to extreme lengths to provide this gift to you. Nothing could stand in his way. He paid the price. And today the gift is yours. Salvation has been delivered.
But while we know this to be true, in spite of that fact that our forgiveness is for real and heaven is guaranteed, there are certainly times that it might seem otherwise. Consider the experience of Joseph and Mary. Our young parents. What must it have been like to gather up your family in the middle of the night with nothing but the belonging you can carry and run away to Egypt? How would you feel? Frightened? Nervous? Anxious? Afraid? There are those times that our salvation and our hope of heaven is a lost cause. Sure it's easy to say that God's salvation is sure and certain, that his promise of heaven is sewed up and in the bag. But our actual experience of it seems to tell us something different.
Jesus had to contend with kings and soldiers and armies. He lived through their threats and assassination attempts. He lived his life as one who would be stricken smitten and afflicted. He would be despised and rejected by men. And it began as soon as he was born. Isn't that of some comfort for us? Because we struggle too. Whether it be as individuals, in our own experience of life or as families or even as a church, as a Christian congregation. We know that we have God's blessing but there are times when it seems like it has been lost.
God saw to it that Jesus was preserved. The Lord brought him through this trial and preserved him for the cross. Likewise God lays on us a cross to carry. And so we carry it, but at the end is that salvation. That promise of eternity, heaven lying in wait. Guaranteed and unstoppable. There might be things that stand in the way, obstacles and enemies to contend with, but nothing can take from you the promise of God's salvation that He went to great lengths to provide.
Amen.

Advent 4 - Isaiah 7.10-17

Did you know you could try God's patience. Ahaz did it. God gave him a command, to ask for a sign, some visible and tangible evidence that God would do what he said, that God would keep the promise that he gave and Ahaz pretended to be pious. "far be it from me O Lord to put you to the test." A pretty thin attempt to be humble and righteous. And God was not impressed. He saw through the King's attempt to brown nose and gave him a sign any ways.
"The young woman will conceive and bear a son and will call his name Immanuel. And by the time the boy is old enough to know right and wrong the kingdom would fall to the Assyrians."
You see, Ahaz was a wicked king. He worshipped false gods. He even sacrificed his own children to those gods, to the Baals. (2 Chronicles 28) He was not faithful to the Lord and therefore the Lord would give him over to his enemies in judgment for the sins he had committed. The words of Isaiah the prophet are a warning. A call to repentance. A call to turn from sin and believe. But Ahaz heard without listening. He listened without understanding. And the words of Isaiah came true. The Assyrians came and took the kingdom of Judah from Ahaz so that he received his just reward. He was punished for his sin.
That same message of warning and punishment that same plea for repentance could be spoken today. Indeed it must be spoken today.
If you go back and read the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 28 you can find out all about King Ahaz. He was a wicked king. He walked completely in the ways of the world. The world of Ahaz was an idolatrous place - all kinds of false gods that people worshiped and prayed to. 2 Chronicles tells us that Ahaz even burned his children in the fire to these false gods. A reference to the ancient practice of child sacrifice. Sounds rather barbaric, at least until we remember how many children have been killed in our own day and age as their parents peruse the gods of wealth, a career, a reputation. Our age is just as wicked as those that came before us.
But God knows. He knows the condition of His world. He sees what is going on. He sees the sin and wickedness in men's hearts. It is nothing new. And so while he sent Isaiah to speak words of repentance to King Ahaz, he sends His Christians into the world to call for repentance. And that includes you. As you go off to work, to school, to college campuses. You are called to be a witness to the truth of the word of God.
(And by the way, usually the image we have of this involves brash bible thumping or picket signs. Often Christians forget that they can make a ready defense of the Christian faith in a logical and well reasoned way with sound rational arguments. The world does not necessarily hold the intellectual high ground - we however often give it up to them.)
The world needs to hear that there is a God. That there is a creator. That the words of the Bible are true. The world needs to hear the implications of this. That if there is a creator, then it is true that there is a judge. There is a judgment day, when this creator will return to call each of us to account. We need to be ready for that day, and therefore, like King Ahaz, the world needs to repent. Turn from sin and turn to the Savior. Because God is merciful and he has provided a way of salvation.
This text that was one of warning and judgment for Ahaz, was not just warning. There was a promise tucked away in there along with that call to repentance. A promse of a savior. A promise about Jesus.
"A young woman will conceive." This was a sign for Ahaz. A woman he knew would have a son and name him Immanuel. And Ahaz would see the boy grow and could watch the Lord's promised events unfold as the child grew. But that child who served as a reminder of God's judgment was also a sign of God's mercy. That boy would point ahead to another boy who would be born years into the future. Born to another young woman, this one a virgin. And Isaiah's promise would come to roost in the life of this second child in a greater way than the first.
Matthew the author of the Gospel text for today helps us to understand that these words spoken by Isaiah find their greatest fulfillment, not in the time of Ahaz but in a future time. Matthew's ties those words to Joseph and to Mary. Mary, the virgin who conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus the boy who was Immanuel - not just by name, but by his person.
Immanuel, the name Immanuel, in hebrew literally means "God is with us". Now this is true in a general sort of way. We believe that when we worship, as we pray, as we have our devotions God is present with us. But with Jesus it was different, it was more. Jesus was literally God with us. God among us. God present in the flesh with His people. The God who is bigger that the universe and holds all power and authority reduced himself to human stature. The God who will come again to judge the living and the dead on the last day. This God, the True God. The Only God.
Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, is exactly what this world needs. Our world that is so misguided and wrong headed, our world that insists on heading in the wrong direction needs this child. Our world needs the forgiveness that he came to provide. Our world needs the salvation that is found nowhere else in all of heaven and earth. Our world needs Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.
You see, the miraculous birth of this little baby was a precursor to the greater miracles that he would accomplish later in his life. Of course there were the healings, the walking on water, the mastery over the wind and the waves, the release of those held captive by the devil. But the greatest work of this Christ child, this God with us was his death. His vicarious atonement, where he was our substitute, where he took God's judgment for our sin so that he could pay the price for our sin. And then, to prove that this work was done, he was raised from the dead. Because he was victorious over our sin, he was also victorious over death. Death, the wages of sin, now has no power because of what Jesus has done. The boy, the baby born to a virgin, has saved us.
The Christ has come. Immanuel, God-with-us has come. He came at Christmas born to be our savior. But he is coming back. And when he returns he will come with judgment. In the days of the wicked King Ahaz God enacted judgment through the Assyrian army. When he comes again he will do the job himself. So the world needs to be ready. The world needs to be prepared. We have God's salvation. We have Jesus who died and suffered that judgment in our place. May we speak as clearly as Isaiah. Amen.
And now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen

Advent 3 Matthew 11:2-15

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This past Friday, the Schlueter family woke up like it was any other Friday, another day, another full list of things to do, especially during this time of year. But then we looked out the window, the kids got up and looked out the window and during the night some snow had decided to fall.
Snow fall does imaginative things to children. while most of us big people will get up and look out that snow covered window and see shoveling and delays and slippery roads and stress, a child will look out and see sleds and snow forts and snowball fights and snow angels and fun. What you see out your window has much to do with your perspective, doesn't it? I can recall the days when I looked out my window to see hope and anticipation, these days the view can seem much more cloudy, the sky can seem more dim, less bright, how does the view look from your window?
How do you suppose the view looked from John the Baptist's window? There was a day for John when that view was unobstructed. From the house of freedom he looked out and saw a world ripe for the coming Christ, a world that needed to be warned of the impending Kingdom that would come with fire and judgment and wrath and doom. John spoke the words of a prophet, the words of warning, yet warning spoken in love.
But the view from his window changed. His window changed. At the time contemporaneous with the telling of our text, John's window had bars on it. The prophet had been free to speak God's Word of coming judgment. He had seen the Christ approaching and that judgment getting near. Suddenly that picture was o scurried by injustice. Prison bars for the innocent and the good. John's view out his window had become quite different.
John had come to preach judgment. There is safety and security in judgment. Judgment reminds us that while There is evil, evil has hell to pay. When there is judgment, Things are as they should be. The judgments keep us safe, remind us that there is someone watching.
what happens when it seems that the one who is supposed to be watching seems not to be noticing? what happens when the evil seems to get off scott free so that the evil goes on unencumbered? What happens when the good seems to be paying for the deeds of those who are evil? What happens to those feelings of safety and security? What happens when the view out your window is obscured by prison bars, as was that of John? We start to wonder, don't we? We wait for judgment. We expect judgment. I am willing to guess that John the Baptist was the same.
Some of the earlier interpreters of this text didn't want to believe that John didn't understand when he sent his disciples to ask the question. "Are you the Christ or should we wait for another?" After all, shouldn't John have known? Didn't John see the dove? Hear the voice? Didn't he even leap in his mother's womb when the incarnate Christ approached in the womb of Mary? John must have known better than to ask. But put yourself in John's shoes. Picture yourself with John's view out John's window. Imagine looking out through bars of steel to see the one who was to come with fire and wrath looking past the sins of Herod and instead welcoming sinners and eating with them. Instead of fire from heaven there is bread. Instead of fierce words of judgment there are kindly spoken words of mercy. Might cause you to question too. Perhaps the view from your window today causes you to question.
So what do you see when you look out your window? What do you expect to see? Chances are it's isn't the naive innocence of childhood. Perhaps your view is obscured by your situation. By the economy. By work or family struggles. We look out at the world hoping for some deliverance, but expecting it not to come.
Or perhaps, instead of looking out the window we look up... to heaven... Perhaps we pray for deliverance. fervently and feverishly. hoping against hope that God will save us. But, perhaps we, like John are afraid those prayers are falling on deaf ears.
Jesus tells us that the one not offended by him, the one not scandalized by him shall be blessed. Perhaps this is the scandal that he means. Mercy instead of judgment. Love instead of vengeance. Forgiveness instead of justice.
John was scandalized, offended by Jesus. And so he sent his disciples to ask. Jesus sent back a response. "Go tell John what you are seeing and hearing. The blind are seeing, the lame are walking, the lepers are clean, the deaf are hearing, the dead are raised and the poor have the Gospel preached to them."
While it is true that the Lord is a god of justice and judgment and retribution and vengeance, it is also true that he is a god of love and mercy and forgiveness. Let's not loose sight of the Old Testament text, after all. The weak made strong, the feeble made firm, the anxious given hope, springs in the desert, pools in the wilderness, God making all things new. But at the same time bringing vengeance.
I wonder if sometimes our trouble isn't that we want vengeance, just not against us. Take vengeance on those who have wronged me, but let my vengeance slide by. Show all those other sinners just how wrong they have been, but show mercy to me. God is merciful. God is merciful to us. But he is also merciful to our enemies. God loves you and me, but he also loves our enemies. God forgives my sin, and he also forgives the sins of the ones who sin against me.
And so it was with John. Jesus was merciful and good to John, but he was also merciful to Herod. Jesus was merciful to tax collectors and sinners, but he was also merciful to Pharisees and Saducees, and in our own day, Jesus is merciful to us, but he is also merciful to our enemies. Because mercy is what he does.
That's hard for us to get a hold of some times. We can't understand it and we can't imagine doing it. After all, the world needs order, it needs structure, it needs rules and morals and consequences. You start handing out mercy and forgiveness willy nilly and the whole world will go to pot.
But that's what Jesus does. Recklessly and dare we say it, carelessly he hands out forgiveness. Even to the bad people, even to the people who don't deserve it, even to those really bad people who would horde God's mercy but begrudge the same gift when its given to the people we don't prefer.
And then, with all of this mercy and forgiveness going around, with no one being held to the standard or made to give account, with no one being made an example of, well, you and I could have predicted what would happen next. Jesus, the fool, was arrested and killed, murdered. So then what? Now look what has happened to all he had worked for, everything he had accomplished, all the disciples he had accumulated and followers he had gathered. They all came to nothing.
Or did they? Hardly. Far from it. In fact, the world's biggest scandal became the worlds greatest victory. Jesus came from behind, came from death itself to defeat not just the enemy, the devil, he came to emasculate and completely disarm his enemy. With one fell swoop Jesus over took death and hell and sin and punishment and he did away with them once and for all. Jesus was killed, but on the third day he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
In our text, Jesus made the comment, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." As he said those words, the violence was only just beginning; for John, but especially for Jesus. John was beheaded. Jesus was crucified. Jesus' words about the kingdom of heaven being taken by force came to their fruition. Kind of makes you wonder, though, what kind of a kingdom is it if it can be taken by force? If it's taken, doesn't that mean its no longer a kingdom?
Yes but you see, Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. It is of the next. Jesus reign in this world by hiding his power in simple places out of the sight of most people. But it's there. In the Word, the Sacraments, in the hearts and lives of believers. So, since the kingdom is not one with borders and soldiers and taxes and rules, it is a kingdom of flesh and blood or water and word. It can be attacked, but it cannot be defeated. It can be taken but it cannot be overcome. It can be killed, but it cannot be exterminated. Because it is God's kingdom. And it is heaven's kingdom. And the day is coming when the mask will be pulled back and we will see this kingdom in all its glory, not just with our hearts but even with our eyes.
Today our eyes look through the glass of clouded windows. We see clouds and snow and dreary times, but occasionally, like a ray of sun breaking through the clouds we see that future hope of eternal glory. That day is coming. don't loose heart.
Amen.

Advent 2 December 5, 2010 - Matthew 3:1-12

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A favorite childhood game of virtually every child is the game of hide and seek. I imagine you know how the game is played. It begins when someone is chosen to be "it". As soon as that decision is made, that child closes her eyes and begins to count. And while she is counting, with her eyes closed, every other contestant to run like mad to find a hiding place. Meanwhile the child who is it is counting out loud to the predetermined number, getting closer and closer to the moment of anticipation... 17, 18, 19, 20! and then, when she reaches 20, she cries out that dread proclamation, "Ready or not, here I come!"
Well, according to our Gospel text for today, Jesus is coming. And just like the game of hide and seek requires a cry of warning when the seeker is coming to chase you down and make you it, that same cry comes, but not by him who is coming. The crying, the proclamation is given to another, a prophet, a herald, "Jesus is here, the Kingdom of Heaven is here. (17, 18, 19, 20...) Ready or not here He comes!" You'd better make certain you are prepared.
To get yourself ready in the game of hide and seek, what you have to do is hide. Its always the kids who are best at hiding who win. If you can fit yourself into some tight space so that you are completely concealed, so that the kid who is "IT" can't find you, if you have some super special secret spot, then you can win the game every time. It's when you are found that you get into trouble. Once you are found your only hope is to be faster than the one chasing you.
The rules of the game change a bit when it's Jesus who comes, when it's Jesus who seeks. How does the saying go? "You can run but you can't hide." When it's Jesus who comes, it doesn't matter how super secret your hiding spot, there is no hiding. It doesn't matter how far or how fast you can run, because there is no escape. When Jesus comes, you can't run and you can't hide. He will find you and he will catch you. The only thing to do is to be ready. So God, in his mercy, sends John the Baptist to ensure that everyone is ready.
Isaiah put it best when he identified John as "the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'"
And so how did John get that job done? What did he do? What did he say? What message did he proclaim?
"Repent..." "Repent" was the message, "for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." So what does it mean to repent?
The term implies a change of mind or a change of heart. To turn around, to go a different direction. Not a minor change, not a make-it-fit-into-what-you-already-believe (which is popular today) It is, instead, a complete change, a total transformation. Change your allegiance, you entire frame of reference. Something on par with, "Stop being a Buckeye and become a Spartan, or worse, a Wolverine." It's that sort of a change, but bigger. More important and significant. More meaningful and not so trivial as allegiance to a sports team. This is a complete turn around of belief and worldview and self understanding and religion and faith.
This becomes even more striking, even more offensive when we remember who John was talking to - he was talking to Jews. He was talking to people who were regulars at the temple, people who went to church. People who, at least on the surface might not have been too different from you or me. We would think them to be believers, but John says they are not. They need to change what they believe to accommodate for the one who is to come. They need to change their belief to make room for Jesus.
But then came the Pharisees and Saducees. Religious superstars. Guys who people thought were sure to make God's starting team. They were into it and knew a lot about it. They spent time living it and practicing it. Especially the Pharisees were looked up to as religious examples.
So these guys came to see what was going on down by the Jordan River and when John saw them standing there he laid in to them. Ripped them apart. Called them children of snakes. a brood of vipers. Calls to mind the words God spoke to that old snake, the Devil, back in the Garden of Eden, Enmity between Eve's offspring and his. John might as well be saying, "You are children of the devil." No middle ground there.
So John says repent. be converted, change your heart, your mind, and preserve yourself from the coming judgment. That same message needs to be proclaimed today.
The book of Revelation identified Jesus as "the One who was who is and who is to come". Jesus who came is coming again and is coming soon. If we were counting down, who knows where we would be; 17? 18? Maybe 19 1/2? Who knows, only God knows for sure, but he is coming soon. That same message of preparation and repentance needs to be preached today.
John was talking to unbelievers. Stop being unbelievers, turn to Jesus. You and I live in an unbelieving world. John's message needs to be preached today.
Think back to your days of playing hide and seek. It seemed like there was always that kid who couldn't find a good place to hide, usually a younger kid, a kid who probably wouldn't be able to run as fast or as far. You would be in your hiding spot, listening to the countdown watching that kid run around looking for a good place to hide. When the time was up, he was a sitting duck. Easy prey for the seeker. We live in a world filled with people who don't know how to hide.
Oh they think they do, they believe themselves to be well hidden. After all, they spend most of their lives hiding... from each other, from the public eye, or even at hiding from themselves. But they can't hide from God.
Of course we are not talking about literal hiding, we are talking about hiding from sin, from the devil, we are talking about making that sin go away. We are talking about justification.
After all, every one of us is a sinner. We all have sins that we seek to cover up, to hide from or hide away, to keep concealed and to keep hidden. And so people try hide them, to cover them up and keep them as secrets so that nobody finds out. We are fully engaged in our own private game of hide and seek. It's a game we play in our conscience. We commit a sin. We know we are wrong. We are convicted in our conscience, but we try to pretend we have done nothing wrong. We hide from our guilt. We hide from God's law. We hide from those we would offend. And we think we have pulled it off.
But we are fools. Have you ever played hide and seek with a toddler? They know enough to understand the rules of the game, the basic concept, but they don't quite know how to hide. They assume "If I can't see you, you can't see me." And so when she hides her eyes are concealed, but most of her body is sticking out in plain sight. Usually when we hide from God and even from each other we hide like a toddler. We cover our own eyes to our sin, but it is only all too obvious to everyone else. We have only fooled ourselves.
So our problem is that we need to learn how to hide. In order for the world to be ready and prepared, in order for true repentance to take place so that sinners are hidden from the wrath to come, so that no piece of us is sticking out when the fires of judgment start to burn, the world needs to learn how to hide.
And the ironic thing is that if we are truly going to hide, if we are truly going to be covered and concealed, before we can hide, we need to learn to be found.
The first time that Jesus came, he came to find sinners. He looked for them, sought them out. Think the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, Matthew the tax collector, the thief on the cross, all examples of sinners who Jesus came to seek... who Jesus came to seek and to save.
When Jesus came to seek, he came seeking those who were exposed, those who couldn't find a place to hide, those who were vulnerable to be destroyed in the coming judgment.
This Advent Season we are reminded that there is a second coming, a second Advent, when he who first came to seek and to save will come to judge. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. At that coming there will be no more hiding. To be found it to be found in sin. And to be found in sin is to be dead. There is no hope of escape from this coming judgment. The only hope is Jesus.
When Jesus comes today to seek out those who are hiding, he comes bringing with him repentance and faith. He sends out his Spirit to find those who are hiding away, frightened sinners, unsure of where to go or what to do with their problem of sin. Jesus comes to take it from them, to find them in their sin so that they hide in him.
At his first Advent Jesus came to provide salvation. He came to provide forgiveness and a solution for that problem of sin. He came to be the one who received the judgment. He was found innocent but chose to be killed as a sinner, he was found with no guilty but chose to be counted among the guilty. So he died. And his death was for us, so that when we are found, discovered by his Spirit of grace and mercy and peace and love we might find forgiveness. To be found by Jesus is to be hidden from judgment. There is no other way. There is no other salvation. There is only Jesus.
Sinners need Jesus. The world needs repentance. All those years ago, John the Baptist came preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. Get ready. Get yourself prepared, because the kingdom of heaven has come. "Ready or not..."
Today that same call needs to be made, to a world that is hiding, yet still exposed. To a world that believes its sins have been covered but are in for a rude awakening. Christ is coming. He is coming soon. 17. 18, 19, 20! Ready or not here he comes! The only preparation is to be found by Jesus.
Amen.