Well Thanksgiving day is done and now the mad rush to go out and buy Christmas presents for friends and family is upon us. Many people will go to the shopping malls today to get as good of a deal as they can on the many items on sale.

Do you think that this is what Christ had in mind? If you get a chance over the next 30 days read the Christmas story in both Matthew and Luke. I think you will see a different kind of madness (in King Herod) there than you do at the shopping malls.

This Sunday marks the first sunday of Advent. Many churches willl have an Advent wreath with 5 candles on it. Each sunday another candle will be lit. In the Lutheran church, the sermons will be focused on "the second coming of Christ"

I look forward to this time at church, but I don't look forward to the busy stores and extra traffic.

Instead of spending gobs of money on someone you care about. Pray for them everyday. Pray that they know their Lord and Savior and if they don't pray that God will reveal himself to them through his word.

God bless you this Holiday season.

A recent paper came to my attention. It is written by David L. Adams who is on the faculty of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. The paper was written for the Walther Conference which was recently held Nov 4th and 5th at the Seminary in St. Louis.

In the paper, he defines the three groups who are struggling for control of the synod. These groups are identified as Traditional Missouri, Moderate Missouri and Neo-Evangelical Missouri.

It is an interesting paper and if you like you can make a comment here and leave your email address and I will be glad to send it to you.

Today is All Saints Day. Our church celebrated this by having a candle lit for each saint we named and turned into the church office three weeks prior. I turned in a sheet with the names of my father, who passed away by cancer almost 17 years ago, my maternal grandparents, my wife's maternal grandparents were all listed as the saints who are deceased. I listed my wife's parents on the list of saints still living. The word "saint" is an interesting title. In the Roman Catholic tradition, a saint is someone who has passed on and was considered by many to have lived an extraordinary life.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II are just two of the people who are being considered for sainthood in that church. However, there are some steps that must be taken before those put up for sainthood are declared saints. Beatification is one of those steps. The dictionary states that to beatify someone is to proclaim the deceased person as one of the blessed and thus worthy of public religious honor.
After this there must be a record of so many miracles associated with that person post mortem.

In the Lutheran Church, we declare that Saints are those who have both lived their lives to Christ prior to death or are living their lives currently to Christ.

This past few months have been very trying to me and my family. This past August, my wife lost her job that she had been working only for 9 months because she became sick and had to stay away from work by order of the Doctor. Because she had not been employed for a year she did not qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act or FMLA which allows a person to be out of work for up to 12 weeks a year for personal or medical leave. She decided that she wanted to be a stay at home mom, but because our home mortgage is high we needed her income to afford it. We decided that maybe our lifestyle needed some simplifying so we got our home fixed up and put it on the market. At this time, we have had no offers on the house.

At the beginning of October, our church was visited by some people who work for LCMS World Missions. We saw some pictures of the mission life in Africa and Kyrgystan. During this presentation I felt something begin to gnaw at my heart and mind. Was God using this to tell me what we were going to do next. My wife and I started to discuss the possibility and we went to the LCMS website and inquired about life as missionaries. We were sent applications which we filled out and sent in. We don't know what God has in store for us but we are open to becoming career missionaries.

Christ told his disciples to Go into the world and teach all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit [Matt 28:19]. This is the mission of the church. Not everyone is suited for mission life overseas. Some are suited for local mission work in poverty areas or college campuses.

Upon hearing of our desire to go into missions, my mother asked me "don't you have to be ordained in the ministry?"
I told her that "no, missionaries are not just ministers." Many of us can be aids to the ministers in the field. We can run the errands they used to run and do some of the tedious work and give those who are called to share the word more ample time to do just that.

Paul said that we are all one body but many parts and each part has a separate function. This is how the church should work. We are all missionaries to some extent because no matter where we are located we can share Christ with those we come in contact with on a daily basis just as much as those who are working in overseas missions. Jesus said that he is the light of the world and we need to take that light to where there is darkness. Christ will enable you to take his light to those dark places. Just ask him to do so.