A sinner after all

Today's Link
Thinking Allowed

Saying for the day
The church is the great lost and found department. ~Robert Short

Picture of the Day

On this blog I have given you many reasons why I go to Church. This morning I want to point out two things that going to Church does for me.
1. It reminds me that I am a sinner.
2.. It reminds me I am a child of God bought with a price.
In every day life as I try to live the life God wants me to it is so easy to begin to see myself as righteous.
I don’t say mean things.
I try to see the good in everybody.
I do what I can to help people.
I don’t use God’s name in vain.
I am better than those who do all these things.
I am righteous and they are evil.
But then I go to Church and in the Confession of Sins or in the Word read, or in the sermon, or even in a hymn God lets me see the sinner that I really am. I don’t want to see it but I need to. I want to think of myself as better than others but God doesn’t see it that way.
On Sunday I see again who I really am.
But then a miracle happens I see that despite who I am and what I am God died for me. My sin is washed away.
I am a child of God.
I can start the week fresh. I can begin again.
I am a child of God and so are you.
You are not someone for me to judge or compare myself with.
We are brothers and sisters.
That’s the good news. In fact that’s the great news.
I go to Church to hear that news.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Yesterday Last Lutheran was filled to overflowing for the wedding of Amanda Laaksonen and Jarod Rinne . The maid of honor, the bride’s only attendant was her good friend Melli , the best man and this was a surprise was the grooms good friend Billie who took four days off from driving bus and came down from Canada by train. The groom could not have looked happier. Instead of flowers the flower girl dropped something the florist called pixie dust. Pastor Joan was assisted by the Methodist Pastor , Jarod is a Methodist, who preached the wedding sermon.
After the service they traveled out to the Veteran's Building on the Lake of the Loons. There in the less than posh dining hall there was a long series of tables covered with aluminum foil and containing bowls filled with oodles of noodles, ham buns, turkey buns, beef buns, cakes of all kinds, and on the end a wedding cake shaped like the Empire State Building with a little bride and groom on top. The groom winced as they cut the cake as his tendonitis obviously flared up.
Bille regaled the crowd with a story of how Jarod’s Army Sargent accused him of having Naval lint on his uniform.
There was a bit of a turmoil during the dancing as a chair leg went through the floor in the corner revealing a termite infestation. But that was minor.
As the bride and groom left an old gander flew over the Lake of the Loons and they took that as a good omen.

Wrap UP

Another trully great day. Breathing was great. The Church service was wonderful. Pennie , Adrian, and I did the puppet sermon. He's a young man from the congregation. It was his first try and he did pretty well. He did the puppet of Elijah and Pennie of course did Margaret. The Choir sang Soon and very Soon and it gave you goose bumps. Pastor Steve preached the best All Saints Sermon I've heard. I kept getting images from a movie I saw where when people went to communion they communed with all the dead of the congregation as well as the living. Communion being one of the thin places Pastor Steve talked about in the sermon.
In the afternoon I upgraded the St. Mark's website, saw the Packers lose, and started scanning in another albumn. I also put the first of two tunnels into place. Finished up by visiting some of my links. Tomorrow I will visit them all. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

************************************