Trinity Tidings- Jan 26

Posted on: January 27th, 2025 by Brad Peterson

January 26, 2024

ANNOUNCEMENTS

First Communion Class Sunday, January 26th at 10:30 AM Class is for all youth 3rd grade and above who have not been previously instructed.  Please bring a Bible.  Parents should attend with their child.  Please contact PB if you cannot make this class.  First Communion Sunday is February 2nd.

Crew January 29th, 3:30 pm till 5 pm for all 3rd-6th grade youth.

Super Bowl Pizza’s  Order deadline is Sunday, February 2nd.  Proceeds benefit our youth going to Luther Park Bible Camp.  See attached form. 

Voices of Praise every Wednesday night at 7 pm!  Come join us for a time of song.  A great time to sing with others and have some fun!

We are collecting Cereal for the WestCAP food pantry in January!  Bring your boxes and place them by the altar in the Narthex.

Trintiy Lutheran Annual Meeting is on Sunday, February 2nd, at 10 am.    

MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD

  What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? Romans 3:3

Have you heard the phrase “quid pro quo?”  It means, basically, you do something for me and then I do something for you.  Like, when I was a senior in high school, I nominated my friend Kirk to be on Student Council representing the math group Mu Alpha Theta and in turn, he nominated me to be on Student Council representing National Honor Society and that is how we both got on Student Council without having to be elected.  You do something for me and I’ll do something for you.

  Sometimes I think we feel like that is how God works.  That God will only love us if we love God back, or God will only bless us if we go to church every Sunday and give 10 percent of our income or do this or do that, like somehow God’s promises to us in Jesus Christ are contingent upon what we do.  Unfortunately, this kind of thinking, and preaching, is very prevalent today, even by some very popular preachers. 

  Paul talks about this very issue in the third chapter of Romans, and right after he asks the question above he says, “By no means!”  God’s faithfulness to us does not depend on our faithfulness to God.  After all, we are sinners who fall short of the glory of God.  We sin against God.  We forget God’s promises for us in Jesus Christ.  We make things like politicians, celebrities, money, power, fame, bacon, sports figures, and all sorts of other things more important than God.  We look for salvation from those same things instead of the God who sent his only Son to die for our sins.  For salvation is a gift, a gift to us who are sinners, and this gift is always there for us.  Because, God IS faithful.  Always.  And that faithfulness does not depend on us.

  With God, there is no quid pro quo.  How could there ever be?  What could we ever give back to God that could equal what God gives us?  After all, God gives us LIFE!  God blesses us, walks with us, strengthens us when we are weak, guides us when we are lost, and reminds us most of all that we are loved, forgiven, and saved.  We might be unfaithful but God in Jesus Christ is always faithful to us.  Always faithful to you.  As it says later in chapter 3 of Romans, “For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22b-24b). 

   Trust in the faithfulness of God my friends.  Trust in God above all things.  Never forget God’s promises for you, promises that will never be taken away.  For God is faithful.  Always.  May God bless you today and always!