The apostle Paul was an amazing servant of God. He spent his life going from place to place sharing the Gospel with everyone he met. He was arrested, imprisoned, beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, and under constant pressure. He planted churches wherever he went. And he wrote almost half of the New Testament (at least 13 of the 27 books).
Where does God find people like that?
God doesn’t find them. God makes them.
When Jesus called Paul into his service (Acts 9), Paul (then called Saul) had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. He had been actively fighting against Jesus, breathing out murderous threats against Jesus’ disciples. He had actually been on his way to Damascus to arrest as many disciples as he could find and bring them to Jerusalem as prisoners.
And then Jesus called him. He called Paul, the worst of sinners.
God doesn’t call good people into his service. He calls sinners.
The apostle Paul constantly gave thanks to Jesus for appointing him, the worst of sinners by his own account, into the ministry of Christ Jesus.
God is calling us, too. He’s doesn’t call perfect people. None of us is perfect. He is calling sinners. He changes us the way he changed Paul. God’s forgiveness demonstrates his unlimited patience. People can see God’s grace in us.
In his letters, Paul was preparing Timothy for service in God’s kingdom. In those same letters, God is preparing us. He takes sinners (even the worst of us) and makes us into messengers of grace. Look at what he did with Paul. He will do the same thing with us! To him be honor and glory forever and ever.
We read from the first letter that God dictated word-for-word to the apostle Paul and preserved for us to sustain us, strengthen us, and keep us close to him, chapter 1.
1 Timothy 1:12–17 (EHV)
12I give thanks to the one who empowered me, namely, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he treated me as trustworthy, appointing me into his ministry. 13He did this even though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. But I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. 14The grace of our Lord overflowed on me along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the worst. 16But I was shown mercy for this reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him, resulting in eternal life. 17Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
God bless you,
Pastor Tesch
Worship at Trinity
Next week can worship together again! Sign up here: https://trinitymarinette.com/events/june-21-22-worship-2/ or you can respond to this email or call Pastor or call the church office to let us know which service you prefer.
It is wise to wait a bit if you are at risk or would just like to wait for the pandemic to fade. God willing, we will worship together when he ends this plague.
Here is this week’s bulletin: https://trinitymarinette.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-14-Announcements-The-Second-Sunday-after-Pentecost.pdf
Church Softball: All are invited – men and women – catechism age and up! You don’t have to be good, it is just for fun! It is a chance to get together, have some friendly competition and be outside. We will play with whoever is there, and will split up into two teams. (There are two fields if we have enough players for 4 teams we can do so.) We will be playing Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Grover/Peshtigo.
Opt-In Email: You may have received an email to opt in for receiving texts from church. It’s from Jon Tesch. Please click “Sign me up.” You’ll be taken to a webpage where you can enter your cell phone number. Then you’ll receive a text at that number where you can respond “Yes.” That’s it! Thank you for your participation in God’s work.
If you would like to support the Lord’s work at Trinity, you may contribute at trinitymarinette.com/giving/ or you can mail it to
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
1501 Thomas St.
Marinette, WI 54143