September 15, 2020

LynnDaily Devotion

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1

True and Proper Worship

After many months, Sunday morning Bible class was finally meeting again, and Ginny couldn’t wait. Pastor Schroeder wasn’t surprised to see her hand shoot up when he asked if there were any questions.

“Pastor,” she said, though muffled by her mask, “while we were all stuck at home, I watched streamed worship services from a few other churches. It struck me how many different styles and ways of worshiping there are. But it also made me wonder if there is a right way to worship?”

Pastor Schroeder interrupted her, “Well, that might take longer to answer than we have time for this morning.”

Ginny continued anyway, “So I did what you always tell us to do. I looked in the Bible for answers. One verse I found was Romans 12:1 where the apostle Paul talks about ‘your true and proper worship.’ But what does that verse mean?”

“Great catch, Ginny!” said her pastor. “In the first eleven chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes at length about God’s grace for sinners and how we are saved only by what Christ has done for us, not by anything we do. Then, before he gets into describing the way that Christians should live, Paul reminds them of what God has already done. ‘In view of God’s mercy…’ That motivates us to dedicate every part of our lives—body and soul—to serving him. When every moment and every choice in life flows from gratitude to God for his mercy, our bodies are like living sacrifices, made holy and acceptable through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for us on the cross.”

Ginny’s eyebrows raised above her mask. “So, ‘true and proper worship’ means not just going through the motions—either in life or in church?”

Pastor Schroeder nodded. “Yes. It means always keeping before our eyes everything that God has done for us and then letting our words and actions flow from that.”

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for your many blessings to me, though I haven’t deserved them. Let me never forget your love for me. Help me to live in a way that pleases you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

 

God bless you,

Lynn

 

Worship at Trinity

Here’s Sunday’s service: https://youtu.be/LMhRlax3ekM

Or you can watch it from our website: https://trinitymarinette.com/sermon-archive/the-church-militant-becomes-the-church-triumphant/

Or you can watch is on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TrinityEvLutheranChurchWisSynod/

Come to worship! You can sign up here: https://trinitymarinette.com/events/communion-worship-services/ or call Pastor or call the church office to let us know which service you prefer.

Here is this week’s bulletin: https://trinitymarinette.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/2020-09-13-Announcements-The-Fifteenth-Sunday-after-Pentecost.pdf. Check it out.

 

It’s a Girl!: Save the date for a Baby Shower in honor of Kelly Danell, on Saturday, Sept. 19th at 11:00 am in the Church Basement. They are registered at www.babylist.com

 

We Need Your Input!

Trunk or Treat – With everything up in the air due to COVID, our evangelism plans are uncertain. We want your feedback on Trunk or Treat this year. Are you interested in helping organize it? Do you want to bring your vehicle to provide a trunk? Are you interested in attending? Your feedback will help us decide if this is a way we want to reach out to our community this year.

Christmas 4 Kids – We still have time to put on our Christmas 4 Kids program in December, but not without your help. If you want to help reach out with the real meaning of Christmas in our Christmas 4 Kids program, contact the church office.

We’re Starting Bible Classes! The first Sunday in October (the 4th), we will hold a half hour Bible class downstairs in church after each of our services. You are welcome and encouraged to attend. We will observe whatever the current mandates are and we are going to ask you to clean surfaces at the end of class.