John 3:19-21
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John states that people prefer “darkness” to the “light.” Do you agree with his assessment, and how is that true (or untrue) in your own life?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Keep me from any deadly sin.
Only you can save me!
Then I will shout and sing about your power to save.
Psalm 51:14
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Thursday, March 15, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 16
John 3:14-18
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Believing in Jesus plays an important role in these verses, as John references them on five separate occasions. What do you think he means by “believing in him,” and what is it about believing that leads to eternal life?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,
- and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.
Free us from all negligence and sloth,
- and give us joy in your gifts of grace.
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Believing in Jesus plays an important role in these verses, as John references them on five separate occasions. What do you think he means by “believing in him,” and what is it about believing that leads to eternal life?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,
- and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.
Free us from all negligence and sloth,
- and give us joy in your gifts of grace.
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 15
Luke 5:12-15
Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[a] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Tonight’s worship service will focus on our HEALING hands. Have you ever experienced a time when you felt God bringing special healing to you (physical, emotional, spiritual). In what ways do you think God uses you to bring healing to those around you?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
We are at the half-way point in our Lenten journey today.
There is so much yet to learn, to examine, to heal, to renew.
We have a sense of the ways God is working in us.
We want to be ready and our Lord wants us to be confident.
So we keep asking and we keep giving thanks, throughout our days.
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[a] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Tonight’s worship service will focus on our HEALING hands. Have you ever experienced a time when you felt God bringing special healing to you (physical, emotional, spiritual). In what ways do you think God uses you to bring healing to those around you?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
We are at the half-way point in our Lenten journey today.
There is so much yet to learn, to examine, to heal, to renew.
We have a sense of the ways God is working in us.
We want to be ready and our Lord wants us to be confident.
So we keep asking and we keep giving thanks, throughout our days.
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 14
Psalms 107
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.[a]
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.” Sometime today, take time to write a list of things for which you are grateful to God. Don’t forget to count the blessings you have come to take for granted.
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper :
"for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. "
John 17:21
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.[a]
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.” Sometime today, take time to write a list of things for which you are grateful to God. Don’t forget to count the blessings you have come to take for granted.
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper :
"for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. "
John 17:21
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Monday, March 12, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 13
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Paul’s words here are pure gospel --- and ones that get to the core of our Lutheran theology. What do you make of Paul’s understanding that we were created for God works (2:10), but that our salvation is not at all based on them? (2:8-9)
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Give us a perfect heart to receive your word,
- that we may bring forth fruit in patience.
Make us eager to work with you in building a better world,
- so that it may listen to your Church and its gospel of peace
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Paul’s words here are pure gospel --- and ones that get to the core of our Lutheran theology. What do you make of Paul’s understanding that we were created for God works (2:10), but that our salvation is not at all based on them? (2:8-9)
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join our Facebook page and get to know us!
Give us a perfect heart to receive your word,
- that we may bring forth fruit in patience.
Make us eager to work with you in building a better world,
- so that it may listen to your Church and its gospel of peace
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Sunday, March 11, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 12
Ephesians 2
Made Alive in Christ
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Do you agree with Paul that “you were dead through the sins and trespasses in which you once lived”? What does it mean to you that you have been made alive with Christ, and how does that impact your daily life?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join us on Facebook and get to know us!
My soul is thirsting for the living God:
when shall I see God face to face?
Psalm 42
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Made Alive in Christ
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Do you agree with Paul that “you were dead through the sins and trespasses in which you once lived”? What does it mean to you that you have been made alive with Christ, and how does that impact your daily life?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join us on Facebook and get to know us!
My soul is thirsting for the living God:
when shall I see God face to face?
Psalm 42
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
Saturday, March 10, 2012
2012 Lenten Journey March 11
Psalm 19:7-14
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
In the second half of the Psalm, it is God’s teachings that declare his greatness. In fact, the Psalmist states that the God’s Law is perfect, sure, right, clear, pure, and true. He also says that it is to be desired more than even fine gold. How is that assessment true in your own life? In what ways do God’s teachings instruct you and guide you?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join us on Facebook and get to know us!
Loving Father,
So many times we turn away from you and always you welcome us back. Thank you for the invitation to share, fast and pray so that you can form a new heart within us.
Amen
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
In the second half of the Psalm, it is God’s teachings that declare his greatness. In fact, the Psalmist states that the God’s Law is perfect, sure, right, clear, pure, and true. He also says that it is to be desired more than even fine gold. How is that assessment true in your own life? In what ways do God’s teachings instruct you and guide you?
Thank you to Pastor Jim Kroninger of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for providing our lenten messages this 2012. Visit our You Tube Channel here and follow Pastor Jim's sermons each week. Join us on Facebook and get to know us!
Loving Father,
So many times we turn away from you and always you welcome us back. Thank you for the invitation to share, fast and pray so that you can form a new heart within us.
Amen
Join Us in Worship!
Thursday: 6:30PM Lenten Service, Dinner prior at 5:30.
Sunday: Sunday School 9:15AM with Worship Service at 10:30AM
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