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February 2011 Newletter

     3,5 %.   Let’s guess what could it stand for. Could that be the amount of meat supposedly in the meat in your taco at Taco Bell? No. (The lawsuit claims it’s 36%, while TB claims it is 85%)
     Is that the current bank savings interest rate? Close, but that’s not it either.
     Could 3.5 % be the percentage of offerings Christians brought in their offerings last year? No again.   Sadly, the figure is around 2%.
    So what is it? 3.5% is the amount of salt in salt water. (Don’t feel let down. I’m coming to a point.)   That doesn’t seem like much, does it? But if you were to drink that water, instead of quenching your thirst, the salt level in the water would actually increase your thirst! And, if you continued to drink salt water, you would get violently ill. And if you kept drinking still longer, you would go into hallucinations, your kidneys would quickly shut down and you would die. All because of 3.5%.
     Let’s just imagine that we could keep our sins down to 3.5% of the time while we’re awake.   It’s probably much higher than that, but let’s just go with that for a minute. Is 3.5% acceptable? That may not seem like much, but let’s put it into perspective.

     What if your car didn’t start 3.5 % of the time… What if your heater failed to come on 3.5 % of the time… What if your pacemaker didn’t function 3.5% of the time… I think you get the point.

     Nor is salt is the only thing in ocean water. In a cubic mile of ocean, there is 5 tons of nickel, 234 tons of iodine and 38 pounds of gold! Before you get too excited, let me tell you that to get two cents of gold, we would have to ‘mine’ 100 million gallons of water. To say it would not be cost effective, would be putting it mildly.

Something to Think About…
A Winning Formula

       This Sunday is the Super Bowl. This year the world championship trophy will either be won by the Pittsburg Steelers or the Green Bay Packers. The trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, the Green Bay Packers’ legendary coach. Perhaps Coach Lombardi’s most famous quote is this: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing!” He surely lived that phrase.
        Coach Lombardi was a winner. He led the Packers to five NFL championships in seven years. A great number of his players are in the Football Hall of Fame. His teams won the first two Super-Bowls. He set the bar high and achieved many successes. He found the winning formula.
        Of course this winning formula doesn’t achieved really perfection. Current Packer Coach McCarthy noted this week that “We chase perfection and hope to catch excellence along the way.” No matter which team wins on Sunday, they may reach excellence but they will not be perfect. Neither team enters the game undefeated. Neither team will get through the game without making a mistake. So the team that wins will have the winning formula for the Super Bowl, but it will not be perfect. People will remember the winner. But as Pittsburg Coach Tomlin said the day after winning the Super Bowl a few years ago, “We’re back at the bottom of the mountain with everyone else.” The victory lasts but a day and then they must look ahead to next season.

        I apologize to you readers who don’t like sports or football. It’s just that winning and losing is a big part of most sports and fits well with my thoughts today. The Apostle Paul understood this too, and at times used sports to illustrate the winning formula for life and eternity.
        If you think about it, every life appears to end in failure. The formula for death is living imperfect lives, or as the Bible describes it, sinful lives. We must all acknowledge that we aren’t perfect. No one is. God says that the reward for not living up to my expectation of perfection is death. So no one can win…………Except through faith in Jesus Christ.
        God’s winning formula was to send his Son to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. He took on our humanity and lived under God’s law like everyone of us. But he kept it perfectly. Then

he bore God’s guilty verdict for all sin and suffered God’s punishment. He died for the sins of the world as the sacrifice for sin. Yet he arose bodily from the dead to prove to us for all time that he won. He won over sin. He won over death. He did it for us all. This is God’s winning formula. And the win isn’t just for a day and then we go back to the bottom of the mountain. This win is the only thing.
Paul describes the win for us: “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” [1 Corinthians 15:53-57, NIV].
After the Super Bowl the winning team and their fans will celebrate. But it will only last a short time. Those who believe in Jesus will celebrate their victory too. But it will never last. If you want to win the “big one” trust Jesus.

Pastor Tim Henning

CENTRAL AFRICA MEDICAL MISSION (CAMM) is seeking a female volunteer to serve as contact person for our circuit. The Contact Person would forward info twice a year, forward offerings received by special donations, and write thank-you notes. CAMM, supported by Non-budgetary offerings, operates five mobile medical dispensaries. These dispense primary medical care in Christian love in Zambia & Malawi. The Gospel is shared with all patients. See Pastor for details or email cammcontact@charter.net.

CELL PHONES (used) are still being recycled to 3rd world countries. A box is in the entry.

APACHE MONEY JAR: Thanks to all who help support the Christian education of Apache students in Arizona. The jar is near the table in the entry.

WELS MISSION SUMMARY HILITES:
Did you know that-
     In Home Missions, we as part of the Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod or WELS, support 8 campus ministries; 15 multi-cultural ministries (including Antigua & St. Lucia); 41 missions in various stages of development; and (in our first new opening since 2008) a new mission in Castle Rock, Co. We plan on opening three more in 2011.

     In World Missions, we sponsor 37 missionaries and 8 teachers in world mission fields; support 140 national pastors and 19 pre-pastors and 182 evangelists serving 83,070 souls (adding 2113 souls in 2010); send out welcomed literature to 30,100 people in 40 languages; distributed $215,000 in humanitarian aid all over the world. Two four person medical teams served three weeks in Haiti after the earthquake.

     A WELS Facebook Page is now on line.   Facebook.com/welslutherans launched in May, already has more than 8500 fans. Especially popular are the daily devotions, question & answer feature, and articles appearing on the "My Life Issues" section of the WELS Web site.

     WELS has the 5th largest parochial system in the United States; one of the largest prison ministries with 1500 volunteers; and the 'What About Jesus' web site that answers questions people send in, answered by a Seminary professor.

     WELS Finances were a large blessing last year. Our offerings were $84.1 million, nearly $10 million more than 2009. Our expenses were down $12 million from that year, giving us a surplus of $16 million. This will allow us to rebuild reserves and take care of much needed repairs and restorations to see us through. Congregations (including ours) fully met their commitment, coming in at 101.1%

A WELS member visited our church in Nepal and gave this report: After worship, we met a man who was a Maoist convert. Maoism is a Chinese form of Communism that believes "political power comes from the barrel of the gun." One of the Nepali Christians, an outgoing sharer of the faith, had invited the man. He came out of curiosity even though he wanted nothing to do with Christianity.
After three visits, he went to his commander, handed him his rifle, and told him he would not need it any longer. He brought his wife and two daughters with him when we were there. He is studying to be baptized and confirmed. Praise the Lord.

KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE 400TH ANNIVERSARY!

Although we seldom use the KJV, (Although many use the NEW KJV), it’s anniversary should be noted. It’s influence over the past 400 years has been tremendous, since it is God’s Word. Our culture is still full of references to Bible expressions. Here are some examples:

Forbidden Fruit (Gen. 3); Fire & Brimstone (Gen. 19); an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth (Ex. 21) The Apple of his Eye (Deut. 32); the Skin of his teeth (Job 19); the Root of the Matter (Job 19); at my Wits End (Ps. 107); a Drop in a Bucket (is. 40); the Handwriting is on the Wall (Dan 5); Love your Enemies (Matt. 5); He is Beside Himself (Acts 26); the Powers that Be (Rom 13); and Through the Glass Darkly (1 Cor. 13)
I hope we never lose the connection to and use of Bible Words!

CATECHISM CLASS, for 6th-9th graders, meets on Mondays at 4:15. It will run till 5:30. See Pastor for details.

Questions or Comments? Please email the Webmaster skerst@comcast.net

3.5% (and more)

3,5 %. Let’s guess what could it stand for. Could that be the amount of meat supposedly in the meat in your taco at Taco Bell? No. (The lawsuit claims it’s 36%, while TB claims it is 85%) Is that the current bank savings interest rate? Close, but that’s not it either. Could 3.5 % be the percentage of offerings Christians brought in their offerings last year? No again. Sadly, the figure is around 2%. So what is it? 3.5% is the amount of salt in salt water. (Don’t feel let down. I’m coming to a point.) That doesn’t seem like much, does it? But if you were to drink that water, instead of quenching your thirst, the salt level in the water would actually increase your thirst! And, if you continued to drink salt water, you would get violently ill. And if you kept drinking still longer, you would go into hallucinations, your kidneys would quickly shut down and you would die. All because of 3.5%. Let’s just imagine that we could keep our sins down to 3.5% of the time while we’re awake. It’s probably much higher than that, but let’s just go with that for a minute. Is 3.5% acceptable? That may not seem like much, but let’s put it into perspective. What if your car didn’t start 3.5 % of the time… What if your heater failed to come on 3.5 % of the time… What if your pacemaker didn’t function 3.5% of the time… I think you get the point. Nor is salt is the only thing in ocean water. In a cubic mile of ocean, there is 5 tons of nickel, 234 tons of iodine and 38 pounds of gold! Before you get too excited, let me tell you that to get two cents of gold, we would have to ‘mine’ 100 million gallons of water. To say it would not be cost effective, would be putting it mildly. How did all these minerals get there? A little is picked up from pollution in the atmosphere. Much is absorbed as it rolls down hills and valleys and finally into rivers. Most is mixed in from all the minerals already on the ocean floor. For example, the Gulf of Mexico has a salt dome five miles long.	Millions of dollars are being spent right now trying to figure out how to get salt out of the water. The person who discovers this ‘miracle cure’ will become extremely wealthy. New life will come from previously parched areas. In some ways, people are like ocean water. We need to have the 3.5% (or whatever) removed form us. We’ve picked up the salt of selfishness; we’ve taken in the minerals of meanness, madness and moodiness; we’ve absorbed the wretched pollution of wickedness, worriedness and worldliness. Just like we could not drink salt water, Heaven cannot tolerate pollution of any kind. Heaven has the highest standard for entrance. Only perfection allowed. 100%. Just like 3.5 % salt water would kill us, so 3.5% of sin would do the same. We cannot clean ourselves no matter how much water and soap we might use, but Jesus could. That’s why he came into our world. He wanted to live a perfect life. Then, he gave himself up in our place on the cross. He took all the sins of all the people of all the times and paid for them with His holy blood. Jesus has to remove them. He does that not to get rich, but to rescue us. Romans 3:10ff reminds us of that when St. Paul wrote "There is no one righteous, not even one… All have turned away; they have become together worthless.” But verse 21ff continues, “But now a righteousness from God…has been made known… This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” So, when you drink a bottle of water, remember the Water of Life, Jesus Christ. Serve him 100% of your life!