LOCATION
Messiah Lutheran Church is conveniently located at 8300 Providence Rd. just south of the Arboretum and Hwy 51 (Pineville-Matthews Rd). Map
Parking is located on both the north and south sides of the
sanctuary. Handicapped parking has been designated at the south
entrance, although both entries are wheelchair accessible.
April Memory Verse
1
Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I
also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures . .
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Pastor's December 2011 Message |
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FOR GOD LOVED THE WORLD SO MUCH… Throughout this month, moving to a high point on the 24th and 25th, we will once again focus on the Christmas Story. For some of us, maybe most of us, this is a VERY FAMILIAR story. We might not even have to open our Bibles to Luke chapter two or Matthew chapter two – we can recite the passages from memory. The familiarity of the story may still be able to generate within us a sense of warmth, peace, and security, but can it… does it… still amaze us, inspire us, overwhelm us with its message of profound love??? Hold that question for a moment. One of the blessings of being a parent with all its ‘wrestlings in relationship’ with my children over the years, is a growing sense, though still to a very small degree, of what God must experience in His relationship with me… and His many children around the world. My love and care, my concern and fear, my joy and sorrow in relation to the events that my children experience, and their reaction to those events, mirrors that of God for me. The depth of my love for my children and all of its vicissitudes is shallow compared to the depth of God’s love for me. With that truth in the forefront of my mind, I return to the question above. The Christmas story does overwhelm me when I consider what it meant for God the Father to send His Son, His Most Loved Son in whom He is well pleased (Matthew 3:16) into the world knowing what would happen. For the past number of months, my daughter (my only daughter - whom I love and in whom I am well pleased) has been working to enlist in the army as a helicopter pilot. She wants to fly Blackhawk missions of rescue in whatever arena the military will send her. She is presently taking helicopter flying lessons, has taken the necessary physical, mental and aptitude tests, secured excellent letters of reference and will submit a ‘packet’ for acceptance … first into basic training, then officers’ training and then flight school. As I think about her flying into ‘harm’s way’, of what could happen, I get a small sense of what God the Father must have felt as He said ‘goodbye’ to His Son, sending Him off to incarnation, birth into life in a fallen world including rejection, misunderstanding, jealousy and hatred leading to a most cruel and miserable death on the cross. God loved the world THAT MUCH! If my daughter is accepted and does indeed fly rescue missions, I will certainly hope and pray that she is safe. But what if I knew that she would be shot down, captured, tortured and killed? What kind of love would it take from me to send her out to rescue the lost? But that is what God did, and that was the mission that Jesus accepted … to seek and save the lost at the cost of His own life. God loved the world THAT MUCH. That is the amazing story of Christmas that overwhelms and inspires when we just take the time to consider how it must have felt to God to send His Son into the world that whoever believes in Him should not perish (be rescued) but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
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