Monday, May 27, 2019

LET US NEVER DENY OUR GOD!

        Yesterday while watching my Rockies baseball team snatch yet another win from the jaws of defeat, I was glad to see they also televised fans singing ”God Bless America”. Had composer Irving Berlin known his little song would be so used today, he would have been proud and perhaps surprised.
        Berlin wrote this brief patriotic song in 1918 during World War I while serving in the Army at Camp Upton, New York. Writing it as part of a musical revue, the Broadway composer set it aside as being inappropriate with the rest of the music.
        Later, before World War II and during the rise of Adolf Hitler, Jewish composer Berlin felt it was time the nation heard his song. It was first sung publicly on November 11, 1938, by Kate Smith on her popular radio show. It became Smith’s signature song for the rest of her career.
        Part of its popularity rests in the fact that "God Bless America" is a prayer for God's blessing and peace for our nation. Few today know it includes words often spoken at the beginning which still have a message for us today:
        “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
        Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free.
        Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
        As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”

Then come the words we know almost as well as our National Anthem:
        “God Bless America, land that I love.
        Stand beside her and guide her
        Through the night with the Light from above.
        From the mountains, to the prairies,
        To the oceans white with foam,
        God Bless America, my home sweet home.”

        God’s Word tells us, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12) Those words should prompt us never to neglect, deny or trivialize the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of heaven and earth.
        Unwisely, Americans today are being shaped by policies that exclude God from public utterance. How foolish to do this! The blessings heaped upon the United States of America should prove He has chosen us for His inheritance, at least for now. But it is doubtful those blessings will continue if we choose a fatal path to remove and even ban the name of God among us.
        On this Memorial Day let us remember those who have given their lives in defense of our freedom. Let us give thanks to God for His blessings delivered by fallen heroes of the past. And last but not least, let us also renew our efforts to insure God is given the place of worship and honor He deserves. Then perhaps, it might continue to be said of us:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com

Monday, May 20, 2019

OUR NAMES ARE RECORDED


          After the end of the Korean War, hundreds of American POW’s were released for repatriation. Cpl. Fred Benton was among those who helped debrief the GIs, some of whom had been in captivity over three years. Thousands had died in the POW camps, and those released were diseased and malnourished, some barely alive.
            On the last day of Benton’s assignment, a soldier shuffled up to his table, weak and obviously ill, and sat motionless for several minutes before identifying himself an infantry division Colonel. He reached into his pocket and took out a mechanical pencil, holding it as if it were a jewel, and gently placed it on the table. “Everything’s right there,” he said, and he instructed Benton how to gently remove its contents. “It damages easily,” he said.
            Inside Benton found a tightly rolled cylinder of rice paper. When uncoiled, it measured an inch wide and over five feet long, and contained the names of 232 soldiers who had died during the Colonel’s three-year captivity, with rank, serial number and cause of death for each soldier. The thought of this officer carefully recording and protecting this list for three years brought tears to Benton’s eyes. Words failed him in that moment, so he stood and saluted the man. He later said he didn’t know what more he could do.
            In a cruel war with so many soldiers dead or missing in action, the Colonel’s information was a precious gift of love, allowing families to know what happened to their loved ones, and having a better chance to grieve their loss.
            God’s Word is a more precious gift, filled with information of His love for all in Jesus Christ, no matter who we are or what we have done. In Revelation 21, Apostle John tells of the New Jerusalem in all its splendor, and he wrote, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27)
            The Good News in this sinful world is that when we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our names are recorded in God’s Book of Life. It will not tell of our sins or failures, but of His mercy that shines on us for eternity.
            We live briefly on this earth, prisoners of a shameful and deceitful world. One day we will be released from this troubled place so that we can be in God’s presence with His faithful forevermore. The information in God’s Holy Word, gives comfort to us now and hope for a new life to come.

Thank You, Lord, for recording our names in the Book of Life.

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com

Monday, May 6, 2019

BECOMING A PASTOR

(From EVERY DAY WITH JESUS, a daily devotional by Rev. Tasler, May 5)

        Now and then I am still asked, “How did you know you wanted to be a pastor?” Every pastor has his story, and most of them show that God works in interesting ways to call pastors. I started thinking about it about age six.
        Mrs. Emma Papke was Kindergarten Sunday School teacher at our church for decades. Although a stern and stately widow, she still treated us all as if we were her children, reminding us of Jesus’ love and our need to follow Him. One day after her class, I heard her tell my mother, “Robert should become a pastor.” I was six years old.
        That made me feel pretty good. Pastors were respected, and I loved to sing and talk, and it was interesting being around people. So I decided maybe that’s what God wanted me to do. Family and friends learned of this, so they were not surprised when I entered college and seminary and was ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1971.
        There were some curves in the road that made other work seem attractive, but I found true what another pastor told me, “If you want to do something else, go ahead and try!” I never seriously tried to do anything else except be a pastor, and I'm grateful the Lord helped me along the way.
        Amos left his sheep to follow God’s call, Hosea was told to marry a prostitute, and Jonah ran away when God called him to serve. I didn’t have to go to such efforts; I just went to North Dakota. We are all, “A royal priesthood, a holy nation, called out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Lord Jesus, wherever You lead, help us to follow.

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com