The mysterious package arrives by expensive Next Day Air shipping. Inside, a beautifully decorated invitation beckons. This is more than a mere electronic invite, more than a home-computer-generated invite twice folded, much more than a causal request for your presence at a friend’s birthday party or neighborhood barbeque. Beneath the elaborately papered and layered production is an invitation to the White House.
You are invited to meet the President of the United States! It’s once in a lifetime honor, one that few people ever receive. Excitement soon gives way to anxiety as questions begin to form: What will I wear? What is the proper etiquette for such a visit? What will I say? Will I even have a chance to speak? Will I be able to ask questions? I have so many…
Such visits are carefully controlled. The President’s time is valuable and his schedule busy. Aides and Secret Service personnel maintain constant vigilance. Any conversation will likely be light and brief and directed by the President himself.
Fortunately, any breach in protocol at the White House will not be met with immediate execution. Such was the fate of many who dared to speak improperly or without permission in the presence of kings and dictators in centuries past. A visit with the President will be exhilarating, but limited.
An even more stunning invitation awaits. God invites people to speak to him. The Almighty Creator of the universe, who is far above all rulers and authorities and presidents, invites people to come to him in prayer.
But who can pray? Only believers have permission to speak to God. Because sin separates us from God, only those whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus can be heard. Isaiah declares, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (59:2)
God’s only Son earned for us the right to pray to the God of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ paid the price for sin with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. Baptized into his death and resurrection, we are covered by his grace with the righteousness of the One who took our place. All this comes to us by God’s gift of faith. With our sins forgiven and adopted as God’s children, we have the right to come into his presence and speak. Because of Christ’s saving work, God invites us to speak to him and talk with him and pour out our hearts to him.
This coming weekend at Trinity, we’ll be digging into the topic of prayer via the Lord’s Prayer. For the next six weeks (the Sundays in Lent) our theme will be “Touching Heaven: God Invites Us to Pray.” Worship, listen, watch (if you are unable to be there in person), and pray. Your heavenly Father invites you.
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
You are invited to meet the President of the United States! It’s once in a lifetime honor, one that few people ever receive. Excitement soon gives way to anxiety as questions begin to form: What will I wear? What is the proper etiquette for such a visit? What will I say? Will I even have a chance to speak? Will I be able to ask questions? I have so many…
Such visits are carefully controlled. The President’s time is valuable and his schedule busy. Aides and Secret Service personnel maintain constant vigilance. Any conversation will likely be light and brief and directed by the President himself.
Fortunately, any breach in protocol at the White House will not be met with immediate execution. Such was the fate of many who dared to speak improperly or without permission in the presence of kings and dictators in centuries past. A visit with the President will be exhilarating, but limited.
An even more stunning invitation awaits. God invites people to speak to him. The Almighty Creator of the universe, who is far above all rulers and authorities and presidents, invites people to come to him in prayer.
But who can pray? Only believers have permission to speak to God. Because sin separates us from God, only those whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus can be heard. Isaiah declares, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (59:2)
God’s only Son earned for us the right to pray to the God of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ paid the price for sin with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. Baptized into his death and resurrection, we are covered by his grace with the righteousness of the One who took our place. All this comes to us by God’s gift of faith. With our sins forgiven and adopted as God’s children, we have the right to come into his presence and speak. Because of Christ’s saving work, God invites us to speak to him and talk with him and pour out our hearts to him.
This coming weekend at Trinity, we’ll be digging into the topic of prayer via the Lord’s Prayer. For the next six weeks (the Sundays in Lent) our theme will be “Touching Heaven: God Invites Us to Pray.” Worship, listen, watch (if you are unable to be there in person), and pray. Your heavenly Father invites you.
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
RSS Feed
