Pastor Ethan Boese
Psalm 51:10-12: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Carving pumpkins is something the whole family can enjoy. The fun and sometimes zany tools used for carving pumpkins shows a spark of creativity. Still once gutted, the pumpkin becomes a blank canvass for the artistic or artistically challenged alike. And if the process makes you hungry, there are always the pumpkin seeds you can dry, season, and roast. Finally, what once was growing in a field now becomes a wonderful fall decoration as the light dances inside of it.
Our hearts have undergone an even more drastic of a change. By nature our hearts are born and grow in sin. We are dead in our sins, and even the bleakest and darkest of Fall nights does not begin to prepare us for the spiritual darkness that awaited in Hell for us.
Yet God went to work. Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Jesus secured the gift of forgiveness and eternal life for us with his own life, death, and resurrection. As God cut into our hearts with his Word, our hearts were gutted. The mangled mush of sin was removed. God carved his promises and love into our hearts so that we would no longer look like the world, but rather look like his children. And finally, God placed within us the light of Christ.
It would be depressing to go to all the work of carving a pumpkin and then not to place a light in it. When it gets dark, who would see it? How could others enjoy the artistic carvings and faces your children or you worked so hard on?
God has created pure hearts in us. God has renewed our spirits. God has redeemed and saved us making us a new creation. Therefore, we strive to always let the light of Christ shine especially when the people around us or the world we live in becomes enshrouded in darkness. So that they too can see that Jesus has lived, died, and rose for them. They also may be renewed. They also may become beloved children of God and the results of God’s handiwork. Amen.
~Pastor Boese
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
On the fourth Sunday of each month, Pastor Boese will invite children of all ages forward for the Children’s Message before the Hymn of the Day. Parents with young children may join them as they desire.