Yesterday we celebrated that our God does the impossible. The dead are risen.

Jesus has risen, just as he said! Alleluia!

In today's lesson we are reminded that our God can also do the impossible in human hearts.

He can change my heart so that rather than judge people different than myself, I see them as "mission prospects", people whom my Savior loves, people for whom Jesus paid the ultimate price of his death so that they might live forever. 

Every person that I interact with is someone that Jesus wants closer to him now and forever. 

He can also change the heart of the "impossible mission prospect", that person who is hostile to Christ. He brought Paul to faith in our reading from Acts 9 on Saturday. Today the Holy Spirit does the impossible and brings an entire household of Gentiles to faith. 

Read Acts 10 here. 

The Holy Spirit made it clear that the gospel is for all people. The Gentiles were not lost causes, unable to be saved. In following that call, Peter takes risks to share his eyewitness testimony: Jesus’ miracles, his death on the “tree” of the cross, his resurrection, and forgiveness in Jesus’ name for sinners like us!

This reading challenges me:

Who are the “Gentiles” of today that the church needs to stop dismissing as "lost causes" and instead see them as a mission field? That was my "ahha" as we studied the book Gay and God (download it here) during our Me Friend of Sinners? message series in 2019. The LGBTQ community are mission prospects who need our love. Watch the series here:

• Unconditional Love
• Unconditional Gospel
• Unconditional Bible
• Unconditional Trust

What am I willing to risk to witness to Jesus’ death and resurrection?
Am I willing to risk the rejection of my offer of care and gospel witness? Am I willing to risk being condemned by my fellow Christians for reaching out to the "lost causes"? Am I willing to risk my financial security by giving so generously because I want everyone to know the love of Christ?

The impossible happened. He worked the miracle of faith in our hearts. Let us trust that the Holy Spirit can use our witness to work that miracle of faith in others.  







In Deuteronomy 28 Moses brings his farewell sermon to a close. The Israelites are at Abel Shittim on the Plains of Moab. 

• Find Abel Shittim on the map.
• The second picture is a view of the Plains of Moab looking east from Israel toward the country of Jordan.
• The third picture is of Tel Hammam (Abel Shittim), looking west across to Jordan to the mountains of Israel in the hazy distance. 

As Moses finished up the second giving of the law ("Deuteronomy" means "second law"), the Israelites could see the Promised Land on the other side of the Jordan River. 

The conclusion to this sermon begins with promises. Never forget what the LORD our God can do to bless us. 

But compare those first 14 wonderful verses with the 54 verses of warning and horror. Never forget what the LORD our God can do. 

The same LORD who can wonderfully bless can also take away those blessings and bring on judgment like we never even want to imagine.

What is the LORD's purpose in this warning? It was not the LORD's desire to bring this judgment. The LORD later said through Ezekiel:

‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’

The LORD knew the hearts of his people... how likely they were to go astray. It was a powerful call to daily repentance, a daily turning back to the LORD God who had saved them out of Egypt and who would save them. 

This warning of judgment is sadly fulfilled in the pages of the Old Testament. As we read this history, may we take warning that the LORD who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, is also the God who will not leave the guilty unpunished. May we humble ourselves before him and in faith obey his commands.

May God keep us faithful to our Savior God and give us courage to share his good news of forgiveness. Amen.