Welcome to Living Word Lutheran Church
Living the Word...Spreading the Word
6108 Chester Street
Arlington, TN
Living the Word...Spreading the Word
6108 Chester Street
Arlington, TN
From the Pastor’s Desk
Psalm 67:1-7 The Message
God, mark us with grace
and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Let all far-flung people become happy
and shout their happiness because
You judge them fair and square,
you tend the far-flung peoples.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth’s four corners—honor him!
What a jubilant text! And how good to let it guide our days, to choose it as the place to ground our faith, to live our lives.
We might think of Lent as a time to put away such expressions of joy, to live our lives only acknowledging sorrow, to be long in face and mournful in manner. It is most appropriate to realize the lack in our lives if God wasn’t here, to know deep within us that we would be cast adrift on turbulent seas without God to anchor and guide us.
So it is with great joy that we can join the psalmist in recognizing God’s character, God’s love, God’s movement in our lives and in our world. To thank and enjoy God.
Even in our most difficult times, our times of greatest need, our times when we find ourselves in the depths, the best way to pray is to start with thanks. Thanks for God’s love and care, or for the life of the loved one we have lost, or for the good seasons of our lives that seem gone now, or for guidance in the past that we might not feel extends to the future, or whatever the circumstance we are facing is. By starting out with thanks and praise for who God is, we remind ourselves not to treat God as a celestial vending machine or genie in a bottle who will fulfill our every desire. We recognize the otherness of God, who loves us with a parent’s deep love, who cares for us.
Praising and thanking God is a wonderful way to begin to pray. And to live.
Pastor LaVonne
Pastor LaVonne Johnson
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6108 Chester Street, Arlington, Tennessee 38002, United States
Living Word Lutheran Church
6108 Chester Street, Arlington, Tennessee 38002, United States
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