Serving Schedule

If you are unable to keep your scheduled serving day, please contact the church at least a few days before the service so there is time to find a replacement. Thank you!

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 68th Regular Convention is July 29 through August 3. Pastor Carlson, along with a lay delegate from our circuit, will be attending the convention and representing St. Paul’s and our circuit. The convention is in Milwaukee, WI at the Wisconsin Center/Arena.

Pastor will spend a little time at the next quarterly voters meeting detailing the convention and provide for you a list of matters which will be voted on.

To keep up with the convention timeline, to read the overtures, and to learn about the various candidates who will fill positions nationally, please visit LCMS National Convention – The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Also, please pray for safe travel for all who are preparing to head to Milwaukee in late July.

SCRIPTURE: “Stop judging by outward appearance. Instead make a right judgment.” – John 7:24

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Jesus instructs us in this passage, and also in Matthew 7, what proper and improper judging looks like. In the first place, we are not to judge as the pharisees did by one another’s status in life. For the Christian, a menial job is no worse or no better than an extravagant job. All labor is good and honorable for God’s children, and no one should be looked down upon by worldly standards. This also extends to how we may judge one another by appearances, such as Jesus discusses in John 7:24. Appearances do not make a person righteous or unrighteous, and thus we are not to judge one another by outward appearances, by opinions, or by looking at one another through colored glass. Any judging we do should only be by God’s Word.

However, the Scripture is consistent in saying that we ARE to judge doctrine and theology, that we ARE to judge and condemn false teaching, call it out, and diligently work to avoid it and teach others to do the same, and that we are to judge those false teachers and false prophets who insist on teaching such false doctrine. To let a false prophet have his way in the church, to go about teaching and practicing things contrary to God’s Word, brings division and strife to the church and does not lead to the saving of souls from hell. He is a blind guide, a liar, and in league with the devil and should be marked as such for all to recognize. This is the Word of the Lord.

But in relation to believers, we are not to judge. The world judges constantly because the spiritually blind see everything through jaded glass. They are unable to see or understand the truth which stands right before their eyes. Their hearts are bitter, and they burn with hate. They perceive others through this lens of bitterness and hate and see those whom they choose to resent as enemies and repulsive.

Only Christians see with clear lenses because their eyes have been made clear and bright by the Word of Christ. Christians see their enemies, not with hate or resentment, but with mercy and compassion. They wish no harm or evil upon even the worst of sinners. Should an enemy act bitterly or hateful toward a Christian, he will think, “What a miserable person who stands condemned before the Lord. I wish no further harm on him! If he remains on the path he’s on, he will belong to the devil before long. Instead, I will share the Gospel with him by helping him and treating Him as Christ has treated me. Perhaps he will repent of his wickedness and miserableness, turn, and believe.” Christians have compassion on their enemies and prayerfully hope for salvation. But all others, they view their neighbors with hate, envy, and pride.

This is why Jesus told the pharisees to stop judging by mere appearances and to make a right judgment. He was calling them to repent of their hate and wickedness, and to see who stood before them – God in the flesh – through clear glass. For just as the pharisees judged Jesus and his followers with hate, so too do the enemies of the Gospel hatefully judge us, who believe, as fools.

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“God’s truth judges created things out of love, and Satan’s truth judges them out of envy and hatred.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945)

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