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.

SACRED MUSIC STATION… You can listen to the best of the Church’s music for the past 2,000 years on Lutheran Public Radio.  LPR streams 24/7 at lutheranpublicradio.org, TuneIn, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomePod and the Lutheran Public Radio mobile app.

SCRIPTURE: “See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.” – Zechariah 3:9

---

An engraved stone and a promise that sin would be taken away in one day. This is a prophecy of the Christ who died and took away our sin in a single day. His suffering resulted in the forgiveness of sins. Isaiah wrote of this, as did Peter and Paul and John. This stone symbolizes Christ, the engravings symbolize His whips and bruises.

This promise given through the prophet Zechariah shows us that the old system, the priesthood, the temple, the animal sacrifices, etc. were not capable of providing forgiveness of sins. God did not save His people through these things. But only Jesus’ suffering and death can take sin away and nothing….NOTHING else. Good works, no matter what they are, are worthless and even sinful before God. We can stand, all we want, as the arrogant pharisee in the temple and say, “see, look at me, Lord,” and fool ourselves into thinking our goodness has earned God’s favor. But only the engraved foundation stone, the bruised and beaten Christ, can achieve forgiveness of sins for us.

And this is a strong and mighty forgiveness! God achieved it in a “single day.” This means it is a once for all accomplishment, all done at once and forever. His death means forgiveness and reconciliation for the whole world, from the very beginning until the Last Day. God didn’t want to continually arrange for more forgiveness of new sins on a daily or yearly basis, as was the case under the old system. Those miserable people had to make satisfaction for their sins through daily or yearly sacrifices and worship. But in Christ, all sins are forgiven “in one day,” that is to say, His forgiveness is enough forever. As the author of Hebrews writes, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).

---

---

“We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.“

— A.W. Tozer (d. 1963)

---