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The Defeat of Death!

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“I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices.  Even my flesh will dwell securely because you will not abandon my life to the grave.  You will not let your favored one see decay.  You have made known to me the path of life, fullness of joy in your presence, pleasures at your right hand forever.” – Psalm 16:9-11

The Defeat of Death!

On April 10, 1912, in the north Atlantic, the Titanic struck an iceberg that would tragically and famously sink.  During its demise, a young Violet Jessup was ordered to a lifeboat.  The hope was that she could set an example, help calm fears, and demonstrate how to put lifejackets on safely.  She was even handed a baby to save!  

The year before the Titanic, she had served on the sister ship, the RMS Olympic, which suffered damage after a collision, and made it back to port.  And shortly after the Titanic, in 1916, in the midst of world war, she served on the hospital ship RMS Britannic.  This vessel would also face disaster.  It struck a German mine and sank in under 55 minutes.  Violet survived, at one point having to jump from her lifeboat as it was shredded by the large Britannic propellers.  

All of these events made Violet Jessup an exceptionally fortunate person.  God allowed her to dodge death on more than one occasion.

Would Jesus be so fortunate?  God’s plan for him would be different.  His goal was not to dodge death, but to face death and defeat death for our sake.  Psalm 16 was written by the inspired author David, but speaks to the life of Christ.  For example, in verse 5 the speaker remarks, “Lord, you are the cup that has been given to me.  You have secured an allotment for me.”  We may recall Jesus’ similar sounding prayer in the garden of Gethsemane as he makes ready to fulfill his heavenly Father’s will and to drink the cup of suffering before him.  

And yet Psalm 16 is often used in a celebration of the eternal life graciously given to us through Jesus’ work!  Both Peter in his Day of Pentecost sermon and Paul in the book of Acts, quote this psalm.  They both make a comparison: “David died…his tomb is over there…but God’s Anointed truly defeated death”.  Here is Jesus, the promised one from God who now resides in glory.  Our risen Savior now drinks from the cup of eternal joy.     He takes his rightful place upon the throne of David, no longer abandoned by his Father upon the cross extended, but lives today in eternal blessedness and in full control over his kingdom.  

And where Jesus goes, we will follow.  He has promised to return to take us there to be with him.  Just as his payment for our sin counted at the cross, so now his victory in eternity counts as ours as well.  David himself longed for that “fullness of joy in your presence, pleasures at your right hand forever.”  

Violet Jessup escaped the clutches of death again and again.  But she could not dodge death forever.  Neither can we, for like her, the wage of our sin is death.  And yet take heart!  As we walk through life, as we age gracefully or with illness upon illness, as we even face death itself – we need not be shaken.  For Jesus who has conquered death gives us the path of life and walks with us every step of the way.  This April we again marvel at the reality of his empty tomb and rejoice in word and song that “he is risen for me!”  May his good promises this Easter season make your heart glad as you rejoice in Jesus, the defeater of death and giver of life forever!  –Pastor David Horton

March Newsletter

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Pastor Walther

Psalm 103

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103)

Aristotle was still 600 years away from hypothesizing that the earth was round, and Galileo 2,200 years away from discovering that the earth revolved around the sun.  It would be three millennia before mankind finally left earth’s atmosphere and took to the stars.  And so, when David poetically spoke of east and west, he knew of no place where they ever met.  When he marveled at the heavens hanging over the earth, they would have forever seemed unreachable.  It led David to understand God’s love in a personal way.  Though his past was tainted by covetousness, theft, adultery, even murder!… still he lived with joy and not just guilt.  That’s because David saw he was still loved by God.  It’s what David expresses in Psalm 103:  God had removed his sin from him so completely that it was in a place that was literally impossible for David to get to.

It’s really no different today even when mankind has made it to space.  Our universe only stretches farther with every new invention that enables us to measure farther.  When the James Webb Telescope first went into operation to replace the Hubble Space Telescope, it famously fixed its eye on the deepest, darkest, most distant corner of the universe.  What did it find?  In a patch of sky that covers approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, there were thousands of galaxies.  Each with millions of stars. 

Now take those most distant galaxies floating 13.5 billion light years away.  It would take approximately 200 billion human lifetimes strung one after the other to travel there!  Oh, and that’s assuming we discover a way to travel at the speed of light.  With our most powerful rockets right now?  Increase that number to 200 trillion human lifetimes.  And when the next telescope discovers things even more distant?  Yeah, you get the picture… and we haven’t even discussed going in the opposite direction!

God does the same for you and me also.  He places our sins in a place that is literally impossible for us to get to.  Jesus carried our sins to that distant place through his work on the cross as our scapegoat.  Then he returned back across that infinite void of death when he rose from the grave to restore life to us.  It’s why you can be certain God loves you.  He has removed every sin from you.  As far as the east from the west and the heavens above the earth.  

As Strong or as Stubborn as an Ox?

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Pastor Nate Walther

“As Strong as an Ox.” It’s a saying we have for people who are really strong, and one I especially appreciate after living in North Dakota and serving ranchers. Once cattle have it in mind that they are headed in a particular direction? They are not easily stopped. Likewise, the men who wrangle such steers? Pound-for-pound the strongest guys I’ve ever encountered.


It’s an image that adds color to certain words of Scripture, but words that are not so complementary. Several times throughout his Word, God calls his people “stiff-necked and stubborn” when they have rebelled against him. The picture behind these words is that of an ox headed in one direction, who will not turn even when you try to lead him.


How often do our sins leave us “stiff-necked and stubborn”? Just like a stiff neck that grows worse every hour you sleep on wrong, so also is our stubbornness with every sin to which we succumb. The more we tread the same path, the more easily we walk in that same groove. And we’d like to think that we can break out of it at any time! Yet how strongly does our sin have a hold on us?


It’s why we needed help from someone who didn’t once veer into the cascading path of sin where one evil leads to a million. Someone as “strong as an ox”, at least compared to us, but who would only head in the right direction. And just like oxen were sometimes used for burnt (or, “whole”) offerings on Israel’s altars, which was supposed to represent total and complete dedication to the Lord, Jesus was the burnt offering that finally got the job done God’s way, without any blemish or defect.


Thank God for the strength Jesus has as our Savior from sin! Now, with Christ’s strength, we can now find the strength to walk like an ox, but not in a stubborn or stiff-necked way. Rather, the more we follow Christ’s Word and tread that path, the more strongly we will be able to remain on God’s path.

Let’s Go Fishing with Jesus!

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As Jesus was going along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.  – Mark 1:16-18

Let’s Go Fishing with Jesus!

The elusive musky was out there.  While growing up, my family had summer vacations at a lake in northern Wisconsin just outside of Eagle River.  The lake contained plenty of fish: perch, bluegill, and walleye.  The lake also had large muskies waiting to be caught.  Family members had landed them and I had seen one follow our lure all the way up to the side of the boat, but this trophy-fish had always escaped me.  Once, during dusk, I had a musky on the line.  It was lurking under the resort’s floating raft.  Unfortunately, it snapped the line just before we were able to get it into a net.  

Thankfully, fishing wasn’t my day job as it was for so many of the disciples.  Fishing was more than sport for them, it provided them with food and income.  In the gospels we find a good number of Jesus’ miracles in and around the Sea of Galilee involving fish.  Remember how the coin was found in the mouth of a fish, the unexpected large catch of fish, and the feeding of the 5000 all highlighted God’s will to provide what is necessary to sustain our lives.  

Fish are used in teachable moments throughout the Old Testament as well.  We find God undertaking great miraculous acts to save Jonah with a large fish.  In words of warning in Isaiah 50, God is able to make the rivers and seas dry up as the smell of dead fish serves as a sign of judgement upon the land.  And, in Ezekiel 47, life-giving water flowed freely from the temple into areas otherwise dead.  And in that water graciously given from God?  Large numbers of fish!  A picture of the abundance of God’s good blessings given to us both physically and spiritually.  

Such blessings to our faith are found in the saving work and living gospel of our Savior – which brings us full circle to Jesus and those fishermen on the shores of Galilee.  Called by Christ, these average Joes (who for the most part are largely unknowns), would become fishers of people.  Casting the nets of Jesus and his Word out into the sea of humanity, God will use his saving truth to convert and bring souls into his eternal kingdom.  

This is important work for both pastor and parishioner!  What an important job Jesus gives us to do!  And yet, so often we are fishing in life for things that serve me instead of him, aren’t we?  We fish for earthly wealth, security, comfort, and the praise of men.  God the Holy Spirit helps us cut those lines and serve Christ selflessly for the eternal good of others.  For when we are caught in the Word, then we are kept close to Jesus and have peace in his promises.  Our Savior wills this for us and for many more people to hear and believe and be saved.

It’s no wonder the early Christians used the symbol of a fish to identify one another in times of persecution.  Big fish, small fish, fish of all different kinds and in all different places: Jesus loves, values, and has saved human souls.  With this in mind and with help from God, let’s go fishing for people with Jesus!  

A Dove from Above

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After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water.  Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him!  He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and landing on him, and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my Son, whom I love.  I am well pleased with him.”  – Matthew 3:16-17

A Dove from Above

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Over the past few months there has been a lot of attention on Vatican City with the election of a new pope.  Inside of Vatican City rests St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church on earth.  And inside St. Peter’s Basilica, according to church tradition, one might find the remains of Saint Peter.  The impressive altar area includes a large Bernini sculpture.  And, within that creation, a central picture made out of transparent stone rises high above the work.  The image?  A dove from above.  With an end-to-end wingspan of six feet in length, focal acknowledgement is given within the artwork to the direction the Holy Spirit provides.  

And yet God the Holy Spirit needs neither the large church nor the most elaborate altar area from which to operate.  He often works through the humble and gentle whisper of gospel truth.  We find doves in the Bible representing such characteristics.  In the Old Testament, you may remember Noah sending out a dove from the ark which had been perched upon the mountains of Ararat.  And that the dove returned on its second trip with an olive branch – a sign of the receding floodwaters and peace after catastrophe.  Turtledoves were an acceptable offering for the poor in the book of Leviticus.  A reminder that God still provides for the lowly as he cares for even his downtrodden children.  And in Isaiah 60:8 we hear, “Who are these who fly along like a cloud, who fly like doves to their coops?”  This famous chapter highlights the work of our Redeemer Jesus, who breaks the natural darkness of a sinful world and shines his glory across the face of the earth.  The joyful soaring of the dove is part of the big picture as nature finds salvation, hope, and restoration in the Lord.

And certainly we find God the Holy Spirit’s presence and approval at the baptism of Jesus.  Here was the moment our Savior would begin his earthly ministry.  A mission that would win for us salvation at his cross and give us life through his rising from the grave.  The Triune God was there in that moment in glorious display.  The Father announced his Son and encouraged the world to hear Jesus’ words of life.  And the Holy Spirit descended as the dove from above.  His work would give peace and reconciliation to the world through the words and work of Christ.  What a moment!  And what a blessing for you and I still today!

For many of us, we won’t be in big European cathedrals this summer, but we may be in the grandeur of nature.  As stroll about, taking in even the birds of the air, think for a moment on this Biblical picture of a dove.  Remember the Triune God’s plan to win and secure your eternal life.  And rejoice that one day, we will get to be home with our Lord in heaven – a home far greater than the prettiest church or grandest scene in nature.  Heaven is yours all thanks to Jesus.

Turn on the Light!

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Most of you know that I’m not a fan of winter. I’m actually enjoying the mild winter we’re having so far. But I know what’s coming.

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Through the Looking Glass

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I’m guessing that most of you have heard of Alice in Wonderland. But did you know there was a sequel to that story?

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Confidently Sharing Jesus with Friends

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Does this sound like you?

“I feel guilty about not making a better effort at sharing my faith. I get so nervous because I am not sure what to say.

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Proverbs Part 5: Agur, Lemuel, and the Wife of Noble Character

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After you pass the Archive of Wisdom, chapters10-29, you enter the final two rooms of book of Proverbs: the writings of Agur in chapters 30 and King Lemuel in chapter 31.

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Proverbs Part 3: The Archive of Wisdom

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The middle section of the book of Proverbs, ch. 10-29, is filled with hundreds of inspired proverbs which apply wisdom and the fear of the Lord to any topic you could imagine—family, work, friendship, sex, marriage, money, alcohol, debt, you name it.

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