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May 2026 Newsletter Article

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13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: 15 wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. 16 The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. 17 There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers.

(Psalm 104)

If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to feel upbeat during this time of the year. Even all the rain and severe weather can’t dampen the welcome change from  winter as the world turns green around us.

We can explain it, of course.   As the earth revolves around the sun, the earth’s axial tilt slowly causes the sun to rise higher in the northern hemisphere, which causes warm, moist air to move north from the Gulf of Mexico and displace cold, dry Canadian air.  This battleground of low pressures brings storms to our skies and water to our fields.  Combined with the rising temperatures and longer days, it also prompts the plants to do what they are designed to do. (And we could say so much more about the wonders of biology and photosynthesis!)

All of which is very true… but can we see something greater in it?  For all the    wonders that science reveals to us, it cannot remove the miracle from the      equation.  As our Psalm reminds us, it is truly amazing what God has done, putting this system into place and providing for us as only he can do!  

That is especially true when you consider it doesn’t have to work out so well.  We see plenty of things fall apart in a fallen world.  Whether it’s an issue with your kids, your job or your health, or one of those dreaded home & auto issues, our lives can feel so broken at times.  Similarly, what’s to stop sin from causing the world’s hydrological cycle quickly to spin out of control? If that happened, life would quickly cease on this planet!  But God steps in, God stops sin, God keeps it all working.

All of this is anchored in the greatest miracle God ever performed.  We can similarly explain our salvation: there are fancy theological terms like propitiation or vicarious atonement, and we could calculate our sin & Christ’s sacrifice in almost mathematical terms.  But more than that, take a moment right now to think about the miracle that Jesus accomplished for us at the cross and empty tomb.  Then, as this Psalm bids us to do, simply marvel: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15)  Amen.    

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.  

No Sin, No Service

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Have you ever seen a sign that says, “No Shirt. No Shoes. No Service.” I don’t see them around much anymore but growing up they were quite common in restaurants in northern Wisconsin.

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