The word “January” is taken from the Latin “janua,” meaning door or portal, from which one may look both ways.  The Roman god of beginnings, “Janus,” faced both directions.  This month that rings in a New Year really isn’t just about the future.  It’s also about the past, which plays a big part in things to come.   

We begin a new church year in the Lord, looking into the future while knowing our past, and it begs the questions, “Can we expect Crown of Life to bloom in 2012?” “How well did we till the soil and plant the seed of God’s Word in 2011?” “Have we prepared ourselves for what lies ahead in 2012?” An honest evaluation might be scary. It might even hinder growth in our church. 

Be warned, Satan uses this to hinder our growth. He tries to fill us with a hesitation that keeps us from taking chances with the Word, changing sinful habits, sharing our faith. All the while we think we’re being faithful to God, others and ourselves but we’re really being faithless.  Words like “I could never” or “He’ll never” and “There’s no way” and “Not me” rule our decision-making, and God watches with disappointment, actually disgust and anger, as his children act like cowards, missing all the blessings he had in store for them. 

Peter learned that lesson well when Jesus told him to get out of the boat and walk on water.  Peter had no doubt gained experience with the water and knew its buoyancy limitations.  But the next few steps of Peter’s life were not to depend on Peter or water, but on Jesus. 

Take another look into the past and see where you’ve been blessed in ways you simply hadn’t anticipated or arranged.  Go further into the past and see how God opens up opportunities for his people even when they have personally paved their way into a dead end.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End,” Jesus promises us (Revelation 22:13).  

The months and days of 2012 have much to do with the past, specifically God’s six day creation, the days of our birth, and the week of Christ’s Passion. Jesus Christ has been there in the past, choosing, rescuing us and giving us life. Jesus Christ paves the way. Blessings and challenges abound. Blessings amid challenges abound.

Our next steps in 2012 don’t depend as much on us as they do on Jesus.  He’s already been anywhere we are.  He is always with us in whatever condition we might be.  He will always be ahead of us leading the way safely home. So, people of God, look both ways and boldly step into the New Year. Jesus has us covered. In His Service,

Pastor Martin Luchterhand 

A Big Reason to Give Thanks

During this Thanksgiving time of the year, may we remember to give our Lord thanks for the abundant blessings of our Lutheran heritage. Read the thoughts below from someone who has journeyed from Evangelicalism to confessional Lutheranism.

What follows is the blog of a self-described “disgruntled Evangelical” named Doug Cohenour, who had left Evangelicalism in search of a new church home. His and his family’s search from church to church finally ended at a confessional Lutheran church. Mr. Cohenour publishes a Christ-centered response to those who have become “disgruntled” with Lutheranism. Here’s an excerpt… (From The Shepherd’s Study, website maintained by Jeremiah Gumm, a WELS pastor. http://shepherdstudy.wordpress.com.)

Search for Christ

“You have probably heard it before, but it bears repeating; there are no perfect churches. As long as there are people involved, there will always be something that we can find to be unhappy about. Lutheranism, for all of its faults, is one of the last refuges of truth in our day and age. The church at large is disintegrating. It is on the decline. If you care about the church, about doctrine, about fidelity to God’s Word, about faith in Christ alone for salvation, and about all of the things that mark the true church, you are in the minority. I have seen enough evidence of this trend over the last 20 years to convince me that we live in a time of decline for the church.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. I believe this. But He also wondered if He would find faith on the earth when He returned again. I wonder this myself. Before you reject Lutheranism, maybe it deserves a fresh look. Perhaps you are disgruntled because you do not really know what your church teaches. It may be that if you gain a fresh perspective on the doctrines of the Reformation, the Lutheran Confessions, The Word of God, and the finished work of Jesus Christ on your behalf, that the Lutheran church will not seem like such a bad place to be after all.

It’s really all about Jesus Christ and what He has done. It’s not about you, or professional clergy and their vision, or synods and their decisions, or the politics of your local church. Your personal worship preferences are not relevant, and neither are your felt needs. Being turned inward on yourself leads to being disgruntled. Search for Christ instead. Look for the place where you get the most of Christ, Jesus, in all of His fullness, crucified for you.

You will find this in the churches of the Reformation. You will find this in confessional Lutheranism. For where Jesus is, there is life and salvation.”

Pastor Martin Luchterhand 

This will be my final newsletter article. Next month you will be greeted by your new pastor, Pastor Martin Luchterhand. The good thing is that there will be no interruption of ministry here at Crown of Life. The same truth of the gospel will be preached and taught in the future as it has in the past. Souls will still be fed and nourished with the same forgiveness that Jesus purchased and won for every sinner by His death and resurrection.

   Do we always cherish what that means? Do we consider as often as we should how blessed we really are to be the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior? That is a blessing we never want to take for granted. Can you imagine what it would be like to be without Jesus, without faith, without any hope of a better life to come?

   That is also why it is so important that we faithfully continue to use the Word and sacraments that the Lord provides for us through His called servants. It is through these means the Holy Spirit continues to do His work in us of preserving and strengthening our faith so that we will always be ready for the time He comes and calls us out of this life.

   The last words of the Bible are these: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen” (Revelation 22:20-21). It is Jesus Himself speaking these words through the pen of the apostle John. The word “Yes” is actually the word “Amen”. It is a word that means “truth”. Another way of putting it would be “It is true” or “You can count on it”. Yes, truly Jesus is coming soon. That “soon” can be anytime for any one of us or any time for the entire world. It’s a tremendous promise for the believer and a warning for the unbeliever. That is why the church of believers responds to the Savior’s announcement with the words “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”. Truly, we want You to come, Jesus – the sooner, the better. That is when we will finally be delivered from all evil and live forever in glory.

   And then John concludes the Bible with the blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” That is also my departing prayer and blessing for everyone who reads these words. May the grace (or undeserved love) of our Savior continue to be with you always. As He gave His life to save you, may you continue to trust in Him alone for your salvation. May you continue to faithfully serve Him with your life. Then we all will be reunited again permanently in that glorious home that our Savior has prepared for us. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

   I also want to add my sincere thanks to:

All who have been faithful these past four years in their attendance at church, the Lord’s Supper, and Bible classes. That is the greatest joy for any pastor’s ministry;

• All who have used their time and talents to attend meetings and serve as officers, on committees or boards, and in many other ways at Crown of Life;
• All who have been so supportive of my ministry as well as myself and my family;
• All who participated in any way in the retirement service and celebration, the retirement gifts, and with their cards and best wishes.

   The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you always. Amen.

Pastor William Balza

We may not think it, but our synod convention has a lot to do with Crown of Life and our mission as a congregation. Every odd year the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) holds a convention at one of our worker-training schools. There are about 400 or so delegates who attend the convention, representing each of our twelve districts. Representation includes pastors, teachers and lay delegates, all of whom are elected on a rotating basis. One of the delegates at the convention this year will be our member, Brian Kopp, who will be serving as the lay delegate from our circuit.

This year our synod’s biennial convention will be held July 25-29 at Luther Prep School in Watertown, Wisconsin. The purpose of the convention is to review the work that has been done during the past two years, take a good look at the resources that are available for the work that needs to be done in the coming two years, and then approve a budget that will respond to the opportunities the Lord has placed before the convention.

Your pastor was privileged to serve as one of the pastor delegates at the synod convention in 2009 at Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan. That was actually the third convention I have been privileged to attend as a delegate. The other two were in 1979 and 1993, both of which included the election of two of our last three synod presidents (Pastor Carl Mischke and Pastor Karl Gurgel). Most pastors are fortunate if they are elected to serve at two synod conventions (about once every 20 years or so).

While our synod has held conventions since its inception in 1850, the first “synod convention” was actually held many years before in the year 50 or 51 A.D. The convention was held at the “mother church” in Jerusalem. You can read all about the convention in Acts 15. Delegates were mostly from two congregations at Antioch and Jerusalem. They include the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul among others. The main issue which came before the convention was deciding whether Gentile believers needed to be circumcised or not in order to be saved. After much discussion and debate the decision that was reached was that they did not need to be circumcised but that they should “abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood” (v. 20) so as not to offend the Jewish believers among them with some of their former heathen practices.

That decision was important. It upheld the Scripture teaching that we are saved alone by the grace of God through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Works of the flesh (like circumcision) do not save and do not even help along in saving us. Delegates to that convention set the tone for every synod convention in the future for our own synod. All the decisions which are made at our synod conventions are to be in keeping with the true Word and teaching of the Bible. But, like in the case of that first convention, when we stay true to the Scriptures, then we also have a message that will be worth sharing with the world. And that, too, is the purpose of every synod convention – to seek ways that we can reach out with the gospel message of Jesus to all people.

The main work of our synod is 1) support the expansion of mission work in our country (home missions) and throughout the world (world missions), 2) support and maintain a strong system of training future pastors and teachers to go out with the message of the gospel, and 3) assist congregations in carrying out their mission by providing the necessary resources.

Our congregation is blessed to be a part of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. May we all pray for our synod convention this month and the delegates who will represent us so that decisions may be made to the glory of our God and to the spread of the good news about Jesus and the salvation He has won for all people by His atoning sacrifice on the cross and triumphant resurrection.

Pastor William Balza

By the time I had reached the age of 37, I had moved a dozen times in my life. A part of that was because my dad was a traveling salesman and he would often be transferred from one place to another. That is one reason I had not lived in any one home up more than seven years. I pretty much took moving in stride as it happened so often. Then my family moved into a large two-story, four bedroom home where we lived for the next 28 years. As you can imagine, we were pretty much settled in by the time I accepted the call to Crown of Life and moved again. It was not only a bit of a culture shock to move from the Midwest to Florida in July, but just the chore of moving after all those years in one place was overwhelming. Needless to say, we had to do some major downsizing.

Now again we are on the move to a new rental home here in Fort Myers and more downsizing (that’s good!). But I am not just telling you a little about my life history. My life is somewhat unusual in the sense that I have never lived in a home that I have personally owned. It’s either been homes my parents owned, the schools I attended, or homes provided by the congregations I have served. Even now, we will only be renting.

But that reminds me of some people in the Bible. In Hebrews, chapter 11, we hear of a number of people who lived “by faith”. Many of them lived in tents most of their lives and had no permanent place of residence. They traveled from place to place wherever the Lord would lead them. This is what the inspired writer says about them: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Whether we own our own homes or not, every believer in Jesus is an “alien and stranger” on this earth. We have no permanent home. And that’s because we too are “longing for a better country – a heavenly one”. That is the home that Jesus went to prepare for us when He offered Himself as the sacrificial payment for our sins and then rose again in victory to reserve a room for us in His Father’s house in heaven. Our future is secure because Jesus has made it secure for us. When we move on for the last time, it will be to take up permanent (eternal) residence in our real home. But until that time we continue to move on from day to day, home to home, with our eyes fixed on Jesus as our Savior and with lives that seek to live each day for Him in grateful love.

As my wife and I move on, we do so with the words of our wedding verse in mind: “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

I’m but a stranger here; Heav’n is my home.
Earth is a desert dreat; Heav’n is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand Round me on ev’ry hand.
Heav’n is my fatherland; Heav’n is my home. (Hymn 417, v. 1)

Pastor William Balza

On this Mother’s Day, we thank the Lord for the gift of life though our mothers. When we see and hear of mothers who abort their children, we are saddened by this lack of respect for God’s precious gift of life. At the same time, we thank the Lord that He has given us life as our time of grace to seek and find Him as our Savior and Lord (Isaiah 55:6). We honor the Lord through our mothers and the love and care which they give to those whom the Lord has given to them. “May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!” – Proverbs 23:25

From the Editor’s Desk

We had a different editorial prepared for today’s issue. But the news of the events of yesterday changed our plans.

With great interest we had followed the capture, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. After He was buried on Friday, we turned to other things. But early yesterday morning word came to us that Jesus had returned to life.

What the events of the past weekend will mean to the world is rather difficult to ascertain on the day after Christ’s resurrection. From this vantage point it appears that we can expect great things. Some of the faithful followers of Christ remember the many prophecies concerning the Messiah’s coming. Yesterday’s events, according to reliable reports, indicate that the Messiah is none other than the risen Christ.

We are told that over two thousand years ago the Lord reminded Abraham that the members of the Lord’s church would be as numerous as sands upon the seashore. Does that mean that the message of the Messiah would cover the whole earth?

It is reported that, on last Thursday night as Christ met privately with His disciples in the upper room, He prayed to God saying, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message.”

Could it be that the news of Christ’s resurrection will be proclaimed throughout the world?

Will the message of Jesus Christ invade the powerful strongholds of Greece and Rome?

Is it possible that the risen Christ will become more important than the god Jupiter, or that Socrates and Plato will fade before this One who said, “I am the Son of God”?

It might be well that we all heed the words of the angel, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

Author unknown

The above is presented with the prayer that the blessings of Easter may continue in your life and that you may also take this message to others that they, too, may know the joy of the Easter good news.

Pastor William Balza

Most Christians know that Easter is the most important day of the entire church year. Every other Sunday revolves around Easter. That is why each Sunday is sometimes referred to as a “mini-Easter”.

Easter, of course, is the day Jesus rose from the dead. The Bible states that “(Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). We might compare what happened to Jesus to what we do when we go to a grocery store. After we pick up our groceries and take them to the check-out counter, the cashier scans our groceries and tells us how much we owe. That is the PRICE for our groceries. We pay the cashier what we owe. That is the PAYMENT that we make. But after the payment is made, the cashier may give us our change and our groceries. But there is one more thing we want to have. That is our receipt. The receipt is our PROOF OF PURCHASE      .

On Good Friday Jesus died on the cross. His suffering and death and the shedding of His innocent blood was the PAYMENT for all our sins. Because Jesus made the payment on our behalf, for our sins, there is nothing more that we need to pay. There is nothing that we can pay. Jesus did it all for us.

On the third day Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection was God’s way of demonstrating that He had accepted the payment that Jesus made for us. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is our PROOF OF PURCHASE. Jesus redeemed (bought us back) from our sin, from death and from the power of the devil. Because of that payment that Jesus made for us, God has now “justified” us or declared us to be “not guilty”. We are forgiven. And that means we have the certainty of eternal life through Jesus. “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

No wonder Easter means so much to the Christian. It is our day of victory. “Because I (Jesus) lives, you (we) also will live” (John 14:19).

On Easter we decorate our church with flowers, most of which are white (the Easter lily). White is the color of joy and celebration. It is also the color of purity or holiness. Because Jesus died and rose again, all our sins are forgiven and, through faith in Him, we are cleansed, purified, of all sin.

Easter is also the symbol of new life from the dead. As believers in Jesus, we have a new life. It is the life we live by faith in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Each day of our lives, we want to live for Him to show our love and gratitude for all that He has done for us.

May our Easter celebration again this year bring renewed joy, celebration and life through our risen and glorified Savior – JESUS CHRIST!

Pastor Balza

This month of March marks the beginning of the most solemn time of the church year. It is the season we call Lent (Lent comes from an old English word which means lengthen, referring to the lengthening days as we approach springtime – Easter, the conclusion of Lent, is always in the spring of the year).

During the season of Lent we focus our attention on the passion of our Savior. His passion refers to His suffering and death for our sins. The word also has the idea of a deep love for someone. And that, of course, is what Jesus has for you and me. He has a love so deep that it thirsts for our salvation. That is why He was so willing to humble Himself and become obedient to death, even death on a cross for our sins.

Our readings for Lent (especially our special midweek services) are based on some of the saddest moments in the history of the world. Our hymns for Lent are also more solemn, reflecting the mood of the season. But while we view our Savior on His way to the cross to suffer and die in our place, we must also do so in anticipation of His glorious victory over sin, death and the grave with His resurrection from the death on Easter morning. It is only when we see what our Savior was willing to go through for us that we will truly appreciate the victory celebration of Easter and its foretaste of our even more glorious victory celebration forever in heaven.

The Lord bless our journey to the cross and beyond this month of March.

Pastor Balza