​      Tomorrow you and I will join millions of Americans across the country who will head to the polls to elect various people to serve in positions of authority in our states and country.  To say that this has been a contentious election season is an incredible understatement.
   The anger, insults, accusations, and general unkindness that we have seen from people of all political affiliations has left many people wishing that the Chicago Cubs win in the World Series last week would have immediately been followed by the end of the world and Jesus’ return.  It would have made the election a moot point.  However, that didn’t happen. The good news is that we can stick around and continue to celebrate the first Cubs World Series victory in 108 years.  The bad news is that we are still faced with difficult election day decisions.
      A question I have heard quite regularly during this election cycle is, “Who should I vote for?”  The candidates that have been presented to us have both left something to be desired. I have heard people say, “I don’t like what this one said, but….” Or “I don’t like what that one did, but….” People are trying to come to some sort of decision, but for many it has been difficult.
     I don’t believe it is a pastor’s role to tell people who to vote for specifically.  That’s not what this post is about.  It is about encouragement and things to think about as you head to the polls.
     I’ve been reminded recently about the verse that is at the top of this post.  What we, as Christians, need to remember first and foremost is that this is God’s world.  He is ultimately in charge no matter who is elected. This has been true since he created the world and will continue to be true until he returns.  Our hope and trust is not and should not be in the rulers of this world.  They are sinners just like us and they will fail. 

Here are some things to think about:
 

1. Pray -- Before you go to the polls I encourage you to pray.  Pray for wisdom and understanding as you seek to make the best decisions possible.  After you leave the polls and every day after the election, I encourage you to pray for wisdom, humility, and guidance for those who are elected to positions of authority.  I know this is a lot easier to do if your candidate is elected, but as Christians we are called to pray for those in authority no matter what their political affiliation.   Paul tells us this in 1 Timothy 2: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,  for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
   
   
2. Remember -- Remember that God is in charge.  No matter who is elected this year, God is still in charge.  That doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect and that our leaders will always make decisions that please God – remember they’re still sinners.  What it means, though, is that at the end of the day all that matters is your salvation and that was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross and the outcome of the election won’t change that.  The Psalmist continued after the verse above by saying: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.” Our eternal hope is in God and not in the rulers of this world.
   
   
3. Love – Jesus was once asked to pick the greatest commandment.  His response was “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Many people will be happy with the outcome of this year’s election and many will not.  Regardless of who wins, our responsibility as Christians does not change.  We are to love our neighbors as God has loved us.  This doesn’t, however, mean just the neighbors with whose ideals we agree. In Luke 6:32-33 Jesus teaches us this when he says, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” As Christians we are called to love others with a love that this world would think of as strange.  A love that knows no bounds. A love that doesn’t expect love in return.  A love that was first shown to us when Jesus Christ came to die in our place and forgive all of our sins.

 
So as you head to the polls tomorrow (or today), pray for God’s guidance for your decisions and for his guidance for our country, remember that he is in charge and that this is his world, and love your neighbors today and every day. 
 
God’s Peace!

Maybe you're familiar with how the "call process" works.  Maybe you're not.  We've reached that time of the year again when the seminary sends the concluding class out into the real world to finally put into practice all the things that they've been taught during their four years at the seminary.  

Here's a quick overview of the process:

1. The seminary program to become a pastor is 4 years long.  Three of those years are in the classroom and one of them is on a year long internship (vicarage)
2. At the end of the 4th year all of the students are placed as pastors into current churches, church planting situations, or mission opportunities. 
3. We have two people at the seminary who are responsible for the placement process.  They conduct interviews with us during the fall of our last year.  These interviews give them the opportunity to get to know the students better.  They also identify skills, weaknesses, and ministry interests as well as personal preferences.  All of this information will be taken into account later when it is time to make the final placement decisions. 
4. Congregations within the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod who need a pastor submit their request to the seminary. 
5. If a student is interested in a sole position (being the only pastor of a church) this is where the process usually ends.  The placement director has all the information he needs to make the placement.
6. If a student is interested in a team ministry (multiple pastors in a church) or a specialized ministry then he will have the opportunity to interview with potential churches or ministry organizations. Both the student and the congregation have the ability to provide feedback to the placement director after the interview in order to help with the placement process. 
7. The placement director gathers all of the information available to him and makes initial matches between congregations and students. All of these placements then go to the "Council of Presidents" ** who are familiar with the congregations in their districts and determine whether or not it is a good fit.  
8. Once the Council of Presidents has given their approval to the assignments the process is completed.  This just happened this weekend (April 25th). 
9. Assignments are announced at a special service on Wednesday, April 29th at 7pm.  This is the first time that students and congregations find out where the students have been placed.  This service can be viewed live online at http://callday.csl.edu 
10. Students must satisfactorily complete all of their academic requirements before they can officially be installed at their new congregation.  


If you have any questions or if anything is unclear please feel free to ask. 



**There are 35 districts within the LCMS which represents over 6,000 congregations and over 2 million people

I wrote this on the evening of November 1, 2010 after receiving a phone call from my dad informing me that my grandfather had died somewhat unexpectedly.  It is something I'm reminded of on every "All Saints Day". 


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The title of this note is "Funny the Way it Is".  Now if you are a Dave Matthews fan you may recognize that as the title of a song off their most recent album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.  It is a song about the highs and lows that can occur simultaneously throughout life.  It was the first thing that came to my mind tonight as I was pondering today's events.  

Historically in the Church November 1st has been set aside as All Saints Day.  This is a day to commemorate all of the saints who have gone before us.  Now when we talk about saints we're not talking about those select few who have gone through the multi-year process to be officially recognized by the Pope as being "worthy" to be called a saint.  Instead we are talking about all of God's redeemed people who have been saved by Christ's death on the cross and adopted as children of God through the washing of Holy Baptism.  God's redeeming work makes us all saints.  

"Funny the way it is" that on this day where we commemorate those who have gone before us, the appointed Psalm for All Saints Day is Psalm 150 (ESV) which reads:

1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!  4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

Now that seems like a strange choice for a day that is used to remember our loved ones who have died in the faith. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting.  It seemed even more odd considering that late this afternoon I received a phone call from my dad telling me that my Grandpa Schlund had died suddenly just moments before.  Now Grandpa had been moved into hospice care so his death was not completely unexpected, however the doctor had given him about 6 months to live so we weren't expecting it quite this soon.  He had just celebrated a birthday last week and I had spoken to him on the phone and told him that my brother Andy and I were planning on joining him and the family for Thanksgiving in a few weeks.  He sounded really good and was really excited that Andy and I were coming to visit.  

As I read the Psalm tonight, I thought, "That's a whole lot of praising that the Psalmist tells us to do which comes at a time where praise may not be the first thing on my mind" -- the world definitely wouldn't expect a whole lot of praise in this situation.  But then I thought of all of the things that we had to praise God for today and every day.  We can praise him that Grandpa didn't have to suffer to the point of death, we can praise him for sending his son Jesus into the world to redeem the world, we can praise him for adopting each of us, Grandpa included, into his family and claiming us through baptism, we can praise him for the impact that Grandpa had on many other people around him, and we can praise God for the countless blessings that he bestows on us each and every day.  

Now on a day like today which is set up to remember the Saints who have gone before us we must be careful that our focus remains in the right place.  Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us about the "great cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us, but goes on to remind us to continue "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our Faith".  It is not the witnesses that God has placed around us that we should exalt and praise but the one to whom they witness -- Jesus himself.  While Grandpa was a great witness of the faith that he had, our hope and our comfort doesn't come from him being a witness. No, our hope and comfort comes from the source of grandpa's faith and the one he was witnessing about -- Jesus Christ.  Without Christ's suffering and death on the cross in full atonement for our sins and his subsequent resurrection from the dead where he overcame sin, death and the power of the devil, we would have no hope, but thanks be to God that he overcame all of that and secured for us life eternally with Him in Heaven. 

Finally, we must remember Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 4 that remind us how the Christian mourns at the death of a loved one -- not as one who has no hope, but as those who celebrate the joy of the resurrection and cling to the hope of everlasting life!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-20 (ESV)

 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.


"Funny the way it is" that we have much to praise the Lord about on this seemingly sad and mournful day, just like the Psalmist said we would! 

Rest and peace -- two things that seem to be lacking in our lives. Our readings this week tell us where we can find rest and peace that won't fail!

Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9–12
Epistle: Romans 7:14–25a
Gospel: Matthew 11:25–30

God doesn't always work in the ways that we think he is going to.  This week we see a showdown between a false prophet and a real prophet of God.  Paul tells us why the law isn't such a bad thing after all.  And Jesus has some radical words about conflict because of him.

Old Testament: Jeremiah 28:5--9
Epistle Reading: Romans 7:1--13
Gospel: Matthew 10:34--42

LCMS Congregation Locator: http://locator.lcms.org/search.asp 

And now for something completely different….it is arts and crafts time.  As you probably know if you’ve looked at my blog before, I generally write about theological topics.  My intention was always to write about other things, but I haven’t really kept up with that very well.

Today that is changing.  (At least for a day)  I’ve always enjoyed doing arts and crafts.  It is probably due to my mom being a teacher and using those kinds of projects to keep my brothers and I entertained when we were kids.  I’ve always wished that I was more artistic, but I do enjoy trying.

A couple of weeks ago someone gave me a couple of spools, balls, I’m not sure what you call them, of yarn.  They just happened to be in the colors of my alma matar, the University of Nebraska - Kearney.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the blue and gold yarn, but I figured I’d eventually find some project. 

Last week on one of the local morning shows they were interviewing a woman who was sharing fun projects to do with the kids this summer using stuff you might have around the house.  One of the projects caught my eye and was the perfect way to use the yarn.  I found it to be a nice, relaxing project that even allows you to take out a little stress with a hammer.

The neat thing about this project is that the sky is the limit in terms of what you can create.  You control the size of the wood, the pattern, and the colors.  If you can imagine it then you can probably create it. It is also an easy project to do while you're watching TV or a movie.  

Supplies Needed: 

• a board (should be at least an inch thick because you’ll be nailing into it.  I bought a 1x6x8 board at Lowe's.  I figure I can make at least 3 different things if they’re 2’ long.  More if I cut them to shorter lengths.  You can use whatever you have or buy for what you want to make) 
  
• Nails (Make sure you get them shorter than the thickness of your board.  I made the mistake of not doing this and was constantly pounding them back through from the back.) 
  
• Yarn (Whatever colors you want to use for your design) 
  
• Spray paint (Use this to quickly paint your board whatever color you’d like.  You could use a stain or varnish too I suppose.) 
• Your pattern (You can print this off from your computer.  Use a shape, multiple shapes, letters, whatever you want. Just make sure it fits on your board)
  

1)   Decide on a design.  Like I said, I started simple.  I had the blue and gold yarn which were the colors of UNK so I knew my design would be something to do with the school.  I figured the letters were an easy first try at doing this.  Print your design off.  Each letter fit on a single piece of paper in portrait orientation. 

2)  Cut your board to the size that you want to work with.  I cut 2’ off the board that I bought.  The nice thing about the 1x6x8 board is that it is easily cut with a handsaw.  You don’t need any power tools for this project.  

3) Spray paint the board with whatever color(s) you’ve chosen.  The spray paint I bought was fast drying and was dry and ready to go in about 10 minutes.  

4) Align your patter on the board after it has finished drying. 

5) Add at least four nails to hold the pattern in place so it doesn’t move while you’re adding the other nails.  

6) Add as many more nails as you need to complete the pattern.  Remember that you’ll be wrapping the yarn around the nails so you’ll want to leave a little space to get in-between them.  The number of nails isn’t really important and can be a way to add your own touch to whatever you’re designing.  

7) Once you’ve added all of the nails you can rip the pattern off. 

8) Use your yarn to wrap around the nails.  You can do whatever kind of pattern that you want.  You can put an edge on it, create a pattern from side to side, be creative!  Don't be afraid to unwrap it if you don't like how it looks and try again.  I did that a couple times.  

I decided to go pretty simple for my first try and I think it turned out well.  My next attempt will be a yellow board with blue yarn in the shape of a Loper head. 

If you try this, post a picture and let me know what you do.  

This week we move into the second half of the church year and see the theme of trust weave it's way through our readings!

This week the spirit is poured out on 70 Elders tasked with assisting Moses as the Israelites journey through the wilderness. The apostles recieve the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire on their heads, and Jesus speaks of the Spirit which is yet to come.

Send me your questions:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @TallT84
Or leave them as a comment here

This week's readings:
Old Testament: Numbers 11:24–30
2nd Reading: Acts 2:1–21
Gospel Reading: John 7:37–39

This week Paul takes a trip to Athens and teaches the Greek philosophers about the "unknown god" for which they have an altar. Peter tells us to be prepared to suffer on account of our faith and to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that we have in us. He reminds us that in the same way that Noah and his family were saved through the ark, we too are saved by our baptisms that connect us to Christ's death and resurrection. Finally, in John, we hear Jesus give us a promise that the Father would send the Holy Spirit.

This week's readings:
1st Reading: Acts 17:16-31
Epistle Reading: 1 Peter 3:13--22
Gospel Reading: John 14:15--21

Next week's readings: 
First Reading: Acts 1:12-26
Epistle Reading: 1 Peter 4:12-19, 5:6-11
Gospel Reading: John 17:1-11

Send in your questions:
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@TallT84
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