THE WEEKLY WORD: Do you believe this?

By Isaac Johnson, Pastor, New Hope Lutheran Church, Charles City

It was Wednesday this week. I got up early and did the usual morning routine with the family. It felt like a good day, but man it was going to be busy.

I had meetings in the morning (one was at Aromas, so that was a plus!) and meetings at night, but there were a couple of hours in the early afternoon where I could go home and spend a bit more time with the family. I knew I would be tired when I went to bed, but I would be confident that I did the best I could with a busy schedule.

Then I got the call. My Grandpa, Rev. Daniel Q. Johnson, had had a massive stroke, and most of his brain wasn’t functioning. He could still communicate, but that would soon go. I had all these plans, but the call came, and suddenly I had new plans. My priorities suddenly got reorganized.

Our lives are important. The jobs we have, the people we serve, the families we love, are all so important. But God uses times like these to remind us what is most important.

Our family has been gathered around Grandpa, reading Scripture and singing spiritual songs of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.

My Grandpa may pass away soon, but he will not die. He will merely pass from death to life, because He believes that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. He believes that Jesus died to pay for all of his sins and rose again that he may live. His treasures in this life are meaningless to him now, but he has a treasure that will never pass away.

I want that for you too. When your loved ones pass, when your hearing grows dull, when your eyesight fades, and your memory fails, I want for you to know the unending life of Jesus Christ that can never be taken away from you.

My daughter read John 11:25-26 to my grandpa, and asked him the most important question that we all have to ask, regardless of how busy things may get. I ask it to you now:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

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You are warmly invited to Sunday services at 9 a.m. at New Hope Lutheran Church, 607 N. Main St., Charles City, with Bible Study and Sunday School to follow.