Dearly beloved congregation,
By God's grace it is our privilege to host the 111th annual convention of our Apostolic Lutheran Church of America in St Cloud, MN on June 27-30, 2019. We have chosen as our theme, "Come to the Table" which encapsulates the invitation that God through His Son Jesus Christ issues to all people everywhere. These words of invitation are taken from a song by the Sidewalk Prophets by that name, "Come to the Table."
It is our desire and our prayer that in most of the Sunday morning messages from now until the convention in the last part of June that this theme of "Come to the Table," will be in the forefront. As we spoke of last Sunday, our Lord uses the everyday and natural things of life to illustrate and to point to the greater things of life which are spiritual. We remember of how he came to the fishermen and their boats and used their occupation as a hook to reveal to them of their higher calling; A Fisher of Men.
Do we not all understand what it is to eat and to drink of those things which our body needs to be sustained in life? Jesus connected this natural eating and drinking with the spiritual, as he referred to the manna that God's people had eaten in the wilderness for 40 years as they traveled on the way to the Promised Land and then pointed to Himself as the Life Giving Bread.
John 6: 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Dear Lord, thank you for inviting us to your table of grace and of forgiveness through Christ. And, Lord, give us your heart for those who are hungering and thirsting, but are not being filled. Help us to be constant in prayer for our upcoming convention in all its planning, preparation and provision. Above all, Lord, cause us to come to your table, freely and boldly so that we may eat and drink of Christ and be filled in Him and with Him.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
Pastor Orval