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Opinion
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- Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol
Bruce Howell writes, a good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed and unappreciated heroes in all humanity.
Needless to say, I agree with that statement as I look each day at the fathers of this world, and especially those in this community who, for the most part, do everything they can do to do their best for the sake of their family.
That’s great, but we have a problem here with dads right here in the good ol’ USA … 35 percent of the kids in the US live in homes with no father. Can you believe that?
Look to these facts from a study done by, “The Fatherless Generation”:
– 63 percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
– 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
– 85 percent of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes.
– 80 percent of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes.
– 71 percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
– Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.
– Children with fathers who are involved are 40 percent less likely to repeat a grade in school.
– Children with fathers who are involved are 70 percent less likely to drop out of school.
– Children with fathers who are involved are more likely to get As in school.
– Children with fathers who are involved are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities.
– 75 percent of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes – 10 times the average.
– Over 90 percent of kids who do not have their father attend church with them will not go to church after they leave home no matter how often the mother takes them to church!
It is difficult for a child to communicate his or her belief in the one true God if they don’t see it coming first from their parents, especially the father.
How can we expect our children to learn about Jesus if they don’t attend worship because there is some sports event that takes priority?
How can we expect our children to adopt a healthy prayer life when we can’t even thank God for the bounty He provides for something as simple as the food on our table?
How can we expect our children to speak up about their salvation through faith in Christ?
So where is the good news in all this?
It would appear that our sin in life, our lack of ability to spread the good news by speaking out about it, is severely lacking at times. How do we find a sense of fulfillment, happiness and joy in this predicament?
The answer is knowing this, from Romans 3, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Thus, the task of the father in today’s society is exactly what it has been throughout history, to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that is drowning in sin as people search for happiness through false gods … money, power, prestige, self-glory, materialism and so on.
Our task as fathers, as Christians, is to seek the glory of God by sharing the joy of salvation with those who are lost in this community and in need of hearing of the hope and redemption offered through faith in Jesus Christ.
Please join us this Sunday at First Lutheran Church in Lucerne to hear more about fathers on this Father’s Day, 2018.
Bible Study starts at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., with lunch immediately following worship and our monthly Food Cupboard from 1 to 2 p.m.
All are welcome so come as you are and spend a few hours with us to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
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- Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol
You can do any of the following and with a repentant soul ask God to forgive and He will: Hate, lie, deceive, gossip, adultery, steal, murder, even worship false idols.
How about being part of a group of likeminded people plotting against others who don’t agree?
Family against family, husband against wife, wife against husband, friends against friends, us against them!
Even everyone against God! All forgivable!
Unfortunately, there is at least one instruction given to us by Jesus that is not followed as it should and it is to forgive as you are forgiven. But there is one sin that cannot be forgiven and that is to sin against the Holy Spirit as seen in Mark 3:29, “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.”
The LCMS position on this is, “Placing a target on the Holy Spirit and deliberately slandering Him implies that the person who commits this offense knows exactly what he is doing. The sin, therefore, manifests a heart hardened in impenitent opposition to the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Every effort on the part of the Holy Spirit to bring or restore such a person to faith in Christ is rejected, repulsed and repudiated.”
Does that mean we can we go around sinning to our hearts content, especially when it involves the willful destruction of another human being, and as long as we avoid degrading the Holy Spirit we expect God to forgive us?
Now isn’t that an interesting question for us to ask ourselves? Isn’t that just a challenge and a half as we think about all the times we have sinned against others in the past or have been the brunt of someone else’s sin and have not seen fit to forgive them?
We live in a world that is desperate need of knowing the forgiveness that God provides for all sin (Holy Spirit excepted).
In Lake County, we deal too often with the sin of judging others instead of helping others. We must never forget that we are all equal in God’s eyes and that whatever we do to help those in need is ultimately what we do to Jesus.
Matt 25:40, And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” If we help others, we help the kingdom with a heart for servanthood. That said, if we judge others, we judge God and the work of the Holy Spirit within us. We will talk more about the forgiveness of sin at worship at First Lutheran Church of Lucerne on Sunday, June 10.
Please join us for a contemporary worship service at 11 a.m. Bible study starts at 9:30 a.m., and lunch follows worship. All are welcome so come as you are!
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
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- Written by: Greg Dill
Brittle bones could shatter your life.
Every year, more Americans are diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to weaken and become more likely to break. You may not know that you have this “silent” disease until your bones are so weak that a sudden strain, bump, or fall causes your wrist to break or your hip to fracture.
Medicare can help you prevent or detect osteoporosis at an early stage, when treatment works best.
Talk to your doctor about getting a bone mass measurement. If you’re at risk, Medicare Part B covers this test once every 24 months (more often if medically necessary) when your doctor or other qualified provider orders it.
A bone mass measurement test helps to see whether you have osteoporosis or should be concerned about your bones. Some people call this test a bone mineral density (BMD) test.
A BMD test uses a special machine to measure the amount of bone mineral you have in a certain area of bone. Bone density testing can be done on different bones of your body, including your hip, spine, forearm (between the wrist and elbow), wrist, finger or heel.
A BMD test is safe and painless, and it provides important information about your bone health. Your healthcare provider uses this information to make recommendations to help you protect your bones.
If you are diagnosed with osteoporosis, your healthcare provider may order laboratory and other tests. These tests can help your healthcare provider find out if you have another medical condition causing bone loss.
Who's eligible for the bone test? All qualified people with Part B who are at risk for osteoporosis and meet one or more of these conditions:
– A woman whose doctor determines that she is both estrogen deficient and at risk for osteoporosis;
– A person whose X-rays show possible osteoporosis, osteopenia, or vertebral fractures;
– A person taking prednisone or steroid-type drugs or is planning to begin this treatment;
– A person who has been diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism;
– A person who is being monitored to see if their osteoporosis drug therapy is working.
You pay nothing for a bone density test if your doctor or other qualified health care provider accepts Medicare payment rates for his or her services and agrees not to bill you for anything other than the Medicare deductible or coinsurance.
Osteoporosis and the broken bones it can cause are not part of normal aging. And there’s a lot you can do to protect your bones throughout your life.
You’re never too young or too old to improve the health of your bones. Osteoporosis prevention should begin in childhood. But it shouldn’t stop there. Whatever your age, the habits you adopt now can affect your bone health for the rest of your life. Now is the time to take action.
What can you do to protect your bones?
Get enough calcium and vitamin D and eat a well-balanced diet.
Engage in regular exercise.
Eat foods that are good for bone health, such as fruits and vegetables.
Avoid smoking and limit alcohol to 2-3 drinks per day.
Medicare defines medically necessary services and supplies as those needed to diagnose or treat an illness, injury, condition, disease, or its symptoms and that meet accepted standards of medical care.
Your doctor or other health care provider may recommend you get services more often than Medicare covers. Or they may recommend services that Medicare doesn’t cover. If this happens, you may have to pay some or all of the costs.
Ask questions so you understand why your doctor is recommending certain services and whether Medicare will pay for them.
The short video below shows more about how Medicare can help you protect your bones.
Greg Dill is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
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- Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol
You may conclude it means someone telling you to get your rest this way: "I want to you to get up out of bed early on Sunday morning. I want you to go to church. While you are there, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down … that’s how Lutherans get their exercise!”
Doesn't sound like our idea of R&R, does it? And yet, the Lord commands us to remember the Sabbath day, worship and all; and He calls the Sabbath day a day of rest, worship and all.
Is worship about rest? Is the Sabbath day? Are we relaxed and rested when we leave church on Sunday morning? What is this third commandment about, anyway?
That commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." "Observe" it. On the seventh day, the last day of the week, the Israelites were to cease from their labors: no farming, no milling, no weaving, no work, period!
It wasn't just a rule for adults: it was for the children, for the servants, for all. The Sabbath was to be a day of rest and a day of worship. It is the Lord’s Day, not our day!
Why did God command them to rest like this? Some today say that this was God preventing his people from burnout; he was forcing them to put down their tools and do something else once a week, like praise God for the blessings He bestowed upon them. He was simply making sure that they didn't wear out their minds and bodies by overworking all the time.
He was building family time into the week by making sure that his people had one day a week to be together and focus on the King or Kings.
You can see, then, why the Sabbath would be the day for worship; as they remembered all that God had done, was doing, and would do, it was only appropriate to hear those promises in his saving Word, and to sing his praises.
The most obvious problem we have in society today is skipping worship, replacing it with something else on Sunday morning: an extra hour's sleep, more time at the office, a football game, kids’ soccer practice.
Whenever we replace the Sabbath day with something else that we deem more restful or more important, we are no longer treasuring it as we should. We are saying, "God is coming to church today with his Word and sacraments for me, but I have better things to do."
These other things are great temptations, because they can leave us feeling more refreshed in mind and body; they can trick us into believing that they did more for us than church would have. But those activities can't forgive sins, they can't give us rest for our souls.
In our towns here in Lake County, many are unchurched and need the rest that only the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding can bring.
That can come from not only attending church, but also supporting the church with your time, talents and treasures.
And that extends to your neighbor as well. Love for God, love for neighbor, all working together to let the hassles of life take a back seat for a change.
Join us at First Lutheran Church on Sunday, June 3rd to experience the rest that only worship, Word, Sacrament, fellowship and a hot lunch can bring.
Bible study begins at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., Sunday School at 11:15 a.m. and lunch immediately following the service.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.