Kimberly's Message

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Redeemer Lutheran Church - LCMS

Kimberly’s message

Promises

Promises. Every day we hear about promises. Promises politicians and presidents make. Promises we make to ourselves about losing weight, not working such long hours, and so on. Promises we make to our spouse. Promises we make to our children. Promises we make to friends and family. Promises, some would cynically say, that are made to be broken.

When we’re honest, we can admit that we aren’t good at keeping the promises we make. We try to downplay our failures, saying, “I couldn’t have know that such and such would prevent me from going to Betsy’s orchestra concert,” or “George should have known I wouldn’t be able to do everything I said.” We justify our sinful actions towards others. We also justify breaking the promises we make to God. In confirmation we promised to faithfully receive God’s gifts by regularly attending the Divine Service and supporting the Church with our prayers—and tithes. We promise to treasure our spouses as a gift from God yet many times fall short. We promise to make sure our children grow in their baptismal faith by bringing them faithfully to the Divine Service and Sunday School, yet vacations, sleep, and “busyness” keep us from doing that.

Let’s face it, we humans are promise breakers.

Thankfully, we serve a God who is anything but a promise breaker; in fact, He’s the ultimate promise keeper! Way back in the Garden of Eden, before He punished Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit, He gave them the promise of a Savior, one who would crush the serpent’s head. He promised to save Noah and his family from destruction in the Flood. He promised to bring Abram safely to a new and unknown land. In that land God promised Abraham a son in his old age and that through him all nations of the earth would be blessed. God promised to be Jacob’s God wherever Jacob roamed—and whatever trouble he found. He promised that He would bring His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He promised to send prophets to lead His people after Moses. He promised that a scepter would rise from Jesse, that David would never fail to have a descendent on the throne of Israel. He promised that the virgin would conceive and bear a son, that a Child would be born to His people that would be their true and eternal Prince of Peace. He promised that He would be “Immanuel”—God with us. He promised that He would save His people from their sins. He promised that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. He promised that He would rescue us from all that can hurt us—sin, death, and the devil.

God kept all of these promises in the birth, life, and death of Jesus. Everything God promised of old has been fulfilled. We know that He will come again, and we rejoice with all the saints in heaven and on earth that our God is mighty to save and faithful in the face of our unfaithfulness. He has redeemed us lost and condemned sinners, purchased and won us from all our sins, from death and from the power of the devil, that we should be His own and live under Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. Though we fail Him, He will not fail us.

What a wonderful promise to celebrate this Christmas season!

In Gods grace,

Dcs. Kimberly