Members of Calvary: The elders have decided to try Contemporary Services the fourth Sunday of each month. We ask everyone to thank all those involved for all their hard work.

The Combined Board will be hosting a PITCH-IN/COOKOUT THE LAST SUNDAY IN AUGUST (28TH) immediately following the Contemporary service. The service and cookout will be held in the shelter house right here on the church grounds. Grilled hamburgers & hotdogs along with drinks will be provided. Bring your family and friends and a dish to share. Enjoy a day worshiping our God in the great outdoors, the fellowship of our family and friends and playing games for all ages.

Chrissy Heiss will be installed as Principal of Zion Lutheran School on Sunday August 28th at the 10:30 service. Zion Kindergarten classes will be singing at that service. The Zion School Board has invited everyone to the Fellowship Hall following the service for a pitch-in meal and short program. Meat, drinks, and table service will be provided, please bring a dish to share.

Lutheran Federal Credit Union is designed with you in mind, with the added benefit

of support for the LCMS community nationwide including church and school, family members, and employees.

Checking Loans Credit/Debit Mobile Refinance Mortgages and Personal Cards Banking Savings & Auto

(844) 430-1563 or operations@lutheranfcu.org

Calvary Messenger

bringing you news of our congregation and God’s love.

Volume XIII Number 8 August 2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! August… 1 Samantha Morron 3 Wally Rader, Thomas Todd 4 Cindy Hunter 7 Jolene Roberts 8 Katie Evans 10 Jed Zumhingst 14 Bobbie Ames 15 Isiah Killion 16 Knox Mathews 23 Catherine Sutton 26 Tom Williams 27 Calvin Tussey 28 Eric Pace 30 Elizabeth Curtis, Denise Riker

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! August… 7 Scott & Jamie Nikirk 21 Mike & Debbie Hicks

2016 LCMS Stewardship Newsletter Article

“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift” (2 Cor. 9:15)! This is St. Paul’s

exclamation upon hearing the Corinthian church’s response to the preaching of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ and his request for support for the Church in Jerusalem. The

Christians in Corinth heard and received God’s mercy in Christ, and they responded

to St. Paul’s call to support Christians in Jerusalem with a collection. The

Corinthian’s joy filled Jerusalem’s need.

This is the reality of stewardship. Because of God’s generosity in the giving of His

Son to die on the cross for us, we are to be generous with all that we receive from

Him. What do we receive? Everything. All that we are and all that we have is the

Lord’s. He is the creator and the giver. We are His creatures and those who receive

what He gives.

It sounds easy. And it is. But then again it isn’t. Stewardship is easy because it God’s

work. Through what God gives, we give to others. Through what God gives, we

support the work of the church for the life of the world. He gives; we receive. And

like our generous Father in Heaven, we, as His children, use what He gives to us to

love and serve others.

But stewardship is also difficult. That is because it goes against our natural

inclination to think that what I have is mine to do what I want with. This is our sinful

nature. It is our selfishness and our greed. How can we who have been given

everything—life, food, clothing, house, home, forgiveness, divine sonship, an eternal

inheritance—be so stingy with what we give to the church, the place where we hear

about and receive all that God gives us and does for us? We are all guilty of this kind

of thinking. And the only godly response is to repent and trust in the Gospel.

For if God has given you His own Son, will He not give you all things? Yes. He will.

This is His sure and certain promise. God provides for His people. He provides

everything we need for this body and life and for the life that is to come.

The church is a mercy place. It’s a place where God’s mercy in the death and

resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, is given and received. For we who believe in

Christ, it means forgiveness, life, and salvation in the face of sin, death, and the

power of the devil. Here in the church we inhale God’s mercy in Word and

Sacrament, and exhale this same mercy in love and service to our neighbor. And that

is an enduring, joyful thing to do. Our joy fills our neighbor’s need because His joy

filled ours (Heb. 12:2). Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!

August 7 "The Word in a World of Words"

Lutheran Hour Speaker: Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz It's "Archives August" and Pastor Gregory Seltz revisits a classic

sermon by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

August 14 "In Spite of Everything"

Lutheran Hour Speaker: Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz "Archives August" continues, as Pastor Gregory Seltz preaches another classic sermon by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann. (Romans 8:28)

August 21 "Hope Not in Politicians"

Lutheran Hour Speaker: Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz "Archives August" concludes with a classic yet timely message originally presented by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann. (Isaiah 31:1-3)

August 28 "Boasting - Ridiculous or Real"

Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour: Rev. Dr. Ken Klaus Modern man boasts, "God is dead," but what have we gained from

such thinking? (Galatians 6:14)

“THE LUTHERAN HOUR” every Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m.

on WBIW 1340 AM or on the Web at: www.lutheranhour.org.

August 7, 2016 – Luke 12:22-31 “How Much More!”

by Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Ahlersmeyer, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN

The Gospel is good news to an idol-worshipping world that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Whatever

relationships or possessions we enjoy or aspire to experience in this life, how much more is the Savior who walks beside us and in whose light we will celebrate forever in eternal life.

August 14, 2016 – Hebrews 12:1-3 “Running the Race”

by Rev. Dr. Daniel J. Brege, St. Paul Lutheran Church~Decatur, IN

We may think that our Christian life is solely our accomplishment. We cannot run the race (the Christian life) at all without Christ. He is the author and perfecter of the faith, who for

the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross for our salvation. Fix the eyes of faith on Him, and your Christian race will be run by Him and through Him!

August 21, 2016 – Hebrews 12:18-24 “Three Mountains”

by Rev. Paul E. Shoemaker, Emanuel Lutheran Church~New Haven, IN

When Moses approached God on Mount Sinai he said, “I tremble with fear.” So it is when we approach God on our own. But God approached us on Mount Calvary to remove our fear by paying for our sins and offering us forgiveness. Because of what Jesus accomplished we

look forward to Mount Zion, our heavenly home.

August 28, 2016 – Luke 14:1-11 “A Son in the Well”

by Rev. James L. Elsner, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church~Stroh, IN

Have you ever fallen into a “pit” and couldn’t get out? There’s one pit we’re all stuck in. It takes Jesus to get us out. That’s God’s commitment to you!

Tel: (260) 471-LOVE (5683) † Toll-Free: (888) 286-8002 worshipforshutins.org † info@worshipforshutins.org

August 6 PRESCHOOL OPEN HOUSE 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Bring your child to the open house or call Janet (812-278-6521) to enroll your child for the 2016/2017 school year. Classes are limited to 18 children per class.

August 16 FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

KEEP THE CHILDREN SAFE God has placed these children in our care. In you need to ENTER the church building during school hours, please LOCK the door behind you and when you EXIT the building, please LOCK the door behind you. THANK YOU!

MATTHEW 5:1-12 NIV Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

PRAY for the Preschool children, the teacher, Janet and Tara, Pastor Greg, the parents and the congregation that this may be a blessed year of learning about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lutheran Ministries Media, Inc.

5 Martin Luther Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46825-4996 Worship for Shut-Ins Sermon Summaries

Everlasting Life and the Resurrection of the Dead

1 Corinthians 15: 20

“Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

There is a lot of interest in life after death. Hollywood has capitalized on this and makes many movies about life after death. There are movies about ghosts and movies about reincarnation. There are movies about and hell. Movies have been made giving the stories of people who claim to have died and went to heaven and then came back to life. There is even a movie planned about an atheist university professor who claims to have died and went to hell and came back to tell about it. Needless to say he is not an atheist anymore.

As a pastor I have met those who have claimed such experiences, those who claimed to have gone to heaven and those who claimed to have gone to hell. As interesting as these experiences our faith as Christians is not based on experience but on the Word of God. I don’t doubt these experiences but I am also called as a Lutheran pastor to base my faith solely on the Holy Scriptures.

What does the Word of God teach about life after death? I will not deal in this article with the fate of unbelievers but solely focus on the fate of Christians. The Bible teaches that your life as a believing Christian does not end in death.

But what kind of life awaits you after death? Since Jesus resurrection is the First-Fruits of the Christian afterlife, He is the prototype of that Life. In any harvest the later harvest is identical to the first-fruits.

The resurrected Christ was not a ghost who haunted His disciples. , Nor was He a disembodied spirit that floated among the clouds of heaven. Since this is not true of Christ, it will not be true of the Christian. Since Christ was raised bodily from the grave, so, also, will the Christian rise bodily.

One of the best sources for understanding our future resurrection is the fifteenth chapter of Saint Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul wrote these words to correct those Christians in Corinth who had fallen into the error of thinking the union of soul and body was a temporary arrangement and that after death they would be for all eternity bodiless spirits.

Now it is true that between death and resurrection their disembodied souls will know joyous rest in the Lord’s presence, this state will not endure forever. Contrary to what those Corinthians thought it was the disembodied state that was temporary. Like the Resurrected Christ, the Christian will be reunited with their bodies, and they will dwell with Christ in this incarnate state forever.

In the phrase, “who have fallen asleep;” a comparison is being made between the bodies of the Christians in death and those asleep. The point is just as a sleeper awakes and arises from bed, so the Christian will rise bodily from the grave.

This is important. God created human personhood as a union of soul and body. We are as much our bodies as we are our minds. Human beings are not complete without bodies. In promising bodily resurrection to the Christian, God is promising that our personhood will be whole and complete in eternity, and for us that involves embodiment.

This promise of resurrection is not a return to the bodily life we now have. In the resurrection we will not have farms and raise crops, we will not have wives or husbands. In the resurrection we will not give birth to children or raise families. The resurrection will be something quite different.

This difference is seen when we consider the resurrection of Christ. This resurrection is the “first-fruits”, even though Christ was not the first person to be raised from the dead. In the Old Testament the books of First and Second Kings record three people raised from the dead. In the Gospels, Jesus raised from the dead, prior to His own resurrection, Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus of Bethany. These resurrections were a restoration to bodily life. They returned to live in this world and would eventually die again. These are not at all like the resurrection we celebrate on Easter.

Jesus body was not just restored to bodily life but was radically transformed in the Resurrection. Jesus body was raised to the Divine glory that was His with the Father before the creation of the world. Sharing the glory of God His body was no longer subject to the limitations of this world. He would appear and disappear at will and locked doors were no obstacle.

Jesus was raised to a bodily life that transcends the limitation of the bodily life we have now in the bodies we inherited in Adam. In this same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, Saint Paul says that Christ in His resurrection “became a life-giving Spirit.” He does not mean a disembodied spirit but a body transformed in the Glory of God.

Saint Paul goes on to contrast the bodies we have received from Adam with the transformation of those bodies in the resurrection. It is written, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” Jesus is the man from heaven and our bodies will be completely transformed and bear His image. Jesus resurrection is the first-fruits of the Christians resurrection because He was raised to a bodily life transformed by the glory of God which in some incomprehensible way is both body and spirit. In this same chapter, the resurrection body of the Christian is described in this way: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”

Jesus resurrection is the “first fruits” of the Christian’s resurrection in that He is the prototype of the Christians resurrection because it is a bodily resurrection and also since it is more than a restoration to bodily life but a transformation of that life. There is one more thing I want you to consider in the relationship of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the Christian. Christ is the cause of the resurrection of the Christian.

In First Corinthians 15 it is written: “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Through Adam’s sin death came to humanity, and we like Adam are born as sinners headed for death. For this reason God sent His Son Jesus Christ to take on human flesh and make atonement for all sin, in order that we could be forgiven and have a share in His resurrection.

The Christian is in Adam by physical birth and thus the Christian is susceptible to death like everyone else. The Christian is also in Christ by spiritual birth. This spiritual regeneration given in Baptism and is received by faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, who conquered death and the grave and who brought life and immortality to mankind in His glorious resurrection from the dead.

There awaits for us dear Christian a glorious future. It is this good news that we must share with our friends, families and neighbors. It this that we are called to shout from the housetops.

See you in Church, Pastor Greg DeVore