“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”     – 2 Timothy 3:14-17   

          Paul writes these words to encourage a young pastor whom he mentored and trained, Timothy, and the encouragement that he gives him here is just the encouragement that I would give to you.  “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed…”  Sometimes we get distracted.  Sometimes we get discouraged.  Things happen and we lose our focus or our drive to keep at something that we have held to be important.  Here, what Paul urges Tomothy to continue in is his study of the Scriptures, and as summer winds down now and we enter into the Fall season I would encourage you in the same.

            Paul gives some good reasons for studying the Scriptures.  First, they are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  It is from the Scriptures that we learn the truth of who God is, how He relates to us and what our condition is, what He has done about our dire condition, and what hope we have because of what He has done.  There is information that we need to know and learn that is integral to what we believe!  But this is not all!  God’s Word isn’t only information that we learn so that we know what we need to know, it is also what God uses to work on us—to shape our knowledge and our behavior and life.  As St. Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”  God’s Word teaches us what we need to know, and then it “re-proves” it lest we turn aside from it in order to strengthen us in our faith.  Then, when because of our sin and the temptations of this world we turn aside from it, it corrects us (literally straightens us up again—rectifies us), and it trains and disciplines us so that our life matches what it says.  God’s Word works on and in us so that we know what we need to know and live how God designed us to live.      

          We have come to that time in the year when we are starting up new Bible Studies, so I am writing this to encourage you to continue in what you have learned, and to help your children to continue in God’s Word too.  This starts with gathering regularly to hear the Word of God and have it work on us in the Divine Service each week. I would encourage you also to get up a little earlier and join us for Sunday School and Bible Class at 8:45.  There is age appropriate teaching and training for children and youth, and for the adults we will be going through the basics of the Christian faith using materials that my dad used and received from a mentor that he had early in his ministry.  We will use this together with Luther’s Small Catechism and other resources to help us “continue in what we have learned and believed.”  This class will also be our new member class, so if you come you can get to know some of the people who are joining the church and help encourage and welcome them.  In addition to our Sunday study, if you are able to come out on Thursday morning at 10:00, we have a large group that gathers to study together.  We will be carefully walking through the Book of Hebrews which is a sermon to encourage us.  On Thursday evenings from 6:45-8:15, please bring your 3^rd-8^th graders for Weekday school (3-6^th grade) and Confirmation (7-8^th grade).