For Christ's sake it has been revealed to us that God does not want to be known as Judge, but as Creator and Father.

The Christian Questions in the Small Catechism are great questions. They're like a review of everything that makes us a Christian. They remind us what our problem is and how God saves us.

On the cross, God for sinners. A man bleeding and dying. Both at the same time. And now, in church, where His Word and water and body and blood are. There, Jesus is present. Not just present in our “hearts” but in a real and actual way through His gifts.

But you are already holy. After all, you're baptized into Christ. That means you are covered with Jesus. The same Jesus who died on the cross to actually take away your sins.

When your pastor walks out into the church on a Sunday morning, hear Malachi's words about God sending a messenger. There he is. And he is going to announce the good news of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus' sake. He's also going to get you ready for when Jesus comes the final time. And you'll be ready and rejoicing to see your Lord.

In the end, and there is a coming end, when bread and its security fails, when the economy collapses under the weight of its own greed, when the idol of Mammon is finally exposed as the worthless fraud that it is, when we have lost everything including our own life, there at that end is only Jesus who will not fail us, who will welcome us to His table, to an eternal feast that He prepared for us by trading His life for our lives.

Trust God's promises -- not what your eyes tell you. No matter what happens to you. No matter how many times you stumble, how many suspicions you entertain, or the heaviness and sadness your doubts, failures, and bratty whining may cause you, simply trust that somebody else by His death and Resurrection has put you right with God.