Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Amazed at the Price Jesus Paid to Save a Sinner Like Me!

 

Dear Fellow Children of God, 

 

Do you know the TV show, “The Price is Right?”  I did some research.  This game show first aired from 1956 to 1965, and was then brought back again in 1972.  It is still running today, over 50 years later.  The Price is Right is one of the longest running shows on television. That may be a surprising way to start a devotion.  However, please consider how the contest works.  Contestants have to figure out the retail price of an item and compete against other contestants to see whose guess is the closest.  Or in other words, “What is that item worth?”  So, . . . I have a question for you, “What is our forgiveness, our salvation worth?” 

 

We are in the midst of Holy Week for 2025. It began with Palm Sunday on April 13. During Holy Week the Christian Church will observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday this coming Sunday, April 20.  If you participate in Holy Week worship services, and I encourage you to do so for the benefit of your faith, you will walk with Jesus through His Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, and through His disputations in the temple with the religious leaders.  If you participate in Holy Week worship, you will watch Jesus as He celebrates Passover and institutes the Lord’s Supper.  You will again observe as Jesus prays in agony in the garden of Gethsemane, as Judas betrays Him, as Jesus is arrested, and as His disciples dessert Him and run away.  Perhaps you will again be shocked as Jesus is put through a sham trial, as He is beaten and whipped, as He is nailed to the cross and dies in agony. 

 

In the game show, The Price is Right, contestants try to figure out the value of an item.  But, how much are you worth?  What is the cost of our forgiveness? What Jesus endured during Holy Week shows us how much God values each of us.  Jesus willingly accepted this Holy Week gauntlet of suffering in order to pay the debt and the punishment for the sin of the world, and to pay for our sin.  That is how much God values us!

 

Scripture also gives us more insight concerning the price God paid to save us.  Consider the words of St. Peter.  “ . . . you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)  The price which God paid for the debt of our sin is the blood of Christ, is the suffering and death of the promised Messiah!

 

God moved St. Paul to write in Romans 5, 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:6-8)  The death of Jesus reveals the depths of God’s love, even for sinners who actually deserve punishment and death. Yet, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

John 3:16 also teaches the price our Heavenly Father paid for our forgiveness and salvation. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  The Father gave HIS SON! That is the price our Father paid to save us!

 

I am praying that the depth of God’s love, the love we see especially during Holy Week, travels from your head into your hearts. In Ephesians 3 Paul prays 14  . . . I bow my knees before the Father, . . . that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  (Ephesians. 3:14, 17-19)  Paul’s prayer moves me.  I also pray that my family, my friends, and the members of churches I have served, know the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ.

 

How much does God love you?  What are you worth to our Heavenly Father? I encourage you to participate in worship this Holy Week.  You will be amazed at the depth of God’s love for you, at what you are worth to our Creator, and Lord, and Savior.

 

A Child of God, Amazed at the Price Jesus Paid to Save a Sinner Like Me!

Pastor Rockey

 

P.S.   I continue to serve as part-time assistant pastor at First Lutheran Church in Gainesville, Florida, with Pastor Chris Kollmann.

Kathy and I will return home to Alaska on May 5.

 

·       HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

 

Palm Sunday

10:00am with Communion

(Gather in the courtyard at 9:45am with your Palms.

Palms will be available at the Welcome Table located by the main door under the breezeway)

Open Arms Children will have a special message during the Children’s Message

 

Maundy Thursday

Noon and 7:30pm Worship (both services with Communion)

Passover Dinner at 6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall

 

Good Friday

Noon and 6:30pm Worship (no Communion either service)

(No dinner this evening.)

 

Easter Morning Worship

8:30am Worship with Holy Communion

9:30am Easter Morning Breakfast

10:00am Easter Egg Hunt

11:00am Worship with Holy Communion

 

 

·       Our the Adult Membership Class on the Basic Teachings of the Bible concluded this past Saturday, April 12.  Four people from this class will join First Lutheran on Easter Sunday, April 20.  They are Merlyn Dungey, Madeline Franklin, Yusheng He, and Susan Lucas.  Here is a picture of all who attended the class.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/H3NzNdhB9QdLTmoZ8

In addition, we will be receiving Sunny Vickers, her daughters Lynley and Emma, and her dad, Cecil Anderson on Easter Sunday as well.  😊

 

·       Jonathan Albertin, Patrick Bier, and Will Starr left on April 5 to drive to St. Louis, MO, to attend the “Vocatio” Retreat for prospective seminarians at Concordia Seminary.  They arrived home on Tuesday, April 8.  Here are a couple of pictures of these young men at the seminary.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/ixB78PAEiZ4qm7qa7

 

·       SUNDAY SCHOOL IS IN FULL SWING until May, and it is GROWING! Children begin in worship at 10:00 a.m..  Early in the service, after the Children’s Message, children leave for a Sunday School lesson, for a craft, and a snack. 

Parents, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts, Neighbors, PLEASE bring your children to Sunday School. 

THANK YOU Sunday School Teachers and staff!

 

·       COLLEGE STUDENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS meet on Tuesday nights in the student house at 7:00 p.m.  We are studying “The Case for Christ” and discussing defending our Christian faith in a world of doubt.  On Tuesday, April 22, we will watch a movie based on this book.  Come and join us!   

ALSO, there will be College Lunch for students in the Fellowship Hall after worship.

·       WE CONTINUE TO READ THROUGH THE SCRIPTURE IN 2024 and 2025 using the “Today’s Light Devotional Bible.”  On Wednesday, April 16, we read through Hosea 12.

Feel free to contact Pastor Rockey at 907-841-4066 if you have any questions about these readings.  Or send an e-mail question to jonrock53@mtaonline.net  I have recently received questions and comments.  It is always good to consider our Lord’s love and guidance. I will TRY to answer, but some things only God knows!

 

 

P.P.P.S. Fishing and Family Fun:

 

·       Fishing –

o   Because of my auto accident, I had to use my rental truck to tow my boat for fishing.  However, my trailer ball bar was too small for the receiver on the truck.  Here are pictures of the insert which allowed me to tow my boat. 😊  https://photos.app.goo.gl/949qkYpXBLEZEHPM6

 

o   I went fishing on Thursday, April 10, at George’s Lake, and I caught 7 fish, and kept a limit of small fish.  Here are some pictures.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/BUxUkdQ91bTSFbZAA

 

o   On Sunday, April 13, I went fishing at Orange Lake after worship.  It was a beautiful day and I caught 2 nice fish.  Here are some pictures.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/1Nu79Mbd5QYqEFUAA

 

o   On Monday, April 14, after a game of golf, I went fishing for the first time on Lake Wauburg.  Here is the only picture.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/pubZ9Fm78ijgjQdj9

 

 

 

 

*******

 

ABOUT THIS DEVOTION - I retired at the end of August 2019 from serving as full-time senior pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer, AK.  I was writing a weekly devotion previously entitled, "Thoughts from the Pastor."  When I retired many asked me to continue writing these devotions.  So I have continued writing.  However, with life's changes I now call this weekly devotion "Journeys Through Life as a Child of God."  Since I am no longer senior pastor at St. John, I felt it right to only send this message to those who asked to receive it.  (However, I am currently as Vacancy Pastor for First Lutheran Church in Gainesville, FL.)

So, if you stopped receiving these devotions and wondered why, now you understand.  And, if you are now receiving these devotions and do not wish to receive them, please let me know, and I’ll gladly remove your name from my distribution list.  My e-mail address is jonrock53@mtaonline.net.

My prayer is that these devotions help each of you in your daily walk with our Lord, Jesus.

 

                                                                        *******

Jonathan Rockey

Child of God

Husband, Father, Son, Grandfather

Vacancy Pastor, First Lutheran Church, Gainesville, FL

Pastor Emeritus, St. John Lutheran Church, Palmer, AK

 

 

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 a)

 

 


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