Friday, 22 November 2024

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Well, the journey of living grace continues for one more week.

When Christians departed their respective churches on Easter morning that day they did so saying, “Go in peace and serve the Lord, thanks be to God.”

The challenge we are left with then is to make everyday Easter and live in the grace that God has provided us through faith in Jesus Christ.

On Easter we reflected on the joyous celebration of the grace given to us through the empty tomb.

But in the church universal, the week after Easter morning we typically are faced with a doubting grace by the disciple who is forever labeled doubting Thomas.

Every Easter Sunday, pastors face the reality of a text the following Sunday that is specific to doubting Thomas and as the years go by it seems to become more and more difficult to talk about doubt, especially as it pertains to the one guy who was singled out as the “bad” guy who doubted Christ’s resurrection.

This, when every single one of them doubted. Remember that?

They were in the room the day Jesus came through the door. And they were there because they were all scared and they all doubted.

Not one of them would believe that Jesus was raised unless they saw Him, yet not one of them would be called doubting. Only Thomas would be labeled forever as the one who doubted.

And so here we are, saying to ourselves, what do we tell folks about doubt that hasn’t already been told? What more can be said that they haven’t already heard?

We’ve talked in past about needing proof for everything in order to not doubt. If you want me to believe in this grace thing, then I must be able to either see, touch, smell, hear or taste it. That’s it! It must be within the confines of my senses. So, we want proof.

If you want to see proof, look at creation, if you want to touch it, caress a newborn baby, if you want to smell proof, stand in a field of wildflowers in the springtime, if you want to hear it come to church on Sunday, you want to taste it come to the Lord’s table and embrace the reality of the means of grace in action – your sins forgiven. What else do we need to know?

It seems that we are all doubting Thomases at one time or another. We look around our community and we see doubt everywhere … I doubt we can ever recover our county, I doubt the homeless situation will ever be resolved, I doubt the people will ever start taking care of their properties, I doubt Lake County will ever be great again.

I disagree.

The scripture passages about doubting Thomas results in his renewal and I believe that we can make Lake County great again.

We are going to start with our little church in Lucerne and pray that will prompt others in the county to do the same. New paint, new roof, cleaning up the overgrown brush, cutting down old trees, planting flowers, maybe even getting the parking lot fixed up a bit. It starts with one effort and multiplies from there.

Stay posted and tell your neighbors as we plan a community “paint party” and get the church looking like it should, then carry that drive on so that the whole community is looking like it should.

The end result of doubt when it is proven erroneous is hope, enthusiasm, renewal and a desire to make change happen.

Join us as we move forward with eliminating doubt and getting things done.

We will talk about this further on Sunday so please join us at First Lutheran Church.

On Sunday, Bible study starts at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m. and then lunch after the service.

All are welcome so come as you are and get to know us better.

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
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Bruno Sabatier. Courtesy photo.


Dear Lake County District 2 residents,

My name is Bruno Sabatier; I am seeking your vote for District 2 supervisor.

The city of Clearlake is moving forward, improvements are happening in the city and I have been central to that change.

The Clearlake economy growing beyond estimates, new businesses are opening, investors are knocking at our door and the future looks brighter than ever. I have been an active participant in this change and can help the unincorporated county with similar change.

When city economies grow while the unincorporated county falters, something is clearly not working. The current way of doing business is not working; a fresh set of eyes can find new ways to solve our problems.

Here are some of my ideas.

In order to turn Lake County around, we must improve educational offerings, build up our economy, and take real action to solve the problem of homelessness.

Local programs to prepare residents to assume vital county positions can be implemented at the two colleges. Assessors, planners and a wide spectrum of skilled workers can be developed right here, in our colleges.

Vocational training should also be offered to those in our jails. The incarcerated can become productive members of our local communities by being treated as valued members of society. Those in jail deserve a chance to land on their feet, not on their backs.

We can build a robust economy. We can be open for business. Consistent and increasing revenues are a necessity to provide the services a county should afford to its residents.

Marketing agritourism can boost our agricultural commodities including grapes, walnuts, pears, and more including and our new legal industry of cannabis.

The majestic scenery we enjoy and our agriculture present a valuable opportunity. Our potential for successful agritourism is near limitless, if only we exploit it.

The issue of homelessness cannot be ignored, hoping these unfortunates will simply leave without addressing the root causes will not resolve the situation. We can formulate solutions without a free hand out but a hand up.

Project Restoration in Lower Lake is a perfect example of how tackling the issue head-on creates financial benefits, rather than choosing to ignore it. We can expand this and similar programs. Doing so will create a pathway to transition into normalcy and reduce costs for all of us.

Increased educational access, executing a plan for a robust business economy, and embracing solutions for our homeless will create a strong foundation for us to succeed.

I am committed to fighting for these changes.

On June 5, vote for progress, vote for prosperity, vote for Bruno Sabatier.

Bruno Sabatier lives in Clearlake, Calif., where he serves as mayor.
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Greg Dill, Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Territories. Courtesy photo.


Starting in April, Medicare will mail new Medicare cards to all people with Medicare, to help protect you from identity fraud.

Fraudsters are always looking for ways to get your Social Security number, so we’re removing those numbers from Medicare cards to make them safer.

Your new card will have a new Medicare number that’s unique to you. The new card will help protect your identity and keep your personal information more secure.

You can start using your new card as soon as you get it. Your Medicare coverage and benefits won’t change at all.

Medicare will automatically mail your new card -- at no cost -- to the address you have on file with Social Security. So make sure your mailing address is up to date.

If your address needs to be corrected, contact Social Security at ssa.gov/myaccount or 1-800-772-1213. TTY users can call 1-800-325-0778.

If Social Security has your current mailing address, there’s nothing else you need to do to receive your new card.

Mailing everyone a new card will take time. Your card might arrive at a different time than your friend’s or neighbor’s.

Once you get your new Medicare card, take these three steps to make it harder for someone to steal your information and identity:

Destroy your old Medicare card right away.

Doctors, other health care providers, and health plans approved by Medicare know Medicare is replacing the old cards. They are ready to accept your new card when you need care.

Beware of anyone who contacts you and asks for your new Medicare number, personal information, or to pay a fee for your new card. There are no charges whatsoever for the new cards.

Guard your card. Treat your new Medicare number like you treat your Social Security or credit card numbers. Only give your new Medicare number to doctors, pharmacists, insurers, or other people you trust to work with Medicare on your behalf.

Medicare will never call you uninvited and ask you to give us personal or private information to get your new Medicare card.

Scam artists may try to get personal information (like your current Medicare number) by contacting you about your new card. If someone asks you for your information, or for money, or threatens to cancel your health benefits if you don’t share your personal information, hang up and call us at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

Your new Medicare card will be paper. Paper cards are easier for many providers to use and copy, and they save taxpayers a lot of money. Plus, you can print your own replacement card if you need one.

Carry your new card and show it to your health care providers. Doctors, other providers, and health care facilities will ask for your new Medicare card when you need care.

If you forget your new card, you, your doctor, or other health care provider may be able to look up your new Medicare number online.

If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan (like an HMO or PPO), your Medicare Advantage plan ID card is your main card for Medicare – you should still keep and use it whenever you need care.

However, you also may be asked to show your new Medicare card, so you should carry this card with you, too.

If you don’t get your new Medicare card by April 2019, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048.

Greg Dill is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
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Identity theft is the unauthorized use of another’s identity to commit crimes or for financial gain, like opening accounts, filing taxes, or making purchases. Unfortunately, it can happen to anyone.

In 2017, it was the second most reported complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with more than 370,000 reports from consumers nationwide (up from the #3 spot in 2016).

Thankfully, there are steps you can take to mitigate your risk. According to the FTC, it’s important to “shred receipts, credit offers, credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks, bank statements, expired charge cards and similar documents when you don’t need them any longer.”

Worried that your identity has been compromised? Be on the lookout for these clues that someone has stolen your information, from the FTC: unexplained bank account withdrawals; missing bills or other mail; calls from debt collectors about debts that aren’t yours; unfamiliar accounts or charges on your credit report; medical bills for services you didn’t use; health plan inaccuracies; notices from the IRS that don’t apply to you; and notices that your information was compromised by a data breach.

If any of these warning signs apply to you, don’t panic. Visit http://identitytheft.gov , the U.S. federal government’s one-stop resource for identity theft victims. You just have to answer a few questions about your situation, and you’ll receive a personalized recovery plan. It includes streamlined checklists and sample letters to guide you through the recovery process.

To further protect yourself against identity theft, secure your information offline with these tips from your BBB:

– Limit what you carry. When out and about, only take what you need – leave your Social Security card behind. Lock up financial documents, records, and anything containing sensitive personal information in a safe in your home. Lock up your purse or wallet while at work as well.
– Keep an eye on your mail. Use a secure, locked mailbox if possible. If you don’t have a locked mailbox, take sensitive outgoing mail to the post office or to a post office box and pick up incoming mail as soon as possible. Only order new checks to your home if you have a secure mailbox.
– Don’t overshare. The FTC recommends that “before you share information at your workplace, a business, your child’s school, or a doctor’s office, ask why they need it, how they will safeguard it, and the consequences of not sharing.” This is especially true for your Social Security Number (SSN). Ask if you can use a different kind of identification, although sometimes you will have to share your SSN. Be careful sharing health plan information, and destroy the labels on prescriptions bottles before throwing them out.

Rebecca Harpster is communications supervisor for the Better Business Bureau, serving the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern Coastal California and based in Oakland.
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Christ has risen, he has risen indeed, hallelujah! Christ has risen, he has risen indeed, hallelujah! Christ has risen, he has risen indeed, hallelujah!

Living in grace because the tomb is empty. You may be thinking, how in Heaven’s name does an empty tomb tie to living in grace?

My friends in Christ, it has everything to do with grace.

A lot of people think that grace was what Jesus did on the cross and there is no doubt that is the case, but when you think of the second half of what Jesus did for us after He took our sin upon Him and went to hell to dump them where they belong, He came back and made it very clear that this Grace isn’t just forgiveness of sin, but also everlasting life.

That promise was fulfilled when the stone in front of tomb where He was laid to rest miraculously rolled away and He walked out, alive.

You don’t see that happen too often anymore do you? Someone in the tomb for three days and – bingo! – up He gets and out He walks?

It was one day shorter than Lazarus was in the tomb, but Jesus was playing a part in that one as well.

Remember Lazarus?

Max Lucado says this about Lazarus: “What Jesus did with Lazarus, he is willing to do with us, which is good to know, for what Martha said about Lazarus can be said about us too, ‘But, Lord, it has been four days since he died. There will be a bad smell.’ Martha was speaking for us all. The human race is dead in sin, and there is a bad smell to it. We have been dead a long time. We don’t need to fix us up; we need someone to raise us up. In the muck and the mire of what we call life, there is death, and we have been in it so long we’ve grown accustomed to the stench. But Christ hasn’t. And Christ can’t stand the thought of His children rotting in a cemetery. So, He comes in and calls us out. We are the corpses, and He is the corpse-caller. We in fact are the dead, and he is the dead-raiser. Our task is not to get up but to admit we are dead. The only ones who remain in the grave are the ones who don’t think they are there.”

“The stone has been moved. “Lazarus, come out!” He yells. But today is the same as then for He still calls out, ‘Larry! Connie! Sue! Mike! Chris! Come out!’

“The question for us all is this - will we come out?”

The stroll Lazarus took from the grave would ultimately lead to a return to the grave at some point. He would die again but live again as well.

The stroll Jesus called Lazarus to take from the grave was a stroll to eternal life, a promise to all who believe that their sins are gone, and the way has been paved for salvation.

Although we will die on this earth it was this stroll of Jesus from the grave that assured us of continued grace and certain salvation.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time to lead by example as we change this community for Christ and to do so, we have to first live in the grace He has offered us, so we are protected from the evil that seeks to destroy us.

We must embrace each other in love and live each and every day in God’s grace. When that happens, this community will flourish once again.

We will talk more about this at First Lutheran Church on Easter Sunday.

The day begins with Bible Study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., a hot Easter lunch after worship and an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids at 1 p.m.

Please come as you are and join us for this wonderful day of celebration.

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
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Good Friday is a very sacred day. It is the one day of the year where the altar in many churches is stripped bare, reminding us of what Jesus did for us on Good Friday almost 2,000 years ago.

The black cloak draping the cross reminds us of the darkness that beset the land that day. The dark clothes worn by clergy remind us of the solemn nature of this day as we mourn the brutal death of the One who chose to die rather than have His beloved lambs go to slaughter themselves.

It is a day to mourn. It is a day of sacrifice remembered. It is a day to be forever embraced by the reality that, on this day, when Jesus died, grace was born, and it became, for all who believe in Him the guarantee of eternal life.

Grace is the word we will forever use to define just how amazing it really is. Good Friday is the day we remember what it really means to live in grace by sacrifice.

On the day Jesus died, the word grace was defined forever. It was on that day He spoke seven sentences from the cross.

Those seven last words said everything that needed to be said about grace, but the ones that defined grace most clearly to us were the first three.

With spit landing on His body, with jeers pelting at His ability to maintain sanity, with the pain vivid on every part of His body, he rises above everything and says to those who are doing everything to degrade Him to the lowest of low, when He should have called on the legion of angels and said, “Kill them all!” He instead says, “Father forgive them.” That’s grace!

In the second word from the cross, when the thief next to him, you remember him right, he’s the one who shouted obscenities at Jesus at the beginning but who suddenly felt the presence of God in his life for the first time, realized this man on a cross next to him was the true definition of grace, He was God Himself … remember that thief – we ought to for we are him.

This crook in dire straits for everything he did all his life to deserve his fate and at the point of death, reached out from the tumult and asked for forgiveness to be given, Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” That’s grace.

When Jesus saw His mother in agony and His beloved disciple there trying to comfort her, Jesus looked beyond the fact that this followers had betrayed Him by running away when Jesus needed Him most, looked beyond the fact that this man still hadn’t figured things out despite what he had seen Jesus do and heard what Jesus said, looked beyond this man’s sinfulness and instead focused on someone else in need and responded accordingly by saying, "Woman, this is your son." Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother."

Serving to the bitter end, caring to the bitter end, a shepherd to the bitter end, and committed to grace to the bitter end? That’s grace.

The truth is we can never give enough when it comes to grace … that’s why it is free and that is why it is so important for this community!

Sharing that grace for the betterment of Lucerne and beyond is imperative at a time when the neighborhood is in such need of it.

Living in grace through sacrifice. We can do that with our neighbors here and now in Lucerne!

Please join us at First Lutheran Church on Friday at noon as we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday.

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.

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