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Lancer Express February 21-25, 2022
Staff Message - Dave Uhlhorn
I recently visited a friend of mine who serves as a Pastor in the Twin Cities. As I was following my GPS to his house, I was also on the lookout for his church where he served. As I drove around, I noticed huge church buildings, beautifully designed buildings, churches with full parking lots, and churches with huge child play areas. Later on that evening, after I had arrived at my friend’s house, he took me to visit his church. It was small, out of the way, and in some ways unnoticeable. I began to think how misleading it can be to look at the outside of a building, a person, or a school and make judgements on what goes on in the inside. No doubt if it looks good on the outside, nothing bad can be happening on the inside, right? And while that may be true some of the time, most of the time it can be just covering up something they don’t want you to see. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us that the Lord doesn’t look at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart. The point of the passage isn’t that we shouldn’t make the outside of our churches or schools look great. It isn’t implying we can “let ourselves go” because God doesn’t look at our outward appearance. The passage is a great reminder that it is the inside that counts. What actually happens inside that church with the huge area for kids to play? What is going on at that church with all the cars in the parking lot? What is going on inside our hearts? While I can’t speak about what is going on at other buildings, I can share with you that what is inside my heart is not always pure and I think you can agree with me with your own thoughts and your own hearts. I can also share that not everything that goes on inside my home church or MLHS is sinless. That’s because sin is everywhere, including in our hearts. What I can say, is that God has forgiven those sins and I can share with you at my home church and our area WELS churches is that constant reminder of Christ crucified that leads to our forgiveness and salvation. It is the inside that does count because it is where our faith lives and the buildings where our faith can grow. May we not get distracted on the outward appearance or outward distractions in our life. Let’s always focus on our faith and growing our faith in weekly worship and daily devotion and prayer. At MLHS, we do this daily as we equip our students in paths of service. May we all continue to grow in our worship life each week. I Samuel 16:7 “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”