Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

A few weeks ago, I was driving towards Wausau and noticed that I was almost out of gas, but I was several miles from any gas station I knew of. I did manage to find a station just as the "ready to get out and push?" light came on.

In many ways, faith is like that. We need fuel from God's Word & Sacraments to keep our faith going, but we have a tendency to say, "What's the minimum? How far can I get on 'fumes'?".

But that attitude is not an attitude of faith. Faith does not ask, "How much do I have to do?" any more than a child says, "How many cookies do I have to eat?" Sin, your "old Adam," asks those kinds of questions. "Did God really say you have to read your Bible daily?" Who is your master?

What's the point, then? Understand that the devil doesn't want you in heaven. Also understand that he doesn't use spiritual "bunker busters" to destroy faith instantly. He can't. Instead, he's subtle, each time taking you one step further from God's will for you. "Did God really say...?" Well, how can you know what God really said unless you're regularly in His Word?

But more than anything else, Satan wants you to forget that Jesus "went the extra mile" for you, even though and specifically because the extra mile ended at the cross, where He paid for your sin, then went one step further, right out of the tomb to eternal life for you.

So, while gas prices may make it difficult to afford to fill our car’s tank, let’s not stop filling up our spiritual tank on God’s Word and Sacraments. Then we most certainly will not “run out of gas” but drive on to eternal life.

Pastor Jeff Shearier has been the pastor at St. Mark since August 1999.

He was a Lutheran Junior High School teacher for eleven years before entering the pastor ministry program at Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri. 

He served his vicarage at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Richville, Michigan.

After completing his vicarage and graduating from the Seminary, Pastor Shearier served as the pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Chicago Illinois, from 1997 until the summer of 1999.

Pastor Shearier is married to his childhood sweetheart, Barbara for over 24 years.  The Lord has blessed them with two children, Margaret and Rebekah.