Proverbs 27:17
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Grieving with Godly Sorrow
Grieving with Godly Sorrow
I remember the time my therapist looked deep into my eyes and said, “Grant, it’s time to let it go. There is forgiveness, and Jesus wants to give it to you. Take it!”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the way I feel when I know I have let God down. I move towards shame, isolation, and grief.
Grief is not something I naturally embrace. I tend to want to move past pain quickly, but I’ve learned that grief is part of the healing process God designed.
There is a difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. One leads to shame and stagnation; the other leads to repentance and restoration.
There were seasons in my life where I didn’t properly grieve my past decisions. Instead, I suppressed them, avoided them, or rushed past them. But unprocessed grief often resurfaces in unexpected ways.
God, in His wisdom, invites me to grieve with Him—not alone, not indefinitely, but intentionally and honestly.
When David grieved, he expressed it physically and emotionally. Sackcloth and ashes represented humility, brokenness, and awareness of loss. That imagery reminds me that grief has a place—but it is not meant to be a permanent residence. Listen to these miraculous words:
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10, NIV)
Did you see it? It leaves NO regret! This verse helps me understand that grief, when surrendered to God, produces life, not death. It moves me toward change, not despair.
Today, I am going to allow myself to grieve what needs to be grieved, but I do so with hope. I don’t grieve as one without a future. I grieve as one who is being healed.
You can experience the very same miracle! Let’s pray together:
Father, teach me how to grieve my sin in a healthy, God-centered way. Help me not to suppress or exaggerate my sorrow, but to bring it to You in truth. Turn my grief into growth and my sorrow into repentance that leads to life. Thank You for walking with me through every emotion. Amen.
Never forget my friend—
You are a miracle!
Grant Fishbook
The Good Life
The Good Life
Everyone on earth is searching for "the good life." We all want our lives to matter—to be filled with purpose and significance. But often, we're searching for fulfillment and meaning through things, people, or efforts that simply cannot satisfy us.
Many people try to find significance from the admiration and acceptance of those around them. Others look for fulfillment through material possessions and worldly success—by working hard and building wealth. Still others chase what they think is "the good life" through the allure of power and influence.
Though none of these things are necessarily wrong on their own, they cannot bring true peace and fulfillment in life. There will come a time when fame and accolades fade, when material possessions lose their charm, and when our reputations can only take us so far. Even the good relationships in our lives cannot bring us ultimate peace and fulfillment.
Jesus lets us know how the enemy tries to keep us from the actual good life He has for us. The thief tries to steal our attention away from what truly matters by distracting us with earthly things that have the allure of satisfaction, but this way only ends in death and destruction. However, Jesus says there is another way to find abundant life.
In John 10, Jesus compares Himself to a good shepherd who cares for and feeds the sheep in His pasture. Jesus says that He is the gate for the sheep to enter into the courtyard. While speaking in metaphors, Jesus is saying that anyone who wants to gain true access to salvation must come through Him.
Jesus also says that it is through Him that we will find true life. It is only through trusting in Jesus and following Him that we can experience life to the fullest. Real fulfillment and meaning come through following Jesus as our Shepherd, rather than following the world around us.
Take some time to think about the way you’re searching for fulfillment and meaning in your life. Are you trying to find "the good life" through possessions, status, relationships, or success? Or are you following Jesus and trusting Him to produce meaning and purpose in your life?
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, so continue to trust in and follow Him. He is the way to abundant life.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.10.10.NIV
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.10.10.NIV
I'm reading the @YouVersion plan 'GLEANINGS -Joshua'.
I'm reading the @YouVersion plan 'GLEANINGS -Joshua'.
Friday, October 9, 2026
Entering the Weekend with Christ
Hi everyone,
This Sunday we hear a disturbing two part parable, the second part being the most challenging. Yet, it is a promise of God's love. How God's grace is free, but grace is not cheap.
Come to the banquet, all are welcome, come prepared.
Pastor Tim
"God has led you to the desert, and spoken to your Heart."
Mount of Olives Lutheran Church
3546 E. Thomas Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-956-1620 office
Clothed for the Feast of Grace
We live in a culture consumed by a quiet epidemic of exhaustion and distraction. We pack our schedules, manage our endless to-do lists, and chase after temporary goals that leave us weary and depleted. When an unexpected invitation arrives—whether from a friend, a neighbor, or our Creator—our default response is often a polite sigh or an immediate excuse: “I am simply too busy; my plate is already full.”
Yet today, Scripture confronts our preoccupation with an astonishing heavenly reality: God is not throwing a typical business dinner. God is throwing the ultimate celebration—a grand, overflowing royal banquet for all humanity.
The tragedy of the human condition is not that God’s invitation is too narrow or the feast too meager. The tragedy is that we so frequently brush off the celebration to tend to our small, routine plots of land. Today, the texts from Isaiah, Paul, and Matthew converge around a single, urgent call: Wake up, lay down your small anxieties, put on the robe of grace, and be prepared for God’s banquet.
The Feast on the Mountain (Isaiah 25:1–9) We hear the magnificent scope of this banquet in the soaring prophecy of Isaiah. God speaks to a bruised and battered world that has known suffering, drought, and oppressive violence, offering an intoxicating vision of hope:
"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear."
Notice who the banquet is for: all peoples. It is not a private dinner party for an elite circle of insiders. It is a lavish feast prepared for a hungry, broken world.
Isaiah shows us the true heart of God. God’s ultimate design for history is not destruction, judgment, or scarcity; it is celebration, communion, and joy. It is a day when a weary people can finally look up and say: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
The Posture of the Guest: Peace and Focus (Philippians 4:1–9) How do we prepare our hearts and minds to attend such a magnificent feast in the middle of a noisy, fractured world? The Apostle Paul provides the practical spiritual wardrobe in Philippians 4. Writing from a prison cell, Paul does not give in to panic or bitterness. Instead, he issues a counterintuitive series of commands for the soul: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." "Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near." "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Paul explains what happens when we lay our worries down before God: the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, stands guard over our hearts and minds like a royal sentry. Then Paul tells us what to wear on the inside—the thoughts that belong in the presence of the King: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. To be prepared for God's banquet means cultivating an interior life shaped by grace, clearing out cynicism, and fixing our attention on the beauty of God's presence.
The Royal Wedding and the Empty Excuses (Matthew 22:1–14) This brings us to the confronting, multi-layered parable of Matthew 22. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a king who prepared a grand wedding banquet for his son. The oxen and fat calves have been slaughtered, the table is decorated, and everything is ready. The king sends his servants to summon those who had already been invited. Matthew tells us something staggering: "They made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business."
They did not simply say, "No thank you." They treated the king’s supreme invitation with complete indifference. They considered their daily transactions, their routine farm work, and their commercial affairs more urgent and important than the wedding feast of the prince!
When the original guests spurn the invitation, the king does not cancel the celebration. He sends his servants out into the streets, alleyways, and crossroads with a radical command: "Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet."
The servants gather everyone they can find—both the bad and the good—and the wedding hall is filled with guests! The outsiders, the overlooked, the sinners, and the wanderers suddenly find themselves sitting at the royal table, tasting the finest food and aged wine.
The Wedding Garment: Taking Grace Seriously Then comes the second, startling movement of the parable. The king walks into the banquet hall to look at the guests and spots a man who is not wearing a wedding garment. The king asks gently: "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?"
In the ancient Near East, when an impoverished person was pulled off the dusty street into a royal wedding, they could never afford palace attire. It was the custom of the host to provide the wedding garments at the door.
The wedding garment represents the righteousness and transformation of Jesus Christ. It is the baptismal robe of grace that covers our nakedness and shame. It is putting on the mind of Christ, clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, and love.
Grace is free, but grace is not cheap. The King welcomes you into His hall exactly as you are—ragged, flawed, and broken—but He loves you far too much to leave you that way. He offers you a royal robe, woven with His own blood, and He asks you to put it on.
The banquet of Isaiah 25 is prepared. The shroud of death has been conquered by the empty tomb. The tears are being wiped away. The music is playing, and the King is standing at the door. Do not walk away to your farm or your business. Do not cling to your old, stained garments. Step across the threshold. Receive the robe of His righteousness. Pull up a chair, feast on His extravagant mercy, and rejoice in the salvation of our God.
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