Decepticon Invasion

Yesterday afternoon we received a phone call from a caller that was IDed as being from Atlanta, GA.



The caller asked for my wife by name, by her first name.

As is my custom, I asked who was calling.

The caller identified herself as Sandy, with a group name that I do not remember, and said that she was calling about the Pro-Life issue.

Her manner of speaking was unusual, not flowing with the normal flow that I expected.  Having read of robotic phone calls, I asked whether she was a real person.

She chuckled and said that she was a real person, and added that she has a slight speech impediment that might make her sound unreal, but that she was a real person.

This I knew was unreal and asked, “What is your name?”

She responded, saying, “Uh, huh,” with a pause of a second or two and then, “Sandy.”

After this the matter was confirmed and I ended the call.

I called back the number displayed on the caller ID, and the ear piercing tone sounded with the recorded announcement:  “The number you have reached is not in service.  This is a recording.”

So, now we not only have computers programmed to call us and harass us, but these robotic callers also have been programmed to respond with lies to our inquiries.  This has been occurring for some time, but now the lies are becoming more sophisticated.

I find this to be disturbing.

The phone company informed me that such is now possible using software that gives false phone numbers and ID’s.  This way the callers bypass attempts at blocking unidentified callers so that this safeguard does not protect a person from such callers.

Technology.  Uh huh.  As is often the case, what is touted as wonderful and liberating is frequently invasive and problematic.  Progress.  Technology.

I miss the simplicity of times past.  At least then the Decepticons were human and somewhat accountable.  Or at least so we thought.  More and more it is being revealed that deceivers have always hidden behind another form or a mask or a pseudo-identity.  It has been so from the very first deception by the father of lies.  I suppose it is foolish to imagine that anything under the sun has changed.

So what do we do?  Be aware and on guard for ourselves and for others.  Make the Decepticons known when it is possible.  Stand ready to help and comfort those who suffer from the deception and theft and other harm.  Proclaim the One who never lies, who is always faithful, who has provided the way through every trial and trouble even before we encounter them.  Sing the hymns of pure doctrine and everlasting hope and peace and joy.  Live in that hope and peace and joy.  Partake of the pure and unadulterated means of His grace.

It is good to know that the Lord is real, and that His voice and Word and doctrine are consonant, and that He has come as He promised and has given Himself for us, even unto the death of the cross, and has risen from the dead and ascended again to His heavenly throne and has sent His Spirit at Pentecost, all as He has promised repeatedly and consistently of old.  When He calls to us, it is always through the same means as He has ordained.  His proclamation has not changed.  His means continue unchanged.

With this before us, what does it matter if the Decepticons attempt their futile deceptive acts against us?  Ultimately what do we lose?  The kingdom is ours in Christ our Lord.  We are more than conquerors though the one having loved us.  We don’t even have to fight.  We don’t even have to strive to win.  The victory and the kingdom have been declared to be ours through the faith that also is given to us freely by the grace of God at work through His means.  What is really left but to abide in the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and to sigh the great and peaceful sigh of Amen?

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2014 Resolutions

Happy New Year!  Happy 2014!

It seems funny that flipping a page on a calendar should be counted as a holiday.  I suppose that when people don’t recognize the holy, they have to find something mundane to celebrate.  So we have New Years Day.

Certainly the observance of God’s grace to us in preserving us and carrying us through the past year into a new year is a cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing and celebrating.  Certainly the changing of the calendar gives cause to pause in retrospect.

Thus people also commonly make New Years Resolutions.  They examine their activities of the passing year and determine or resolve to do some things differently.  They make resolutions and promises concerning their actions in the coming year.  Some of these they actually mean.  Some of these they actually strive to keep, at least for a week or two or three.

Soon, however, when we make resolutions to amend our lives we find ourselves unable to keep our promises.  We find that we are unable to effect true change.  We fall back into the same old errors again.  Sometimes we manage to demonstrate these failings in different ways.  Yet we still fall short of our good intentions.

Christians may fall into this trap even more so than others.  I find it somewhat odd that in teaching people concerning Confession and Absolution that people are asked to promise this impossible task.  In the Order of the Confessional Service on TLH pg. 46 ff., two formats are given, both of which call the person seeking absolution to state the intention or purpose of amending one’s sinful life by the assistance of the Holy Ghost.  Surely this is the format of a resolution.  The newer hymnals have similar statements.

Admittedly, seeing beyond this is difficult.  Certainly the preaching against sin is necessary.  Certainly the Law of God or Commandments are given to direct souls away from sin to the holiness of the Lord.

Yet in searching the Gospel accounts concerning the times that the Lord Jesus granted absolution to sinners, do we ever find Him calling for a resolution from the broken and contrite sinner?  I cannot recall a single instance of the Lord Jesus calling for a person to resolve to do better before granting the blessed words of peace and comfort, “Your sins are forgiven you.”  He does give the warning afterward that they are to go onward without adding to their sins.  But He never evokes a resolution from anyone to whom He grants remission of their sins.

We do have an example, however, where He denies this making of resolutions as justifying.  When He tells of the publican and the Pharisee, He says that the publican made no such resolution, but merely confessed his sinfulness and need for God’s mercy.  This one, Jesus says, went home justified.  The other man, the Pharisee, stated all of the ways that he had resolved to try to please God.  The Pharisee listed his resolutions quite sincerely.  Yet this one, Jesus says, did not go home justified.

What does this mean?  What is the Lord Jesus teaching us with this example?  He is teaching us that we should never look to our own works for our justification.  He is teaching us that our resolutions, no matter how noble and no matter how sincere, will always fall short.  In fact, our resolutions only lead us into more sins that we need to have remitted.  If we make resolutions that we fail to keep, then not only have we sinned, but we also have failed to keep our word.

This is why the Lord has established for us His Church on earth.  Within His Church He has ordained specific means through which He works to restore us to His Holy Communion.  It is to these means of grace and remission and salvation and reconciliation and healing that He directs us to be turned.  This is the repentance to which He calls us.  He calls us to be turned from all of our own efforts, from all of our best intentions, from all of our resolutions, to receive the means through which His Word works all things for us.  His Word and Sacraments are the means through which He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  He works regeneration unto true faith through Baptism, as He washes us with His Word with the water.  In this washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit He applies the blood of the Word/Lamb to us by which we are cleansed.  In this connection we are joined into His everlasting Communion, wherein we partake of His body and blood given and shed for us, to renew us in His Communion as our sins are remitted and taken away.  As we hear His call to be gathered into His name to receive these things, we bow the knee and confess our need for His mercy, which He graciously bestows to us as the words of absolution are spoken over us.  Then we rise up to eat and drink at His Table of renewal and forgiveness, going forth in the confidence of the good conscience into which we have been restored.

God does not call us to resolve to be obedient or to amend our lives.  He calls us to walk in the Life that is in Him in His Holy Communion.  The obedience of faith is not a choice.  It is the fullness of living in communion with God in His kingdom.  Obedience flows from the faith that the Lord works in us.  Obedience flows from the trust that is generated within us concerning all that the Lord declares.  When we receive His absolution and partake of His Communion, we recognize His will as that which is desirable and good.  We recognize the fullness of the good life to which we have been restored so that we begin to walk in this newness of life or renewed life.

This is the difference of living by faith and living by works.  Living by faith is the life that flows from the ordained means of grace.  Living by works is the struggle to resolve to do better than we can hope to do for ourselves.  Through His Word and Sacraments, His means of grace to us, we receive God’s goodness into our very being so that we are sanctified to live in the grace that flows to us freely by His decree.

Surely this is better than making resolutions that we know that we cannot hope to keep.  Surely the way of grace, mercy, and peace is far better and desirable.

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Green Or Else

At 2 meter opponents arrested in Naperville: 'A society of violating one another' the article reports that two residents of Naperville were arrested for saying “No” to the forced invasion of their property to forcibly install spy equipment known as Smart Meters.  Two ladies were arrested for crying out against this rape.

The Tribune video can be viewed here.

At the end of the video interview City Manager Doug Krieger says: “Uh, we absolutely are not bullies.  I...I believe that we bent over backwards to accommodate them.”

Apparently arresting women in their own yards is accommodating them.  Apparently forcibly installing electronic equipment in people’s homes against their protests is accommodating them.

A clear message is being sent to the citizenry. “Shut up and let us do whatever we choose to do to you, Or ELSE!”

Wow!

“Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics - By Francis Scott Key 1814


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Naperville Community Television, Channel 17 reports further on these arrests and includes this video:




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More is available at
Stop Smart Meters! .

A few still cry out in the name of liberty, expecting to be protected by the Constitution.  But the Constitution has no power in a land where people elect officials who do not honor it and who appoint judges who overturn it.  And where the rights of the helpless and those who have no voice nor vote are allowed to be trampled, the power-hungry become voracious.

The Old Testament prophets cried out with strong warnings concerning the wolves who feed on the widows and fatherless, the poor and the homeless, the downtrodden and the wandering foreigners.  When the people abide in the way of the Lord, the widows and orphans receive care and help, and the poor and homeless are clothed and fed, and the downtrodden and wandering strangers are lifted up by those whose love flows from their own knowledge of being loved.  This never is enacted by government programs, but always through those made merciful through receiving the Lord’s limitless mercies.

Sadly, the saints have always been outnumbered in this world.  Yet throughout history their lives have made a difference for many and God’s grace has shown even in the shadow of the powerful and uncaring.

Green or Else has come upon the land.  It is no longer a future threat.  But God’s grace is greater and will most surely carry those who trust Him through every dark time until the fullness of the glory of His coming leaves no more shadows.

     Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them,
     Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?   Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
     A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
     And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.   And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give   it   you.   Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.   These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.   At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:   For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
     I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.  (John 16:19-28)

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Fascinating Videos

Tuesday was the Fortieth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that the privacy of the womb belongs only to the woman, and not to its occupant, not to the unborn baby.

Yesterday I found some fascinating videos that were produced regarding this issue.  They are quite effective in evoking deeper thought concerning the issues of the reality that babies are people with hearts and souls and minds and are part of our society, part of the human race.







I don’t particularly like the notion of “potential” as the view towards a baby or any other human being.  But these videos do demonstrate that something very important is being ignored by our society in the matter of abortion and the value human life in general.

In Roe v. Wade and Roe v. Wade - 410 U.S. 113 (1973) it is reported that the woman’s constitutional right to privacy as guaranteed in several amendments and particularly the Fourteenth and Ninth amendments was the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision against the unborn baby in favor of the woman’s right for no one to know.  It seems ironic that the strongest arguments were based upon the right for privacy regarding Due Process.  And so a woman and abortionist are protected under due process while the baby is not.

It is even more powerfully ironic that in his recent inaugural address Obama spoke of reasons to ignore people’s rights to privacy in various matters.  The right to self-defense amendment is particularly under attack by a former Senator and now President who openly supports abortion as a right of women and especially of the abortion industrialists.  Is it not ironic that a woman’s so-called right to privacy has now become a right to have the rest of society pay for the termination of her baby?  Is it not ironic that the people who object to abortions on the basis of their belief that killing babies is ungodly no longer have any First Amendment rights whatsoever, even in many cases being denied the right of free speech?

The extent of the irony reaches into another area as well, as is reported at Ex-SEAL Zinke: 'Nearly Certain' Women in Combat Will Cost Lives.

It does not seem to be accidental that with the Roe v. Wade decision that the views of many women began to change significantly.  In the past it was extremely uncommon for women to think of military service as a “right” of women.  With the dehumanizing of babies and the devaluing of life in general, our society is more and more inclined to glorify warriors as role models.  Killing and fighting are predominant themes in movies.  Survival games are promoted as entertainment on TV.  Sending troops overseas to invade other countries under the guise of National Security and the War against Terrorism has become accepted. Assassinations via drones has become accepted.  Even the so-called collateral damage is hardly even counted anymore.

Are these issues divorced of one another?  Is there no common link between them?

Should we not consider seriously how far we have wandered in our thinking and values as a society?  Should we not also consider the things that have promoted this erosion and degradation and devolution of human decency?

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Our Daily Bread in ALL Things

     My dear friend Gary Cepek has given me permission to share his words of response to my brotherly concern for his health. He has Lyme Disease, which has recurring symptoms that are sometimes very severe. His response is one that I believe can serve us all as we look to our gracious God and Father for purpose and understanding in our daily experiences.

     Thank you again for your encouragement and support about my health issues. Our God graciously grants such expressions in Christ to add to the goodness of the day He grants me. As Luther was granted insight to teach Scriptural truths about daily bread, he noted that good health is a daily gift our Father grants us each day. As the Spirit mercifully renews me in Christ during the day He gives me, I grasp by faith that truth, that no matter how I or anyone else may adjudge my health (or any other aspect of daily bread for that matter) it is good because it is exactly what the Father knows will best serve His eternal purpose for me "today" all the while serving my earthly life in the best possible way also. Paralleling that truth, all that is of the curse from Adam and on Adam and us must also serve that wonderful purpose. So truly, each child of God has each moment every good and perfect gift, coming down from the heavenly Father with whom there is no variation or change.

     Gary has been taught in the school of the Holy Spirit the faith that grasps God’s gracious activity even in the things that cannot be understood from our ordinary human reason. The Holy Spirit is poured out to us in our baptism to be our counselor and comforter and teacher. The Lord Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead His disciples into all truth, causing them to recall all things whatsoever that He had taught them and putting these into the proper perspective. That same promise is given to us.

     This faith is not a faith that we generate for ourselves. It is the faith of Jesus, the faith through which His life, His accomplishments, His faithfulness, His goodness, His merits are accounted to us as our own so that we are made to know God as our loving, gracious, merciful Father.

     Gary’s words above are more than just a statement of what he personally chooses to believe. These words are a wonderful prayer. This prayer is taught by the Holy Spirit. In this prayer is expressed the absolute confidence that the Holy Spirit gives concerning God’s promises to work good through all things to those who love Him, the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

     In the following verse St. Paul further explains this, saying:

     For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

     Here St. Paul explains that God’s knowledge concerning us is perfect. His knowledge of who we are and what we need is from eternity. We see things from the limitations of our temporality. Our perception is blurred by our senses of pain and loss and grief and sorrow. We often cannot see the good that God is working for us through the circumstances that we encounter. Through the faith of Jesus, however, we do see. This faith directs us beyond what we can know according to our own reason and strength to the assurance of God’s perfect holiness and goodness, His limitless mercy and love. We are made to have this confidence in connection with the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. As the doctrine of the true faith directs us away from ourselves to the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then we see how God works for us through the most horrific suffering and anguish. Our fleshly nature looks for help and relief through other means, but God brings us perfect deliverance through the cross.

     In their eternal counsel together the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit predestinated our salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. From beyond the reaches of time they stretched forth their mercy to us and redeemed us from the destructive choices of our sinfulness. And God turned suffering and death and misery into the opposite for us, He turned these into blessedness, life, and everlasting joy. Even our considerably lesser troubles also serve God’s purposes for us, if we receive them in the faith that He gives. Then we begin to pray as dear Gary has shared with us. Then we begin to understand how our Lord Jesus prayed especially in the garden, “Not My will but Thine be done.” Then, by faith, we already have the blessing that we will only perceive with our time bound reason on the other side of the trial.

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Blue Christmas - White Christmas - No Christmas

The season of Christmas has come.  From Christmas Day, December 25, until Epiphany, Jan 6, the season of observing the birth of the Savior runs.  Twelve Days we have appointed to this special season.

Many people know the song that reflects this, few know the connection.  This is because for most people, Christmas has been lost.  For most people, the season of Christmas begins when the merchants determine to start Christmas sales and ends when the wrapping paper is put out for the trash haulers.  Most people, including most Christians who want to “Keep Christ in Christmas”, hold perceptions regarding Christmas that are based entirely upon people’s untrustworthy feelings.

Even on one of the so-called Christian radio stations, one of the pre-Christmas announcements was a call to “Remember the things that are important this Christmas, friends, family, and the birth of Jesus.”  The stated order very strongly demonstrates the order of importance.  Many people would list family before friends.  Christmas and this time of the holiday season, or Happy Holidays, is a time when people express very openly the sentiments that accompany their awareness of their need for love and belonging or familial connectedness.

Thus there are many songs written expressing these sentiments.  These tend to be very popular.

For example ELVIS Blue Christmas



Most surely everyone can relate to the feelings expressed in this song. All people feel the pull on their heartstrings when separated from one who is loved.  This song especially focuses upon boyfriend/girlfriend and husband/wife relations, but it is powerful for those who treasure any relationship.

“I’ll be home for Christmas” is another very popular song expressing these feelings of desire to be joined with others and especially family.  The song eventually says that the singer will be home for Christmas even if only in his mind.

For many people, the holiday season does become very Blue.  Sometimes a person still feels very alone even when surrounded by friends, family, and the birth of Jesus.

Nostalgia also is felt very strongly during this time of the year.  “White Christmas” is a very popular song expressing this.  Some people actually even say things like, “I’ve been praying for snow for Christmas.  It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without snow.”  Even for someone like me, a native Floridian, this music and words of this song evoke nostalgic feelings, even though I never even saw snow until I was at the seminary in St. Louis and I still do not like snow.

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white
 
 

I don’t even like snow.  To me it is a nuisance.  It is cold, wet, messy, and dangerous.  Yet this song with its sentiment of wishfulness and longing to be with loved ones moves my heart in that direction.  The tune is especially powerful in this way.  Music is a powerful force.  Nostalgia is also very powerful.  Reminiscence of childhood times, when most people’s cares and worries were few, even though times may have been hard, is very powerful emotionally.

These feelings are so powerful that they can rule a person’s heart, mind, and spirit.  When a person is thus ruled, the body also is controlled by these.  Desire to have these feelings satisfied can become so strong that a person can be driven to great loneliness, sometimes even to hopelessness and despair.

An article that addresses this is A Message for Those Not Feeling “Merry” About Christmas

The article begins with these two paragraphs:

I am thinking a lot this Christmas about the fact that for many people, more than would ever be willing to admit openly, there is very little, “merry” about Christmas. Are you feeling this way? If so, this message is for you.

You may be dealing with personal troubles and situations that cause you intense pain and anguish of heart and mind, soul and spirit. You see all the decorations around and you hear the music, and receive the cheerful, bright and wonderful greeting cards from friends and family. These things are yet more pointed reminders to you of a long-felt grief, or hurt, or sorrow, a reminder that while many are merry, you are not.

The author, The Rev. McCain, shows great empathy and compassion and caring in this acknowledgment of the feelings that many people experience.  He attempts to give people direction toward the more solid foundation for their lives.  And as far as he goes, he offers much good thought.

He advances in this article to say:

How important it is then to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly at this time, a Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, a Word through Whom all things were made, that have been made. It was this Word, sent from the Father, who came among us, to be your great Savior, from sin, from death, from the power of hell, to pour out his lifeblood as the perfect atoning sacrificial ransom for the sins of the world, for your sins, every one of them, even those you would not want another person to know about.

This is very good.  How true it is that all of us hurting people need the indwelling of the Word of God, Christ.  We very much need to hear the Gospel that proclaims all that He has done for us and provided for us.  We need to hear His words of comfort to us.  We need to have these as the foundation of our meditation, of our thoughts and contemplations.  McCain goes on to say:

The best advice I can give to you if you are feeling lonely and sad at this time of the year is: reach out to people whom you know, and share your love with them. Dive deeply into the Word of God. Take advantage of every opportunity provided to gather with your fellow saints in Gods’ House for worship and to receive the true and lasting gifts of Christmas: forgiveness, life and salvation. These are the gifts that are truly what make for a Merry Christmas.

This is very, very good, even excellent!

However, this leaves much that is taken for granted.  Very few people truly understand the depth of what is included especially in “the true and lasting gifts of Christmas: forgiveness, life and salvation.”  Very few people truly know how this is made available by the Lord in His house.  Most people, even most who call themselves Christians, do not really know what this means.

McCain proceeds to share some beautiful and powerful words of Christ from the Gospels.  He further shares wonderful words from the Lutheran Confessions.  He reminds people of the great blessing and comfort given in the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms.  He also shares the words of a magnificent hymn by Paul Gerhardt, which are worthy of sharing again here:

“All My Heart This Night Rejoices”
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676
TLH # 77

1. All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear Far and near
Sweetest angel voices.
"Christ is born," their choirs are singing
Till the air Everywhere
Now with joy is ringing.

2. Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe, Sin and woe,
Death and hell, o'erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son Now is one
With our blood forever.

3. Shall we still dread God's displeasure,
Who, to save, Freely gave
His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, He hath given
His own Son From the throne
Of His might in heaven.

4. Should He who Himself imparted
Aught withhold From the fold,
Leave us broken-hearted?
Should the Son of God not love us,
Who, to cheer Sufferers here,
Left His throne above us?

5. If our blessed Lord and Maker
Hated men, Would He then
Be of flesh partaker?
If He in our woe delighted,
Would He bear All the care
Of our race benighted?

6. He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away And for aye
Full atonement maketh.
For our life His own He tenders
And our race, By His grace,
Meet for glory renders.

7. Hark! a voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet, Doth entreat:
"Flee from woe and danger.
Brethren, from all ills that grieve you
You are freed; All you need
I will surely give you."

8. Come, then, banish all your sadness,
One and all, Great and small;
Come with songs of gladness.
Love Him who with love is glowing;
Hail the Star, Near and far
Light and joy bestowing.

9. Ye whose anguish knew no measure,
Weep no more; See the door
To celestial pleasure.
Cling to Him, for He will guide you
Where no cross, Pain, or loss
Can again betide you.

10. Hither come, ye heavy-hearted,
Who for sin, Deep within,
Long and sore have smarted;
For the poisoned wound you're feeling
Help is near, One is here
Mighty for their healing.

11. Hither come, ye poor and wretched;
Know His will Is to fill
Every hand outstretched.
Here are riches without measure;
Here forget All regret,
Fill your hearts with treasure.

12. Let me in my arms receive Thee;
On Thy breast Let me rest,
Savior, ne'er to leave Thee.
Since Thou hast Thyself presented
Now to me, I shall be
Evermore contented.

13. Guilt no longer can distress me;
Son of God, Thou my load
Bearest to release me.
Stain in me Thou findest never;
I am clean, All my sin
Is removed forever.

14. I am pure, in Thee believing,
From Thy store Evermore
Righteous robes receiving.
In my heart I will enfold Thee,
Treasure rare, Let me there,
Loving, ever hold Thee.

15. Dearest Lord, Thee will I cherish.
Though my breath Fail in death,
Yet I shall not perish,
But with Thee abide forever
There on high, In that joy
Which can vanish never.

This is truly a wonderful hymn of great comfort and blessing.  This is especially true for those who have the depth of understanding that Pastor Gerhardt had.  For this hymn is fully understood by those whose lives are full of the regular instruction and communion of the divine service.  For those who rightly understand and rely upon the means of grace, this hymn is very powerful.

But unless a person rightly understands that this hymn is directing the heart to the promises of one’s baptism and to the joyous communion of the saints gathered to the Holy Supper, the truly great comfort and hope are lost.  In this hymn the promises of God given in Baptism are especially assumed.

This especially needs to be emphasized.  It is not enough to be directed to the words of Jesus or to the Lord’s Prayer or to the Psalms.  If this is all that a person hears the person is really being directed back to one’s own efforts at bolstering one’s own feelings.  When we are feeling down and depressed and lonely and discouraged, this is the last thing that we need.

This is why the Lord has established for us His Church on earth.  This is why He has defined the means of grace very specifically, clearly, and concretely.  This is why He has commanded that His pastors diligently teach the pure and unadulterated doctrine to the saints.  This is why He has stated beyond all question that His Church is marked by the preaching of the PURE Gospel and the uncompromised administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper.

He wants us to know that what we are being fed is truly what we need.  He wants us to be set free from trying to find our way on our own in this dark world.  He wants us to know beyond any doubt that we have a safe place in His one true Church, a place of belonging that not only feels good and safe, but truly is good and safe.  He knows that this can only be for us when He makes it so.  Thus He calls us to receive what He has ordained according to what He has established.

This is what enabled St. Paul to say that he knew how to be content even when in chains in a cold, damp, dreary dungeon.  Then the Psalms and the prayers are more than emotional boosters. Then the hymns are more than sentimental traditions.  Then our hope extends beyond the momentary sensations.

When we truly rely upon what the Lord has done for us in our baptism, we are connected to Him and to all of His saints from all times and places.  Then we are free to trust His omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence as being For Us.  Then we know Him as our loving Father, who never abandons us and never leaves us without comfort.

Many people imagine that they can find happiness and worth through trying to be better people.  Thus they try and try, failing to accomplish what they strive to do.  Many people look to family and friends, but never reach beyond their disappointment in the weakness and failing of those from whom they expect and need much more.  Some try to elevate themselves through positive thinking, only to find themselves unable to produce enough positive to outweigh the negative surrounding them in the world.  Some seek churches with encouraging and uplifting praise services, but again find that they have to put in more energy than they get out of it.  It works for a while, but eventually their strength fails.

The Lord calls us away from all of these.  He calls us to the seemingly insignificant means of grace.  They seem to be mere water and bread and wine and words spoken by men.  And for those who count them as such, that is all that they are.  For these means are effective only in connection with faith.  When the faith that God gives is the basis for our coming to receive these, suddenly they are life and power and freedom and joy administered through tangible forms.

This is the way that the Lord has provided as our truly loving Father.  He does not leave us to believe by our own attempts.  Rather, He provides us with tangible evidence of what He promises to do.  Through these He accomplishes for us the miracle of Christmas.  Jesus is still available to us through these tangible elements just as He was when He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and when He told Thomas to stick his hand into the wounds still in the risen body of his Lord.  Today He washes us with real water so that we may feel with our bodies what He is doing in our hearts and spirits.  He feeds us through bread and wine His very body and blood so that we receive Him not only with our spirits but also with our flesh.  In this way He not only touches us in our hearts and souls, but in our very bodies.

In this way He takes away our Blue Christmas without Him.  He causes us to know that He is not far away but is actually with us everyday in every way.  In this way He moves us beyond dreaming of a White Christmas so that we rejoice in the white robe of righteousness poured over us in our baptism.

In this age we often hear the lament that some children will not have a Christmas because of a lack of gifts to unwrap.  Our God makes certain that we have such an abundance of gifts that none of us will ever have cause for such lamentation.  Through His means of grace He gives us the gifts of repentance, new life, forgiveness, everlasting life, renewal in His Holy Communion, hope that knows no boundaries, exceeding great joy, and fellowship with the Holy Trinity and the heavenly hosts.

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Connecting the Dots

Today I encountered an article entitled: Connecting.the.Dots.  It is quite well written and makes some powerful points, especially about the connection of the effects of wholesale abortion on the devaluing of human life.

     In the earlier days of “legalized” abortion, there were warnings of the long-range effects on our society of wholesale abortion, of the careless destruction of the most defenseless among us, of its devaluation of human life. It was feared that a society that brutally takes the lives of its unborn children will become hardened and, in due time, reflect that brutality toward all human life.

The next paragraph really moved my thinking onward:

     There are, of course, many “dots” that can be connected to random killings–mental illness, violent video games and entertainment, etc. But can we sometime soon also connect the abortion dot? While violent killings are as old as Cain and Abel, random acts of violence against innocent human life continue to increase in number and horror, underscored by what happened on Friday. Brutality toward women and children, once shrugged off as a problem elsewhere in the world, now occurs too often in our own society not to connect this dot.

My first thoughts were regarding how people and leaders of church bodies are not connecting the dots that show the deterioration of their understanding of what it means to be the Church and saints.  My first thoughts were regarding the way that souls are being killed through allowing the pure Gospel and the Sacraments and the worship life of the churches to be corrupted and polluted and contemporized with the worldly views and beliefs and practices.  I continue to stand aghast and befuddled by what is happening and how the dots never seem to be connected.

But I also was moved to think of some additional dots that are not being connected with regard to these increasing acts of violence and even so-called random violence.  Some of these dots are very obvious, except that people are being directed through the media and government schools and programs to shrug these off or even pay them no attention at all.

I recently had a reminder of this with one of my former neighbors.  This man has very limited training, education, and skills.  He works hard to provide for himself and his wife.  He cares about others.  But he is struggling, as are many of us.

He has turned to me many times, both when he lived across the street from me and many times since then.  He has shown up many times at my front door, hoping to receive help from me regarding car problems, or to receive a ride to work or a ride home again at 11:15 pm.  He has borrowed and worn out a lawn mower.  He has asked and received help to move from one dwelling to another, using my time, my back, my truck, my trailer, my fuel.  There are many such instances.

Last month he wanted me to “loan” him money for fuel for his car.  He called and left multiple voice mails on my home phone and cell phone.  When I returned his call to learn what he wanted, his wife answered.  She then called him at work.  He called me from his place of work.  I reminded him that I am not his bank and that I also am struggling and don’t have any more money to give to him.  A short time later his wife calls saying, “You dare to call my husband?  Don’t you ever call my husband at work.  You don’t know who you’re messing with!”

Knowing what I know of her and her friends, this was very disconcerting.  It also was very hurtful.

With this, however, we have a few more dots to connect.

Why are people becoming so desperate and frustrated and angry?

When my wife and I have occasion to visit a doctor’s office or dentist’s office or have other occasion where we are asked medical history information, one of the questions we are asked is:  “What medications are you taking?”  The response from the inquirer is usually, “What do you mean you’re not taking any meds?  You are not on ANY medications?”

This is a very significant DOT.

Today, medications are prescribed and passed out more freely than candy.  More and more people are being prescribed mood altering medications.

More and more people are being “diagnosed” as clinically depressed.  The answer?  More meds!

But why are people depressed?  Why are they feeling desperate?  Why are people becoming more and more easily agitated?

This week I received the paperwork for the renewal of the registration of my work truck, trailer, and chipper.  The registration fees were raised $ 70.00 for this year.  This is over and above the property tax that I am required to pay on each of these.

Gasoline is over $ 3.00 per gallon and some forecasts say that this price will soon skyrocket, perhaps as high as $ 9.00 per gallon.  Electricity and natural gas and water/sewer rates also continue escalate.

Jobs and especially good paying jobs are becoming more and more scarce.  People are facing foreclosures on their homes.

Rising taxes and invention of new taxes, rising costs of living, decreasing availability of sources of income, forced insurance by the Obama administration & laws, loss of freedom and increases in unwarranted harassment by TSA, DHS, the police, and countless others, all these pile upon the already heavily burdened hearts and minds of hurting people.

Add to this the preponderance of electronic gadgetry and the added stress from these sources of continual stimuli.  After all, the human brain, body, and spirit can only handle so much stimulus before an overload occurs.

Then people begin to seek additional artificial sources of relief.  People turn to drugs of various kinds, both legal and illegal.  Overindulgence of alcohol, sexual activity, snacks and other foods, carbonated and beverages and high energy beverages are used to try to boost people’s ability to handle more stimulus.

On top of all of these, then add the processed foods to which people turn to try to reduce the stress of preparing their own meals.  These processed foods are loaded with excitotoxins and other chemicals.

There are even more dots, but even if all of these dots are connected, a horrendously messy web can be seen as the fabric of most people’s lives.  Eventually this becomes too much for people to bear.  Eventually, they can no longer find their way through the web to where they believe that they need to be.  Their frustration grows.  They become more and more anger.  As they try to suppress and control their anger they become more and more desperate and depressed.

The Lord has given answers to this dilemma.  He has connected the dots for us, the dots that lead to relief, comfort, redemption, hope, salvation, and peace.

     Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30)

     No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
     Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
     Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith
     Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
     But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  (Matthew 6:24-34)

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
     There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
     Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.  (Psalm 46:1-11)

     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  (Psalm 23:1-6)

     And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.  (Luke 2:8-14)

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Why God?

When things do not go the way that we think that they should or that we want them to go, we cry out, “Why, God?

When something horrendous like the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut breaks out, those who suffer the direct effects are hit by such a shock that they are left with little other than to ask and cry out, “Why, God?”

Since we all have suffered shocking things in our lives and we all have suffered some form of loss and grief and anguish and heartache, we all relate to the circumstances of such an event so that we all are inclined to cry out, “Why, God?”

But deep down we know that this is pretense.  We are only pretending not to know why these things happen.  We pretend not to know because to admit that we know the reason is to face reality honestly, which leaves us with accountability, very painful accountability.  We do not want to face this.  We would actually rather allow things to become worse than to face the truth openly and honestly so as to confront the real problem and to deal with it.

Moreover, we know the futility of asking, “Why, God?”

After all, God has plainly told us why.  Even if He had not told us, the answer is plain for us to see.  There is no real mystery here.

No one can escape the truth.  The truth is unavoidable.  We attempt to find ways to bury it or to hide from it, but eventually the truth comes to the fore.  Eventually the light of the truth drives away the shadows in which we lurk so that we stand exposed by the light.

This is true both individually and societally.

Why does shit happen?  It happens because of the sin that is in the world, sin that inheres to each one of us and to society as a whole.  We are sinful people.  We are a sinful society.

We ignore the truth.  We bury the truth.  We lie.  We accept what is wrong and try to excuse it.  We allow what is right to be ignored and denied and even to be persecuted.

We have allowed God to be replaced with free will.  We have allowed creation to be supplanted by evolution.  We have allowed absolute truth to be diminished to relativism.  Theology is rejected for psychology.  Divinely revealed knowledge is cast aside for subjectively deduced reason that is given the pseudonym of science.  Grace is renamed as decision or commitment.  Love for neighbor and brother is replaced by tolerance.

We excuse the sacrifice of children by calling it “choice” and even a “right.”

Is it even possible to find a movie that does not have revenge as part of the plot?  Revenge, murder, selfish gain, selfish disregard for the safety of self and of others through extreme sports and fast driving.  Even running red lights is presented as cool.  Stealing of vehicles and breaking traffic laws is promoted as exciting and even acceptable.  Irresponsible and promiscuous sexual behavior is displayed as the norm.

The answer for people’s problems is taught to be some form of pharmaceutical wonder drug.  Depression is no longer counted as a reaction to grief and suppressed anger so that it now is a disorder caused by chemical imbalance that must be controlled medically.

And then we see the results of our defiance and cry out, “Why, God?”

Thankfully, God is not satisfied with merely answering our belligerent demand.  He does not stop with simply answering the question of why these things continue to happen and to become even more prevalent as society moves farther and farther from Him.  He presses onward to give the answer to the problem.  He actually puts the answer into action.

In slightly over a week we will again celebrate His answer, His solution, His salvation.

For those who are genuinely weary of the pretense and the perpetual denial of truth that always leads to the same disappointing end, He has provided His Gospel.  For those who are truly tired of seeking answers for themselves, He has given His Church on earth and the means of grace.  For those who honestly admit their own helplessness and cry out for real help, He says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.”

Perhaps it is time that we stop crying out defiantly with, “Why, God?” and come together to cry out with relief, “Thanks be to God!”  This is the great gift of the Christmas season.  His name is Jesus.

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Newtown, Connecticut Tragedy

Such things leave us feeling the darkness of this world.  Especially for those who have lost loved ones, some children, how can they know anything but grief and devastation in their hearts and lives?

At Newtown school gunman forced his way in, police say it is reported:

Dr Jeannie Pasacreta, a nurse practitioner and psychologist who has been advising parents on how to talk to their children, says neighbours have been cancelling Christmas parties and taking down decorations.

And

Dr Jeannie Pasacreta, a nurse practitioner and psychologist in this picture postcard New England town, told me that neighbours were cancelling Christmas parties and taking down decorations, unable to celebrate amidst such searing grief.

The shock to these families is hard even to begin to estimate.

Again the school’s secular psychologist says:

People are at a loss, said Dr Pasacreta, who believes the lesson of this killing is to give more help to those showing signs of mental illness.

However, there is a much better lesson to be learned, for those who have suffered this tragedy directly, as well as those of us who experience it from a distance.

For those who cannot imagine themselves able “to celebrate amidst such searing grief” and find themselves cancelling Christmas parties and taking down their decorations, it would be very helpful to remember what the Christmas celebration really is.

For what reason was Jesus born into this world?  What did the angels shout and sing to the shepherds?  What did Gabriel announce?

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

  (Matthew 1:20-21)

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

  (Luke 2:8-11)

And as prophesied by Simeon:

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

(Luke 2:34-35)

Christmas is the accounting of the birth of the baby boy born into the world to suffer at the hands of evil men, to be tortured to death on their behalf, to save them from their condemned condition as sinners.  The Christmas celebration is the joy that is known through the promise that God Himself took our human flesh so that He would journey to the cross of our salvation.

What lesson should we citizens of the world take from this in conjunction with the Newtown tragedy and every other tragedy in the world?

Surely we should do as this psychologist suggests and seek “more help to those showing signs of mental illness.”  This begins with realizing that we all are showing these signs, due to our fallen and sinful condition.  We all look to the wrong sources for happiness and hope and security and satisfaction, so that we find ourselves hopeless, misdirected, wandering, disappointed, failing, discouraged, depressed, angry, frustrated, and desperate.  All of us are disturbed and need help.

So, then, we should turn to this time when Advent directs us to the promise of the coming Savior.  We should use this time of our grief to understand the ultimate cause of our grief and suffering so that we look to the one who comes to help us, to rescue us, to redeem us, and deliver us.  When we partake of His gifts of grace we receive that which our hearts and souls desperately need and desire, even though we often do not even recognize what it is that we need and desire.  In the celebration of the Advent and Christmas season, we are taught what this is and how God freely gives it.  We hear His tender calling to come and taste and see that He is good.  We hear the heavenly invocation to come and adore Him and receive Him as our gracious and saving King.

Will this take away all of the pain that the parents of these murdered children endure?  No.  But it will fill them with the grace and peace of God that overpowers this pain and makes it no longer what rules their lives.  The pain of the loss remains.  But the promise yet to be realized is far greater.

Is there more to this lesson?  Yes, there is.  We surely should learn not to ignore the fact that none of us knows the length of life in this world that has been granted to each of us.  We each should eagerly run to the fount of life, where God regenerates us through water and Spirit to be made to be members of His kingdom.  We should not delay to bring our little children to this washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, so that they are made safe in Christ’s body and are made to be regular partakers of His Holy Communion.  Then, both they and we are filled with the peace of knowing that together we are kept safe in Christ Jesus.  Then, when tragedy strikes, even in the midst of our shock and woe and fear and heartache, we nevertheless will rejoice in the comfort that came down from heaven as a little baby boy who is Jesus, God’s salvation for us.

For those whose children are baptized, the Christmas lights and decorations still can be viewed as reminders of God’s great promises, even as He promised that the descendants of Abraham would be like the number of the stars in the sky, and as reminders of the great light of God’s glory that shown round the angels as they announced the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem.  The world has usurped much of this and used it contrary to what is salutary, but God’s promises still shine for us, even in the darkest of nights.

This is why God has ordained Baptism.  This is why He also ordained the Holy Supper.  This is how He gives us great cause for celebration even in this world of darkness and suffering and terror.  No one can take away what God grants to us through these blessed Sacraments.

Take they our life,
goods, fame, child, and wife,
let these all be gone,
they yet have nothing won;
the Kingdom ours remaineth.

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What is Church Planting or Establishment?

Most religious organizations, especially those who apply the name of Christian to themselves, have people who are called “Church Planters” or something similar.

This week I noticed this concept stated on a Facebook page regarding that pastor’s and that congregation’s view of their purpose and mission.  The statement reads:

Ongoing work of the establishment of new Confessional Lutheran congregations throughout our region.

As I read this I was amazed regarding how totally foreign this sounded to me.  I was amazed because I was raised with this notion being taught in my home congregation and the church body to which this congregation belonged.  This was the language used at the seminary.  This was the language of my peers, my fellow pastors in that church body.

Until I was confronted with this statement on the Facebook page of one of my former peers, I did not realize how far removed I have become from this way of thinking.  Moreover, the longer that I considered the issue, the more that I realized that I never really held this notion to be the way of Christ’s Church.

Even when as a child and teenager and college student and then as a seminary student I felt a great urgency for and strong pull toward the work of a missionary, I never really embraced the concept of being an establisher of congregations.  I never really spoke against the concept and yet this never was the language of my heart, mind, and soul, either.

As I ponder this concept now, it actually is quite offensive to me.

When a person recognizes idolatry and blasphemy against God, the arrogance of these does injure one’s spirit and is a cause for grief.  When an individual or group of people begins to speak as though they were the ones accomplishing the miracle of Church, this is a very brazen theft of God’s glory, even though most people would perceive this as serving the Lord.

How do the Scriptures teach that a congregation becomes established?  The Scriptures teach that as the saints and especially the called preachers proclaim the Gospel that people are drawn together by the sweet and powerful words of God’s love, mercy, and salvation so that they draw near to hear more.  As the Holy Spirit works to congregate them, the saints lead them to the existing congregation, if one does exist in the area.  If not, they acknowledge that they have need to call/elect/ordain a pastor to administer to them the means of grace.  This then is not the accomplishment of a group or of an individual, but of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace.  This is not the work of a missionary, nor of a church body, nor even of a congregation.  This is the work of God and He works it when and where He has determined.

God is the one who converted those who in their daily lives walk in spirit and display the love of God in their lives.  God is the one who gives homes and neighbors and friends and family, who then observe the mercy of God at work in the lives of His saints.  God is the one who generates interest so that people ask concerning the hope that the saints have and demonstrate in their daily sojourning.  God is the one who gives the answer to the saints to share with those who ask.  God is the one who works conversion in these new believers so that they cry out for more of this blessed Life.  As they gather together and cry out, God grants that they are now a congregation in need of a pastor to rule over the administration of God’s gifts as the called servant of the Word.  The pastor rules God’s household in the same manner as the master of a banquet rules over those gathered, not as their lord, but as the administrator and steward of the feast.

Most who would read what stands written above would like say “Amen” in principle.  Yet this is extremely rarely observed in practice.

This is why people imagine that they must have a church body or denomination in order to be validly counted as a church and as Church.  This is why many pastors who have spoken boldly against the sins and waywardness of their church bodies either did not leave their impenitent church bodies, or continued in them until another church body was organized to which they could bind themselves.

Then, having constructed or organized for themselves a new and improved church body, they and those with them begin to seek to pursue the “Ongoing work of the establishment of new Confessional Lutheran congregations throughout our region.”  When Confessional Lutheran is not the preferred label, others are supplied, such as orthodox, faithful, true, genuine, Bible believing, and Christ centered.

This mindset always leads right back to the failures from which the group tried to escape.  The reason for this is that the same corrupt and fallible approaches for establishment have been utilized.  The new church body has a new group of overlords who carry the same false notions that built that previous crumbling church.

Thanks be to God that the words proclaimed by St. Paul remain true yesterday, today, and forever:

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.   (Ephesians 4:4-6)

When we truly hear this, then we no longer try to be God and we no longer imagine ourselves as church planters or establishers of congregations.  When we truly hear this, we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, eagerly gathering to the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments in accord with that pure Gospel.  When this is what is happening, then we are gathered as the Church and all that we receive is purely by grace as God grants it through the faith that He works among us.

Is this really such an important distinction?

The distinction is one of whose works we trust.  Do we trust God’s works or our works?  Do we trust in the things that God has ordained for His Church, or do we trust in the things that we or our leaders have organized and established?

One way continues forever and never fails.

As for the other way, well, one only needs to look around to see the results of the other way.  Who can even count the failed attempts through the other way?

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Tis the Season?Some Fascinating Music Videos

Here are some music videos and their accompanying links:




Christmas Flash Mob by Journey of Faith at South Bay Galleria - official video





Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See! - YouTube


It seems that this is the one time of year when such things are counted as permissible, perhaps even to be encouraged.

But then, tradition is nearly always counted as valuable and acceptable, especially if it helps to foster merriment and good cheer so that people are thinking of “giving,” which translates to purchasing.

Yet the heart does rejoice to hear that the Gospel is proclaimed, even if only for a brief season and often with tradition and marketing as the motivation.  The Gospel is nevertheless briefly broadcast to fall upon the various kinds of soil, where perhaps it will sprout and take root and flourish for a precious few souls.




Joy to the World Christmas Food Court Flash Mob! - Must See!


How many people notice that this common use of this hymn or carol is truncated to omit the third stanza?  How many people even know the third stanza?  Though this video is offered by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, they make no mention of the stanza that explains the reason for this marvelous “Joy to the World.”

Here is the entire hymn:

1. Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
 Let earth receive her King;
 Let every heart prepare Him room
 And heaven and nature sing.

 2. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
 Let men their songs employ,
 While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
 Repeat the sounding joy.

 3. No more let sins and sorrows grow
 Nor thorns infest the ground;
 He comes to make His blessings flow
 Far as the curse is found.

 4. He rules the world with truth and grace
 And makes the nations prove
 The glories of His righteousness
 And wonders of His love.

Why is there cause for this wondrous Joy to the World?  It is because in Christ there is no more sin, the cause for sorrow and the curse that God placed upon the ground for Man’s sake.  In Christ, the Lamb who takes the sin of the world has come.  In Christ the curse, while still evident to remind us of the need for the repentance that the Holy Spirit works, no longer has power to bring us low and make us sad.  For in Christ we have redemption and justification and sanctification.

But people prefer to omit this stanza because apart from Christ there is no true Joy to the World because apart from Christ the curse still rules.  And so they embrace only the notion of the hope for joy, joy that is a fleeting emotion that must be conjured up through hyperbolic emotional facades.  Singing of carols without thought as to their meaning; bright lights on trees and the eves of the houses; flying reindeer and fat jolly old men in red suits farcically saying “Ho! Ho! Ho!” while the cameras flash and little children are urged into deeper delusions of self-gratification and lust for toys and other gifts of mammon, all these are promoted for the sake of fleeting moments of feeling happy without considering the cause of unhappiness in the world for which the Christ is come into the world to remove.

Perhaps the saddest realization of all is that this is done also in the churches, where the pure Gospel is supposed to be preached with the true Joy to the World that is realized only through the change of heart and mind that we commonly call repentance.

So, for those who know the true source of Joy to the World it is indeed proper to

Repeat the sounding joy:

 No more let sins and sorrows grow
 Nor thorns infest the ground;
 He comes to make His blessings flow
 Far as the curse is found.
 Far as the curse is found.
 Far as, far as, the curse is found.

After all, this is what the world most needs to hear, is it not, so that this joy may indeed be made known to the world?





Musical Interruption - Carol Of The Bells - Must See Christmas Video!


Wikipedia has a brief history of Carol of the Bells.


At Lyrics Carol of the Bells the full text of this very popular and merry song are available.  This again is fleeting hyperbole, but it does indeed move the heart, mind and spirit to momentary feelings of joy.


Certainly even such shallow songs can be of benefit in lifting the spirits of souls that are in need of upliftment.  But if this is all that people embrace, the emotional drop that occurs after the hype has ended can be devastating.  Such hyperbole has to be pursued continually and in the end has no real power to overcome the curse, only presenting a delusional momentary sense of escape.

In awareness of this some have taken songs like this one and have rewritten them to try to Christianize them and give them a more sanctified appearance.

One example is this one sung by the Ray Conniff Singers:

Ring, Christmas bells, Merrily ring,
Tell all the world Jesus is King!
Loudly proclaim
With one accord,
The happy tale;

Welcome the Lord!
Ring, Christmas bells,
Sound far and near,
The birth day of Jesus is here.
Herald the news
To old and young,
Tell it to all
In ev'ry tongue.
Ring, Christmas bells,
Toll loud and long,
Your message sweet
Peel and prolong.
Come, all ye people,
Join in the singing,
Repeat the story
Told by the ringing. Ring!
Christmas bells, Ring,
Christmas bells.
Loudly proclaim Ring!
Christmas bells. Ring!
With one accord,
The happy tale;
Welcome the Lord!
Ring, Christmas bells,
Ring, Christmas bells,
Merrily ring,
Tell all the world Jesus is King!

Another example is Michael W. Smith - Christmastime :

This lovely sounding song is yet another attempt to make Christmas merry through music.  The lyrics at Christmastime Lyrics - Michael W. Smith are nevertheless lacking in any real substance concerning the cause for Christmastime to be merry.  Apart from the real reason for the birth of Jesus to the world, His rule as King is a terrifying thing.  People turn to Jesus as King with the false notion that they are able to make Him King in their hearts and lives.  And so they find themselves trapped in charismatic hyperbole that they seek after all their lives.  They find a sense of peace for as long as they are able to convince themselves that they actually do honor Jesus as their King and Lord.  However, their own awareness of their sinfulness cannot be forever suppressed.  This leads to despair, sometimes even suicide.

But Jesus comes as a very different King than people choose to make Him.  He comes not with bright lights and flashy glory.  He comes not in hyperbolic singing.  He comes not through the giving of toys and presents from Santa under a glistening tree.  Neither does He come with demands to be worshiped.

Rather, Jesus comes as the King who gives Himself for us.  He comes through the humble vessel of a bloody womb, blood from which He Himself had to be cleansed and purified, the blood of Mary’s sin that she inherited from Adam, the same sin that inheres in our flesh.  He comes at the end of His ministry among the Jews humbly riding on an ass, even the foal of an ass, being carried as the King who is the final sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Today He comes to those who gather to receive Him according to His promise to give His very body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  There He comes under the true Christ Mass gifts of bread and wine that we bring to His Table and He blesses with His gift of Himself in His true body and blood of our salvation and regenerated life in His Holy Communion.

Here is encountered the King of Glory offering us His gifts under the tree of salvation, a tree where the garland is a crown of thorns beaten deeply into  His bleeding scalp, a tree where the only light shining is the light of His love for sinful mankind and the glint that shines from His bright blood flowing down the trunk of the cross, blood shining with His own life that flows for the life of all who will be baptized into Him.

This King comes not to demand that we make Him King of our hearts and lives, but to enter into us through His means of grace to make His home our hearts, not by our choice and not by our commitment to Him, but by His choice and His commitment to us.  He pours Himself out to us and into us and as He creates faith in us, He begins to rule our hearts and minds through the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.  Then we finally know the Joy to the World that He comes to bring.  Then we realize that the curse is but God’s gracious call to stop seeking to make Jesus Lord so that we may receive Him as He comes to us as the one who truly is Lord of all.  Then our Joy no longer is something that we must produce through hyperbole, but the heavenly gift of Jesus who comes to us and produces in us what we cannot produce for ourselves.

Then our emotions are not the cause of our joy but merely reflections of the Joy who is come to the world to redeem the world and save the world from the curse of sin in the world.

Thus this season of Advent is a truly wonderful time of preparation for the celebration of the Christ Mass and these Advent hymns proclaim that for which we expectantly await:

"Come, Thou Precious Ransom, Come"

1. Come, Thou precious Ransom, come,
Only Hope for sinful mortals!
Come, O Savior of the world!
Open are to Thee all portals.
Come, Thy beauty let us see;
Anxiously we wait for Thee.

2. Enter now my waiting heart,
Glorious King and Lord most holy.
Dwell in me and ne'er depart,
Though I am but poor and lowly.
Ah, what riches will be mine
When Thou art my Guest Divine!

3. My hosannas and my palms
Graciously receive, I pray Thee;
Evermore, as best I can,
Savior, I will homage pay Thee,
And in faith I will embrace,
Lord, Thy merit through Thy grace.

4. Hail, hosanna, David's Son!
Help, Lord, hear our supplication!
Let Thy kingdom, scepter, crown,
Bring us blessing and salvation,
That forever we may sing:
Hail, hosanna! to our King.

"Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel"

1. Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

2. Oh, come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

3. Oh, come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

4. Oh, come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home:
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

"Once He Came in Blessing"

1. Once He came in blessing,
All our ills redressing;
Came in likeness lowly,
Son of God most holy;
Bore the cross to save us,
Hope and freedom gave us.

2. Still He comes within us,
Still His voice would win us
From the sins that hurt us;
Would to Truth convert us
From our foolish errors
Ere He comes in terrors.

3. Thus, if thou hast known Him,
Not ashamed to own Him,
But wilt trust Him boldly
Nor dost love Him coldly,
He will then receive thee,
Heal thee, and forgive thee.

4. He who thus endureth
Bright reward secureth.
Come, then, O Lord Jesus,
From our sins release us;
Let us here confess Thee
Till in heaven we bless Thee.

Yes, indeed!  Tis the Season!

God bless us every one!

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Johnny Cash - Hurt

Today I viewed a movie that included this Johnny Cash song at the end:



As I heard this song I heard Johnny’s broken heart as well as the broken hearts of many people in the world, some whom I know closely.  Some are very dear to me personally.  Some I care for dearly, even though barely knowing them.  Yet their pain is steeped into my memory and beyond, even into my heart and soul.

This song, especially the final stanza, made me think of the sad theft that has occurred in most of what is today called Christianity.

The full lyrics are listed at Lyrics.
Here is the last stanza:

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

These words very powerfully resonate with the false doctrine of most of what is considered to be Christianity today.  These words reflect the image of humanity lost in self-reliance, knowing nothing of God’s pure grace.  Most Christians confess this very same empty doctrine of works righteousness.  Sinful man cannot keep himself.  Sinful man is blinded to the way so that he seeks where he may, but never finds the way that he seeks.

I have watched those I love allow to be brushed from their sacred heads their everlasting crowns of life, to be exchanged for flowery temporal wreaths placed upon their whitewashed tombs, tabernacles of clay.  Those who once rested securely in the promises of their baptism now seek to find their own way, calling their own decisions and their own efforts at godliness the way of the Lord.  Those who once humbly confessed the faith of Jesus have turned to boasting of their own faith in Jesus.  Those who once longed for the blessed Communion of the body and blood of the Lord now trust in the fellowship of coffee and donuts.  Once they professed the creeds, but now they promote tolerance of mixed confessions.  Where they formerly united in the historic liturgy and rich proclamation of the ancient hymnody, they now divide themselves into multiple worship services of diverse style and focus, even bragging of the blended nature of their contemporaneity with the world. Their own personal witness has been elevated in superiority over the doctrine and practice of the apostles.

“Judge not lest ye be judged,” and “I cannot judge another person’s heart,” has become the mantra by which all who profess the holy catholic Church are judged and condemned as “unloving” and “intolerant.”

Yes, this song by the Man in Black is a very sad song.

Sadder still is the song of those who reduce the Gospel to a nondescript guideline of how personal faith in Jesus and seeking to live a good life, or at least a better life and treating others with some level of respect, is how Christianity and the Church is rightly defined.  This song is far sadder even than Johnny’s, for Johnny at least realized that his way was not the right way.




Johnny Cash - Hurt

Hurt (3:37)

Is this Cool, or What?

My wife sent me this link with the video that shows below: iPhone 5 with “Rubberband” Electronics Turns into iPad mini [Concept Video].




Wow!

Is there any other immediate response that one would expect upon first viewing this?

Of course, no such device actually exists.  But the animation is fantastic.

Do people think beyond the “Wow” moment after viewing this video?  Do people consider how short the durability of such a gadget will be?

Do people consider at all how this sort of video is programming their thinking?

The music chosen is powerful.  It creates the immediate sense of something heroic being accomplished.  It leaves a person feeling as though the creation of this gadget is going to accomplish liberation and empowerment of the people who own them.

If one really considers what these gadgets are designed to accomplish, the exact opposite purpose will be perceived.  They are designed to make people more dependent upon the already failing cellular networks.  They are designed to bind people to these tracking devices.

Notice what is being taught about genuine customer service where a person can expect to have actual contact with another person and obtain real help when things go awry.  We are being taught even in this video that such personal interaction will no longer be available and that a computer will tell us what we can and will do.  Don’t bother calling.  All that you will receive is an extended litany of harassing, preprogrammed automation.

All of our personal information will be (and is) stored in a massive data base which will be immediately accessible to those who have the right connections.

In the meantime, the smaller independent businesses are being eliminated and real jobs are evaporating.  Freedom to operate and function independently is being eliminated.  Thinking that stretches beyond what is promoted by those who have predetermined the new societal programming is diminishing.

Thus the title for this post is: “Is this cool, or what?” with the emphasis on the “or what.”

Do most people even ask “or what” anymore?

I find it alarming to realize that if I drive away from the house without my cell phone that my first thought is that I should drive back to get it, even if I am only going to the store to purchase a gallon of milk.  This has actually happened on a couple of occasions recently.  I was aghast when I heard myself think, “Oh, what will I do?  What if I need to call Stephanie with a question?”  For crying out loud!  I was only to be away for 15 minutes or perhaps half of an hour!

Yikes!  I’ve been programmed!

And this is only a tiny example of the social programming that is prevalent in society today.

Perhaps it is time for people to stand back a bit to gain a broader perspective and to begin asking the “or what” and not merely allowing the reflex response of “Wow!  How cool!”


The Lord Jesus gave a very powerful warning:

     No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  (Matthew 6:24)

Mammon is treasure, things, possessions.

What happens when mammon becomes one’s god?  What happens when a person becomes dependent upon and puts one’s trust in mammon?  Does one not subject oneself and willingly make oneself the slave of the things that one loves?

Furthermore, who in this world controls these things, these gadgets and the networks through which they are connected?

Are these not questions that people would do well to ask themselves?

I myself find it amazing that so many people are afraid of being enslaved to God and religion but eagerly enslave themselves to welfare and other government assistance, to gadgetry and those who sell and control the gadgetry, to social media, to health care providers, to insurance companies, to Social Security payments, and to employers who provide benefit packages.  All of these demand subjugation and servitude.  They all offer very low levels of security.  And, they all ultimately fail those who give them their trust.

Yet God, the Lord, who makes Himself known through the Scriptures and through His means of grace, gives freely even to those who refuse to trust Him.  He makes His sun to shine and His rain to fall for both the just and the unjust.  He gave His Son for the sake of the entire world, even those who would reject and hate Him and work against all of the good that He desires to provide for all.  He promises a life of hope and peace and contentment and joy to all who trust Him and receive His grace as He gives it. What is His demand?  He demands that we receive His gifts and His mercy and His love through the means that He has established, means that guarantee that the true giver is acknowledged so that His beloved do not cut themselves off from Him and the life that He gives.

Oh my.  What a meanie!  “Trust Me and receive My gifts and life as I give them so that you remain in the safety of my Communion.”  Oh what a tyrant!

Yet those who do trust Him and abide in His Word, acknowledging the goodness of His commands and precepts, do indeed enjoy what He promises to work through them.  Even those who do not truly know Him and do not truly live in His Communion, when they embrace what is taught in the Commandments and other declarations of what is good, they do indeed experience the goodness therein proclaimed.  Such is the way of this God and His decrees.  What He says is.  What He promises actually is observed.  And this efficacious way is everlasting.

Test this with a cell phone or other gadgetry.  Test this with your own feelings.  Test this with your own bodily strength.  Test this with your own mental prowess.  Test this with the health care industry.  Test this with your government and leaders.  Test this with your family and friends.  Test this with your whatever.

As for myself, I know that the Lord is faithful.  He never fails.  Even when I imagine that He fails, I eventually see that His promise in Romans 8 is true:

     And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to   his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate   to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God   be for us, who   can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  (Romans 8:28-32)

I may not always perceive the good that the Lord is working, especially through the hardships and suffering that I face.  For sometimes the good is being worked for someone else, someone who observes from a distance the faithfulness of the Lord in preserving me through the fiery trials that I face.  Sometimes the lessons that I learn I do not realize that I have learned.  Yet the good has been worked for me, most especially the good of not losing hope and not despairing completely and the good of not becoming the monster that I would otherwise become.  Looking to the Lord and waiting upon Him in faith is truly a great and even immeasurable good.

For me, this is the “or what” that is truly exciting!  This is the gift that truly stretches to cover all of my needs through faith.  It especially stretches to cover my most essential need, the need for forgiveness and the new life of holiness that exists only in true communion with Christ.  In Him my guilt and my shame and my fears are drowned and washed away and replaced with confidence and freedom to live with hope and joy.

Why would I ever trade this for the temporal mammon that fails?



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