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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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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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?



+ + +

A Tiny Nature’s Haven

Last week I began working to prune an Amur maple that had grown as a multiple stem tree and had overgrown the area in which it had been planted.  The two secondary main stems needed to be removed, and it needed to be deadwooded and cleaned and headed back from the three walls and roof.  As I began approaching the tree I found a baby rabbit in the enclosed bed looking up at me from the foot of the trunk of the Amur maple.

Then, as I began working in the tree I discovered a robin and her nest in one of the boughs to be removed.  She was quite upset.  She squeaked loudly and continually, which is an odd sound for a robin.  Then she began swooping at my head, but without actually making contact.  I warned her not to do this as I did not want to hurt her and I did not want to knock her baby and unhatched egg to the ground.  The baby appeared to have been hatched that day, perhaps only hours earlier.  I kept telling her that I was aware of her nest and that I would be careful not to destroy it.  But she continued squeaking and squeaking.  I kept assuring her that I would not hurt her babies and that I would move her nest to a new and safe location in the tree and that if she is a good momma that she will return to care for her babies.

Finally I changed my tone from apologetic to a firm and direct address, saying, “Listen, I know that you can understand me as the Lord can make my words understood to you, so listen.  I will not hurt your babies.  I will move the nest to a safe location and if you are a good mamma, you will return to take care of them.”  After this she stood on the roof looking at me for a few moments and then flew away.  I was able to relocate the nest to a safe place in the remaining tree branches and she returned to care for her baby and egg.

As I worked on the ground removing the two secondary mains,  I was very much startled when a momma duck suddenly took flight as I was working.  Her nest was in the corner behind me.  After she flew off, making quite a startling flutter, I saw her nest with six or seven eggs.  I was careful as I felled and dragged the large branches so as not to disturb her nest, nor the robin’s nest.  Momma Duck also returned to her eggs after I finished working in that little alcove.

Both mommas returned to their precious ones shortly after I cleared my equipment and branches from the alcove.  I was still working in the same area of the yard when they returned.  Momma robin returned to her nest and sat overlooking the front lawn.  Momma Duck flew back, landed in the grass and paced a bit, looking over her shoulder at me for a few minutes, and then flew back to her nest.

Such little adventures add considerably to the time required to do my work, yet I receive a sense of satisfaction and joy when I am able to save the little families from destruction.  I have moved other nests in the past, too.  If at least one of the eggs has already hatched, the rate of success is much higher.  It also helps when the nest can be kept in the same tree.  But even when it must be moved to another tree, if the babies have hatched so that they make some noise, sometimes the momma finds them and resumes her motherly care for them.  This baby was so newly hatched that it did not even make any noises.  But Momma Robin did find her babies.

Anyway, I thought that I would share this little bit of joyous success that I enjoyed this past week.

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The Excitement of Positive Psychology

The following video is exciting. It is energetic. It is fun.

Watch it. Enjoy it. Then, I’ll share how the truth is even better!





The Truth:

Psychology is not about the brain.

This concept has been abandoned by the modern pseudoscientists.

Psychology is not about the brain.

The pseudoscientists have taken true science and minimized it to something less. It still has many powerful aspects of the truth, but it does not have the full and limitless power of the truth.

Psychology is not about the brain!

Psychology is about the SOUL!

This includes the brain and the electrochemical reactions within the brain and the rest of the nervous system and the rest of the body. It includes the mind, which is more than the brain. It includes the emotions. It includes the physical condition. It includes the ego or personhood and thereby includes esteem and worth. In short, it includes the entire living being of a person.

Psychology is about the SOUL! It is Soul-ology, or Soul-knowledge.

When we approach matters of happiness and health within the understanding that a person is not a composite of parts but is actually a being, a living and functioning body with absolute integrity and dependency throughout, a body that is made to be integral through the incorporation of the spirit so that it becomes not a mere lump of structured organic material (clay/dust/ash), but a living soul, then we move beyond conjecture to actual knowledge of the truth. Then we deal not with suppositions but with what is.

This is what true theology provides. This is what God declares so that we may know with certainty what we otherwise stumble to discover and hypothesize.

Through His apostle, Paul, the Lord informs us:

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

If we pay attention to what is declared here, which is fully integral with what is declared throughout the Holy Scriptures, we learn the true meaning of positive psychology.

Unquestionably, thinking positively and enjoying our daily activities produces good, healthy, positive changes in our hormonal and other chemical levels. What Shawn Achor shares in the video above has valid points, as far as they go. But they are not really the truth. His facts only tell part of the story. He does not deal with the entire person, not even with the person’s mind. Instead of the mind he studies the brain and the responses of the brain’s chemical activity to behavior modification.

This approach ignores the fact that life is more than cellular activity. Life for humans is much more than even life for the animals. But even for the animals, life is more than merely having cells and organs and body parts that are alive. We are able to produce living cells in a laboratory. We can even produce living brain tissue. We can keep a dead person’s body alive through artificial respirators and dialysis machines and heart pumps and chemical infusions. But we cannot make that composite of living cells and organs and body parts to live as a person. A human being is more than such a composite. A human being is a living soul.

This is what the Lord reveals throughout His Holy Scriptures, beginning in the beginning, in Genesis 2. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

This is the connection that Adam broke by turning from the Word of the Lord to his own ways. Adam’s attempt to remedy this was to deal only with the physical, for he did not have the power to revive the spirit. This is why modern psychology has divorced itself from treatment of the soul and merely deals with the physical symptoms.

This is why St. Paul directs us to fix our affection on things above. Actually, he literally says, “Upward mind yourselves.” Our minds with all that this includes we are to turn upward. But this is not a vague sense of looking for more positive and happy thoughts and feelings. This upward turning of your thoughts and feelings and reasoning and understanding has an object. That object is Christ, into whom we have been baptized and thus have our place with Him already in the heavenly abode so that the things of this earthy turmoil are ineffectual against us. Through our baptism we are made to die to the world and alive in Christ. And this new life of freedom and joy is hidden to those whose eyes are closed to it.

Yet the world does catch glimpses of it as the saints are gathered into the name of Jesus to partake of His life given in the Sacrament. This regular renewal of the life of Christ in us continues with us in our daily activities so that the freedom and joy of the Gospel permeates our activities and our displays of emotions and of God’s goodness.

Perhaps the most amazing part of this is that it does not require any real effort on our part. Rather, it is the outflow of the new life and new understanding that God gives to us through faith. This outflow of positiveness remains undaunted even when every other thing seems to fall to pieces. This is much more than programing oneself with positive thinking. This is a direct connection to that which is above all the trouble and sorrow and defeat of this fallen world.

This is the power of the Gospel.

I have seen suicidal people comforted and turned from their despair. I have witnessed many dying people consoled so that like Stephen, they saw the face of Jesus as they were dying. People with AIDS and cancer who were being eaten alive and in perpetual immeasurable pain that even morphine could not dull, I have heard them say, “I am at peace.” I have heard despairing people with advancing necrosis from diabetes with multiple amputations kept alive through dialysis and feeding tubes say, “I believe that I have faith again, and I am content.” I have seen a woman comforted whose mother for years shoved a fireplace poker inside her. I have seen how the Gospel brought peace to people with visions of spiders and snakes and rats chewing on their brains. I have observed the power of the Gospel to set free a man living with the shame of having molested his daughters and to free the adult daughters so that they were empowered to forgive their father. I have counseled people who suffered years of other forms of abuse, too.

I’ve witnessed the power of the Gospel accomplish these things for people over and over.

And this is much more than merely being conditioned through mental and emotional gymnastics or drug manipulation. This is true healing. It is a setting free of the spirit so that the entire soul is freed to live again without the dominance of these other things. God has the power to do for us what we absolutely cannot do for ourselves. No matter how we try to seduce our brains to believe positive things, we cannot overpower the things that ultimately defeat us.

But God has! He not only can but He has! Christ took all of our suffering and anguish and misery and died with these on our behalf. Then, on the third day, He raised Himself again, not only mentally, not only emotionally, not only spiritually, but bodily. He did not leave our humanity behind, but raised it up and carried it to the very throne of God in heaven.

Moreover, He provided the means through which we are joined with Him in His body to be partakers or communicants of the fullness of this victory. As St. Paul admonishes, we have been made to be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. (Rom. 8:37)

The victory is already won for us in Christ. We do not have to achieve victory, for it is already ours. Moreover, this victory is a “beyond or over victory.” It is over and above all victories that we would seek for ourselves. This victory is not merely temporal, but everlasting. It is far above merely overcoming the disappointments and even the terrors of this world so as to live out our time until we die. This victory extends beyond death unto the resurrection. No amount of positive thinking can touch this. This is freedom that cannot be taken away. This is hope and joy and peace without end.

Interestingly, in Shawn’s presentation, he counters the false approach of seeking to achieve happiness through success and various other goal oriented methods with yet another goal oriented method.

Thus he really is running in a big circle ending up right back at the starting line again. This circle or cycle cannot be broken or escaped without a total change of perception.

What is the problem? What is missing in this understanding that always brings people back to the same failing methodology?

What is missing is the understanding that happiness is not achieved but received.

Happiness is not something that we achieve for ourselves but what we receive as a gift from the one true source of happiness. When God rejoins us into His Holy Communion of grace, mercy, peace, love, and joy, we live in this communion. Life is not a goal. Life is a gift from the Creator. All that we seek to obtain is already given freely. By seeking to grasp this or obtain this for ourselves, we cut ourselves off from the Giver. We set ourselves up in our imaginations as though we were able to do what only He can do. When we hear Him for who He is, as our loving and gracious Father who freely gives all good things without any requirement of merit or effort on our part, then what He gives we receive. Then we look not to ourselves and what we must change in our lives to that which He has already done in Christ and we find that our lives have been changed. When we are restored through the means that God has ordained, all that we would strive to change in ourselves we discover He has already done for us. Then we simply go forward and enjoy what He has done by grace through faith (Ephesians 2).

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Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

How many more times will this be played or sung? Argh!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Lyrics

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

So...You better watch out,
You better not cry
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Little tin horns,
Little toy drums.
Rudy-toot-toot
and rummy tum tums.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Little toy dolls
that cuddle and coo,
Elephants, boats
and Kiddie cars too.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

The kids in Girl and Boy Land
will have a jubilee.
They're gonna build a toyland town
all around the Christmas tree.

Oh....You better watch out,
You better not cry.
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is comin'
Santa Claus is comin'
Santa Claus is comin'
To town.

I hate this song. It teaches the exact opposite of the spirit of Christmas. Rather than the comfort and joy of God’s grace it teaches that one must make oneself righteous. Moreover, because all children know that what it demands is impossible, it teaches that holiness is but an illusion.

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

This makes me angry when I hear it. This is not what Saint Nicolas taught at all. He taught God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

This song teaches the exact opposite of what the season of Advent and then Christmas teaches. Advent and Christmas teach us that Jesus came in answer to our cries and our pouting. Because of sin, we have genuine reason for our tears and our sorrow. Jesus came to be born as the Savior from Sin and all the consequences of sin.

The Lord does not command that we not cry. Rather, He commands that our crying be directed to Him with the assurance that He has heard our cries and has answered them, even before we feel the need to cry. His answer is from eternity. It is part of His everlasting love toward us.

Moreover, Jesus did not merely come as a baby. He continues to come to us today through the ordained means of grace. He continues to urge us to cry out to Him and to look for Him in the manger of the altar where He gives His body and blood for our comfort and relief.

Here is a hymn that expresses the true spirit of Advent and Christmas. When the other garbage spews forth from the radio in the car or the speakers in the store, here is a hymn that will give comfort and peace and assurance instead:

"Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel"

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here we are taught to cry out in accord with the promises of God. He wants us to hear Him and respond with cries for His mercy and salvation. He wants us to cry to Him in expectation that He will indeed give us relief.

Moreover, beyond trusting Him so as to cry to Him as He has commanded us, what does He demand? Even the faith by which we trust Him He gives to us as a gift! He has established His Church on earth for us so that we have a safe haven into which we may gather even as He calls us to do. He is present for us eager to bestow His grace upon us. This is the message of Christmas. This is the God of Christmas. Immanuel, “With Us God.”

So, now, as you watch out,
Lift up your sad eyes,
Stand with me and shout,
With all of your cries,

Jesus Christ is coming to town!

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Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Psalm 98:4

This morning I sang TLH Hymn # 196, “I Am Content! My Jesus Liveth Still”. We sang this hymn in the divine service Sunday and I needed to receive its blessed comfort again today. It truly is a marvelous hymn.

As I went outside to water some of the garden plants, I continued singing and humming this wondrous hymn. Then I began whistling it.

I was surprised by the birdies. Four mourning doves flew nearby and half a dozen finches landed in the little tree beside me and began chirping with me. Some of them were actually looking at me the entire time. I walked over and sat down and continued whistling the hymn and they continued in the tree chirping with me. When I stopped whistling they all flew away.

Did they come to join me in this hymn of comfort and praise to the God of mercy? Did God send them to be a source of encouragement and joy?

I certainly enjoyed the experience and was uplifted in my spirit regarding the wonders of God’s grace, mercy, and peace. I was reminded of what Moses writes concerning the creation and what the Scriptures say of the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord has prepared for His saints.

† † †

Joy to the World

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! This first stanza of a very popular Christmas hymn certainly serves a person well to remember.

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

This week here in Wichita we had several truly beautiful days preceding the return to winter weather that we are experiencing today. Christmas is observed during the winter. Yet, because of the gift of God’s Son to the world, truly it is a time of joy.

Yesterday the little birdies were singing with all their strength. It made me wonder whether perhaps they knew that it was the last day of that unseasonably warm and gentle and friendly weather. I repeated to my wife what I believed that they were telling us.

Oh, it is a beautiful day! It is a glorious day! Sing! Rejoice! Give thanks to God! It is a wonderful day. Come out with us and give thanks to God! Today is the last of these days for a while. Waste it not! Enjoy this wonderful gift from God. Rejoice in His goodness!

It made me think of the last portion of the stanza above. It also stood as a reminder that Christmas is not limited to the season of the Church year in which we specifically observe it. As the divine service blessedly reminds us in “The Gloria in Excelsis,” the announcement of the angels to the shepherds is a never ending message.

”Glory be to God on high: and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The joy of the Christ Mass is ours every Lord’s Day, as we are fed the gift of the divinely ordained Supper of forgiveness and life and communion with God and His saints. This serves us as sustenance for every day living so that every day is a day for rejoicing in God’s goodness to us in Christ Jesus.

Earlier this week as I went to make a deposit at the credit union, one of the familiar tellers greeted me and asked how I was doing. I responded that I was surviving. “Only surviving?” she queried with puzzlement. ”Can one really be only surviving on such a beautiful day?” “The weather is not the only thing that people endure,” I gently replied. But she went on to tell me how she had the day off from school and spent time outside before coming to work and how that invigorated her. I smiled and responded, “It is an absolutely lovely day.”

That humble admission was quite powerful in its effect. For in being humbled to look beyond the things that were troubling me and robbing me of the joy of the day, my attitude was transformed. That simple admission turned me from my stubborn refusal to give thanks to God like the little birdies and to rejoice in the richness of His blessings. My spirit was revived and my heart did rejoice.

If the little birdies can see it, how much more am I able to see it, having been baptized into the Kingdom of God on earth so as to be carried to the Holy Supper where God pours out to me with the blood of Jesus the things by which true happiness and peace are mine forevermore. It is truly foolish of me to rob myself of such endless joy on account of stubbornness.

Always Something

”The shower drain is not draining!”

OK. Stop preparations for going out to work. The shower drain is full of hair again.

It is not that I don’t want to do it. Actually, like any work, it has a sense of reward attached to it. At the end of the job, something has been accomplished. It may be small in the grand scheme of the activities of one’s life, but it nevertheless is a good job done.

In Ecclesiastes Solomon writes that every activity is vanity, saying: “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

At the end of it all he concludes:

The end of the whole matter let us hear: --`Fear God, and keep His commands, for this is the whole of man. For every work doth God bring into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or bad.' (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 YLT)

God has attached even in this age a sense of reward to the little things that we do, if we do them from the perspective that St. Paul admonishes us:

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)

In Christ we receive the reward even before we do anything. Christ and the new life that He gives is our reward. This reward, that He has earned for us, changes us from the inside out. As we grow in understanding this, it is manifested in the things that we think, say, and do. More and more God shows us His faithfulness as the Holy Spirit works within us to show us the sanctification that is given to us in our Baptism. He works tirelessly to make known to us who we are in Christ, who we are in accord with His holy declaration in our Baptism in connection with the faith that is poured out to us with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us all the rest of our days.

According to our own efforts, all that we do is vanity and a vexation of spirit. According to even our best efforts, all that we do is a demonstration of futility. Yet in Christ, our futility is turned to everlasting glory. In Christ we are judged to be holy and righteous children of God. In Christ every act is counted as holy.

But we only enjoy this presently as we heed the urgings of the Holy Spirit and do what He urges. How blessed we are to be able to do all things as unto the Lord! This is a blessing and joy only known by the saints.

First Love

The other day in a conversation I became aware of my use of the phrase “my first love” in that conversation.  I was mildly surprised to realize that I use this phrase rather regularly.

We were talking about matters of the Christian faith.  Once I become engaged in such a conversation regarding the doctrine of the Scriptures and the blessed hope of everlasting life that this doctrine teaches, I find myself hoping that I am not pressing too hard and for too long.  I find myself excusing my enthusiasm and fearing that I am demonstrating verbosity, and I say something like, “Well, this is my favorite subject and my first love.”

While the Lord Jesus uses this language in Revelation 2:4, still it caused me a degree of amazement to hear this coming from my lips in regular conversation.  Yet it is true.  I would rather speak the Gospel than do anything else.  It is not from a sense of obligation as though I speak it as a duty.  Rather, it is the source of my joy in life.  To share this source of joy and peace and comfort is what I find myself most wanting to do.  I am built up in the sharing and I desire the same for everyone else.

Some people imagine the sharing of the Gospel to be kingdom building or witnessing for the Lord or mission work and such things.  For me, it is simply who I am and what I love most in life.  For me it is simply the most natural thing to be doing, at home, with customers, with people in line at the store, on a blog or web site, wherever and whenever.

The Gospel is Life.  The Gospel is Hope.  The Gospel is Peace.  While it is mildly surprising to hear it flow from my lips in regular conversation, it is also pleasing to know that the Gospel is my first love.  I cannot imagine anything better or more worthy of my devotion.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday anniversary. It was a joy to celebrate with her the gift of life that God has bestowed upon her and the gift of her life and love that He has bestowed upon me through her.

This celebration was also a reminder to me of the reality that I face every day, the reality that I can never be to her the husband that I desire to be. She does not fuss about this fact, but I do. I often ponder the frailty of my love and the impotence of my strength in providing for her.

I have often wondered how I would do if anything ever happened to her so that she truly depended upon me. Before we were married she had cancer. What if it should return someday and she depended upon me to care for her? What sort of husband would I be? When I consider the poverty of my current bestowal of love to her, I cower to consider how I could fail her if she ever really needed my love to be strong.

I am very grateful to know that my strength comes not from my internal fortitude but from the Lord. I also am very grateful that my wife knows this as well, both regarding my strength and hers.

How can I even properly account how blessed I am to have such a wife in the Lord? She tells me regularly that her greatest blessing and joy is in having a husband who preaches the Gospel. She speaks of her gratitude to God for the fact that I count the Gospel as the one thing necessary and that I spend my days searching the Scriptures so as to be able to direct her to that one necessary thing in her life and in our life together.

Can any man be more richly blessed?

Oh, what a happy birthday! Oh how wonderful that God has brought my wife into the world and has given her to me for as long as we both shall live.

Happy Birthday, Dear! Thank You, Lord!

Sound of Music - Central Station Antwerp (Belguim)

Here is an example of the power of music to move people in their hearts, minds, spirits, and bodies.



This is a tiny example of the power of music and singing. Even though this is a silly little song, it demonstrates how much people enjoy music and the grandeur of singing.

It puzzles me that some people hear of the fact that among the many things foretold to us regarding the new life that is prepared for the saints in heaven that some people imagine that singing praises to God will be boring. Yet in this video one can clearly observe that singing is a joyful experience that is even more powerfully and overwhelmingly joyous when done in unison by all who are present.

The singing in heaven will not be silly. It will be a continuation of the joy that has begun in God’s Holy Communion of the Saints who know and live in the peace that surpasses all understanding. Just imagine what it will be like when Michael or Gabriel sound forth with the voice of an archangel. Imagine when all of the heavenly host join in. Imagine how this will resonate. Imagine how this will move the saints.

Now also imagine what life will be like when no one will ever hear said of one’s own voice, “That was terrible!” What will it be like when no one ever again fears being rejected by others? What will it be like when the sounds of music move one in the heart so as to want to hug and kiss the nearest person, and such reactions will be counted as normal so that no one ever anticipates having such a display of love to be rejected? What will it be like when every emotional response is pure and without sin so that the true freedom of a life of pure love is all that is ever experienced?

Will this not be cause for singing? Will this not be cause for singing forth with all of one’s being the praises of God and the Lamb who from eternity have established this for the saints? Could there be any more natural response?

---

These two sites explain who was behind this Sound of Music treat at the Antwerp Central Station:

Centraal Station Antwerpen - Op zoek naar Maria
Antwerp central station dances to The Sound of Music

In the Name of Jesus: continued

      Four posts below I presented In the Name of Jesus as a commentary regarding the ever growing tendency among pastors to experience what they have called “boredom with preaching.” My post is given as a counter to this mindset, intended as an encouragement to remember Who the true preacher is and what this means for everyone connected to this preaching.

      My comments have been misunderstood by some and mocked and ridiculed by others. My heart aches to observe this. Nevertheless, I cannot imagine any believer in Christ being bored with preaching, most especially those entrusted with the Public Office of Preaching. Below I wish to continue explaining what preaching is, for everyone who has been called to be a vessel of the Lord and especially for the called and ordained preacher.

      Consider what the preaching of the Gospel really is and how it encompasses and pervades the life the one who preaches, especially the one who preaches according to the public office of preaching.

      The pastor/teacher is one who regularly prepares to stand before the people of God and to preach in the name of Christ. He is one who is driven first to study the Scriptures and to wrestle with the Lord his God and to continue in this until the Word speaks to his own heart and soul. Then, in the joy of what has been proclaimed to himself he arises before the congregation to which he is called to serve this Word. He leads them in the invocation of the Word, to call upon this Word to be present with power, even as has been promised. He turns to see the faces of those who have been gathered by this Word in the expectation of being converted again to the repentance by which life is restored through the forgiveness that this called servant has been entrusted to deliver. All eyes and hearts intently turn to this man to receive from him the One in whom all hope resides. All who are gathered fully expect this miracle to be performed in the name of Jesus. During this gathering to the Word the pastor steps into the appointed place for preaching and preaches the blessed Word that has been given to him. As he preaches what he has written with his hand, he also hears with his ears and knows that the grace, mercy, and peace of the Lord that he again receives for himself is being poured out to all who have gathered. His own heart melts and is restored. He also sees the responses of the faces of those to whom the Lord is coming through his preaching. He knows that God is at work in the hearts and minds and souls of those to whom he preaches. He directs them to the Holy Communion of the Lord and then he first receives for himself and then distributes to all the rest, the body of unity and the blood of forgiveness and life and renewal. Finally, all sing Simeon’s marvelous Amen to what the Lord has done for them, and the pastor again places the name of blessing upon the congregation.

      This same pastor later goes to the hospital to visit the hospitalized. Every person in the room turns and breathes a sigh of relief. He approaches the bedside and administers Christ to the dear brother or sister and to all who receive Him.

      This same pastor goes to those who are homebound. Their countenance lights up. Their eyes glow with the joy that has been restored to their hearts. They receive the absolution. They receive a brief word of exposition of the Gospel. They receive the body and blood of their Lord. They give thanks to God for sending His servant to carry to them what they cannot congregate to receive otherwise. They thank their dear pastor for coming.

      The hospital chaplain calls. He says that a man had a heart attack while driving his car and has been brought to the hospital. His family is with him. He is unconscious and in bad condition. He has not been a church goer but at some point attended a Lutheran church. The chaplain asks that the pastor come and be with the family. Upon arrival the room becomes quiet and the pastor begins pouring out the blessed Gospel for everyone present, praying for the unconscious man, proclaiming the Law and the Gospel to him and his family. Subsequent visits are made. The man dies and the family requests the pastor to preside over the funeral. Again the questions of the Law are addressed and the promise of the Gospel is proclaimed. The question is left open as to whether the man heard and believed, but the faith is proclaimed for those who are grieving and the confidence of God’s mercy is extended for those who hear that day.

      The sheriff’s department calls. “We have a man in custody who is on suicide watch. He is very upset. He is angry and afraid. Can you come?” The man’s life is being destroyed. He is facing terrible charges. He is angry at his wife. He is angry at society. He is angry at God. He is afraid. The pastor is not concerned about the charges. The pastor is concerned about the man’s excommunication from God’s Holy Communion. He listens. He responds. He listens. He speaks to the man’s sinfulness, not merely his sins, but his poor miserable condition on account of being a sinner. He speaks to the man’s hopelessness. He speaks strong and hard words to the man. He simultaneously speaks of the love of God in Christ. He speaks of the forgiveness that Christ won by suffering the full burden of the man’s sinfulness and actual sins as well as the sinfulness and sin of the world. The man is broken and weeps. The man hears the absolution. The man goes to face his trial and is found guilty and goes to prison. The man rejoices in the grace of God in Christ all the days of his imprisonment and all the days of his life.

      A woman under treatment by a psychiatrist for depression has been turned into a drug addict by the psychiatrist. She has adulterous affairs in search of a sense of identity and for reasons she does not even know. She calls the pastor. She hears the Gospel but is not willing to let go of her false faith. She calls for the pastor many times. Each time she hears again and again the Lord speaking to her, confronting her in her desperation, calling her to repent and receive His gracious help, and calling her to a life of freedom in His grace, mercy, and peace.

      A man comes to the pastor. He feels worthless and without hope. He is afraid that he could take his own life. The pastor listens. The man tells of abuse in his childhood. He asks why these things happened. The pastor directs the man to the Lord Jesus. The man hears of God’s great love displayed in the gift of His Son. He hears the great cost that God paid for his redemption. He hears of the great worth that God counts toward him. The pastor goes with the man to his home. They continue talking. The pastor shows him simple things that he can do in his life, things that he counted as insurmountable. The pastor helps him with some of his chores, showing him that he is not unable to do them. The man wonders how to get past the hurts that he has toward those who have hurt him over the years. The pastor again brings the man to his baptism and the cleansing of his soul and the regeneration to the new life that is his in Christ. He invites the man to remember the proclamation of the Lord’s death in the Holy Supper. He assures the man of his forgiveness. The man’s hurts begin to fade and to be obliterated by the love and mercy of God that is received in the blood of Christ. The injurious things that others have done and continue to do seem to lose their significance as he turns from them to the confidence and forgiveness that is in Christ’s Holy Communion. Before long God’s forgiveness is all that he knows and that forgiveness overflows to cover the wrongs of those who have injured him so deeply. Soon he no longer wonders about how to get over the hurts and how to forgive, because those things are no longer brought up in his remembrance of those people. He begins to see that this is what God has done for him through Christ.

      On and on the opportunities pour forth to the pastor. In every instance he preaches the Word. In season and out of season he preaches the Word. People come to him and he goes to people. He stands before the congregation and he goes out from the congregation to those beyond the regular gathering. He stands in the power of the Gospel. He stands in the name of Jesus. He touches peoples hearts. He reaches into their souls and takes hold of the ugly, dirty, dark, filthy crap that pervades their souls and holds it before their eyes and shows them that because of Jesus none of these things have any power over them. He pierces the hard, rocky mountains of doubt and fear and desperation and depression and guilt and condemnation and drives in the dynamite of the Gospel and breaks to pieces the mountains and casts them into the sea of forgiveness and life and salvation. From the pulpit, from the altar, and in private visitation, the pastor does away with sin and sets people free. In all these things the pastor rejoices, knowing that the freedom that he preaches to others is his for his own life and his to give.

      This is the life of the preacher of the Gospel. This is the preaching of the Gospel.

      What part of this is boring? I truly do not understand how any preacher of the Gospel can call this anything but exciting! What could be more exciting? Where does the preaching of this Gospel leave room for anything besides humble rejoicing and thanksgiving in the peace of God that surpasses all understanding?

In the Name of Jesus

      I have read and heard of a mindset among pastors that disturbs me greatly. This mindset is not new, although I have observed it frequently of recent date, especially during the build up to the Season of Christmas this past year. Yet I have heard it prior to this as well. Two blog entries especially addressed this,
What to Do When You’re Bored with Preaching and On Pastors and Christmas.

      This disturbs me greatly. I wanted to comment earlier, but I considered the timing to be poor. So I waited until now when the anguish described especially in the second blog posting will likely have subsided somewhat.

      But the comments of "bored with preaching" and "burned out" disturb me. In "On Pastors and Christmas" the pastors indicated that this is a recurring thing for them. I asked my wife whether she could ever remember me being burned out with preaching. She could not remember such a time either.

      It disturbs me to hear of this. I have heard about it throughout my life and especially after becoming a pastor myself. Yet it is a foreign thing to me. I understand the what but I do not understand the why or the how.

      It especially disturbs me that these comments come from pastors who are truly good preachers. This is not a comment so much on their delivery or enthusiasm as it is upon the content of their preaching.

      So if their content is solid and generally rich with God’s gracious Word of the Gospel, why do they speak of being bored with preaching and burned out with preaching? Why do they speak of being envious of pastors who get excited about Christmas? Why would the one pastor say: “All I can say is I know no way out of it and I always find myself in the same hole”? Why would another pastor say: “This year really just felt like a lot of work”?

      I don’t relate to these things, but I think that I understand what is happening for those who speak this way. I think that they actually answer themselves with some of their comments. Here are a few quotes that may be helpful:

      First, the closing comments on the blog on Pastors and Christmas:

      Finally, there is the continued spectre for the preacher of coming up with something new on the most familiar of all biblical texts. It is hard work, and I’m not always successful at it.
      The result of all this is that I find myself more stressed out than usual, behind, tired, crabby, and generally not very full of Christmas cheer. I am short and cross with my family. I don’t have patience to deal with all of the very real problems that arise in my congregation. At the very time when I need to be on my “A game” as a pastor, I feel like I am barely passing muster.
      So what do you do when you are strung out as a pastor? Inquiring minds want to know.

      Then from one of the comments:

      I always fantasize about getting everything in order and having luxuriously long amounts of time to ponder texts and the fathers and Luther and ancient hymns and really produce awesome sermons.

      There is no question that writing sermons is hard work. But that is not the cause of being bored with preaching or with being burned out. The busyness of the pastor’s life and work is not the cause either. No, the real reason lies in the comments quoted above.

      The real reason is that pastors can easily forget the motive and joy and basis of preaching. Pastors can forget what it really means to be a preacher of the Gospel. They can forget who the REAL preacher is.

      This is what these comments actually display.

      Where does God’s call to be a preacher ever command that something new is to be come up with from the familiar texts? It is the same message. The text has been preserved by God so that the message is the same forever.

      But I have faced this dilemma myself. I see the text, and sometimes I have preached on it many times, and I begin to say to myself, “What am I to do with this text?”

      This is the mindset that leads to becoming bored with preaching. From this question God calls the preacher to repent. The preacher has already been told what to do with the text. He is to receive it and to proclaim what he himself has received.

      The question that the preacher is to ask is this: “What does this text say?” And then, to ask: “Lord, what are You saying and what do You want to say to me?”

      The pastor is not to come up with a message from the text. He is to preach God’s message from the text. This actually makes the task harder. For the truly hard part is learning to stay out of the Lord’s way and to listen to what He has to say.

      Actually this is not hard, it is Impossible! But with God, all things are possible. And when the pastor wrestles with God until God wins, the pastor wins, too.

      For this is the joy of preaching. The pastor only gives what he himself has first received. When the pastor is seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then the freshness of the text comes forth on its own. For then it is not just a text to which the pastor is going forth as if into a dark and grungy coal mine, but it is the inspired written record of the revelation of God and His grace, mercy, and peace in Christ Jesus. Then it is God the Holy Spirit’s inspired record of the words of God by which the Word speaks to the pastor so that the pastor may then share these joyous treasures with those who have ordained him as their shepherd under Christ.

      The writer of the blog post said: “The result of all this is that I find myself more stressed out than usual, behind, tired, crabby, and generally not very full of Christmas cheer.”

      This statement really says it all. For the Church does not gather to hear or receive Christmas cheer. This is not the language of the communion of the saints. This is the language of the world. No. The Church gathers to receive the Christ Mass and the Christmas Gospel. They come to hear and to receive Jesus! Thankfully, even though the pastor may forget this, the liturgy delivers just what the Church really needs. When the pastor remembers, then he likewise receives what God promises and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding fills his heart and the true joy of God’s mercy and grace overflows.

      The author of the blog post also said: “At the very time when I need to be on my “A game” as a pastor, I feel like I am barely passing muster.” The first commentator said similarly: “I always fantasize about getting everything in order and having luxuriously long amounts of time to ponder texts and the fathers and Luther and ancient hymns and really produce awesome sermons.”

      If any pastor ever has a day where he has his “A game as a pastor” or actually passes muster as a pastor, please make a video recording of it so that the rest of us can see what one looks like!

      Truly the first commentator chose wisely in saying that this is to fantasize.

      Sadly, this is a destructive fantasy, for it directs the pastor’s heart in exactly the wrong direction. It is no wonder that pastors experience burn out with preaching when their ministry is based upon such fantasies.

      It is not really my desire for this to sound so harsh, but it is harsh in reality. It steals away the very joy that preaching is ordained to supply, first to the preacher and then to his hearers.

      Dear pastors, you do not need to write and preach amazing sermons. St. Paul actually preaches against such sermons saying that they empty the cross of its power. No, what we need to preach is the glory of the cross of Christ. We need to preach it first and foremost for ourselves, so that those who come to hear it actually overhear what we preach to and for ourselves.

      Sermon study and preparation truly is a time of struggle. Wrestling with God is serious business. Yet when the outline finally comes together for me so that all that remains is to put the words to it, I am so overwhelmed with the Gospel that I have heard and received that my heart drives me to go to my wife and embrace her. God’s love is too powerful and wonderful to keep to myself. I simply have no choice but to find my wife and embrace her in the love that fills me. Then I return with a joyous heart to complete the final two hours of sermon preparation.

      (If I had no wife to hug, I suppose that I’d have to call someone on the phone, or perhaps I would pull out a hymn to sing or recite a psalm or sing the Nunc Dimittis.)

      When this is what God works through sermon preparation, how can I speak of being bored or burned out? For any pastor who finds himself telling himself that he is bored or burned out, all that you really need is to stand back and remember whose Word you are called to preach. Then you will remember the great privilege and blessing of preaching. Then it will not seem like a laborious obligation, but a cause for rejoicing. The preaching office is Christ’s office, who Himself counted it a joy to suffer and die on the cross to provide this office with its power. This powerful office that opens the very gates of heaven to you and to all whom it rules over has been entrusted to you, dear pastors! Whenever you imagine that your office is boring or that you have become burned out, remember this! Remember what it really means to be a preacher of the Gospel!

As Little Children

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:1-6)

Once upon a time, as a chaplain in a hospital, I had occasion to minister to a couple whose little baby was dying of liver failure. She was scheduled for a liver transplant, but her continual infections precluded the possibility of surgery. As time ran out for their precious little girl, the couple asked me to baptize her. The baptism was scheduled so that the four pairs of grandparents could also be present.

This illness was only one of the causes of pain in this family. This gathering allowed for an application of God’s grace not only to the little baby, but to the entire family. In the time of preparing for the baptism, I addressed the more prevalent family issues from the perspective of God’s will for the family, His good and gracious will for healing and forgiveness and peace through the merits of Jesus. The reason for Baptism was explained and all present acknowledged the Scriptures and what they declare concerning Baptism. Many tears were shed and arms reached out for hugs.

Then God received this precious baby through the Word laden water that I poured over her. One more dear saint had been washed into the Holy Communion. A few days later this new little saint would breathe her last on this earth. Her parents had to make the dreadful decision to grant permission for the artificial respirator to be removed. But they did so in the knowledge that their baby was safe in Jesus. I stood with them as they held their precious little one. Together we watched her turn the various terrible shades of death, turning bluish, then that horrible yellowish pale green, then finally that mournful ashen gray.

I was asked to preside over the funeral.

I visited the home of the parents and their other three little children. While Daddy and Mommy were busy with various phone calls and preparations, the little ones visited with me. They asked many questions. I explained further about their sister and what God had done for her in her baptism. They understood. They were glad for their baby sister.

Then they began asking about various characters in the Bible. They knew about many stories. However, they tended to blend the stories together and have people from more than one Biblical account together. But they wanted me to explain for them.

Mommy came in and was puzzled. She wondered how the children knew anything at all about these accounts since they were not a church going family and they never had devotions. One of the children went to the book shelf and brought back an illustrated Bible Story book that they had discovered. What they knew of God and of the Bible they had eagerly learned from this book, apparently relying on whatever reading skills the elder child possessed. Of all the books on the shelf, this was the one they used together and this is what they wanted to have explained to them. Mom had forgotten about the existence of the book, yet the children gathered to it.

At the funeral I gathered all the young ones together and explained to all the cousins as well as the adults what God had done through this Baptism. The children understood and for them the day was one of laughter and play and rejoicing. The adults heard and received the joyous good news, too, and they marveled at the children.

Truly, the joy of heaven belongs to those whom the Holy Spirit converts to be as the little children. Nothing can steal this joy from God’s children of faith. To make certain of this He has ordained His means of grace for His little flock on earth. To those who receive His means of grace as He has given them, the joy of His Holy Communion is as natural as life itself.

Truly the least are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Those who hear the Gospel and believe it have all the wonders of heaven opened to them. They do not question God’s promises, for they know that God does not lie. God speaks and they hear. God declares them righteous through Baptism and they rejoice in His righteousness. God calls them to His table to receive the body of unity and the blood of life and they eat and drink and commune with God and live in His forgiveness and mercy all their days. How much greater can anyone ever hope to become? How much better life could anyone ever hope to live? How foolish the greater and wiser ones are to imagine any other way.