A Time There for Every Purpose and for Every Work

Ecclesiastes 3:17.

Today I was driving as afternoon drew closer to evening.  It was still some time before darkness, but it was encroaching.  I observed a man feeling his way across a parking lot with one of those long sticks with red and white.  I wanted to stop and offer him a ride to wherever he was heading, but I did not.

Blindness is a condition that would leave me helpless.  But this man has obviously worked very hard to learn to find his way without the use of his eyes.  Sometimes the best way to help a person is to respect that person’s abilities.  There is a time to help, and a time not to help.

Day and night makes little difference to a blind man in terms of finding his way.  But to drivers it makes a big difference.  Such a  man finding his way could be in danger from those who cannot find their way in the darkness.  But he seemed to be on a known path and he still had time to reach his destination before the drivers’ limitations in the darkness would be a threat to him.

I often see people walking and wrestle with myself on account of not knowing whether to offer a ride or to assume that they are in need of the respect of distance.  I especially struggle to know this when I see an older person or other person having difficulty with each step.

It is sometimes hard to see a person struggling and to do nothing.  Yet sometimes this is the truly kind act.  Sometimes people need to be allowed to face their difficulties and to press on in faith to the very end.  A person should not be robbed of the experience of triumph at the end of a trial.

How can one know when it is right to do nothing?  The first sign is whether or not the person appears to be looking for assistance.  Another is whether or not a clear sign of danger can be observed.  Certainly the ultimate consideration is to put oneself in the other person’s situation, at least as far as one is able to imagine it.  From this perspective one can determine one’s own desires in the same situation.

Of course, another approach, especially when the perspective seems unclear, is simply to greet the person and give the opportunity for the person to ask for assistance if desired.  A simple greeting such as “Hi there.  How are you doing today?” could allow for an indication to be given by the other person.  For example, if the person says, “Oh, my joints are aching so badly that I just don’t know whether I can take another step,” would seem to be very clear.  On the other hand, the person may say, “Oh, my joints hurt like crazy, but I keep pressing onward and I’m nearly there.”  This leads to quite a different conclusion.

Yet if one is not certain, polite and respectful inquiry as to whether assistance is desired is rarely received poorly.

Love, that is, agape, is always in season.  Love always leads a person toward the right action.  As St. Paul shares:

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

I once had a prostitute get into my car when I stopped to examine my map.  She got in and began to offer me things that I could not accept from her.  She said that she needed money for bread and milk.  When I offered to buy those for her she said that she could not accept charity.  I asked her if she knew how the Bible uses that word.  I then explained this Bible passage to her, explaining that charity is God’s love at work in a person so that the person acts with that love and concern for others.  I then bought her lunch for herself and her baby and drove her home.  As we drove she also explained that she had a legitimate job as an exotic dancer.  She was proud of her ability to earn a living for herself and her baby and she pulled up her blouse to show me what a nice body she had.  I simply agreed and continued telling her about the love of Jesus and the better way that He purchased for us with His own life.

I do not know what happened with this young lady, but she did express a need for help and when she heard that the motive for giving help freely was the love of God, she gladly received both the food needed for the bellies of herself and her baby, as well as the bread of heaven for her spirit.

Yes, there is a time for every purpose and for every work.  And God’s love guides us to know when.

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Christmas Lights

It has been years since we have bothered with a Christmas tree or lights.

When I was young, I enjoyed the Christmas tree and lights very much.  It was a chore, but an enjoyable chore, to set up the tree and lights and ornaments.  It was relaxing and pleasing to watch the lights.

Taking them down and storing them again was not much fun, but it seemed worth the effort.

However, as I have grown older and as the world has usurped the control of Christmas and has moved the season ever farther forward, even beyond Advent, even beyond Thanksgiving, and now beyond Reformation Day and the demonic Halloween, so as to extend time to promote the so-called Christmas spirit, the trees and lights and ornaments have lost their appeal for me, for us.  We just don’t have any desire for such things anymore.

For us it is like having someone steal our candy cane, roll it around on the ground, and then hand it back to us.

There are some truly marvelous displays of Christmas lights around town.  One is set up as a drive-through display available to the public every night.  It is very nicely done.  Much effort was expended in setting up the various parts of the display.  It takes 15 to 20 minutes to drive it and see it.  It is a very lovely display.

Yet when we saw it, it left us cold.  Yes, we found it to be bright and colorful.  Yes, we considered it to be very lovely.  Yet even with the cheery colors and lights it did not move us, neither did it cheer us.

But the Christ Mass does move us and cheer us.  It rescues us and brings us back again into the Communion of the Lord, who renews us and lifts our hearts from the worldly mire around us.  The Christ Mass officially is Christmas Day, but every offering of the Mass is the Christ Mass.  Every time that Christ’s Church gathers by the urging of the Holy Spirit so that the saints draw near to the Lord’s Table and receive His body of unity and blood of forgiveness and life, it is the Christ Mass.

This is the light that God has set on a hill for all to see.  It shines in a dark world of loneliness, despair, struggle, and confusion.

     Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)

     Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.  (Psalm 43:1-5)

Often people quote these, and especially the first text, forgetting who it is who sets the city upon the hill.  It is the Lord who sets the city upon the hill.  It is the Lord who gives us the light of His Word that shines first in us and then through us for all to see.  It is the Lord who works the miracle of conversion in our hearts and engenders the faith to take root in us and to grow so that we hear His voice and follow Him in our daily sojourning.  It is the Lord who transforms our wills so that we stop seeking to be choice makers and begin instead to enjoy the freedom of His blessed commandments.  Then we seek not to make our own way through the darkness, because we walk in the light.  Then we are free to traverse our daily paths without fear of stumbling.  And even when our distracted hearts do cause us to stumble, the Lord continually calls us again to the regular reunion of His body at the Table of His forgiveness and renewal in His Communion.

It is disheartening to hear the many self-proclaimed representatives of the Lord preach to people how they must struggle to draw near to God.  After all, the Gospel teaches us that God took the struggle for us.  He came to us in our wretchedness, made Himself to be born of the virgin, suffered our troubles and sorrows, proclaimed forgiveness, established Baptism and the New Testament in His blood, suffered and died in our place with our sins in His own body, rose again in victory against the powers of sin, death, the world, our corrupt fleshly natures, and the devil, and ascended to heaven from whence He shall come again in glory.  All this God Himself did for us.  He took the struggle and completed it for us so that we would be free to live by grace through faith.  To insure that we would receive this purely as a gift, He established the life of the Church as the continual Communion in His body and blood, where He alone takes action, feeding us the very means of our salvation and renewal in His kingdom.

There is no struggle for those who desire to draw near to God.  He has come to us as Immanuel, which means, With Us God.  This is the name that His holy angel declared so that we would know God for who He is.  He is the one who makes Himself With Us God.  He promises that this is so through His means of grace, means which we do not do for ourselves, nor even in obedience to Him.  These are His means, His gifts, His acts on our behalf.  No one can baptize himself.  Each person must be baptized.  The water and Word are applied for us by another appointed for that task, and through this God pours out His Holy Spirit to the person and thereby converts and regenerates and justifies and sanctifies the person.  The person is made all over again to be a perfect and holy child of God, regenerated to the new life of the true faith.  This person then has been made to be part of God’s kingdom, His Church on earth, where the ongoing Communion is the new life enjoyed by those whom the Holy Spirit congregates.  Through the Holy Supper, God continues to draw near to His saints, doing what they cannot do for themselves, not even through their most earnest efforts.

Once upon a time, Christmas trees and lights were used and enjoyed as symbols of this.  The evergreen, as a symbol of the everlasting life made possible through the birth of Jesus, the Savior, or as the Paradise tree.  A very interesting and informative article on this subject can be viewed at O Christmas Tree: The Origin and Meaning of the Christmas Tree.  Another account is The Chronological History of the Christmas Tree.  Interestingly, some legends, such as is shared at The History of the Christmas Tree, claim:

Martin Luther began the decorating of trees to celebrate Christmas. In the year 1500, one crisp Christmas Eve, Martin was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches dusted with snow shimmered in the moonlight. When he returned home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share the story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted to simulate the reflections of the starlit heaven – the heaven that looked down over Bethlehem on the first Christmas Eve.

How Luther could have done this in 1500 for his children is hard to understand, since he was not married until 1525.  Nevertheless, the fact that this legend exists shows that people did consider this to be the symbolism that they were embracing with their own use of their Christmas trees and lights.

This type of symbolism is vastly missing in the general use of Christmas trees and lights today.  Sometimes the marketers still like to include “Christmas carols” in their selection of Muzak to help promote the spirit of giving and buying, but this is usually a mere appeal to people’s sense of tradition and nostalgia.  In fact, nostalgia is the primary focus of the usurped Christmas season: nostalgic decorations, nostalgic foods, nostalgic parades, nostalgic church services, nostalgic family gatherings, nostalgic gift giving.

For this reason, we find that we no longer have any real sense of desire to do this in our home and life.  We don’t have any desire for the candy cane that has been rolled in the dirt.  Certainly those who do find salutary use for these decorations we do not blaspheme.  But for ourselves, we simply find that our hearts are led farther and farther from these things so that our desire is the simply proclaimed and administered means of God’s grace within His holy family gathering, a.k.a., the Church.

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Family Planning?

In observing these pictures from Family Planning Council’s home page, do you sense that something is missing?

Where is the family?

Where are the babies and little children?


Here are the two halves of Planned Parenthood’s home page. Even when one clicks on the link for “Tools for Parents”, where are the babies? Where is the planning for becoming parents and starting a family?

Why don’t they show any pictures of what they do to and with the babies?

Why don’t they show the product of their “planning”?

If such were what you planned and enacted, would you advertise it with photos and clear explanations? Would you want people actually to see what you do?



Interestingly, in order to see and learn of the plans of these so-called family planning organizations, one must go to one of the groups who are actually promoting families, such as National Right to Life or Lutherans for Life. Yet even they are withdrawing from the graphical display of the products of the so-called family planning organizations.

However, the so-called Pro-Life groups do openly explain and demonstrate the products of their activities and planning. They do not conceal their activities.

     And this is the judgment, that the light hath come to the world, and men did love the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil; for every one who is doing wicked things hateth the light, and doth not come unto the light, that his works may not be detected; but he who is doing the truth doth come to the light, that his works may be manifested, that in God they are having been wrought. (John 3:19-21 YLT)

Fire Bulbs

Last night as I was working at my desk my olfactory senses detected an alarming smell. It was the smell of electrical smouldering.

This is not something to be ignored. I began sniffing throughout the house and looking for any signs of smoke.

I spent an hour or more searching. I checked every electrical outlet, looking for browning discoloration and touching each one to feel for heat. I brought the stepladder in so as to enter the attic. I checked every ceiling fan and light. I checked the extension cords and the Bunn coffee maker. I checked the stove and microwave and the refrigerators. I checked the breaker box, the power line entrance and the meter.

Finally, I commended the matter to the Lord and went to bed, trusting with the men of old who faced the fiery furnace that the Lord would keep us safe from fire, or that He would take us home.

This morning I noticed that one of our wonderful “green” fluorescent bulbs made in China had burned out. This term is not usually used literally, but in this case, as the photos below show, it was quite literal.



Notice the browned areas in the base of the bulb. An olfactory test verified that the burning smell originated with this bulb.



I have encountered this experience in our house before, but never found the culprit. The smell went away and I never identified the cause.

While it is a relief to know that our electrical circuits have all been checked and found to be in safe working order, it is nevertheless disconcerting to know that these bulbs manifest such a dangerous malfunction.

Thankfully, the locations of all of the bulbs that we use are in fixtures that are extremely unlikely to catch fire. Yet this is still a dangerous malfunction. Moreover, what toxins are emitted into the household air when this happens? The house still reeks with the odor. My fingers still reek with the smokey odor that my fingers absorbed while removing the “burned” out bulb. This time of year, with the windows all closed tightly, such toxins do not depart quickly from the house, which means that we will be breathing them for some time to come.

With the season’s advent of Christmas lights both indoors and outdoors in many homes, this is a good time for every head of house to check the electrical circuits and outlets throughout the house. The extra load placed on the circuitry and wiring by the additional lights makes this a very important and necessary activity. After the lines overheat and cause damage is not the best time to perform this safety procedure. But this often is the pattern in family life. Perhaps my experience will serve to motivate a few readers to take the safety precautions. Checking of smoke alarms/detectors is also a worthy precaution.

Impending Darkness

Yesterday has been labeled by a number of bloggers as “Black Tuesday” and “a black day in the LC-MS” or “a dark day.” This has been the response of many to the action of the LC-MS to terminate the KFUO-AM program: Issues, Etc. This response is the expression of shock and grief over the unexplained actions of the LC-MS in terminating a program that brought a sense of hope and light to the lives of those who lent their hearts, ears, and attention to the message of this program.

Some have expressed shock and indignation that such an action against the listeners and against the program staff should be enacted during Holy Week.

Really, though, what more appropriate timing could there be? After all, did the Lord Jesus not promise that those who follow Him will be treated in like manner as He was treated? What is more, is not Holy Week a time of impending darkness? Is not Holy Week not the time in the Church Year where we celebrate the darkness that the Lord Jesus faced on our behalf? Is this not the season of impending darkness that reaches its darkest on Good Friday, when the Sin and Evil of the world and the prince of darkness come against the Light of the world and work their worst against Him? Was this week not a time of confusion for those who looked to Jesus? Was this not the time that led to Judas betraying Jesus into the hands of evil men for reasons of “programming and business”? Was this not a time that led to the scattering of the sheep and to Peter’s trinitarian denial of the Lord? Was this not a time that led to the sense of the loss of all hope according to human reason and strength?

When times grow dark and appear to be growing darker, this is when we need to remember the promise of the Scriptures regarding our good and gracious God.

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. . . . (Rom 8:28)

It is important that we never forget the source of our light and our hope. It also is important that when we recognize the source of darkness that we do not continue to bind ourselves to the darkness. When we recognize a way that leads to more darkness, the Lord calls us to come to the Light. While Jesus marched to the cross, darkness surrounded Him and His disciples. But the Light continued to shine in the darkness. The Gospel was most certainly not being vanquished, not even at the darkest hour of Good Friday. In fact, this was the Light’s brightest manifestation, which continues to fill the world with the light of life even today.

So, then, whenever the darkness seems deepest, this is when we may look to the body of Jesus and see that He is the one who has taken the darkness upon Himself for us. The dark hours of our life can serve to draw us into ever deeper dependence upon the glorious preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So when the Lord brings us into a trial that seems especially dark, rather than sinking into despair or grief, we are free to rejoice and to sing “Hosanna in the highest!” As we turn to the crucified Lord of glory, we truly see the light that cannot be comprehended or overcome and our hope and our confidence is renewed.

The way of the cross is the way of the resurrection.

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