Sad Sign

My next door neighbor, who was ninety-one years old, died. The memorial service was conducted. The family came for the precious memories attached to some of his possessions. Tuesday the auctioneer came to tote away the rest. All that remains is this sign:

Everyday this sign reminds me that my old friend is no longer to be found next door. Everyday I walk out to prepare for the day’s work and look to his back yard where he sat and called to me to visit, but his chair is no longer there. Every night I come home and see the same.

Death is not kind. It is a thief. But it is not the master thief, Satan is, who used God’s own words with just the tiniest change to trick our first parents so that they exchanged God’s gift of life for the delusion of free will, and with it, the choice of separation from God, that is, Sin. And the wages of Sin is death. Death is what so-called free will accomplishes. It is not free at all, but people imagine that it is.

Upon listening to the serpent, Adam immediately discovered the trap that the devil had set with the delusion of free will. Previously mankind lived in perfect freedom, the freedom of the communion of God’s holy and perfect will. All things were possible. All things were free. All things were good! But with the choice to “be like God” freedom was cast away for the bondage of “the knowledge of good and evil.” Now everything was corrupted and Adam had no freedom, no ability, to restore what he had destroyed. Now all of his offspring would be in bondage to this delusion, to this hopeless corruption of understanding and knowledge and will. Never again would mankind have the freedom of knowing only good.

This is why we dare not allow the Gospel to be compromised in even the tiniest degree. Any change, any compromise, has the same result as the tiny change that the serpent presented to the woman and through her to Adam. The Gospel is pure. The pure Gospel is life. A corrupted or compromised or adulterated Gospel is death.

Truly, the “For Sale” sign that has been placed over the churches and their preaching and practices is a very sad sign. But the true Church shall stand by the Lord’s promise and decree, and even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Wherever the Holy Spirit gathers the few to the Pure Gospel and Sacraments, there the Church still stands, offering the pure water of Life and freedom to all who gladly receive it.

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What are you eating?

What are you eating? How are you affected by your diet?

This morning Stephanie commented on how her cravings have changed since we have become more careful about our diet. (Notice that we are discussing diet and not ration. Diet is the substance of what is consumed while ration is the amount. What most people mislabel as diet is really ration.) Stephanie commented that since we have cleaned up our diet and are eating more and more fruits and vegetables, and that we have begun spending the money for organic fruits and vegetables, that she now craves these. In the past I had to fight her to convince her to eat any fruits, but now she says that she actually craves them.

We have eliminated most of the processed foods from our diet, too. Processed food has many unnatural and unhealthy ingredients added to it. Some of the most harmful of these are the neurotoxins or excitotoxins MSG (processed glutamates) and aspartame (aspartic acid). What our bodies crave has changed as over time we have been cleansed of these toxins. We also have less headaches and other aches.

It is amazing to us to observe how powerfully we have been affected by using caution in our diet. As our diet has changed, so also has our desire for pure food increased. We drink reverse osmosis filtered water, and so we can hardly even force ourselves to drink Wichita’s city water from a water fountain or from the tap. We even make our own ice cream, after depriving ourselves for several years because of the toxins added to store bought ice cream. Things like these we make from pure ingredients, purchasing milk produced by herds free from the hormones that are added and from antibiotics and from other things added to milk and milk products. The more that we have done this sort of thing, the more that we crave pure and unadulterated foods. We have actually been changed by what we eat.

The same is true of spiritual food. How many “Christians” truly even consider the purity of what they are being fed in their churches? How many people even know how to identify the pure and unadulterated Word and Sacraments?

This is why St. Paul says:

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

When the apostle admonishes that we should work out our own salvation he means that we should very carefully and continually examine the doctrine and practice of our churches to be certain that what we are being fed is not poisoning us. He says to do this with fear and trembling. Why? The reason is that a little leaven leavens the entire loaf. Just a little spiritual MSG not only poisons one sermon or one worship service, but it works its way through the entire congregation and through the very essence of the faith of every worshiper. Moreover, like with MSG in processed foods, spiritual impurity causes the hearer to crave more of the same deadly corruption. For this reason St. Peter also gives a strong admonition, saying:

Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes the word's pure milk desire ye, that in it ye may grow, if so be ye did taste that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming—a living stone—by men, indeed, having been disapproved of, but with God choice, precious, and ye yourselves, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:1-5 YLT)

Most Christians acknowledge that the Word of God is what is needed in the life of the believer and of the Church. Most “Bible believing” Christians speak of the necessity of the Word. Many even acknowledge the importance of the pure Word. But do they really even know what pure means? Have they truly worked this out for themselves so that they crave the Word’s pure milk? Or have they eaten tainted spiritual food for so long that they actually crave the impurities and additives of their church bodies and of their preachers and of their own sinful hearts?

Since the Scriptures teach that only the pure doctrine saves, should we not stand with St. Paul and St. Peter rather than with those who preach tolerance of impurity?

In my own daily walk I find it amazing how powerfully I am affected in this regard. If I allow any impurity into my thinking or into my spirit or into my activity, this impurity immediately takes over me so that this is what I think, say, and do, and even desire. One stupid song can be so pervasive that it requires a deliberate and determined retreat into the pure Word to rescue me. I often find that the only way to escape the recurring tune and lyrics is to begin singing one of the powerful hymns that I know. The same is true of movies that we rent and watch. The same is true of any of the moronic frauds who claim to be radio evangelists. Even a billboard advertisement on the side of the highway can fill my thoughts with something impure. One jackass driver can likewise fill me with unholy and unhealthy poisons.

But the word’s pure milk empowers my spirit. Returning to God’s grace in my baptism purifies my soul. Setting my mind on the things above where Christ is completely changes my thought pattern. Singing or humming or whistling one of the powerfully rich hymns drives out the impurity and teaches me the true faith again. Then this is again what my soul craves.

But this does not happen if I allow one of the shallow so-called Christian songs from the radio to be my source of strength. These only direct me to my own emotions and my own reason and strength. Such are not the Word’s pure milk, but are full of impurities. These only substitute one spiritual poison for others. In actuality, these don’t really even replace the other toxins but only pile on top of them.

So then, what do you eat? What do you crave? Is this a genuine concern in your daily life?


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Delighting in Reality

This evening I made a delightful discovery, although discovery is not truly the correct or accurate term to be used. Rather, I became very powerfully aware of the reality of my own heart and what emotions and desires dwell within. An overwhelming realization of my deep and even unfathomable delight in people surfaced from the depths of my soul so that the acknowledgment of this joy was manifested gloriously undeniably.

Yes, I truly and inexorably delight in people. I delight in the playfulness of little children and in their nearly innocent expression of trust and joy. I delight in the blessings of marriage and family. I delight in sharing in the aspirations of those who dream of happy plans and brilliant successes. I delight in the working together in peace of those who are united in common hope.

This really is not a new awareness, nor a surprise. Yet it has been often overshadowed by dark forces. The fact that my heart and eyes and mind are open to see what others often prefer to ignore many times clouds my awareness of that in which I very deeply delight.

Yet even in the darkest times my soul is filled with thoughts of what God intends for humanity. From the rise of the sun to its setting, even unto my own bodily retirement and even in my sleeping, I bask in the light of the Gospel and ponder the proclamation of God’s grace, mercy, and peace in Christ Jesus.
So how does one proclaim such things to people who choose to pretend that the pure Gospel can be mingled with other doctrines? How does one look upon the people around him without feeling the terrible schisms in the body of Christ caused by the mingling of error and falsehood with that which cannot be mingled with such things? How does a preacher of the Gospel continue in hope and peace and joy when all around the churches are preaching and practicing as though the Gospel and the Sacraments can be compromised without being changed?

What remains for the preacher of the Gospel when such things are evident all around? What remains? The Gospel remains. For the Gospel cannot be compromised. Even as the devil could not change the Lord Jesus with his feeble temptations, neither can the Gospel be changed or muted. The Gospel truly is the power of God for salvation unto those who believe. The Gospel cannot be mingled with other doctrines. The Gospel remains pure, regardless of whatever faithless preachers and people say or do. When people mix other doctrines with the Gospel, they no longer have the Gospel, but rather the words of their own faithlessness. The Word of God does not change. It cannot be altered or adulterated. The Word of God is everlasting, even as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.

Therefore, even as Noah could work with joy in building the Ark, surrounded by unbelieving people, so also can those who hold fast to the Gospel for all their life today. The Gospel has not changed from the day it was announced to the serpent and to the woman and to Adam. The Gospel did not change for Noah, nor for Abraham, nor for Jacob, nor for Joseph, nor for Moses, nor for David, nor for Simon Peter, nor for Stephen, nor for St. Paul. No matter how many people have tried to redefine the Gospel, no matter how many times churches have failed to preach the Gospel faithfully, the Gospel never changes. Neither does the life that flows from the Gospel ever change. The Gospel and the Sacraments by which the Gospel is administered remain as they have been given. They still accomplish what God has promised to accomplish through them.

And so I do grieve to observe the abuses that are practiced in those groups claiming to be the Church. I do lament that there are many who are allowing the Gospel to be stolen away from them, and with the Gospel the true hope for life in God’s Holy Communion. Yet I do also delight in people. I delight in seeing God’s blessings in the world. Moreover, I delight in every opportunity to speak of this God of love and mercy who sent His Son to be sacrificed on behalf of all of the sinful and unbelieving world so that through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit that sinners would be declared to be saints and through the feast of the Holy Communion those regenerated children would be strengthened and preserved in the true faith unto life everlasting.

Thus, whenever I have the opportunity to share the Gospel with others, both in presenting it and in hearing it, all else loses importance for me. The time of the day and the climate and the worldly circumstances in which I live seem to fade into the distance. For in connection with the Gospel I am again free to delight in people. Such is the power of the Gospel.

This evening was truly an opportunity again for delighting in reality.

The Pure Gospel

The Lutheran Confessions rightly identify the Church as “the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.” (AC VII)

This bold exposition of the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures is simultaneously a wonderful promise as well as an urgent warning. In a world where compromise is the norm, it often seems that the sense of the need for the urgent warning can become the prevailing mood. I know that I have been very much influenced by this awareness in my dealings with people. I also find it hard to present this urgent warning without becoming legalistic. Even when I come close to dealing with the matter more from the side of the promise, still it is often perceived as legalistic.

This becomes especially true in warning against continuing in a church body or congregation where doctrine and practice do not match. This perception of legalism seems to become even more pronounced when the warning is given to people who are part of a church body or congregation where some are seeking unity in purity while others are being more lax or even open to impurity.

I don’t know whether what I am offering today will ease the perception of legalism, but perhaps it will at least stress the distinction and the necessity of making the distinction between the Church as is defined by Augustana VII, and the Church as defined by open communion.

Seeking to remain faithful to the Faith of the Scriptures and Confessions within a church body or congregation that allows compromise in these matters of doctrine and/or practice is like opening a jar of antibiotic salve and without putting the lid back on, storing it in the kitty’s litter box.