You Need to Stop Reading So Much

“You Need to Stop Reading So Much!”  This admonition was given to me by one of my customers and friends.  He cautioned me against being too informed about the things that are being done in the government and the world.  He said that I cannot do anything about them, as people are not paying attention.  When I responded that this is the problem, he told me that I cannot change this and that I only cause myself trouble by reading so much.

As a Christian I do find his words to be accurate.  I am deeply troubled on account of my concern for what ought to be, things that I cannot cause to be.  After all, I cannot even make these things to be in my own daily life.  Why should I imagine that I can make these things to be in the activities of the world.

As a Christian I continually face the paradoxical existence of both Saint and Sinner within my being.  Thus, as a saint I desire the Lord’s righteousness.  But as a sinner, I resist Him and His will and His ways and turn from trusting Him to seeking to do for Him what only He can do.

Yet as a saint, I do also have an inborn caring and concern for the welfare of all.  Tyranny and terrorism and war and murder and abortion and child abuse and divorce and spouse abuse and GMOs and processed glutamates and processed aspartic acid and a host of other toxins added to foods and water as well as limitless evils in the world, these all concern me.  I often want to speak out concerning these.

Yet how far can such efforts reach?  Moreover, to what degree do such concerns fall to me?

The Lord does give directives in this regard.  He directs each of us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and to trust that all other things He will see to as well.

Then He also directs each of us to fulfill the duties or responsibilities of our own vocations.  Sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, pastors and teachers, farmers and ranchers, employers and employees, citizens and officials, we each have vocations that bind us to specific responsibilities that are easily perceived.  Of these vocations, some are to be counted as foremost, with others being subordinated to these.

For example, fatherhood is above citizen or even pastor or government official.  Mother is above teacher or employee or employer.  Daughter is above student or student body president.

It seems that Christians frequently forget the proper order and turn things around.  I certainly do.  Sadly, I believe that my blog posts often are a reflection of this.  My daily management of my time reflects this.  How I serve my wife as her husband surely reflects this.

God has blessed me to be a husband.  This is my primary vocation.  I also am a son and a brother.  I also am a son-in-law and brother-in-law.  I also am a friend.  I also am a pastor.  I also am a businessman/arborist.  Husband and head of house both bodily and spiritually is the highest earthly honor and responsibility that God has given me.

It is a great blessing and I will do well to remember this and treat it with the appropriate honor.  Then the blessings attached to all things in my life will be received as the Lord has graciously ordained and godly contentment will rule my life.  God grant this.  Amen.

+ + +

Twenty-one Years

Today my wife and I celebrate our survival of twenty-one years together as husband and wife.

Yesterday she was astonished to realize that she had forgotten our wedding anniversary until yesterday.  She shared this with me and I was startled to realize that while I thought of it all last month and even most of last week, that it had disappeared from my thoughts that day as well.

Ouch!  What a powerful reminder of our dysfunctional ways on account of our frailty as sinful humans!

On the other hand, it also serves as a powerful reminder of who has joined us as one and who it is that preserves us as one.

How I wish that I lived in full acknowledgment of the man and husband that the Lord has made me to be by His gracious decree.  My life surely does not serve as a witness to His gracious gifts and promises.  My faithfulness to my wife is sadly lacking.  Thankfully, it is not my faithfulness that matters.  Thankfully, she knows this, too.

As a concluding portion of our wedding worship service, I shared this promise and confession:

My dear bride, Stephanie,

     Today I have made to you a very bold promise, to be to you a true and faithful husband.  This promise I do not make in my own name, for I know that on the basis of my own name I am but a bum.  But I also bear another Name, the Name of my Lord Christ, and in His Name I am a prince.  And so, in the Name of my Lord Christ I will be to you your prince.

I have been true to my word.  By my own name and efforts I have been a bum.  I cannot even number the ways in which I have failed my bride as her husband.  I certainly have not been faithful in forsaking all others besides the Lord.  How many times have I put myself and my desires and my emotions above her?  How many times have I selfishly enumerated her shortcomings?  How many times have I counted as shortcomings her personal needs of body, heart, mind, and spirit?

Thanks be to God that she remembers the latter part of my promise.  Thanks be to God that she counts me as a good and loving and faithful husband not because of what I say and do, but because of the Lord’s gracious decree.

And this is what she continually reminds me as what she counts as the reason for me being a blessing in her life.  She reminds me that as her husband and also as her pastor I direct her the Lord and his grace, mercy, and peace.  She does count me as a prince for His sake.

What a wonderfully refreshing reminder this serves us regarding Christ and His Church.  What we observe Him doing for us is what He does for His beloved bride.  In fact, what He does for us flows directly from what He does for His dear bride.  This is what St. Paul blessedly proclaims in Ephesians 5:21-33.

The Lord’s goodness is displayed in everything, and especially in the one-flesh union of His Church that is reflected in our one-flesh union that we celebrate this day.  Truly it is a happy and blessed anniversary!

+ + +

We Shall Ever Forgive . . . & . . . Live

A thought and emotion provoking image on this day of 9/11:



In my Internet search I also found:



While the first image does not say the same as the second, such remembrance leads to the same in many if not even in all instances.  Remembering the wrong done and the loss incurred ultimately leads to anger and resentment and eventually even hatred.

We humans do not have the capability of erasing such things from our memories.  We can suppress them or avoid them or ignore them.  We can try to bury them with busyness and other thoughts.  But we are designed to remember.  Our contacts and encounters are stored permanently in our memories.

However, we do not have to dredge up our memories.  We do not have to make them our point of focus.

Furthermore, at least for those who are regenerated into God’s Holy Communion in Christ, we have the gift of Forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not equal forgeting.

Forgiveness is the disassociation of those who are forgiven from their sinful actions.

This is how the Lord says concerning this matter:

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  (Hebrews 8:12)

How is it that the omniscient God who knows all and remembers all is able to say that He will remember His forgiven ones’ sins no more?  It is because He has taken their guilt and made it His own and paid the price of redemption Himself.

As a good friend frequently reminds me, guilt is not a feeling, it is an accounting term, a legal accounting term.  Guilt is not merely a feeling that accompanies awareness of wrongdoing.  Guilt is the accounting that binds a person to the wrongs that have been done.  It is the pronouncement of an unpayable debt.  Redemption from guilt can only be paid by one who is free of such debt, one who has no guilt, one who has committed no wrong.

This is what God has done for sinners.  He took the sin of the world and declared the entire world to be guiltless in Christ.  This does not mean that people are guilt free apart from Christ.  Only in Christ is this declaration valid.  The justification that God has accomplished for all is IN Christ.  God applies this declaration to individuals through Baptism, baptism into Christ.

In this way God divorces individuals from their unrighteousness and marries them to His own righteousness in Christ.  Therefore, for all who are in Christ, there remains no condemnation.  Thus, for all who are in Christ, He remembers their sin no more, for He has set them free from their sin so that it is no longer accounted as theirs.

So what does it profit a person to cling to the memory of their lost loved ones?  Surely we will remember.  Surely various dates will cause us to remember them and what gifts they have been to us and in many ways continue to be to us.  Surely we will remember the wisdom taught to us by parents and grandparents and other teachers.  Surely we will rejoice in such remembrance.  But what value is remembrance that recalls grief and perpetuates the sense of loss?

There is truly only one such remembrance that serves us profitably.  That is the continual remembrance of our loss of accountability for our sin, the loss effected for us in our baptism and continually renewed for us in Christ’s Holy Supper.  Through these our identification of guilty ones has been taken from us and replaced with identification with the name of Jesus, the holiness of God.  In Him we rejoice in remembering this great and wonderful loss, a loss that is everlasting profit and blessing to us.

+ + +

Assisted Living Facility where Assisting to Live is Forbidden

I find what is shared in this video at The Blaze hard to believe.  A nurse speaks to a 911 operator, calling for emergency assistance for a dying woman, but refuses to help the woman.  The facility’s policy forbids doing CPR to save a resident’s life.



I cannot imagine anyone signing such a restrictive policy.  Well, Obama or Sebelius or Feinstein, yes, but well . . .

This is hurtful to my soul.  Moreover, it is becoming commonplace.

It is hard to imagine that on Facebook and other social media that people post endlessly about abuse of animals and saving the lives of dogs and cats, even old and decrepit dogs and cats.  Meanwhile the daughter of this woman, a nurse, says that she is satisfied with the care that her dying mother received.  What care did her mother receive?

Perhaps this 87 year old woman did not want CPR.  Perhaps she did not want to be assisted.  Perhaps this is why she came to live at this facility.

Was this the case?  Is it my place to speculate?  Is there a time when such a decision is appropriate?

And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

   (Genesis 49:33)

And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

  (Genesis 50:22-26)

As I ponder what has been reported, and consider the statement of this woman’s daughter, perhaps I really should be careful about presuming to know more than I do.  After all, this woman lived in a very comfortable environment.  She did receive assistance in her day to day needs.  She was blessed to live to 87 years of age.  Her body was weakened.  Her bones were frail.  She elected to live in a facility where the policy was stated that the rigors of CPR would not be performed.  Does this policy take into account the low success of CPR on such older people?  Does this policy take into account the likelihood of deep and painful bruises, possible broken ribs, and even possible rupture of blood vessels?

Perhaps I am wrong to presume to judge these people of whom I know so little.  After all, they did not withhold food or drink from her.  They did not administer lethal drugs.  They did not refuse to call for paramedics who have the defibrillation and other equipment.

If this is the way, then perhaps this should be explained to the EMS people so that they are not put in the horrific situation that this creates.  As I listened to the audio, my heart ached for this dispatcher.  It seems that at the very least, facilities such as Glenwood Gardens should be required to list their policy with the EMS and explain why CPR is not practiced.  These facilities often are frequent callers of EMS.  The dispatchers should be given better information, both for their own conscience’s sakes as well as to avoid such ugly misunderstanding.

+ + +

The U.S. Health Care Money Making Scam

For a very disturbing look at the US Health Care System, see 50 Signs That The U.S. Health Care System Is A Gigantic Money Making Scam That Is About To Collapse.

Included in this article is a warning against government provided health care.

Others are urging us to become more like Europe.

But do we really want what they have in the UK?...

Sick children are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial ‘death pathways’.

Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults.

But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.

One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone.

Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a  baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’.

The article in the link mentioned above is Now sick babies go on death pathway: Doctor's haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan.

According to what is reported in this article, the health care industrialists have determined that some people should be sent home to be murdered.  They are not merely sent home without medical assistance, but actually have their food and water denied to them so that they die of dehydration and starvation.  This is a very different action than declaring that no additional medical treatments will be administered.  This is a determination to kill the person.  The person is condemned to an agonizing death as this hospice pediatric nurse reported in the article:

     ‘I have also seen children die in terrible thirst because fluids are withdrawn from them until they die.’

     ‘I witnessed a 14 year-old boy with cancer die with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth when doctors refused to give him liquids by tube. His death was agonising for him, and for us nurses to watch. This is euthanasia by the backdoor.’

What does it take to cause people to become alarmed?  This is appalling!  These decisions are not based upon helping people but upon judging people as unfit to live and to receive love and care.  This is not “end of life” care.  This is determining to end life.

Doctors do not know whether a person can survive.  Anyone with any long term experience in these issues has seen multiple cases where the doctors were DEAD wrong.  People have been healed of what doctors declared to be incurable diseases and circumstances.  People have recovered and lived when doctors judged them to be terminal, often even audaciously predetermining the time frame.

Acceptance of the judgment of doctors in these matters becomes more and more common as fewer and fewer people trust that these matters remain in God’s merciful judgment.  As God becomes reduced to technology and the limitation of medical ‘science,’ people begin to trust the arrogant judgments of doctors and bureaucrats and begin pondering the “most humane” ways of “letting people die.”

Truly loving and caring people will recognize that there are times when what is called “heroic measures” should not be pursued when a person’s heart has stopped beating and the person has stopped breathing.  But this is not the same as determining no longer to give hydration or nutrition to a person, or administering lethal drugs to hasten a person’s death.

True caring for people involves standing by their bedside, speaking kind words, leading in prayers and hymns and administering the means of grace.  Such acts truly comfort a person facing life threatening illness and even death itself.

But who believes in such things today?

As for me and my house, ... (Joshua 24:15)

+ + +

Truly Sad Business - Answers

     In response in the comments for my post Truly Sad Business, my friend the Canadian Atheist presented some very thoughtful questions.  I believe that they were presented both as respectful challenges as well as inquiries to my understanding.

     I very much admire the manner of presenting these questions as well as the depth of thought that they display.

     Here are his questions, followed by my response:

NA,

Just say that they outlawed abortion tomorrow. Do you seriously think abortions would stop? Do you think unwanted children would be better off? Do you think there wouldn't be sick people with coat hangers doing the work instead of trained professionals? Would these women be any better off in the hands of a man swinging a coat hanger?

And finally, what do you think the solution is?

---

Dear Canadian,

     You are asking some wonderful questions.  Thank you for the opportunity to address them.

     In order for abortion to be outlawed again as it was in times past, a major shift in understanding would have to occur.  Decades of misinformation and treacherous indoctrination would have to be reversed.  The entire mindset of the people would have to be turned back from what has been systematically inculcated over several generations.  While this could happen overnight as you suggest, it rarely does.

     If such a return to valuing human life did occur, then abortions would most certainly stop, even without the force of the law being imposed.

     From my world view, from my understanding of reality, there are no unwanted children.

     I believe in Yahweh, the Everlasting Father, the Creator of all that exists, the Father through whom all families have their name, the Redeemer who counseled from eternity to sacrifice Himself to save His beloved children from their self-destructive rebellion through His life and sacrificial death as one of us.  He has declared that He wants all children to be counted as precious even as He counts them thus.

     The concept of unwanted children is the product of selfishness and of turning from the understanding that all children are planned by their Everlasting Father, who graciously blesses the coming together of man and woman to bring forth new children into the world. When people return to considering children from this perspective, there are no unwanted children.  Rather, all children are counted as blessings and as beloved.

     Parents who love their children do as the Father of all and they selflessly sacrifice themselves for the sake of their beloved children.

     Early in our marriage, my wife and I discussed this as we drew close for sharing as husband and wife.  I initiated the topic, saying that if she were to become pregnant and the doctors were to determine that her life were threatened, that from my side, as frightening as the thought of losing her would be, that I could not say that her life was more important than the baby’s, that I could not turn from trusting the Lord in this matter and that if the decision were left to me I would have to insist that the doctors work to save both lives, no matter what.  She agreed.  I stated that I feared how I would feel if she died from such a decision, and she assured me that it would nevertheless be the right and loving choice.

     Being at least somewhat informed about “professional” abortion procedures, I cannot see the professional as any less sick than the person who uses a coat hanger, especially since the professional supposedly has full medical training and is fully aware that the mother is being put at risk by these procedures.  The person with a coat hanger is not going to advertise and openly try to convince people that this is a valid choice.

     In the days when abortion was illegal, abortions were relatively rare.

     As for a woman turning to coat hangers and twigs, such tactics are ordinarily only utilized early in the pregnancy, when the risk is somewhat lower to the mother.  But that really means nothing in this issue.  When women make this choice, instead of letting the pregnancy follow its natural course, they have made a very dangerous choice.  This is on their head, not society’s.

     Society’s responsibility lies in the overturn of viewing sexual relations as properly belonging only within the lifetime commitment of the marital union, where family and lifelong loving union is the mindset.  Society is also at fault for treating the pregnant woman and her unplanned pregnancy as the issue rather than teaching the great blessing of honoring sexuality for what it really is.

     So I believe that the solution is a return unto the source of Life for our understanding of our lives, both individually and communally.  When the Life is honored our lives are treasured.

     As you already know, for me absolutely everything is founded upon the continual communion of people with and in the Lord.  When this communion is genuine and unbroken, life is restored to what it should be.  Everything is again made right and good.  For people with this understanding, the notion of abortion and all of the associated troubles is not even existent.  For such people, people who make mistakes are offered forgiveness and help and healing.  For such people the pain of guilt and the continual need for the promise of absolution are felt personally to such a degree that this is their desire for all others who honestly face their own iniquity.  Among such people those who face the results of their thoughtless actions, those already feeling their own self-chosen and self-applied condemnation, turn to those who know the promise of God’s forgiveness and healing and reconciliation.

     This is the purpose of the true Church of God on earth.  The true Church does not seek to change society or to promote laws and regulations.  The law is given to restrain wickedness.  The Church does not seek this.  The Church is the congregation of the communion of saints unto their Lord in His holiness poured out through the means of grace.  The Church cries out against wickedness, calling everyone to be turned from the wickedness to receive forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration.

     The solution to abortion is not outlawing abortion.  The solution to abortion is Love, which is of God.  Love does no wrong to its neighbor.  Love defends its neighbor, especially the helpless.  Love forgives its enemies and prays for them.  Love is patient and longsuffering.  Love is of God because God is love.  Love never fails.

     In this world of wickedness laws are necessary.  Laws are not the answer, but when they are just laws that are rightly enforced, they do help to restrain the wickedness.  But the answer is Love, which overthrows wickedness and replaces it with righteousness. If this were the one and only way, we all would live together again as one big and happy family.

+ + +

Is this a Powerful Sermon?

      This morning I noticed the following at Against Death and For Life!:

This is an incredibly powerful sermon delivered by Pastor Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, on the subject of our society’s attitude toward life deemed not worthy of being lived. Powerful, powerful stuff here folks. You owe it to yourself to gather your family and watch this together.

      So I viewed it and listened carefully, twice. Then I reviewed several portions a few additional times.

      Is this truly a powerful sermon? Does Pr. Harrison hold to the preaching that his professed quia subscription to the Lutheran Confessions define as a truly powerful sermon? Is this a sermon that rightly distinguishes between the Law and the Gospel and applies each to the hearers so as to move them to be cut to their own hearts and turned to true faith in the Gospel?

      Having viewed it and listened carefully I do not find this to be what this sermon does. I do not hear Pr. Harrison holding me and the other hearers accountable for our own sinfulness. Rather, it sounds to me like a highschool pep rally to inspire school spirit and to pit one school and team against another. “Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Team!! Yes! Our team is the best, to H with the rest! Yea.............Team!”

      In this sermon I only found one very weak attempt at applying God’s Law to the hearers. At 10:20 on the time line Pr. Harrison says:

     Then Jesus began inviting the dregs of society to be His friends, like Levi, the tax collector, Luke 5:27. And He still invites the dregs like YOU, even you in the back. (Audience chuckles.)
     I asked them before this sermon if I could mention a few of their sins up here publically, but nobody was forthcoming. (Audience chuckles.)

      This is the only attempt at application of the Law to the actual hearers. And this was making very light of their own sinful condition, actually making a joke of it. Not one person hearing this would be cut to the heart concerning one’s need for God’s forgiveness and healing. I certainly did not hear myself being confronted with my sinfulness.

      What I did hear was a condemnation of OTHERS! Over and over the Nazis were condemned. There also was a connection made to those who have promoted and performed the more than 53 million abortions in America.

      But no condemning statement was made concerning the hearers and their refusal to love their neighbors. No call to acknowledge any of our own sins and rebellion against God’s holiness was preached at all. Rather, the LC-MS and its membership were praised for their good works and urged to take pride in doing more good works. The presumed good works of fighting abortion from a “loving” and “joyful” disposition were praised and urged. “Go Team!”

      Just as the Law was not applied to the hearers, neither was the Gospel applied. No one hearing this sermon would respond with a broken and contrite heart saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Even a Nazi would laugh at this sermon, without any sense of wanting to turn to God to hear His gracious absolution. Even if a Nazi heard that the millions of murders were wrong, that Nazi would think that at least the six million plus murders are not as bad as the 53 million abortions of the Americans. Both the Nazis and the LC-MS membership hear an excuse to say: “At least we are not as bad as certain others. Besides, Pr. Harrison says that Jesus invites the dregs to be His friends.”

      Indeed. Where did Pr. Harrison say anything about members of the LC-MS being in need of repentance? Was it somewhere in this sermon mentioned so subtly that even with several viewings that I did not perceive it?

      On that, what about the many blatant denials of the pure Gospel and Sacraments that the pastors and congregations of the LC-MS have committed for many decades, and with increasing boldness in recent years? The Lutheran Confessions speak of these compromises as the very worst of sins, even calling them soul-murder. Do we Lutherans, regardless of whichever synodical team or congregation we belong, do we not need to hear the call to acknowledge the First Three Commandments and our many sins against them? Do we not need to hear that we daily worship at the feet of the idol of the media and movie industry and the Internet? Do we not need to hear how we have taken the Lord’s name in vain and misused it in connection with false worship practices? Do we not need to hear how nonchalantly we treat daily prayer and devotion? Do we not need to hear how we give “half-cast” prayers toward God? Do we not need to hear, especially those who are of the LC-MS, how unionism has been openly practiced without even a hint of contrition over this violation of the Third Commandment?

      How can Pr. Harrison or any other pastor imagine that anyone from outside their “fellowship” will take their preaching seriously? Why would any nonbeliever be moved to listen to this kind of pep rally drivel? This is not even honest evaluation of their own membership. Why would someone like myself, someone who counts himself as a very desperate and poor, miserable sinner turn to such a works-righteous preacher and church body? I need to hear God’s Law and Gospel carefully and accurately preached to me so that I know that my need for the remission of my sins has been genuinely addressed. I need to know that the merits of Christ crucified are imparted to me through the ordained means of grace. I need to know that my miserable attempts at righteousness are not the basis of my judgment. I need to know that the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been poured out to me so that by His righteousness I am judged.

      Then and only then do I recognize myself as one among those who rejoices to count myself among those “who like Jesus are people of joy over life.” Pr. Harrison proclaims this as a catch phrase, but it is inestimably more. When a person hears this as what God works for us, then the person truly is made to be a person of joy over life. Then a person does not need to be urged to stand up for others, for that is the regenerated motive of the person’s heart. This is what the Holy Spirit produces. It is not something that a person must generate within oneself. The preaching of the necessity of good works in the life of Christians takes true form when preached as St. James says:

     What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? (James 2:14-20)

      St. Paul proclaims the same, saying:

     So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:15-17)

      A living faith causes a person to live from that faith. A living faith is not idle. It is like turning the key in a car and hearing no sound of the engine being turned. A person observing this says that the battery is dead. It has no life in it. Thus it produces no action.

      On the other hand no one imagines that a battery is made to be a good battery by turning over the engine. No. Rather, a person observes the innate goodness of the battery when it produces the work of turning over of the engine. Because the battery has life in it, the engine is turned over. The life has already been given to the battery by another source of life or energy. Then, because the battery has been made to be a good battery that is full of life, it then produces that which flows from the life that has been generated within it. Because of the life generated in it, the battery is declared to be a good battery that produces the good work that a live battery produces. If the battery dies and produces no work, it is then declared to be a bad battery and is cast into the pit.

      People in whom the true faith is alive do the works that this living faith produces. This living faith is generated in the person through the pure means of grace, that is, the pure Gospel and Sacraments. Oh that the preachers would preach and administer the pure and unadulterated Word and Sacraments rather than preaching that people should be good Lutherans or good Christians or good Whatevers. For as St. Paul masterfully proclaims, it is the Gospel that is the power of God into salvation. It is the Gospel that is the power that generates the true faith that changes people’s hearts and minds so that they live by faith and live the life of joy that produces the good works of that joy.

+ + +

Fascinating Videos

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

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







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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+ + +

Terrible Grief

Grief can be truly terrible, even terrifying.

The Newtown tragedy continues to be prevalent in the news and in the minds of all who hear it.

Yesterday as I was taking care of things that needed to be done, I realized that I am affected even more powerfully than I realized by this event, or rather, by the reminder of how vulnerable I am.

My own death is not very frightening to me contrasted to the devastation that I would face upon the loss of my wife.  If someone broke into the government school where she works and ripped her out of my life through a murderous and senseless act, I would have nothing left in this world.  I would be bereft of the only worldly possession of real value to me, save one.

There is one worldly possession that is even greater for me than my wife.  It is the one possession that would preserve my sanity and hope.  It is my knowledge of God’s love to me that is poured out freely through His means of grace.

My wife and I have talked many times about this.  We both share the great concern that if anything happened to the other, we would be left with no one locally with whom we could gather to receive the unadulterated Sacrament of forgiveness and life.  Whichever of us survived the other would have to move, or settle for periodic travel to our friends who likewise gather to the pure Word and Sacrament.

This very likely sounds foreign to most who read this.  We live in a city with nine LC-MS and one WELS congregations, and yet we have no place where we can safely worship.  This is because we believe that to join with congregations who pledge themselves to compromised worship and practice and definition of communion/fellowship is to have our souls raped and molested.  We believe that we need to receive only the absolutely pure means of grace.  Otherwise we will be filled with the world’s pollution that corrupts and kills.

Thus our marriage and union is absolutely vital to us.  We truly need each other and we do not know how to live without each other.

Again, I read yet another account of the Newtown tragedy: Investigators visit Conn. gun shops and ranges as townspeople seek comfort in faith.  This account made clear a fact that I suspected to be the case. Adam Lanza was the child of a broken marriage.  He was a young man bearing the scars of his parents’ divorce.

We have degenerated into a society where this is counted as the norm.  Great efforts have been exerted to reeducate and retrain the people to consider divorce as an acceptable and even a normal occurrence.  Today one is more likely to encounter children who have experienced the divorce of their parents, than children whose parents remained steadfastly together for as long as they both should live.

Both I and my wife have been blessed to know marriage as a lifetime contract.  Our parents remained together until our fathers died.  Both of us knew that our parents would be home for us.  They were our refuge in the Lord.  We knew that when Daddy left the house that he would gladly and lovingly return home again.  We knew that Mommy would be there for us, too.  No matter how badly an argument raged, we knew that forgiveness and reconciliation would prevail in the end.  This we knew.  This we believed.  This was factual.  The foundation stone of our security, the marriage of our parents that the Lord had instituted and blessed, would stand for us.  We knew the meaning of home.  This is an extension of knowing the everlasting home that God has for us.

But we both have friends who were not so blessed.  We even have family members who have abandoned this so that they divorced.  They broke their contract with each other.  They broke the confidence of their children. And we have seen the effects and affects upon all who have suffered this.

Our society tries to minimize this.  But we continue to see the effects.  We see the confusion of identity.  We see the increase of instability.  We hear the cries of loneliness.  We observe the suicides.  We mourn the many aborted children.  We tremble at the random acts of violence.

Is there any advantage to closing our eyes to what we see and our ears to what we hear?  Is there any real benefit to giving our blessing to the destruction caused by divorce?

How many churches and pastors today really count divorce for what it is?  How many actually still preach divorce as sin from which people need to be saved?  How many still count this as a cause for repentance?  How many still urge forgiveness as the only answer?

How many children of divorces are told that they need to accept this horrible molestation and rape as OK and to get over it?  How can such children be confident of anything when this is what they are told?  How can they know what to trust as true and reliable?  How are they to know love as more than a fickle emotion, as a fact that does not fail?

This is why we dare not allow the means of grace also to be compromised.  This is why we dare not call anything but the gathering to the pure means of grace as God’s Church on earth, His holy family.  For if we allow the worship, the communion, the means of our certainty to be compromised, we have nothing in which to trust.

For those whose parents turn to divorce for their answer to their failures and problems, God’s Church remains true.  Where those called together by the Holy Spirit continue in the purity of the Word and Sacraments, there they may rest securely without doubt or fear.  There God is truly present for them.  There the marriage of God with His bride is manifest for all to observe.  His children rejoice in their security.  This is the way when the Gospel is preached purely and the Sacraments are administered as they have been ordained.  This is the way when the worship reflects this in its entirety.

Is this not comforting news?  God does not believe in divorce, except with regard to our sin.  He says that He divorces us from our sin so that we may be united with Him in His Church.  He has given us Baptism as the means by which we are regenerated or reborn into His family.  He has given His Holy Supper to nourish us and keep us alive in His family through the one true faith. All of this is His gift, His gracious doing for us, as our loving Father.  Through this He causes us to know ourselves as He knows us, as His beloved children.  He never forsakes His children.  He never leaves them to find their own way.  For this reason He demands that His pastors never compromise the Word and the life of the holy family, which life we know as worship and communion.

All other families can be broken.  But God’s family is forever.  People do fall away and forget God’s everlasting promises and love, but God does not forget.  People do look elsewhere and become lost, but God continues to call each one through the continuing existence and life of His Church on earth.  Each and every living person is free to return, even more than free, but continually called by our Heavenly Father.  His bride, His family, stands ready to receive each one eagerly.  The Lord declares that the heavenly hosts rejoice when even one sinner is caused to repent and to return home.

This blessed Advent season beckons to us all to hear this and to believe it.  The Christmas season teaches us how far the Lord is willing to go to call us back again to His loving care.  The Epiphany season teaches us how far the call of His Gospel reaches.  Each season of the Church year serves us in these ways.

We are not left alone.  We have not been abandoned.  We are not orphans without hope of reconciliation and reunion with our everlasting family.  Our God comes for us.  He calls to us.  He gives Himself for us.  Like with the shepherds out in the fields with their flocks that very special night, God sends His message through angels, the pastors and the saints who abide in Him and His communion, to call us to respond, saying like the shepherds, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”

+ + +

Some things are simply too REAL to be funny!

Biden Versus Ryan

We don’t watch TV.  We stopped paying for the misinformation and blatant lies in the federally owned and operated so-called local paper.  Radio sources for news are equally untrustworthy.  Internet sources also are suspect, but at least with those we can get a broader perspective.

Today I read an online report regarding the vice-presidential debate last night, entitled Snark, interruptions, 'derisive sneering'.

Of particular note is what is reported about the statements of the two candidates about their faith and what they believe concerning gestational children and what stand they promise to take in the White House.  Both men profess to be Roman Catholics.  Both men profess to believe that life begins at conception.

Both men say that they will do nothing regarding this belief.

Here is what is reported in the article:

Vice President Joe Biden said he personally believes that life begins at conception, but wouldn’t do anything to stop others from taking the lives of the unborn.

The arguments came the only meeting of the two candidates for the No. 2 office.

“Our faith informs us of everything we do,” Ryan said. He said his Catholic faith plays a role in his position, but reason and science complete his position.

“I believe life begins at conception. The policy of a Romney administration would be to oppose abortion except in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother,” he said.

Biden also said he was “practicing Catholic” but he would “refuse to impose his beliefs on equally devout Christians…”

“Unlike my friend here, the congressman, I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women can’t control their bodies. That’s a decision between them and their doctor,” Biden said.

According to this report Ryan says, “The policy of a Romney administration would be to oppose abortion ...”

Notice that no mention of any action is included in this statement.  This is what the Republicans have said for decades, yet when in office they do nothing.  They only move legislation on this matter when they know that they are a minority or they move legislation that does so little that it really amounts to nothing.  Nevertheless they boldly tout their opposition to abortion.  They boldly profess to oppose the taking of innocent lives.  They boldly claim to be Pro-Life.

Biden says that he believes that life begins at conception, but, “Unlike my friend here, the congressman, I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women can’t control their bodies. That’s a decision between them and their doctor,” Biden said.

I wonder, will the people of the world ever grow weary of this insanely dishonest rhetoric?

Both men are knowingly, deliberately lying and attempting to deceive.  Yet the people from their respective sides close their eyes, ears, hearts and minds to what is being said, choosing rather to believe the lies.

Regarding Biden’s statement, does he apply this notion to driving under the influence of intoxicating chemicals such as alcohol, marijuana, and narcotics?  Does he say that he does not believe in telling people who consume alcoholic beverages that they have the right to control their own bodies and therefore may choose to drink to excess and drive without being held responsible?

What about people who want to own, carry, and use guns?  Does he say that they have a right to control their own bodies and carry guns on their persons without government control?

I could proceed with a very extensive list that would still be noncomprehensive, but surely these two examples make the point adequately.

Moreover, this statement regarding women controlling their own bodies is entirely and deliberately fallacious.  After all, whose body does abortion affect?

Two bodies are affected by abortion.  First is the woman’s body, that is invaded and put at risk by the action of artificial abortion.  This is an entirely unnatural procedure that in every instance puts a woman at risk over and above the already present risks of pregnancy.  Abortion is a dangerous procedure that often has complications that sometimes cause permanent injury to the woman and sometimes even results in her death.

Secondly is the developing body of the conceived child.  The lie of not knowing whether or not this is a living person has been openly debunked.  Even a man like Biden can no longer get away with hiding behind that lie.  Even he must now admit publicly to believe that life begins at conception.  So the fact is now openly admitted that abortion is the attack upon a helpless person in that person’s body.  Abortion is the deliberate ending of a person’s life.  It is a brutal assault upon this helpless person’s body.  Even in the case of abortifacients, it is a brutal separation of the person’s body from its safe haven, a brutal eviction that results in an ignominious death and disposal.  Often the body parts are even sold for disgusting uses that no person would permit if that person were given the choice.

So the issue of abortion is not about telling a woman that she has no choice in the control of her own body.  She is in complete control of her own body.  She can eat and drink as she chooses.  She can partake of any daily activity that she chooses.  She can watch any video or TV program that she chooses.  She can stay up as late as she chooses and go to bed whenever she chooses.  She can arise when she chooses.  She can seek any vocation that she chooses.  She can surf the Internet or Twit or partake of whatever other social networking that she chooses.  She can drive when and where she chooses.  She can exercise as much as she chooses.  She can meditate or pray or refuse to partake of these activities.  She can wear shoes or sandals, socks or pantyhose, a hat, sunglasses, a skirt or pants, a bra or no bra, makeup or no makeup.  She can marry or not marry.

These are not issues related to abortion until she and the abortion industry decide to take these choices and even life itself from another person.  The issue of abortion is one of telling a woman and the abortion industry that they do not have the right to destroy another person for the sake of choice or profit.

If we all faced this issue honestly, there would be no need for laws in this matter.  If women honestly consider what is at stake, they will not need to be told not to kill their own babies or allow them to be killed.  No woman who honestly counts her baby as a precious, living, human being would ever ask for someone to end her baby’s life, nor ask for someone to pay for this horrific atrocity.  No honest person would ever look upon the child with anything but tender and loving compassion and care.

Will the people of this country and the world ever wake up to the truth?  Will people ever see through the smokescreen of the politicians and the abortion industry and those who refuse to act responsibly regarding their own sexual activities?

Life is a wonderful gift.  For those who acknowledge the giver, this is so apparent that it changes the person from the inside out.  But even for those who deny the giver of life, the wonder of life is so immense that it is overpowering.  Even those who deny the gift cannot help but to see that a baby is a person who should be protected and nurtured, especially when the baby is housed within a woman’s own body.

Parenthood is a terrible responsibility.  It is a fearsome thing to face, even for those who eagerly seek it for themselves.  It becomes overwhelmingly fearsome to one who is not seeking it and has it occur without planning, or worse, has it forced upon her.

But the answer is not to count the life of the baby as a choice.  The answer is not to deny the baby any choice ever to be faced.  The answer is not to encourage women to make a choice that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.  The answer is not to encourage women to consider putting themselves at an added heath risk by choosing to permit an invasive and disruptive pseudo-medical procedure.

What is the answer?  The answer is Love.  Love produces compassion.  Love motivates us to look upon women as very special gifts from God to the world, gifts through whom He works the miracle of life for us all.  Love moves us to act with compassion and caring to those frightened by the new and often unexpected responsibilities that they face.  Love moves us to treasure the little ones whom we will meet when they are delivered from Mommy’s body into the world of light and sound and color and friendship and all the wonders that we so often take for granted.  Love moves us to see these little ones as gifts to us all.

This world in which we live is made to be a very frightening place through the selfishness and thoughtlessness that we choose to be our ways.  This is especially true for the helpless, the weak, the ignorant, and the poor.

However, Love changes this.  Love restores hope.  Love restores security.

Laws are necessary when Love does not prevail.  When Love is not King, then laws become necessary to help restrain lovelessness.  Laws have no power to produce Love, but they do help those who know Love and abide in Love to have a little less opposition in the world.

Thus we have laws that condemn and punish murder, stealing, and other acts by one against another.  But what we really need is the restoration of Love.  After all,

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.  (Romans 13:10)

+ + +

Progressivism in Churches

Disintegration in the churches is an issue that weighs heavily upon my heart and spirit as I observe the secular progressivism encroaching and overtaking the various congregations and church bodies.  As the congregations and church bodies move farther from the apostolic doctrine and practice the churches lose their integrity, becoming more and more loosely defined until their identity becomes blurred with the world.  More and more the people speak of gray areas and uncertainty until in the end, nothing really matters anymore and darkness and disillusionment are all that remain.

I have developed a graphic to illustrate how the bright illumination of the Pure Word and Sacraments becomes less and less visible in the lives of the people, congregations, and church bodies as they move farther away from the historic liturgy and doctrine and practice proclaimed by the apostles.

(for larger view click on graphic)

+ + +

In My Father’s House

This week my wife and I were discussing the comfort of the promise that the Lord has a mansion awaiting us. As this age grows darker and more insecure, this blessed promise is very much on our hearts and minds.

The Lord Jesus gave this wonderful promise of assurance on the night of His betrayal, as He was preparing His disciples for the horrible things that they would soon witness, the things that would make this promise effective.

     In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2-3)

My wife asked me whether we will really have a mansion. “I don’t really want a mansion,” she said, “just a place to stay.”

In verse 2 the Lord Jesus actually employs three different words for what is reserved for us. His actual words as John records them are:

     In the house (oikia) of the Father of Me abodes (monai) many are. But if not, I would have told you. I journey to prepare a place (topon) for you-all.”

The Father’s house or household is established. God knows His own. He knows from eternity. In His household He has residences for all of His beloved children. No one has been forgotten. Jesus assures His disciples of this as He journeys onward to the public condemnation and rejection of mankind and to the torturous scourging and death of the cross and finally to the grave. This is the means by which they and all who look to Him in faith receive the guarantee of a place together with Him in the Father’s household. He resolutely looked to this throughout His life. He continually proclaimed this to His disciples. Now, they would see the fulfillment of all of the promises and prophecies of the Scriptures, but would not understand until after the resurrection. What they were about to witness would crush their spirits and drive all hope from their hearts, except for these words of promise. Apart from this assurance, they would not understand the words of Jesus on the cross as He would cry out in our place with the blindness of our sin, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

These words are our false perception that we have inherited from Adam on account of sin. Just as Adam falsely imagined that the Lord had forsaken him on account of his guilty and filthy conscience, so we stand imagining that God has forsaken us. But even in that moment of being made to be sin for us, even in that moment when evil moved in so powerfully and fully that the very sun was darkened, even in that moment as the Son of Man cried out with our accursedness, still the Father looked on in merciful love and comforted His Son and through Him comforted all of mankind with the assurance that He has not abandoned us. It is only our refusal to trust Him that separates us from Him.

This is why the author to the Hebrews writes:

     So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 5:5-10)

Christ Jesus was saved from death. Though He took our place and was crucified as a condemned sinner in our stead, though He was rejected by mankind and tortured and killed, though our sin stood between Him and the Father, nevertheless the Father remained with Him even as they are truly one from eternity. Though Christ died for us according to the flesh, He was nevertheless preserved from death by His union with the Father. And so, on the third day He raised Himself bodily from the dead so as to ascend bodily to the Father and take our flesh to the very throne of God to rule on our behalf as both God and Man forevermore.

This is why St. Paul writes to the Colossians:

     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)

Yes, by His suffering, death, and burial Christ has secured for us our place together with Him in His everlasting kingdom, the household of the Father, in which there exists an abundance of residences for all of His children. By His resurrection and ascension Christ has given us the assurance of our place with Him even as through our baptism we have been joined with Him as everlasting communicants of His Holy Communion.

As I explained to my wife, a baby is perfectly content to sleep in a dresser drawer, if that baby abides in the parents’ love. A little child is perfectly happy to share a room and even a bed with multiple siblings, if that child knows that the household is one in which abides the assurance of love. This is the promise given to us by our Lord Jesus. We are loved and we shall forevermore dwell in the security of that love. Our place has been prepared and awaits us after all that must transpire in the current age has come to pass. For now we live in that blessed hope, reminded of the Lord’s merciful patience that moves Him to wait until the Gospel has been heard and received by every last person for whom a place has been reserved.

+ + +

Are They Persons?

Deliberately fraudulent and misrepresentative headlining such as Republicans introduce legislation targeting abortion access really frustrates me.

Yes, this legislation has as its underlying agenda protection for babies from being killed through abortion which will indeed reduce abortion access to those desiring to kill their babies. But abortion access is not the issue. The identity of people as persons who should be protected is the issue. The legislation is entitled the Life at Conception Act. It has as its purpose the clear legal definition of personhood that US Supreme Court denied to the US Constitution.

Those Supreme Court Justices who farcically claimed that they could not declare whether or not babies are persons should have been immediately impeached for directly violating their oath of office. Instead, the annihilation of 14% of the US population has been permitted. 56 million of 400 million is 14 percent! That is 14 out of every 100 or 7 out of every 50 people.

For a more tangible grasp of what this is, imagine sending executioners with machetes into the schools with the mission of going through the school and hacking to pieces 7 children out of every two classrooms!

If one considers the national response of one crazy school massacre, imagine what such an outrageous act as abortion on demand should cause. Yet rather than headlines decrying the continual slaughter of millions of innocent children for profit, rather the headlines demonize those who attempt to act in defense of these poor defenseless children.

The deceptive rhetoric of those arguing for abortion on demand is criminally insane. They call abortion a “reproductive right” of women. Abortion is an act against the reproductive functions and rights of women. Abortion is an act of Anti-reproduction.

Another abortionist favorite is to cry out that to prohibit abortion is to deny a woman the right to do with her body as she desires. But this is another absolutely false claim. The fact is that except in rare cases the woman HAS utilized her reproductive rights and that is why reproduction has occurred. At this point, as abortion is being contemplated or pursued, it is no longer the woman’s body that is at issue, but another person’s body that is at issue. The newly conceived and growing body of a brand new person is what abortion attacks and kills. The woman’s control over her own body is no longer in question. Whether her control of her body was usurped through rape or whether she actively engaged her body in reproductive activity, that time has passed. Reproduction has occurred and now another person is being denied rights concerning that person’s body and life.

This is the real issue being addressed by the Life at Conception Act.

The Supreme Court maliciously overturned the Constitutional right of persons to live. The justices who supported this deliberately and maliciously turned the issue of life into an issue of privacy. They redefined murder as an act of privilege to privacy.

For those who have a desire to see this Supreme attack on Life set right again, here is the link for the Life at Conception Act Petition.

Regarding just how far this issue extends, here again is the link for my earlier post, After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?

See also The Ethics of Killing Babies with Investigative Reporter Jon Rappoprt. This video in 3 clips begins with this issue, shows how far it extends, speaks of the globalist agenda and control of the mainstream media, and concludes by addressing the baby killing issue.

For anyone preferring to view them here, I’ll embed them below as well.

I remember when the veterans of the Viet Nam conflict returned home and were attacked as “Baby Killers.” Do you remember this? Surely it has been regurgitated in enough movies that even younger generations should be aware of this abuse that was wrongfully inflicted upon the devoted military service people who were victimized by this wrongful and unjust military action. These sons of the nation bravely faced horrible conflict, being victimized by the President and Congress, only to return home to be further abused by many of their fellow countrymen.

“Baby Killers” they were called. Yet according to Wikipedia’s Vietnam War casualties the total civilian deaths for the entire period of the conflict, a period of 15 years is as follows:

R.J. Rummel's mid-level estimated that 65,000 North Vietnamese Civilians died from 1960-1975.

The Vietnamese government in 1995 estimated that 4,000,000 Vietnamese civilians on both sides died in the war. Overall figures for North Vietnamese civilian dead range from 50,000 to 2,000,000.

These estimates, which are not clearly defined, are for all civilians killed of all ages. Moreover, these numbers reflect the civilian deaths caused by both sides of the military conflict in open warfare. Still, even if the outside number of 2 million is used, the total number of all civilian deaths is about the same as the number of babies killed in only one year in the US at the peak of the abortion industry’s activity. Compared to the total of more than 56 million babies killed since the Constitutional right to life was usurped via Roe V Wade, 2 million total civilian wartime casualties seems small.

Yet the Viet Nam vets were called “Baby Killers.”

But in the war against humanity called abortion more than 28 times that many actual babies have been killed. Yet those who cry out, “Baby Killers” against those who have killed more than 56 million babies and continue killing thousands of babies each and every day, such voices are called radicals and even terrorists.

How does that make any sense?

Sadly, the only possible expected outcome of this is that this killing spree will expand to include more than just the unborn. It will expand to many people who are of minority status, who have no political clout. Eventually, by this process of singling out “minority” groups, the majority of people will lose their voices until the elite minority have total say.

Gainsayers will continue to mock this until their day comes. They will continue to vote for those who go along to get along in the mainstream establishment of the elite. Because of this either the Obama will be “reelected” or one of the Republican globalists will be “elected.” And the people will stand bewildered and wonder how their Constitutional freedoms disappeared.

The pace is being accelerated, as the following clips declare. Mr. Jones and Mr. Rappoport express more hope for the country than I personally hold. They express hope that people are waking up and will take action. My long-time observation is that people go along until they are personally affected and then they rise to action that results in violence and bloodshed. History is replete with evidence of this pattern. This is truly sad because especially in this case we have some candidates who would make a genuine difference.

Here are the video clips for anyone caring to view them:







Mr. Rappoport speaks of people making videos of the issues and making them public. For a short time this will likely happen. However, the Internet is largely controlled by the elite. They own Google and YouTube. They control ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). And the Obama or whomever the next president may be, has been given power to shut down the Internet if an “emergency” is declared. Since the sitting/ruling president has the authority to declare an emergency, that gives total control for when the Internet becomes too “out of control” for the elite globalists.

But for the time being, we do have this for our use and we have the power to go and flood the voting stations with votes for a candidate whom the elites fear will shut them down. What if people actually did awaken from their apathetic stupor and defended the defenseless and placed into office those who actually uphold their office in accord with the Constitution? What if people feared injustice more than they feared taking responsibility for their own sexual activity and responsibility for raising their children? Could it be that something unprecedented in the history of nations could actually occur in these United States of America? Could it be that the precedent of reestablishing true liberty and justice for all could be held before the world?

- - -

After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?

From the “Journal of Medical Ethics,”

After-birth abortion:
why should the baby live?

Can you believe that this is actually the title of the paper that was presented?

People mocked the Pro-Life supporters for warning that this was the next step.

Here is the abstract from the article:

Abstract

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus' health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.

This is hard to believe, even though it is the anticipated next step in the eugenics agenda.

The actual paper is found at After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?.

A condensed report of the paper can be viewed at Ethicists Argue Killing Newborn Babies Should Be Allowed.

From the body of the report, here is the basic argument:

The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.

Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her. This means that many non-human animals and mentally retarded human individuals are persons, but that all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons. Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life: spare embryos where research on embryo stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is permitted, criminals where capital punishment is legal.

So now new born babies are not persons.

They are human but they are not persons who have a right to life.

Mentally retarded individuals are persons but have no value and therefore no right to life!

The beginning paragraph for the conclusions section says:

Conclusions

If criteria such as the costs (social, psychological, economic) for the potential parents are good enough reasons for having an abortion even when the fetus is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the same as that of the infant and if neither has any moral value by virtue of being a potential person, then the same reasons which justify abortion should also justify the killing of the potential person when it is at the stage of a newborn.

This is no longer a “slippery slope.”

This is an Avalanche!

• Now both the unborn and the newborn are not persons but only potential persons and therefore have no right to life.
  
• Also, now, the mentally retarded, though persons, have no value, and therefore no right to life.
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Who’s next? It is not much of a stretch to say that people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and Cerebral Palsy have no value and therefore may be killed.
  
• Next, those with AIDS may be counted as a burden and having no value and may therefore be removed from the roles of the living.
  
• Next, the unemployed?
  
• Next, the uneducated?
  
• Next, the uninsured?
  

Unless you are in the elite group defining the list, sooner or later ...

- - -

Disturbing Notion of Religious Freedom

This article disturbs me: Restore Religious Freedom in America

While I agree 100% that what is being foisted upon us in this outrageous regulatory program of the administration is wrong and should be overturned, I find it disturbing that the “religious” imagine that doing so will restore religious freedom in the country. I find it disturbing that they seem to be oblivious to the usurpations of freedoms that span many decades.

For example, I remember when the LC-MS bowed down to certain changes in the IRS code so that the church body actually changed its definition of “ministry” and “minister” so as to keep certain income tax exemptions for teachers. So then, teachers, both male and female teachers, suddenly became ministers, a term previously only used for males connected with the pastoral office. This gave stimulus for many successive new definitions and understandings.

As I have learned regarding the ways of conservatives I have coined a phrase that seems to fit their mantra: “Compromise is absolutely unacceptable until it becomes expedient.”

Who can even count the compromises that have been made by the religious in the name of expediency.

As further example from my former church body, I did a search of the LC-MS web site using their internal search engine, searching for “501 c 3.” Here is the first screen of choices that was displayed.

In my perception the following recurring mantra is powerfully explanative:

We accept Visa, MaterCard, American Express and Discover.

Is this what is really meant by “religious freedom” that must be defended?

After all, has not the biggest ruckus arisen in connection with the regulations that require paying for these abortifacients and such?

If the real concern is the issue of compromising doctrine and especially practice, why did the mainline churches make the other compromises without hardly batting an eye? Why do the church bodies currently promote “fraternal” insurance and financial groups that already provide coverage for abortions and same sex relationships and such?

Why is this important? If I agree that the government is not to interfere with religion, that government is not to sanction and even promote and pay for abortifacients or even contraceptives, why speak with concern about the discontinuity of the religious groups crying out in this matter but not others? Why not simply praise them for this action?

The issue of concern is what is being compromised and lost. The issue of concern is the pure Gospel and the pure administration of the means of grace. The issue of concern is that the true definition of the very power of God unto salvation is being reduced to something that has no power to save and help and heal.

If the pure Gospel is compromised and thereby lost to the churches, what else really matters? Why even bother having churches if the pure Gospel is sacrificed on the altars of expediency?

What positive difference does it make to prevent a baby from being sacrificed to the gods of lust and avoidance of inconvenience and fear and responsibility, if in place of the Gospel they are given a worthless substitute?

Dear pastors and Christians, preach the Gospel as it is given from heaven and it won’t matter whether the government demands coverage for abortions and contraceptives and abortifacients. If the Gospel is preached truly and the Sacraments are administered rightly so that people truly hear and believe the Gospel, the demand for these unholy things will fade to nothing. People who truly hear and believe the Gospel love life and babies and honor marriage. If the Gospel is truly preached so that people live by faith, who will ask for these contraceptives even if insurance does cover them?

Moreover, if the churches were truly united in this Gospel so that the Church was clearly seen standing as one, what politician would dare even to suggest such things let alone to impose them forcefully upon the Church or even upon the populace? Then such a politician would never be elected.

Christians should not cry out as though they are being betrayed by their politicians. They should not cry out as though the politicians are betraying the Gospel. Rather they should look in the mirror and be converted again. Then the freedom that the Scriptures teach would be more than a slogan or political talking point.

+ + +

Simul Iustus Et Peccator - Saint/Sinner Juxtaposition

Simul Iustus Et Peccator means simultaneously saint and sinner.

Throughout my own daily struggles as well as observing the struggles of others who profess to be Christians, I am realizing to a greater and greater degree how hard the struggle over simul iustus et peccator really is. The Saint/Sinner conflict is very much real. Rightly understanding this juxtaposition is very important to understanding the tension of life as a Christian in a fallen world.

This conflict makes it hard to hear so as to be moved to a better understanding of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus. It hinders us from hearing the clarity of both the Law and the Gospel applied to us so as to move us into the life of the freedom of God’s grace.

This is a universal problem. This is the struggle that all of us Saint/Sinners encounter continually. St. Paul describes this from his own experience as a war within himself. It is a battle that only God can win for us. In fact, He already has, but His victory has to be applied to us in such a way as to make His victory what we realize in our hearts, spirits, and minds, in our total soul/being.

Acknowledgment of the Saint/Sinner juxtaposition is not an excuse for sin, but rather is an explanation for the ongoing struggle that the saints experience in their lives.

We are sinners from our conception because of the separation that Adam chose for us all. There is no escaping this. As long as humans are born into the world this will continue. But God has intervened by being born as the God/Man, Christ Jesus. He took our sin-death and rose from it so that through Baptism we would be regenerated as members of His holiness, made to be communicants of His very body.

The Gospel is the power through which He accomplishes this for us. When the Gospel enters us and enlivens our heart and soul through faith in His mercy and grace in Christ, we are declared to be saints, God’s holies. We are converted from sinner to saint.

But the Old Adam remains in our flesh. The spirit has been freed, but our sinful nature that has been flushed from our spirit still inheres in our flesh. It will remain until our bodies die, or until they are transformed at Christ’s return. Until then, our sinful nature is still at work in our members (our bodily existence).

The Law stands before us and reminds us of this. The Old Adam loves the Law, so long as he is the one wielding it. Then he can use it as he chooses. He loves to tell others that they need to change their abusive ways. But he does not like it when it comes back to himself.

The saint has no use for the Law, except to see God’s holiness and glory. The saint hears the Law and turns away to Christ, confessing sinfulness and the need for forgiveness and healing.

But the sinful nature does not want forgiveness. The sinful nature wants to pretend that it only needs help rectifying one’s wrongs, as if doing better was the goal.

The devil loves this. Then Satan comes forward and shows the saint his sinful nature and continual failing to live in perfect accord with the Law and says: “Ha. You see! You’re not really a saint after all! You’re really just a God damned sinner!”

And according to one’s own actions, one can only despair. For even one’s own conscience makes the same undeniable accusation. This is why the divine service begins with us confessing this very thing.

Seeking to obey the Law cannot make us righteous and cannot lift the burden from us. When we seek to live by the Law, we place ourselves back under the Law.

But when we walk in spirit, our spirit, having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in our baptism, turns entirely from the Law to Christ and sees His righteousness poured out through His body in the preaching and through His blood in the Holy Supper. In the Supper we actually partake of His body so that we know that we are united with Him in His body and that in His blood His righteousness is given to us as our sins are forgiven us so that we rise up as saints, purely by His grace.

St. Peter explains that through Baptism we are given the good conscience before God so that we may live in His Holy Communion. This is our answer to the Old Adam and to the accusations of the devil and our flesh.

We cannot find peace through attempts at obeying the Law. Such attempts always bind us again to the requirements of the Law. But walking in spirit our spirit hears the continual calling and urging of the Holy Spirit who speaks to our spirit and even calls out on our behalf, Abba! Pater! (Both Hebrew and Greek words for Father).

In this way the Lord gives us the freedom to live in His love. And yes, we see how the Lord has loved us and continues to love us and we then love one another as He has loved us. But we don’t approach this as a goal. We don’t seek this as something to obey. Rather, this is now our identity. We love as the outflow of God’s love at work in us.

But our sinful nature rebels. Our spirit truly desires to love, but the Old Adam rises up in hatred and vengeance. The Old Adam does not forgive his abusers. He wants them to pay. So he drags out the commandments to show that they are guilty. Then he tries to show himself as one who tries to obey. But the Law never loses its capacity to show sin and so the person is again under the Law.

But the Holy Spirit is faithful. He searches the saint’s heart and speaks to the spirit and turns the person again and again to the Gospel, the promise that in Christ we are declared righteous and free. And so the saint eagerly looks to the next offering of the Lord’s body and blood and receives the renewal in God’s grace with a thankful heart. Then love again prevails and the peace of God guards the heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

This is why understanding the Saint/Sinner juxtaposition is the answer to living in love. For when we preach the Law, we realize that we need to hear it first for ourselves, so that we are eager to hear the Gospel. Then, when we preach the Law to others, the Gospel will be our motive with them, too.

Christ is our obedience. He is our righteousness. He is our Life. He is our Love. In Him we are justified and sanctified and converted.

When we seek to make ourselves or others better through the preaching of obedience to the Law, we turn away from the Gospel. But when we preach the Law to ourselves and others as that which shows us God’s holiness which can be ours only through the Gospel, this changes how we perceive and deal with both ourselves and others. It sets us free to live in God’s love and to love by His love.

+ + +

Fetal Cells Heal Baby’s Mother

I read a very interesting article today entitled: Unborn child just a ‘parasite’? Cutting edge science shows fetal cells heal mother for life. It is a very interesting read.

My mind immediately jumped to 1 Timothy 2:15. I don’t think that St. Paul was referring to this link between baby and mother in this context, but my mind jumped here nonetheless. But since St. Paul was speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is possible that the Lord was revealing something that we would not discover until a couple of millennia later. Even if this is so, it is not the primary point of the text. Still, it is an interesting thought.

Certainly this discovery would seem to provide a sense of explanation for the strong ties that mothers and their children have throughout life. Perhaps it also gives some information regarding why women have for so long outlived men. Perhaps also there is some explanation regarding why mothers tend to have such amazing stamina for long term care giving when everyone else in the family is sickly and weak. There are of course other factors, but this does leave one wondering about this particular one.

At the very least it brings to mind this wonderful passage from the Psalms:

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:12-16)

+ + +