God's Handiwork

Cliche: When Times Are Dark

Another cliché spotted on a church sign:

When times are dark, let God light the way.

Are there times when you don’t need God to light the way? Do you go it alone when times are light? How presumptuous, self-centered, and egotistical. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Not just when times are dark. Even when times are light. All depends on God’s grace in Christ.

Forego the clichés and stick with God’s Word!

Paul Gerhardt, Hymn Writer

Few Lutherans know his name. But most know his hymns. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) is one of the greatest hymn writers of the Lutheran Church. Here is a German film on the life of Paul Gerhardt, narrated in English:

Gerhardt has 16 hymns in Lutheran Service Book:

• 334 - O Lord, How Shall I Meet You
• 360 - All My Heart Again Rejoices
• 372 - O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is
• 375 - Come, Your Hearts and Voices Raising
• 438 - A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth
• 449/450 - O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
• 453 - Upon the Cross Extended
• 467 - Awake, My Heart, with Gladness
• 596 - All Christians Who Have Been Baptized
• 683 - Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me
• 724 - If God Himself Be for Me
• 726 - Evening and Morning
• 737 - Rejoice, My Heart, Be Glad and Sing
• 754 - Entrust Your Days and Burdens
• 756 - Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
• 880 - Now Rest beneath Night’s Shadow

May our gracious Lord continue to send faithful hymn writers to His Church, that Christians may rightly know their sin and faithfully cling to Christ crucified for their forgiveness, life, and salvation!

The Holy Grail

This evening I watched the made-for-television movie Merlin with my boys. I originally saw this movie years ago. Not bad for a low budget movie. Magic. Wizards. The “old ways.” Even King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail. Gave me a lot to talk about with my boys before bedtime.

Whether it’s King Arthur or Indiana Jones, it seems the world is intrigued with the idea of a Holy Grail, a magical cup with power to heal and grant unending life. Sadly, the world desires such a cup for all the wrong reasons, and thus misses the true Holy Grail each and every Lord’s Day on the Lord’s altar.

It’s not the cup, you see. It never was. When Jesus took the cup after supper, just hours before He was betrayed, He joined His Word to it.

“Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament, in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as You drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

[Mt 26:27-28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25]

Saint Paul calls this cup “the cup of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 10:21; 11:27), not because of the design or construction of the cup, but because of what the cup contains. This cup is precious, life-giving, and full of good gifts precisely because it contains “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). This “blood of Jesus … cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

So don’t go searching from some imaginary Holy Grail. The real one has been right in front of you all this time. Simply come to the Lord’s table in faith and receive the cup of the Lord and therein the true blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins!

“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.”

[Psalm 116:13]

HT Radio Interview

This week I had the privilege of talking with the Rev. George F. Borghardt III, host of Higher Things Radio, about the “H2O: Ordinary & Extraordinary” breakaway session I presented at the Coram Deo Lutheran youth conference in Bloomington-Normal this past July.

Click here to go to the Higher Thing website and listen to Episode 155: October 7th, 2011. Our discussion focused primarily on Holy Baptism and spans the first half of this specific episode.

Tune in to Higher Things Radio each Friday for confessional Lutheran theology and a good dose of fun as well!

How to Appreciate Your Pastor

Below is a nice writeup posted by a brother pastor...

How to Appreciate Your Pastor

It’s October, which means it’s Pastor Appreciation Month.

Now there are many websites giving suggestions for ways to celebrate your pastor. Some of their suggestions include giving a card shower, holding special banquets in their honor, giving a trophy, or even a surprise vacation.

Now, it’s not that those aren’t nice things to do. But this is not how you should appreciate your Pastor.

So how should you show appreciation for your Pastor? To answer that question, you must first ask “Why should a Pastor be appreciated at all?”

It’s not because he’s well liked, has a good personality, or is a snappy dresser. It’s not because he’s really good with kids or tells funny jokes. It’s not because he’s likable in any way. Your Pastor may very well be someone you can’t stand at all. Maybe you even pray that he takes a call somewhere else, and yet, you should still appreciate him.

Why? Because he’s the one chosen to stand in the place of Christ for you. He’s Christ’s mouth for you, delivering the Holy Words of God in Law and Gospel. He’s Christ’s hands for you, delivering life, salvation, and the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament.

You appreciate your Pastor not because of him as an individual, but because of the office in which he stands.

So back to my original question, how should you show appreciation for your Pastor?

Here it is: Simply let him do those things for which he is called to do. Go to Church. Go to Bible Study. Let your ears be filled with the Word of God and your mouths be filled with the Body and Blood of Christ. Receive what your Pastor is there to give you. For when I urge you to go to the Divine Service and go to the Sacrament, I am doing nothing less than urging you to be a Christian. Be a sheep unto your under-shepherd, your Pastor.

Do this and your Pastor, if he’s worth his salt, will feel more appreciated than ever.

“For the gospel is not delivered unto us that we should thereby seek our own praise and glory, or that the people should honour and magnify us which are the ministers thereof; but to the end that the benefit and glory of Christ might be preached and published, and that the Father might be glorified in his mercy offered unto us in Christ his Son, whom he delivered for us all, and with him hath given us all things.”
Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, 5:25

Thanks for reading!

Click here for the original post.

HT: Rev. Anthony R. Voltattorni