Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Dislike Button


Facebook can be a useful tool to connect families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, teams, clubs, and all sorts of groups. While I do not spend a lot of time on Facebook, I have created a page for my congregation, that our members and friends can receive event reminders, view photos, and be pointed to solid resources on the internet.

That being said, I am often saddened to see fellow Christians—sometimes even members of the congregation God has entrusted to my care—post things that are contrary to God’s Word, the Christian faith, our confession, and/or common decency. Examples include but are not limited to: spreading gossip, rumors, and hearsay; using foul language; taking pride in drunkenness; and advertising sexual immorality.

What you post is not hidden from the world around you. Many others see and read it. So ask yourself these questions the next time you want to post something:
  • Does this post in any way, shape, or form rejoice in something sinful?
  • Does this post in any way, shape, or form profane Christ, His name, or His Word?
  • Does this post in any way, shape, or form bring dishonor to Christ, His Church, or His people?
There’s a reason why Saint James writes: “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26). The Constitution may grant you “freedom of speech,” but in Christ that freedom is restrained by love for God and neighbor.

Fellow sheep of the Good Shepherd, Christ suffered and died on the cross to set you free from the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. Having been baptized into Christ, “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Galatians 5:13). Instead, “live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God” (1 Peter 2:16).

As the Father’s beloved child in Christ, heed the admonition and encouragement of Saint Paul:
     If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
     Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
     Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

[Colossians 3]
God grant you this for Jesus’ sake!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Sinful Nature



There is a heated debate going on within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) this week. Did Adam’s sin completely corrupt human nature or not? A recent statement by a non-Calvinist faction of the SBC states this:
“We deny that Adam’s sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person’s free will or rendered any person guilty before he has personally sinned.”
What will come of this debate in the SBC is still to be determined. Click here for a Christianity Today article that highlights the conversation. Below is what confessional Lutherans believe and why.

Adam’s sin has completely corrupted those who are naturally born. This sinful nature—passed on from father to child at conception—is called “original sin” or “the Old Adam” (cf. “old self” in Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). Holy Scripture speaks of original sin in many and various ways. Below is a sampling:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [Romans 3:10-12]

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” [Romans 5:12]

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” [Psalm 51:5]

Based on God’s holy and inerrant Word, here is what Lutherans confess concerning original sin:
     Our churches teach that since the fall of Adam [Romans 5:12], all who are naturally born are born with sin [Psalm 51:5], that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin, called concupiscence. Concupiscence is a disease and original vice that is truly sin. It dams and brings eternal death on those who are not born anew through Baptism and the Holy Spirit [John 3:5].
     Our churches condemn the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, this obscuring the glory of Christ’s merit and benefits. Pelagians argues that a person can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.
Augsburg Confession, Article II
See also:
By God’s grace, Jesus Christ is the answer to original sin. He died to redeem us, and rose again to give us new life.

“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” [Romans 5:17]

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Monday, June 18, 2012

The Tragedy of Unbelief


God delights to give. The tragedy of unbelief is this: God gives things like food and clothes to support this life, and everybody grabs it up. But when He freely gives forgiveness and salvation for the sake of Jesus, unbelief says, “No thanks. I have what I want, and I don’t want any more.” Unbelief takes the little gifts and leaves the big, blood-bought ones behind.

Lutheran Witness, March 2012, page 9

Dullness


“We are in a war between dullness and astonishment.”

The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore; He changes them into nice people.

Robert Farrar Capon
The Astonished Heart, p. 120

HT: Donavon Riley

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Shaped by Christ for...


“Because you have taken hold of Christ by faith, through whom you are righteous, you should now go and love God and your neighbor. Call upon God, give thanks to Him, preach Him, praise Him, confess Him. Do good to your neighbor, and serve him; do your duty. These are truly good works, which flow from this faith and joy conceived in the heart because we have the forgiveness of sins freely through Christ.”

Martin Luther
Luther’s Works 26:133

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Solidarity via the Church Year


“The observance of the Church Year fostered a sense of solidarity among medieval men, for they were conscious of the fact that no matter where they traveled or what their station in life, virtually every Western Christian was united in the same worship and rites on any given day. This gave meaning and reality to the concept of Christendom.”

The Church from Age to Age: A History
Concordia Publishing House © 2011, p. 293