tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307893492024-03-13T18:06:25.225-04:00EngelinesAn International missionary's musings as a 'stranger and pilgrim' in, but not of, this world. I am a British citizen, an American citizen, but - above all - a citizen of Heaven and subject of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords - Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God and the Saviour of the world.Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-42500931292313738922023-02-09T17:25:00.006-05:002023-02-12T15:02:15.509-05:00The catholic Consensus<p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">A consensus is
generally a very satisfactory thing to find.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">
</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">It is a common human aim.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">
</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Consensus describes wide-spread agreement.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">‘The consensus’ can form a foundation for an
individual’s beliefs.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Popular recently
is the slogan</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">‘trust the science’, or follow
the science.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">And many a person, trying
to establish what they believe, don’t train to be a scientist, or claim to be one,
but do their research (usually on the internet) to find what seems to be the
consensus among scientists.</span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt;">What they
learn determines what they believe and trust.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Far more
powerful than any consensus in any particular field, would be a ‘catholic consensus’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To establish that would
require finding out, not just what is held at the moment, but what has been
agreed over a long period of time, as well as among a vast majority or people
concerning a particular subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Common
Law, ethics, or morality are examples of a universal consensus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance, one could establish that there
is a universal consensus that says ‘murder is bad’, or ‘caring for children is
good’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">A universal
consensus is a good place for one’s conscience to find refuge, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I may be wrong’ becomes a safe thing to say,
if one can then add ‘however the universal consensus is…’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is because one is less likely to be
blamed for a mistaken notion if that idea can be proven to be part of a
universal consensus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Because so
many generations of humanity have practiced religion, a universal consensus may
be found there, too, if people are willing to look for it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the field of religious belief one may even
use the word ‘catholic’ to describe a universal consensus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Used to mean ‘universal’, ‘catholic’ could
even be used to describe a Jewish consensus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One could find in Judaism a ‘catholic consensus’ that there is only one
true God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A raison d’etre is usually the
location for a religion’s catholic consensus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Hence a
universal consensus may not be very difficult to find in religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People being interested in that universal
consensus is quite a different matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Where individualism is prized, or innovation highly esteemed, universal
consensus has less attraction, supplanted as it is by opinions or new ideas, or
even special revelations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">In Christian
terms, the universal consensus is the unified voice of that 'great cloud of
witnesses' who live in Heaven and on Earth, as to what is true about God and
how He created us, and Redeemed us by His Son. The beliefs and practices of
most Christians who have ever lived, and who live now concerning how God worked
in the past, works now, and is worthy to be trusted and worshipped eternally is
where it is easy to find a consensus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Having said
that, finding a universal consensus on a particular doctrine or practice is not
always a comfortable discovery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take the
universal consensus among Christians that it is too late to add further books
to the Bible, and honour them as Holy Scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To defy that consensus, a Mormon has to
decide that a prophet like Joseph Smith (d.1844), or a ‘burning in the bosom’
trumps the catholic consensus of what Christians have believed across time, and
in all places, all ages, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Beyond the
discomfort the universal consensus brings to cults and whacko sects, even many
stodgy established denominations – like my own – may find the catholic
consensus disconcerting in places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
following is a list of practices and beliefs (in no particular order) that are
demonstrably part of the universal consensus among Christians that –
nevertheless - some denominations may find unsettling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should have ranks of clergy who wear quite elaborate vestments leading
worship services.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church’s worship services should be liturgical, usually consisting of an
outline of actions that are the same week by week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should believe that Jesus Christ has promised to offer His Body and
Blood under the forms of bread and wine for Christians to eat and drink at
every Sunday service.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should use wine for the Blessed Sacrament displayed and distributed from
a chalice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should worship on Sundays.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should keep the same seasons, feasts and festivals every year,
commemorating Christ, and honouring ‘saints’, the Blessed Virgin Mary among
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church members should make the sign of the cross as part of their
identification with the prayer and devotion of the Faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should sing the Psalms in the Bible, as well as other hymns and
spiritual songs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your
church should be decorated with symbols, statues, icons, paintings, sculptures,
windows, candles, crucifixes, and other things as teaching aids and aids to
worship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your church should baptise people of all
nations, and all ages – including infants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your church should read from the Bible,
preach sermons from the Bible, systematically, and devoutly, treating Holy
Scripture with great honour – even kissing its pages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Your church should regard the place where
worship is taking place as sacred, with Christ Himself mysteriously present
where ‘two or three are gathered’ in His Name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Now concerning
these dozen items listed above - easily established – as part of the universal
consensus among Christians of all times, I can honestly say they do not
represent my personal choices, my tastes, my preference, my style, my
anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is precisely the
point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can react to them, in
submission or contempt, but one cannot claim to have invented them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether or not one adopts them reflects how
much one values the inheritance that has been conveyed from countless others
through the ages who have gone before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Now some,
looking at this article, may ask, ‘What about Justification by Grace through
Faith’, and what about the definition of the Gospel, and the number of books in
the Bible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aren’t those things more
important that whether there is a historical consensus on vestments?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">The catholic
consensus has been described above in accurate, but broad terms, concerning the
historic and present global reaction to the core teachings of the Christian
faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no question of the
importance of key elements of the Faith such as <i>ordo salutis</i> and the
canon of Scripture, but the twelve things listed above are there not because
they are more important, but because they are clearly agreed upon on a universal
scale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">That is what
needs to be recognised by Christians, whatever they believe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-12152322129078413312021-04-30T17:07:00.000-04:002021-04-30T17:07:07.554-04:00Guard the windows to your soul<p><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">The adage ‘the eye is
the gateway to the soul’ does not come from the Bible, but it cannot be
overstated that God urges a Christian to guard what goes into his eyes. Jesus Himself took pains to teach that <i>“The
eye is the lamp of the body.</i> <i> So, if
your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,</i></span><i> </i><i><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Oriya MN"; mso-fareast-font-family: "UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B";"> but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’ </span></i><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">(Mat. 6.22-23).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">In the same Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus had just warned that</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span class="woc"><span style="background: white; color: #a80000; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> ‘</span></span><i><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Oriya MN"; mso-fareast-font-family: "UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B";">I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.</span></i><i> </i><i><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Oriya MN"; mso-fareast-font-family: "UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B";"><a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/5-29.htm"></a> If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be
thrown into hell’ </span></i><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">(Mat.
5.28-29).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">We joke that there are
things that one cannot ‘unsee’, but the ongoing effect of what Christians let
into their minds through their eyes is no joke.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">
</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Many a despairing ‘sex addict’ would not be in such peril or ruin without
first allowing into their eyes, what they should not have looked at in the
first place.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Neurobiologists talk about
addictive dependency upon the neurotransmitters in the brain associated with
the ‘pleasures of sin’, but what is at stake is more than a mere biological hazard.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Diabolical forces, bent on damaging or destroying
the ministry and witness of Christian pastors are extremely interested in the
possibilities afforded by technology to make sinful images available to every
man, woman, and child with nothing more sophisticated in their grasp than a ‘smartphone’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Many a Christian ‘living
in Sodom’ today think they can consume the same sort of ‘entertainment’ as ‘everyone
else’, and not be affected.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">But ‘remember
Lots’ wife’ (Luke 17.32).</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Lot and his
family were among the few ‘righteous persons’ that could be found in the doomed
city, yet even among them were ideas such as excessive drunkenness and incest,
that likely came from being exposed to the sights of Sodom</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">(Gen. 19.32-35).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">The New Testament
warns, <i>‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are
spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself,
lest you too be tempted’</i> (Gal 6.1).</span> Yet, today, rather than keeping watch on
ourselves, Christians watch media in which ‘transgression’ is the
stock-in-trade of almost every online drama.
To paraphrase St. James, ‘My brothers, these things ought not to be so’.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">And it is not just HD
images that endanger Christian souls.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Salaciousness
in print is everywhere.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">What the spiritually
dead intend to be ‘added spice’ to favour their material, is actually poison to
the Christian.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">A pornographic turn of
phrase can be as hard to flush out of the mind as any image.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Oriya MN"; mso-fareast-font-family: "UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B";">‘How can a young man
keep his way pure?’ has become the most haunting question of our time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that question is not just for the young. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer - that is to be the believer’s
prayer to God - is ‘by guarding it (our way of life) according to your word’ (Psalm
119.9).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">As we have seen God’s
word provides abundant warning about the very thing that dissipates, degrades,
and even destroys the faith and ministry of many a pastor.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">The reality of life in this fallen world –
and in our fallen flesh – is that there is no escape from temptation.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">No amount of internet filters, content
blockers, and Benedictine options can prevent all causes of sin.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Islam has tried veiling women from head to
foot and that has not worked.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">As Cole Porter
observed, ‘In olden days a glimpse of stocking, was looked on as something
shocking, But Heaven knows: Anything
Goes’. The ancient counsel of God’s word
makes it clear. The decision is not up
to the Hollywood censors (if they even still exist), or to your ‘accountability
partner’ (who had better not be your ecclesiastical supervisor). The decision is up to you, the Christian
pastor. Are you going to guard your own
eyes? Otherwise, as God asks rhetorically,
<i>‘Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?</i></span><i>
Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?</i> (Prov. 6.27-28). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">Nobody is going to do
it for you.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">All the hosts of Hell are
pitted against you.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">You can only protect
yourself – calling upon all the heavenly support God will give you. </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">And when you fall, turn Satan’s victory sour
by using your experience as a theology lesson.</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">
</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">The lessons taught by humility (and humiliation) before God’s holy Law
may be the justification for the persistence of an ‘old self’ even after regeneration
creates a ‘new self’ (Eph. 4.24).</span><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">If God removed our sinful
nature at baptism, some of us might never sin afterward. Some of us – baptized as infants – would never
in our whole lives remember what it felt like to be forgiven. If we lived our whole earthly lives (like
angels) without sinning, the value of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the
forgiveness of sin would be reduced to a theological locus that provided no
conscious benefit to us. But that would
not be the kind of theology that glorifies God as when the penitent pray, ‘naked,
come to thee for dress;</span> <span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">helpless, look to thee for grace;</span> <span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">foul, I to the fountain fly;</span> <span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">wash me, Saviour, or I die!’ (Hymn by Augustus
Toplady, (1776) ‘Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me!’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">As it is, ‘scorned and
covered with scars’, every Christian soul cherishes nothing more than the Gospel
of the Saviour, the precious sound of Holy Absolution, and lives for the taste
of Holy Communion. For through faith in
Jesus Christ, fellowship with God is restored, we ‘lay aside each earthly load,</span>
here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv'n’ (Hymn by Horatius Bonar, (1855) ‘<i>Here,
O my Lord, I see Thee face to face’</i>).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "ITC Tiepolo Book";">And forgiven of our
many sins, we resolve to ‘go and sin no more’ (John 8.11). As Charles Wesley expressed it so well, ‘My
chains fell off, my heart was free,</span> I rose, went forth, and followed
Thee’ (Hymn by Charles Wesley, (1738) <i>‘And Can it Be, That I Should Gain’</i>).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-51190820161474160542021-04-28T10:25:00.000-04:002021-04-28T10:25:01.478-04:00'Is that how I look?'<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Is that
how I look?’ – <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">the
Importance of enhancing a preacher’s facial expressions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been many
preachers seeing themselves on screen and able to assess how they look to their
congregations as they preach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
for the first time pastors are asking themselves, ‘is that how I look?’, and –
more importantly - ‘am I watchable’?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As in several other European cultures, North American piety
takes a negative view of aspects of the theatre and entertainment being part of
church services (with ‘children’s’ sermons’ being the exception).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">An unnecessary association is made between some important
features of dramatic arts, such as facial expression, and disingenuousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intentional facial expressions are thought to
detract from the honesty and sincerity of someone whose task it is to preach
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This leaves dramatic facial expression to the
realm of ‘foreign’ cultures, such as the Latino or Mediterranean types – among others.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The word <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘hypocrite’
comes from the ancient Greek theatre, referring to the mask worn to project the
emotion of the actor to members of the audience, even those occupying the most
distant seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, today’s negative
connotation to that word need not reduce facial expression in the pulpit to some
form of insincerity or hypocrisy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, facial
expression is an important tool in the toolbox of both the actor and the liar,
but that does not mean that facial expression cannot be an important tool in
the toolbox of the pastor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A preacher is
not lying or merely acting when he adorns his message with intentional facial
expression!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact is, people in our culture devour entertainment as
often as they can get it – not aware of what it is about the conduct of the
actors that holds their interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
take the facial expression - which is stock and trade of the acting profession
- for granted, and find themselves unable to explain why they find their pastor’s
sermon delivery boring, but can’t wait to binge through the next installment of
their favourite media. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the Gospel
is the most important message in the world, and yet, it is often proclaimed
without the benefit of the kind of effort put into selling breakfast cereal!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact is that generations of pastors were not taught the
importance of intentional facial expression for gathering and keeping their
congregation’s attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, apart
from small children, it is assumed that grownups don’t appreciate a preacher
enhancing his facial expressions and gestures when he preaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, this is far from the case.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In fact, subconsciously, what makes all the difference
between a great sermon delivery and a mediocre one is facial expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of the ‘great preachers’ you have
known, and then consider the part that facial expression played in making them so
watchable.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let all the video footage that has come to characterize the
lockdowns be a lesson to all preachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Facial expression matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It always
has.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may not have taught this in homiletics
class, but it is essential to preachers today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Make a face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Act as though you
are engaging your audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Project on
to your face the importance of what you are saying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there a difference between the spoken word
and the sung word?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is often a
world of difference between a deadpan delivery and one that takes a leaf out of
the actor’s handbook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-76618051545335015222017-04-24T12:24:00.001-04:002017-04-24T12:29:48.658-04:00The worldview I shareEight Answers to Basic Questions that convey my worldview<br />
<br />
1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>What is prime reality – the really real?</i> God, and what He chooses to allow to exist.<br />
2.<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?</i> Around us we have the created material universe that we inhabit and explore and, also around us we have an immaterial creation, founded prior to us, populated by evil spirits who hate us, and seek our destruction, and good spirits who are fascinated by the salvation that our Creator has provided for us, and love us with a love that reflects God’s mercy, rejoicing at His love for every repentant sinner (Luke 15.10).<br />
3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>What is a human being? </i> A creature made to demonstrate to ‘all things visible and invisible’ God’s love and mercy toward sinners..<br />
4.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>What happens at death?</i> Humans were created capable of two kinds of death, physical and spiritual. At physical death, the person’s spirit goes to face their eternal destiny (everlasting life or everlasting torment), as their body decomposes to await the resurrection of the body on the last Day. All human beings have been redeemed from spiritual death by the atonement made by God’s Son, but spiritual death still awaits those who do not have a living connection to God’s Son, through trust in Him.<br />
5.<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How is it</i> possible to know <i>anything</i> at all? God has given us minds to process reality, and He has made knowledge possible through both natural revelation, and special revelation.<br />
6.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>How do we know what is right and wrong? Natural revelation gives some guidance, but ultimate morality is revealed to human beings by God, through His word in special revelation (Holy Scripture).<br />
7.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What is the <i>meaning</i> of human history? The Redemption of humanity, by the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the central event of all human history. From the foundation of the world, God has created human reproduction (‘marrying and giving in marriage’ Matthew 22.30), and permits generation after generation of sinners to be born, as long as the worship of His Son for being our Redeemer continues to grow among every ‘nation, all tribes and peoples and languages’ (Revelation 7.9).<br />
8.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What <i>personal</i>, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview? Only a commitment to ‘hear the word of God, and keep it’ (Luke 11.28) is consistent with the worldview described in the first seven questions. And the most crucial word of God to keep is the ‘Word…made flesh’ Jesus Christ, for only in communion with Him – including His Church – is there salvation. (Extra ecclesiam nulla salus est) At the same time, those who keep God’s word for themselves will also want to share the Gospel with others, so that the worship of God’s Son may grow all over the world.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-25593167439223912812017-02-16T18:54:00.000-05:002017-02-16T19:01:20.034-05:00True Freedom - Part Two - Free to Fight<br />
<i>'whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and </i><i>this is the victory that has overcome the world—our </i><i>faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he </i><i>who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?'</i> (John 5:4–5).<br />
<br />
Many examples exist, on both sides of the European conflict in WWII, of downed airmen, who - having escaped from prison camps - went on to re-join the fight in the air. In this I see a picture of the way the Gospel works in the life of a Christian.<br />
<br />
Sin and guilt have a way of ending our 'flight' as Christians. We find ourselves, not only grounded, but out of 'the fight' as well. Do you feel that your failures and past sins have down-graded you to the position of being useless as a Christian witness? If so, this is a known tactic of the devil to cripple people who would otherwise serve to advance the kingdom of Christ.<br />
<br />
Christians so held in the bondage of guilt are like 'prisoners of war', grounded and unable to challenge the evil that threatens the progress of the Kingdom of Heaven. Forgiveness of sins is not only intended to restore us once more to be aloft with the angels, so to speak, but forgiveness of sins, through trust in Christ, our Redeemer, sets us free from the power of guilt to hinder our Christian life.<br />
<br />
This means we can be more than forgiven. We can be 'conquerors' and 'overcome' the forces that would keep us down and out as Christians. Look at all that God's word has to say about 'overcoming', and how often Christ encourages us to remain steadfast through trials (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 21:7). This is because the Christian lives in a world that is not a playground, but a battleground. Look at the theology of 'spiritual warfare' in 'the Church Militant'.<br />
<br />
We speak of 'the Theology of the Cross', because the cross is not just something Christ carried to atone for the our sin, it is also a burden we take up, as His forgiven people. As one of our hymns puts it, <i>'Then let us follow Christ our Lord, and take the cross appointed; And, firmly clinging to His word, in suff'ring be undaunted. For those who bear the battle strain, that crown of heavenly life obtain' </i> ('Come, Follow Me', by Johann Scheffler, 1624-77).<br />
<br />
God is challenging you and me, to get back into the game! He has forgiven our sins. We should consider ourselves re-furbished, re-habilitated, and ready for action. He expects us to suit up with the body-armor He provides, escape from the clutches of diabolical doubts, and fight on! Ephesians 6:11–17 describes 'the armour' available to all believers, to put on '<i>with prayer and supplication to God'. </i><br />
<br />
Because He offers such heavenly support, God is able to issue the order to 'stand firm'. Sometimes all it takes to overcome temptation is to 'stand your ground'. We have God’s promise, '<i>Resist the devil and he will flee from you</i>' (James 4.7)<br />
<br />
And, when we are weary from the fight, and have taken a few hits along the way, He offers healing and wholeness again, by His Gospel word and sacraments. At every Divine Service we are re-armed as well as renewed. Then, in the days to come '… <i>when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song. And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia</i>!Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-5677052099605408972015-07-17T15:59:00.001-04:002015-07-17T15:59:14.853-04:00True Freedom - Part One - Enchained by Liberation<div align="right" lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>'for
freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery' (Galatians 5.1)</i></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">Remember
the old question, 'Do you live to eat, or do you eat to live'? As a
metaphor for other aspects of life, beyond food, this is a very
profound question. Food is but one of a range of basic, primal
needs humans beings have, none of which should be regarded as ends in
themselves. Everyone agrees that a person who lives to eat would
have a warped sense of what it means to live. Those who eat to live
are free to focus on other things, beyond food. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">Yet,
today, as our society becomes more decadent, focusing on the most
primal, lower brain appetites, more and more people cut themselves of
from the enriched experience of life and service that they could
have, were they to follow the higher impulses previous generations
pursued. A symptom of this loss of awareness is the trend to define
people by their sexual preference, or even sexuality preference.</span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">Ironically,
what is celebrated as 'liberation' brings a greater bondage with it,
than before the 'sexual revolution', dragging many a Christian back
into a 'yoke of slavery', often ending in a loss, not only of their
faith, but even of their spiritual awareness, or ability to process
anything requiring higher brain thinking. Consider the question, 'Do
you “live to love” or ”love to live”?' This are not a false
antithesis. People who 'live to love' may claim the romantic high
ground, but they are thinking more like the most base animals, than
human beings. Lovers who love, in order to live, have the correct
perspective on both love and life.</span></span></span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">Like
those who 'live (in order to) eat', those who 'live (in order to)
love' have lost both 'love' and 'life'. The need for intimacy is a
basic primal need, but is should never be an end in itself. Intimacy
between people should serve to fuel them for a higher purpose –
living for Christ. </span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>'For
me to live is Christ', </i></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">St.
Paul famously wrote (Philippians 1.21). </span></span></span>
</div>
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>'for
freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore', </i></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><span style="font-style: normal;">writes
St. Paul.</span></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>
(Galatians 5.1) </i></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><span style="font-style: normal;">According
to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2009),
'...thousands of fatal drownings each year are deaths associated with
natural hazards known as rip currents'. Rip currents carry people out
to sea because they are unable to resist the pull of the surf.
Decadence is like a riptide. This is why the Christian must find
his/her feet on the solid foundation of faith in Christ and
proactively maintain their spirituality, lest they be carried away by
the currents of our decadent culture. Only with God, helping us to
get our lives 'under control', can we say that we are truly free.</span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="background: #ffffff; line-height: 130%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.19in; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">Jesus
said, </span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>'Truly,
truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains
forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed' </i></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">(John
8.34-36). Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, set us free from eternal
condemnation when He bore the burden of our sin, guilt, and death in
His own body, out of love for us; </span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;"><i>'canceling
the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This
he set aside, nailing it to the cross' </i></span><span style="font-family: Hoefler Text, Times New Roman;">
(Col 2.14). Trusting in Christ means being free, not only from the
consequences of sin, but from 'belonging to sin and death'. Sin is
the dead spouse – drowned in Baptism - from whom we are set free to
'marry' another – the source of eternal life, our Lord Jesus
Christ.</span></span></span></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-66679831881255731242015-04-07T15:29:00.000-04:002015-04-07T15:29:11.604-04:00Join a 'Non-denominational church' - What's at stake?<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Why not join
a 'non-denominational' church! Besides, the 'mainline denominations'
are in decline and aren't denominations kind of wrong, anyway? Are
the 'non-denominational' groups like the first Christians – sort of
'pre-denominational' and therefore closer to what Jesus had in mind
for His Church? And so it goes – some of the thoughts that move
people to join the most impressive 'mega-church' they can find,
leaving behind thousands of years of historic Christian doctrine and
practice.</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yet,
the question, 'What do we have to lose?' is more than a flippant
rhetorical one in this case. For what Christians stand to lose in
joining Non-denominational congregations is considerable.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">YOU
LOSE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF YOUR HERITAGE as a follower of Jesus
Christ. We all know we are not the first people to worship Jesus,
but in non-denominational meetings, one feels cut-off from all the
worship of Christ that has gone before today's 'hit parade'. The
impression is given by them that today's church leaders, make it all
up as they go along based on 'what works for you'. How different is
that mentality from that of the apostles, men moved directly by the
Holy Spirit, who taught, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>'what
I received, I handed on to you...'</i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">
(1 Corinthians 11.23, 15.1-4). </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" lang="en-GB" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">YOU
LOSE THE SENSATIONS associated with being a Christian at worship
since ancient times. Gone is the 'sign of the cross', gone is the
kneeling for prayer, gone is the sound of historic chanting and
choral music, gone are the sights of liturgical colour, vestments,
ceremonial reverence and solemnity, gone, gone, gone. And replaced
by what? Sitting as though at a concert or cinema and being merely a
spectator? Or, perhaps, jumping about, clapping and trying to sing
like a pop-soloist? With hands in the air, only closing one's eyes
provides escape from the banal atmosphere generated from the stage,
cluttered with praise band paraphernalia, devoid of the sensations
that Christians have cherished in past generations.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">YOU
LOSE THE SACRAMENTS. Period. NONE of the non-denominational groups
offer the sacred mysteries, giving by Christ to be the comfort of His
Church until the end of time. 'Baptism' among them is reduced to a
human display of commitment, and the biblical teaching that </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>'baptism
now saves...' </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">or
that through it God 'washes away sin' is explicitly denied. LOST is
the teaching from God's word that, through baptism </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>'he
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewal of the Holy Spirit' </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">
(Titus 3.5). LOST is the comfort of Holy Absolution, spoken into
the ears of the penitent as Jesus directed His apostles to do when He
said, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>'If
you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold
forgiveness from any, it is withheld'. </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">(
John 20.23). Nothing replaces such forgiveness, not an appeal to
'get right with God', nor a vague general platitude that God loves
you, just as you are. Finally, LOST is the profound mystery of Holy
Communion through the Body and Blood of Christ as real nourishment
for the soul. The Real Presence of Christ, believed by the
overwhelming consensus of Christians until recent years, is denied by
the non-denominational groups. Mere bread and wine are consumed as a
sterile 'memorial' of Christ, rather than the Holy Supper that Jesus
Himself envisioned when He taught that</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>
'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you' </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">
(John 6.53).</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">YOU
LOSE THE SCHOLARSHIP AND PROFOUND TEACHING. Suspicious of (or simply
ignorant of) deeper Christian doctrine, often poorly educated
non-denominational church leaders dumb-down the Christian message or
deliver a superficial teaching based on trending books or blogs
rather than the profounder mysteries of the Faith that Christians
have studied over the centuries, with the Holy Scriptures as their
source. As the apostles lamented </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>'...
by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you
again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not
solid food (!)'</i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">
(Hebrews 5.12). Rather than moving people beyond their
self-centeredness, non-denominational groups emphasize how it's all
about you, just like today's advertisement industry.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">YOU
LOSE SIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. Many non-denominational groups tend to replace the
preaching of the biblical 'Good News' (Gospel - that the
reconciliation of Heaven and Earth has been achieved by Jesus Christ) - with the message of self-improvement. Reducing the atonement Jesus
has made by His death on the cross and His resurrection to a mere
'back-story', the ongoing theme in non-denominational churches is our
burden to please God by every day and in every way becoming better
and better. It is not that they deny we are</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>
'justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus' </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB">
(Romans 3.24). They simply don't preach about that, choosing to
preach human works to please God, almost as though by our works we
earn God's favour.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="background: transparent;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>PRAYER:
We thank you God for leading us sinners and beggars to find the
treasure and pearl of great price that is your Holy Church through
which we have the Gospel that is able to save those who believe it by
the power of your Holy Spirit. By that same spirit give us thankful
hearts to gratefully acknowledge Your grace and mercy to the glory of
Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our strength and Redeemer, Who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.Why not join a 'non-denom' church? What do we have to lose?'</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-73549107146848452892015-03-12T13:14:00.000-04:002015-03-12T13:14:04.896-04:00'Lift High the... Crucifix'!<div align="right" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">When I preach about Moses lifting up the bronze serpent for the healing of God's rebellious and sinful people (Numbers 21.4-9), I recall how, when
Cheryl and I first visited Redeemer Lutheran Church in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, we were both struck by the
dramatic sight of a nearly life-sized crucifix hanging high over the
altar. It was then that we joined the ranks of the many who have
likewise found the crucifix at this church to be surely
one of its most striking features.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">Some,
who visit the church, unfamiliar with such a sight, ask us why we
don’t have a simple “empty” cross up there. “Why a
crucifix?” they ask. And there is a very good answer to that question. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">What
answer do you think was given to visitors to the Temple in Jerusalem, thousands of years ago, who witnessed the gory animal
sacrifices that took place there, as in the Tabernacle before it?
They would be told that God commanded such sacrificial spectacles so
that people could see a sight that symbolized the penalty for sin and
the cost in blood required to atone for sin and guilt. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>
“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”
</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">as
the Bible says</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>
</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">(</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">Hebrews
9:22). </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ Himself teaches us, that,</span><i style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;"> "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life" </i><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">(John 3:14-15). </span><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">Although, with those words, Jesus is not commanding the use of crucifixes in His Church, we do have the same God
today who commanded those Old Testament spectacles to be seen in His temple long ago, even though
such sacrifices, could not provide the ultimate atonement for sin. </span><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">In the New Testament, the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, DOES pay for our
sins. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">Should believers not now gaze upon the image of the crucified
Christ? I would suggest that since, long ago, the eyes of the
faithful were to look upon sacrifices that only</span> <span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">symbolized
the coming atonement of Christ, much more, now that the</span><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">death of God's Son, on a cross, actually achieved the redemption of the human race once and for all, </span><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">should we have before our eyes this image of Jesus! </span><span style="font-family: 'Goudy Old Style', serif;">To his churches in Galatia who were in danger of losing the true Gospel, St. Paul wrote, <i>'</i></span><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified'</i> (3.1). Publicly displaying a crucifix is a way of pointing to the true Gospel!</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">I
like to draw people’s attention to the fact that many sports
trophies include a statue, at the top of the trophy, of a player
winning their victory. The gleaming figure on a softball trophy will
be carrying a bat. A golfing trophy may feature a man swinging a
driver. On a crucifix we see the figure of a man winning a victory
over sin, death and the devil that He graciously shares with all of
us. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>“Go
spread your trophies at His feet and crown Him Lord of all”! </i></span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">An
empty cross makes a great logo, in so far as it goes. Yet, </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>“We
preach Christ crucified” </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">(I
Cor. 1:22). In his liturgical notes, Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary Professor Tom Winger writes, “… <i>the cross itself is a
powerful symbol of the faith, but its real meaning lies in the One
who was crucified upon it. It is Christ’s suffering and death upon
that gruesome instrument of torture, which paid for the sins of the
whole world. Even more, by showing the body of Christ, we confess
that Christ continues to be present with us bodily to bring to us the
forgiveness He has won, especially as He gives us His Body to eat in
His Supper”. </i></span></span>
</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.14in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">This
is why we, in the Lutheran Church are pleased to </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;"><i>“lift
high the cross, the Son of God proclaim…” </i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif;">as
we do, with a crucifix. </span></span>
</div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-64469923793163521752015-03-09T20:09:00.003-04:002015-03-09T22:06:12.403-04:00The Church - Hospital or Gymnasium?<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 10.0pt; tab-stops: .75in 1.5in 2.25in 3.0in 3.75in 4.5in 5.25in 6.0in 6.75in 7.5in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">‘…whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this
end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of
the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you
despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">(Luke 5.31-32)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Is the Church a hospital or a gymnasium? Do you support science or faith in God? </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">Is he an intellectual or athletic? </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Is she a Packers fan or a Pittsburgher? Are you ‘Confessional’ or ‘Missional’? Is church music traditional or
contemporary? Does your church teach
discipleship or evangelism? Are you a ‘sinner’
or a ‘saint’? Is God just or loving? Is He the Lord of the living or of the
dead? Can you ‘have your cake and eat
it, too’? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Must we always choose between ‘opposites’, or can
some things be ‘both/and’? Life is full
of things that are truly opposites - true ‘antitheses’. But we hear a lot of false antitheses too. We hear one thing pitted against another, not
always for good reasons, causing, in some cases, unnecessary conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">In rhetoric, a false antithesis is an example of a
logical fallacy. Although that may sound
rather academic, as it impacts everything from communication to cooperation between people, false antitheses are a serious matter, especially when they become the
conventional view of a society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Perhaps you feel that false antitheses are be more
common in youth than in old age, but that, too, could be a false
antithesis. Older people can be as
polarized by a false antithesis as people of any other age. In my case, early in my career, I remember
being challenged to choose sides in a debate about whether the Church was a
hospital or a gymnasium. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Now, this many years later, I’m like ‘seriously’? Surely the church has aspects of both a
hospital and a gymnasium as does any health facility that includes both
clinical therapy and physiotherapy. What
both a hospital and a gymnasium have in common is that they both provide a safe
supportive place for healing and exercise.
Both of them exist for the benefit of those who use them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">We come to church as people with souls ailing from
sin and guilt. We go to Divine Services,
<u>not </u>as <i>the “righteous who need no
repentance”</i>(Luke 15.7), but as the sick, requiring divine healing through
the forgiveness of sins delivered in the Church by means of God’s word and
sacraments. As Jesus said, </span><i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I have not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance." </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">(Luke 5.31-32)
At the same time, we also come to church, as God’s forgiven people –
sanctified as well as justified - to exercise those qualities as God’s holy
people, that we will need to have if we are to engage others in the wider world
effectively. Again, as Jesus said, “<i>love
one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By
this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another.” (John 13.34-35).<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">So do we belong to the Lord while we are alive, or
only when we die? Beware of a false
antithesis. For, </span><i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 10pt;">“…whether
we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-77308242437945461572015-02-13T14:51:00.002-05:002015-02-13T14:52:39.845-05:00Serving you on our journey together<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 120%; text-align: left; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div align="right" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
</div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Every day of year many people will find themselves seated for
considerable lengths of time on both sides of an aisle all facing
forward. Crowded together like sheep, they will be served by smartly
dressed persons who assist them as they all proceed on a journey, the
outcome of which is not in their hands, but rests in the hands of a
skilled Pilot. As they are gathered together they will be offered
some nourishment that some will refuse. They will be expected to look
at some printed material and listen carefully to what is being said -
although many will ignore the speaker. They will be told that they
are required to comply with the instructions of those who tell them
how to be saved. Where are they?</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If
you can see a resemblance between going to
church and traveling on a commercial airline - then you I and are on the same page. For there </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>is
a resemblance that is worth thinking about. </u></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">especially
from the perspective of a pastor.</span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It
seems to me that a useful comparison may be made between pastors and
flight crew/flight attendants, as the above riddle suggests.</span></span></div>
<ol>
<li>
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Flight
attendants do not pilot the aircraft on the journey - neither do
pastors determine the course of people's lives.</span></span></li>
<li>
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Flight
crew do not own the airline - neither do pastors own their churches.</span></span></li>
<li>
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Flight
attendants do represent the airline and its image and therefore wear
a nice uniform and maintain their appearance. Pastors, too, should
look smart and take care to represent the church well in all they
do.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.02in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
instructions given by the flight crew are to be respected and heeded.
Federal regulations require that all passengers comply with the
instructions given by flight attendants. Likewise the Holy Scriptures
require that all church members respect the instruction and guidance
of pastors as they have the best interests of the whole church in
mind and of individuals in particular who must all answer to a higher
Authority - God.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.09in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
instructions given by flight attendants may actually save you from
death. The instructions given by pastors often involve facts and the
administration of the means of grace that can make all the difference
between eternal life and eternal death.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most
of all, flight attendants never cease to care about and care for
passengers. As long as you are on their flight, the flight crew will
try to do all they can to make your journey a positive one.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">British
Airways used to have the slogan "To Fly - To Serve". That
was a reference to the mission of the flight crew as they committed
themselves to attending to their passengers' every need. At the same
time, the flight crew shared the fate of their passengers should
anything happen during the flight.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It
is the mission of pastors to serve in a similar way - to attend to
the needs of the people entrusted into their care. And during the
journey of life to put the needs of their fellow-passengers at the
forefront of their minds.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.09in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Like
airlines, there are many choices of religions available to you. But
instead of saying, "Thank you for choosing us," I am going
to say, "Thank God that He chose you, called you by the Gospel,
enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies you, and keeps you in the
true faith!" We hope that you have a pleasant journey!</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.1in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
</div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-78794402225165405452014-12-23T11:37:00.001-05:002014-12-23T11:38:10.351-05:00Prepared for the 'Marriage Supper' In the Book of Revelation, the author, St. John, tells us he heard these words spoken in Heaven, <i> 'Let us rejoice and exult and give him (Jesus Christ) the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."</i><br />
<br />
In his vision in Revelation 19:7-10, John saw and heard the heavenly multitudes praising God because the wedding feast of the Lamb—literally the "marriage supper"—was about to begin. The concept of the marriage supper is better understood in light of the wedding customs in the time of Christ.<br />
<br />
In biblical times, after a couple were engaged, the next step in the process usually occurred about a year later, when the bridegroom, accompanied by his male friends, went to the house of the bride at midnight, creating a torchlight parade through the streets. The bride would know in advance this was going to take place, of course, and so she would be ready with her maidens, and, when the groom’s party had arrived, both groups would combine and join in a the parade going back to the bridegroom's home where a feast was prepared. If the sun went down during the course of these events, it became a torch-lit parade, or one involving oil-fueled lamps. This custom is the basis of the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.<br />
<br />
In Jesus' parable, five out of ten maidens failed to prepare for the Wedding, because they didn’t have enough oil in their lamps and were gone to get more when the Groom arrived. By the time they got to the Groom’s house, the door was shut forever. In my past sermons on this reading, I have explored what was symbolized by the oil, perhaps the ‘fuel’ that keeps faith alive – difficult to quantify – but essential in order to have a living, burning flame of trust in Christ, necessary in order to be faithful to God until the end of our earthly lives. Yet, to only speak of the ‘oil’ being depleted in this parable, is to speak of effect of their poor preparations for the wedding, not the cause of them.<br />
<br />
What <u>caused their problem</u> is just as worthy of consideration. For without the cause, the terrible effect would not have resulted. So, what was it that causes preparations for the great Wedding event with our Saviour to be fatally lacking? In the case of the five foolish maidens, it was complacency and lethargy. <i> ‘As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept’,</i> Jesus taught. What is the lesson for us? How many church members fail to prepare to meet their Lord by over-estimating how much time they have? How many of us waste our time, acting as though it’s OK to sleep through our church membership and hardly do anything, and we’ll still be OK? <br />
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How many church members let their attendance at Divine Services go by the wayside, and their use of God’s means of grace drop off or get ‘postponed’ until an indefinite time elapses when it might be ‘convenient’ to study a bit of God’s word, or give one’s soul some morsel of nourishment?<br />
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And how many of us neglect to serve our Saviour, trusting that others will do it for us, as though they could give us some of the oil from their lamps, as ours are going out? My friends, it does not work that way; <i>‘fail to plan and you plan to fail’</i>, as the old British army saying goes.<br />
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We cannot afford to fail in our ‘Wedding Preparations’ as Christians – the stakes are too high. Yet, five out of ten of those in the parable, who should have been prepared, gambled and lost – big time. Five out of ten – that is a terrible rate of failure, yet in life those who would disciple people, their fellow parishioners, their neighbours, their own family, often find out that this tragic ratio seems to appear again and again. Look at the ‘rate of attrition’ among those who join the church through confirmation? Some years are better than others, but averaged together, the rate is around 50% (according to a survey by Barna)! Five out of ten Christians show every likelihood of having lamps with no oil when the Bridegroom comes on the great Day of the Lord. And their failure will have the same cause – complacency and lethargy about exercising or even maintaining their Christian faith – the one thing needful above all others – when the Day of the Lord comes.<br />
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The wedding feast will be THE place to be, the only place and the greatest place. How tragic that so many will not make it in.<br />
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And their failure will not be for want of God’s provision for them. Hear His call of invitation to the wedding Feast:<br />
<i>‘Come, everyone who thirsts,</i><br />
<i>come to the waters;</i><br />
<i>and he who has no money,</i><br />
<i>come, buy and eat!</i><br />
<i>Come, buy wine and milk</i><br />
<i>without money and without price.</i><br />
<i>Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?</i><br />
<i>Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.</i><br />
<i>Incline your ear, and come to me;</i><br />
<i>hear, that your soul may live! </i> (Isaiah 55.1-3)<br />
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On another occasion, ‘Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, <i>“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servantsa to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business’</i> (Matthew 22.1-5) Treating that invitation with contempt and complacency was a BAD idea. It did not end well for those who have been invited, but could not be bothered.<br />
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In the case of the Wedding Feast we are talking about – the Heavenly Marriage Supper of the Lamb, it is not mere livestock been slain in preparation. The host Himself has been led like a Lamb to the slaughter, so that we might be forgiven of sin and welcome at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.<br />
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Jesus Himself, our heavenly Bridegroom has borne the tattered garment of our sins that He might give us the spotless wedding garment we need to attend at the heavenly Feast. He has taken away the sin and guilt - that would have disqualified us - by nailing it to His cross.<br />
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He went through death and the grave in order to prepare this place for us. No one can say His love for us was lacking or His preparations for us fall short. No. He has done all that needs to be done to make this Wedding Feast possible. The Master of the Feast has spared no expense for us, but given His only begotten Son, that whosoever trusts in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.<br />
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Clearly preparations for the 'Marriage Supper' take place on two sides: The Master of the Feast makes preparation, and His guests must prepare, too, that they may enter into the Joy of the Lord.<br />
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What St. John’s Revelation depicts for us, is Heaven as a wedding feast. And his original audience would have known that the feast is the third of three phases for weddings in general, and a picture of the preparations that must be made so all the Faithful, every believer, should have full fellowship and participation in it.<br />
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The first phase in the heavenly Wedding is a betrothal – an engagement - completed on earth when each individual believer is baptized into Christ as Saviour. That is when the ‘dowry paid to the Bridegroom’s Father’ is accepted. Those who trust in Christ as Saviour, offer the Father their faith in the payment fully made by Jesus. This dowry we have through Jesus Christ is the only payment the Father will accept.<br />
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So Regeneration from unbelief to faith is when the Church is “betrothed” to Christ and when, like wise maidens in the parable, all believers should be watching and waiting for the appearance of the Bridegroom (this first phase lasts until physical death or the Second Coming of Christ – whichever comes first).<br />
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The second phase – the procession to the feast would be the resurrection of the body at the end of the world, where all the faithful who sleep in the dust will arise and join together with those who are alive at the great Day of the Lord, in a procession through ‘the air’, as St. Paul puts it, with both groups caught up together to meet the Lord Jesus Christ who will claim His bride and take her to the Father's house – there to be forever, body and soul, with the Lord in Heaven.<br />
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The marriage supper imagery in St. John’s vision of Heaven as a neverending wedding feast. There in Heaven will be the complete Church as the bride of Christ, the faithful believers of the Old Testament and the New Testament saints – all made holy by the Lord who is praised with these words, <i>‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever’.</i><br />
(Revelation 5:12-14)<br />
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May God help us, throughout our lives on earth to make preparations for this great Feast to come, with vigilance, energy from His Holy Spirit, and with Faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. AmenPr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-67210592180679036702014-12-10T21:04:00.000-05:002014-12-10T21:04:11.844-05:00Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
read in the prophet Isaiah, God said to His people: </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'...your
Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy
One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is
called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved
in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.
For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will
gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from
you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,"
says the LORD, your Redeemer' </i>(Isaiah 54.4-8).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As
most people know, women have gotten a pretty raw deal much of the
time, in their relationships with men. Whether it be the current
notorious conditions for women in the Islamic world, or in the
developing world, or historically, in centuries past (including
biblical times), women have often been neglected, disadvantaged,
disenfranchised, deserted, and abused. For many women it has always
been a matter of 'men – you can't live with 'em, and can't live
without 'em'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
marriages suffer or are destroyed by men and women, God's word tells
us it is our fault, our sin, that presents us with this sad state of
affairs. When men are unable, or unwilling to be good husbands, they
stand before God guilty of violating His word. Likewise, when married
women are unwilling to fulfill their God-given vocation, because of
sin on their part, they fall short of the mark, too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So,
given that marriage is so characterized by sin, failure and pain, why
does God use it as a metaphor to describe His relationship to His
people? A few reasons that spring to mind are the fact that the
imperfections and flaws that we see in marriage from this side of the
Fall, do not detract from the fact that marriage was – originally -
a good and perfect thing prior to the Fall. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At
the same time God use flawed marriage after the Fall, to depict His
relationship to us sinners, with Him being the innocent party and we
being the guilty party. As such, the marriage metaphor is as
instructive to us as it is descriptive of how the love of God is
willing and able to overcome the imperfections in our relationship
and, indeed, to heal them. In this God gives us a great example to
imitate, as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
biblical picture of God, as the faithful husband, restoring our
relationship to Himself to the point where we are as good with Him as
Eve was with Adam before the Fall, also gives us a picture of the
blessedness to come when God restores His fallen creation in the new
world to come, a paradise that will never fall again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ultimately,
marriage is a great illustration, since we </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>get
the concept</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
of wife and husband, bride and groom. This is why we can learn so
much from it about our relationship to God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
example, where our Lord Jesus says, (as we say last week), that
husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave
Himself up for her – husbands are to love their wives, as their own
bodies; We who know Jesus can see why this is His expectation of
husbands. Because Christ Himself is the Groom, who loves His bride,
the Church – and is willing to treat her, not as her sins deserve,
but according to His great mercy as our Redeemer and Saviour.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And,
what a passionate picture Scripture gives us of how God's unfaithful
people are like an unfaithful wife! Many, many times in His word,
God describes his people leaving Him to run after 'other gods' as
'adultery'. In the Old Testament, worshiping other gods is called
'adultery' almost as often as it is called 'idolatry'. As a
particularly vivid illustration, God even told one of his prophets
(Hosea) to marry a prostitute to serve as an object lesson for the
way that God's people had been unfaithful to Him by worshiping other
gods.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">God
makes the case in His word, that our sins against Him have given Him
grounds for divorcing us. It is written in the Old Testament laws
of Moses that a man could obtain a divorce from his wife on many
grounds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"If
a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds
something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of
divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after
she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her
second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce,
gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her
first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again
after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of
the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving
you as an inheritance"</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(Deuteronomy 24:1-4). </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet,
even though God's case for divorce against us is a strong one, and
even though it would 'bring sin upon the land...' if He did divorce
us and then re-marry us, that is what God was prepared to do out of
love for His fallen people. Remember the words of tonight's first
reading? </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'...your
Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy
One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is
called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved
in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.
For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will
gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from
you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,"
says the LORD, your Redeemer. </i></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
did God hide His face from His people because of their sins? Isaiah
referred to the fact that God had used the Babylonians to take God's
people away in exile from the land. And then there was the whole
period of time between the last Old Testament prophet, and the
arrival in Israel of John the Baptist, the final prophet to prepare
the way for Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
don't forget, what we learned last week: that Jesus Christ embodies
God's people Israel, and that when in that moment of dereliction on
the cross, when His Father forsook His Son for our sakes, there God
'hid His face' from Israel, and deserted Israel, that He might gather
us in and have compassion on us with everlasting love for the sake of
Christ, who was forsaken for us. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ultimately,</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
that period of separation came to an end when the Bridegroom did
arrive in the person of Christ, to </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'leave
His Father and mother and cleave to His wife' </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">–
the Church. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
he walked among us, Jesus of Nazareth said of His presence on earth,</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>
'the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom
with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom
is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Mark
2.19-20).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'While
I am in the world, I am the light of the world',</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
Jesus once said. Now He is saying, </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>while
I am in the world I am the groom who is with my friends and will soon
be joined to my bride. </i></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
when did Jesus leave His mother? When, from the cross He looked at
His mother, weeping there and the disciple He loved standing with her
(St. John). </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'
Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And
from that hour the disciple took her to his own home' </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(John
19.26-27). And when did He leave His Father? When Jesus, for our
salvation came down from Heaven, left His Father's side, descended
from His Father's throne and went to the throne of the cross, where
he bled and died there. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
that place of execution our Bridegroom gave Himself up for His Bride,
the Church and shed His blood that He might cleanse her and wash her
from sin, so that she might be cleansed and presentable to Himself,</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>
'without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
and without blemish'</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(Eph. 5.25-27). Christ was forsaken by His Father – '</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>the
righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that He might bring us to
God'</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(1 Peter 3.18).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
this is the love of Christ, the Bridegroom for His Bride, the Church
revealed: As that well-known hymn puts it, </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>
'From Heaven He came and sought her, to be His holy bride. With His
own blood He bought her and for her life he died'.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Therefore, we should take the picture of Christ as the Church's loving
Bridegroom as both instructive and illustrative for us as we live out
our daily lives in relation to God and to each other.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This
illustration, this metaphor of something we so commonly see every
day, is useful for us as we contemplate the love of that which is not
seen. As St. John writes, </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>'
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No
one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and
his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him
and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen
and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the
world' </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
(1 John 4.11-14). Amen.</span></span></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-49211433035773297682014-12-10T21:00:00.001-05:002014-12-10T21:00:13.902-05:00The Church as Bride of Christ<div align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
biblical times, wedding customs differed somewhat from what they are
in our culture, but not so much that we cannot relate to the language
Scripture uses. It would help if we were as familiar with arranged
marriages as some of our Christian brothers and sisters are in other
cultures, such as in Central Asia. But since we probably aren't,
let's just review a few things. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
marriage contract in biblical times was signed by the parents of the
bride and the groom and the parents of the groom (or the groom
himself) would pay a dowry to the bride or her parents. This began
what was called the betrothal period—what we would today call the
engagement. This period was the one Joseph and Mary were in when she
was found to be with child (Matthew 1:18; Luke 2:5).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Arranged
marriages were regarded as very sensible on several levels. Parents
of both parties involved would take great care to ensure that there
was the strongest possible support structure for the marriage, common
world-views, shared cultural and religious backgrounds, and many
other things that would serve to make for a strong marriage –
things that many today neglect in favour of weaker grounds for
marriage, with consequent bad results that are all around us. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One
of the reasons why traditional marriage is being abandoned by so many
today is the high rate of divorce in our culture. The more marriages
fail, the more people despair of the institution of marriage itself,
but that is a different subject.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
biblical understanding of what marriage is goes together with the
biblical ideal of a bride. A woman who was betrothed to a man in a
first marriage was to be someone who had never been united sexually
to any man. In a similar way, her union with her husband would be as
</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>his
only woman.</u></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
She would be uniquely his - until their marriage ended in the death
of either one of them.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
might be thinking at this point – ah! But what about polygamy in
the Bible. Yes. It is true some men in the Bible did have more than
one wife, but the Bride in each case was held to a separate standard.
No biblical women could have more than one husband at a time. In
that way there would never be any doubt as to the paternity of any
children she might have.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Women
might think that this arrangement was unbalanced, but remember – in
those days, long before DNA-based paternity tests, only such an
arrangement for brides would ensure that the Messiah would be born in
fulfillment of God's promise that He would be a </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>descendant
of Abraham</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
In any other arrangement a child's ancestry would be in doubt making
it impossible to prove that God had kept His promise.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
the imagery of purity and consecration were part of the character of
a Bride and therefore useful as a depiction of the Church to readers
of the Bible.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But,
hang on, you may be saying; how can the Church be a pure and
consecrated virgin to God when the Church is made up of sinners like
you and me? This is where today's second reading comes in. St.
Paul writes to the Ephesians, </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the
word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish'.</i></span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
and I, by our sins, are indeed not qualified to be a bride dressed in
white and worthy of being presented to a holy and righteous God as
His beloved, are we? If God were to describe us sinners in a song
that depicted us in all our corruption, covered in the iniquity that
besmirches our faces, the song would sound quite different from what
we heard this evening in the first reading (!)</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They
say, 'love is blind', but God would have to be deaf, blind and stupid
not to see how unworthy we are of any association with Him. As
Isaiah wrote, '(God's ears are not dull that He cannot hear)... </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>your
iniquities have made a separation<br />between you and your God,<br />and
your sins have hidden his face from you<br />so that he does not
hear.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-3.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>3</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>For
your hands are defiled with blood<br />and your fingers with
iniquity;<br />your lips have spoken lies;<br />your tongue mutters
wickedness.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-4.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>4</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>No
one enters suit justly;<br />no one goes to law honestly;<br />they rely
on empty pleas, they speak lies,<br />they conceive mischief and give
birth to iniquity.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-5.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>5</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>They
hatch adders’ eggs;<br />they weave the spider’s web;<br />he who
eats their eggs dies,<br />and from one that is crushed a viper is
hatched.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-6.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>6</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Their
webs will not serve as clothing;<br />men will not cover themselves
with what they make.<br />Their works are works of iniquity,<br />and
deeds of violence are in their hands.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-7.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>7</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Their
feet run to evil,<br />and they are swift to shed innocent blood;<br />their
thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;<br />desolation and destruction are
in their highways.</i></span></span><a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/59-8.htm"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>8</b></i></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
way of peace they do not know,<br />and there is no justice in their
paths;<br />they have made their roads crooked;<br />no one who treads on
them knows peace. </i></span></span>
</div>
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</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
how can God stand to be anywhere near us? Only through Jesus Christ!
He, as our Redeemer, has made us His worthy bride. </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the
word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish'.</i></span></span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is how God demonstrate His love for us. Not by waiting for us to be
His holy bride by our works or waiting for us to somehow atone for
our sins and cleanse ourselves from all our unrighteousness. No.
Remember, my friend, we are talking about an arranged marriage and
God our Father made this arrangement. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the words of Luther: </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'God
beheld our wretched state before the world's foundation, and mindful
of His mercies great, He planned for our salvation. He turned to us
a father's heart; He did not choose the easy part but gave His
dearest treasure. God said to His beloved Son: 'It's time to have
compassion. Then go, bright jewel of My crown, and bring to all
salvation. From sin and sorrow set them free; slay bitter death for
them that they may live with you forever'. 'The Son obeyed His
Father's will, was born of virgin mother; and God's good pleasure to
fulfill, He came to be my brother'</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(or, to return to the marriage metaphor – my</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>
bridegroom).</i></span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
was the arranged marriage. 'while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us' (Rom. 5.8). First He took on human flesh and blood as man.
Then, to make the only successful atonement for human sin, He shed
His human, yet holy blood and sacrificed Himself for human
salvation. And then, to give us certainty that we are saved as
individuals, He gave us the 'water and the word' of the Sacrament of
Baptism. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
that washing of renewal, my friends, we are truly made new before
God. We can enter into the presence of God, in a white wedding gown
as a worthy Bride – but only because God Himself, in His grace and
mercy for Christ's sake, has made us worthy to wear white. Just as
He has done for those who are with Him in Heaven now, who have </span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'come
out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb' </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
(Rev. 7.14).</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'Hasten,
as a bride to meet Him, and with loving rev'rence greet Him. For
with words of life immortal He is knocking at your portal. Open wide
the gates before Him, Saying, as you there adore Him; Grant, Lord,
that I now receive You, that I nevermore will leave You'.* </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
Amen.</span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*</span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Schmuke
dich, o liebe Seele (LSB 636) stanza 2.</span></span></div>
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Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-60872180800163926152014-10-10T12:11:00.001-04:002014-12-12T16:09:40.042-05:00<h1 style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 28px; font-style: italic;">
Pleasure - a Christian approach</h1>
<i>'...but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth' </i> (1 Timothy 5.6)<br />
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Christians, historically, have had a reputation for looking with disdain at pleasure. But, is it really true that the orthodox Christian teaching is that all pleasure is sin? No. What has been the consistent teaching of Christians on this subject is that pleasure, particularly physical pleasure (and, to a certain extent spiritual pleasure), is that there are dangers involved in the experience.<br />
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There is a difference between recognising the hazards of pleasure and condemning pleasure. If Christian teaching was that pleasure was sinful, then we would be taught to feel guilty about it. But that is not taught. What is taught is that Christians should beware of the spiritual dangers involved when we feel pleasure. For every Christian's 'old nature' can and does exploit pleasure to strengthen itself at the expense of our 'new nature'. Even spiritual pleasure can be risky, since the sinful nature will take times when such pleasure is absent to build a case against the new nature as a 'buzz kill' and a joyless waste of time that could have been spent in 'dissipation and drunkenness'.<br />
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But the dangers of physical pleasure to the soul are more common. In the developed world today, more physical pleasure is available than ever before. Thus today's Christian should treat pleasure with even more caution than ever before. If we don't then the current deplorable situation we see today among Christians will be the story of our personal life. According to a recent survey, 50% of Christian men (and 20% of Christian women) are addicted to pornography (!) No wonder Christian divorce rates are the same, or higher, than the divorce rate among unbelievers. Christians are falling victim to alcoholism at an alarming rate. Obesity, and its consequent health damage, is epidemic among Christians, far more so than among people of any other religion. Internet and video-game addictions are robbing Christians of whole periods of their lives that they can never get back. As St. James would put it, <i>'My brethren, these things ought not to be so'.</i><br />
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This is why Christians have historically treated pleasure as they have - because we have always had the same human tendencies to take God-given experiences of pleasure and ruin them by letting our sinful natures take over. What St. Augustine in his writings called 'voluptuousness' is what Christians today might call 'addiction' to pleasures that make our old nature so strong and well-fed that our new natures are unnecessarily crippled as a result. <br />
<br />
<i>'...You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore'</i> (Psalm 16.11).<br />
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St. James did say, <i>'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights...'</i> (James 1.17) Pleasure is one of those gifts. Plenty of Scripture testifies to the fact that God has created - and Himself experiences - pleasure. Jesus knew that people saw <i>'...the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'</i> (Luke 7:34). A far larger body of devotional literature and hymns written by Christians also testifies to the positive side of pleasure. A great Lutheran chorale has the title 'Jesus has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal' (LSB 533 - tune: Jesus ist kommen, grund ewiger Freude).<br />
<br />
The key to understanding the Christian view of pleasure is the distinction between Heaven and Earth. On this Earth we have pleasure - but mixed with danger. In Heaven we shall have pleasure 'pure and free from sin's alloy' - to borrow a phrase from William Dix. Then, in immediate and full communion with God, and His heavenly host, as Paul Gerhardt put it in his great Eastertide chorale<i> 'Auf, Auf, Mein Herz mit Freuden!': 'He brings me to the portal that leads to bliss untold. Whereon this rhyme immortal is found in script of gold: "who there my cross has shared, finds here a crown prepared. Where there with Me has died shall here be glorified'.</i><br />
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<br />Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-7950735991639551792014-09-09T11:10:00.000-04:002014-09-09T11:10:06.487-04:00Women 'Saved through childbearing' ? <span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">As our dear daughter-in-law, Monica has borne a tenth grandchild for</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"> our family, my thoughts to to 1 Timothy 2.1-15 and the enigmatic phrase about women. “she will be saved through childbearing – if they continue in faith and love and holiness…” </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">As for 'through childbearing', Lenske reminds us that the GK “dia” does not invariably mean “by means of” (“through”). It may mean “along with” (genitive of accompaniment). The “she” who is saved (given the context) is also the female sex itself, of which at least half of all Christians are members (St. Theodore of Mopsuestia says the “woman” who is “saved through childbearing” is Eve and all Christian women). </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">As with all Christians, faith and love and holiness are required for a living relationship with God our Saviour. The Greek here also uses the article “the” as in “The Childbearing” that has “saved” (rehabilitated) the female sex (despite the woman being “deceived” and a “transgressor” she now is the bearer of the Christ-child. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">It is orthodox to call the Virgin Mary the “theotokos” – the “bearer” of God, whose obedience to God compensates for the disobedience of Eve. “Childbearing” includes the calling of motherhood and childrearing (Lenske) making this a very pro-life text! </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">Women who bring children to baptism are living out their sanctification by applying their faith to their motherly vocation. In other words, (to paraphrase St.Paul) “A Christian woman will live out her salvation through her vocation, if in child-bearing, with faithful motherhood, characterised by love”.</span>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-12439450578635291162014-02-11T12:11:00.001-05:002014-02-11T12:19:23.687-05:00The Limitations of Apologetics<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">This past week, many have been talking about the
debate between the popular evolutionist Bill Nye and the Australian creationist, Ken Ham. As his opponent used Ham's faith in the Bible against him repeatedly, words from St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 came to mind, </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">My message and my preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, SO THAT YOUR
FAITH MIGHT NOT REST ON MEN'S WISDOM, BUT ON GOD'S POWER'. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">With those words, St. Paul expresses something that Christian apologists should share with him, namely his embrace of the paradox that however mighty the word of God is, its use carries with it much that 'human wisdom' will consider weak and unpersuasive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">St Paul's contention is that Christian faith is not a human achievement produced by wise
human reasoning, but instead a gift from God to each individual believer. And, furthermore, to have faith is not to have
been convinced by human arguments. To
have faith is to have been convinced by the mysterious power of God’s Holy
Spirit, working through either his sacraments or his word. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">As he put it, </span><i style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">`This is what we
speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in WORDS TAUGHT BY THE
SPIRIT, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words'</i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(vv13-14).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">If people are tempted to wait for convincing human arguments or convincing salesmanship to
succeed with their minds before they believe, they may never believe. And even if convinced by a good sales
pitch to become a Christian, what kind of faith would that be if it were merely another human argument?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The difficulty in accepting this is that, in ordinary life, we make decisions based on clever reasoning or
sales pitches all the time. Yet, St Paul did
not want that kind of thing to be used to explain Christian faith. Nor, did he want people to believe in Christ
only because they bought a human argument. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">He wanted them to believe because God Himself had convinced them through
the power of His Word.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Only that way
could God get the credit for changing people's lives.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Only that way would people credit conversion
to the `power of God'.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">This was St
Paul's announcement to the Corinthians: That Christ had sent him to: [1Cor. 1.17]
</span><i style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">`...preach the gospel - not with words of
human wisdom, LEST THE CROSS OF CHRIST BE EMPTIED OF ITS POWER'.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<i style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">What St.Paul
wanted his hearers to realise was that the word of God is a positive, though
mysterious, force – powerful enough to work the miracle of creating and
nourishing faith in the hearts of many who hear it – <u>but not overwhelmingly
convincing to every human being.</u></span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The Good News about Jesus of Nazareth, that He has
made atonement for human sin by His death on a cross, and that through faith in
His redeeming work, we can be forgiven and have eternal life is based on real
historical events and not myth, but even writing to the generation in which the
eye-witnesses were still living, St.
Paul recognised that it was - even back then - not easy for many to
believe. As he described it. ‘</span><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Jews demand signs and
Greeks seek wisdom, <sup>23</sup> but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling
block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, <sup>24</sup> but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ </span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">( 1 Cor. 1.22-24).<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">No wonder many today find that even the most skilled
debaters, such as debated last week, fail to convince everyone to believe. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is sadly inescapable that many sinful, resistant,
proud, rebellious, human hearts will not be moved by God's word and judge much
of what is in the Bible to be foolish.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
Jesus Himself was described as the<i> ‘stone the builders rejected’</i>, so the holy
scriptures are vulnerable to a similar fate.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">God’s eternal and almighty Son, took on such a humble form during His
earthly ministry, that He was easy to despise, so is the Bible. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And this was not a failure on God’s part.
It was deliberate. Please let
that statement sink in for a moment. The
aspects of biblical revelation that seem foolish are not mistakes on God’s
part. He intentionally made some Bible
stories hard to believe. As. St. Paul
argues in this epistle. </span><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">‘God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in
the world to shame the strong; <sup>28</sup>
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to
bring to nothing things that are…’</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (1 Corinthians
1:27-28). </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Jesus once explained why He told difficult parables by
quoting Isaiah 6.9-10, saying, </span><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">"He who has ears to
hear, let him hear." </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <sup>9</sup> And when his disciples asked him
what this parable meant,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <sup>10</sup> he said, "To you it has
been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are
in parables, so that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not
understand' </span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">(Mark 4.9-10).<i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It is significant that, as one observer noted, Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, could have gone back to Pontius Pilate and made it unmistakable that He was the victor over all, even the power of Rome, but Jesus chose not to. Instead, the risen Christ appeared so subtly that even among His own disciples, 'some doubted' (Matthew 28.17). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">God desires all people to be saved and come to the
knowledge of the truth, but that does not mean He desires it to be easy. It’s like a teacher in school who desires all
her students to get ‘A’s and graduate with honours. But that does not mean that that same teacher
is going to make every test so easy that everyone get’s ‘A’s, nor is she going
to make it impossible to fail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In a similar way there is no contradiction between
God’s desire that everyone be saved and His use of difficult things such as we
find in Scripture and His love for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">God both loves us and challenges us. He both provides salvation for free (at His
expense) and stretches us through tests of our loyalty toward Him and faith in
Him. If people fail in meeting those
challenges, it is not God’s fault, but the sinner’s fault.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">God does not send any test of faith that is impossible
to endure. With every temptation there
is a way of escape that we might be able to be saved and to bear with things
that make others abandon God and
perish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Sometimes we are required to honestly admit our own
weaknesses before we can benefit from the strength of others. A </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">person faced with a great physical weakness may have a
very difficult time unless he admits his weakness and looks to others </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">who are physically stronger to help him.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">A person who is swimming in deep water with 1000 miles
to go to get to land would<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">be foolish to refuse the help offered by a passing
boat. He would have to admit his
limitations, and let himself be rescued or death by drowning would be the only
outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The trouble in realm of faith is that people often
don't understand that their sins have placed them a 1000 miles from God. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Their guilt has
spiritually bankrupt them before God.</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Just being an ordinary human being places one in a most extraordinary </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">position of weakness before God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It is God's word, the Bible, that lights up the
balance sheet and shows us the overwhelming<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">overdraft in our accounts. It is God's word which lights up the waves
and shows us the impossible swim that faces us without His help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Indeed the Bible itself is the lifeline extended by
God. Its message about Christ, strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit of
God, is all we need to which to cling and we are lifted from the waves, redeemed
forever and all our debts paid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">As S.Paul taught: <i>`...the message of the cross is
foolishness to those WHO ARE PERISHING, but TO US WHO ARE BEING SAVED IT IS THE
POWER OF GOD'</i>. To the Romans he wrote:<i> `I am not ashamed
of the Good News about Christ, for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD TO SAVE THOSE WHO
BELIEVE' (Rom. 1.17).</i></span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">St Paul's commitment to this message with Christ's
work on the cross as its centre is what he meant when he said: `<i>...I
resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified'. </i> <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">When we recognise this, then we too, with St Paul, will
be determined to <i>`...know
nothing...except Jesus Christ and him crucified'</i> -- not our own pride, not
our feeble strength, not our sincerity, nor the overrated goodness of our hearts,
not our salesmanship, debating skills or wise human arguments, not even our
scientific evidence -- BUT ONLY JESUS CHRIST! </span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">`the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom' </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">the Bible says. May that reverent
respect for God and His ways, be ours through faith in Christ's Jesus unto life
everlasting. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-language: #00FF; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.15pt;">
<br /></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-25843257646293925752013-11-26T17:07:00.000-05:002013-11-26T17:07:58.896-05:00'sola scriptura' today‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’ (Jesus in Matthew. 24.35, Mark 13.31 and Luke 21.33)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>One of our mottos as Lutherans is ‘Sola Scriptura’ (Scripture alone). This describes how we choose to limit what we regard as God’s authoritative word to the words of the Bible. It is a position on divine revelation that requires an explanation to our friends, neighbors and family who, as never before in our lifetime, may not only fail to understand it but may even find it offensive.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The easy part is explaining that we believe to be divine revelation what we know Jesus of Nazareth believed to be God’s word. He was crucified to redeem us from our sins and and rose again from the dead, so He is in a unique position to know! He believed in the authority of the writings of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms and so we believe the Old Testament is God’s word—as Jesus did (Luke 24.44) We also believe what the apostles of Christ have written to be divinely inspired, as they themselves believed (2 Peter 1.21) Only ’Scripture’ is ’breathed out by God’ (inspired) in this way (2 Timothy 3.15). It is easy to assert that, as Christ and His apostles did, so we believe that the Bible we hold in our hands is the most perfect thing we human beings encounter on a daily basis.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The hard part is explaining that we treat other people’s religious impulses and insights as of lesser authority. One might think that simply pointing out that other people ’are not Jesus’ and that the apostolic witness was unique would be self evident, but not these days. Alien to many people’s thinking today is the apostolic willingness to ‘let God be true and every man a liar’ (Romans 3.4). <br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Unlike people today, the apostles did not ‘believe every spirit’ (1 John 4.1). St. Paul went so far as to say, ‘even if we (!) or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1.8-10).<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The polite thing to do today is ‘please man’. If someone feels divinely inspired, even if their ‘gospel’ contradicts that apostolic Gospel, we are supposed to listen and make approving noises.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet, with every possible sensitivity to people’s spiritual intuitions and religious feelings, we choose to say ‘no thank you’ to their new twist on God, and we should do so carefully, as St. Peter teaches, when he says, ’Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame’ (1 Peter 3.13).<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is lamentable but true that, when it comes to new religious insights, ’people ruined it’ and nobody’s spirituality can now be trusted to have the same authority as the Bible. In all humility, ’Sola Scriptura’ is simply a Lutheran ‘self-limitation’ that we reckon will do us less harm than ‘believing every spirit’ would do. We may be wrong to limit ourselves this way, but we have been burned in the past and we have scars. Please understand.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We can only hope that people will be polite enough to permit us to obey God rather than men and the freedom to choose between their voices.<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-9728957732154979572013-01-15T21:38:00.000-05:002013-01-15T21:38:12.725-05:00
<br />
<div class="p1">
<b>“Life after death - proven”</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<b><i></i></b><br /></div>
<div class="p3">
The world is rightly fascinated by that growing body of testimony consistently coming from people who have been resuscitated after clinical death and lived to publish their experiences. People who have come back from hell feel as though they have been given another chance by the grace of God. People who have had heavenly experiences and been re-united with loved ones in paradise have said that death no longer frightens them since they have been there and done that. Even the blind report being able to see during these experiences, some for the first time in their lives. They say they never felt more alive than when they were ‘dead’.</div>
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Lutherans should have mixed reactions to this. On the one hand, we rejoice that further evidence is available (if more were needed) that God, heaven and hell are real and our souls do survive death and every human being does live forever, as the word of God teaches. </div>
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We also rejoice that these things, formerly considered mere doctrines, have now been proven scientifically, since vivid experiences had by souls cannot be explained away as ‘brain activity’ when a brain has been disabled. So writes renowned Harvard professor of brain surgery, Dr. Eban Alexander, in his best-selling book, ‘Proof of Heaven’ – having himself been a disembodied soul, his body comatose with meningitis for seven whole days. </div>
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On the other hand, we should not take people’s experiences as anything more than ‘tours’ of the afterlife given to their souls by forces beyond their control. Because they vary so much from person to person, little ‘objective’ data about the afterlife has accumulated as a result of these ‘tours’.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Some of these souls – particularly unbelievers - may even have been deceived during their time away from the body, much as they are deceived whilst in the body into false belief and doctrines of demons. Testimonies from disembodied souls that contradict the Bible cannot be trusted since <i>‘God…does not lie’ </i>(Titus 1.2)</div>
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Believers know that God will not let any souls ‘blow His cover’ or see what He does not want them to see. Speaking of himself, St. Paul wrote,<i> ‘I know that this man was caught up into paradise - whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows - and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter’.</i><b> (</b>2 Corinthians 12:3-4). </div>
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<br /></div>
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We mortals cannot survive even clinical death without God’s permission. Although an amazing resuscitation suggests that, with modern medical technology, we can give ourselves ‘second chances’, we really can’t. Many resuscitations fail, and those that succeed only succeed with God’s help and approval. </div>
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Meanwhile, we may say with St. Paul<i>, ‘If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better’</i> (Philippians 1:22-23).</div>
Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-69197122053811788812013-01-15T11:59:00.000-05:002013-01-15T11:59:27.263-05:00<h2>
<b>'Speaking of Life...'</b></h2>
As our nation’s president begins his second term and a new congress moves forward into 2013, pro-life Christians contemplate this year the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion, the supreme court decision known as ‘Roe v Wade’.<br />
<br />
As we lament a decision that has resulted in the tragic loss of over fifty-five million lives, our grief is further compounded by the facts that legislation overturning Roe v Wade seems less likely than ever and our tax dollars will be funding these killings more than ever - with no escape in sight. A real-time counter showing the world-wide tally of aborted children growing by the minute at www.numberofabortions.com<br />
<br />
“What can we do?” is the question. Yet we should not ask that question in despair. For the answer to that question has remained the same since the beginnings of Christianity in Roman times. We are to ‘speak the truth in love’, as St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians (Eph 4.15) and we are to ‘speak truth to power’ - an American tradition going back to the revolution that launched this nation.<br />
<br />
Even if we are not able to legislate the culture of life that we embrace, we can and must still preach it. We must speak of life, and let the Church of Christ prevail against the gates of hell rather than the other way round (Matthew 16.8).<br />
<br />
We should also note that abortion is on the retreat as a choice, despite all its political support. The latest report from the Center for Disease Control shows that abortions declined by 41,057 compared to last year, a one-year drop of nearly 5%, the largest drop recorded by the CDC in more than ten years. Moreover the report documents abortion rates and abortion ratios lower than any seen since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973.<br />
<br />
According to CBS news, ‘The CDC says that “multiple factors are known to influence the incidence of abortion” and goes on to list several: the supply of abortionists, pro-life laws such as waiting periods, parental involvement, increased acceptance of non-marital childbearing, population shifts, the economy, and factors such as contraception impacting fertility’.<br />
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We need not give up, but should continue to speak up and speak out as people who know the true freedom from death that comes from faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.<br />
<br />
As the secular culture promotes its culture of death, we owe it to our neighbors to to promote our culture of life; not aiming to force Christian morality on them by law, but offering our neighbor a faithful and blessed alternative to death. We can remind our neighbor that there is love and support to be found in God that provides them with a ‘choice’ they may never have considered. Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-59339582242328875102012-12-21T21:08:00.002-05:002012-12-21T21:08:27.841-05:00Weather from Yo Window<div style="width:220px; height:150px;">
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://swf.yowindow.com/yowidget3.swf" width="220" height="150">
<param name="movie" value="http://swf.yowindow.com/yowidget3.swf"/>
<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/>
<param name="wmode" value="opaque"/>
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/>
<param name="flashvars"
value="location_id=gn:5206379&location_name=Oakmont&time_format=24&unit_system=metric&background=#FFFFFF&copyright_bar=false"
/>
<a href="http://yowindow.com/weatherwidget.php"
style="width:220px;height:150px;display: block;text-indent: -50000px;font-size: 0px;background:#DDF url(http://yowindow.com/img/logo.png) no-repeat scroll 50% 50%;"
>HTML weather</a>
</object>
</div>
<div style="width: 220px; height: 15px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="float:left;"><a target="_top" href="http://yowindow.com?client=widget&link=copyright" style="color: #2fa900; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none;" title="HTML weather">YoWindow.com</a></span>
<span style="float:right; color:#888888;"><a href="http://www.weather.gov" style="color: #2fa900; text-decoration:none;">NWS</a></span>
</div>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-2840195324464317832012-06-12T20:09:00.000-04:002012-06-21T16:41:24.518-04:00The Joy of Faith Exercised<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">'Surprised by Joy' is the title of one of C.S.Lewis' books in which he describes how his faith was exercised by the death of his wife, Joy.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joy is not something that people naturally expect to be associated with suffering. For Christians, however, it is different; because, when suffering affects believers, there is, in the midst of it all an exercise of faith. And there is joy in that exertion. It is a bitter-sweet joy, but it is a joy nevertheless. Perhaps it is a joy that only believers can know. It is the profession of the faithful that, if we feel joy in the midst of pain, it is because '...<span style="line-height: 100%;"><i>the extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us’</i></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 100%;"><i>
</i></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 100%;">(2
Corinthians 4.7).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">The
apostle St.Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians contains great
wisdom for us as we ‘groan’ over the troubles of life. He knew all about troubles! He wr</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">ites, ‘</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>We
are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so
that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body’.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">In
these times of ease and convenience we don’t like hardship. When
difficulties present themselves, rather than rise to the occasion as
believers, we act like spoiled children who cannot put things in
perspective and fall to pieces rather that react like people who
trust God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">In
our affluent world we are particularly vulnerable to reacting badly
to hardship. We are challenged by the example of St. Paul, who saw
hardship as part and parcel of life on earth. The outward
circumstances of life in which ‘stuff happens’ combined with his
own physical limitations did not deter him from praising God and
seeing a divine purpose working itself out in his life, nevertheless.</span></span></div>
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‘<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>We
have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us’</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">,
he wrote. The weaker he felt, the more the apostle saw the strength
of God and His grace being sufficient and, indeed </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>‘perfect
in weakness’</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"> (2 Cor.
12.9). So what, if God said no to his prayers, that the </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>‘thorn
in his flesh’</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"> be taken
away? He would live with it, if that was God’s will, and even
‘rejoice’ at the exercise of faith that was involved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">He
offers us comfort when he writes, </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>‘though
outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day
by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on
what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>Now
we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human
hands’ </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">(2 Cor.
4.16-5.1).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">Deferred
glory and deferred comfort was worth celebrating for St. Paul and
should be for us, too. We fix our eyes on the glory that awaits us
beyond this life, just as Jesus fixed His eyes on the accomplishment
of our redemption. </span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>‘For
the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross’</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">
(Heb. 12.2).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">After
all, we are all beneficiaries of the suffering of Jesus that
accomplished the forgiveness of all our sin and opened the kingdom of
Heaven to all believers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">As
Christ is risen and has re-assumed His glory, so He promises that He
goes to prepare a place for us who trust in Him, in a glorious world
to come. </span>
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‘<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><i>Meanwhile
we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling’</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">,
and God expects us to be ok with that. The glory is coming.</span></div>Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-69533287558546635652012-05-24T18:59:00.000-04:002012-05-24T18:59:00.996-04:00The Box<br />
Just before my birthday this year, I came home to find a box sitting on a ledge on one side of the front porch. It contained some presents from my parents and they had written a smiley face on every side of the box. As I picked it off the ledge to bring into the house, the thought occurred to me; this box could easily have fallen off the ledge and perhaps never been found. It could have languished outside, smiley faces and all, and its intended purpose would have been in vain. How sad that would have been!<br />
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But because I brought it inside, it was safe and my parents hopes for it were realized when I opened it up and cherished its contents. I should also add that I kept the box, too, as a reminder of the hopes that God our heavenly Father has that we will benefit from the gift that He has given us in the form of the forgiveness of our sins and the ongoing communion with Him that is the supreme ‘gift that keeps on giving’.<br />
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Sadly, however, many today, who have also been redeemed by the blood of God’s Son, so that they could enjoy the gift of everlasting fellowship with Him, leave this gift neglected outside of their lives like that gift box left outside of my home. They may have noticed it in passing, but thought to themselves that they would deal with it at some later date. They leave God’s gift outside, in all weathers, ignoring His hopes, His smiles, and risking the loss of that gift altogether when the time comes when it is too late to retrieve it from its precarious position on a ledge somewhere outside of their lives. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock’, Jesus says to all whom He has redeemed (Rev. 3.20). <br />
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God’s gift of fellowship with Him, Communion and Participation in His life is not a one-time thing, like a box that we open once and then discard. Partaking of eternal life is something that God is ever-hopeful that we will continue to do throughout our earthly lives and forever after. In that way we will not only be ‘saved’, but safe. <br />
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By all means, ‘open the box’, but do not throw away the box. Yes, you have been ‘saved’ by God, but you must take steps to keep the faith that God has given you by His grace. He has called and enlightened you, just as Luther says ‘he called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true’.<br />
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And that which keeps us all in the one true faith is participation, fellowship (koinonia) with God that comes with a living connection to the life of Christ, by His word, His sacraments and His Church. The Church is the context in which God ‘forgives daily and richly all sins’. ‘Be all be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure’, writes St. Peter (2 Peter 1.10). Don’t leave the box on the porch. Take it in to your life for only then will you fully enjoy its contents and only in ongoing fellowship with God will His hopes and investment in you be realized.<br />Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-36402970256911744692012-05-24T18:57:00.001-04:002012-05-24T18:57:02.228-04:00'the Resurrection of the Body'<br />
Easter is a time when we marvel at the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. One of the most reliably documented and established facts of history, the miracle of life returning to the crucified, dead and buried body of Jesus is not just an astonishing phenomenon in itself, but a source of great comfort to all believers. This is because of the connection between Jesus’ bodily resurrection and our own. <br />
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‘Because I live, you will live also’, Jesus promised (John 14.19). And His apostle, St. Paul, in his writings explains how this affects us, even after physical death. <br />
Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul said, ‘in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15.20-23).<br />
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By calling the resurrection of Jesus the firstfruit of our resurrection, St. Paul taught that since the bodily resurrection of Jesus took place we can expect our own bodily resurrection to follow, for we belong to Him. The term firstfruit refers to the Old Testament practice of offering to God the ‘firstfruit’ of their crops, a sheaf of grain to represent and anticipate the rest of the harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14).<br />
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Referring to the sacrament of baptism, that unites all believers to Jesus, St. Paul’s assertion was this: ‘For if (through baptism) we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’ (Romans 6:5). <br />
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St. John’s reasoning is similar: ‘Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3.2).<br />
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In the Apostles’ Creed, when we confess our faith ‘in the resurrection of the body’, it is the belief in the future of our own bodies to which we refer.<br />
This resurrection of (every)body is promised on the last Day – the Judgment Day. Both those who are banished to hell on that day and those who will spend eternity in Heaven receive their bodies back. Although their bodies may have been reduced to dust after centuries of decomposition, the Bible says, ‘those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt’ (Daniel 12.2). <br />
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A resurrection of human bodies is not, strictly speaking, necessary. God’s angels have a complete existence without bodies. Also, in Luke 16, Jesus revealed that the souls of the dead even have sensations without bodies. Nevertheless, a bodily existence is what God designed human beings to have, and have them we shall.<br />
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If the judgment Day occurs during our earthly lives we will not need a bodily resurrection, but we will need to be changed and God will change us to be like the resurrected Jesus. ‘Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’.<br />Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-58371939409419446042012-05-24T18:54:00.002-04:002012-05-24T18:54:55.060-04:00The Thrill of Participation<br />
Probably second only to the sadness of unrequited love is the depressing feeling of being left out of a pleasurable shared experience. Others get to enjoy it – you are left out; what could be worse than that! It is a kind of ‘Hell on earth’ to miss out in that way. Contrast that difference between the sadness of being excluded and the thrill of full participation in something wonderful and you will have touched upon a key insight in Christian belief. <br />
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God’s Word describes some ‘entering into the joy of your Lord’ and others being ‘cast into outer darkness… (where) there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matt. 25.23-30), This applies to more than the end of the world or Judgement Day. It also describes the difference between participating in the life of the Body of Christ and not participating.<br />
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By the ‘thrill of participation’, I do not refer to merely attending church activities – even the Divine Service. People can attend things, but still be left out of the true benefit of the activity. True ‘participation’ has to do with the original meaning of the word. ‘Participation’ is but one of several shades of meaning of the single Greek word: Koinonia. Other meanings of that word are ‘sharing’, ‘fellowship’ and ‘communion’.<br />
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The thrill of Koinonia belongs to those who, not only show up and ‘walk’ with other people, but who – above all - walk with the Lord in repentance and in favour with God and men. ‘…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin’ (1 John 1.7).<br />
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Talk to sportsmen and they will make a distinction between simply being ‘in the game’ and being ‘in the zone’! Being in the zone means ‘You have total focus. Your performance is effortless. You are in synch within yourself, and you display total dominance in whatever you are pursuing’. There is nothing hypocritical, superficial or perfunctory about being ‘in the zone’. And the result is thrilling.<br />
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That is what God intends Communion to be. Fellowship with Him is supposed to be full integration into His life. Those who are ‘double-minded’ - who try to ‘serve both God and Mammon’; for example, will not know the thrill of participation. They may show up, but their spiritual walk will be hindered by the weight of un-repented sin. Far better to ‘lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12.1-2),<br />
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Being in Communion starts with ‘going to Communion’, but does not end there with the forgiveness of sin. ‘How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Romans 6:2). No, communion does not end with God’s forgiveness; it BEGINS with God’s forgiveness. It continues with a discipline to forsake sin and follow Christ who leads us in ‘the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake’ (Psalm 23).<br />
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‘Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved’ (2 Corinthians 2:14-15). <br />
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Remember the comparison I make between the Christian life and soaring in a glider. Don’t let divided loyalty to God force you to hit the ground. Remain aloft by His grace. Live every moment ‘prayerfully’. ‘Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:22-24). Taste the thrill of full participation, full communion and koinonia and you will not look back.<br />Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30789349.post-87836727538886604652011-12-01T19:31:00.001-05:002011-12-03T20:54:35.628-05:00Taking your meds?<br />
Anti-rejection drugs are daily medications taken by organ transplant patients to prevent organ rejection. Such drugs, also called immunosuppressants, help to suppress the immune system's response to a new organ. When a new organ is placed inside a patient's body, the patient's immune system recognizes the organ as foreign tissue and tries to reject it.<br />
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A similar thing happens when God puts a 'new heart' in us by '... the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior' (Titus 3.5-6). For the rest of our earthly lives, our sinful nature will try to expel the 'new nature' that God has given us from our souls. We need to take 'anti-rejection medication', so to speak. That would be what Christians call the 'Means of Grace' - God's word and sacraments.<br />
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These are powerful spiritual agents that remain outside of us and useless to us unless taken religiously (if you pardon the pun). Those who think they can remain Christians, yet not receive the saving benefits of the Means of Grace are like transplant patients who refuse to take their anti-rejection meds. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 16px;">They need to ‘repent’
of not taking their meds, if you see what I mean.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Otherwise there is a real danger that they
will eventually become spiritually ill and reject the Spirit of God and the new
life that was given to them to provide eternal life.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now
they did not have organ transplants and immunosuppressant drugs back in New
Testament times. But they did have to
eat. And so Jesus used the urgency of
nutrition to make His point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">‘here is the bread that comes
down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die (Jesus said). <sup>51 </sup>I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <sup>52 </sup>Then the Jews began to argue
sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?"<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <sup>53 </sup>Jesus said to them, "I tell
you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <sup>54 </sup>Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <sup>55 </sup>For my flesh is real food and my
blood is real drink.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <sup>56 </sup>Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood remains in me, and I in him’ (John 6.50-56).<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Do you see how that phrase ‘remains in me and I in him’ resembles organ
rejection? Without the transplant
patient eating the anti-rejection drugs, a vital organ transplanted into a body
may not remain in the body – and the results would be death. You
can see the urgency in taking those meds.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
tone John took in his preaching was that of urgency also as he shouted, <i>"Repent!
For the Kingdom of God is near" </i>to his audience. This same Kingdom of God, new life and the
Holy Spirit came upon each of us when we were at the font, becoming baptized in
the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was there that the Holy
Spirit entered into our hearts, creating within us saving faith in Jesus
Christ, who died and rose again to purchase that new life for us with His
blood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
The baptism of John the Baptiser differed from the baptism of Jesus in that
John's baptism brought the newly baptized to look forward to the Messiah who
was to come and bring about total forgiveness by what He would later
accomplish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">By
contrast, the baptism of Jesus, that which we have received, has brought us
total forgiveness on account of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Using
a phrase that was later taken up into the Divine Service, St. John the Baptiser
proclaimed about Jesus, <i>"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world! </i>(Jn. 1:29-31). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
the Divine Service that is what we proclaim because it is Jesus Christ
who takes away our sin by the power of His forgiving touch. Abide in Him and He with you. <i>‘Walk</i></span><i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin’ (1 John 1.7) A</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">nd the
Spirit of Jesus Christ Who has caused us to repent, will raise us up again. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">'To him who
is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious
presence without fault and with great joy-- to the only God our Savior be
glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all
ages, now and forevermore! Amen.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br />Pr. Jonathan Naumann, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08767028912155152729noreply@blogger.com1