tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111295132024-03-10T23:22:06.495-04:00AwakeningsWhen the world says, 'Give up,' Hope whispers, 'Try it one more time' Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.comBlogger8758125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-33403948036786921712023-10-29T08:08:00.001-04:002023-10-29T08:08:55.350-04:00Where there is forgiveness of sin...Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.<div><br></div><div>Blessed is the one against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.</div><div><br></div><div>For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.</div><div><br></div><div>For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. </div><div><br></div><div>I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.</div><div><br></div><div>Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;</div><div>surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.</div><div><br></div><div>You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.</div><div><br></div><div>Psalm 32:1-7. </div><div><br></div><div>Psalm 32 has been understood since the early church as one of seven penitential psalms. Among these, Ps. 32 and 51 stand out as confessional giants by King David. Life’s most important lessons about sin, confession, and forgiveness are shared by David in this psalm. </div><div><br></div><div>Where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life and salvation.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxM8plQIQshf2utdujkUt3yHvdhpaMza_sJDZvIVM7Rlaq35WgZw9jND0VBupHnBZJtllpSNjlPWoxOMZnUdYcmJYI7cDrrp1iNr4pF-gT-SxaDHbHPUwWaS07lk6SwtcIx9Dv9ybprJSP222juZIuDSi2cqTPRehNws_NFUuDWPMUoTOzn_y9IA" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxM8plQIQshf2utdujkUt3yHvdhpaMza_sJDZvIVM7Rlaq35WgZw9jND0VBupHnBZJtllpSNjlPWoxOMZnUdYcmJYI7cDrrp1iNr4pF-gT-SxaDHbHPUwWaS07lk6SwtcIx9Dv9ybprJSP222juZIuDSi2cqTPRehNws_NFUuDWPMUoTOzn_y9IA" width="400">
</a>
</div></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-86393958832352202772023-10-29T07:54:00.001-04:002023-10-29T08:07:55.589-04:00The Joyful Exchange<div>"Learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to praise him and, despairing of yourself, say, 'Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not.' Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation."</div><div><br></div><div>Martin Luther, "Luther's Works," Vol. 48, pp. 12–13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg77dkfsBseg13b0Y0G7YNKXGXuZbT88ZmIhLSL6GUnHhgT9Iyq5uc4beE-6PX1AvdCNXPvSLC6_pko3IenBbJlAMK6d4OhmFNOTDpnENNfR8I6XMZfMJ7eDN4TGjAQxoQvqDfHy9y23SsiGyIH6Z0kjKqX3OnELTtfXNpl6qY53i4RtjCGyvg-Rw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg77dkfsBseg13b0Y0G7YNKXGXuZbT88ZmIhLSL6GUnHhgT9Iyq5uc4beE-6PX1AvdCNXPvSLC6_pko3IenBbJlAMK6d4OhmFNOTDpnENNfR8I6XMZfMJ7eDN4TGjAQxoQvqDfHy9y23SsiGyIH6Z0kjKqX3OnELTtfXNpl6qY53i4RtjCGyvg-Rw" width="400">
</a>
</div></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-63482636582657523572023-10-29T07:45:00.001-04:002023-10-29T07:45:52.550-04:00The Chief Article Is This<div>The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24–25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31).</div><div><br></div><div>Martin Luther, Smalcald Articles, part two, article one.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgI10FVdegObdQ4jl1jHaLDMJieZtOc4oISkFavg573k1JjUc9zhM-ic0sYt9R7ZSb8ZzDJgAax8_s4XZ4G0acUnhKSC080XFmGyB9iaPYF1uipKO4QGv6-F5eDPh0EtUVdlkb8wvAFPUS8T9kWnBB0Rp82-JRXRDr2ZmES7vTvDhf6bu7E9pp74g" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgI10FVdegObdQ4jl1jHaLDMJieZtOc4oISkFavg573k1JjUc9zhM-ic0sYt9R7ZSb8ZzDJgAax8_s4XZ4G0acUnhKSC080XFmGyB9iaPYF1uipKO4QGv6-F5eDPh0EtUVdlkb8wvAFPUS8T9kWnBB0Rp82-JRXRDr2ZmES7vTvDhf6bu7E9pp74g" width="400">
</a>
</div></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-5285775999615636802023-10-25T09:25:00.001-04:002023-10-25T09:54:28.291-04:00In Need of a Reformation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7R5dp1CWuSAYY8WFATGkOVXhxhTrbVWrCOIjiSzXFKAYly2S7IXQy1ebXXk6wXb1YKf6drsGuE_1Hs45GNeErNKmncWCPCT5xRPwthhv2SPZ_-IiQof-P5N7KGxJ_L-fOJ_9D5W-DIv8biT-5wFEs6aeq5eZNaoJsLBkOvOwNlnRO9Izh9r3qQ/s640/30098d5e9e7d1ba49bf4c01d99d2155e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3593" data-original-width="2458" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCDU7oeWTWm6OSRh3Y_BOCxpm-b_Oq8WgbdTM2CUKHGNzehLQwpUW-0C-6swnu6AQvB-YTrqFv6HXVcqmijrsa3bVaPVzhl57rjhV3jiBO2K3xU6VddscRpSRsA7tE-Im_wd26Qrsuqps4nJJPbfPBccv-XpwT7EwO_dU44lAaEd8gsre-itp-w/s320/Martin%20Luther%20Augustinian.jpg" width="219" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /><p></p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The church is in need of a reformation. This is not something to be
undertaken by one person, the pope, or many cardinals. But by God
alone. Yet the timing for this reformation knows only he who has
created time itself. In the meantime, however, we cannot deny such
obvious errors The power of the keys is being abused and is forced to
serve money and ambition. The flood has begun to rise, it is not in
our power to make it stop now. “our inequities testify against us”
(Jer. 14:7) and each of us is incriminated by his own words.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Martin Luther,
Resolutiones
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-35917534118519290062023-10-08T11:21:00.001-04:002023-10-08T11:21:33.563-04:00God Is Pleased When You Try<div dir="auto"><h1>How to Be Holy</h1><p>JOHANN ARNDT</p><p>Study to overcome and to pacify thine enemies, by bestowing upon them tokens of love and kindness. No man will ever be reconciled by wrath, or revenge, or returning evil for evil, for victory consists in virtue, not in vice. And as one devil does not drive out another, so it cannot be expected that one evil should be subdued by another; or that enmity against thee should be extinguished by affronts and provocations offered to thee.</p></div>https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/devotional-reading/rules-for-a-holy-life?utm_source=Plough+-+English&utm_campaign=20d149a382-Dig&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4cbb94afa4-20d149a382-297168008 Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-61046991571408443182023-09-30T14:58:00.001-04:002023-09-30T14:58:30.725-04:00We Do Not Suffer Alone<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWm2_Rr0rjEflEarlUSrb3Q8bNqI874Ewf9x8twi-HojtOFQlPaDT8oPNI9ez2nFTavkfut9GO8g-ADw6aRKEB8UOkclS_ohvNNlDVMhYyEjSqGZmea6UNb9eCNz923TMnMmcSRw8Xd6CzUknzRcDHFTxqO8lmcaZZXwQlD-BzgdgUyYxFcY4oQ/s845/suffering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWm2_Rr0rjEflEarlUSrb3Q8bNqI874Ewf9x8twi-HojtOFQlPaDT8oPNI9ez2nFTavkfut9GO8g-ADw6aRKEB8UOkclS_ohvNNlDVMhYyEjSqGZmea6UNb9eCNz923TMnMmcSRw8Xd6CzUknzRcDHFTxqO8lmcaZZXwQlD-BzgdgUyYxFcY4oQ/s320/suffering.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Your life is comprised of work and play, events, conversations, that range thoughts about what you read, see, experience, good and the bad, and sometimes there is a lot of bad. Suffering is to be expected by everyone.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Suffering should not be merely endured, not at all. Bad times can be shared. Choose </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;">to share. You are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;">not alone.</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> We are members of a family, and families are part of communities, and o</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;">f course </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;">the Christian community is one that finds it life in a God who suffers with us. </span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-45914540814059662702023-09-22T15:59:00.001-04:002023-09-22T15:59:22.635-04:00Thy Kingdom Come<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbtbnG64nLIwIUkkkEVGdMlpzRpIYbPlk5Lis-iNPORJvlFKMiZvOdd0sENsbk8irGCXB1-aJTnGD-ICI91datehCaUxj92xRi0f6HZcHqvCP6D7plw-ExPifCxazu8TJTIIDPvneB1ym6-leEYfZTWjzLe7ByCR-qWdcZhctcO1B95E3UTtQ6Iw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbtbnG64nLIwIUkkkEVGdMlpzRpIYbPlk5Lis-iNPORJvlFKMiZvOdd0sENsbk8irGCXB1-aJTnGD-ICI91datehCaUxj92xRi0f6HZcHqvCP6D7plw-ExPifCxazu8TJTIIDPvneB1ym6-leEYfZTWjzLe7ByCR-qWdcZhctcO1B95E3UTtQ6Iw" width="400">
</a>
</div>Lord our God, we lift our hearts to you, for you have given great promises to those who fear you. Let your Word strengthen us in faith, patience, and hope. Be with all those who call upon you, pleading for help in our time. For these times must work for our good, and in spite of sin, death, and all evil we can find joy in what you are doing. We call to you, O Lord our God. Let your hand be revealed, that something may be seen besides human striving and the efforts of human hands. Let the work of your hand be visible to many, to all peoples on this earth. May your name be honored, O Lord our God, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as in heaven. Amen.</div><div><br></div><div>Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt</div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-29332806009530724752023-09-20T06:13:00.004-04:002023-09-20T06:15:26.712-04:00They Proclaim Your Mighty Acts<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXZl4H-Ixgyud-c6jn18zuf0pzchuhlQcyy-Y85aGcYwRbrUe-I61xmhVLSdNFtHjAjYcljdIQhnx1pR_adKP1MsW6hKmqtqFkjo87Bz8zQAKfm_QKf_ZaNY3UAwkdoQUsTSzxj5S4NfaU5P0h3DqGBpwh8cgHg9e0rvIeRat6KM9v5NTvycEqw/s813/Christoph_Blumhardt,_ca._75j%C3%A4hrig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="813" data-original-width="579" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXZl4H-Ixgyud-c6jn18zuf0pzchuhlQcyy-Y85aGcYwRbrUe-I61xmhVLSdNFtHjAjYcljdIQhnx1pR_adKP1MsW6hKmqtqFkjo87Bz8zQAKfm_QKf_ZaNY3UAwkdoQUsTSzxj5S4NfaU5P0h3DqGBpwh8cgHg9e0rvIeRat6KM9v5NTvycEqw/s320/Christoph_Blumhardt,_ca._75j%C3%A4hrig.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Daily Prayer for September 20</h1><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH BLUMHARDT</p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty – and I will meditate on your wonderful works. Psalm 145:3–5, NIV</span><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong>Lord God, our Helper,</strong> we thank you for walking among us and for letting many experience your protection. Even when your children are dying, you protect and help us so that we need not pass into death but may enter into life. So may our hearts be lifted up to you. Grant that the light in us remains undimmed, and that we may come before you in sincerity. Lord God, create good out of evil. Let light dawn in the darkness. Fulfill your promise, for our hearts are not concerned with human desires but with your promise. You will carry it out, and we will be able to say, "Our faith was not in vain, our hope was not in vain. Lord our God, you have blest us a thousandfold." Amen.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;">Plough</p>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-50984082902397741172023-09-18T16:12:00.001-04:002023-09-18T16:12:41.391-04:00The Word Did the Work<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4ueMhg9wPxdOY4a_zOEu5z-vla38DUNzOeluKMBfv0KB0oP3m0ArkqiMN6DYzNJx4ivXyVfqMmfw1k4H6ltavupHsD4laUX8dhnaRMZXbF8eV4E-ww2tYBzZyOprZ8KIJpcPsrUPY1wrgO8FKRdWKxzKuZdH2AM8NcMxwyrjnfBze_BF-Xq3QUQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4ueMhg9wPxdOY4a_zOEu5z-vla38DUNzOeluKMBfv0KB0oP3m0ArkqiMN6DYzNJx4ivXyVfqMmfw1k4H6ltavupHsD4laUX8dhnaRMZXbF8eV4E-ww2tYBzZyOprZ8KIJpcPsrUPY1wrgO8FKRdWKxzKuZdH2AM8NcMxwyrjnfBze_BF-Xq3QUQ" width="400">
</a>
</div><br></div><div>In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon Germany; indeed, I could have started such a game that even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have been? Mere fool’s play. I did nothing; I let the Word do its work. What do you suppose is Satan’s thought when one tries to do the thing by kicking up a row? He sits back in hell and thinks: Oh, what a fine game the poor fools are up to now! But when we spread the Word alone and let it alone do the work, that distresses him. For it is almighty, and takes captive the hearts, and when the hearts are captured the work will fall of itself.</div><div><br></div><div>_Martin Luther, LW 51, 78.</div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-57550314728483546582023-09-17T06:43:00.000-04:002023-09-17T06:44:11.193-04:00God Grant's Glimpses <p dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7ehKmKW9hxUdlQAaa1pGi2z8_9XP0z5W6iqmCd-yDgTqyukgB5Uw7QZmw284jZjryg02Z0CSrzlwvHBPSnEFjOm4A8-foBmCZsVntXnwmPv0GBdeRtEIxeTkStd2iYJMQZt0D02neD69Ao7gI9AK_K9BsDaJWJCtYeBIoxEGa_n30nCvB92q4_A" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7ehKmKW9hxUdlQAaa1pGi2z8_9XP0z5W6iqmCd-yDgTqyukgB5Uw7QZmw284jZjryg02Z0CSrzlwvHBPSnEFjOm4A8-foBmCZsVntXnwmPv0GBdeRtEIxeTkStd2iYJMQZt0D02neD69Ao7gI9AK_K9BsDaJWJCtYeBIoxEGa_n30nCvB92q4_A" width="400">
</a>
</div>Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. </p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-65605799899855276012023-09-17T04:39:00.002-04:002023-09-17T06:32:56.857-04:00On Looking for God<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjU556NTEPfd2phQLnZ8PTCKT1oMcti7VSYHQCXGOrRTecqQ5iHxiio825MSgBSLRuvE-b5SYoNawBShe8zqZKXH5jBlwR6TmWi-kVflBznZqn5e8DrL5vYareEdqREId-s5uoqUXUbL5_eCvglthLKfa-cd9Jk3wsgQMW7Ve_e_BVUzF11PAUKHQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjU556NTEPfd2phQLnZ8PTCKT1oMcti7VSYHQCXGOrRTecqQ5iHxiio825MSgBSLRuvE-b5SYoNawBShe8zqZKXH5jBlwR6TmWi-kVflBznZqn5e8DrL5vYareEdqREId-s5uoqUXUbL5_eCvglthLKfa-cd9Jk3wsgQMW7Ve_e_BVUzF11PAUKHQ" width="400">
</a>
</div><br></div>Looking for God? God only wants to be found in Jesus. - Since the concept of trust in God and service to God must suffer violation and is expanded to such lengths—everyone stretching it to fit his own thoughts, the one interpreting it in this manner, the other in another way—therefore God designated a special place for Himself where He wants to be found, and identified Himself with a definite Person, so that it is impossible not to be aware of Him. And this Person is none other than Christ Himself, in whom “the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily,” as St. Paul declares in Col. 2:9. Thus God is to be found nowhere but in this Person. <div>- Martin Luther on John 14:1, LW 24:22-23</div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-55262138924825997832023-09-14T08:30:00.003-04:002023-09-14T08:49:30.198-04:00You Cannot Stop Birds from Flying over your Head, but You Can Stop them Building a Nest in your Hair<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNd6Cs9QTcElKP4yL6hxt3M0i362-LL9ujFJfOelDcwcynGCK03W2d5nO0-VyMhBOfSKxwiEwykjt8O6RTCQwq_vuNqKMK5dZz1ETrnumM1k3T2hK49lS5cuLhHBJghrB1EnbEoIlBQloTxuZmRiaU_cms2ne1DsxiOy8O8mVSilMbRf1RmKpTmw/s1202/62a768ba6226a1e5315ff73763863c3b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNd6Cs9QTcElKP4yL6hxt3M0i362-LL9ujFJfOelDcwcynGCK03W2d5nO0-VyMhBOfSKxwiEwykjt8O6RTCQwq_vuNqKMK5dZz1ETrnumM1k3T2hK49lS5cuLhHBJghrB1EnbEoIlBQloTxuZmRiaU_cms2ne1DsxiOy8O8mVSilMbRf1RmKpTmw/s320/62a768ba6226a1e5315ff73763863c3b.jpg" width="319" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #525960; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">The others, who neither overcome the temptation nor are relieved of it, plunge into anger, hate, impatience; give themselves entirely to the devil ; work evil by word and </span></span><span style="color: #525960;">work</span><span style="color: #525960; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">; become murderers, robbers, slanderers, perjurers, backbiters, and makers of all kinds of mischief. The temptation has conquered them and they yield to every evil impulse. The devil has them altogether in his power and they are his captives. They invoke neither God nor his saints. But inasmuch as our life is called a temptation by God himself, and it is unavoidable that we are subjected to offenses and injustice in body, property and honor, we ought to look forward to trials with unruffled minds, receive them in a spirit of wisdom when they come, and say: Ah, such is the nature of life, what am I to do? It is and remains a temptation. It cannot be otherwise. God help me that I may not be moved and overthrown.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Thus you see that temptation can be avoided by no one ; but resistance may be made and, with prayer and recourse to divine aid, we can put ourselves in readiness to meet such designs. In the book of an old father we read that a young brother expressed a desire to be rid of his thoughts. Thereupon the old father said:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> </span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dear brother, you cannot prevent the birds from flying in the air over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair.</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">So, as St. Augustine says, we cannot prevent offenses and temptations, but by prayer and invocation of the help of God we can prevent them from overcoming us.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #232629; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px;">Luther's </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #232629; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Explanation of the Lord's Prayer</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #232629; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px;">, Sixth Petition ("And lead us not into temptation"), paragraph 161. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #525960; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-8275736363983022962018-02-14T21:00:00.005-05:002023-09-10T03:38:52.482-04:00A Few Words on Being Reviled<div data-block="true" data-editor="aanik" data-offset-key="555os-0-0" style="background-color: white;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #1d2129; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-nLp4QfyolUCpj85Cj-iInfajS6D4F-IkBxW9TlHSTz-2FpnctBsYcX_wWt_5epbKFuA_eZbHtAHFpp2pFsO7E0sUWMcppEhUMa0Ry25JfTpJlCQ7jK1IWxLPpT7q0p2JPbve5dOTzmarwuDBFzqxVwxENr5vi99ORkcdDhmRFx5Afw7GgLXqQ/s672/Jesus%20sermononthemount.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-nLp4QfyolUCpj85Cj-iInfajS6D4F-IkBxW9TlHSTz-2FpnctBsYcX_wWt_5epbKFuA_eZbHtAHFpp2pFsO7E0sUWMcppEhUMa0Ry25JfTpJlCQ7jK1IWxLPpT7q0p2JPbve5dOTzmarwuDBFzqxVwxENr5vi99ORkcdDhmRFx5Afw7GgLXqQ/s320/Jesus%20sermononthemount.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #1d2129; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="555os-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
Christians are mocked openly in the media. If you are a praying Christian, understand this is meant to keep you silent. You probably know that.
In </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus said, </span><span style="color: #1d2129; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."</span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="555os-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
The type of hostility toward Christianity seen in the media is harmless unless we are intimidated into silence. Christians choosing silence to avoid ridicule is a real possibility, because we have been doing just that for a long time.
Our only hope is in Jesus, who said in </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Matthew 5:13-16</span><span style="color: #1d2129; white-space-collapse: preserve;">:</span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="555os-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
We must find our reward in Jesus, himself, and not in the approval of the world. Give God the glory that he has made all this so very, very clear. </span></span></div>
</div>
Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-20535726561143335672018-11-21T09:53:00.003-05:002023-09-10T03:20:11.660-04:00The First and Chief Article<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 1.125em; letter-spacing: 0.01rem;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 1.125em; letter-spacing: 0.01rem;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXDCtD1goEbLpTwfoYlIWJUZiA2nD0YugxV66WdPm4OixSSPJ30o1LsnYc8yVjntSHInZ7KSfrDqhWpsufpVxG9dsQAqwSTqKK5oiQMWrmKm4jzKITlqdO0Dx7P-87mC6tvcFwCHwKJLoiP0_1aarwtj219mUQUv9KkdLl3QbZB_nIqeQDebCeQ/s2048/Luther%20Seal%20and%20Bible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1465" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXDCtD1goEbLpTwfoYlIWJUZiA2nD0YugxV66WdPm4OixSSPJ30o1LsnYc8yVjntSHInZ7KSfrDqhWpsufpVxG9dsQAqwSTqKK5oiQMWrmKm4jzKITlqdO0Dx7P-87mC6tvcFwCHwKJLoiP0_1aarwtj219mUQUv9KkdLl3QbZB_nIqeQDebCeQ/w286-h400/Luther%20Seal%20and%20Bible.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><br />The first and chief article is this:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:6).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. As St. Paul says:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. [Romans 3:26]</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls [Mark 13:31].</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Upon this article everything that we teach and practice depends, in opposition to the pope, the devil, and the whole world. Therefore, we must be certain and not doubt this doctrine. Otherwise, all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all adversaries win the victory and the right over us.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
~~~</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Martin Luther wrote the above in 1537 in preparation for a meeting with the Schmalkaldic League, which was being called in order that the evangelische would be prepared for an ecumenical council. Elector John Frederick of Saxony had asked Luther to prepare something for this union of various Lutheran territories and cities, whose purpose was to be a united military and political front against Roman Catholic politicians and armies, led by Emperor Charles V. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Luther was unable to attend the meeting because of illness, but the Smalcald Articles made its way into the Lutheran Confessions, those writings contained in the Book of Concord that all Lutherans subscribed to in 1580, ending the controversies over doctrine after Luther's death in 1546.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
This writing of Luther's has been called his "Theological Last Will and Testament". It is his most mature brief explication of justification.The "First and Chief Article" appears in the second section. It is "the main thing". We thank Martin Luther for showing us how to keep the main thing the main thing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323232; font-family: minion-pro, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.125em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; line-height: 1.45; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Eric Jonas Swensson</div>
Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-46970588694403872652018-07-07T13:45:00.003-04:002023-09-10T03:09:53.736-04:002018 Education Mission Trip to Madagascar<div style="color: #212121; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">Friends of Madagascar Mission sponsors seven mission programs in Madagascar with the largest being the Prison Ministry program. FOMM currently supports programs in 12 of 80 prisons in Madagascar and is rapidly expanding the program to oth</span><span class="text_exposed_show" face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-size: 14px;">er prisons. The program was started by a former prisoner who is one of the current program leaders. Today we attended a service at the prison at Antanimora in Antananarivo.</span></div>
<div style="color: #212121; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">One of the Bible readings at the prison service this morning was Matthew 25:35 - 36. "For I was hungry and you gave
me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Could it have been any more appropriate?
The Prison Ministry program address all of these areas of need.<img alt="prison choir" border="0" data-imagetype="External" src="https://ministrymissionmadagascar.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/prison-choir.jpg?w=560" style="max-width: 560px;" /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #212121; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">(This is the prison choir, the choir director on the right, in the prison courtyard)</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #212121; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">After leaving the prison we traveled to Hope Lutheran Church. There we met with National
Program leaders and four district representatives for the Prison Ministry Program. Each district representative explained how the program was being implemented and rapidly expanded in the prison in their district. One of the challenges we recognized during
the presentations was while each district is conducting a program that is rapidly growing, each program is different. This led to a discussion on how the leaders at the national level can structure a program management process that will help districts follow
consistent procedures and learn from each other. This was followed by a presentation on the history of the Fifohazana movement. The movement arose out of the political turmoil and abject poverty that existed at the beginning of the 20th century and continued
for over seventy years influencing the Lutheran Church in Madagascar even today. During our meeting we were provided with an outstanding lunch prepared by students in the culinary program at the School for the Deaf.</span></span></div>
Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-39550269624857289812023-09-06T06:21:00.007-04:002023-09-09T06:10:38.100-04:00Is Grass Blue?<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9S3C1zmWBvauzb17P-d6KALkjxVw08eJR9JooULe7lPm19LwWgjbv0tNWwk9sFNQTBX00DfipQHwcbsevhEKBv6B-ugo71BmIEBVTrdn3BoIh5lMkbVLsZHBTrh_eN1GCvJ6ogQpY0ugcE98QxkuKCjnRySkk-NciPU2j8YjKi7K07lRWbo8s-g/s2715/donkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2715" data-original-width="2458" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9S3C1zmWBvauzb17P-d6KALkjxVw08eJR9JooULe7lPm19LwWgjbv0tNWwk9sFNQTBX00DfipQHwcbsevhEKBv6B-ugo71BmIEBVTrdn3BoIh5lMkbVLsZHBTrh_eN1GCvJ6ogQpY0ugcE98QxkuKCjnRySkk-NciPU2j8YjKi7K07lRWbo8s-g/s320/donkey.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br /><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-size: 17px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-size: 17px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The donkey told the tiger, “The grass is blue.”</span></p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="font-size: 17px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The tiger replied, “No, the grass is green.”
The discussion became heated, and the two decided to submit the issue to arbitration, so they approached the lion.
As they approached the lion on his throne, the donkey said, ′′Your Highness, isn’t it true that the grass is blue?”
The lion replied: “If you believe it is true, the grass is blue.”
′′The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me, and annoys me. Please punish him.”
The king then declared: ′′The tiger will be punished with 3 days of silence.”
The donkey jumped with joy and went on his way, content and repeating ′′The grass is blue, the grass is blue…”
The tiger asked the lion, “Your Majesty, why have you punished me, after all, the grass is green?”
The lion replied, ′′You’ve seen for yourself that the grass is green.”
The tiger asked, ′′So why do you punish me?”
The lion replied, “This has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is degrading for an intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew was true!”
Arguing with a fool, or a fanatic who only cares about winning an argument is a waste of breath. Never spend too much time on discussions that go nowhere. There are people who, for all the evidence presented to them, will never cede their position. Others are blinded by something like ego, or resentment, and the only thing that they want is to be right, even if they aren’t. Arguing only hardens them. If it is someone you know, shrug your shoulders, and wait for another day. Don't give up on people but be content to plant a seed and move on. Someone else can water the seed, or not. many will die in their foolishness. Prayer is the best resort.</span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-16143562243074602312019-11-21T15:23:00.003-05:002023-09-09T05:58:14.622-04:00Now Thank We All Our God <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face="Segoe UI, sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0OweLiTUprvQqEe28RwWN1Ib8Wtf3YDPXFM_oftTnEp32EL2dl_z54xo_nhevB9T2H3uvmmhz7SnhnxdF9JFyazSNGk8OhOiJxJMufCQCr3KQD3cFYKH0r49L7R3uRmyGXEyL9M9ys9gYQmi_fOEEvHE-eDKQcYLGNCxnv7ljEHA3CDeIIEFWg/s800/Thanksgiving%20John1-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="800" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0OweLiTUprvQqEe28RwWN1Ib8Wtf3YDPXFM_oftTnEp32EL2dl_z54xo_nhevB9T2H3uvmmhz7SnhnxdF9JFyazSNGk8OhOiJxJMufCQCr3KQD3cFYKH0r49L7R3uRmyGXEyL9M9ys9gYQmi_fOEEvHE-eDKQcYLGNCxnv7ljEHA3CDeIIEFWg/s320/Thanksgiving%20John1-16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><span face="Segoe UI, sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><span face="Segoe UI, sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><span face="Segoe UI, sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Thanksgiving Day is known for many things. More people fly to visit their family on this day than any other. People share </span>recipes<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> in preparation, and much good food is shared. Some people still begin the annual </span>celebration<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> by attending worship services. One hymn we sing is "We Gather Together". I like an updated verse to it that reads:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face="Segoe UI, sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>We
gather together to ask for God's blessing,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> t</span>o
turn to a wisdom surpassing our own;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>the
pow'rs that oppress us now cease to distress us.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>O God,
be present with us, and make your will know.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>I have fond memories of Thanksgiving
services I would help lead at Holy Trinity, and we would always sing this, too:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHgbMD-gzh5wBIv-Ios4EtIsmOKpMQ2nkhkKB8yCy15mvZmwkSx3EGiwb5LcEcm5AZYeEluDthtoXxKYvGQJGRVqbJQpuNGcnGRXiRL3kFWBvW4fO-bZU6flE6YdiV7UWcIBP5kN7nHiQSuwEaaIW3UqzLrrh-UH3UmU45xecAI7UY61IhBqbng/s1999/Thanksgiving%20come.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1109" data-original-width="1999" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHgbMD-gzh5wBIv-Ios4EtIsmOKpMQ2nkhkKB8yCy15mvZmwkSx3EGiwb5LcEcm5AZYeEluDthtoXxKYvGQJGRVqbJQpuNGcnGRXiRL3kFWBvW4fO-bZU6flE6YdiV7UWcIBP5kN7nHiQSuwEaaIW3UqzLrrh-UH3UmU45xecAI7UY61IhBqbng/s320/Thanksgiving%20come.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><i style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;">Come,
ye thankful people, come,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>raise
the song of harvest home;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>all is
safely gathered in,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>ere
the winter storms begin.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>God
our Maker doth provide<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>for
our wants to be supplied.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>But my
favorite is "Now Thank We All Our God," written by Martin Rinkart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Now
thank we all our God<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>With
heart and hands and voices,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Who
wondrous things hath done,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>In
whom His world rejoices;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Who
from our mother's arms<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Hath
blessed us on our way<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>With
countless gifts of love,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
still is ours today.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Oh,
may this bounteous God<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Through
all our life be near us,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>With
ever joyful hearts<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
blessed peace to cheer us;<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
keep us in His grace<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
guide us when perplexed<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
free us from all ills<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>In
this world and the next.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>All
praise and thanks to God<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Father now be given,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Son, and Him who reigns<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>With
them in highest heaven:<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The one
eternal God,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Whom
earth and heaven adore!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>For
thus it was, is now,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i>And
shall be evermore.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjts2dE-lb-ZYGdyAshDcNRscEhLboxFBcSPtvwTGu3rwEMKi3waX40iU835ct0XeAFKP7BeSXqk7gMnMZY5L83Zr2nPSkgeTnN-ugnjeiJAtPOVwW_HrxxHsFtIIuAHNiSFJjYYG3urrEZny2xziO5PpXqso3tR1NwnamPG46xPCjnviRVz0SUJw/s4305/Martin_Rinckart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4305" data-original-width="2731" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjts2dE-lb-ZYGdyAshDcNRscEhLboxFBcSPtvwTGu3rwEMKi3waX40iU835ct0XeAFKP7BeSXqk7gMnMZY5L83Zr2nPSkgeTnN-ugnjeiJAtPOVwW_HrxxHsFtIIuAHNiSFJjYYG3urrEZny2xziO5PpXqso3tR1NwnamPG46xPCjnviRVz0SUJw/w254-h400/Martin_Rinckart.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Pastor
Rinkart<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was a Lutheran minister who came
to Eilenburg, Saxony at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The walled city
of Eilenburg became the refuge for political and military fugitives, but the
result was overcrowding, and deadly pestilence and famine. Armies overran it
three times. The Rinkart home was a refuge for the victims, even though he was
often hard-pressed to provide for his own family. During the height of a severe
plague in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in Eilenburg, conducting
as many as 50 funerals in a day. He performed more than 4000 funerals in that
year including that of his wife. That a person who experienced so much suffering
could compose the hymn we sing at Thanksgiving services speaks volumes about
how faith can truly make us rise above our circumstances, whatever they may be.
And what great grace is this gift from our loving Father!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-2567560170932751262023-07-14T07:06:00.002-04:002023-09-09T05:31:10.858-04:00Liturgy and Awakening <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguvcKNFMRoaykRFODGFHuGb8-eJJ7RqZ_59tiw_oYCUm71Krydg4-riCqzUSxbghOTu9SjuzgGWj-IuLp3rZVO7DuxX2PPPCHK9M854Xd-feyta9JutwI6c8-pCrCoFMbAdM_1NOdChUBF5hzbzcfewTPkQBVaFtCUYntaZhP6w1LTl5bYiYctNQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="349" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguvcKNFMRoaykRFODGFHuGb8-eJJ7RqZ_59tiw_oYCUm71Krydg4-riCqzUSxbghOTu9SjuzgGWj-IuLp3rZVO7DuxX2PPPCHK9M854Xd-feyta9JutwI6c8-pCrCoFMbAdM_1NOdChUBF5hzbzcfewTPkQBVaFtCUYntaZhP6w1LTl5bYiYctNQ" width="186" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Liturgy and Awakening </div><div style="text-align: center;">Bo Giertz</div><div><br /></div><div><span> </span>"It is important for us that both awakening and liturgy be given their proper and pristine Christian place in the life of the congregation. Awakening is always needed, not only because the church must always be a missionary church and reach out after those that are on the outside, but also because there is always the need for awakening even among the most faithful members of the church. The church has exactly as many sinners as she has members. The old Adam in each one of us is prone to fall asleep, to make the Christian life a dead routine, to use liturgical form to cloak his self-complacency and impenitence. It is not difficult to fashion a form of religion that suits the ego and allows the old Adam within to become sovereign again. One may go regularly to church and Holy Communion. One may cherish beautiful church music and lovely sanctuaries. One may be honestly convinced that one possesses the correct doctrine and loves the pure preaching of the Word. And at the same time one may be thoroughly obsessed by self-love, complacent with one's self, satisfied with one's own pious accomplishments and totally indifferent to the troubles and burdens of one's fellow men, which are so apparent before one's very eyes. The Holy Spirit always needs to awaken slumbering souls, stir up the dust, push the old Adam against the wall, and blow a new breath of life into the dead bones. Awakening is never superfluous, as long as we are in the flesh.</div><div><br /></div><div><span> "</span>Liturgy is just as needful. There can be no normal church life without liturgy. Sacraments need form, the order of worship must have some definite pattern. It is possible to live for a short time on improvisations and on forms that are constantly changing and being made over. One may use only free prayers and yet create a new ritual for every worship situation. But the possibilities are soon exhausted. One will have to repeat, and with that the making of rituals is in full swing. In circles where people seek to live without any forms new forms are nevertheless constantly taking shape. Favorite songs are used again and again with monotonous regularity, certain prayer expressions are constantly repeated, traditions take form and traditional yearly ceremonies are served. But it would not be wrong to say that the new forms that grow up in this way are usually less attractive and more profane than the ancient liturgy. They contain less of God's Word, they pray and speak without Scriptural direction, they are not so much concerned about expressing the whole content of Scripture, but are satisfied with one thing or another that seems to be especially attractive or popular. The new liturgy that grows in this manner is poorer, less Biblical, and less nourishing to the soul than the discarded ancient order." </div><div><br /></div><div>(from Giertz's Liturgy and Spiritual Awakening; excerpt from his letter to the Gothenburg diocese upon assuming the bishop's post [Herdabrev, 1949]).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-80326763780537463382023-09-06T14:00:00.002-04:002023-09-08T10:00:36.464-04:00W.H.Auden and contemporary liturgy <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aCfYAp7kMjMDA212nL809M5W-etIW9CfYT_3wjmmRBEN_QjkX4k7S68TNMpSApKJLcTs1r2cAXwDU5zxkP28xr4-g52297xk6RXm1iOSRT5hoeiwn9DNTVJXd0w1BnBE74OOeKizOjoNEJdy-bF8SiHkuxKcrkVho5kH5u8e52fik-JlcY84pA/s640/church%20st%20augustine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="634" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aCfYAp7kMjMDA212nL809M5W-etIW9CfYT_3wjmmRBEN_QjkX4k7S68TNMpSApKJLcTs1r2cAXwDU5zxkP28xr4-g52297xk6RXm1iOSRT5hoeiwn9DNTVJXd0w1BnBE74OOeKizOjoNEJdy-bF8SiHkuxKcrkVho5kH5u8e52fik-JlcY84pA/s320/church%20st%20augustine.jpg" width="317" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In 1968 W.H. Auden flew from England to the US to sit on a committee devoted to making liturgy more accessible to modern congregations. He observed that “a demand for liturgical change came not from the laity…but from priests hoping to attract the young by looking trendy... Contemporaneity is not the criterion for an authentic language of prayer. It consists instead in a language which is felt to be shared across the ages”.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The Book of Common Prayer: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) Illustrated Edition by Brian Cummings</div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-88343768234834907332014-12-10T10:49:00.006-05:002023-09-08T09:54:27.742-04:00 Arise, shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueFFoeACVf6tZVrMO_pvR2eEqmaz5VdzL07xLb5q4jQEYrEO5IVej8ibaJafSNuRYO9ymQMiQIYgHKF2bivxItlaOKz5FWjhjbbNJYny1o1Z6JuxtWatlw6gHZbq4Ve-hduI0_g/s1600/Sunrise+St.+Augustine++4-26-2014+820x628.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueFFoeACVf6tZVrMO_pvR2eEqmaz5VdzL07xLb5q4jQEYrEO5IVej8ibaJafSNuRYO9ymQMiQIYgHKF2bivxItlaOKz5FWjhjbbNJYny1o1Z6JuxtWatlw6gHZbq4Ve-hduI0_g/s1600/Sunrise+St.+Augustine++4-26-2014+820x628.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="r-break" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>Arise, shine, for your light has come, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>For behold, darkness covers the land; </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>deep gloom enshrouds the peoples.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>But over you the Lord will rise, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>and his glory will appear upon you.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>Nations will stream to your light, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>and kings to the brightness of your dawning.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>Your gates will always be open; </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>by day or night they will never be shut.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>They will call you, The City of the Lord, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>Violence will no more be heard in your land, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>ruin or destruction within your borders.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>You will call your walls, Salvation, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>and all your portals, Praise.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>The sun will no more be your light by day; </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>by night you will not need the brightness of the moon.</i></div>
<div class="r" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>The Lord will be your everlasting light, </i></div>
<div class="r2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<i>and your God will be your glory.</i></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">
<br data-mce-bogus="1" /></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<em>The Third Song of Isaiah;</em></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Isaiah 60:1–3, 11a, 14c, 18–19</div>
Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-51987118323007127742011-10-26T09:08:00.001-04:002023-09-08T06:18:02.086-04:00Arise to Live with God by L. Deane Lagerquist<div class="posterous_autopost"><div class="posterous_bookmarklet_entry"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0LUwi1PuHs7VKTaJMPBjxa3ouYs8v7FxpMoswJWBIkORZFJ8BhzZZKFyz7wZiFnhmfGpH-3XkuewFNcuRKBZmrZZKb11p2TGRzrOLdmDl_a8kO-NAjf2Fiq-RkwaqpLdDbw0vHSpII9QMXb6lyTluRsjh4XZaCpZjg7ojyjwUtihbKX70oAszg/s300/Johann-Arndt-Illustration-by-D.Klitsie-226x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0LUwi1PuHs7VKTaJMPBjxa3ouYs8v7FxpMoswJWBIkORZFJ8BhzZZKFyz7wZiFnhmfGpH-3XkuewFNcuRKBZmrZZKb11p2TGRzrOLdmDl_a8kO-NAjf2Fiq-RkwaqpLdDbw0vHSpII9QMXb6lyTluRsjh4XZaCpZjg7ojyjwUtihbKX70oAszg/s16000/Johann-Arndt-Illustration-by-D.Klitsie-226x300.jpg" title="Johann Arndt. Illustration by D. Klitsie" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">Johann Arndt by D. Klitsie</div></span><div class="p_embed p_image_embed"><br /></div><div class="p_embed p_image_embed"><i>Jailed for reading the word, Lutheran pietists, though at times rejected, still show us how God makes us new</i></div> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Preparing to travel across an ocean and half a continent, many 19th century Lutheran immigrants to the United States made room in their luggage for a Bible. Almost as many also packed Johann Arndt's <i>True Christianity</i>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In that influential work Arndt wrote, "God did not reveal the Holy Scriptures so that they might externally on paper remain a dead letter, but that they might become living in us in spirit and faith and that a completely new inner person might arise." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Arndt emphasized that "getting the gospel" is not merely a matter of knowledge. It involves renewal of the believer's life. Studying the Bible, hearing it read and preached, and singing its words are merely beginnings. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Without the animation of the Spirit, the words on the page remain dead letters. But when the Spirit fills the acts of reading, hearing, singing and studying with faith--those habits bear spiritual fruit. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">German Lutherans influenced by Arndt and led by Pastor Philipp Spener gathered regularly in the late 1600s to pray together, encourage one another to grow in grace and to read the Bible. At the University of Halle [Germany], Spener and his colleagues operated an orphanage, several schools and a press. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This pietist movement grew and spread from Germany through missionaries' work, publishing and social ministry. Hymn writer Paul Gerhardt put pietist themes to music. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of American Lutheranism, was one of several colonial pastors formed by German pietism. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge traveled the length of Norway encouraging spiritual awakening and moral behavior. In certain areas of Scandinavia, pietists' insistence upon reading the Bible for themselves led to their being called "Readers." In some places, small group meetings to read and pray were prohibited by law. Hauge spent several years in jail for violating these regulations. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">From the pietist movement, Lutherans have an example of the value of reading the Bible in private as well as in public, for personal as well as corporate benefits. Small groups join together to read the Bible asking what God's message is for them today. Individuals also turn to Scripture expecting to find Jesus there, cradled in human language as ordinary as the wooden manger where Mary laid him. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The image of the Bible as the Christ-child's manger is Martin Luther's. It reminds us that the words on the page are only so many marks until the Spirit gives us faith. We expect to meet God when reading the Bible, but we do not replace God with the book. Rather, we use all the tools we have to understand the words of the book so that we are prepared to receive the Child. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the resources we have to help us follow the example of the pietists are daily devotional books and lectionary readings. Various authors and publishers provide a wealth of volumes following a similar format--a biblical passage, a brief meditation on the passage and a related prayer are provided for each day. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Amid full and busy lives, many 20th century Lutherans make room in their days to use one of these devotional books. Used by tens of thousands, God's Word for Today by O. Hallesby leads the reader through an entire year and can be used year after year. The popular series Christ in Our Home, as well as The Word in Season and The Home Altar (the latter for parents and children), appear for quarterly replacement from Augsburg Fortress. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As public worship is guided in its reading of the Bible by a lectionary, so, too, each Christian may follow a series of appointed readings. The Lutheran Book of Worship (page 179) offers a two-year cycle of three daily readings. Some prefer to read the Bible a chapter at a time. The particular schedule is less important than the discipline of regular, prayerful encounter with Scripture. The LBW also provides a scheme for including a psalm text in daily devotion (page 178). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Together or alone, in worship, study or devotion--when the Spirit illumines our reading of the Bible its words come to life, we meet God and a new person arises. </span></p><p> L. Deane Lagerquist</p><p><i><b>For further reading:</b></i><br />True Christianity, Johann Arndt, Paulist Press, 1979.</p><p>Daily Readings from Spiritual Classics, edited by Paul Ofstedal, Augsburg, 1990.</p><p>Four Northern Lights: Men Who Shaped Scandinavian Churches, G. Everett Arden, Augsburg, 1964.</p></div> </div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-1148667017239743422006-05-26T14:07:00.000-04:002023-09-08T05:42:52.729-04:00Martin Luther, Alien Righteousness, Finnish Interpretation<span style="font-size: medium;">Though the article has been moved from anyone's front page, the soundness of the Finnish interpretation of Martin Luther is theologically interesting. I am not competent to offer an opinion, but the following excerpt from Phillip Cary’s article “Why Luther is Not Quite Protestant” discusses alien righteousness in Luther's theology, and that is always relevant. (Pro Ecclesia [Fall 2005], 466-470)." -<br /><br />* * * * *<br /><br />The crucial conceptual difference between Luther and more consistent Protestants therefore concerns the direction of attention. Whereas Calvin, who is as sacramental in his thinking as a consistent Protestant gets, has the external sign directing our attention away from itself to a spiritual gift, Luther wants us to find the inner, spiritual gift precisely by directing our attention toward a specific external sign or word. To find an inner gift in external things is precisely the structure of sacramental efficacy as medieval Catholicism understood it. It also brings into play the logic of perception, for the sacrament is external precisely in that it is not a spiritual reality or universal principle but a thing perceived by the senses. According to the theory of perception Luther learned from medieval Aristotelianism, our minds become one with the form of the external object we perceive. So the form of Christ is in us precisely to the extent that we believe what we hear him say in his external word. Faith takes hold of nothing but Christ in his word, which means Christ is himself the “form of faith” or even “my form” insofar as Christ and believers become one, so that the latter have “the form of Christ” and “they think of God altogether as He feels in His heart and they have the same form in their mind that God or Christ has” [LW 26:129f, 167 and 430f]. Hence in contrast to most modern theories of consciousness (especially those of 19th century Germany, which have been exceedingly influential in theology) Luther does not assume that if something is in our minds we must be conscious of its presence within us or have experience of it. On the contrary, Christ is united to us in the depths of our hearts precisely as we look away from ourselves and take hold of Christ in his word. The Aristotelian theory of perception, though running contrary to modern assumptions, makes good sense once you get used to it: it articulates the way we get the color green into our minds by looking outside the mind at green things and get music in our hearts by paying attention to physical sounds. The outward turn of our attention is how the external form (color, music, Christ) becomes none other than the shape of our hearts. In the same way, Luther is thinking, faith brings Christ into our hearts by taking hold of him in his external word. Hence what faith learns by experience is to pay no attention to the experience of faith but only to the gospel of Christ. If your attention is focused on how you’re experiencing the music, then you’re not paying enough attention to the music.<br /><br />Because Christ is formed in the heart by faith, Luther is even willing on occasion to use the scholastic term “formal righteousness,” whose role in medieval doctrines of justification he often criticized. The point about the word “form” is that it does not mean mere outward shell (as in modern form/content distinctions) but the essence or substance of a thing (as in Aristotle). The form of righteousness is substantial righteousness, not something merely imputed to us. Of course for Luther our formal righteousness cannot be a quality or habit of the soul, such as an Aristotelian virtue or skill acquired by repeated practice. That would mean we become righteous by doing good works, which Luther thinks is as absurd as trying to make a tree good by making it bear good fruit. That gets things backwards: the fruit does not bear the tree, but the other way around! The “substance or person himself” must first be good before he can do good works, just as a tree must be good before it can bear good fruit [LW 31:361]. This is precisely to say: the form of Christ must be in our hearts by faith, and then it is possible for us to do all the good things we ought. So in effect an Aristotelian theory of perception (receiving the form of Christ in our hearts by hearing his word) replaces the Aristotelian theory of habituation (developing the form of righteousness in our souls by doing good works) in explaining how we come to have a share in the righteousness of God. Luther is willing to call this a “formal righteousness,” not in the medieval sense of the concept of created grace but as the uncreated grace, as it were, of Christ’s presence in us by faith: “Christ and faith must be completely joined…. He lives and works in us, not speculatively but really, with presence and with power” [LW 26:357].<br /><br />Precisely this formal righteousness is therefore, in Luther’s favored terminology, an alien righteousness. It is called alien not because it remains outside us, but because it is the righteousness of another (justitia alieni) which is “infused from outside” [LW 31:297]. It is Christ’s righteousness, not our own, and we find it only outside ourselves. But by the logic of external sacramental efficacy, what we find outside ourselves is formed in us as we perceive it in faith. So this alien righteousness is emphatically our possession, because faith unites us with Christ as our bridegroom so that “Mine are Christ’s living, doing and speaking, his suffering and dying” [LW 31:297]. So once again, if we believe it we have it: “everything which Christ has is ours” because “he is entirely ours with all his benefits if we believe in him” [LW 31:298]. Thus the justified soul “has Christ itself as its righteousness” [LW 31:300]. It is not enough, therefore, to say that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us—though that is one of the things Luther does say. What must also be said is that faith receives nothing less than Christ himself, and therefore his righteousness as well. It is alien righteousness only in the sense that it is the righteousness of the bridegroom, not the bride—and precisely as such is the bride’s possession, for all he has is hers. This means that faith possesses an inward righteousness in the heart. The righteousness of faith is “outside of us and foreign to us” only in the sense that it “cannot be laid hold of by our works,” for it is faith alone that takes hold of Christ [LW 31:153]. But faith does not leave Christ outside, as if he were merely someone to think about or believe in, but embraces him, saying “He is my beloved and I am his” [LW 34:110]. So faith does not just believe in Christ but takes him to heart. In the language of the great Galatians commentary of 1535, faith apprehends or takes hold of Christ himself in his word, in such a way that he is not merely the object of faith but “the One who is present in the faith itself” [LW 26:129]. This is precisely why for Luther faith is rightly called a “formal righteousness” [LW 26:130].<br /><br />So the outward turn of attention in Luther’s doctrine of justification, based on a kind of sacramental externalism and summed up in the phrase “alien righteousness,” must not be confused with the very different externalism of the purely forensic doctrines of justification that predominate in Protestantism, according to which the righteousness of faith makes no inward change in us but only gets Christ’s merits imputed to us. On the contrary, for Luther the alien righteousness of faith is the deepest thing in me: it is Christ dwelling in my heart and conscience as a bridegroom in the bridal chamber, so that “Christ and my conscience … become one body” with the result that I am an entirely different person. I am reborn as that good tree which can bear good fruit, a person who can by faith actually do good works, which make up what Luther calls my own “proper” righteousness. his latter is not the inward and alien righteousness in the depth of my heart, by which I am justified before God, but the external works of righteousness I do for the sake of my body or my neighbor.<br /><br />We must get used to such apparent reversals in Luther: my own proper righteousness is merely external to me, a thing of the body, while an alien righteousness, found outside me, is what is deepest in my soul. The only way such reversals make sense is if Luther is thinking sacramentally, in terms of an inward gift that I apprehend outside myself.<br /><br />Phillip Cary</span>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-58062553168982959932023-09-06T15:18:00.000-04:002023-09-06T15:18:58.201-04:00We do not depend on our own strength, but on that which is outside ourselves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGIY0a4oe67pnnOFcko7vVl07T31XgKu86rzMvSqviJoD7vhgbaHeAeCCPmdQvhUDRuOfQ40GeDvZicGEi_HCA7lqjvXcPsl4oZz_Uhl4DQLwvfgBfBas94O84DnCADEM9YeMTA/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="700" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGIY0a4oe67pnnOFcko7vVl07T31XgKu86rzMvSqviJoD7vhgbaHeAeCCPmdQvhUDRuOfQ40GeDvZicGEi_HCA7lqjvXcPsl4oZz_Uhl4DQLwvfgBfBas94O84DnCADEM9YeMTA/w483-h185/image.png" width="483"></a></div><br><br></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<br></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;"><span style="font-size: large;">
This is the reason why our theology is certain, it snatches us away from ourselves and places us outside ourselves, so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person, or works but depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is, on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br></div>
</div>
Martin Luther, LW 26:387 Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-22141587271404324942023-09-06T14:01:00.001-04:002023-09-06T14:01:48.622-04:00Dispel our darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQ_Zb5MGEJxJrlMqJWwUNFzD-8Yip61YjmzP5bwS0MOQik2Uh78ntOq3v_o_nh0U2oV_gY55YuW22UBp-MASn08LtlWwT3T8DyzYbfadviG0IB0LurJtjlv6p1tqnOKXXpuj0J-QAgBsqX86C9GT2JaFpHaUlEOEMJUTGQ8BgnaDblKfZTUgBaag" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQ_Zb5MGEJxJrlMqJWwUNFzD-8Yip61YjmzP5bwS0MOQik2Uh78ntOq3v_o_nh0U2oV_gY55YuW22UBp-MASn08LtlWwT3T8DyzYbfadviG0IB0LurJtjlv6p1tqnOKXXpuj0J-QAgBsqX86C9GT2JaFpHaUlEOEMJUTGQ8BgnaDblKfZTUgBaag" width="400">
</a>
</div><div>God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heros and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to Your honour and glory. </div><div><br></div><div>Augustine of Hippo.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixFnIUzD9MLw8nZ1sdG8Bxdw1XzUC6xgF4jp8LToTzOIL9q-KkeVFe_habeWMTF3a2uO4t4WcRk4Kss-xfaNTN-knsIywHYdQwEactMJNECcQeO9VBXwZ3fVuLkNkwQV2f_MkbaGKSYhH0xd9n5GrbOrAfMjw8KKJQ0HqDHg3SiLE-nsWy7b11Cw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixFnIUzD9MLw8nZ1sdG8Bxdw1XzUC6xgF4jp8LToTzOIL9q-KkeVFe_habeWMTF3a2uO4t4WcRk4Kss-xfaNTN-knsIywHYdQwEactMJNECcQeO9VBXwZ3fVuLkNkwQV2f_MkbaGKSYhH0xd9n5GrbOrAfMjw8KKJQ0HqDHg3SiLE-nsWy7b11Cw" width="400">
</a>
</div></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11129513.post-31913444354968691192023-09-02T12:24:00.003-04:002023-09-06T06:40:37.836-04:00Trust God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEga4RLRfZFYwIz1eJLof3F5Le8bg8P8rKgO6Memh251I6ZvYYXdTjj26CXbQtSWMYb4qay7aFjOIunFLcivRhRtlkSt9zMxPqmit7aBzuV-FSDlYec4E5x24pocDaEUVOUd-P4FD-vOjfK9FvzyYfMhPp92Hd21t50KtJfxO9NPHRSsxS44LflTjw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEga4RLRfZFYwIz1eJLof3F5Le8bg8P8rKgO6Memh251I6ZvYYXdTjj26CXbQtSWMYb4qay7aFjOIunFLcivRhRtlkSt9zMxPqmit7aBzuV-FSDlYec4E5x24pocDaEUVOUd-P4FD-vOjfK9FvzyYfMhPp92Hd21t50KtJfxO9NPHRSsxS44LflTjw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjR6aHwcJX8cm-bsv6Qt32DF3OC4i0HNR9VmL36ZjUY6irMLls8cIF0DN9AjO4PbaOWG7q4y4Ogt-6Xy3I33u04EnWnF9_6qKC0Iz-oInEpVzo4i0ut7e260fveCnXC5MoNqGjBDAbZBAbiTsbh7bKvkYvgwHqPi9X4Hlv-khGbea1Jxv-ntUQsaw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1465" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjR6aHwcJX8cm-bsv6Qt32DF3OC4i0HNR9VmL36ZjUY6irMLls8cIF0DN9AjO4PbaOWG7q4y4Ogt-6Xy3I33u04EnWnF9_6qKC0Iz-oInEpVzo4i0ut7e260fveCnXC5MoNqGjBDAbZBAbiTsbh7bKvkYvgwHqPi9X4Hlv-khGbea1Jxv-ntUQsaw" width="172" /></a></div><br />
</div><div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="cfd96-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cfd96-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cfd96-0-0" style="font-size: large;">Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="553p9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="553p9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="553p9-0-0" style="font-size: large;"> which cannot be shaken but endures forever.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="9kts9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9kts9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9kts9-0-0" style="font-size: large;">As the mountains surround Jerusalem,</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="fmvd8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fmvd8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fmvd8-0-0" style="font-size: large;"> so the Lord surrounds his people</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="as7vr-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="as7vr-0-0"><span data-offset-key="as7vr-0-0" style="font-size: large;"> both now and forevermore.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="12t0s" data-offset-key="e8g54-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e8g54-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e8g54-0-0" style="font-size: large;">- Psalm 125:1-2</span></div></div></div>Eric Swenssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18400445871547886836noreply@blogger.com0