October 29th was Reformation Sunday. This October 31st marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting the 95 Thesis in the church door in Wittenberg. We Lutherans get really nerdy about that.
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Archive for the ‘Being Lutheran’ Category
Celebrating The Reformation
Saturday, November 4th, 2017
Pastor Appreciation Month – Listening To Luther
Wednesday, October 14th, 2015
October is Pastor Appreciation month and the month I like to feature the man Martin Luther. So it was great timing when I read this the other day.
“Whoever listens to you listens to me.” Luke 10:16
“God speaks through holy prophets and other persons of God, as St Peter says in his epistle, “Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (II Peter 1:21) Those who hear him should say with conviction, “At this instant I am not listening to Paul, Peter, or any human being, but I am listening to God himself speaking, baptizing, pronouncing absolution, punishing, excommunicating, or administering the sacrament.”
Oh, my Lord God, what a great comfort a poor, contrite, and broken conscience may receive from such a preacher, when it believes that such words and comfort really are God’s Word and comfort, and that God means it so. Therefore we most certainly believe that God works through his Word, which is like an instrument through which the heart may truly learn to know him.”
Martin Luther Table Talk WA Tischreden 3:673f.
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My Reformation Story – Part III
Friday, October 31st, 2014
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My friend looked at me and I forget his exact words but as clear as day I remember the meaning of them. He said something almost like this; “If you think about it, infant baptism is a really good picture of faith. If we can’t have faith apart from God, what better place to see that than with a helpless baby being baptized.”
And suddenly a light came on.
Faith. All this time my real struggle had been over that simple and huge thing. Faith. What it was, where it came from. Once I understood how completely utterly helpless I was to create or hang on to Faith, it all made sense.
Happy Reformation Day!
Friday, October 31st, 2014
“God’s Word is our great heritage,
and shall be our forever.
To spread its light from age to age,
Shall be our chief endeavor.
Through life it guides our way,
In death it is our stay.
Lord, grant while worlds endure,
we keep its teaching pure
throughout all generations.”
God’s Word is Our Great Heritage, Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig
“The soul can live without all things except the Word of God; without the Word of God nothing can help us. But when we have the Word we need nothing else, for in the Word we have enough food, joy, peace, light, art, justice, truth, wisdom, and all good things in abundance.
What then is this Word that bestows such high grace, and how shall I use it? It is nothing other than the actual preaching of Christ as it is contained in the gospel. The purpose of the preaching is that you should hear your God speaking to you, telling how all your life and works are nothing before God and how you and all that is in you would perish eternally. If you truly believe how sinful you are, you will despair of yourself entirely. But in order that you man be saved from yourself and out of yourself-that is, out of ruin-God presents to you his dearly beloved Son, Jesus, and bids you, through his living and comforting Word, to yield yourself to him with a cheerful heart. For the sake of such faith all your sins will be forgiven, your ruin overcome, and you will be just and true, content and devout, fulfilling all his commandments, and set free from all things.” Martin Luther
Now, go Trick-Or-Treat!
