Dear friends in Christ,
We continue our survey of Church History from the book of Professor E.A.W. Krauss from our St. Louis seminary of a century ago. This month we conclude our look at the Salzburgers—Lutherans from Austria who suffered on account of their faith and were eventually expelled from their homeland. The final edict of banishment was issued in 1731 on the pretext that the Lutherans were fomenting sedition and rebellion. Wilhelm I of Prussia received 20,000, while a small number found refuge in the Colony of Georgia in the New World.
39. THE LUTHERAN SALZBURGERS [Part 2]
From December 1731 to November 1732, in several groups and in various intervals, 30,000 emigrants set out on the way abroad. What made their departure from their dear homeland so difficult was that it happened as soldiers, clergy and Romanist rabble were ridiculing and mocking them. But what caused them the greatest pain was that their children were shamefully kidnapped from them. Upwards of a thousand children were snatched by force from their parents in order to keep them in the country and to be brought up Roman Catholic. Several of these little ones, however, escaped and begged all the way to the Baltic Sea to their parents.
Along the way in Catholic regions, they were still greatly mocked and insulted. The Catholic portion of the city council of Augsburg distinguished itself by the severity it showed as the gates were locked to the emigrants (there were no more than 200 in each group) as if they were an enemy army. On the other hand the Lutheran pastor from St. Anne’s Church in Augsburg, Samuel Urlsperger, rendered them truly outstanding service. The Catholic people in Donauwoerth mistreated them. It was different, though, wherever they came into an exclusively Lutheran area. King Friedrich Wilhelm I kept his promises. He sent the emigrants, who were as far away as Regensburg, a special commissioner, Johann Goebel, to receive them and to lead their procession to Prussia. And when he heard about the cruelties that the Archbishop was still allowing against the emigrants, he protested to him and threatened him with reprisals against the Catholics who lived in his states. At first this may have made an impression on the miserable man.
The king decreed that all the passages of the land were to be freely opened to the Lutheran Salzburgers and everyone was asked to do for them what a Christian ought to do for another so that they could continue their journey. As an expense allowance, four Groschen for every man, three Groschen for every woman, and two Groschen for each child were daily paid from the royal treasury. [In order to appreciate this, it must be considered that the daily pay for a common soldier at that time amounted to one Groschen!] When they settled, they were to enjoy, like other colonists, several years of no taxes. Other princes also made similar allowances to the Salzburgers.
The first Protestant city that they met and that welcomed them in a most friendly manner was Kaufbeuren. The ringing of bells welcomed them as they approached each exclusively Lutheran city; the citizens joyfully ran out to them; the noble martyrs were greeted respectfully and heartily. People vied with each to lodge them and richly supplied them with all necessities; they gave them Bibles and preached to them in the churches. They came to the places singing Lutheran hymns (A Mighty Fortress, All Praise to God, Who Reigns Above, and Commit Whatever Grieves Thee.) —Everywhere their hearty humility, simplicity and thankfulness were evident.
A Regulation of the City of Langensaltza For The Admission and Reception Of The Salzburg Emigrants, of 29 July 1732, is a four-page pamphlet appointed for the day of the expected arrival. It is as follows:
“The announcement of their arrival at the outskirts of this city is made with ringing of church bells and four deputies of the esteemed city council receive and welcome the Imperial Prussian Commissioner together with the emigrants with him. The deputies lead those arriving, preceded by the orphans of Langensaltza and their guardian, and teachers as the following hymns are sung: Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word, Salvation Unto Us Has Come, If God Were Not Upon Our Side, and In Thee, Lord, Have I Put My Trust. They are led to the field to the suburb of the gate of Gotha, where a very reverend ministerium, the school colleagues, including the candidates for the ministry and students of theology together with the entire school, also a detachment of the townspeople with weapons await them. Then the arriving emigrants will be placed in a procession with the candidates and theology students placed at the sides. All the bells of the city will be sounded and the entrance will take place as follows:
1. First, a portion of the detachment of the townspeople with guns
2. The entire school in order of the six classes with their instructors
3. The very reverend ministerium
4. The deputies of the city council
5. The imperial Prussian Commissar
6. The emigrants from Salzburg, two by two in procession
7. The rest of the summoned townspeople standing with guns
“During this procession and their entrance into the city to the church in the market square, the hymns From God Shall Naught Divide Me, A Mighty Fortress, and O God, Our Lord, Thy Holy Word are sung. With this the emigrants are led into the market church, that is, the Church of St. Boniface. There they are positioned facing and around the small pulpit as the hymn, ‘Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord!’ begins to be sung. After this a homily of greeting and comfort from Psalm 4.4 is given by Tentzel, the head of the consistory and Superintendent, and then, after singing the hymn Who Trusts in God, a Strong Abode, he blesses them. Finally, the service is concluded with the hymn Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide; and just like they were led in the church so also now the emigrants led by the school and ministers and with the singing of the hymn, My Soul, Now Bless Thy Maker, and are brought before the town hall at the market square and there directed to their provision. When they leave it will be just like at their arrival; also everything possible is done to help them on their journey. –Langen-Saltza, 29 July 1732.”
The welcome in Leipzig and Berlin was especially hearty. The first group arrived in Berlin on 30 April 1732. The king met them at the Leipzig Gate, encouraged them and welcomed them as his dear citizens. The queen entertained them in the castle garden, Montbijou, and gave them bibles and money. In particular, the preachers in Berlin rendered them outstanding service. Because they were then so often praised and celebrated as witnesses of the truth, it was certainly a well-timed timed word when the provost, Reinbeck, told them, “Remain steadfast in the good! Do not become arrogant because you have forsook something on account of the name of Christ and because some admire and praise you. You have now indeed escaped the might of your adversities and in the lands of our king you no longer have to fear the same persecution. But do not think that because of it you will now have only good and peaceful days in the world. The dear cross finds itself everywhere; if it does not come in one way, it comes in another. Therefore pray God daily for new help that you may do everything well and keep the victory.”
An account included in the Spiritual Report about such a passage of Salzburgers through Friedberg in the Wetterau contained several beautiful passages: “250 of the Salzburg emigrants passed through here this week…The simplicity, uprightness, and sincere fear of God radiated from their eyes and in all their actions. They are very modest, unassuming, thankful and uncommonly frugal, eating and drinking little and take nothing more than necessary. Although they are considered just to be livestock workers and farmhands, they nevertheless conducted themselves unassumingly as moral people. Their elders can read and the people show them extraordinary obedience so that without their permission no one promises or withholds, and not even a Heller is kept or spent without their consent. Even the greatest general cannot boast of such an obedient soldier, and the elders themselves do not even know that their command has so much influence because everything is done in love….They judge themselves to be unworthy of their many blessings and greatly praise God’s gracious providing… When the church was over, a collection of 200 Gulden was gathered for them in addition to what each had given at home. Then the citizens scrambled for their dear guests and did not want to be separated from them. Instead, they took them by the hand and led them home and presented them boiled and fried food, although they ate very little, preferring the coarse food, cheese and the like rather than roasted food. The whole city was as excited as it is when it holds a great festival….The people have such a good concept of their natural corruption that it is surprising; and they always said that they were completely unworthy servants. O, what a difference there is between a Christianity that is taught and one that is experienced! To me there is no other ceremony in the world that seemed as remarkable as this one…. This good people seemed to come from an apostolic school and doctrine.”
In the end, the fund established to assist the Salzburgers rose to 900,000 Gulden. These were gifts of Lutherans through whose region the emigrants did not pass through but who also wanted to show their love and sympathy. Many of these Salzburgers went to Lithuania, others we will again meet in America. Wherever they went, they adorned the doctrine of God, their Savior, with a good walk in all areas. No country regretted having taken them in.
The pope intentionally praised Archbishop Firmian for persecuting and expelling the Salzburgers and gave him the title of “Excellency.” Yes, he had really distinguished himself!!
We do not conclude this reflection here with a look at this wretched servant of pope and sin, but with a verse of another Salzburger exile hymn by Schweiger:
The temporal good may depart
If only heaven is my gain.
Whoever has Jesus is rich enough
On his exile march.
So far Professor Krauss
BRING YOUR POINSETTA TO CHURCH CHRISTMAS EVE! You can help beautify our sanctuary on Christmas Eve by bringing a poinsettia to church with you. Then bring it home with you to enjoy and beautify your home as you celebrate Jesus’ birth. Remember our Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols is at 7 pm.
LWML NEWS: We have had a very good month. Some of us were able to attend the fall rally in Wellsboro on 15 November. While there we found out that we will be hosting the spring rally. More details on that will be coming over the next few months, I’m sure.
This year we are blessed to begin Advent and thus the new Church Year on 29 November. In honor of and to welcome the new Church Year, we will be hosting our Fifth Sunday Lunch after service. It will be pot luck. We will have sign-up sheets available during Coffee Hour on the 22nd. Be sure to join us.
Our next event is the Christmas cookie exchange on 20 December. We may need to have a short meeting that day to plan our Epiphany dinner.
God Bless and have a blessed Advent season,
Carol, Pres.
THIS YEAR ST. NICHOLAS DAY, O6 DECEMBER, falls on a Sunday. On this Sunday we will remember St. Nicholas. As we do so, we follow in the footsteps of our Synodical fathers. In the first church books published by our synod, there are readings appointed for this day. Those are the readings we will use in church as they dovetail nicely with the readings and themes of the Second Sunday in Advent.
SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS: For the past year our Sunday School children have been putting on brunches and dinners after church and saving their change, so that they can show mercy and buy farm animals for people in a poor countries. Now they are ready to decide exactly which animals they will buy and to give the poor. Pray that the Lord lead them in their choosing. They thank you for your help and support in this project. Please continue to pray for our Sunday School that the children may continue to grow in Christ.
SHOULD WE FEEL BAD FOR CHOPPING DOWN A CHRISTMAS TREE?
THE FOLLOWING COMES FROM THE BOOK EVERDAY SAINTS AND OTHER STORIES by ARCHIMANDRITE TIKHON [SHENKUNOV], NAMED “RUSSIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR.”
ALTHOUGH THE FOLLOWING DEALS WITH PENTECOST PREPARATIONS, IT IS QUITE FITTING AS WE THINK ABOUT CHOPPING DOWN A TREE FOR CHURCH
Once on the eve of Pentecost, Father Raphael and I and Ilya Danilovich went into a grove together to gather young birch twigs, so as to decorate the church as is the custom for this feast day. But as we were beginning to chop little trees, I suddenly felt pity for them. Here in this grove, the tree had grown and grown, and now we were chopping it down, ending its entire life so that it decorates our church for some two days. My sadness angered Father Raphael. “You don’t understand anything, Georgiy Alexandrovich! The little birch tree will be simply overjoyed to be decorating the Temple of God. [pg. 464]
THE SEASON OF ADVENT—
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. [Isaiah 43.19]
Through His prophet Isaiah, the Lord promised to do a new thing. He would rescue His people from their captivity in Babylon. He would “make a way in the wilderness” so that His exiled people could return home to dwell with Him.
The Lord is faithful to His promises. He raised up a prophet, John the Baptizer, the one of whom Isaiah foretold. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” [Luke 3.4-6].
The Lord was indeed doing a new thing in Israel. And John’s divinely appointed task was to “prepare the way of the Lord,” by announcing the coming of the One who would “make a way in the wilderness” to bring all of God’s scattered and exiled children home to Himself. Those who had been lost and broken by their sin would see the salvation of God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, whose very name Jesus means “the Lord is salvation.” John would announce the coming of Jesus, the One who is God, God in the flesh, the One who was born at Christmas to die, in John’s words, as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1.29].
In this season of Advent and Christmas we recall the coming of Jesus. We celebrate His first coming as a baby in Bethlehem who through His suffering, death, and resurrection has made “a way in the wilderness.” We rejoice in his continual coming among us today in His Word and Sacraments. And we look forward to His coming again on the day when His exiled people will return home to dwell with Him.
--From our Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne IN
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE CHRISTMAS TREE?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. James 2:17, 26
…Soon Christmas trees will be sold just about everywhere. Those buying trees are so happy when they buy an especially beautiful and reasonably priced tree. Certainly by Christmas this festively decorated tree stands in the room and attracts the attention of all—not just the children are happy to see it.
And yet its splendor is just for a short while because the decorations do not grow on the tree. Whether ornaments or stars, lights or sweets—nothing comes from the tree itself. Everything is just hung on it so that it looks nice.
James wants to warn us against a “Christmas tree faith.” No fruit grows on the Christmas tree. Fruit can only grow when a tree has good roots; and only after a time of blooming and ripening does a tree finally produce delicious fruits. This is how a healthy faith looks. It comes when you read or hear in God’s word all what Christ did for you. When you ponder it, a hearty love, a childlike trust and a deep thankfulness grow. You just cannot keep for it yourself. You want to share it with people around you who need so much help in things both small and large—and above all they need your testimony about our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
James [2.19] warns about so-called “faith of demons.” Even the devil knows that there is a God but that cannot save him because there is no trust, love and thankfulness to his Creator. When, by God’s word, you have found your Savior and Rescuer, the Holy Spirit has His fruits grow in you [Gal. 5.22 ff.]. Then your faith is like a proper, true tree [Psalm 1.3] instead of like a Christmas tree.
Lord Christ, give and preserve to me faith which produces true fruit. Amen.
[By Pr. Rolf Borszik, in God Is For Us, 10 November 2015]
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS—THE DAILY SIN OF GLUTTONY
LCMS scholar and theologian [now sainted], Rev. Dr. Kurt Marquart, writes:
“Do you believe in fasting?” “No, I’m a Lutheran, and my church doesn’t teach that!”
Really? Let’s check:
The Apology, one of the Lutheran Church’s official confessions, says: “We believe that God’s glory and command require penitence to produce good fruits, and that good fruits like true fasting, prayer, and charity have is command” (XII, 139).
And the Small Catechism contains this statement, which we have all learned, though nobody seems to pay the slightest attention to it:“Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed a fine outward training.”
But what is the real point of fasting?
First, let’s clear away two fallacies.
Is the body evil?
There used to be people—and I suppose there still are—who hold that the body is evil and the soul good. The point of religion then is to free the good soul more and more from the body, until in death the liberation is complete. Physically, bodily things are all evil, as is all pleasure.
This, of course, is a lot of nonsense as far as the Bible is concerned. All God’s creation is good—even alcohol, which God Himself made, to make “glad the heart of man,” Ps. 104.15. (And of course He did not make lemonade at the wedding of Cana!) It is sin which is evil and which uses God’s good things for evil purposes. And sin lives not only in the body, but especially in the soul of man. We are by nature spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And Christ has redeemed us both body and soul. By His Life-giving Flesh (St. John 6) our mortal flesh has obtained immortality, so that we shall live with Him, after the Resurrection, not as immaterial shapes, but as completed and perfected human persons.
Pampering the body
The trouble is that now many people have fallen into the opposite error. The modern superstition is that the body is everything and the soul is nothing. And so the body is pampered and worshipped as never before. Among the modern pagans, with their belief in evolution and materialism, this idolatry of the body is only natural. But for us Christians, this present life is not an end in itself, but a trust from God, and a preparation for eternity.
Do all to the glory of God
To be sure, Christians are happy in God. And just because the Son has made them free, just because they are not the slaves of food and drink, are Christians able to enjoy and rightly use these gracious gifts of God. Their joy is in the Lord, and this joy is celebrated in all they do: So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10.31).
This joy in the Giver, Whose greatest gift is Himself, is very different from the swinish gluttony and drunkenness of those who do not know Him, and who twist His gracious gifts into a horrible, hellish course for themselves and their families. (Think only of the thousands of unhappy suffering children in our country, whose fathers or mothers have made themselves slaves of alcohol!)
God’s Temple
Gluttony, or over-indulgence in food or drink, makes an idol of our bodily appetites. Giving in to this craving for self-indulgence has the most serious spiritual consequences. It deadens interest in God’s Word and Sacrament, and in spiritual, heavenly things generally. It makes people selfish and worldly. It means turning the body, God’s Temple (1 Cor. 6.19), more and more into a pig-sty, where laziness and us and every other vice can grow fat and strong, and trampling underfoot the Pearl of Great Price!
Fasting means resisting all this.
Forgiven because we fast?
Do we earn forgiveness and salvation by fasting? Of course not. Are we bound to definite time, when church authorities may command us to fast? Never.
Our Apology says:
“In addition to this putting to death, which happens through the cross, there is also a necessary, voluntary exercise. Christ says, ‘But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation’ (Luke 21.34). And Paul says, ‘I discipline my body and keep it under control’ (I Cor. 9.27), and so on. These exercises are to be accepted not because they are services that justify, but because they are restraints on our flesh, lest overindulgence overpower us and make us secure and unconcerned. This results in people indulging and obeying the tendencies of the flesh. This effort [at mortification] should be constant because it has God’s permanent command.” (XV, 46:47)
The real point of fasting is to control our appetites, to practice self-denial, that is, to practice deliberately not doing what we would like to do. This is a very necessary training by which we discipline and subdue our selfish and rebellious will, and teach it to follow Christ to the Cross, that we may also rejoice in His resurrection.
Either…or
There is no modern kind of Christianity, in which we can have our cake and eat it too—love the world and serve our flesh, but also have Christ and His salvation. There is simply no Christianity without self-discipline, without crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts, without a serious and constant fight against Satan, the world and the flesh. There is only the one Christ, Who is the same yesterday and today and forever. And He has said for all times: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” [Mt. 16.24, 25].
Apart from the Crucified and Risen Savior there is nothing but death—even if it is considered smart, and proudly called “our way of life”! We modern Christians must know that a self-indulgent way of life, whether ancient or modern, is not Christian but pagan, and that no amount of babbling about “Christ”, or “faith”, or the “Gospel” is or can be a substitute for a real, living Christianity. Our choice is clear: “Don’t worry, then, and say, ‘what are we going to eat?’ or, ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ The people of the world run after all these things. Your Father in heaven knows you need them all. First be eager to have God as your King and His righteousness, and you’ll get all these other things too!” (St. Matthew 6. 31-33 AAT)
BECAUSE WE HAVE SO MANY WRITINGS FROM PROMINENT LUTHERAN THEOLOGIANS, WE DON’T WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF NOT GIVING OTHER CHRISTIANS A FAIR SHAKE. SO THIS MONTH WE INVITE A PROMINENT EPISCOPALIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH AS A GUEST COLUMNIST.
[GOD THE FATHER SAID TO GOD THE SON], “RULE IN THE MIDST OF YOUR ENEMIES” [PSALM 110.2]
Vice President George Bush represented the United States at the funeral of Soviet Premiere, Leonid Brezhnev in 1982. Vice President Bush reported: “A coldness and hollowness pervaded the ceremony—marching soldiers, steel helmets, Marxist rhetoric, but no prayers, no comforting hymns, no mention of God. I happened to be in just the right spot to see Mrs. Brezhnev (give her final farewell). She walked up to the casket, took one last look at her husband, and there—in the cold, gray center of that totalitarian state—she traced the sign of the cross over her dead husband’s chest.”
[Quoted in: The Lutheran Layman November –December 2015]
FROM OUR MISSOURI SYNOD:
Our Lord Jesus Christ healed the man with dropsy by His Word on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1–6). He is the great physician of both body and soul. The paradoxical symptom of dropsy was an unquenchable craving for drink even though the body was over inflated with fluid, a craving that when indulged served not to ease but to feed the disease. And so if a man drinks a great deal, but is never filled, he sees a doctor to inquire about what ails him, what is wrong with his body and how to remedy it. For that is not thirst but a disease (Seneca, Consolation to His Mother Helvia, 11.3).
But if the owner of five couches goes looking for ten, or the owner of ten tables buys up as many again, and even though he has plenty of land and money, he remains unsatisfied and desires yet more, losing sleep and always in discontent, does he not also require a physician to diagnose the cause of this distress? For this is not want or lack, but a disease (Aristippus, quoted in Plutarch, Love of Wealth, 524b). As St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “we may rightly compare the dropsical man to a covetous rich man: For the more the one is swollen with excess of water, the more he thirsts; so also the other: The more he abounds in riches . . . the more eagerly he desires them” (The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4, 135). Both require physicians. Both require diagnosis and medicine applied from the outside to the inward being. For these are not desires to be fulfilled but diseases to be cured.
This is why our Lord instructs us on taking care not to be overmuch consumed by money. “No one can serve two masters . . . . You cannot serve God and money” (Matt 6:24; Luke 16:13). The point is that our desire for money, like the disease dropsy, is never satisfied. We always desire more. We always think, if I just had this much then I would be happy. But even when that much comes, which God gladly gives, that happiness evades us. For the desire for more of these things is never satisfied. It demands our constant energy–either in procuring more or protecting what we already have. When this happens, God, in His mercy, shows us that the money that He has given is no longer serving us, but we it. We have another master.
To overcome this, we need a physician’s diagnosis and a physician’s remedy. And our Lord, Jesus Christ, our great physician of both body and soul, like the man healed of dropsy, applies His Word to us. He shows us how we have put our fear, our love, and our trust in our money and not feared, loved, and trusted in Him above all things. In essence, He says, “Stop it! Stop chasing after these fleeting things. They are vanity. They are the things that moth and rust destroy. For you cannot have two masters. Repent!” And in seeing our great error, we are sorry that we have not fully feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things. And, in the mercy and grace, that He earned for us on the cross, He takes away this sin, restores us to health, and bids us live.
But then what? What do we do with this healing balm and care that our great physician has done? Do we simply go back to our old ways? “By no means!” St. Paul says (Rom 3:31; 6:2). We do not just go back to the old ways. That way is dead to us and leads us to death. No, we live a new life, a life filled with the grace, mercy, and love of God toward us. And God’s great mercy, grace, and love toward is so abundant that it overflows and pours out onto those around us. So we no longer hoard money and possessions. We no longer scrape and crawl our way to amass more. We give to those around us, as God in Christ has given to us. We press our money and possessions into service for those who need it: our family, our society, and our church. For money is God’s gift to us to serve us and others. Not the other way round. It serves us because it is a gift from our Father in heaven.
CHRIST-CENTERED, CROSS-FOCUSED...Issues, Etc. is a radio talk show produced by Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, IL and hosted by LCMS Pastor Todd Wilken. This week's topics include: The Theology of ISIS, Joel Osteen's Book "The Power of I Am," The Hymn "Now Thank We All Our God," The Mayflower Pilgrims, The Season of Advent, The Patriarch Noah and more. You can listen on-demand at www.issuesetc.org and on the new Lutheran Public Radio mobile app.
Giving is God’s Business
It’s no coincidence that each calendar year ends with a seasonal focus on generosity.
The Christmas season reminds us that giving is indeed God’s business! Christians are confident that the baby Jesus was God’s gift to the world, promised in the defiance of Adam’s independence. God didn’t just give us a baby; He gave the world a Savior!
Jesus Christ was and is the expectation of the ages. The implications of God’s generosity in giving His own Son ushered in hope and made possible immortality for all. St. Paul wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” This little baby was the ‘Year of Jubilee’ in the flesh! All debts are forgiven and all are called to freedom from an eternal grave!
God’s Holy Word says that we were created in the likeness or image of God. It shouldn’t surprise us then that as God is a generous God, so we are to be generous people. Have you reflected on, or recognized this God-given desire to be generous and willing to share in your heart? Is it fully understood, defined and documented?
God’s generosity is emulated wherever the Gospel takes root in cultures and in our lives. This shouldn’t surprise us since God is in the giving business. His desire for blessing his people lives in us.
The next time you plan your gifts to the people and ministries you love, remember that this is God’s reflection within you showing itself as a witness to others. The LCMS Foundation has been helping LCMS Christians discover their lifetime plan for giving to bless the people and ministries they care about for almost sixty years. If you would like to experience this personal and unique spiritual stewardship journey, we can help from start to finish. For more information contact Robert Wirth, LCMS Foundation Gift Planner @ robert.wirth@lfnd.org or 716-863-4427.
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