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 continue our look how God richly used His servant, C.F.W. Walther to solidify a confessional Lutheran church body in America. With all of the controversy going on at that time—and today—it is good to review Luther’s comments: “Therefore we correctly confess in the Creed that we believe a holy church. For it is invisible, dwelling in the Spirit, in an “unapproachable” place [1 Ti. 6.16]; therefore its holiness cannot be seen. God conceals and covers it with weaknesses, sins, errors, and various offenses and forms of the cross in such a way that it is not evident to the senses anywhere. Those who are ignorant of this are immediately offended when they see the weaknesses and sins of those who have been baptized, have the Word, and believe; and they conclude that such people do not belong to the church.” [AE, XXVII, pg. 83-84]
44.2 [Part 7] Dr. C. Ferd. W. Walther [In America]
But the cause of the Lutheran church of America was not lost because of Stephan. Our faithful God again helped it up precisely and above all, by Walther’s service. By diligent study of Holy Scripture and with persistent investigation into Luther’s works, Walther came to clarity over all the questions that at that time had so deeply disturbed him and the greatly tried congregation. He collected into the following eight theses what he recognized from God’s Word. He defended and maintained them in a disputation in Altenburg, Missouri in April 1841 against all opposition, which even came from the congregation itself.
- The true Church, in the most real and perfect sense is the totality of all true believers who, from the beginning of the world until the end, were called and sanctified from all peoples and languages by the Holy Spirit through the word. And because only God knows these true believers (2 Ti 2.19), it is thus also called the invisible Church. No one belongs to this true Church who is not spiritually united with Christ, for it is the spiritual body of Christ.
- The name of the true Church also belongs to all the visible groups of people in which God’s Word is purely taught and the holy Sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution. In this Church there indeed are godless, hypocrites and heretics, but they are not true members of it and do not make up the Church.
- The name of the Church and in a certain sense also the name of the true Church is belongs also to such visible groups of people who have united themselves under the confession of an adulterated faith and thus make themselves guilty in part of falling away from the truth if only they have so much of what is pure from God’s Word and the Sacraments that children of God can be born by it. If such groups are called true Churches, it should not be expressed by this that they are right believing but only that they are actual Churches as opposed to all secular organizations.
- The name “Church” is not improperly conferred to groups that believe incorrectly; rather it is in accord with the manner of speech of the Word of God itself. It is also not indifferent that this high name is allowed to such fellowships; for it follows from this: a) that members of such groups can also be saved; for outside of the Church is no salvation.
- b) The outward separation of a group that believes incorrectly is not a necessary separation from the catholic Christian Church, not a falling away into heathenism, and still does not take from that group the name “Church.”
- c) Also groups that err in their belief have the authority of the Church; also among them the goods of the Church can be validly administered, the preaching office established, the sacraments validly administered and the keys of the Kingdom of heaven exercised.
- d) Also groups that believe incorrectly are not to be disbanded but rather only to be reformed.
- The right believing church is to be judged principally according to the common orthodox public confession to which its members recognize themselves bound and confess.
These theses contain in deed and truth the brief summary of the Biblical doctrine of the Church. The understanding that they were firmly grounded on God’s Word, had again brought around the angry and confused congregation of Saxon immigrants. Yes, we are still Christians, still Lutherans, still have the true and unerring marks of the true Church among us, still have the power of the Keys, the authority to forgive and not to forgive sins and to establish the office that preaches reconciliation. They now learned this practically and their hearts were filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit over that.
25 years later, Pastor Schieferdecker, at the opening of the Synodical gathering in the same congregation in Altenburg rightly said of that debate: “It was the Easter morning of our severely tried congregations as they, like the disciples once did, again saw the Lord who was thought to be dead and were filled with joy and hope in the light of His grace and in the power of His resurrection. As important and momentous as the 1519 Leipzig Debate was for the Reformation, so important—I say to say it confidently—did this debate that was held here at that time become for the entire subsequent formation and shaping of our Lutheran church here in the west. What at that time was achieved and fought for as the jewel of truth, proved true in all the other following battles that our Synod led.”
So far Professor Krauss
PERHAPS YOU HAVE SEEN THIS SIGN AROUND TOWN—ESPECIALLY BY THE OTHER CHURCHES ON FIRST STREET.
"Hate has no home here"
BUT IS IT THEOLOGICALLY SOUND? TO BE SURE, IT IS WELL INTENTIONED AND CERTAINLY A “FEEL GOOD” THOUGHT BUT IT IS NOT COMPLETELY TRUE. THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTICUS [SIRACH] PUTS IT ALL INTO PERSPECTIVE THAT THERE ACTUALLY IS A PLACE FOR HATE:
Return to the Most High and turn away from iniquity, and hate intensely what He abhors. [17.26]
REMEMBER: THE CHURCH STILL NEEDS YOUR OFFERINGS EVEN WHEN YOU ARE AWAY THIS SUMMER ENJOYING YOUR VACATION
From our friends from Northwestern Publishing House, the Wisconsin Synod version of CPH:
NOT WHAT WE WOULD EXPECT, BUT EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:1-3)
I would imagine that along with busying themselves with talk about logistics—things like who was going to roll the massive stone away from the entrance to the tomb—the women who walked to that tomb on that first Easter morning also tried to prepare themselves for what awaited them when they got there. They tried to prepare themselves to see Jesus up close again, and dead. They tried to prepare themselves in case the rigor mortis had set in. They tried to mentally brace themselves so that they would be able to perform their final act of love for their friend.
Yet as much as they steeled themselves for what they were about to see and do, it didn’t really help that day, did it? Because when they got there, nothing went as they had expected it to. Not even close.
But that’s actually exactly what they should have expected, isn’t it? And not just because what happened was exactly what Jesus had said would happen,
but because that was always the way it was with him. He almost never did exactly what his disciples expected him to do. He almost never did exactly what anyone expected him to do. No, he always did just what they, and what we, needed him to do.
And that was far better.
It has been said that you can’t put God in a box. And while that may be a trite way of saying it, the sentiment is spot-on. God’s ways are so far above ours and his thoughts are so much higher than ours that, at least with the intellectual powers currently available to us, we could never possibly understand his every way or make sense of his every move. But one of the things we can learn from Easter is to be okay with that. We don’t need God to do what we would expect him to do. We just need him to do what we need him to do. And because he didn’t just die for us but because he also lives for us, we can rest assured that that is exactly what he will always do.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for always giving me exactly what I need. Your grace is overwhelming. Amen.
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For May Day, 01 May, the Workers’ Day—
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO OUR THEOLOGY. HOW WE THINK THEOLOGICALLY, AFFECTS ALL OUR THOUGHT:
“In the same way, if he had decided that God and immortality did not exist, he would at once have become an atheist and a socialist. For socialism is not merely the labor question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism today, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to heaven from earth but to set up heaven on earth.” [Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Kindle edition, location 596; emphasis added]
The Fifth Sunday After Easter is called “Rogate” which means “to ask”/ “to pray”. The theme of the day is prayer.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
Although the urge to pray is instinctive with man, the art of praying must be learned. The man who wishes to pray properly must enter the school of prayer, in which we are all pupils till our dying day and where there is but one Schoolmaster, He whom the disciples besought, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
The Lord has in Holy Scripture prescribed the fundamental requirements of His course in the school of prayer. From this source book of divine revelation we learn that the first basic principle of prayer is that it must be made in harmony with the will of God.
St. John writes regarding this point: “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14). Jesus Himself set the perfect pattern of subordinating His will to the will of God when in the Garden of Gethsemane, wrestling with the crushing burden of the sins of the world, the perspiration trickling in droplets of blood from His lordly brow, He implored His heavenly Father to remove “the cup” of suffering from Him but quickly added, “nevertheless, not My will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Moreover, in that prayer of prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, our Savior taught us to pray in keeping with God’s will, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Certainly, if we are at all intelligent beings, we must recognize the sovereignty of God in all things. We are God’s creation. His supporting hand preserves us. He has redeemed us by the blood of His beloved Son. Therefore we belong to Him body and soul. We are under every moral obligation to obey and serve Him. Yet He would not have us be as bound slaves but as servants who cheerfully do His will. His will is that we be His instruments to discharge His purposes concerning us and the world in which we live. Our prayers to Him must ever, therefore, reflect His will.
We stand in relation to God, who in Christ is our heavenly Father, as children to their earthly parents. It would be stupid for children to dictate to their parents, for such action implies that children feel they know more than their parents. What is worse, it would be presumptuous for children to impose their will on their parents, for such conduct breathes an insolence born of ingratitude. Similarly our prayers to the Almighty must never take the form of dictation or even advice, for we must ever acknowledge His superior wisdom and trust His unquestioned love. The spirit of our petitions must always be: “God’s will be done.”
Prayer, by inference then, is not so much to ask what we wish of God as to ask what God wishes of us.
Devotional reading is adapted from Teach Us to Pray, pages 23-24 © 1961 Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:19-20 (ESV)
“We have to pray for the Apostle Paul!” This is what the Christians in the congregations must have thought along the Apostle’s mission route. But what should they have prayed for? Should they pray that Paul be freed? Should they pray that he not be hurt in prison?
The Apostle Paul, at the end of the letter, actually asks for the intercession of the Christians in Ephesus. But we are surprised what he wants his fellow Christians to intercede for. St. Paul’s first concern is not that his hands be freed from the chains. His most important request is not that he is freed but rather that the Gospel of freedom might be able to be spread unhindered. He does seek the intercession for release from imprisonment. He asks for courage and freedom to proclaim the word. Among the many messengers and representatives of other countries in Rome, Paul the prisoner worked as an ambassador for the invisible kingdom of the Crucified.— Paul sees his task in proclaiming, telling, speaking the word of the Cross. For this he needs courage and wisdom.
Let us take up this request in our prayers! Pray for courage to speak about Jesus. Pray for yourself and for others. “Lord, give me wisdom and strength so that I do not depart from Your word in order to receive praise and avoid ridicule!” “Lord, send me such opportunities in which I can do nothing else but openly tell the message of the Savior of sinners.”
Lord Jesus, give me opportunity to bring You into the discussion. And when I find opportunity, give me the correct words. Amen.
By Pr. Jonas Schroeter in God Is For Us 28 April 2018
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And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us….we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 John 5.14-15
When I call my son or ask him something, I first know whether he has heard me or not when he answers or does what I ask. With God it is different. There I know already beforehand. God hears and answers each of my prayers. But do we pray with this certainty? Aren’t we, rather, often uncertain whether God hears us? Or do we first speak of our prayer being heard when we have the visible evidence of it?
Here we recognize the weakness of our faith, which we can confidently place under Jesus’ forgiveness. And you, too, can be directed by St. John to the confidence of faith. You can in complete trust and confidence conclude your prayers: “The Lord has heard it and already answered it.” This applies, above all, completely without reservation to our spiritual prayer for the Holy Spirit and faith which we often forget.
Why can you also be certain when you offer up concrete prayers from your life which are not found in the Bible? The key lies in the words “according to His will.” As a child of God whom He has graciously forgiven, you will only ask what is in accord with the will of your loving Father because you know from His word what would be harmful to you or others. And in all the personal, worldly things of your life, you will conclude your prayer with the words: “Not my will, but Yours be done.” You do not always know what the best thing is, but the all-knowing Father who loves you does. You do not know how and when, but you can rely with absolute certainty that God will bring about this prayer in the best possible way for you.
Thank You, Father, that I may pray with certainty. Forgive when I have doubts. Strengthen me in this certainty. Amen.
[By Pr. Carsten Hoffmann, in God Is For Us, 31 August 2018]
THE 5 FINGER PRAYER:
Thumb: Those closest to you
Pointer: Those that point you in the right direction [teachers, doctors, priests]; ask for wisdom and support.
Index: [tallest] Those that lead us [government]; ask for guidance and wisdom
Ring: [weakest] Those that are weak, in trouble or in pain. We cannot pray too much for them
Pinkie: [smallest] Our prayers for ourselves and our own needs.
PRAYING SCRIPTURE: Some of your favorite bible verses are a great foundation for prayer. A great format for praying is attributed to Luther. Take a passage and apply these four simple phrases.
Lord, here You teach…
Lord, I confess…
Lord, I am thankful…
Lord, here is what I ask…
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FOR MEMORIAL DAY: [What our troops were reading in Korea in 1954]—A REPRINT FROM THE 08 April 1954 Korea Edition of the Pacific Stars and Stripes
Fisherman Batters Octopus to Death
Fails to Break Hold, Wades Ashore, Crushes Animal on Rock
Santa Rosa, Cal, Apr.7—A huge octopus seized James Antone while he was abalone hunting, but the 265-pound man knew just what to do.
He took a deep breath, pulled the octopus from the submergd rocks to which it was clinging and walked ashore with it while spectators gasped.
Then the fisherman, who is 6 feet 1 inch, calmly beat the octopus’ head against a stone until it released its hold on him and died.
Antone said he was hunting abalone, a mollusk which clings to rocks, at Jenner, a seaport town west of here.
Antone was up to his neck in the water when the octopus grabbed him, and he was unable to free himself from about six of its eight tentacles.
Muscled Wire
“I felt something like a muscled piece of wire wrap around my left arm,” Antone said. “As I reared back another tentacle attached itself, and then another, another and another.
“It was useless to try to tear the tentacles away so I braced myself, heaved, and ripped it from the rocks.
“Its head was like a balloon and it kept spitting water all over me as I walked to shore with it.”
Several spectators saw Antone’s plight but the sight of the big octopus, which measured eight feet from tentacle top to tentacle tip and weighed 40 pounds, frightened them away.
Antone said he walked until he found a large stone. Then he slammed the octopus’ head against it.
“It sounded like a rubber sack full of water being hit by a baseball bat,” he said. “After 10 minutes of this the octopus wilted like a deflated tire tube.”
A VITAL ARTICLE FROM OUR SYNOD’S STEWARDSHIP DEPARTMENT:
Stewardship is not just about giving money to the church. It includes this, to be sure, but it is not limited to it. Stewardship involves our whole life – everything we have and everything we are.
Let us not, though, fall into the trap of thinking that because we give of ourselves in one area we can neglect giving in another. Stewardship is not stealing from Peter to pay Paul. It is not a game we play whereby we justify ourselves in not giving a tenth of our income because we have given in some other way. This is why our Lord warns:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (Matthew 23:23)
We are given to do both – tithe of ourselves and what we have. And so it is that St. Paul makes his appeal to us:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2)
We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. We are not to have the mind of the world, where we exchange equal weight of this for an equal weight of that, and then think that we have done what God has required.
Our whole life is given over for service in and for the Church of God. This is to be done in thanksgiving for what God in Christ has accomplished for us. This is our spiritual worship, the reasonable response to what He has done for us – not one for the other, but all in all.
But what does this look like? St. Paul never lays down a general principle without also giving us some practical application of what shape that principle is to take concretely. He gives the general principle that our bodies are to be living sacrifices to God, and, after admonishing those who have been given particular gifts of grace to serve the church, St. Paul then speaks generally of what is expected of all. He says:
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13)
This is what it looks like to present your bodies as living sacrifices. This is how we live out the grace of God here in time.
Let us then heed the apostle’s teaching. Let us present our bodies – everything that we have and everything that we are – as living sacrifices to God, our reasonable response to what God in Christ Jesus accomplished for us by His death and resurrection.
Through this we have forgiveness of sins, a new life in Christ, and eternal salvation. And through this worship, the grace of God is made manifest in His saints – for the church and the world.
In the Glow of Resurrection
The Resurrection truth glows with the Power of God’s love. Like the waters in Cana’s wedding vessels, we, who worship the God who rescued us, see our Lord’s face and blush at such radiance.
The afterglow of Christ’s resurrection offers hope to all who sit in darkness. Notice how ancient prophesies reference wealth as a gift of the Spirit. “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 19: 18-19
Many stewards respond to God’s gift and live in the glimmer of Creations’ First-Fruits. They make life’s decisions as living icons, seeing the blaze in the empty tomb’s grace, and are compelled not to keep it to themselves. (2 Cor. 6:1)
Yet none of us can withstand life’s temptations like our Savior did. Fears and lack of confidence turn us inward, as if the world beyond our homes loses priority. Yet through Word and Sacrament God’s Spirit stokes eternity’s embers within us. When it ignites, our lives reflect God’s light near and far.
Many hearts are bound by despair. Yet compelling news promised through Isaiah speaks directly to our despair. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:5-6.
The resurrections’ glow enables we who are poor in spirit to exult the One who redeems and reconciles slaves. A freedom brought by the giver of life tastes so sweet to people who formerly confessed spiritual slavery. As the flames of God’s victory over death shine in a captive heart, its miracle of release turns the captive into a light bearer to the world.
The glow of resurrection offers a light to our path of fruitful service. It guides our journey and illuminates good works to honor and glorify ‘Our Father’. In this Glow, His will is done on earth, even as it is in Heaven.
Contact Robert Wirth, LCMS Foundation Gift Planner @ robert.wirth@lfnd.org or 716-863-4427 to learn how a fellow believer can help you plan and direct your passion to give to your loved ones and ministries you care about through your estate and financial gift plans.
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