Posts from 2018
GOD’S SECRET SERVICE
On Jacob’s homeward march to the land of Canaan, the Bible tells us that “the angels of God met him.” “Angels” are still a trendy subject in the tabloids, magazines, bookstores and television. A number of years ago, TV favorites included Highway To Heaven and Touched By An Angel. In the theaters, Christopher Lloyd helped win ball games as an angel in Angels In The Outfield. A holiday favorite from years ago was It’s A Wonderful Life. The underlying idea…
PARADISE LOST…PARADISE REGAINED
Long ago two partners in crime sat in the bushes. They had a different look in their eyes that day. Nervously, their trembling fingers sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Now they were filled with shame – something they had never felt before. They had no peace, no joy, no hope. It was a case of paradise lost. Every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve since then knows what these two people were feeling. Like them, we…
THE ANTI-CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN – HERE WE GO AGAIN
Christmas is upon us and here we go again – the anti-Christmas campaign. This year, a principal in Nebraska recently stirred the pot by outlawing candy canes in school because “historically, the shape is a ‘J’ for Jesus.” This month, Newsweek carries the story of Eric Sprankle, Psy.D, an associate professor at the Minnesota State University. Spankle writes: “The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that…
“THE BALAAM SYNDROME”
As the calendar year winds down and Advent ushers in a new church year, our thoughts focus on the future. The Scriptures clearly tell us what awaits those who trust in Jesus and those who don’t. When it comes to the future, one writer describes what he calls “the Balaam syndrome.” You can read about the sorcerer, Balaam, in the Old Testament book of Numbers (chapters 22-25). Hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel on its march to…
“TURN OUR HEARTS, O LORD!”
Echoing the prophecy of Malachi, the angel Gabriel tells old Zechariah that his son, John the Baptist, will go before the Savior “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare a people who are ready for the Lord” (Luke 1:17 EHV). Where this does not happen, said the prophet Malachi, then there is nothing left but a curse upon those unprepared for the coming of Christ.…
CHRIST THE KING
Today is the final Sunday of the Christian Church year, sometimes called Christ the King Sunday. We find ourselves fittingly aware of the last days. We know the King is coming soon, but we are not given to forecast the day or the hour. For most of us – especially for us Americans – maybe it’s a challenge to identify with Jesus as our King. After all, we don’t have kings. We live in a republic, a representative sort of…
SAINTS TRIUMPHANT
The final Sundays of the church year traditionally focus on the final judgment. In more recent years, this particular Sunday in the church year is also called “Saints Triumphant.” We think of moving hymn verses such as: For all the saints who from their labors rest, All who their faith before the world confessed, Your name, O Jesus, be forever blessed, Alleluia! But then there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array; The King…
JUDGMENT DAY EVERY DAY
These final Sundays of the time-honored, liturgical church year point us to the end of this present world and to the day of God’s just judgment. Jesus’ disciples once asked: “When will these things be?” Jesus answered: “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” In another sense, there is a judgment that goes on every day. Here we stand on our clump of dust in our own little corner of the world in our own time, graced by…
GRACE NOTES
As we near the end of the church year, our thoughts turn to the end of all things. We instinctively picture ourselves and others before the great throne on that last day. Who will enter that eternal kingdom and who will not? Our own times are awash in what we might call universalism, the sentimental idea that merely dying entitles a person to enter heaven, that ultimately everybody goes to heaven and nobody goes to hell – in fact, that…
REFORMATION 501 – THE HEIDELBERG DISPUTATION
Last year we marked the 500th anniversary of what most folks consider the starting pistol of the Lutheran Reformation – Luther’s hammering of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Oct. 31. 1517. With these theses or statements in Latin, Luther proposed a debate among the theologians on the sale of indulgences to purchase time off purgatory. The debate he asked for didn’t happen that year. But the 95 Theses were translated, printed and…
NEVER GIVE UP!
The famous piano player, Paderewski, surely had some natural gifts. But he also would have understood Thomas Edison’s old line that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. As a boy, Paderewski sat at the piano for three hours every morning and three hours every evening. Throughout his brilliant career, he kept up a rigorous schedule of daily practice. It was said that if he missed a single day, he noticed it. If he missed two days, his critics noticed…
HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?
What’s under your magnifying glass? What is a big deal to you? In the older yet familiar language of the King James Version, the expectant Mary called out: “My soul doth magnify the Lord!” That’s why we call it the “Magnificat.” To “magnify” is to make large, to extol as great, to praise and glorify. Puny little creatures like you and me cannot make God any bigger or greater than He already is. But by a God-given faith…