Concordia Theological Seminary's Blog

The Lutheran Seminary IN Fort Wayne has a Blog. It is mostly aim at people who want to become a church worker but not exclusively. they are currently doing an Advent Podcast. The blog can be found here. If you want to get it in a feed go here.

Concordia Publishing House

A lot of the devotions I use are from Concordia Publishing house. Their website is here. Check olu tsom eof my reviews and you will probably find the book at their site.

Happy Reformation Day

ON this day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 on the door of the Wiittenberg Church. You can read them hear. Although I am saddened by any split in the church, I am glad that Luther stood up for the truth. There are some honest, uncompromisable points that divide us Christians.

The Lord Will Answer

I am redoing a devotion book called "The Lord Will Answer". It is a devotion that goes through Luther's Small Catechism throughout the church year. It has the complete Catechism in the front with the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. It also has outlines for prayers and mini worship in the back of the book. Although it is not perfect. It is a neat way to go through the catechism in a year. It is published by Concordia Publishing House.

The Holidays are Coming

It is the middle of October and have been to the apple orchards to get some fall treats. Fresh apple cider is awesome. Halloween is close and that means Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas is not too far away. With the economic uncertainty, a lot of news programs are presenting ideas for how to deal with Christmas. My question is how well prepared for Christmas? I don't mean presents and all the trimmings that go with a material Christmas. Are you ready for the worship services and all the spiritual things of Christmas? How did you react to Christ's first coming? Are you ready for his second coming?

Lutheran Hour Podcasts

It has been brought to my attention once again, the podcasts that Lutheran Hour Ministries. I also noticed that they are set up so that you can get them as a feed to a reader. I very quickly and easily put the url my google reader account and I can now get them very easily as they come out. As one podcast i listen to says, same theology but new technology. I am going to be using this new technology to help my Christian life. Check out the Lutheran Hour podcasts here.

Order of Creation in the light of Sarah Palin

I have been listening to Issues, Etc and they are bring up if Sarah Palin upsets up the order of creation. Order of creation stated theat man is above woman. I am wondering why is this being brought up now. Why is this so important to discuss now? If that is the case, then should she be the governor of Alaska? Then should any women should be elected to any office? Can she have any leadership any where? When do her male offspring are no longer obliged to listen to her? Does the order of creation over ride the Fourth Commandment of honour your mother and father? Order of creation is one thing I have not heard a lot about but it seams like it is one of those things that would be abused very easily. Some disdinction was made between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God but I can see this getting muddled very badly.

Issues, Etc.

I have been listening to a radio/podcast via mp3 files. I have been enjoying their Christian/ Lutheran perspective. You can check them out here.

Giving Unto Ceasar...

One thing that is called upon by Christians is to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's. In countries that have elections, then it is to go out and make your voice heard. I am finding that very hard this time in the US and yet i still must struggle with it and make the most Christ Centered vote I can. I am not going to say that all Christians vote the same way but their are some issues we hold more in common. I encourage everyone to pray for the up coming election especially during these hard times. I don't have all the answers and sometimes i wish I did. other times i wish I had the answers and actually be sure i could effect a difference. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.

God Shaped Hole

I have been watching people's behavior lately and the more I watch and the more I read scripture, the more I think people have a God shaped hole inside of them. The weird thing is watching them try to fill that hole with things other than God. Some chase after money or power. Some try to the best in their careers while others try to the very best at their hobbies. The whole try to keep up with the Jones I think is a way of making yourself feel good about yourself even though there is this big empty hole inside. Some look for chemical filling and others go after sex of all kinds to fill that need. It is not that I see myself as super Christian or that my life is perfect. I still fight with trying to make myself feel better with things and activities. God is what is needed for those times. As St Paul wrote, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We need Christ to fill that hole sin has ripped in our souls.

The Daily Grind

As much as I love coffee, today's post is not about one of my favorite drinks. It is rather about doing a daily devotion. This is by far not easy. Even if I have a light schedule of activities and and the smallest of devotions, weekends and holidays and the irregularities of life get in the way. The biggest asset to doing a devotion long term is consistency and that is one of the hardest things to maintain. I tried to do dated devotions and wind up running perpetually ahead or behind. I have tried to to have weekly or monthly goals and it seams like I run ahead just to put the brakes on. It also seams like the more I do my devotions, the more there is to learn and now I feel like even if I have a lifetime, it will not be enough time to do it well enough. I really don't have any good answers except to rest in the Grace of God. It is in Christ I need to rest and not what I do or study. In the meantime, I still do the readings and set aside the time to pray and worship God. Only in God's hands are they worth anything. I am only a frail , sinful man.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness has got to be one of the hardest things we are called to do in the Christian life. In some cases, it is unquestionable the hardest thing we must do. There is just so much pain and suffering that we humans do to each other that how can we ever be expected to forgive the other person. How do expect spouse that has been cheated on to forgive her husband? If there is abuse in the marriage, does the spouse go back because that is the forgiving thing to do? Forgiveness does not mean that relations stay the same or that their are no consequences.Trusts and relationships are broken. They may or may not be repaired-EVER. That is sad. It would be nice if relationship could last a lifetime and beyond but in this broken world that is not always a possibility. This is not in favor of someone being hurt and running away nor does it mean staying forever in a bad situation. Life is full of grey and like Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything. It is not an easy answer. We are always called to forgive. We are not called to stay abused and a door mat. there are times we are called to endure but it is not always easy to say when that is or the reason behind it. God help us in this broken, sorrowful world.

LSB- Guitar Edition

I just picked up the LSB Guitar Edition. It is a two volume edition with just the hymns. It has a coil spine for easier open. It is scored with just the melody line, with chords over top and the capo chords for the easier chord. I enjoy it for the melody line only music. I play recorder for the church and not the most accomplished musician. The melody only score makes it easier for me to play. Since it is getting increasing harder to get church musicians, anything that makes it easier to have good music in church is a good thing in my book.

This is also a good edition for bringing the Sunday hymns into Sunday School, vacation Sunday school or Christian camps. I am not fully comfortable with guitars in church but not totally against it but this guitar edition can bring the Sunday Service music out to the world. If this encourages us to sing hymns outside of the Sunday Service, then bravo.

The Beck Translation

This translation was done by DR William beck. As far as I can tell, it first came out about 1976. It is very much a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod translation. I think the timing of it was interesting since it was done in the era of Seminex. I don't know of any connections between the two. I did check out Isiah 7:14 and it did say and a virgin shall have a child instead of a young woman like some other more liberal texts would do. This translation according to the preface had the aim of updating language, being an accurate translation as well as being doctrinally accurate. Overall, I like the translation but the richness of the language seams a little to be desired but it it is a readable translation. I have not formed a full opinion on this test as I am still reading through it but so far it has made for a nice trip through the scriptures.

Politics and Religion

It has been said that in polite circles, you don't talk about money, religion and politics. In this election cycle, religion is one of the main topics so religion and politics are being mixed. I don't object to the mixture but i do have some concerns. Religion has been used to demonize for one thing. America is a land of many faiths and these faiths disagree. When this comes to the public forum, it is a time for discussion not to tear each other down. I do not expect agreement but I do expect us to find out where common ground and division is and decide where to go from there. Even though I disagree bitterly with the doctrine of many of my fellow Christians, I can agree with a lot of them on Abortion. I can also agree that we can take political decisions to God for guidance but I cringe when I hear that a particular issue is God's will. How to decide how to spend highway funds is a subject of prayer. Saying that, for example, extending I-69 is God's will, I am going to start wondering what chapter and verse of the Bible that came from.

I also believe that you can not divorce a candidate from their religious beliefs whether they are atheist, agnostic or any or the world's religions. So let's be honest about people's positions and let the people decide on the candidates on all their positions.

Abortion

In this Election season, I have been hearing a lot about abortion. One tact I have heard is calling the pro life position as the anti choice position. I think that is unfair. As much as I do not want the government to interfere with the decisions I make or the choices I make, having an abortion is a choice I do not think we have. From my point of view, life starts at conception and the fetus or embryo is a human life to be protected. People ask about what if the life of the mother is threatened. I then point to the fact the the doctor and mother must work out what is best for both of his patients. Doctor, do no harm.

LSB- Daily Devotrions Aids

Starting at about page 294 in the Lutheran Service book is a series of sections to aid in home devotions. I think this was a great idea so this hymnal truly becomes a hymnal of home and church. The first section is a collection of four brief services for devotions. These are great for setting your devotional time apart. With being busy and distractable, sometimes it is very necessary to go through a little extra to set this time apart and get more focused. The next section is a daily lectionary which takes you through most of the bible in a year. The last section is a table of psalms to do with the daily prayers. None of these things are a required thing to do but they are still a good thing to do to aid in your devotions. You can mix or match any of these or even mix in Portals of Prayer by Concordia Publishing House. My challenge for you is to find the mix of things that fits your devotional life and may God bless you in your walk.

Should all Christians have children

I have been hearing a big reaction in Christian circles that all Christian couples should have children as a way to support traditional marriage to to show that marriage is for having children. In a perfect, pre fall people, I would agree fully and freely. In this broken, imperfect world, I see problems with this position. I can see this position as a law oriented position where infertile people are made to feel like they are not being blessed by God with the children they so dearly want. I can see people who have prayerfully decided not to have children being pressured to do so when it is not their calling to do so. I honestly believe that some people are not blessed with the talents to be a parent and are called to a vocation other than parent. St Paul states that some are called to be single and i think some couples are called to be childless. God forgive me if I am wrong on this but the decision to have children or not is not a light one. To decide to have children just to speak against gay marriage is dangerous and wrong. To have children because that is the model God has given and the parents are drawn to do so. Having said that, I do not believe it is right for every couple in every situation to have children. Consider the following question.

Do you have another child if the mother will die and deprive the child of its mother?
What if it is just a financial concern with providing for the child?
What if the parents just do not have the talents to care for the child? There are a lot of children who are loved and wanted who still wind up abused.

How do you handle couples who for what ever medical reason, just can't have a child?

I am not trying to convince people to not have children. I am just trying to point out that that to have or to not have children is not an easy issue. To promote children just to speak out against gay marriage is a dangerous position. I agree that it does need to be spoke against. i just don't agree with that plank.

Hymn Format

Things I like about how the hymns were formatted in the Lutheran service book are as follows:
1) The doxological or trinitarian verses are marked so you stand to honor the Trinity
2) The hymns are put into keys that can both be played and sung easier
3) The bible verses that the song are based are printed with the hymns. This can help add to the service by looking that up before or after service or be a way to do a bible study by studying what the hymn means and where does it come from.
4) If there are a lot of verses, there are breaks put between the verses to make it easier to follow.


In addition to this, some of the hymns have been down dated (opposite of updated) so they can return to the more familiar wording. As a church musician, and the not the most talented at that, I appreciate how all the steps are made to make singing these hymns easier to sing without cheapening how they sound. Most congregation on the whole are not on the musical par as a trained choir so some of the more complex hymns would not be appropriate on the congregational level. I am not trying to look down on the laity for many of the more complex leave me behind as well. I am just trying to point out that more complex is not always better.

LSB-Pastorial Care Companion

This is the last of the books I am going to be reviewing as a whole. The rest of the series while be looking at different features but not the book or books as a whole.

The Pastoral Companion is a great book for when the pastor is on the go. It deals with hospital and home visits when people are hurting. It also deals with funerals, celebrations, lifetime changes and other times when a pastor is needed outside of his office or regular worship. It is part hymnal and part counseling aid. It a guide to comforting scripture and hymns to help with the big events in one's life. A lay person can get comfort from this from reading the section related to their life situation. It is by no means a replacement to the pastor but a tool that both pastor and laity both can make use of.

LSB-Agenda

The LSB Agenda is the one edition I am probably going to deal with the least. It is not because I don't like it but is the one I think that is least useful to the laity and since this is from a laity's perspective, i will be be dealing with this the least. The Agenda is a great book for worship that deals withe special events of the church and the house keeping aspects of the church. It is the blessing of items for use for home devotion or being consecrated for church use. It deal with the installation of officers on the church to the synodical level. It has the service for funeral, weddings, baptism and ordinations of pastors. I do enjoy having it around to help my understanding of how the special service should be run. I believe it was St Paul who said that the worship services should be run in good order and this book aids with that.

LSB- Propers of the day Compainion

This paper back companion is a welcome addition to the LSB series. It has the propers for the three year and one year series and is just the right size to use for daily devotions or for a reference while planning out service. I would would not enjoy trying to use the Altar Book for the same use. The size of it would make it cumbersome at best. It would be doable but not the best solution. Other than the propers, it has the church year , how to sing the psalms and a cross reference in the back to how look thing up. The only two complaints I have about this book is that it does not have the list of dates that Easter falls on so you know when the rest of the church year falls on and it does not have a hard back cover. I know I complained about the size and weight of the Altar book but I am also hard on my devotional and resource books but this book is small enough that I would have appreciated the hard cover version of this one. My apologies if I have missed the hardback version of this one. I got the paperback version and can see the advantages of hardback for me.

God Provides

Kim broke her leg back on Memorial Weekend. Things have been tough and tight lately because of it. Somehow, we have been making our bills and doing well. God provides. I don't want to sound Polly Anna and that it has been a cake walk because I am a Christian and therefore I am blessed and don't have to worry ever again. God provides but not always on my timing or on my plans. I am a child of God and being a child, I can be so far from God, my Father wants me to be. Thanks be to God that things depend on Him and not me. Being a Christian does not mean things will be all peaches and cream. If it were, I would be in serious doubt if God was good at all. Ever since the first since of Adam, we have been under the curse of being under sin. Please don't equate that God is getting you for a specific sin. Something bad does not happen to for a specific sin but because of the fallen state the whole world including you are under. The nice thing is that we are blessed with the good things of this world despite our sin. Praise be to God. Hold tight to God and his blessings in the hard times. It is hard to do. Superhuman in fact but that is also one of God's blessings. Hold on, God is near even when you don't see or feel him there.

ESV Journaling Bible

Even though I am putting this post under the label of bible translations, this is going to deal a bible format more than the ESV translation. I have used the journaling bible format to review that but I still have not read and dealt with the ESV to give a full review. I have used it enough to say I like the translation but not enough to do an intelligent review. I will be doing a review of the ESV later. Enough said, let us get on with the format review.

The thing that drew me to this edition of the ESV was having big margins to write notes in. Sometimes it is really nice to write in thoughts and ideals in the margins as I go through the bible. The down side is that the print has to be a bit smaller to accommodate this which for me and my weakening eyes can sometimes be an issue but not too bad of one so far. It has a brief topical concordance in the front.There are also brief introductions to each of the books of the bible in the back. There is also a reading plan, an explanation of the translation, and a section explaining God's plan of salvation. Of all of this, I appreciate the big margins the best so I can have a bible that has my reflections in it. This is something I usually don't do with smaller margin bibles. It will be interesting to go back over these notes in a few years which may make for an interesting blog post later.

Lutheran Servicre Book Agenda

The Lutheran Altar Book is an extremely informative book and has a lot of great resources for the running of the worship service. I will however, start this review with my one BIG complaint about the book: it is huge! It tops out at 1002 pages. I have heard one pastor say he would like a lazy suzanne for it to make it easier to access it from both sides of the altar and that keeping it open to the right page can be a challenge when it is towards one end of the book or another. I have given it the nickname of ballast due to its weight. However, having gotten this complaint out of the way, let us look at the up side of this resource.

One of the big aids it has is the propers for each of the years in the three year cycle as wells as the propers for the one year cycle. This is a large contributor to its size but I agree with the reasons behind it. Instead of having generic propers in the three year cycle and it not really fitting any of the readings for any of the years, they have custom fit propers that do the Sunday right.

It also has the complete Psalter instead of missing 43 like the pew edition does. In addition to this, there are the special service for the church year as well as the special life event services like baptism, confirmation, wedding and funeral. It is full of rubrics and page reference to the pew edition so you can have a connection between the books so you know from the altar book where you would be in the pew edition.

As with the pew edition, there is a lot more here than I think I can handle well in a single post. I will be returning to look at specific features as I get the quick first roung look done. Until then.

Evangelism

Getting confronted by a Chic Tract in a Sam's club bathroom has gotten me thinking about what is effective evangelism. Is it being God's secret agent man and leaving stealth tracts all over the place? Is it befriending someone for the sheer purpose of sharing the gospel with them and moving on once they are in the church? I am all for evangelism and I don't have all the answers. My big question is "is what we are doing working for or against the gospel message?".

LSB Hymn Selection Guide

The LSB Hymn Guide Selection Guide is of supreme value to both the Pastor and Church Musician alike. It has hymn suggestion for the one year and three year lectionaries. It has an extensive comparison of LSB with The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship and Supplement 98. There are also hymn planning worksheets. This aids greatly in the planning and coordination of the weekly worship services. From the church musician perspective, it has helped with my choices of hymn to practice so that the prelude, postlude and voluntaries fit with the service a lot easier and without having to always to get details from the pastor. Please don't take this as tension between church musicians and pastors but rather that communications between people break down for a ton of reasons. If musicians and pastor both use this resource, the odds of them being on the same page or close enough on the same page without always having to touch base. (Please, musicians and pastors work together, the music can be so much more with the coordination.) This book is a great resource for hymn selection and making services better and planning easier.

The cph .org page is here.

Being a church musician

It has been a weird time for me lately as a church musician. I play the recorder and have started playing a few years ago so I started playing in the church in a very limited way. I was very occasional special music only player. Now that I am getting better, it is interesting to see how the frequency of me playing is increasing and that people are being are appreciative. I still see myself as not that good yet but it is very nice and useful to get the positive feedback. I have never liked my voice so it is nice that I have a musical way to give glory to God in the worship service. I absolutely love music in church and sometimes it is frustrating not to participate in music because of my own mind games about singing. I have found a voice of sorts to sing to my God.

God's Word to the Nations New Testament

God's Word to the Nations New Testament (website) is an interesting contemporary translation. One neat feature is the chi rho symbol being used by verses taht show an old testament fulfillment in new testament time. The translators say they tried to puncuate it so that silent and oral reading of the text would be easier. The hard copy, second printing one I have (copyright March 1989) had all sorts of appendixes to help explain how the translation was done and tells of the features and study aids to get more out or the new testament. It is a good bible to have around but not my favorite. Pick up a copy and check out their website and find out more about this translation.

Reading Planner

Ever wanted to be able to create your own bible reading plan? Better yet, did you want to take it along with you in a convenient manner? Goto http://www.readingplanner.com/. They have a program that you can load onto your PDA to use with a bible on your PDA or a paper copy. They also have bibles that can go onto your PDA so check it out and get your bibile study wired.

Lutheran Service Book-Pew Edition

This is the first in a series of looking at the Lutheran Service Book and companion books. The cph.org page for it is here.

The Lutheran Service Book is a great pulling together of Lutheran Liturgy. It is a combining of The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship and other sources. It has resources for church and home.

One of the things its favor is its uniform numbering. It use to be that the hymns would have one page numbering and the rest of it would have an entirely another page numbering and could be confusing. It also has the creeds and the Lord's Prayer on the back cover for ease of finding. The rite for emergency baptism is near the back for fast and easy find. The layout, page color and print has been picked for easier reading. The music has also been put into keys for easier singing for the congregation and easier playing for the church musician.

It also has mini liturgies for home devotions. These liturgies may not be necessary for home devotion, they are , however, a good way to set aside time for your devotion. There is also a daily lectionary to guide your bible reading as well as table of psalms for the day. The small catechism is also there to supplement your devotions. Noe of these are things you have to do but you can cheryy pick what would be helpful for where you are at.

I am quickly seeing that there is far too much for post here. I will return to the Pew Edition of the LSB and start looking at the individual parts so I canmore effectively and more logically deal with his hymnal.

This is the start.

LSB Weekly Series

The Lutheran Service Book is the latest hymnal in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's history. I will be looking at this hymnal and its companion editions and going over the strengths and drawbacks of this hymnal.The books I will be going over is the LSB pew edition, the Pastoral Care Companion, the Altar Book, the Agenda,LSB Propers of the Day book and the LSB hymn selector guide. There are other companion books but I do not, as yet, have them in my library. The first round of blog posts will be an overview of each book and a review of each. As the series continues, I will look more closely at the different features of each book. I will be aiming at one post each week on this series. Since today is Friday, then hopefully every Friday will have another post.

This blog ...

This blog has been sorrowfully neglected. To help just start it, I have a series or two that I will be putting out on a weekly (hopefully) basis. The scheduled posts feature has helped with my pther blogs and I hope to use it to my advantage here. We shall see.

Confession

In Lutheran Liturgy, one of the confessions of sin states, "I , a poor, miserable sinner confess unto You all my sins and iniquities which I have ever offended You and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment." This is an incredibly strong statement. It is in the first person to emphasize that each of us individually are sinful and deserve punishment. It is said as a group to emphasize we are all in this together in the same state. We all have all sinned and fallen short of the the glory of God. (St Paul in Romans.) Furthermore each and everyone of us deserves punishment from God both in this world and the next. Thanks be to God it does not end here. Repentance is a gift and work of the Holy Spirit. There is forgiveness in Christ. We are all sinners in need of forgiveness and we are all beloved Children of God who have the grace of forgiveness waiting for us in Christ. Praise be to God!

Book of Concord Readings

Found an email list to join that does a regulr readings of the Book of Concord. Below is a sample:

The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of
Concord is for the LSB Old Testament, Exodus 19:2-8 for the
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 15, 2008.

It is from Large Catechism, The Creed, paragraphs 34, 35, 37,
51-53, pages 403-405.

What a privilege and blessing it is to be called by God to be
numbered among His holy people!

The reading is formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin
at http://lcmssermons.com/images/boc/CY2008/Proper_6.doc

Pastor Doug May
Socorro, New Mexico
dougmay@sdc.org

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD
FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
LARGE CATECHISM
THE CREED, ARTICLE III

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian
Church, the communion of saints. Through this
article the Holy Spirit, with His office, is declared and shown:
He makes people holy [1 Cor. 6:11].

The "holy Christian Church" a "communion of saints," both
expressions, taken together, are identical.

This is the meaning and substance: I believe that there is upon
earth a little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under
one head, even Christ. This group is called together by the Holy
Spirit in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with many
different gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms.
I am also a part and member of this same group, a sharer and
joint owner of all the goods it possesses. I am brought to it
and incorporated into it by the Holy Spirit through having heard
and continuing to hear God's Word, which is the beginning of
entering it. In the past, before we had attained to this, we
were altogether of the devil, knowing nothing about God and
about Christ. So, until the Last Day, the Holy Spirit abides
with the holy congregation or Christendom. Through this
congregation He brings us to Christ and He teaches us the Word.
By the Word He works and promotes sanctification, causing this
congregation daily to grow and to become strong in the faith and
its fruit, which He produces. (paragraphs 34, 35, 47, 51-53)

Condensed from CONCORDIA: THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS, copyright
2005 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All
rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, visit
http://cph.org/concordia or call 800-325-3040

View online at http://lcmssermons.com/boc.php?d=2008-06-15

Hope this is of service.

Moffett Bible

I have been reading through the Moffett Bible lately. It is an interesting translation but one I am not entirely happy with. It has the richness of the RSV or KJV translations but has some quirky translations habits like translated the tetragrammatron (Yahweh) as "the Eternal" instead of "the LORD" like a lot of translations do. It also shifts some of the text out of order. Some of it is for chronological of contextual clarity but it makes makes it difficult to look some passages up. This makes it more a reader's translation then for study but it is not entirely useless for study. Mr. Moffett makes his historical/critical bias clear in the introduction. Even though I disagree with the historical/critical viewpoint of scripture, I do appreciate having him present it and being honest about his bias. I truly believe that no translation is free of bias and knowing the perspective of the translators helps with the understanding of scripture as presented. This in no way makes me believe that all translations of scripture are to be scorned or viewed as untrustworthy. There are sometimes more than one way to correctly and accurately translate. A lot of it deals with word for word translating versus thought by thought and how do you deal with idioms of the original language that lose their meaning when put into the translated into language. I will say , however, there are stronger and weaker translations and some of those for me are a matter of taste.

The Jesus Blog

John 25: 25Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This verse got me thinking today. If Jesus were around today, would we blog about him to fill the world? There are plenty of Christian stuff out therr but how many of us really do that much to tell of our faith. I have this blog but often often do I really say that much? I post to my other blogs much more I do this one. What does that say about my priorities? Just something to think about.

Baptism

One of our friends had just had an addition of the newborn. She was baptized at at Lent service this past Wednesday. It was so cool that she was baptized this close to Easter. Easter is so pivotal to the Christian faith she was baptized into. Her being baptized and saved by faith in Christ is why Christ was come. Her faith was sealed at Calvary almost 2000 years ago. Her baptism is the connection with that moment.It goes beyond words. The water and the word is so powerful. It is so important. I think I need to flesh this out in another post.

Holy Week

It is an important week in the church year starting on Sunday. Starting with Palm Sunday and going through Easter Sunday.I am and am not looking forward to it. Some of the neatest and important services of the church year are this week. What I don't look forward to is four services this week. It is an intense week for going to worship. Regardless of the intensity and how much difference there is between how much I want to go and how much I should want to go, this is an important week in the life of the Christian and the Church.

Let's look at some of these days coming up.

Palm Sunday: The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The crowds are singing his praise. It always strikes me how weird it seams for Jesus to be hailed so loudly on Sunday and will be crucified on Good Friday.

Maundy Thursday: Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper during the Passover meal. I have always enjoyed the connection between the Old Testament foreshadowing and the New Testament fulfillment. The Lord's Supper truly fulfills and supersedes the Passover meal. Jesus is The Passover Lamb. It is the reason why Jesus is arrested later that night in the garden.

Good Friday: This is the key pin of the church year. Without the crucifixion, there is no resurrection and no saving grace for the terminally dead sinners we are. It is so interesting to read psalm 22 and the Passover account in Exodus and see how it is fulfilled on Good Friday.

Easter Vigil: The waiting for the risen Lord. Service for this Saturday evening start in darkness and grow lighter in contrast to Good Friday that goes from Light to Darkness. It parallels the candlelight service on Christmas eve when the light of the world came into the world. This time it is too show the Christ has risen from the dead. The Light of the world has overcome the darkness of the world. This service is when the alleluias that were missing in Lent return.

Easter: The celebration fo the risen Lord. I can't remeber the last time I got up for a sunrise service. I don't like getting up early. After the previous services, I am not motivated to go early. That is my human failing.

It is a neat week of services but I am just glad it happens once a year. i don't think I could handle the pass more often. With it also being family time and the other demands of life, I just would not want to do it more often. However, having siad this, I would not miss these services either, they are too important.

Worship Music

It is Lent and we have been having some new to us music. We have also been using the piano for the Wednesday Lenten services. The change is nice. I am not a change just to have change but let's face it, it is hard not to go into auto-pilot when it is the same old thing every week. Having different instruments and arranged differently does help. There are some things that don't work but that is when intelligent choices are needed. Worship is important and should not be done haphazardly. The big trick is knowing the reasons behind things and when and when not to listen to personnel taste. It is also not about being traditional, contemporary, liturgical or non liturgical. There is a time and place for going in all the above dimensions and yet it transcends all the dimension mentioned. I wish it were a simple easy position but there it is.

Fat Tuesday

I think the evolution of Fat Tuesday is funny and so typically human. Lent is a time of giving something up and Fat Tuesday is a celebration of one last gorging before I give it up. How many things we should give up are not just because we are just not ready to give it up. We need just one more hurrah, one more jolly before we give up our vice. I do think we have concentrated too much on giving things up for Lent and not enough on taking up good habits. It is not only the giving up of doing vices but also the doing of good. I hope I am not sounding too law oriented and a pietist. AS Christian, our salvation is dependent on Christ and not on our our good works. However, that does not give a free pass to sit on our comfortable little behinds and do nothing. The Christian walk is full of struggle and strife and our failings. God picks us up to continue. Everything we do for God is due to God's power and might. May we keep our eyes on him, the Keeper and Perfecter 0f 0ur faith.

Strengths and Weaknesses and Unity

I went to a Disciple of Christ Church today with some friends today. Once again I was reminded that each denomination has its strengths and weaknesses. Please don't take this at me putting my fellow Christians down, but for all the things we have in common, there are still some major differences in both belief and practice. Some are better, some are worse and some are just different. Some are small and irrelevant and some are non-reconcilable. As much I would like to see unity and full fellowship with all Christians, that can not happen unless we truly believe the same thing. Some practices divide us and really should not because they are just personal preference. Sometimes I think it would be good to see what other denominations do well that mine does not do as well and use them. It would be even nicer if we were in unison. Come Lord Jesus and unite your sinful children.

Candlemas

Candlemas has been a traditional day in the church for dedicating the candles of the church that will be used throughout the year. One of it's texts is the story of Jesus being taken to the temple to be redeemed as Jewish law stated as all first born were. I think having this Church holiday is at an interesting time. The candles are dedicated during the time of the year where the length of day is starting to be noticeably longer. It is also just before the season of Lent where we look at the death and Resurrection of the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. Definitely a time to look forward to spring and the Lent season.

SEX- Moral vs Legal

I was listening to the radio and heard a news story about the State of Indiana wanting to change some laws about dealing with having sex with consenting age minors. It got me to thinking that the moral and legal standards for sex is two totally different things. Morally, sex outside marriage is wrong. If this was the legal standard, prisons would be full and fines would be way to abundant.

Even within the legal system, the standards can be confusing. How do handle it when one of the participants is under age but still above the age of consent. One legal issue was a boyfriend who just turned 18 and a girlfriend who is 17. If they were both 18 or both 17, there would no issue but since they straddle the line. (Yes, I know this is changing in alot of areas and is now based on age split) Needless to say, there are plenty of situations where it is clearly morally and legally wrong, an other places where it may be morally wrong but legally not so clear.

I may be a prude sometimes, but there are times that having less fun and staying away from fire just keeps you safe and in the long run is more fun because you don't have to deal with the fall out, legal or otherwise. Sometimes doing the moral thing, and not just the legal thing, is worth the effort.

Season of Epiphany

Christmas is over and the season of Epiphany is upon us. It is an odd one this year. Not only is the weather record breaking warm (nothing to do with the church year except it is the weather we are having right now) but it one of the shortest Epiphany seasons we could have. Easter is coming the second earliest date it could come. It comes March23 this year and the absolute earliest is the 22 of March. To learn of the rules and the history of the rules, check out this link.

What not to do while witnessing

I all for it it when people are willing and able and actually go out witnessing for their faith. Witnessing is one thing I am not good at and not comfortable doing and fail miserably when it comes to sharing my faith. I am not the person to go to to see how to witness. However, I do know what does not work when it happens. Here's a list of what not to do while witnessing that I actually got to see in action.

1) Call your relatives about 10 minutes before you show up and say you are coming over for a visit. Once there, do a bait and switch and start witnessing.

2) Same visit, one of the visitors asks another to get their omnichord and play it for us. Instead of just playing one or two songs, do a half dozen and all pointed at making a decision for Jesus.

3) Without asking if it is ok, placing a Christian sticker on your bathroom mirror.

4) After the singing is done, do a little sermon and a prayer.(all without asking)


I am Christian and I was really offended by this. I think a non Christian would be turned off by Christianity by this. It left me with the thought that if Christianity was about telling the gospel without reaching out to where people are and knowing their situation, I do not want to be a part of it. I don't want to be a Christian if it means forcing the gospel on people. Please don't get me wrong. I believe the gospel should be actively and loudly proclaimed to the whole world. What I have a problem with is whether or not how it is preached is about actually bringing people to faith or is it about how great a Christian is because they are preaching Christ regardless of the cost to those listening. There are untold numbers who are not going to church or believing because of the faithful's bad behavior.

Praise be to God that people still believe despite our failing best efforts. Truth be told, people come to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit and not our efforts. We are only the clay vessels called to the work of proclaiming the gospel and what pitiful vessels we are.

To the non Christian who reads this, please do not judge God by his sinful, imperfect children. God alone is perfect and Holy. To the Christian, let us preach the gospel boldly and loudly with love and concern for those who have not heard: let us not become the reason the non Christians to stay away.