Long Time No Blog

Yes. It has been a while since I posted. My mother passed away last month. She is now completely healed and worshiping God before His throne in heaven. Communion the first Sunday after she died was very special to me. The words of the liturgy were very real. “with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven”  Life is bigger that me, the church, or the world. God is our refuge and our solid rock. His mercy is so fantastic. We are all like the servant who owed more debt then he could ever pay. Christ has come to us and said that our debt was nailed to His cross and has been paid in full because of what He did. God takes the blindness from our spiritual eyes and now we can say what John the Baptist said. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Our only response is to accept the free gift and be thankful. Eternally thankful!

That’s Human Nature

What I thought would be a touching father-daughter moment turned into a lesson on human nature. I gave my daughter, ten years old, a new Bible and we were reviewing a few verses.  After looking at John 3:16 I said, “Let me show you the John 3:16 of the Old Testament”. I turned to Exodus 34:5-8 and thought how wonderful it would be for her to read about God’s mercy, love, and faithfulness. As human nature goes she commented on God punishing not only the guilty people, but also their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren. How many time does God speak mercy, love, and faithfulness to us and we hear punishment?

Exodus 34:5-8

5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses, and the Lord called out his name: the Lord. 6 The Lord passed in front of Moses and said, “I am the Lord. The Lord is a God who shows mercy, who is kind, who doesn’t become angry quickly, who has great love and faithfulness 7 and is kind to thousands of people. The Lord forgives people for evil, for sin, and for turning against him, but he does not forget to punish guilty people. He will punish not only the guilty people, but also their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren.”

Pray, And Then Pray

Today I was looking at a devotional published in 1926 titled ”FIVE MINUTES DAILY WITH LUTHER”. Reading the devotion for today it ended with this quote…

Those haughty spirits, Lord, restrain,
Who o’er Thy Church with might would reign,
And always set forth something new,
Devised to change Thy doctrine true. 

All we can do when the pure truth of the church is challenged is PRAY.  

My Two Year Old Lutheran Blog

I started my blog two years ago with Martin Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation Thesis 26.

“The law says, “Do this,” and it is never done.
Grace says, “believe in this,” and everything is already done.”

I started this blog to track my Lutheran journey. I didn’t expect it to be read by anyone but me, to reflect on what I had written. The past two years I have thought often about Thesis 26 and have seen the effects of it in my life. I spent many years thinking that since God saved me, I then had to work as hard as I could to become worthy of God’s grace. While working with all of my might I knew deep inside that whatever I did I could never do enough, but I must work hard. My greatest seasons of peace came when I realized that I could not do it and I called out to God for help. Time after time I have seen that His grace is made perfect in my weakness. He is the supplier of everything I need. I now understand more that ever…

“The law says, “Do this,” and it is never done.
Grace says, “believe in this,” and everything is already done.”

A Sad Day As A Lutheran

A couple of months ago in a small meeting I asked Dr. Rod Rosenbladt, a highly respected Lutheran theologian, what do I say to my pastor who is in full support of the ELCA decision to allow openly homosexual clergy. His response, along with a deep sigh was… “I don’t know…I don’t know…” I didn’t know either. I prayed again, studied again, and looked for wise counsel again. This week I had a meeting with my pastor to tell him that I would be leaving the ELCA. It was a very surreal meeting. I was admonishing my pastor to return to the orthodoxy of the church and the teaching of Scripture. He stated that he believed the vote of the ELCA was led by the Holy Spirit and time will tell the story. I said that the Holy Spirit is not doing anything other then what He did on the day of pentecost and He has been doing the same thing for the last 2000 years. Saying that he was sorry that he could not change to see it the way I see it we part ways as fellow servants of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. He sent me an email later that afternoon thanking me for the work I have done in the church and expressed his sadness to see me and my family leave.

I replied to his email with this response…

Pastor —–,
 
After reflection on our meeting I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts. I do consider you a dear brother in Christ and I know that your desire is to serve our Lord with your whole heart. It’s not my place to turn you from your firm convictions. However, since you are taking a position that is contrary the historic position of the Christian church I encourage you to revisit this subject often and be open to change. If our dear brother Martin Luther had gone along with the church and not wrestled continually with the issues of his day we might not have the rich reformation heritage of justification by faith that we both hold as precious.
 
“Love the sinner but hate the sin.” This saying has many different meanings to many different people. This saying can be used as law or gospel. For me I do not hate the sin for the sin as an action. I hate the sin for the separation it creates between man and God. One of the most impacting portion of scripture in my life has always been St. Matthew’s narrative telling about Jesus looking over Jerusalem. Never has man been able to see so clearly into the heart of God. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! The city who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!” I find my peace in the shadow of His wing.
 
Grace and peace.
 
Your brother,
Byron

Law and Gospel Contrast

I have been thinking about the law and gospel contrast between John the Baptist’s charge to the Pharisees and Sadducees and blind Bartimaeus’ cry for mercy. In Matt 3:7 John the Baptist convicts all of us… “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? No doubt about it, there’s nowhere to run. The Pharisees and Sadducees wouldn’t admit it but they were stranded by the side of the road of life just like the blind beggar Bartimaius. All Bartimaius could do is call out to Jesus with a LOUD voice. All we can do is call out to Jesus with a loud voice. Mark 10:47 “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Being told to keep quiet he called out again but louder. “Son of David, have mercy on me!” When you are told to keep quiet do you call out all the louder? Jesus called Bartimaius to come to him. The God of mercy will never turn away from a cry for mercy. Jesus said… “Go your way. Your faith (which is also a gift from God) has made you well.”

Romans 4:25

God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God.

Matthew Henry Commentary on Romans 4:25

“In Christ’s death He paid our debt; in His resurrection He took out our acquittance.”

Definitions of acquittance

1. A legal document evidencing the discharge of a debt or obligation
2. A writing which is evidence of a discharge; a receipt in full, which bars a further demand.
3. A document freeing a person from liability

The Gospel According to Bob Dylan

I owned this record album by Bob Dylan way back in the day. It’s stored in my garage with a lot of old vintage Christian rock. I always thought the words were profound. As I listen to this song and think upon the lyrics I see more depth in them than the first time I listened to them. Whatever is going on in Bob Dylan’s life you can see that someone shared the Gospel with him as he expressed through these lyrics. 

Precious Angel – by Bob Dylan

Precious angel, under the sun,
How was I to know you’d be the one
To show me I was blinded, to show me I was gone
How weak was the foundation I was standing upon.

Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down.
You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground.
The enemy is subtle, how be it we are deceived
When the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe.

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
You know I just couldn’t make it by myself.
I’m a little too blind to see.

My so-called friends have fallen under a spell.
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, “All is well.”
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won’t be able to die.

Sister, let me tell you about a vision I saw.
You were drawing water for your husband, you were sufferin’ under the law.
You were telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohammed
in the same breath.
You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal’s death.

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself.
I’m a little too blind to see.

Precious angel, you believe me when I say
What God has given to us no man can take away.
We are covered in blood, girl, you know our forefathers were slaves.
Let us hope they’ve found mercy in their bone-filled graves.

You’re the queen of my flesh, girl, you’re my woman, you’re my delight,
You’re the lamp of my soul, girl, and you torch up the night.
But there’s violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia, to the judgment hall of Christ.

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself.
I’m a little too blind to see.

Jesus Paid It All, All To Him I Owe;

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

From time to time the refrain of this hymn has played in my mind going on 35 years. I have sung it in many different denominational churches over the years. It is the theme music for Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s Thru The Bible radio broadcast. Yes. I have listened to Dr. McGee over the years. I have heard doctrine that I don’t agree with from time to time but Dr. McGee knew it is by grace only that we are saved and nothing we can do.

When I hear that hymn, I hear Jesus paid it ALL. I have nothing but sin. Jesus Christ gets all of the glory.

At some point I must leave the ELCA… sadly…

The decision of the ELCA to turn away from scripture and the tradition of the historic Christian church leaves me no choice but to follow the clear word of scripture. These are very harsh words and hard to say. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:8) Paul had to say these words because he spoke the truth in love. Would some say that Paul did not love? If we love someone we will speak the truth so they can see who they really are before God and see the unmerited favor that god offers to all. I echo Paul’s words with much sadness, for as the Psalmist said, Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. (Ps. 133) This is no longer that case. I love my brothers and sisters in the faith but we must follow God’s Word above anything else.

In an October 16, 2009 letter from Lutheran CORE, Kenneth H. Sauer and Paull E. Spring (both formers bishops in the ELCA) stated the following… “Obviously we in Lutheran CORE are in disagreement with the decisions of the 2009 churchwide assembly. We see those decisions as part of an ongoing failure, within the churchwide expression of the ELCA, to listen to the words of Holy Scripture and the witness of two thousand years of Christian reflection on the Word of God. For these reasons Lutheran CORE is in the process of discerning prayerfully how God wishes to use us in ministry, a ministry that sadly must take place apart from the ELCA.”

At some point I must leave the ELCA… sadly…