A Dream... a Prayer to the Almighty Trinity

From the good Rev. William Weedon, whose dreams for the future of our beloved Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod echo my own. He writes: "here are some of my dreams ... for my beloved Synod:

A more merciful Church - greater involvement in alleviating human suffering and bringing the love of Christ to bear in tangible ways in our local communities and throughout the world.

A more evangelical Church - no, not in THAT sense; in the true sense.  A Church where the Gospel rings out with its unquenchable joy and shapes all we say and do, and where the Gospel (not the Law!) moves our mission work.

A more liturgical Church - learning to live responsibly within our liturgical heritage in the way Krauth:  "possessing liturgical life without liturgical bondage."  A Church where the full and rich heritage of Lutheran hymnody rings out full-throated from our congregations.

A more prayerful Church - where the Daily Office, the Litany and such come into their own and shape our parishes as places of prayer.  If "my Father's house shall be called a house of prayer for all people" let us return our parishes from being fund-raising organizations to being prayer-raising communities.

A more giving Church - where we recover a lively sense of sacrifice, of sharing earthly goods from the charity that the Gospel has planted in our hearts.

A more gentle Church - where the 8th commandment is truly honored in our practice, above all in learning to explain our neighbor's actions in the kindest way and where we remember the wise words of the Apology that harmony in the Church cannot last unless pastors and churches mutually overlook many things.

A more peaceful Church - where the hope of the future that will surely be ours at our Lord's Appearing removes all hastiness and fear and gives us a calm and measured ability to evaluate the challenges before us.

A more educated Church - where a deep and abiding love for the Word of God leads to full Bible classes and devout reading of the Word in our homes.

Commemoration of Ruth

Today, July 16th, is a day set aside to commemorate Ruth of Moab, the subject the Biblical book that bears her name. By doing so, we praise God for His mercy and favor shown to Ruth, and through Ruth (as an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ) to us. SDG.

Ruth of Moab ... is an inspiring example of God's grace. Although she was a Gentile, God made her the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:17), and an ancestress of Jesus himself (Matthew 1:5). A famine in Israel led Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem to emigrate to the neighboring nation of Moab with their two sons. The sons marriend Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, but after about ten years, Elimelech and his sons died (Ruth 1:1–5). Naomi then decided to return to Bethlehem and urged her daughters-in-law to return to their families. Orpah listened to Naomi's but Ruth refused, replying with the stirring words: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). After Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, Boaz, a close relative of Elimelech, agreed to be Ruth's “redeemer” (Ruth 3:7–13; 4:9–12). He took her as his wife, and Ruth gave birth to Obed, the grandfather of David (Ruth 4:13–17), thus preserving the Messianic seed. Ruth's kindness and selfless loyalty toward Naomi, and her faith in Naomi's God, have long endeared her to the faithful and redounded to God's praise for his merciful choice of one so unexpected.

  Source: LCMS biographies 

For a prayer today, I commend to you verses 1, 3, 7, and 4 of "For All the Faithful Women" (LSB 855). To God our heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray:

1 For all the faithful women
    Who served in days of old,
To You shall thanks be given;
    To all, their story told.
They served with strength and gladness
    In tasks Your wisdom gave.
To You their lives bore witness,
    Proclaimed Your pow'r to save.

7 For Ruth, who left her homeland
    And ventured forth in faith,
Who pledged to serve and worship
    Naomi's God till death,
We praise You, God of Israel,
    And pray for hearts set free
To bind ourselves to others
    In love and loyalty.

3 O God, for saints and servants,
    Those named and those unknown
In whom through all the ages
    Your light of glory shone,
We offer glad thanksgiving
    And fervent prayer we raise
That, faithful in Your service,
    Our lives may sing Your praise.

4 All praise to God the Father!
    All praise to Christ the Son!
All praise the Holy Spirit,
    Who binds the Church in one!
With saints who went before us,
    With saints who witness still,
We sing glad Alleluias
    And strive to do Your will. Amen.

Jesus Wins!

On this day, the opening day of the convention of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LC–MS) in Houston, TX, many are concerned about who will win and who will lose—  in voting about the structure of our synodical organization, in terms of who the next president will be, etc. In light of that, the Rev. Herbert C. Mueller Jr., president of the Southern Illinois District of the LC–MS:
  

God has given me the privilege of serving as pastor of three congregations in my life. Each time I have come as the new pastor, I've asked what they would like to study in adult Bible class. Each time someone has piped up, "Let's look at Revelation! That should be fun!" And so we do.

The second or third time through I came across this idea: get out a modern language Bible, your favorite, then read through the whole Book of Revelation in one sitting (it takes about 90 minutes). Don't sweat the details, but when you're done, reduce the message to two words. Answer? Jesus wins.

Whatever Satan, the world or we sinners try, Jesus wins the final victory. As we hear when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, "The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). Every time I read it, there's the same result: Jesus wins!

This is true even now, though it's hidden. But we look forward to the day He will appear and we shall see Him as He is. When the disciples saw Jesus ascend and disappear into the clouds, two angels stood by them and said, "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven," that is, visibly, openly, for all to see (Acts 1:11).

Where is Jesus now? He is seated at the right hand of God (which is everywhere, we said last month), ruling over all things for His Church. "From thence," from that position of power, we confess the next line of the creed, "He will come to judge the living and the dead."

Everything for our salvation has been completed, His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven for us. Only this remains. He is coming again. Right now, the Bible says, "He must rule until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25-26), a victory, the Book of Revelation assures us, Jesus wins. "Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power" (15:24).

That's when He comes again to judge the living and the dead.

What happens to us? If we are still alive when He comes, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet… we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). If we have died before He comes, we will be raised from the dead imperishable. Either way, we are given new, glorified, sinless bodies, "for this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (15:53-57).

See? Jesus wins!

What about the judgment? Remember the Scripture, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Remember the promise of Jesus, "He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24). Sin, death and the devil are judged and thrown into the lake of fire together with those whose names are not in the book of life (Revelation 20:10-15). But for all who are in Christ by faith, Christ Himself promises, "this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:39-40).

You need fear the judgment only if you are not found in Christ. My prayer for all of you is that we may be like St. Paul, writing to the Philippians, seeking to "gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…" (Philippians 3:8-10).

Remember, Jesus wins!