The other day a friend sent me a brief note and I responded. The friend gave me permission to share the note and my response, in case others might find it useful.

There is a huge amount of stress and emotional upset in my life currently and I feel like I have fallen down in my faith. Other than my daily devotions and prayer, where do I begin to find my faith? I know that God cannot answer a prayer if we do not let Him have it-but I feel like I am hallow inside.

My response:

I’ve been thinking a lot about your question, and I considered the best approach to take. Do I offer a rather lengthy response filled with Bible verses? I could. Perhaps you would find that helpful, but on the other hand, I’m thinking that you are at a point now where what you need to hear are some simple, short, plain and to-the-point comments.

First, your feelings are entirely natural, and quite human. Consider that we humans, of course, are fallen creatures from birth. Christians will go through the “valleys” of life and it is a lie to suggest otherwise. The Joel Osteen type preachers are lying to you and deceiving you, so are many voices that tell you a Christian is always happy, light-hearted, care-free, always a positive, and optimistic person. That’s not true. It is a lie.

Second, you say that you feel like you have to “begin all over again.” I’m thinking that perhaps you don’t realize just how true that statement is, because I suspect you are using it in way that is completely wrong. Let me explain. A lot of people think that the Christian life is kind of an ever-improving, ever-growing, ever “getting better and better” from day to day. The old silly saying, “In every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better” is how, I think, way too many Christians view their calling as a disciple of Jesus.

Such an attitude leads to two major problems: 1. Christians may actually believe this lie and become self-righteous hypocrites who have fooled themselves into thinking that they actually are “getting better” in the sense of some kind of moral perfectionism.  2. Christians who try, so very hard, to get “better and better” only find that they get worse and worse. I’m reminded of Martin Luther’s great hymn, “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice” which is purely autobiographical. I’m going to append the words to the end of this note. Luther in the hymn describes the utter torment he felt, night and day, as he tried to get past his faults, his failings, his own sin, he tried so hard and felt that he was only falling deeper and deeper. Why? Because Luther was not yet able to comprehend that the Christian life is not characterized by self-achievement, “getting always better” but instead it is characterized by a constant “starting over.” The Christian life is all about being rooted and anchored in Christ: regardless of how we feel or the emotions we are experiencing.

“Starting over” — yes, you start over. “Begin all over again?” Yes, absolutely.

You actually *get* to start over. But starting over is a daily thing. Recall the words of the Catechism, that daily we see that old Adam, who is quite the swimmer, wanting to resurface and as we recall the gift of God to us in Baptism, that old Adam in us has to be drowned and die. Daily. Constantly. “Starting over”? Yes, absolutely, that is happening all the time.

Third, you say you feel “hollow” and “empty.” You are experiencing the feeling so many Christians have experienced. The greatest of saints all know this to be the “dark night of the soul” when God seems particularly far off and distant. Why are you feeling this way? I can’t say for sure. You would know. Perhaps it is a long-held grief, or perhaps a guilty feeling that Satan is throwing back into your face, bringing it back before your eyes.

Perhaps, as you say in your note, the stresses and pressures in life are so overwhelming you right now it is very hard to see how you will ever again “feel normal” again. Those are very real feelings. I would recommend to you that you not try to simply “get over it.” I strongly suggest you seek a faithful pastor who can lead you through private confession and absolution and give you the very personal assurance of Christ’s love for you through personal absolution. Be faithful at the Lord’s table, as often as you can. And immerse yourself in the Psalms. The Psalms will be come your deepest friends and companions for your prayer.

I bet you are feeling like your prayers are empty and hollow. You may not even know what to say, and you find that you are not even praying much anymore. Know that the Holy Spirit knows our weakness at theses points and he prays for us with groaning too deep for words, as Paul tells us in Romans. Be diligent and faithful in praying the Psalms.

Your head is probably telling you all that you need to know: the love of Christ, etc. but your heart is having a hard time receiving it, believing it and trusting in it. This period of doubt, anxiety and uncertainty will pass. And in the midst of it, it does not change the concrete, objective truth and reality that Christ’s love for you does NOT depend on how you might feel about it, or yourself, from moment to moment. Your sins are forgiven. God loves you. Christ is with you. The Holy Spirit will sustain you!

Finally, I need to also advise you to visit with your medical doctor if you feel that you are simply not getting through these deep feelings of anxiety and hopelessness. You may be suffering from a true physical condition known as depression. We hear that word a lot. Some people don’t believe that “depression” is real. They think, “Oh, I should just snap out of it.” But that is not true. Your doctor can help you with medicines that will help you through a deep trough of emotional depression and help you stabilize the chemicals in your brain which may be going haywire due to the stress you are under. There is no shame in speaking to the doctor about this. Seek this help if you feel you simply can’t move beyond your feelings.

I hope these comments are helpful to you! I will be praying for you.

Here is the hymn I urge you to ponder:

“Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice”
by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

1. Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,
With exultation springing,
And, with united heart and voice
And holy rapture singing,
Proclaim the wonders God hath done,
How His right arm the victory won;
Right dearly it hath cost Him.

2. Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o’er me,
Sin was my torment night and day,
In sin my mother bore me;
Yea, deep and deeper still I fell,
Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.

3. My own good works availed me naught,
No merit they attaining;
Free will against God’s judgment fought,
Dead to all good remaining.
My fears increased till sheer despair
Left naught but death to be my share;
The pangs of hell I suffered.

4. But God beheld my wretched state
Before the world’s foundation,
And, mindful of His mercies great,
He planned my soul’s salvation.
A father’s heart He turned to me,
Sought my redemption fervently:
He gave His dearest Treasure.

5. He spoke to His beloved Son:
‘Tis time to have compassion.
Then go, bright Jewel of My crown,
And bring to man salvation;
From sin and sorrow set him free,
Slay bitter death for him that he
May live with Thee forever.

6. This Son obeyed His Father’s will,
Was born of virgin mother,
And God’s good pleasure to fulfill,
He came to be my Brother.
No garb of pomp or power He wore,
A servant’s form, like mine, He bore,
To lead the devil captive.

7.To me He spake: Hold fast to Me,
I am thy Rock and Castle;
Thy Ransom I Myself will be,
For thee I strive and wrestle;
For I am with thee, I am thine,
And evermore thou shalt be Mine;
The Foe shall not divide us.

8. The Foe shall shed My precious blood,
Me of My life bereaving.
All this I suffer for thy good;
Be steadfast and believing.
Life shall from death the victory win,
My innocence shall bear thy sin;
So art thou blest forever.

9. Now to My Father I depart,
The Holy Spirit sending
And, heavenly wisdom to impart,
My help to thee extending.
He shall in trouble comfort thee,
Teach thee to know and follow Me,
And in all truth shall guide thee.

10. What I have done and taught, teach thou,
My ways forsake thou never;
So shall My kingdom flourish now
And God be praised forever.
Take heed lest men with base alloy
The heavenly treasure should destroy;
This counsel I bequeath thee.

Hymn 387
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Rom. 3: 28
Author: Martin Luther, 1523
Translated by: Richard Massie, 1854, alt.
Titled: “Nun freut euch, liebe Christen g’mein”
Tune: “Nun freut euch”
1st Published in: Etlich’ christliche Lieder
Town: Wittenberg, 1524

I was reading around in some classic works of theology, in anticipation of an interview I’m doing in a couple weeks on the topic of the means of grace and came across this beautiful portion of Francis Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics.

“This is done whenever they base the certainty of grace, or of the forgiveness of sin, on their feeling of grace or the gratia infusa [infused grace], instead of on God’s promise in the objective means of grace. All of us are by nature “enthusiasts.” Instead of listening to and believing God’s declarations of love in the Gospel, in the means of grace given by Him, or, in other words, instead of fixing our gaze on God’s reconciled heart which—thanks be to God!—is a present reality through Christ and is revealed and offered to us by God in the Gospel and the Sacraments, we look into our own heart and seek to gauge God’s feelings toward us by the thoughts and moods we find in our heart. But that amounts to a practical denial of the fact that God has reconciled us to Him through Jesus Christ, and hence to a practical denial of the means of grace, in which God acquaints us with this completed reconciliation.

“This feature of our Christian life must occupy us as long as we live. Christianity is an absolutely unique religion. It completely transcends human horizon and our inborn conception of religion. Native to us is the opinio legis [the opinion of the law], the religion of the Law. When we observe virtue in ourselves, we regard God as gracious. When we discover sin in us and our conscience condemns us because of it, we fear that God is minded to reject us. But the Christian religion teaches that God is gracious for Christ’s sake “without the deeds of the Law,” hence without regard to our keeping or transgressing of His Law. The righteousness that avails before God lies outside ourselves (Triglotta 935, F. C., Sol. Decl., III, 55). It is the acquired righteousness of Christ; in other words, the forgiveness of sins, which God pledges to us for Christ’s sake in the means of grace. Therefore our spiritual life is lived on the right basis and in agreement with the unique character of the Christian religion only when we—to express it in the words of Luther—“soar above ourselves” and base our faith in God’s grace on the means of grace lying outside us, the Word of the Gospel and its seals, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

“The gratia infusa—in its good sense as true Christian sanctification, or holy living—is, of course, also intended to be a signum et testimonium [a sign and testimony] of divine grace (Trigl. 199, Apol., III, 154 f.). But the gratia infusa is always imperfect. It does not stand the test before man’s conscience or the revealed Law of God. Our practice therefore must remain as Luther describes it: “There is no good counsel other than to disregard your own feelings and all human solace and to rely only on His Word” (St.L. XI:455).”

Francis Pieper, vol. 3, Christian Dogmatics, electronic ed., 131-32 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

From the Glosses from an Old Manse blog site: “If we wish to know what true Christianity means, how the church of Christ lives and works, and how a soul is saved, we must seek to understand three great heritages of the church. We must go back first to the days of the apostles, martyrs and church fathers; then we must ponder the message of the Reformers; and lastly, bring to remembrance the blessed spiritual leaders in the last century through whom God gave the church great awakenings from which all future generations may learn.

“This is the threefold heritage of which we have been made stewards and which is to be made a living possession. It is ours to preserve and to pass on. We are to learn lessons from the past that are to be a vital force in the present. It is the risen and living Lord who wrought all this in the past. To hold fast the old heritage is to abide in Him. For then it is at the same time something new, renewed by the Resurrected Christ Himself. In the measure that we live by the resources which built the church in days of old, will Christ give us clear instruction for the way we must walk today.

“This, then, is our program: to learn of the past that we may be prepared meet the coming day; to immerse ourselves so deeply in the great life stream of the church that we may be equipped to proclaim the Word of God in a new age, and to modern men and women, and to live His life in the manner which the new century in the history of the church demands.”

From the Pastoral Letter of Bishop Bo Giertz to the Diocese of Gothenburg in the Church of Sweden, 1949 (ET by C.A. Nelson published as ‘Liturgy & Spiritual Awakening’).

Picture: A young Bo Giertz preaching (courtesy http://media1.vgregion.se/vastarvet/BM/Bilder_foto).

Note the order of the questions Giertz raises in his first sentence – ‘what true Christianity means’ leads to ‘how the church of Christ lives and works’, which leads on to ‘how the individual soul is saved’. One can glimpse here already at the beginning of this programmatic address to his diocese how Giertz effortlessly combined the typical Swedish high-church ‘catholic’ concern for churchliness and order with the once also typically Swedish low-church ‘evangelical’ concern for times of awakening (the more usual English term here might be ‘revival’, although it is tainted by misuse) and personal salvation. That Giertz seems to be a rare 20th century embodiment of these traditions perhaps only indicates how far the church had fallen from health at the time.

Without the concern for personal salvation, ‘high-churchism’ tends towards a preoccupation with the outward form of church life which comes to present only a mask of piety to the world, while without the concern for churchliness, evangelicalism tends towards becoming sectarian and individualistic, wreaking havoc upon the body-life of the church. The health of the church in any age surely depends on keeping the current of its life alternating between these two polarities in a creative and positive manner; when the current runs in only one direction for a lengthy period of time, impoverishment of the church’s life results.

The dissolution of Anglicanism before our very eyes is the outcome, in my view, of the failure to keep the catholic and evangelical currents of that church’s life in positive contact, while the future of the Lutheran Church, humanly speaking, depends on avoiding that mistake.

I found this blog post by Dr. Albert Mohler on the subject of whether or not children making parents “happy.” I thought it was very well put, you may as well. Here’s a snippet:

Christians must see children as gifts from God, not as projects. We should see marriage and parenthood as a stewardship and privilege, not as a mere lifestyle choice. We must resist the cultural seductions and raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and understand family life as a crucible for holiness, not an experiment in happiness. And when it comes to happiness, we must aim for something higher. Christians are called to joy and satisfaction in Christ, and to find joy in the duties and privileges of this earthly life. Every parent will know moments of honest unhappiness, but the Christian parent settles for nothing less than joy.

“May our dear Lord Jesus Christ show you his hands and his side and gladden your heart with his love, and may you behold and hear him only until you find your joy in him. Amen.”

Martin Luther, Letter of April 30, 1531 to Barbara Lisskirchen who suffered from anxiety. Letters of Spiritual Counsel (Westminster, 1955), 117.

A gold nugget from the forthcoming volume on “The Church,” by Johann Gerhard, part of the Gerhard LOCI project.

Nazianzen, Sermon de se ipso contra Arianos, at the beginning:

Where are those who define the church by multitude and despise the little flock? Who measure divinity and weigh the people? Who consider grains of sand valuable and insult the very lights of the world? Finally, who have gathered the shells but have held the pearls in contempt, etc.? They have houses; we have a dwelling. They have temples; we have God. And, in addition, because we are temples of the living God, we are living sacrifices, spiritual burnt offerings. They have the crowd; we have the angels. They have rash boldness; we have faith. They have threats; we have prayers and petitions. They have gold and silver; we have the cleansed doctrine of faith.

“On the Church,” § 181.

As soon as the Holy Ghost enters into the heart of an individual, he becomes smaller and more modest. He no longer knows anything about himself in which he can boast, and he no longer despairs on account of his sins. He is insignificant in his own eyes, but he recognizes how great is the love of God – the patience of the Father, the redemption of Christ, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

— C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It! p. 460.
HT: Weedon

“When sin awakens, when an old guilt preys upon the conscience and simply will not be dislodged from the mind, when constant sinning, which is ever a part of us, when our wicked, corrupt heart causes us to be fearful and to potter about, at that very moment one needs the consolation: Christ has also redeemed me by His precious blood; His blood and merit cover up my sins. Jesus, my Savior! But we cannot seize this comfort out of our own breast. Our own heart and conscience bear witness only to our sin and guilt, to nothing else. Nor are we able of ourselves to put this comfort into our heart and conscience. Heart and conscience resist, saying: I have sinned too grievously, too long. I am incorrigible; I am not worthy of any mercy. But then comes the Holy Spirit from heaven, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and bears witness to Christ and testifies loudly and clearly: Your sins are forgiven! Christ has purchased and won you too! You are God’s dear child! And this voice of the Holy Spirit, this voice of God, drowns out and silences the voice of one’s own conscience.

“The Holy Spirit inscribes and engraves this testimony of God’s grace in Christ into our heart so that we give assent to this testimony and rely totally on this Lord. The Holy Spirit illuminates Christ in our soul and paints the comforting picture of the crucified Christ so distinctly, so brightly and clearly before our eyes that the gloomy thoughts of one’s heart disappear and vanish, as night and mist before the rising sun.

“This light is life and works joy, peaceful rest. It is a living, wholesome, blessed knowledge that is kindled by the Holy Spirit. The believer comes to know and recognize Christ, his Savior, not as one sees and recognizes things that are outside of us, that are visible to us but assimilates Christ by means of such knowledge and glories now in the fact that Christ through faith lives in his heart.

“To be sure, we often do not perceive, feel, experience this light of knowledge. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that lies hidden. Amid the pressure of carnal thoughts and lusts, in the hustle and bustle of temporal affairs, amid the burden of the cross and anxiety comes this treasure which the Holy Spirit lays into the heart. We search within ourselves for this new light and life, for this new creation, look into, search our own heart and mind and do not find what we are looking for, find nothing good. We think that faith has died. But, dear Christian, you ought to know this: God has set up eternal, visible, tangible means through which He gives His Spirit and strengthens your faith. It is true, the Holy Spirit has His workshop within the depths of our heart. But you should never seek the Spirit within you and draw Him out of yourself and your heart, but you have been pointed to the Word, to the outward Word that you can see with your eyes and hear with your ears. The Holy Spirit testifies through the Word, through the Gospel. Simply listen to the preaching of the Gospel, with or without feeling and emotion. Listen to what is being said about Christ the Savior, and do not look and search and rummage within yourself but within Scriptures, within the Bible, which on every page testifies of Christ.

“Through the hearing, reading, learning the Holy Spirit comes to you and seizes and moves your heart even though you don’t feel it. Just at the time you are bemoaning your poverty, sterility, impotence, and weakness, He is making you rich and strong. When you are unable to find any counsel and know not where to turn, He enlightens your soul. While you are lying prostrate, despondent and dejected, quietly and unnoticed the Spirit strengthens your faith through the Word. Only one thing is asked and required of you and that is that you diligently hear and learn God’s Word, the Gospel of Christ. All else the Holy Spirit has reserved for Himself. Through the Word He leads you to Christ, through the Word He fastens your soul to Christ’s easy yoke.”

- George Stoeckhardt; Unending Grace (Gnade um Gnade), p. 221-222

According to Christ’s own words only they belong to the Church of the New Covenant who not only know Christ, speak much and often of Him, and believe that He is a Teacher of the Truth, but who also love Him. Moreover, only those who not only have Christ’s Word, diligently hear it, and seek and search in it, but who also keep it.

The Lord does not at all mean to say that true faith is not enough in order to be a member of the Church; in other passages of Scripture the indwelling of God and membership in the Church, yes, salvation is expressly ascribed to faith. In our text Christ wishes to inculcate that only a faith which is not a dead head knowledge makes one a member of His Church. His faith must be a divine power which changes the heart of man, melts it, and fills it with holy fear of every sin and impurity. And his faith also fills the heart with love to Christ, a love consisting not only of words but an inner living power showing itself in deeds. It is a love which not only makes one willing but also capable of keeping Christ’s word. The Lord expressly adds in the following verse: “But he who does not love me, holds not My Words” (John 14:24). One who lacks faith cannot become a temple of God, a member of the Church.
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The Christian Church is like a field of wheat. Weeds grow up along with the wheat. they often are more colorful than the wheat itself; they are watered by the dew of heaven just as well as the wheat; the sun shines upon them just as well as on the wheat and ripens for the harvest. In the same way many are like weeds on the wheatfield of the Christian Church. They do not belong to it, although they are watered by the heavenly dew of the Gospel as are the members of the Church; the rays of eternal Truth shine upon them as on the true members, ripening for the eternal harvest. The weeds, however, are not stored in the granary at harvest time but are tied in bundles and thrown into the fire.

So all those, who here in in the Christian Church but did not love Christ and keep His Word, will not be brought into the granary of heaven, even though they were baptized, knew Christ, had sort of a faith in Christ, yes, outwardly led a Christian life. They will be separated from Christians and cast into the fire. Oh, my friends, we will with terror see that very many will be found among such weeds, many whom we considered the best wheat because of their knowledge, usefulness, or honorable life. Ah, when I think back how especially in the last years our congregation has progressed in temporal things but retrogressed in love to Christ and the keeping of His Word, my heart trembles at the thought of the harvest. I feel compelled to say: My dear brethren, let us not feel secure because we are in the Christian Church. Let us rather earnestly examine ourselves in the present festival of the Christian Church to see whether we love Christ and keep His Word; if we have fallen we can then arise again in true repentance, return to our first love, and at the cry: The Bridegroom comes, arise with rejoicing and follow the Bridegroom into the marriage hall of the Church Triumphant.
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The Lord comforts His own at His imminent return to the Father saying that when He will no longer walk and talk with them, the Holy Ghost would teach them everything and remind them of all the words which He said to them. Now what does Christ say would never be taken from His own and would never fail them? What does He say is inseparable from His Church and at the same time a positive sign by which it can be known? His Word, His Gospel.

And, my friends, it can be nothing else. The Church is the communion of all true believers and lovers of Christ. Nothing else can make a person a true believer and lover of Christ than His Gospel. Thus nowhere else than where this Word is can the Church of true believers be found. As you look for wheat only where you have planted the wheat seed, so you also find true Christians, the Church of the New Covenant, only where the heavenly seed of the Word is sown.
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The Word of God will never be preached in vain. It happens that wherever God permits His Word to be preached, He knows in advance that there are at least a few who will believe it, love Christ, and keep His Word. Wherever God gives His means of grace, the pardoned are certainly there also. Wherever there are those who are called by God’s Word, a number of elect to eternal salvation are there also…. Wherever the candle of the Gospel burns, the Lord certainly has a number of His own there also. In short, wherever there is a visible congregation, in which God’s Word is preached in its purity, there certainly is also an invisible Church of true believers.

As the column of smoke announces the presence of fire and as the rising sun announces the arrival of the day, so the preaching of God’s Word in any place announces the presence of the true Christian Church. Everything else which is extolled as marks of the Church, be it the outward holiness and the great works of its members, the long duration of its existence, the derivation of its beginning in unbroken line from the apostles themselves, or whatever it is – all this can deceive. However, the mark of the preaching of the pure Word is infallible. Where this is found, there is still today the workshop of the Holy Spirit; there even today we hear that rushing as of a mighty wind in which the Spirit descends from above; He is as powerful through the preaching of the Word as He was long ago on the first Pentecost. By the Word He calls, gather, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps the holy Christian Church with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Stay where you find the pure Word, for there you find the true Zion of the New Covenant, the New Testament Jerusalem, the true temple of God, in other words, the true Church of Jesus Christ.
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That the Church is a ship which not only brings peace and security from the storms of the world but which also most certainly enters the harbor of a blessed world; that the Church is a tree which grows in this world as though in a nursery, but will some day be transplanted in the soil of heaven; that the Church is like a vestibule of the eternal temple, where all the saints gather, see God face to face, and live a life in perfect joy without measure and end; in a word, that outside the Church there is no salvation but in her everything is salvation, that, that is the great blessing, the most wonderful treasure which the Church has.

Blessed are all of you who are found in the ship of the Church as those elected out of the old for the true new world; this ship will not be wrecked; despite the gates of hell you will joyfully land on the shores of that land where only the blessed live. Blessed are all of you who are living branches on the tree of the Church; someday you will bloom and become green in the garden of eternal paradise. Blessed are all of you who worship here in the vestibule of the Church of grace; you will also sing an eternal hallelujah in the holy of holies in heaven. Amen.

CFW Walther

I remain very puzzled by a trend in some circles that would have us never preach/teach from the pulpit about our lives of renewal in Christ and about the good works to which we are to be about as a result of our justification and redemption. This is a novelty in Lutheranism and does not square with our historic Lutheran confession and practice. Here, for example, is a powerful comment from Martin Luther about this problem.

They are excellent preachers of the Easter truth, but miserable preachers of the truth of Pentecost. For there is nothing in their preaching concerning sanctification of the Holy Ghost and about being quickened into a new life. They preach only about the redemption of Christ. It is proper to extol Christ in our preaching; but Christ is the Christ and has acquired redemption from sin and death for this very purpose that the Holy Spirit should change our Old Adam into a new man, that we are to be dead unto sin and live unto righteousness, as Paul teaches Rom. 6:2 ff., and that we are to begin this change and increase in this new life here and consummate it hereafter. For Christ has gained for us not only grace (gratiam), but also the gift (donum) of the Holy Ghost, so that we obtain from Him not only forgiveness of sin, but also the ceasing from sin.”

It never ceases to baffle and confuse me when I hear people make the comment, “You don’t have to go to Church to be a Christian.” I used to try to respond to this with rather long-winded explanations of the third commandment, and the gifts given, and blah, blah, blah. Lately, I’ve just decided to respond to those comments by asking, “Really? Where does our Lord in His Word teach that?” Hint: He doesn’t! My friend, Pastor Weedon, offers this “take” on not attending Church.

“If I decided one Sunday just to skip Church that week, do you think anyone would notice? Ah, you say, but you’re the pastor. Yes, they’d notice. I agree. They would. But it also makes a difference when YOU decide to skip Church this Sunday.

“Each Sunday is a gathering of the family – and when a beloved family member doesn’t show up for the family gathering and meal at Christmas or Easter or Thanksgiving, there’s a hole, a gap, a pain that everyone feels. We’re all the less for that person not being with us to revel in the celebration of that day. Their absence diminishes the joy of the family. So when you choose to skip on Sunday, when you don’t come together with your church family to join in offering the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and to receive the gifts your Lord has for you, it’s not just you that miss out. Your extended family – the Church – misses out. They are diminished by your decision to absent yourself. The singing is that much quieter. The “amens” that much softer. The spot where you usually sit and stand reminds us all of your absence.

“Surely old Neuhaus was dead right on this: Christian discipleship should begin with a very simple commitment that any given Lord’s Day will find you in the assembly of God’s people, singing His praise, offering your prayers, receiving His gifts. The *only* reasons for missing is because you’re too sick to be present or because you’re away traveling – and even in the later case, blessed are you if you find the family gathered in that location and join with them.”

“Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25

Pride is a scorching wind drying up the fountains of divine grace in the heart; beware then of lifting up yourself with pride, lest you deprive yourself of the influences of God’s grace. — Blessed Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditation, XXXIV

[The new life in Christ], which flows from Him to us, is also full of joy, the great joy of living in a world whose innermost nature is mercifulness, forgiveness, and love. It’s the joy of knowing that Christ has made it possible for even the greatest sinner and the most miserable wretch to be God’s child. It’s the joy of knowing that there is nothing that can separate us from God when we trust in Jesus and stay with Him. — Bishop Bo Giertz, To Live with Christ, p. 327

Raised by post-church boomers, or by children of boomers, it should come as no surprise that the so-called “Millennials” are hazy, to say the least, about all things religious. Here is an interesting story in USA Today about it.

Here is a snippet from the story:

Key findings in the phone survey, conducted in August and released today:

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services.

•67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.

Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes, half no.

Here is the more complete report directly from LifeWay. LifeWay reports:

“Millennials are the most religiously diverse generation in our culture’s history,” Rainer said. “Unsure of the afterlife and the life of Jesus, Millennials present the church with a great opportunity to engage them in conversations dealing with the nature of truth and its authority as God.”

Here are a couple of charts from the story:

I’m working through some older books that we are bringing back into print via our “Concordia On Demand” program, and came across a beautiful gem of a book by Dr. Martin Franzmann titled, Pray for Joy, a collection of meditative prayers on various themes. This one particularly caught my eye today:

To Be Rid of Some Current and Popular Illusions

Rid us, O Lord, of the arrogant delusion that our age is harder to live in, harder to live through and be decent in than any age that ever was, that we are being tried as our fathers never were, that we have more excuse for our neurotic screaming, our pitiful muddling, our erorded standards, our sentimental slobbering, our pinching terror at the shadows of the future cast upon our way than any men who ever walked beneath your heaven and on Your earth.

Teach us, O Lord, by your sane and steadying Word that we stand before You as we always stood, living of Your grace and moving toward Your judgment, that the Bomb adn the terrible technological trifles of our time have not altered the great, plain, steady fact that You are Lord and have not changed the blessed time ofYour coming as a thief in the night.