KALAMAZOO — Age hasn’t slowed the Rev. Louis Grother. [Source for story here]

Time, in fact, only seems to inspire the Kalamazoo resident to reach out more to the homeless, the poor, the mentally ill and the downtrodden.

“There will always be a need for someone to support the people who many in society have given up on. … I consider it my duty to take the time to listen, to offer prayers and to be a part of the lives of people who don’t have anybody else,” said Grother, who will celebrate his 97th birthday this year.

In recognition of his benevolent manner, dedication to the destitute and commitment to treating all people equal, Grother has earned the lifetime achievement honor in this year’s STAR Awards.

When Pamela Post read the criterion for the Irving S. Gilmore Lifetime Achievement Award, she knew instantly that Grother was more than deserving.

In nominating Grother for the honor, one of several categories in the Sharing Time and Resources Awards, Post said Grother’s greatest gift is “his dedication to the very people that society looks down on or ignores. To these, he touches their weary souls with his love and nurturing.”

Now retired from the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital, Post remembers Grother visiting hospital patients and taking the time to talk with them. Grother still conducts a weekly chapel service at the hospital, followed by a post-chapel social event where Grother shares conversation and Scripture with the patients.

“Tuesdays are very special days for me,” Grother said. “I look forward to visiting my friends at the hospital.

“It’s probably fair to say that I get more out of spending time with them than they do with me. … I get a lot of unsolicited care and kindness in return for what I do, and that’s what brings me joy.”

Doing what is right

Although Grother is reluctant to talk about his goodwill gestures, Post is happy to provide examples of kindness and respect she witnessed between Grother and patients at the psychiatric hospital.

“He takes care to greet patients individually, with a handshake and a smile. He listens intently and gives them positive encouragement and hope,” Post wrote. “It’s really a privilege to be a part of it.”

The son of a minister and his wife, Grother was born in Paducah, Ky. He was ordained and installed as assistant pastor at First St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago in 1938. During his 11 years in Chicago, he was a frequent visitor to the sick and dying at Cook County Hospital.

In 1949, Grother accepted the post of reverend at Zion Lutheran Church in Kalamazoo. It was in Kalamazoo, Grother said, that he found his niche in life. In addition to his duties at Zion, Grother served for 20 years as chaplain to the Kalamazoo police and fire departments. He also served as chaplain at Kalamazoo College and initiated a religious education program for Lutheran students at Western Michigan University.

“The patients and workers there have been very kind to me and they always make me feel welcome,” Grother said. “I love those people very much. Those patients are very dear to me.”

Grother said he learned kindness from his parents. In addition to his father being a minister, his mother came from a family that included its share of church leaders. Grother acknowledged the Lord has been good to him.

A widower for eight years, Grother has two adopted children and six grandchildren. His children, Bill and Mary, spent their careers as teachers. His son, who is retired, worked with at-risk teens, while his daughter teaches at a reservation in New Mexico.

He beams when talking about his children.

“I can’t take credit for the good choices they made in life, but I’m awfully proud of them,” he said.

Grother said he’s humbled to win the Irving S. Gilmore Lifetime Achievement Award. As a man of the cloth, he said he’s been taught to not perform good deeds for glory or recognition.

“It was very kind of the people who had a part in this honor to think of me,” he said. “But I’d just as soon prefer to go along in life without the hurrahs and fanfare around me. I just did what was right, by going through the doors the Lord opened for me and never turned my back.”

© 2011 MLive.com. All rights reserved.

Wow. Just. Wow.

I guess I’ve seen this before, but … today I needed to see this and pay attention. Maybe you do too.

This man is simply, amazing, and I was delighted and deeply humbled to find out he comes from a Christian family and it is is precisely his faith in Christ that has sustained him. God is using him to touch millions of people.

Have you seen or heard about him?

Here you go. Amazing. Te Deum laudamus. This is amazing and so humbling.

If and when you are tempted to feel sorry for yourself….bookmark this video and watch it. Again, and again.

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One of my favorite quotes from the Book of Concord is this one:

We see the infinite dangers that threaten the destruction of the Church. In the Church itself, the number of the wicked who oppress it is too high to count. Therefore, this article in the Creed shows us these consolations in order that we may not despair, but may know that the Church will remain ‹until the end of the world›. No matter how great the multitude of the wicked is, we may know that the Church still exists and Christ provides those gifts He has promised to the Church—to forgive sins, to hear prayer, to give the Holy Spirit.

(Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions, Edited by Paul Timothy McCain, 144 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005).

Here is another great quote, in light of the recent debacle with Rob Bell, the disaster in Japan, the unfolding theological meltdown in much of world Lutheranism, with the ELCA leading the way, and in light of whatever challenges we each face in our own individual callings:

“The present is a time not for ease or pleasure, but for earnest and prayerful work. A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith. And now there are some indications that the fiction of conformity to the past is to be thrown off, and the real meaning of what has been taking place is to be allowed to appear. The Church, it is now apparently supposed, has almost been educated up to the point where the shackles of the Bible can openly be cast away and the doctrine of the Cross of Christ can be relegated to the limbo of discarded subtleties.

“Yet there is in the Christian life no room for despair. Only, our hopefulness should not be founded on the sand. It should be founded, not upon a blind ignorance of the danger, but solely upon the precious promises of God. Laymen, as well as ministers, should return, in these trying days, with new earnestness, to the study of the Word of God.

“If the Word of God be heeded, the Christian battle will be fought both with love and with faithfulness. Party passions and personal animosities will be put away, but on the other hand, even angels from heaven will be rejected if they preach a gospel different from the blessed gospel of the Cross. Every man must decide upon which side he will stand. God grant that we may decide aright!

“What the immediate future may bring we cannot presume to say. The final result indeed is clear. God has not deserted His Church; He has brought her through even darker hours than those which try our courage now, yet the darkest hour has always come before the dawn. We have today the entrance of paganism into the Church in the name of Christianity. But in the second century a similar battle was fought and won. From another point of view, modern liberalism is like the legalism of the middle ages, with its dependence upon the merit of man. And another Reformation in God’s good time will come.

“But meanwhile our souls are tried. We can only try to do our duty in humility and in sole reliance upon the Savior who bought us with His blood. The future is in God’s hand, and we do not know the means that He will use in the accomplishment of His will.”

—J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, (New Edition; Eerdmans, 2009 [orig., 1923), 150. HT: Justin Taylor.

Pastor Weedon offered these wise words on his blog site. I like how he turns the question on its ear.

In Bible Class last Sunday: can a person who denies a specific part of the Creed still be regarded as a Christian? I thought immediately of how the Methodists (at least, last time I checked) dropped “He descended into hell” from the Apostles’ Creed, and I said: Yes. Yes, but…

And the but is this: the Creeds hand over the faith as a whole body. Can you still live, if you chop off your hand or your leg? Yes, but living becomes that more difficult, and the danger of infection runs rife – zeroing in on the beating heart. Can a person be healed and learn to get along without some piece of the Creed’s confession of the faith? Yes, but if they suggest then that hopping around on a single foot is actually all one needs, and a whole body isn’t that important and they wish to stop chopping off our feet…well, you can see where I’m headed. Luther famously said: Lass das Sakrament ganz bleiben – let the Sacrament remain whole. Same for the Creeds that express the faith of the Holy Church. Let them remain whole. They hand over to us the faith of our fathers to us not in pieces, but in whole.

It becomes a deadly game to play: how much can I chop out and still remain alive? Rather we should ask: why settle for anything less than the fullness, the whole corpus of the faith, that the Creeds witness to and confess?

The other Sunday I was sitting, as is my habit, in church looking through the lectionary readings, looking up the hymns and reflecting/pondering their words and praying, using the prayers in the inside cover of Lutheran Service Book. Behind me I heard an ever growing level of chatter and conversation, some of which I could hear. It was not conversation about the worship service about to begin, but chatter about a whole host of wholly irrelevant things. It is a shame that a long practice in the church of reverent silence before the Divine Service begins has fallen so far out of use. Frankly, in many congregations, the time before the service begins sounds more like what you experience before a live show begins in a theater, conversation and so forth. Even when the prelude begins, this does not apparently give people a clue that something special is about to happen, it only encourages them to talk more loudly. Not good. I would encourage folks to consider changing their habits.

OK, so I gave this post a provocative title to get your attention. Did it work? Good!

But admit it, it worked because you would love to know how to get God to talk to you. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if He did? What would He say? Would you want to hear what He has to say to you? You think you do, don’t you. But think with me for a moment. Do we really want to know what God has to say to us? Really? Are we ready to hear it? I’m not so sure. There is a plague going around in Christianity these days, but it is not really anything so new. People claim they want to hear what God has to say, but they don’t. Not really. Why? Because God usually has something to say that we really would rather not hear. God will tell us precisely how, why, when and where we are mucking everything up in our lives. And that’s the bit we would rather not have God talk to us about.

It seems God is not really all that great a conversationalist. He is kind of a fanatic, and that’s the sort of person who won’t stop talking and won’t change the subject. And that’s pretty much what God is like when He talks to us. He just won’t change the subject, no matter how much we wish He would. There are a lot of people who turn to false gods and false hopes and false religions precisely because they talk about things that interest them. And nothing is of more interest to you than you, right? You would rather have God talk about you, but even then, to talk about you in a very certain way: positively. God, please assure me once more what a basically wonderful person I am, that I’m not really all that bad.

Well, the bad news is that God does not talk to you, and me, the way we would prefer, but in the way He chooses to talk to us. But wait. How do we get God to talk to us at all?

The answer is really quite simple and it is not one people stop and think about enough.

God talks to you, and to me, through His Word. When you pick up your Bible, you must understand that when you meditate piously on God’s Word, it is God speaking directly to you through that Word and He is always going to be speaking to you either in the way of the Law, or the Gospel. When you read God’s word openly, honestly and prayerfully, you will hear God speaking and you will hear Him pointing out, first, your sin, the fact that you are indeed, at the heart of it all, a poor miserable wretch. There’s nothing “good enough” about you to make God love you. There’s only sin and death, but it is precisely as you once more realize this reality, when God’s Word holds God’s perfection in front of you and you realize you don’t measure up, that you are ready, no, hungry, famished for the Gospel.

God loves to talk to you about His Gospel, in fact, this is his “native tongue” — the language of the good news. And what makes it such good news is that it is the news that you are forgiven, you are loved, you are called, you are redeemed. God does not attach conditions to the Gospel. You do not have to prove you are worthy of His mercy (you aren’t!). You don’t have to show God how much you have earned it (you haven’t!). No strings attached to the Gospel. It is purely a gift of God’s love, the news of this love that caused God to send to this world His own dear Son to live, suffer, die and rise again, for you.

So,if you want to get God to talk to you, open your Bible. Pray and meditate on it. It is God who is speaking to you. In ways that may shock you, may surprise you, but will always lead you once more directly to your Savior, Jesus.

From Martin Chemnitz in his Enchiridion:

The Augsburg Confession and the Apology set forth the reasons thus: It is necessary to do good works commanded by God, not that we may trust to earn grace by them, but because of the will and command of God, likewise to exercise faith, and for the sake of confession and giving of thanks. Urbanus Rhegius, in the booklet De formulis caute loquendi, summarizes the reasons in this way:

I. Because our good works are due obedience commanded by God which we creatures owe the Creator, and they are as it were thanksgiving for the favors of God and sacrifices pleasing to God because of Christ.

II. That our heavenly Father might be glorified thereby.

III. That our faith might be exercised and increased by our good works, so that it may grow and be stirred up.

IV. That our neighbor might be edified by our good works and spurred to imitation and be helped in need.

V. That we might make our calling sure by good works and testify that our faith is neither feigned nor dead.

VI. Though our good works do not merit either justification or salvation, yet they are to be done, since they have promises of this life and of that which is to come. 1 Ti 4:8.

In Loci communes Philipp Melanchthon lists in this order the reasons why good works are to be done:

I. Because it is God’s command, and we are debtors.

II. Lest faith be lost and the Holy Spirit grieved and driven out.

III. To avoid punishments.

IV. Since our works, though they do not fulfill the law of God and not merit eternal life, are nevertheless called by God sacrifices that both please and serve Him for the sake of Christ.

V. Since godliness has promises of this life and of that which is to come.

Luther sets forth the reasons why good works are to be done in such a way that, if they were briefly summarized, the list would be about this:

First, some have regard to God Himself, namely since it is the will of God (1 Th 4:3) and the command of God (1 Jn 4:21). And since He is our Father, it therefore behooves us children to render obedience to the Father (1 Ptr 1:14, 16–17; 1 Jn 3:2–3). And as He loved us and graciously forgave [our] sins, so we also should love the brethren, forgiving them [their] sins (Eph 4:32; 1 Jn 4:11), that God might be glorified through us (Ph 1:1; 1 Ptr 4:11; Mt 5:16). Christ also redeemed us, that, being dead to sins, we might live unto righteousness and serve Him (1 Ptr 2:24; 2 Co 5:15; Tts 2:10; Lk 1:74–75; Gl 5:25). Nor should we grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30; 1 Th 4:8).

II. Some motivating reasons for good works have regard to the reborn themselves. For since we are dead to sins, we ought therefore no longer walk in sins but live unto righteousness (Ro 6:2, 18; 2 Co 5:17; Eph 5:8, 11). Likewise, that we might have sure testimony that our faith is not false, feigned, or dead, but true and living [faith], which works by love (1 Jn 2:9–10; 3:6, 10; 4:7–8; 2 Ptr 1:8; Mt 7:17; Gl 5:6). And that we might not drive out faith, grieve the Holy Spirit, [and] lose righteousness and salvation (1 Ti 1:19; 5:8; 6:10; 1 Ptr 2:11; 2 Ptr 1:9; 2:20; Ro 8:13; Gl 5:21; Cl 3:6; Eph 4:30). And that we might not draw divine punishments on ourselves (1 Co 6:9–10; 1 Th 4:6; Mt 3:10; 25:30; Lk 6:37; Ps 89:31–32).

III. Some reasons have regard to the neighbor, namely that the neighbor be helped and served by good works (Lk 14:13; 1 Jn 3:16–18). That [our] neighbor might be drawn to godliness by our example (Mt 5:16; 1 Ptr 3:1). That we be not an offense to others (1 Co 10:32; 2 Co 6:3; Ph 2:15; Heb 12:15). That we might stop the mouths of adversaries (1 Ptr 2:12; 3:16; Tts 2:7–8). And it is unimportant in what order the reasons are listed because of which good works are to be done, provided the Scripture basis of this article is retained complete and pure.

Martin Chemnitz and Luther Poellot, Ministry, Word, and Sacraments : An Enchiridion, electronic ed., 98-99 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

“Through the preaching of the Gospel and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sanctifies all people who believe in him. He makes them and their Spirit-produced offerings acceptable to God the Father in and through him (Rom 15:15–16). Jesus determines how they are to serve his heavenly Father. By his commands, he institutes the right mode of worship. Their liturgical service is acceptable to God the Father if they perform it as he has ordained (1 Jn 3:22; 1 Clement 40:1–4). They can therefore worship him in an acceptable way in the Divine Service (Rom 14:18; Heb 12:28). They can offer him a pure sacrifice each Sunday as they gather together to break bread and give thanks to the Father together with their great High Priest (Didache 14:1–3).

“Since the saints are purified by the blood of Christ, their bodies and their souls, their offerings and their good works, their prayers and their praises, their acts of thanksgiving and their confessions of faith are well-pleasing to God the Father (Rom 12:1–2; Phil 4:18; Heb 13:16; 1 Pet 2:5, 9). He takes delight in them and enjoys them. The saints can therefore be sure that he is pleased with them and their service of him. They enjoy his approval of them and delight in his gracious acceptance of their offerings to him, for in Christ they have the righteousness and peace and joy that come from the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17–18). Everything that they do is pleasing to him, an acceptable thank offering to him (Col 3:17). Their whole life on earth is therefore included in the service that they offer together with Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary.”

John W. Kleinig, Leviticus, Concordia commentary, 480 (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House, 2003).

Another interesting blog post from Pastor Mark Henderson, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy, 4:6-8_

“We confess that eternal life is a reward, because it is something due on account of the promise, not on account of our merits. For the justification has been promised, which we have above shown to be properly a gift of God; and to this gift has been added the promise of eternal life, according to Rom. 8:30: Whom He justified, them He also glorified. Here belongs what Paul says, 2 Tim. 4:8: There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me. For the crown is due the justified because of the promise. And this promise saints should know, not that they may labor for their own profit, for they ought to labor for the glory of God; but in order that they may not despair in afflictions, they should know God’s will, that He desires to aid, to deliver, to protect them. Just as the inheritance and all possessions of a father are given to the son, as a rich compensation and reward for his obedience, and yet the son receives the inheritance, not on account of his merit, but because the father, for the reason that he is his father, wants him to have it. Therefore it is a sufficient reason why eternal life is called a reward, because thereby the tribulations which we suffer, and the works of love which we do, are compensated, although we have not deserved it.”
Defence of the Augsburg Confession, V, 241-243

I wonder how many pastors will be preaching on Paul’s text this Sunday? I certainly am. I’ve found there is a great need to clearly expound the relationship between justification and reward to our Lutheran folk, as this is a question on which they are not clear, and often much confused. As the Confessions urge: “the preaching of rewards and punishments is necessary. God’s wrath is set forth in the preaching of punishments…Grace is set forth in the preaching of rewards.”

Perhaps in the past there has been too much “we are unworthy servants…poor miserable sinners” (true enough in its proper context), and not enough “we are sons and heirs of the kingdom” (note how the Confessions pick up this theme)? Too much law, not enough Gospel? Older folk tell me this was the case. The preacher needs to diagnose his hearers rightly, lest he apply the wrong medicine! (Or, rather, it might be better to say that he needs to have a word for both the self-righteous and the repentant sinners.)

The Confessions provide helpful guidance on properly distinguishing Law and Gospel on this matter, and can steer the preacher on the proper course between the Scylla of denying scripture’s teaching on rewards out of (understandable) concern to keep the sola gratia (grace alone) pure, and the Charybdis of the Roman Catholic importation of human merit into justification. The sermon might have to clearly reject the Roman concept of Gnadenlohn (“gracious merit”), as the Germans call it, whereby human works merit an increase in grace and/or justification (sic!). This scholastic innovation has even crept into popular theology (“God helps those who help themselves”).

An interesting challenge is whether/how to fit the Gospel (Luke 18:9-14) in as an illustration? This parable, which so clearly teaches justification by grace alone though faith alone, could be a good place to start the sermon: “In our Gospel this morning we hear of a man who was justified freely by God’s grace and mercy…yet in our second reading Paul writes to Timothy about rewarded for keeping the faith, which reminds us that elsewhere in scripture, rewards for works we do are mentioned (cite examples)…What’s going on here? Is salvation and eternal life a gift or a reward? How do we reconcile these teachings of scripture?”

The key to exegeting the Pauline text is the place he assigns to faith.

The Confessional teaching that works should be done to the glory of God could be brought in at the conclusion of the sermon, and might bring the sermon to a close on an eschatological theme – the crown of righteousness…the glories of heaven… praising God (for himself, and also for works done in his name).

Another direction a sermon on this text could take is to consider faith as both gift and task.

Note – This is really just me ‘thinking out loud’ as I meditate on the text in preparation for my sermon this Sunday. It is not intended to serve as a replacement for any other preacher’s own reflections, but if it helps…SDG.

Christians must be very careful about their behavior and never allow themselves to think, “It doesn’t matter what I do, God is going to forgive me no matter what.” No, dear friends. Do not play with fire! Here is how Martin Chemnitz explains it in his “Enchiridion.”

What If We Indulge and Delight in Evil Lusts and Seek Occasions to Give Them Free Rein (Ro 6:12; MI 2:1; Ja 1:15)?
Then they become mortal sins (Ro 8:13; Ja 1:15), because there surely is no room for true repentance and faith where the lusts of the flesh are served and given rein, so that they break out into action. 1 Ti 1:19; 5:8; 2 Ptr 1:9. It is the nature and particular character of true faith that it does not seek how to commit, continue, and heap up sins freely, but rather hungers and thirsts after the righteousness that releases and frees from sins. Therefore, where there is no true repentance, the Holy Spirit pronounces a very solemn sentence. Jer 5:3, 9; Ro 2:5, 9; Lk 13:3; Rv 2:5. And where there is no true faith, there is neither Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the grace of God, nor forgiveness of sins, nor any salvation. Therefore what? Doubtless the wrath of God, death, and eternal condemnation, unless the fallen are turned to God again. Cl 3:6; Ro 8:13. As a result of this, therefore, and for this reason mortal sins occur in the reborn, namely when repentance, faith, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are driven out and lost.

How, Then, Should One Deal with Those Who Have Fallen into This Kind of Sins?
Their sins are not to be disguised by silence, camouflaged, excused, or defended, but solemnly and earnestly censured and rebuked. Is 56:10; 58:1; Eze 13:10, 18; 2 Ti 4:2; Tts 1:13: “Reprove them sharply,” in such a way that the fearful judgment of God is threatened on them; 1 Co 6:10; Gl 5:21; Cl 3:6; 1 Jn 3:15; Mt 11:21; 2 Ptr 2:10. For he that regards those people as true Christians, and charms and misrepresents them, not only miserably misleads them, but also makes himself partaker of their damnation. Is 3:12; Jer 8:11; 23:17; Eze 3:18; 33:8. Now, the preaching of repentance, rebuking sins, is the instrument and means by which God wants to lead fallen sinners back to the way and convert them. Jer 26:2–3. But if the wicked, neglecting this means, will persevere and continue in his wickedness, he indeed shall perish, but the word of the minister shall deliver his soul. Eze 3:19.

But What If the Fallen Rise Again by the Grace of God and Earnestly Repent?
Then they are indeed to be received with joy and are to be restored and supported with the declaration of the forgiveness of sins. Jer 3:12; 18:8; Eze 18:21; 33:15; Mt 18:13, 27; Lk 15:7. This is what the examples of Scripture testify, e.g., Peter, David, the prodigal, the Corinthians and Galatians. And this indeed not only seven times, but seventy times seven times, Mt 18:22.

Martin Chemnitz and Luther Poellot, Ministry, Word, and Sacraments : An Enchiridion, electronic ed., 104-05 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

It is an ever vexing problem: how do I have a more productive day? What can I do to organize myself in such a way as to maximize efficiency, so as to get as most of what I must get done in a given day? Let’s face it, it is easy to be lazy. It is hard to be productive. Lazy comes naturally to the sinful human flesh. Being productive takes determination and personal discipline.

I know some people like to deflect attention away from this subject by making fun of it, laughing it off, or actually taking the position that such “practical” considerations are beneath them. That’s dangerous. We have to work while it is day, before the night comes, when no man can work. Here are nine practical tips I picked up off the Internet, nothing earth -shattering here, but these are great tips:

1. Use one post-it note per day. Follow Mark McGuiness’s method of limiting your to-do list to one post-it note per day. “I got more done,” he says, “by making my to-do list shorter.” This is a scary discipline because it requires you to learn the difference between urgent and important.

2. Write two-sentence e-mails . E-mail is a great way to triage tasks, but you often waste a lot of time either composing e-mails or waiting for others to respond to them. You’d be surprised how much you can say in two sentences and how much more likely you are to get a response when your e-mail is short and to the point.

3. Check your e-mail twice per day. A co-worker of mine limits how often he checks e-mail because, he says, he prefers to devote his whole attention to the project at hand. I quickly learned that if I really need him, I have to walk up to his desk. Now I stop to consider whether my demands are worth interrupting his concentration.

4. Assign “points.” To avoid becoming a workaholic, assign equally weighted value to both personal and professional accomplishments (a tip I learned from Gallup’s StrengthsFinder). Doing so will help you avoid feeling guilty when you aren’t working (or applying to jobs), and you’ll finally cross off those to-dos that keep getting bumped from week to week.

5. Know when you’re most productive. I work best before noon, but I hate getting out of bed. So I established a morning routine that I could look forward to. I now wake between 6am and 7am instead of 9am and 10am. I adapted my routine from zenhabits’ sit/read/write, but what’s important is that it works for me. If you work best late at night but work a traditional nine-to-five, figure out a way to creatively position yourself in flow during the right hours.

6. Unclutter. Clutter — both physical and digital — might be productivity’s biggest enemy. Don’t let stray notes-to-self or Banana Republic e-newsletters intrude on your work. Make your desk (and desktop) pleasant and calming by clearing it at the end of each day. And develop organizational systems that are aesthetically appealing so that you’ll actually use them.

7. Be intentional with your time. Don’t lose countless hours to Facebook or television. Neither activity is bad in and of itself, but if you only have a few hours of “free” time during the day, you’d probably rather spend it getting a beer with a friend. Try tracking your time one day: write down what you do every half hour, and at the end of the exercise, evaluate where you think time was “wasted.” If you find yourself browsing the internet when you’d rather be reading a book, it might be time to cancel wireless at your house, or at least turn off your phone’s Twitter alerts.

8. Say no. When people start to see you as a person who gets things done, they will naturally approach you when (wait for it) they need something done. Learn to accept only the proposals you consider worthwhile and say no politely. Even at the workplace, if you’re asked to take charge of a project that you could care less about, feel out management and, if it seems safe, politely express that your interest lies elsewhere. Your co-worker may be dying to plan the spring fundraiser, and saying no could put that task in the hands of someone better suited for it while keeping you free for a project down the road.

9. Make more decisions. Tape this Seth Godin mantra on your monitor and start chipping away at the paralysis of decision-making. Spinach omelet or biscuit and gravy? Professional life or grad school? Hey — both options are pretty good. And if the one you pick turns out not to be so great, at least you made a choice. Because as Seth says, “Not deciding is usually the wrong decision.”

At first your productive disciplines may seem strange and even rude to friends and coworkers. But if you take the time to explain your practices in a non-patronizing way, they’ll likely understand and perhaps even follow suit.

Source

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.