Forever Fellowship

9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice,"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

 13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 14I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
 15"Therefore they are before the throne of God,
   and serve him day and night in his temple;
   and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
   nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
   and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Revelation: 9-17, ESV

This is not a lone cowboy thing.  No, Christianity is not something to do alone.  Christianity is not something to interpret on ones own or to walk in different directions of.  It is simply put, "Christ crucified."  This passage from Revelation gives us some insight to how worship in heaven is.  What a remarkable scene this must have been.  It gives people a taste then leaves them wanting more.  It shows Christianity is about unity in fervent love toward one another.  Not a love of "acceptance" to certain sinful behavior, but a love that speaks compassion through the Gospel.  A love thats says to you, "Your sins are forgiven."  We need the fellowship, we need the Body of Christ!

On this side of eternity, we need the sun to light things up and to create warmth.  On the better side of eternity, no sun is needed:

5And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:5

What We Get To Do In Our Justified State

We are justified, we get to live in that state.  Now what?  Now, more then ever, there is this thought "out there" in the world about how truth is not something that is true for everyone.  In many conversations I have had with people concerning faith, religion, church although my views are respected the inevitable post modern talking point, "But that's true for you, not necessarily true for someone else" comes in.  There's a problem with this.  Is truth true?  No doubt we all have our own life experiences and even twisting roads sometimes as to how we come to faith.  But ultimately, truth exists.  God is at the helm of all things, and His Word is truth.  Just because someone does not believe what we may, does not make it less true or not true for them.  

Jesus Christ's death on the cross and glorious resurrection is true for all people of all times.  How do we convey this message?  One thing to know is, even if people do not believe what you are saying, they are willing to listen.  Unless we engage them with the pointer finger saying, "Here it is, you're wrong!"  Regardless of them being wrong, if we are in it for dialogue, we have to convey it to them in a way they will actually hear it.  We are sinful human beings, and we have to be mindful of our presentation to other people.  Another big turn off to outsiders is how churches tend to act/react as their own personal club.  This is something that simply has got to stop.  It is no secret that Christians, Lutherans in particular because I am one, can come off as nasty and cold.  We have our truths, if you don't like it, go somewhere else.  Can't have that.  We have our truths, you may not like it, come and see for yourself.  Not all people are like the former, but we would be kidding ourselves to think/say those people (who include our own selves) do exist.  

How do we reach people?  As Christians we have a right to the priesthood of all believers.  If it's not every Christian's duty to give a faithful witness, then it is most certainly their right.  The people are out there more so then most pastors.  Pastors and church workers, God Bless 'em, do operate in a Church bubble.  Because of time constraints and their numerous commitments it is tough for church workers to get "out there" just to mingle with people and to share the message.  The laity can do this.  The laity gets to do this.  People are always looking for these ways to change the world.  Just find a coffee shop, sit down with a friend (or anyone!) and share with them the GREAT News of Christ crucified and risen.  Then invite them to church, because there is nothing more beautiful then hearing, "Your sins are forgiven."

Justification

"Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ's sake through faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us.  For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3:21-26, and 4:5."

Article IV, Augsburg Confession-Translation from German text-

For those playing the home game...the Augsburg Confession was the confession brought by the princes in Germany to the Emperor to give an account of what they believe in.  This almost never went down.  The Reformation was still fresh, and Rome was still not looking to dialogue.  After meeting with Luther, who was not at the presentation of the Augsburg Confession for safety reasons, the princes brought forth their confession in defiance of the empire, and of Rome.  The confession was written by close friend and confidant of Luther, Philipp Melanchthon. 

Just a little background.  So what does this all mean exactly?  What is the difference between what Lutherans believe and what American Evangelicals believe?  Furthermore what is even the difference between what Lutherans believe and what Roman Catholics believe? Starting with the common American evangelical, they take on a belief that justification has a lot to do with what "we do."  We say the sinners prayer, we "invite" Jesus into our heart.  Why is this wrong?  For starters, to have any notion that we can "invite" God into our hearts is off base.  It gives off this notion that God working through us or in us is contingent upon us "inviting" Jesus into our hearts.  It's as if God cannot work through us otherwise.  "Want your life to change?  Want God to shower blessings untold upon you?  Invite Jesus into your heart."  This makes it a work.  This makes God's blessings a response to the work we do.  This is incorrect.  It is never what "we do" it is always what God does.  Here's the scripture cited in Article IV:

 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-16

5And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Romans 4:5

What to make of all this then?  Roman Catholicism teaches that grace is infused on us by God.  That God infuses Grace on us to work justification in us by transforming our heart.  Luther said that salvation is completely of God, and that the action is found in God, not ones heart.  God transforms us by unconditionally forgiving us of our sins, not by working justification into the heart through infusion.  

Whoa, heavy stuff, heavy language.  But it is essential in distinguishing what Lutherans believe and what other Christian's teach and believe.  Especially in a day and age where we should be out there with our theology, we need to educate people on what the differences are, and how it applies to their life.  True, the Gospel applies to all people regardless of race, gender, or economic background.  But different people have different experiences, and to many (even Lutherans) the above mini treatise on the doctrine of Justification is a foreign concept.  So we need to "get it out there."

More to come...

"Wisdom" and Power Washing

Got my wisdom teeth out last Wednesday.  The whole thing was rather supernatural.  Went in, got strapped in like I was preparing for an intense ride, then the knock out drug was administered via IV.  I asked the doctor how long it would take, he said a few minutes, the nurse corrected him "A few seconds," she said.  So I sat there for a few seconds waiting and kind of talking it through and looking straight ahead it all went fuzzy, the nurse to my right told me to just enjoy it.  I woke up with gauze in my mouth and ice bags at my face, which was completely numb.  That day was fine, I didn't feel much.  Thursday and Friday were brutal.  I made it to Bible Study Thursday night, but was in visible pain.  Unfortunately I had to miss out on our churches High School Overnighter Friday night into Saturday morning.  But I am finally feeling better.  Mouth is sore, but I imagine that may take a little while to overcome.  

Not so sure of what wisdom if any that I have lost.  Even with losing, count 'em, five wisdom teeth I feel the same.  I guess my point here is that we never have the wisdom ourselves.  Any wisdom we have comes from God.  It is God who imparts this wisdom to us through scripture.  So even with five less teeth I "understand" this bit.  It's always God and never us...

Speaking of God, I've been power washing the literal crud out of our deck out back the past couple days in preparation for little bro's graduation/summer.  It's pretty cool, as simple as it is, how the power of the water takes the dirt, grime, and stain right out of the wood.  So while I was out there doing that today I said to myself, "Huh, this is kinda like God."  God being the power wash machine and taking the grime and stain of sin right out of us.  How does God do this?  He did it by sacrificing His only Son on wood.  Two beams of wood brought together to be used as a vicious execution tool is how He did it.  How does God impart an event some 2,000 years ago on us today?  He uses water.  What?  Well okay, not just water, but Water+the Word.  In combining Water and God's Word, we get baptism.  Baptism is where we are brought into the fold by being directly connected to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that wooden cross.  Just like the power washer the Water and the Word removes the stain of sin and replaces it with a fresh coat, or cloak, the cloak of righteousness won by Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Next time you're power washing the deck think about it!