Hymns for Sunday, 31 August 2008

Nearer, My God, to Thee TLH 533

Come, Follow Me, the Savior Spake TLH 421

Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me       TLH 523 (Distribution)

Crown Him with Many Crowns   TLH 341

Jesus, Lead Thou On TLH 410

 

Without Sin

(Heb 4:15 KJV) For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

The above verse takes care of Jesus life while he lived with us here on this earth. But what about original sin? We Christians believe that the virgin birth took care of that problem. But until recently I have not put very much thought into what happened at the virgin birth of Jesus

(Luke 1:31 KJV) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. If the Greek word womb means only the womb, then there is a difference between Jesus and us in where we were conceived. Jesus was conceived in the womb. But we are conceived in the uterine (fallopian) tube. When the ovary cast out (ovulate) an egg (oocyte) it travels down the uterine tube toward the uterus (womb). The egg is viable for 12 to 24 hours and then the chance of conception drops to almost zero the next day. The rate of travel of the egg would put it approximately one third the of the way down the length of the uterine tube.


We all have the DNA of our father but Jesus had no human father. (Luke 1:34 KJV) Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Then the angel answers Mary’s question (Luke 1:35 KJV) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.


We all have a body made from our mother’s egg and our father’s sperm. But God made a body for Jesus. (Heb 10:5 KJV) Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: The Greek word translated prepared means to furnish completely. That is, Mary’s womb was furnish completely with “that holy thing” by God the Holy Ghost. This was a human body that Christ drew into himself and there by drew humanity itself into the Godhead. This was confessed by the early church in the Athanasian Creed in the statement that the Son is “One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God”. This is a marked difference between Christianity and all other religions of the world that have their God coming down and injecting himself into manhood.

I think this is the reason that the Devil rebelled against God. When the Devil saw that man would be elevated in Christ to the right hand of God, this could be a cause for jealousy and rebellion .


(Gen 3:15 KJV) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is one of the few cases in Biblical usage that refers to the seed of a woman. What does her seed mean?

An example of a women’s seed referring to a person is given in Hebrews. (Heb 11:11 KJV) Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. This seed refers to a miracle child, Isaac. Another example of seed referring to a miracle person and, in this case Christ, is given in Galatians. (Gal 3:16 KJV) Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Here there is special stress on the word seed as referring to an individual (here Christ) in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.

I now believe that her seed in Gen 3:15 also refers to Christ and not a part of Mary‘s anatomy. Nevertheless, Mary conceived (as the angel declared) and is the mother of our Lord. For we are told that this is the case in Luke. (Luke 1:41 KJV) And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: (Luke 1:42 KJV) And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. (Luke 1:43 KJV) And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

I now can understand why Jesus (the second Adam) is compared to Adam (the first Adam). Both bodies were created by God. Neither body had a genetic connection to a human father.

All of this pushes my mind to the limit and I must agree with Paul when he tells us that (1 Tim 3:16 KJV) And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Ecu-menace

The funny part is how a secular comedian nails it when he says that ecumenism just makes Christians look weak.

LCMS Professor featured on Intelligent Design podcast

The popular Intelligent Design news and interview podcast, ID the Future, features a Missouri Synod Lutheran professor. Dr. Angus Menuge teaches at Concordia University, Mequon (Milwaukee) Wisconsin.

Intelligent Design the Future: "On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin interviews Dr. Angus Menuge, professor of philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin and author of Agents Under Fire, Materialism and the Rationality of Science. Dr. Menuge shares how he got involved in the debate over intelligent design and evolution and what made him a skeptic of Darwinian evolution. Listen in as Dr. Menuge explains what is necessary for the Darwinian account of evolutionary complex systems."

In a second episode Menuge addresses:

his arguments rebutting methodological materialism, a defense of downward mental causation, and a non-materialist theory of information. Listen in as he shares from his experience debating PZ Myers on how neuroscience actually points to the existence of non-material causes.

Charisma magazine mourns the death of the Lakeland Revival

Or, moreover, they mourn that so many Pentecostals/Charismatics got sucked into Todd Bentley's bizzare preaching and claims.

Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion - Fire In My Bones: "It was not supposed to end like this.

Evangelist Todd Bentley had heralded the Lakeland revival as the greatest Pentecostal outpouring since Azusa Street. From his stage in a gigantic tent in Florida, Bentley preached to thousands, bringing many of them to the stage for prayer. Many claimed to be healed of deafness, blindness, heart problems, depression and dozens of other conditions in the Lakeland services, which ran for more than 100 consecutive nights. Bentley announced confidently that dozens of people had been raised from the dead during the revival.

But this week, a few days after the Canadian preacher announced the end of his visits to Lakeland, he told his staff that his marriage is ending. Without blaming the pace of the revival for Bentley’s personal problems, his board released a public statement saying that he and his wife, Shonnah, are separating. The news shocked Bentley’s adoring fans and saddened those who have questioned his credibility since the Lakeland movement erupted in early April."

A weak pneumatology and understanding of scripture has led so many pentecostals, charismatics, and non-denominational evangelicals to both claim the authority of scripture, on the one hand, and to ignore what scripture clearly says in favor of seeking "new revelations and outpourings of the spirit."

Sadly, this quote sticks (even though the eschatology is bad):

Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.

... May God forgive us for allowing His Word to be so flippantly contaminated.

A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley’s news hit the fan. He said to me: “I’m now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment.” Ouch.

Hymns for 24 August 2008

Alleluia! Sing to Jesus     HS 851 or LSB 821 (Tune Hyfrydol as in TLH 442)

Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s Head     TLH 477

Christ Is Our Cornerstone      TLH 465

 

Hymns for August 17 Salmon BBQ, Bapism of John Fowkes, and Communion

LBW 188 I Bind unto Myself Today (Procession to water)

LBW 332 Battle Hymn of the Republic (Procession from water to hall)

    Opening hymn set

LBW 499 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

LBW 518 Beautiful Savior

LBW 327 Rock of Ages

LSB 725 Children of the Heavenly Father

LBW 170 Crown Him with many Crowns (Hymn of Praise)

LBW 165 Holy, Holy, Holy (Sermon Hymn)

TLH 307 Draw Nigh and Take the Body of the Lord (Distribution)

LBW 448 Amazing Grace

LBW 509 Onward Christian Soldiers

LBW 533 Now Thank we All our God

Hymns for August 10, 2008

What a Friend we have in Jesus LBW 439

Evening and Morning LBW 465

How Firm a Foundation LBW 507

I Know that My Redeemer Lives LBW 352

About Time is it!

Rules Grammar Change

The Plusses and Minuses of Summer Confirmation

Pastor Norman Hanan strongly recommended doing confirmation classes across the summer, rather than through the school year. He cited increasing difficulty getting regular attendance because of sports practices and other extra-curricular events. It used to be that Wednesday night was "Church night" in most communities. This is no longer the case. In Eden Valley, there were still no evening practices or games on Wednesday nights, but there were on Wednesday afternoons. In years past teachers knew that children would be going to confirmation classes that night so they would not assign homework. Now it is often the case that children go from school to practice, eat a quick (often convenience food) supper and then come to confirmation. One and a half hours later they go home and still have a couple hours of homework to do.

Pr. Hanan's suggestion was to dodge the whole Wednesday night mess of children that are either tired or wired on caffeine and instead get them for the best hours of the day -- morning hours. He did this by having confirmation through the summer.

When we re-launched confirmation here at Concordia we made a few changes. As we had a lot of children in the 10+ age group, we decided to start confirmation classes at 10 (before too much teenage cynicism takes over) We also moved confirmation to a month of summer. We have classes 4 days a week for 4 weeks from 9:30 to noon. A little multiplication shows it to be the same number of contact hours as if I were meeting through the school year.

We begin by praying Matins, two hymns and the catechism (16 sessions * 3 years = 48 recitations) This is enough for many children to have the six chief parts learned by heart in only 3-4 weeks with no outside studying. Even those who miss sessions and are not diligent in the task still readily absorb the material. This saves me from the chore and drudgery of daily quizzes.

About 2/3 way through the morning we take a break for a snack. While the catechumens are snacking we watch 15-20 minutes of a supplemental video. We have used the "What's so Amazing about Grace" video curriculum by Phillip Yancy. We have also used videos about creation and evolution, the BBC video of C. S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair" and others.

If we have time at the end of a session we close with a hymn or the litany.

Each catechumen goes through 3 years of instruction.

Now the downside:

I miss having the weekly contact time with the students. It was helpful for me to know what was going on in their lives. The weekly contact (and required sermon notes) also helped keep their church attendance up better than summer catechesis, but I think I have the opportunity to build even stronger relationships in this "summer intensive" than spread out over the year. This drawback can be compensated for by having active youth group Bible Studies or retreats.

Pr. Kurt Onken, I hear, is trying summer catechesis this year and enjoying it.

Soon I will be posting the guide to our upcoming confirmation questioning.