|
Search this Blog:
Subscribe to Blog:
| << |
May 2012 |
>> |
| S |
M |
T |
W |
Tr |
F |
Sa |
| |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| 13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
| 20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
| 27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
This blog sponsored by:
The views represented on this blog are not necessarily those of Higher Things, nor does Higher Things necessarily endorse them.
|
|
|
|
Posted At: 10:54am by Brent Kuhlman
|
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Trinity Lutheran Church
17 September 2006 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Trinity, the Pharisees and scribes have a few questions for you. Shouldn’t take too long. But I warn you. These guys are the biggest theological wig heads around. The most authoritative religious pinheads you’ll ever meet. They know every nook and cranny of religion. They’ve forgotten more than most people know. They can be quite intimidating. So are you ready? You are? OK. Remember, I did caution you. Go ahead Mr. Pharisee and Mr. Scribe. Ask away.
“Thank you Reverend Kuhlman (clearing their throats). Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of Trinity, we’re very concerned about the hygiene of your hands. Tell us, do you wash them? Especially before you eat? What kind of soap? How hot is the water? How long are your hands under the water? Do you air dry or towel dry? Hold out your hands please. Prepare them for inspection.”
“What’s that? What did you say? Speak up! We can’t hear you! You DON’T wash before you eat? Well we never! Lord Almighty in heaven! Inconceivable! You’re very, very bad! Like those naughty apostles. They didn’t wash either. And that Jesus won’t make them either. Look here! You MUST follow the tradition of the elders. Ivory soap. Water above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A 30 second wash and absolutely no towels. We wash our cups, pitchers, copper pots that way. We even throw in a couch or two for good measure. After all, you can’t transgress this rule! No exceptions. No variations. Excuse me notes from your Mommies or Daddies aren’t accepted. If you don’t wash in this most special way, the food that goes in your mouth is defiled. Then you’re desecrated – polluted. Earn yourself a one-way ticket to . . . well, you know where. OBEY the long-standing rules of the elders and you move up on the merit scoreboard. You might be able to cut a deal with God. So better start washing correctly and get the merit meter moving upward!”
Well, there you have it Trinity. As you stand before God what will you offer as your pass to heaven? How well you scrubbed your hands the way the Pharisees and scribes demanded? “See how we washed, Lord! Did it just the way the elders mandated. How about letting us in? We’ve never let any undefiled food cross our lips.”
The Lord Jesus makes the call. It’s not positive. Might just ruin your self-esteem. In fact, it will kill you. No. It will damn you. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites, . . . ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
Hypocrites. There’s no Word of God that says washing your hands before you eat is the proper worship of God. You can do it if you want. Wash any way you want to. With any kind of soap. Cold or hot water. Towel or no towel. And parents, it’s OK to make the kids wash before supper. Please. It’s an excellent idea. I certainly don’t want their germs. Neither does anyone else. But never -- ever say God says so. And never -- never say that washing your hands justifies you before God. Only hypocrites would put that over and on you.
Someone needs to tell those Pharisees and scribes what really needs cleansing. Not our hands but something else! What’s really unclean and defiled are not our hands but . . .
What’s that? Someone has said it. That’s right. Jesus has. He says that our hearts are the problem. Our hearts are full of some really bad stuff. From the sinful heart comes: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
And the Pharisees and scribes had us all worked up over our hands. They’ve missed the boat completely. Hands aren’t the problem. The heart is! We’re rotten sinners. To the core. From the heart. Evil thoughts. Sexual immorality. Theft. Murder. Adultery. Greed. Malice. Deceit. Lewdness. Envy. Slander. Arrogance. Folly. It’s ugly. The filth, gunk, decay, and death come straight from the heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Curved in on ourselves we are.
Who needs Jesus if hand hygiene is the big deal? But when it comes to our hearts, that’s a totally different story. Rotten to the core nothings we are. But Jesus – He’s everything. He’s greater than our hearts, the Savior. He has taken all your from the heart sins into His Body. Answered for them all. Damned as THE HYPOCRITE in our place on Good Friday as He hangs on the Cross. Your sin from the heart and all its impurities are His.
In exchange, He’s washed your bodies in Holy Baptism. Washed you with His most holy Blood in that pool of regeneration. Into your mouths and throats He puts His sin forgiving and sin purifying Body and Blood. And the cleansing goes deeper still. Your hearts have been sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus. Cleansed. Purified. From a guilty conscience.
So when your heart accuses you or the devil or maybe a bunch of Pharisees and scribes throw the sins of your heart in your face, politely declare: “Yes, I have sinned. My wickedness runs deep. But I cling to Jesus. He’s got my heart. Go speak to Him. See if you can talk Him out of His Good Friday death for me. I don’t think you’ll get very far. After all, Jesus is very bullish about one thing and one thing only: that He alone is my Savior. My sins are His and His forgiveness is mine. Now, free in Christ, I think I’ll wash up and get ready to eat the Supper He’s prepared for me.”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
|
|
|
|
Posted At: 1:47am by Brent Kuhlman
|
Holy Cross Day Trinity Lutheran Church
14 September 2006 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. John 12:20-33
Holy Cross Day. The Greeks are coming! The Greeks are coming! Looking for Jesus. They go to the disciple with the Greek name: “We’d like to see Jesus.” Philip tells Andrew and then both of the Greek named disciples tell Jesus that fellow Greeks are looking for Him.
Greeks. Perhaps wanting Jesus to do a makeover for their homely and on-the-shelf daughters. And then set them up with Philip and Andrew to have a big fat Greek wedding. Then again. Maybe not. Well, possibly they’re mafioso types. To intimidate popular preacher Jesus. Put Him on their payroll and use Him as a front to increase their territory and profits. And then again. Maybe not.
Greeks they are. But they’re religious ones. They’re in Jerusalem. Worshipping. Religious Greeks.
And being religious in Jesus’ day was just as popular as it is today. Loads of religious people. From all walks of life. And bunches of religious people can always find some use for Jesus.
So why do they want to see Jesus? Well, the text doesn’t say. So we can only guess. But I think we can guess well. After all, why do the religious types of today want to see Jesus? How do they want to use Him? What about you?
From Jesus, they usually want a religious recipe for getting their act together. “Tell me what I have to do Jesus! “Give me some problem solving techniques so that I can straighten out my life! Give me some principles from the Bible that are practical. That will forever change my life. That will set my life ablaze. A life ... A life ... A life ... I’m busy building a life here for myself! Saving it. You can help. Are you paying attention Jesus? Hello? Anybody there? What happened to Philip? Does he have an answer for us?”
Jesus finally replies. As always His answer is the same. He speaks of an Hour of Power. No. It’s better to say it the way Jesus does. He speaks of an Hour of Glory. A Glory Hour. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
You want to see Jesus, Mr. and Mrs. Christopher? Really Mr. Constantine? Come to see Him, Toula, Nicholas and Alexander? Then see Him in His glory! And that’s when He’s dead as a door knob. Graveyard dead on the Cross. Remember, it’s Holy Cross Day today.
Or as Jesus puts it: The glory of the Son of Man is when He’s like a kernel of wheat. Planted in the ground. And dies. But from the Seed Jesus’ death comes a whole lot of fruit.
Greeks. Members of Trinity congregation. Want a life do you? Love building a life of your own? Jesus is busy handing out just the opposite. He hands out a death. HIS!
And the Father won’t save Him from the Good Friday hour. It’s the only reason the Father sent His Son. It’s the only reason Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. For the glory of His death on the Cross.
And did you catch how much fruit Dead and Buried Kernel of Wheat Jesus produces? “When I am lifted up on the Cross,” Jesus says, “I will draw all men to myself.”
“All men?” Yes, all means all. Jews. Germans. Indians. Iraqis. Iranians. Greeks. Jesus leaves no one out. He died for everyone. His death counts for everyone. That’s the pulling power of His death. “When I am lifted up I will draw all men to myself.”
Here’s where Jesus is so scandalous. So outrageously outrageous.
All of a sudden “all” can’t mean all. The Ethics and Moral Interpreters of the Bible will not let this plain and simple statement of Jesus stand. All? Surely not.
For good people. Yes. For family and promise keeping men, virtuous and well dressed women, and obedient children. They can be included in the “all.” But not the immoral. Certainly not the unethical. You know, the cheating husbands, the ENRON thieves, Uncle Arthur the family drunk, the brother who took his life, the neighbor who beats his child, and all those horrible tyrants of history from Nero and Hitler to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. They can’t be part of the “all.”
What they’ve done -- what they haven’t done -- excludes them from the “all” of Seed Jesus’ Good Friday Cross. And so for the moral and ethical watchdogs Jesus surely won’t [can’t] include these sinful men to Himself when He’s lifted high on the Wood.
And yet Jesus says just the opposite: “I will die for all. At Calvary it’s show time. Prince of this world Satan is thrown out. And I’m the Divine Bouncer. I’ll show him the door. Give him the boot. And what does that mean for the world? For you? It means “judgment.”
The judgment of hell for the devil and his followers. The judgment of approval for you. Of acceptability. Acquittal. Don’t have to become a non-sinner to receive God’s stamp of approval. The forgiveness lies completely in God’s free choice to put all the world’s sin including yours (no matter what the sin) in the Body of His Crucified Son.
We’ve just observed another anniversary of Sept. 11. Alan Jackson’s song asks the question: Where were you when the world stopped turning? But many asked and are still asking us: Where was Jesus on that day? We can say without flinching: “Right there in the midst of it all. He’s the Word through whom all things are made and in whom all things hold together. As He always is.”
But what was He doing there in the midst of it all? Doing what He always does -- creatively, redemptively going about His business of death and resurrection because on the Cross He drew all to Himself.
And to the people who are still searching for God in the aftermath of Sept. 11 we say: “God is good. He is gracious. God is reconciled. Even to this messiest of deaths in the death of His Son. God has dealt with all sin and all death once and for all on a good dark Friday that makes even the blackest of our 9-11’s good. Only in Him do you have a life. Now and forevermore.”
“We’d like to see Jesus” the Greeks requested. A Jesus they saw. The crucified on the Cross Jesus. Their Savior.
And so do you. The crucified, risen and ascended Jesus. Buried and raised with Him in Baptism. He reveals Himself to you in the bread and wine of His Supper which is His Body and Blood. So, eating and drinking, we proclaim the Lord’s death for us and for the world. The Lord’s death which is our life. Eternal life.
Have a happy Holy Cross Day. In the Name of Jesus. Amen
|
|
|
|
Posted At: 1:39am by Brent Kuhlman
|
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost Trinity Lutheran Church
3 September 2006 Murdock, NE
Adult Confirmation of Ann Matthews & Jennifer Jordan
+ Jesu Juva +
John 6:51-58
What kind of bread? White? Panera’s honey whole wheat? Russian rye? Marble? Pumpernickel? Sourdough? Ciabatta? French Baguette? Sun Dried Tomato? How about bran muffins? You might live longer. “Might.” Yeah, you just “might.” But not forever.
Well then, let’s try some of that Old Testament stuff. What Moses gave to the Israelites. What was it called? Yeah, that’s right: manna. Bread from heaven – wasn’t it? Who has the recipe? Anyone?
Or what about the five barley loaves that Jesus used to feed the five thousand? There were twelve baskets full of leftovers. What happened to them? Pull those scraps out of the freezer! Surely that bread . . . !
Or maybe there’s a different bread. Jesus said something about bread, right? Ann and Jennifer, do you remember? Yes, that’s right. He speaks of bread. Bread come down from heaven. Eat it eat and live forever. That’s right. You heard it correctly. Eat this bread and you will live forevermore. Including a resurrection on the last day.
What’s the bread? Are you ready for the answer? Let me give you fair warning. You may be shocked. Offended. Repulsed by what He says. Many in His day were. Or you may receive immense comfort. Great joy. I hope you do Ann and Jennifer. For Jesus has the words of eternal life.
So here goes. Jesus says: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.” He’s the bread! Bread Jesus!
His flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and stapled to the Tree of the Cross is the bread. The body of Jesus is the living bread that’s come from heaven. “This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.”
Beaten, bloody, broken, hanging, dead on cross, Jesus! The bread -- His Body. Baked in the oven of God’s wrath against your sin. Sacrificed. His Blood shed. For you.
That’s quite scandalous isn’t it? Blows the mind. “Reverend, you mean Bread Jesus forgives?” Yes! “All sins?” Yes! “Even divorce?” Yes. “He forgives all sinners? Even Ann and Jennifer?” Yes. “Even you and me?” Completely.
He’s quite a Savior! Gift for you. Given for you to believe in with all your heart. And then there’s more. Jesus moves us into what He puts into our mouths. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Behold the medicine of immortality! The antidote against all sin and death! Jesus! His flesh and blood given into death for you. Now His flesh and blood given into your mouths with the food of bread and wine. This food unleashes all the energy of Jesus’ death and resurrection against all your sin and against your impending graveyard death.
Ann and Jennifer, today -- into your mouths – into your bodies – Jesus puts His sin forgiving and death destroying
flesh and blood. To you who are bothered by sin -- to you for whom death approaches -- listen again: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”
Had enough? Not Jesus. We’d have been happy with a loaf of Panera, a piece of leftovers from the feeding of the five thousand, or the recipe for a batch of manna. But with Jesus there’s more. He gives us His Body in the bread of the host. His Blood in the chalice of wine.
And Jesus isn’t done extolling His gift. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” Did you get a load of that? What a promise! Won’t abandon you in the grave. Won’t leave you behind on the last day. Jesus will stick with you. Now and forever!
What a Savior!
Ann, Jennifer, and Trinity congregation, where do you go to be with such a Savior? Take a space shuttle to outer space? Go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? No. You go to where He’s promised to be FOR YOU. You go to the Lord’s Supper. He’s given His body and blood on the Cross in to death for your life. Now He bodies and bloodies your mouths – your hearts -- your bodies in the Sacrament. There you live together with Jesus. There He lives with you. Dare I say it? He moves in with you. In your mouths, hearts, minds, and bodies.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”
Happy Confirmation Day Ann and Jennifer.
Let us pray: Merciful Father, since you have given your only Son as the sacrifice for our sin, also give us grace to receive with thanksgiving the fruits of his redeeming work and daily follow in his way; through your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
|
|
|
|
Posted At: 7:19am by Brent Kuhlman
|
1 Kings 19:4-8 Pentecost XII
Trinity Lutheran Church Murdock, Nebraska
August 27, 2006
“Get up and eat” (Preached by the Rev. Scott Porath)
“I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life.” These words coming from the mouth of the prophet Elijah can also be heard from the mouths of nursing home patients, terminally ill people, and others. Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, months to years – unable to go on, they pray – “Lord, take my life.”
“As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” In other words, as it was for Elijah – as it is now for those at the end of their ropes – it will always be, for them and for you, until our Lord returns in glory. And in the same way – then, now, and always – Jesus, the Bread of Life, is given to sooth, and comfort, and strengthen you for the journey.
Elijah was a mighty prophet. He boldly condemned all who lifted up their hands and their sacrifices to other gods, and called them to repentance – and with equal boldness consoled the repentant with the Gospel of the Lord’s forgiveness.
Such preaching forces Elijah to flee into the wilderness – but even there, he is given water to drink from a brook and is fed by the ravens. In Zarephath he takes the last of the food from a widow and her son – but in return, proclaimed that her jar of flour and jug of oil would never be used up --- and it was so.
Elijah had raised the dead – he had been protected by God from the wicked King Ahab and Jezebel – he had seen the Lord devour the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel – and yet, in spite of all this – Elijah’s heart and soul were weary and heavy laden.
Of this you can be sure – mighty deeds and mighty preaching bring forth mighty retaliation from those who are secure in their unbelief and sin. “As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.”
The journey for Elijah had been difficult and draining, to say the least. “I have had enough,” he says, “take my life.” With these words he commends his life to his Creator. No excuses. No whining. No wondering, “what if?” Just a simple man with a simple faith in His Savior – a faith which trusts that his life will be taken by God at His pleasure and in His due time.
But Elijah’s life is not taken from him. Rather, the angel of the Lord comes to strengthen him with bread and water – and with it, a short sermon (dare I say, very Kuhlman-like): “Get up and eat. The journey is too much for you.”
Notice that God doesn’t zap Elijah with super-human strength. He doesn’t direct him to dig down deep inside in order to find the strength to go on – He doesn’t give him some plan of action to follow. What He does give is bread and water, for these are the means which will sustain Elijah for the journey.
“As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” Elijah is familiar to us – not just because he is a great Old Testament prophet – but because he is a picture for us, of Jesus Christ who is the Great Prophet. Jesus preached what Elijah preached – the same thing He has given pastor to preach – the Lord’s message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
Like Elijah, Jesus’ life was full of sorrows and suffering. This One, through whom all things were created – humbles Himself to be born of a Virgin. He comes into His creation – not into a palace of gold and fine linens – but into a barn littered with dung and flies. The King becomes the slave – God becomes the sinner.
Jesus – true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity – takes on our flesh in order to take on the sins of the world. Jesus takes on the sins of wicked King Ahab and Jezebel – the sins of the prophets of Baal – the sins of Elijah, Pastor Kuhlman – your sins and mine. Loaded down with the sins of the world, Jesus lifts up His eyes to His Father and prays – “Take my life, Father. Into your hands I commend my Spirit.”
But this time there is no angel to attend – no food to sustain Him – as there was for Elijah. Jesus is given no food because He is the food. There is no Bread from heaven because Jesus is the true bread that comes down from heaven to strengthen and give life to the world.
Elijah is familiar to you, not just because he reminds you of Jesus – but because you can see yourself in him as well. Your life is hard, and the journey has been long. You are bombarded on every side by the temptations of the world and Satan – and from the sinful desires that come from within. You are at the same time pressured to do as you please – and to do what the world is pleased for you to do.
You are holy people, set apart by God from the world – and yet, you’re still in it. You endure times of great loneliness – even wondering at times if there are any Christians left in the world, or in your family, or school. You deal with life-threatening diseases and pesky little illnesses. You face all kinds of uncertainties – from nursing homes to imminent divorce to all kinds of family pressures.
Your pastor endures such things as well. Like Elijah, he has endured the retaliation that comes with faithfully preaching God’s Word. For 15 years he’s lived in the crucible – often crushed between the responsibilities of husband, father and pastor – between feeding the flock entrusted to his care, and having compassion on brothers and sisters spread throughout the synod and Church.
Given all that you endure – it is no wonder that you, and he – lift up your eyes, saying: “Take my life, Lord. This life is too much for me to bear.”
“As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” The Lord hears and answers your prayer. Jesus, the angel of the Lord, comes to you and says: “This life’s journey IS too much for you to bear alone. Get up and eat.”
He who gave Elijah bread and water now feeds you. “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus says. “Take and eat … Take and drink” – my Body and Blood given into death for you. “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” – it takes away your sin and destroys the grip of death. “Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden” – “taste and see that I am good.”
“Strengthened by THAT FOOD, [Elijah] traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Strengthened by THIS FOOD, may it be “your heaven on earth, until you enter heaven.” “As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.”
The peace of God which passes all understanding, guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
|
|
|
|
Posted At: 7:14am by Brent Kuhlman
|
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Trinity Lutheran Church
20 August 2006 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
Ephesians 4:17-24
What was that you said? I think my ears are burning. Aren’t you a Christian?
What did you do? Are you kidding me? Really? You did THAT? You’re a Christian aren’t you? Maybe I should call the police. Or your parents. Or perhaps an attorney.
What? You’re really considering that? That isn’t what you learned in Sunday School, youth catechesis, or from the pulpit. You are a Christian, aren’t you?
“Of course, Reverend!”
So why do you act and talk as if you’re not died for? Why do you live as if you’re not baptized? Why do you do things unbelievers do? As if Jesus, what He’s done for you, and what He’s given you are all nothings? Why?
I know. I know. You’ve got excuse after excuse. You can justify the ungodliness all you want.
But that’s not who you are. You are died for – Good Friday-ed – people. Given the holy name of God in Baptism. You are baptized into Christ. Marked in Him and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Redeemed by Christ’s once for all sacrificial Mount Calvary body and blood. Delivered from death. Made alive with Christ. Raised with Christ. Seated with Him in the heavenly places. By grace you have been saved!
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.”
I agree with the apostle. For behind Him stands the Lord Jesus Himself. I too insist, in the Lord, that you stop living like your unbelieving neighbors, friends or relatives. Stop imitating what you see and hear on TV, movies, and MTV. I know. I know. I’m taking a big chance by doing so. After all, who likes being told this? The old Adam stiffens up. Rebels. “Who does this Kuhlman think he is? Does he think he’s any better?”
No. I’m definitely not. But someone’s got to say it. Otherwise no one will. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.”
People whose hearts are hardened to God’s grace. Treating Good Friday Jesus as futile. Useless. Pointless. So dark is their understanding. Cut themselves off from the life of God. Insensitive to Jesus who died for all. And for all sin. So they whoop it up. Name the wickedness and they’ve been there and done all that. But never satisfied. Must have more evil! “Give me more of the Howard Stern -- Hugh Hefner immorality! More debauchery! More sin! More idols!”
But “you . . . did not come to know Christ that way.” Who’s the Jesus you’ve come to know and believe in all these years? The Good Friday Jesus who died for you. The Jesus who’s forgiven you all your sins. Who baptized you into His death. Who feeds you with His most holy Body and Blood with the bread and wine. “Surely you’ve heard of him?” “Surely you’ve been taught this Jesus in Sunday School, youth catechesis and from this pulpit?” You have been saved by the bloody death of Jesus for good works. For service to your neighbor. Living for others and not yourself.
“I know Reverend. But it’s such a struggle! I want to do what is God pleasing. But then I end up doing what doesn’t please Him. I want to do what is good but then I do what I hate. What a wretched person I am Reverend! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Jesus. Only Jesus.
He drowned your Old Adam in the water of your Baptism. He raised you up in the likeness of His resurrection.
But as you know, your old Adam’s like the hockey masked horror movie character, Jason. Always coming back out of the water. Trying to ruin your life in Christ.
So the “old self,” that is, the corrupted and deceitful old Adam, is “put off.” “Put off.” Not in the way of being tamed. Not domesticated. Not reformed. But killed! Put back under and water and held under until he’s dead. Not just once. Not just every once in a while. But daily! A daily putting the old Adam to death. There’s only one way to handle your “old self,” your old Adam: HE MUST BE KILLED!
And Jesus does that for you through the Holy Spirit filled Word of God’s Law.
For what purpose? So that Jesus can daily resurrect a new man: A BELIEVER! A believer who trusts Jesus with
everything. His life. His sins. His death. His salvation. That’s a new way of thinking – of believing. Every day! Here is what is true: YOU’RE DEAD TO SIN AND ALIVE TO GOD THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. You’re died for to live the life of faith only in the Savior, Jesus. You are a new creation, the “new self,” the new man created only by the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins.
So go ahead. Trust who you are for Christ’s sake. Enjoy being who you are for Christ’s sake. For Christ’s sake use Jesus against your sin and your old Adam. For Christ’s sake use Jesus to strengthen your faith in Him. So come. Eat and drink at the altar. And believe only in Jesus whom the Father has sent for us and for our salvation.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
|
|
