Quotable Blog Quotes #13

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere

Wild Boar From the Forest
Pastor Lincoln Winter

The Augustana dealt with this false teaching a mere 480 years ago. (Since it was written before the formation of the CTCR, many synod officials have never heard of it.)


Pastoral Meanderings
Pastor Larry Peters

A wonderful and supportive nursing staff and physician made it possible for a family to gather around the newest son and a new brother. The technology and machines were pulled away so that this hospital room could be a family room. Each held this child so very small and fragile. Each had a moment to remember the miracle of life, though brief, and to mirror to this child the love we have from God... the love that binds us as one, even while wounded and hurting. Scripture was said and prayers were prayed. And then he was gone...

Gone from the wounds that would not heal... gone from the life that was tethered to machine... gone from the tubes that fed and lines that monitored him... gone from the life that was all too briefly his... but not gone from the heart of the mother who gave him birth or the father who held him in his arms... not gone from the brother and sister who will remember him and the sister who whose memory will be strengthened by the repetition of this birth, this child, and this fleeting moment...

Not gone from the God who knew him by name... Paul Edward... who marked him with the cross of Christ as a child of the heavenly Father... who washed him clean in the waters of baptism... who clothed him with the perfect, white robes of Christ's righteousness... who wrote his name in the ink of Christ's blood in the Lamb's book of life... No, not gone from the God who sent His angels to carry home to eternity a lamb of His own flock. Not gone from the God whose resurrection gave to him the life that his mortal flesh could impart... a perfect life of blessedness, wholeness, fullness, and peace.


Brothers of John the Steadfast
Pastor Charlie Henrickson

I am in favor of women fully participating as laity. In the Divine Service, that means receiving God’s gifts in Word and Sacrament–faith is the highest form of worship–singing God’s praises, confessing the Creed, giving one’s “Amen” to the prayers, etc. That is the blessed position of the person in the pew. Christ’s minister is in the chancel, standing in Christ’s stead, dispensing the gifts. No “chancel envy” needed when one has one’s theology of worship screwed on straight.

I am in favor of women fully participating as laity also outside of the Divine Service. That means living out one’s vocation in daily life, in whatever station that involves. This too is God-pleasing.



Wild Boar from the Forest
Pastor Lincoln Winter

You see, you don’t need to go through the annual and count people to discover that we are far more structural and bureaucratic that ever before. It turns out, you can tell a book by it’s cover. In 1964, the annual was about congregations. The LCMS was about serving them. Now, the annual is about the LCMS. The LCMS is about the LCMS.

The restructuring proposals are so we can “save the LCMS.” When someone asked if there would be any changes to congregational life if the proposals didn’t pass, it was admitted that there would not be. Our POTS [President of the Synod] added that there would be “deep, deep cuts” if they didn’t pass. But, if these “Deep, deep cuts” don’t affect the congregational life of the synod – which is what the synod was supposed to be about – then why not simply make them? Why were they not made years ago, and the money redirected into useful efforts? So what if the International Center is a ghost town. I don’t care. I live in Wyoming, which has more ghost towns than real ones. The ones that still exist have a function. The Ghost towns outlived their usefulness. The people went where there was something to live for. Maybe the increasingly deserted LMCS IC should tell us something.


Weedon’s Blog
Pastor Wil Weedon

The Notion that everything in the Divine Service should be utterly clear, transparent, and understandable to the unbelieving and uncatechized person who happens upon it, is absolutely and totally destructive of the faith itself. Illumination comes THROUGH the Spirit's use of the Word; not TO it. What part of "and the darkness did not comprehend it" is incomprehensible to these liturgical innovators???


Cyberbrethren
Pastor Paul McCain

Dr. Sasse is no longer as popular as he was during those years [the 1970s-1990s], sadly, because a good number of our seminary professors have taken a shine to non-Lutheran, and state church Lutheran theologians, in the past couple of decades. I do not regard this as a healthy trend. I’ve been particularly troubled when I hear LCMS professors repeating the same kind of errors about fellowship with the Lutheran World Federation that Sasse repeatedly warned against. There is a naievete among certain Missourians that if they but only could join these world organizations, they would have some beneficial impact on them, “from the inside,” as I’ve been told. Much more fruitful has been LCMS work throughout world Lutheranism outside of LWF control. It is producing wonderful fruit indeed!


Pastor Sullivan’s Blog
Pastor Josh Sullivan

Poor pastor Ezekiel just stands there, knee deep in dry bones and the only tool he's given is the Word. His only task: to proclaim God's law and gospel and then watch as the Lord works when and where it pleases Him. With that in mind, it isn't so bad. We convince no one of the gospel. We can't market it to make it more palpable. We can't make humanity any more receptive to the gospel. We are only given to proclaim. The Lord has promised to do the calling, gathering, and enlightening. "Then he said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones" (Ezekiel 37.4). This is all Pastor Ezekiel had. It is all I have as well. And that's good enough for me.


Confessional’s Bytes
Jim Pierce

In this morning's writing for the Treasury of Daily Prayer I read why the mass (divine service) was instituted, "...therefore the Mass was instituted that the faith of those who use the Sacrament should remember what benefits it receives through Christ, and cheer and comfort the anxious conscience." How's that for a "Church Growth" strategy? The divine service was not instituted as an opportunity to have an altar call where people can make a decision for Christ. The divine service isn't entertainment, or a time to have fun. The divine service was instituted for receiving Christ's benefits through His Sacraments.


Extreme Theology
Chris Rosebrough

Here's the question I came up with:

If I were an unbeliever and I attended these churches and listened to all their sermons week after week, how would I define the term "Christ Follower"?

Here's the answer I came up with after reviewing the sermons preached at these seeker-driven / purpose-driven churches over the last 24 months:

Christ Follower: Someone who has made the decision to be an emotionally well adjusted self-actualized risk taking leader who knows his purpose, lives a 'no regrets' life of significance, has overcome his fears, enjoys a healthy marriage with better than average sex, is an attentive parent, is celebrating recovery from all his hurts, habits and hang ups, practices Biblical stress relief techniques, is financially free from consumer debt, fosters emotionally healthy relationships with his peers, attends a weekly life group, volunteers regularly at church, tithes off the gross and has taken at least one humanitarian aid trip to a third world nation.