Reformation Day 2011

From the pen of the blessed Reformer, Dr. Martin Luther, written in 1524:

If God had not been on our side
And had not come to aid us,
The foes with all their pow’r and might
Would surely have dismayed us;
For we, His flock, would have to fear
The threat of men both far and near
Who rise in might against us.


Their furious wrath, did God permit,
Would surely have consumed us,
And as a deep and yawning pit
With life and limb entombed us.
Like men o’er whom dark waters roll
Their wrath would have engulfed our soul
And, like a flood, o’erwhelmed us.


Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat
That they could not devour us;
Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,
They could not overpow’r us.
The snare is broken—we are free!
Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,
Who madest earth and heaven. Amen.


Quoted from What Walther Says, p. 1200.

Who's the Best Presidential Candidate in 2012?

Who makes the best presidential candidate? Somebody that's intelligent, a logical thinker, honest, loyal, decisive, computer-savvy, not given to emotional outbursts, willing to make the hard decisions, and unwilling to violate the prime directive. Who best fits the bill? Here's your answer:

HT: Becky

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photo credit: JASElabs

A Good Reason Not to Run

Firefighters in pink graced the front page of our local newspaper. People at work wore pink ties or ribbons, and NFL players sported pink gloves. What’s going on? It’s the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (like you didn’t already know). People and organizations across the country join forces to increase awareness of breast cancer, remember victims, help those who are currently afflicted, and raise funds. Since breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women after discounting skin cancer, it’s well worth the effort. (Approximately 1 in 100 cases of breast cancer occur in men as well.)

In Seattle, there’s a run/walk called the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure held every June. While it looks like a great run, I’ve avoided it. Why? Because the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation donates money to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer prevention, and Planned Parenthood is the big abortion mill in the United States.

It’s ironic that the Komen Foundation works in part through an organization affiliated with abortions, since abortion is said to increase the risk of breast cancer. While Komen works to save the lives of women, it is at the same time donating money to the organization that’s best known for extinguishing the lives of unborn children. Komen affiliates contributed $569,000 to Planned Parenthood in 2010.

There are other ways to contribute to the cause, and other runs to run in. Brian Harris, the president of Tennessee Right to Life, recommends the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, Polycarp Research Institute, or Coalition on Abortion / Breast Cancer as alternatives to the Komen Foundation. Then, you can save not one life but two.

Click here for more information.

photo credit: Aglie

Happy Birthday Ferdie!

Happy 200th Birthday to C.F.W. Walther. The cake may not be as cool the gag cake I got for my wife, but really, how many people remember your birthday after 200 years?

 

photo credit: Will Clayton

Thanksgiving for Light I

We praise and thank you, O God, for you are without beginning and without end.

Through Christ you are the creator and preserver of the whole world; but above all, you are his God and Father, the giver of the Spirit, and the ruler of all that is, seen and unseen.

You made the day for the works of light and the night for the refreshment of our weakness.

O loving Lord and source of all that is good, mercifully accept our evening sacrifice of praise.

As you have conducted us through the day and brought us to night's beginning, keep us now in Christ; grant us a peaceful evening and a night free from sin; and at the end bring us to everlasting life through Christ, our Lord.

Through him we offer glory, honor, and worship to you in the Holy Spirit now and always and forever and ever.

Amen

From LW, p. 291

photo credit: Stuck in Customs

Alchemy: The Pot Becomes the Potter

When the subject of alchemy comes up, the visual image that comes to mind for most people is that of an man with matted grey hair hunched over steaming beakers with mortar and pestle in hand, consumed with his quest to change lead into gold. While this image is not altogether unfounded, there’s more to alchemy than the usual stereotype.

The book Alchemy and Alchemists by Sean Martin (Chartwell Books, 2006) describes the history of alchemy in both the east and the west, expanding the more popular understanding of alchemy and getting to its roots. Mr. Martin is very thorough in his exploration of alchemy, laying bare the somewhat philosophical foundation of the practice. Alchemy is similar to Gnosticism in many ways, seeking to find secret knowledge that only a few can obtain. The stories of turning lead into gold (called transmutation), are, for the most part, not really the goal of alchemy, but rather a metaphor for the real goal, that of uniting and perfecting man and nature.

The history of alchemy certainly does have its share of interesting tales of people transmuting this or that into gold, yet there are no museums around the world sporting alchemical gold exhibits. Kings and nobleman have been involved in the quest for this gold, with alchemists allegedly gaining wealth and long life, or for those who failed, sometimes gaining the loss of their freedom. A few alchemists also expanded scientific knowledge, and some applied their craft to helping others. At the heart of the quest though is a deeper esoteric search to gain long life and spiritual wealth. It is here that alchemy fails, searching for spiritual perfection in a holistic view of nature rather than in the pages of Scripture:

They saw that there was a place within nature for alchemists (humanity) as the ones who should work with nature in order to perfect it. Because they saw within themselves the whole of creation, they were also perfecting themselves, and realising their true, divine natures. (21)

The alchemist seeks to unite the individual with nature in a pantheistic whole in which everything is divine:

Some elements of the divine are still discernible in nature, and its fallen state can be rectified through the work of the alchemist, a work which was thought to bring out the divinity in both nature and the alchemist. Alchemists believed that each person who gained the gnosis that the work required was helping not just themselves but the whole of material creation also. (47)

Alchemy “transmutes” the pot into the potter:

Alchemy has always stressed that the inner and the outer must be joined together, the body with the mind or spirit, and the individual with nature. Hence the importance of the physical side of alchemy: it is a profound engagement with matter that is also a profound engagement with the self. Alchemy teaches us that we are inextricably linked to matter and nature, and that we have the power to create and change both; changes in one inevitably mean changes in the other. (102)

We are now assigned the title of creator. Rather than acknowledge that there is a Creator who made us in His image, alchemy usurps God’s creative hand. We are to rely on ourselves and our own Hermetic formulas rather than God to sustain our world, a sin as old as man himself. The book Alchemy & Alchemists, though well written, buys into the alchemical worldview, thus arriving at a false conclusion:

Once this [spiritual change] is achieved, then we have completed the Great Work; we have redeemed ourselves and, in doing so, redeemed the cosmos. (107)

The fallen state of ourselves and of nature cannot be redeemed by efforts on our part – that work can only be done by God, and has already been accomplished for us through the death and resurrection of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Work or Play?

A nice fringe benefits of being an airline pilot is layovers at awesome places. Here's a few photos from a recent trip to Honolulu.

The view from the top of Diamondhead

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How to Copy Text from Your Kindle

I’ve got the Kindle for iPad app on my iPad, and wanted to copy and paste some quotes from a book I was reading – which isn’t an option the app provides. Typing the quotes out manually wasn’t a task I particularly relished, so I did a little research. Turns out that any text that you highlight in the app gets saved onto your Kindle page at Amazon.com. Go to http://kindle.amazon.com and log in with your Amazon.com password. Click on “Your Highlights” at the top of the page, and it displays everything you’ve highlighted in your Kindle product, broken down by book, with the most recently highlighted book first. Then it’s a simple matter of copying and pasting what you want. This may seem a bit cumbersome, but with 111 highlighted passages in my book, this saved me a boatload of time. Hopefully it will do the same for you.

If you’ve got the Kindle on your PC, it is possible to copy and paste, although if you’ve highlighted a bunch of text, you may prefer the above method.

As an added bonus, it saves the highlighted passages from your Lutheran Study Bible too. Sweet!

Jamming for Jesus: Giving Him My Everything

The video advertisement for the upcoming New Jersey Jam contemporary worship workshop starts out with Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Pastors Greg Bearss and Matt Peeples asking

So what does it look like to really worship God? As we fix our eyes on Jesus, can I worship God with electric drums? Can we worship Him with electric guitar, or via Skype from Knoxville, Tennessee? Can we worship God on a makeshift football field with a makeshift goal? What does it mean for us as we lead others to fix their eyes on Jesus, and to worship Him with everything they are, everything that is within them. Where can we worship Jesus? Can we worship in a movie theater, a football field, a makeshift grocery store? Can we worship in a bar? What can we use to worship God? Can we use our cell phones to shoot texts? What is it to worship in today’s culture, authentically, truly?

After hearing that, a good reciprocal question would be

Is worship primarily about me and my commitment to God, me giving Him everything within me, or is worship primarily about God and everything He’s giving me?

Certainly, there is an element of action on our part in worship, but that work is in response to the Gospel, and ultimately energizes us to serve our fellow man, not God. Article V of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession points us to the primary purpose of worship, which goes unmentioned in the video:

…The chief worship of the Gospel is to desire to receive the forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions, CPH, p. 193).

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that somewhere in this workshop which includes modules on “worship dance” and prayer stations, there’s also a module on the Apology’s definition of worship. Dr. Martin Noland provides a helpful set of principles which can be used to determine if our worship practices conform to our Confession:

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