tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27483013515872379682024-03-05T11:48:41.595-08:00the faithpala friend in the wildernessPete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.comBlogger955125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-73276934451964757912024-02-20T08:17:00.000-08:002024-02-20T08:19:08.961-08:00Keep A Song In Your Heart<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEUGMuHTecuMHWamEvj6G-vbeBkv_Qy8Yoh6H9XdVaJVD8fOcAfldVNayN8MjMiOwAY0GGkT4JEb1FdYPXaRd5-qwP25vZLCvEcScnFt6dDjdIDpIr1ibKVOlov4CBTKP52q4lrHlNyxARbOhLOjIxT_wPfOtAggZxLrIvn8wXlREXkOzMzQ2kixN_lgBj" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="570" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEUGMuHTecuMHWamEvj6G-vbeBkv_Qy8Yoh6H9XdVaJVD8fOcAfldVNayN8MjMiOwAY0GGkT4JEb1FdYPXaRd5-qwP25vZLCvEcScnFt6dDjdIDpIr1ibKVOlov4CBTKP52q4lrHlNyxARbOhLOjIxT_wPfOtAggZxLrIvn8wXlREXkOzMzQ2kixN_lgBj" width="315" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The popular bandleader Lawrence Welk used to end his television show each week with a reminder to “keep a song in your heart.” </p><p>Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our heart. But it seems like it is harder and harder to do in our culture and world today, with the chaos and clamor of dystopian dissonance ringing in our ears. The Psalms, and especially Psalm 137, can be of great help to us.</p><p>The context of Psalm 137 is the Babylonian Exile. After many years of idolatry and rebellion, God sent the prophets to call Israel back to the word and ways of the Lord. But Israel still strayed and disobeyed, and so Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, Zion was left in ruin and rubble, and the people were taken into exile to Babylon. </p><p>“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps. Then our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded from us songs of joy. ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?”</p><p>They were far from home, living in a foreign country, strangers in a strange land. Everything had changed. The future was dim for them. They had all but given up hope. The last thing on their mind was singing a song of joy.</p><p>There they were in Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, longing for home, remembering Zion, hanging their harps on the poplar trees, without a song in their heart.</p><p>Or so it would seem. For though Psalm 137 is indeed about not having a song to sing, it still remains a song nonetheless. It is a song without a song - a vivid reminder of how important it is to ‘keep a song in your heart’. The psalm goes on ...</p><p>“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.”</p><p>The promise and presence of the Lord God himself is what brought joy to his people at the temple in Jerusalem. And now, though all of that seems so far away, the psalmist still remembers and will not forget the Lord, even in the midst of pain and suffering and loss.</p><p>When Jesus came to his temple in Jerusalem, he was rejected by his own. On the cross, he was forsaken, abandoned, and alone. He was as far away from home as you can get. He was exiled from his Father for a time so we would never have to be. Even in the midst of our sin and separation. Even in the midst of our failure and our fear. Even when we don’t have a song to sing, Jesus comes to put a song in our heart. </p><p>God may at times seem distant and appear remote and far off. But we know that, while weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning. We can have the comfort and assurance in knowing that he is still here, in his Word, in the Sacraments, and with his people, the church. The God of the Bible still keeps his promises. He is the One who gives us a song to sing.</p><p>Keep a song in your heart!</p><p>+++</p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-39343680291686044582024-01-29T18:18:00.000-08:002024-01-29T18:26:11.624-08:00The Real World<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgp8WOif60ie7SCF9fg1SHbfV9X80_BZbGCiA-7VklZSvtsfswfUh2yYeRoF1Qk0ZS54hMFmrTmFQmvCINOQNzAqvZrNvgA7IDdiUpORhdDcuf3aWTQiMUoi2I_H8V4QadNCb_FYQ36KnYfI5DF-ifnUECb-Azj6-lq694f0ofcVeR_nbCIP1Wc7RR6QJix" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="474" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgp8WOif60ie7SCF9fg1SHbfV9X80_BZbGCiA-7VklZSvtsfswfUh2yYeRoF1Qk0ZS54hMFmrTmFQmvCINOQNzAqvZrNvgA7IDdiUpORhdDcuf3aWTQiMUoi2I_H8V4QadNCb_FYQ36KnYfI5DF-ifnUECb-Azj6-lq694f0ofcVeR_nbCIP1Wc7RR6QJix" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>In 1992, MTV came out with The Real World, the first reality show of the modern era. The tagline was “the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house, and what happens when they stop being polite, and start getting real.” I remember watching it once and thinking - this can’t be real. It’s all fake - it’s all made up.</p><p>Well, it was a success nonetheless, and we have been drowning in a deluge of reality shows ever since. From Survivor to the Amazing Race to the Bachelor to Love Island, these shows have essentially taken over the television and entertainment industry. And it’s not just Hollywood that has been dealing in the fake and phony in recent years. Fake news, fraudulent claims, and conspiracy theories abound today in all types of media, with social media and artificial intelligence leading the way.</p><p>People are left wondering, “What is true? What is real? Is there anything truly genuine and authentic?” It’s why we find ourselves in a meaning crisis in the West, defined and described by the likes of Jordan Peterson, John Vervaeke, Douglas Murray, and Tom Holland. People are left wondering where to turn when cultural and societal structures break down around them. </p><p>Our country used to have a common story. It was basically Superman’s motto - Truth, Justice, and the American Way. But our culture doesn’t believe in absolute truth anymore. There’s no overarching narrative. That’s the result of postmodernism, where you have your truth, I have my truth, they have their truth, and somehow everything will work out in the end. But as the old “contradict” bumper sticker pointed out so well, all religions may be false, but they can’t all be true. In the end of this scenario, you're left with nothing. Nothing to believe in, no absolute truth, no sure and certain hope. </p><p>The good news is that there is another story. The story of a God who loved this world he created so much that he came down himself to redeem it. A God who promises to someday set things straight and make things right, to make everything sad come untrue. To bring about what he originally intended for his creation - something good, true, and beautiful. </p><p>In the meantime God gives his church a story that helps make sense of life. It gives meaning, purpose, and significance to all. It builds faith, grants forgiveness, & spreads peace, hope, and joy.</p><p>For God’s people, the ultimate reality is knowing Christ and making Him known. It is reading and hearing God’s Word. It is prayer and meditation. It is confession and absolution. It is the reception of God’s good gifts through the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacraments. It is eating and drinking Christ’s body and blood in and with the bread and wine in Holy Communion. It is gathering in worship and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the conversation and consolation of fellow believers. It is, in the words of the Apostles Creed, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. </p><p>Welcome to the real world. </p><p><br /></p><p>+++</p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-33742642496943654532023-10-25T13:14:00.007-07:002023-10-25T13:20:45.955-07:00Surprised By Jack<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbgAVsZtTDdedJEXJG-3RnXp0GgyiOGeAIRAGfsLC058sUQ9VxL0bJVEqPlozuWYGdOdxwiqbHJn_LVx79DDY-FZ1s4Erw69WzXbIqCg9eTJ84shSD68t1oqufIXn1yAcZT-bqspblOd6TcRffwmzuq_VVoAm7KjITYAf_kNTdBLyPS7Y67-k9rUftxqUC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="1920" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbgAVsZtTDdedJEXJG-3RnXp0GgyiOGeAIRAGfsLC058sUQ9VxL0bJVEqPlozuWYGdOdxwiqbHJn_LVx79DDY-FZ1s4Erw69WzXbIqCg9eTJ84shSD68t1oqufIXn1yAcZT-bqspblOd6TcRffwmzuq_VVoAm7KjITYAf_kNTdBLyPS7Y67-k9rUftxqUC" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-17dc7ee4-7fff-069f-b5ad-941fc6e016f8"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As a child, I knew Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. I knew Reepicheep, Puddleglum and Mr. Beaver. More importantly, I knew Aslan, the Lion King of Narnia. But I still didn't know Jack. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It wasn’t until college when I stumbled upon a book in the library entitled, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Surprised By Joy</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. That’s when I really got to know the creator of all of these characters, C. S. Lewis.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Surprised By Joy is known as Lewis’ spiritual autobiography, with the subtitle being, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Shape of My Early Life</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. He wrote it toward the end of his life in 1955, after most of his other books had been written. The title comes from a line by Wordsworth, “Surprised by joy - impatient as the wind.” It spoke to the desire and longing in Jack’s heart for something more in life, a sense of “joy.” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Jack spent his early years living with his family in Belfast, Ireland. He had a happy and carefree childhood with his brother Warnie, until his mother died of cancer when he was nine years old. It was a traumatic loss and was compounded by his father’s own despair and melancholy. Unable to function after his wife’s death, Mr. Lewis sent the boys off to boarding school. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Those were difficult years for the Lewis boys. After boarding school came college, and soon after, they were sent off to fight in World War One. The harshness of life and horrors of war led them away from God and the church. Jack later wrote that he was “very angry with God for not existing”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Thankfully, “the harshness of God is kinder than the softness of men.” During this time, Jack was introduced to the writings of George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton, whose Christian worldviews influenced him without even knowing it. “A young man who wishes to remain atheist cannot be too careful of his reading”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Back at Oxford after the war, one of the most important friendships of the century began when C.S. Lewis met J.R.R. Tolkien. Jack and Tollers (Tolkien’s nickname), as it turned out, had a lot in common. They were both English professors who shared a love of Norse mythology. They both had lost their mothers at an early age. They were both veterans who had fought and lost friends in the War. These experiences brought them together and strengthened their bonds of friendship and fellowship. They would go on to establish the writers group known as “The Inklings,” which met each week at a local pub to read and discuss their literary work.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">After several years and many conversations with Tolkien and fellow Inklings, Jack became convinced in the existence of God and the claims of Christianity, and eventually returned to the joy of his childhood faith. The moment was far less emotional than he had expected. “It was more like when a man after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mere Christianity</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, Lewis talks about the deep desire he always had for something more, which nothing in this world could ever satisfy. He finally realized that it was because he was made for another world, the heavenly place where true joy could be found:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"But what, in conclusion, of joy? For that, after all, is what the story has mainly been about. To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian. I cannot complain, like Wordsworth, that the visionary gleam has passed away. I believe the old bittersweet stab has come to me as often and as sharply since my conversion as at any time of my life. But I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never had the kind of importance I once gave it. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer. When we are lost in the woods, the sight of a signpost is a great matter. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we need not stop and stare. We would be at Jerusalem." </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This has been my experience as well, and why getting to know Jack by reading “Surprised By Joy” has meant so much to me. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Interestingly, Jack was surprised by joy in more ways than one. A year after publishing his autobiography, the self-proclaimed bachelor was married to an American writer. Her name? Joy.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">+++</span></p><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-27024147067972854362023-09-11T07:03:00.001-07:002023-09-11T07:03:24.100-07:00Beren and Luthien<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFGlfc99gC0sb24kh6bTWAtAVSvMOTL0OpOv_Yeei-D1SUqN_f74dR6YD-_etBt1SavqpYqffggzsLSBGUMj2sxi2i8LnCmhLO2LYA91Gi3W14mdetReDSR3751Rl9Z6x3Iw75sIkOGYeQPNrb7YalKOy-Hs2D_yyLG4CTsm-QoX1lvc0nY4XpZNwitBcS" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFGlfc99gC0sb24kh6bTWAtAVSvMOTL0OpOv_Yeei-D1SUqN_f74dR6YD-_etBt1SavqpYqffggzsLSBGUMj2sxi2i8LnCmhLO2LYA91Gi3W14mdetReDSR3751Rl9Z6x3Iw75sIkOGYeQPNrb7YalKOy-Hs2D_yyLG4CTsm-QoX1lvc0nY4XpZNwitBcS" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7cb6d391-7fff-f923-1deb-7183c85b1e1a"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Once upon a time, a boy was born to a British couple living in South Africa. A few years later the boy’s father died, and the mother moved back to England with her two sons. They lived with relatives out in the country, and the boy enjoyed roaming around the area, looking at all the flowers and studying the trees. He especially liked going to his aunt’s farm, which was called “Bag End.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The boy began reading at an early age, and soon his mother was teaching him Latin, instilling in him a love of language that would last a lifetime. After an idyllic few years in the countryside, the mother died, and the boy and his brother had to face the future as orphans. Thankfully their mother left them in the care of a friend who was a priest, and he faithfully looked after them and brought them up in the church.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Young Ronald was a good student and continued in his pursuit of learning languages, even creating some languages of his own. Along with some of his friends, he created the T.C.B.S. - the Tea Club and Barrovian Society. They met to chat and drink tea in a nearby department store and (secretly) in the school library. This group was one of the predecessors to The Inklings of Oxford.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">At the age of 16, Ronald met Edith, another orphan in need of affection. They soon fell in love, but were not allowed to date one another until he was 21. After a long five year wait, he proposed and they were married. Ronald later spoke of his admiration for Edith’s willingness to marry a man with no job, little money, and few prospects except the likelihood of being killed in the Great War. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Great War, World War One, was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Some even called it the war to usher in the kingdom of heaven. But it didn’t quite work out that way. It was more like ushering in the kingdom of Mordor.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By this time you probably realize that young Ronald is none other than John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Tolkien’s experience in World War One was pivotal in his life in so many ways. I have written about that in a previous article, “I’m Glad You’re With Me”, which details his friendship with CS Lewis and the many life experiences that they shared.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://www.1517.org/articles/im-glad-youre-with-me-tolkien-lewis-and-the-not-so-great-war</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">While back in England recuperating from trench fever, Tolkien began writing an improbable love story between a man named Beren and an elf named Luthien. Together they took on the evil of Morgoth and triumphed against overwhelming odds. Their relationship would be the cornerstone, “the kernel of the mythology, of Tolkien’s prodigious work in Middle Earth. It is the basis for the later story of Aragorn and Arwen found in the Lord of the Rings. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If you ever find yourself in Oxford at the Wolvercote cemetery where Ronald and Edith are buried, you will see the names engraved in stone, Beren and Luthien. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It is a story of good and evil, of faith overcoming fear, of love conquering hate. Ultimately it is the Christian story - God in Christ loving his bride so much he would endure anything to get her back. Pain, suffering, loss, death, even hell. There and back again. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death this week, we thank God for his life and his work. For by it we see more clearly the beauty and evil of this world, that there are good things still worth fighting for, and that we need each other as we await the return of the King.</span></p><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">+++</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-21270884476518872652023-07-06T07:09:00.003-07:002023-07-06T07:15:16.556-07:00fields of gold<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiD_zh-5S8orAuaAvRAacFM-l60JhoJUvmW9BTES4aVXebITX4FEs6RtE4Qa2enPB9E_DwhPpj7gnH-gdM1wOP4p8HPCbTADnD-WEs-TR6Yg0AHqw3MKU5jjRCM5asvel0Dc5j3mKXRw8ir75kYXtuJRe5UMWzNbYh5TUlMzeZ_mXGueWh2XfsN7K1EcY-Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="480" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiD_zh-5S8orAuaAvRAacFM-l60JhoJUvmW9BTES4aVXebITX4FEs6RtE4Qa2enPB9E_DwhPpj7gnH-gdM1wOP4p8HPCbTADnD-WEs-TR6Yg0AHqw3MKU5jjRCM5asvel0Dc5j3mKXRw8ir75kYXtuJRe5UMWzNbYh5TUlMzeZ_mXGueWh2XfsN7K1EcY-Y=w372-h247" width="372" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fields of gold as far as the eye can see. That’s the first thing my brother and I noticed last month after renting a car in Frankfurt and hopping on the autobahn. Fields of gold as far as the eye can see. Germany has many wonderful things to offer travelers, such as gardens, palaces, castles, and cathedrals. But on this particular week in late spring, it turned out to be millions and millions of yellow flowers. (They are harvested and used in the making of canola oil). Everyone told us that we came at the perfect time, and after one drive through the German countryside, we heartily agreed.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-aaf70d10-7fff-7cae-90cc-fef7b22fe9f1"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were there to see relatives and to tour the Luther Lands, areas which had been closed off to us in previous years. My family and I had lived in Northern Germany in the late 70’s when East Germany was still verboten for Western visitors. Since we were unable to see the Lands of Luther back then, we were very much looking forward to finally visiting these historic sites.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were able to stay several days in Wittenberg, and it definitely did not disappoint. From the Castle Church to the City Church and everything in between - Luther’s house, Melanchthon’s house, Cranach’s house and studio, the Wittenberg 360 museum, the Marktplatz. Later we were also able to visit Erfurt, Eisenach, and the Wartburg Castle. There is so much to see and learn.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">500 years later, it’s plain to see how Luther’s impact and influence went far beyond the church and extended into politics, business, economics, philosophy, language, education, and technology, But at the center of the Reformation was Luther’s rediscovery of the Gospel - the good news message that we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Justification by grace through faith, the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls, still forms and informs what we believe today. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As pastors, we were of course engrossed and engaged by the history and theology of the lands of Luther, but what really entranced and enchanted us this trip was the natural beauty of the landscapes and the countryside that surrounded us. It reminded us that, while a cross and heart are at the center of Luther’s Seal, they are set in the midst of a white rose, and encircled by a golden ring. A sign and symbol of the new creation. A brief yet beautiful glimpse of eternity. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fields of gold as far as the eye can see.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." - 1 Cor. 2:9 </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of spring.” - Martin Luther</span></p><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span>+++</span></div>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-7653768726891766692023-02-07T13:36:00.005-08:002023-02-07T13:41:39.912-08:00the white rose<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxaEd_0FlpdZVBprcnx-uFZMhxAQ2oRi99h0zpBWpUuIbss4T1366-DISIjKbhpBQSklYeaatDsR2O0-IGuaeDFtINQzTbU-v9np3NAAw8Um6NzoMJNWpYLKLL5VRYQkzMy0_ej2XK-QHWcrZQknQEaiwKaa9r9jrz1xp22ZMrQ-RQkVcEJbantyK6Yg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhxaEd_0FlpdZVBprcnx-uFZMhxAQ2oRi99h0zpBWpUuIbss4T1366-DISIjKbhpBQSklYeaatDsR2O0-IGuaeDFtINQzTbU-v9np3NAAw8Um6NzoMJNWpYLKLL5VRYQkzMy0_ej2XK-QHWcrZQknQEaiwKaa9r9jrz1xp22ZMrQ-RQkVcEJbantyK6Yg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0a6d7768-7fff-846e-38af-9d04f3198211"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Christian life begins and ends with a promise. It begins with the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It ends with, "I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we embark upon the Christian life this Epiphany season, we do so with the promise, presence, and peace of mind that the Almighty and All-powerful God of all creation is also our God. He is Yahweh Immanuel, God with us and God for us. He is the God who makes promises and keeps them. He is the God who loves us and cares for us and is never going to let us go. He is the God who, by grace through faith in his Son, makes us his baptized, beloved, blood-bought believers.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hans and Sophie Scholl were young Lutheran university students in Munich who were growing up in the midst of Nazi Germany. As teenagers in the 1930’s, things seemed to be going pretty well. They were members of youth organizations that promoted health, citizenship, and the great outdoors. But through a series of events they began to get wise to what was really going on. And in 1942, along with some of their Christian friends, they created the Resistance of the White Rose. They got together to share information, promote freedom, and to warn people of what was to come.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They wrote, published, and sent out leaflets - first in Munich, then in Bavaria, and eventually all over Germany. They were quite creative with their efforts and were successful in getting their message out. But they were finally caught in the act while dropping leaflets from a second floor balcony at the University of Berlin. They were arrested, charged, and sentenced to death.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What courage and commitment young Hans and Sophie displayed in the face of great evil. What was behind it all? What gave them such strength and resilience? No one knows exactly why they named their group “The White Rose.” But I have a pretty good idea. Hans and Sophie were baptized Lutheran Christians, and they no doubt knew about Luther’s seal, or Luther’s rose.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is how Luther himself explained it …</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a black cross in a heart that remains its natural color red. This is to remind us that it is faith in the Crucified One that saves us. Anyone who believes from the heart will be justified. It is a black cross, which mortifies and causes pain, but it leaves the heart its natural color. It doesn’t destroy us, it does not kill us but keeps us alive, for the just shall live by faith in the Son of God. The heart should stand in the middle of a white rose. This is to show that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace. It puts the believer into a white, pure, and joyous rose. Faith does not give peace and joy like the world gives. This is why the rose must be white and not red. White is the color of the spirits and the angels. This white rose should stand in a sky-blue field, symbolizing that a joyful spirit and faith is a beginning of heavenly joy, which begins now, but is grasped in hope, not yet fully revealed. Around the field of blue is a golden ring to symbolize that blessedness in heaven lasts forever and has no end. Heavenly blessedness is exquisite, beyond all earthly joy and better than any temporal possessions, as gold is the most valuable of all precious metals.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As baptized believers by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, Hans and Sophie had a promise and a peace and a presence that was always with them no matter what. We too are God’s baptized, beloved, blood-bought believers. And no one can ever take that away from us. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span>+++</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-10729294023090573262022-11-01T12:13:00.006-07:002022-11-01T12:24:39.672-07:00visible and invisible<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo_xuQihwol5TAgO1LDZNK1yKwQ4DfB0bVHlbSV8JUjnAJ4kBlMv3IdoyZ0LWaeO3An-ZaZlWsAHVlHacBjBDOAwBoV4EIATTNzHaKTnoa1bMvyvS50vQHj3s8p1VWPSJIBSxaA9TUpt7aA4cYnzvmLxkS2cIEgCDo_0K1DXNvnMhxL3JdQBrE0v4_uQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="1024" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo_xuQihwol5TAgO1LDZNK1yKwQ4DfB0bVHlbSV8JUjnAJ4kBlMv3IdoyZ0LWaeO3An-ZaZlWsAHVlHacBjBDOAwBoV4EIATTNzHaKTnoa1bMvyvS50vQHj3s8p1VWPSJIBSxaA9TUpt7aA4cYnzvmLxkS2cIEgCDo_0K1DXNvnMhxL3JdQBrE0v4_uQ=w372-h264" width="372" /></a></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">It's Halloween season.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">The time when people think of and imagine invisible things like ghosts and ghouls and goblins. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">What do you think of when you think of invisible things?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rich Mullins was a singer, songwriter, and poet of my generation. Here is what he thought of -</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">"There are invisible things. Like the light behind the earth that casts a shadow that we call night, like the sap that runs with life in the veins of trees that we think are dead, like the silence behind all the noise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the great beyond, too great to be fit into the lenses of our high-powered telescopes. Like the atmosphere for birds, the ocean for fish, too present to be discovered, which we are a part of, and apart from which we cannot have life. Invisible things.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Things cut off from our senses - like Eden barred from our first ancestors - guarded, hedged in, kept away. The Spirit, the angels, the hidden realm, the secret kingdom, God's hidden work and his mysterious ways. The things we dream of and imagine we remember, things we yearn for and curse and deny and yet hope for in spite of ourselves. As if a part of our true selves belonged to a real world and not the one our lesser selves have settled for and surrendered to ... or would surrender to if not for the persistence of those invisible things.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The things the visible world points to and grasps at, but cannot quite reach, cannot quite escape. And just when our smug, agnostic selves settle into some comfortable, manageable despair, something goes bump in the night, something hums in our hearts and sweeps us up out of the numbness and into a great longing, the unquenchable hope that we would just as well live without, if only life was possible without invisible things." (Release Magazine, 1994)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the creed we confess, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” In this secular world of naturalism and materialism, many people think that the only things that are real are the things that you can see and hear and touch. There are no spiritual or supernatural powers at work, only natural, only what you can see and experience around you. This leads to some bad ideas and even worse consequences. Like the idea that you've only got one crack at this thing, only one go-around, so you better look out for #1 and go for the gusto and get yours while the gettin' is good. So what if you have to knock off a few people along the way, you know, crack a few eggs to make the omelet. Hey, that's life, because you only live once, right? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if we are only living in a natural material world where we're just fighting to survive, there is no concept of God and what it means to live in God's good creation, let alone the new creation that is to come. There is so much more to this life than just what we can see, taste, and touch - what we can collect, earn, accumulate, and put in our bank account. We need a better idea, a better image.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul says in Colossians 1 that "the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created - things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The image of the invisible God. The original icon, the eternal logos, the creator of the cosmos, the one who came from beyond the great beyond. The Incarnate One, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in whom all things hold together. All things. That includes invisible things, like goodness, truth, beauty, and love. In him we see what love really is and where it comes from - the very heart of God. For God so loved the world, that he sent his one and only Son, for you, for me, for all. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rich Mullins could have had it all. He was on his way to being the #1 recording artist in Christian music. But the invisible things of God kept gnawing away at him. So he left his status and celebrity and went back to school for a music degree, and then on to New Mexico to live on a reservation so he could teach music to children and share God's love with them. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some say Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good. But the opposite is actually worse - to be so earthly minded that you are no heavenly good. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.' (Col. 3)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We thank God for all that we see - all the visible things our senses can perceive. But we thank God most of all for His Son, without whom we would be deaf, dumb, and blind to the invisible things of this world and the world to come. For God, who said, 'let light shine out of darkness,'has made his light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">+++ </span></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-60391839203507306142022-10-08T09:21:00.000-07:002022-10-08T09:21:00.919-07:00stone table<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQqxnDO4Lq9g3QqCGSp4kwpd7Bf4O_-4qBJftItKstad3w4Wo1veDMOFXFJYZkUMSE62_SGK1HNQVR2g9tbxQFG6e7Eit9RdGvnGA1Rm2XGeZq1Xbci1lb6qs3xEctDfS1jGwdjVhEfeHL-jzNePY7a_MqfT-MGNxM2WhI7igzrrVM7ono87s4O-W5og" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQqxnDO4Lq9g3QqCGSp4kwpd7Bf4O_-4qBJftItKstad3w4Wo1veDMOFXFJYZkUMSE62_SGK1HNQVR2g9tbxQFG6e7Eit9RdGvnGA1Rm2XGeZq1Xbci1lb6qs3xEctDfS1jGwdjVhEfeHL-jzNePY7a_MqfT-MGNxM2WhI7igzrrVM7ono87s4O-W5og=w424-h247" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Stone Table, Merton College, Oxford</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">+++</div><br /><p></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-55611573452099875872022-09-28T09:03:00.003-07:002022-09-28T09:05:04.456-07:00Dead Sea Scrolls at 75<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvQlrL-z9_u7tgRREAmSGHNuAt1ZdevgzNu7MYBj4JdqScqQ0rFV4j1d42V11wK6btlxCrHvqUGsPsalDnG0OK1xOanWvZ1xO7_6M-lX87L0e3lTY-bIowvbeoPHoIZFkAuqt11RuhXLKNLu_slpbanTLBEBaR8kloepMLowIh1Q21Liyde1PAnqB_FQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="579" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvQlrL-z9_u7tgRREAmSGHNuAt1ZdevgzNu7MYBj4JdqScqQ0rFV4j1d42V11wK6btlxCrHvqUGsPsalDnG0OK1xOanWvZ1xO7_6M-lX87L0e3lTY-bIowvbeoPHoIZFkAuqt11RuhXLKNLu_slpbanTLBEBaR8kloepMLowIh1Q21Liyde1PAnqB_FQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>"They won't let me cross the border. Ibrahim will have to lead you. See you in a few days."</p><p>Those were the words of our tour guide as we prepared to leave Israel and spend the weekend in the country of Jordan. We were on a tour of the Holy Land a few years back with Pastor Nabil Nour, originally from Israel but also an American citizen. Though he did have his US passport, he had forgotten to bring his Israeli passport, and so was denied entry into Jordan. After no small amount of sweating, negotiating, and hand wringing, it was finally decided. One of the local guides named Ibrahim would be the one to lead us. </p><p>After the initial confusion at the border, we settled into our usual travel routine and everything went pretty smoothly. That evening at our hotel the Dead Sea Scrolls came up in conversation for some reason, and Ibrahim made an off handed comment about being there at the time they were discovered. My antennae immediately went up, and I determined to find out more about what he knew. So the next morning en route to Petra, I made sure to sit right next to him on the bus. I'm so glad I did. </p><p>He told me about how one of the local Bedouin boys had been tending goats near the Dead Sea. After one of the goats had strayed, he looked up to see a cave that he hadn't noticed before. He threw a stone into the cave and heard a strange sound, so he and a friend climbed up to investigate. Inside they found a number of clay jars which had scrolls inside. They weren't sure what they had found, but knew it might be worth something, so they brought the scrolls along with them to the black market in Bethlehem. </p><p>One of Ibrahim's relatives was the dealer that the boys brought the scrolls to in Bethlehem. Like Ibrahim, he was Syriac, and thought that the writing might be ancient Syriac. It definitely was not Arabic. So he had someone he knew from a local monastery take a look. He determined that it was indeed Hebrew writing, and after some bartering and back and forth, bought the first few scrolls for around fifty pounds. Fifth pounds! And the rest, as they say, is history.</p><p>One of the many interesting and intriguing things about all of this is that it's happening in the year 1947, when the nation state of Israel is just being established and the war of independence is about to begin. There is so much going on politically, socially, and culturally, that it is difficult to believe that one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time happening at this moment is mere coincidence.</p><p>Later in our trip we went to Qumran, the desert community of the Essenes, where most of the scrolls were probably written and placed in clay jars for safe keeping. And then on to Jerusalem and the Museum of the Book, where many of the scrolls are displayed, along with the piece de resistance, the Great Isaiah Scroll, all 66 chapters of it. </p><p>In this 75th anniversary year of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, my hope is that every believer and non-believer alike has the opportunity to enter into that sacred space and make the slow walk around the great scroll. But even if that opportunity never arises, you have something far better awaiting you in the next room or in the palm of your hand. For as you pick up the Holy Bible, God's Word to you and for you in Christ, the words of the prophet Isaiah echo in your ears, "The Word of the Lord Endures Forever."</p><p>+++</p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-46318737352887491412022-05-18T13:45:00.002-07:002022-05-18T13:46:32.858-07:00Mere Christianity at 70<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSWP7YWZci38ubnBxsiR1tHmkOwLbGRyf7qxb2jvQjtvJ7R20TXmA8f1Ona2rdK4kvDcbonfsZ036L7ujszNfz49dfuGBe7L0hPg-bOvdGhcCkcaxgoqnLWi9FjbJEY_rQwrvE4UUemUGHJKJXlDfYyWYZEsoI9Vu50FYNf6AwniptGJSShp2oMqj6ag" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="392" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSWP7YWZci38ubnBxsiR1tHmkOwLbGRyf7qxb2jvQjtvJ7R20TXmA8f1Ona2rdK4kvDcbonfsZ036L7ujszNfz49dfuGBe7L0hPg-bOvdGhcCkcaxgoqnLWi9FjbJEY_rQwrvE4UUemUGHJKJXlDfYyWYZEsoI9Vu50FYNf6AwniptGJSShp2oMqj6ag=w189-h265" width="189" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>During the NCAA Basketball Tournament several years ago, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship held a competition entitled, “The Best Christian Book of All Time.” Sixty-Four first class competitors went head to head round by round in this epic literary contest. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis was a #1 seed, and easily made the Elite Eight where it handily defeated Augustine’s City of God. In the Final Four it beat out Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship, only to be edged out in the finals by Augustine’s Confessions.</p><p>These results ring true for me. And while I would have liked to see Martin Luther make it to the semi-finals, it is indeed difficult to name a book with such great influence and lasting impact than Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. </p><p>This year marks the 70th anniversary of its publication in 1952, but it actually didn't start out as a book. The genesis of this Christian classic was a series of radio talks given by Lewis which were broadcast by the BBC. The director of religious broadcasting had read his book, The Problem of Pain, and asked him if he would be interested in taking part in a radio program. England was knee-deep in the trials and travails of World War 2 at the time, and these talks by Lewis from 1941 to 1944 were quite popular and comforting to the British people. It has been said that the voice of C.S. Lewis became as recognizable as that of Winston Churchill during this time. </p><p>From our vantage point, we might say that the voice of C.S. Lewis was one of the most recognizable in the 20th century. Personally, I began to recognize his voice when I went off to college. Sure, I had read the Chronicles of Narnia as a child and enjoyed them, but like most did not understand the full weight and scope of these "children's" books until later in life. It wasn't until I was in a basic Christian Doctrine class at Christ College Irvine taught by Rod Rosenbladt that Lewis really began to speak to me. Rod not only quoted Lewis often in that class, he actually embodied him in such a way that made me want to read everything I could get my hands on. In short order I had read The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Surprised By Joy, and of course, Mere Christianity. </p><p>Armed with great analogies, airtight logic, and razor sharp wit, Lewis keeps you spellbound from one chapter to another as you find yourself going further up and further in. Beginning the book with a bang in Right and Wrong as a Clue To the Meaning of the Universe, he goes on to describe What Christians Believe and to detail Christian Behavior, before finishing off with Beyond Personality (First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.) </p><p>One of the more famous passages of the book comes in the What Christians Believe section, affectionately known as the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" passage. </p><p>"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." </p><p>There are too many great quotes and passages from Lewis to mention, but here is one more which comes at the end of the book.</p><p>"The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."</p><p>In the years after Lewis' death in 1963 (on the same day as JFK and Aldous Huxley), many thought his continued impact would be minimal. When Dr. Peter Kreeft considered writing a book about him in the late 1960's, he was told that no one would be reading Lewis twenty years from now. Well, let's just say that the reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. 70 years later, Mere Christianity continues to be one of the most impactful and influential Christian books of all time.</p><p>+++</p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-23333044486674611382022-03-24T11:09:00.003-07:002022-03-24T11:13:09.100-07:00Sacred Spaces and Holy Places<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijqKozgE3VAE4p5B37GK3ooZ88J1bg12QGhy1eN-KH859UxTsFgz-23sv89Q8pDmkiRG1q6dpKydt8NjeAZDRxBsXXslqY3CiV4XCuwgIofruBPiOpdIveYciFSsm59-GKDwg4Gq8JJWmhcAu3Yl-CQSaO7Waj-od-fLaKwYleSxueI2Vz51bzVjyfKQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijqKozgE3VAE4p5B37GK3ooZ88J1bg12QGhy1eN-KH859UxTsFgz-23sv89Q8pDmkiRG1q6dpKydt8NjeAZDRxBsXXslqY3CiV4XCuwgIofruBPiOpdIveYciFSsm59-GKDwg4Gq8JJWmhcAu3Yl-CQSaO7Waj-od-fLaKwYleSxueI2Vz51bzVjyfKQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>The God of Israel must really love rocks. One of the first things I noticed when I traveled to the Holy Land a few years ago is that there are rocks everywhere. The geology of the region is mostly limestone, which erodes easily and causes caves to form and rocks to break apart. It's quite similar to where I live in the Ozarks of Missouri, where we have lots of limestone, caves, and rocks as well. </p><p>When I returned home from my trip to Israel in 2014, I began thinking of the world in a whole new way. I had seen people from every nation, tribe, and language gather together in places like Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Galilee, and the Jordan River. Although we didn't look the same and didn't speak the same language, we shared a common bond between us. There was a new appreciation of sacred spaces and holy places, and the realization that we would never be the same again. </p><p>So when I took a road trip out west with my brother in 2018, I was dumbstruck when we began our descent into Death Valley. It looked eerily similar to the region of the Dead Sea. Death Valley is the lowest point in the United States at 282 ft. below sea level, while the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth at 1,400 ft. below sea level. Both areas were formed the same way, both surrounded by mountains that keep storm systems from moving across, as the dryness of the region is intensified by the depth of the valley. Both places brought about a strange sense of fear, wonder, and awe - and the realization that the only way to survive a place like this is a total and complete trust in God. </p><p>They say that the land of Israel encompasses every type of topography on earth within a very small geographic area. It's not called the Promised Land for nothing. The God of Israel sent his Messiah to redeem all nations and all peoples, but he also did so in a way and in a place that would sanctify all lands and places. </p><p>So at Christmas we say we are in Bethlehem when we make a manger scene in the snow. On Palm Sunday we are in Jerusalem waving our palm branches and singing hosannas to the King. We are in the upper room with Jesus every time we share a meal together in his name. We stand at the foot of the cross every time we confess our sins and receive his forgiveness. And we stand breathless before the empty tomb every time we confess, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” </p><p>Herb Brokering was a Lutheran teacher and musician who wrote many books and hymns. He once said he thought it strange that some people go to Israel and bring back bottles of water from the Jordan River to use for baptisms back home. They do it because they want to use the same water Jesus was baptized with. </p><p>But that's not really how it works. How it works is that water from a river evaporates and is pulled up into a cloud, which moves on to another place, and when the cloud is filled with enough moisture, it rains. That cycle happens again and again and again, so over the course of 2,000 years, some of the water in the Jordan eventually makes it to America where we can be baptized as well.</p><p>The water of the Jordan from the days of Jesus is now in the heart of the USA. God raises up rocks in Missouri to sing his praise just as he did in Israel long ago. Sometimes it’s important for us to go far away to learn about sacred spaces and holy places back home. </p><p><br /></p><p>Saints and children we have gathered here to hear the sacred story</p><p>And I'm glad to bring it to you with my best rhyming and rhythm</p><p>Cause I know the thirsty listen and down to the waters come</p><p>And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America</p><p><br /></p><p>And if you listen to my songs I hope you hear the water falling</p><p>I hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of north New England</p><p>I wish I could be there just to see them, two summers past I was</p><p>And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America</p><p><br /></p><p>And if I were a painter I do not know which I'd paint</p><p>The calling of the ancient stars or assembling of the saints</p><p>There's so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see</p><p>But everywhere I go, I'm looking</p><p><br /></p><p>And once I went to Appalachia for my father he was born there</p><p>And I saw the mountains waking with the innocence of children</p><p>And my soul is still there with them wrapped in the songs they brought</p><p>And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America</p><p><br /></p><p> - Rich Mullins, Here in America</p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-65438390934647197142022-01-31T08:28:00.009-08:002022-01-31T08:29:55.005-08:00No Going Back<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0vs91j-braAtPUStaqZmPEIlGjicJigefb5tpox4wW0h3g0VvSBLfyCgsRLvIG_wpXlyKq4hrn9_zN1E-frPVBxkKv8nIVj_Durc44F-3f4hAMZUXvjYXNf56MnouyEpKoH9WnRyNSgqC11SjU5S6JJRKSvGYNvaaJ-MF1eShL-12O7cY4wvvwjgl3w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="1270" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0vs91j-braAtPUStaqZmPEIlGjicJigefb5tpox4wW0h3g0VvSBLfyCgsRLvIG_wpXlyKq4hrn9_zN1E-frPVBxkKv8nIVj_Durc44F-3f4hAMZUXvjYXNf56MnouyEpKoH9WnRyNSgqC11SjU5S6JJRKSvGYNvaaJ-MF1eShL-12O7cY4wvvwjgl3w=w435-h183" width="435" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>There was no going back. Flying high above the ocean in the middle of the night, we were hurtling inescapably to some far-off place halfway around the world. Fear, anxiety, dread, and despair engulfed me like the crashing waves thousands of feet below. I closed my eyes, tried not to cry, and prayed for dear life. Finally, it was over. I opened my eyes to see a new day dawning. The sun was shining, I was still breathing, and friendly faces were welcoming. There was no going back, but somehow I knew it was going to be okay.</span></div><p>That's the defining moment of my childhood in 100 words or less. The day when we moved to Germany and everything changed forever. A different country, a foreign language, a new school, no money, few friends. It wasn't easy. Sometimes it was downright painful. If not for a gracious God and generous German relatives, we wouldn't have made it. In the end, it turned out to be a good experience for me and my family. But that doesn't mean it wasn't difficult to go through at the time.</p><p>I went to a retreat in Kansas back in the '90s that was about dealing with grief. I remember the speaker saying that every loss in this life is like a little death. Whether it be losing a pet, having a bike stolen, going through a divorce, enduring a pandemic, or moving halfway around the world, experiences like these are all little deaths that we must grieve and mourn. If we don't take the time to do so, we won't be able to move on with our lives. Not that we ever fully get past these experiences, but somehow, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can rise above them.</p><p>This is not an easy process. It demands an open and honest look at our lives in order to reveal who we are and what our world is really like. As Paul David Tripp puts it ...</p><p>"We are all theologians, building some kind of belief system.</p><p>We are all preachers, proclaiming some type of message.</p><p>We are all philosophers, discussing meaning and purpose, and identity.</p><p>We are all archaeologists, digging through mounds of relationships and experiences, trying to make sense of our lives."</p><p>As we undertake this excavation process, we must choose our tools carefully. The Book of Hebrews helps us out in this endeavor. "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating and dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Heb. 4:12)</p><p>The sword of the spirit in Holy Scripture does indeed show us our sin, but thanks be to God, it also shows us our Savior. It does this through the scalpel of the law and the soothing salve of the gospel. The law comes to convict us and kill us, while the gospel comes to calm and comfort us and make us alive again, gracing us with the love and forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. As Keith Getty puts it, "there is a sword that makes the wounded whole."</p><p>This can be a painful process to be sure, but like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, the curse is part of the cure. The antidote is a person who has survived the poison. Jesus came to take on the power of the enemy, to actually become sin for us. He was accursed, forsaken, and abandoned by his Father for us on the tree of Calvary. He took the sting of sin with the full power of the Law’s venom. He took it with him to the cross and to the grave, and on the third day he rose victorious and triumphant over sin. death, and the devil.</p><p>The victory has been won, but there are still some battles left to fight before the war is finally over. We press on toward the goal, following our Captain who goes on before us. We know where we've been and where we are going, but in the meantime, we also realize there are some things that won't be resolved, some wounds that won't fully heal until we arrive on the other side. But in the end, everything is going to be okay.</p><p>"Alas, there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured," said Gandalf. "I fear it may be so with mine," said Frodo. "There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?”</p><p>“Then the ship went out into the high sea and passed on into the west, until at last on a night of rain he smelled a sweet fragrance in the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And it seemed to him a dream, as the grey rain-curtain turned to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.” - Tolkien, Return of the King</p><p>“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28-29)</p><p>+++</p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-22340122213842192552022-01-05T05:59:00.011-08:002022-01-06T09:33:42.234-08:00The Song Of Creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFd5TNChYo0mJB5IgONtdbB_qu0EIDnks1IKqdbmnw-Wk8IrNzWkDX80K2zgUzg0_Ppgf3I8VSMiROMQIYXXQNxxfHJJRmjnOfsQOox2gk_UY5iTZi4mJBc8pYp79iuD2bhlpWMYv_wEm/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFd5TNChYo0mJB5IgONtdbB_qu0EIDnks1IKqdbmnw-Wk8IrNzWkDX80K2zgUzg0_Ppgf3I8VSMiROMQIYXXQNxxfHJJRmjnOfsQOox2gk_UY5iTZi4mJBc8pYp79iuD2bhlpWMYv_wEm/" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Not only is there music in heaven, there is also heaven in music.” - Peter Kreeft</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">God’s story of salvation begins and ends with singing. The singing of the angels at creation to the singing of God’s people in the new creation. The song of creation began when “all the morning stars sang together and all the angels sang for joy” (Job 38). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The song continued as people praised God, called upon his name, and offered sacrifices to him: from Noah to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, and to Moses. In the exodus, we find the first recorded song in the Bible, the Song of the Sea, sung after the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt across the Red Sea and on to dry land.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider are thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, for he has become my salvation” (Exodus 15).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The song continued with David and Solomon, through the Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon. The Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah speak of a future deliverance for Israel and a coming Savior for God’s people. There are songs of praise and thanksgiving after the return from exile in Babylon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After the time of the prophets, however, there were 400 years of no word from the Lord and no song to sing. And then, on a silent night in Judah’s hills, a cry was heard. Glory sang the angel chorus! Glory echoed back the night! Love has come to walk among us, Christ the Lord is born this night! “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth!” (Luke 2).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The song continued through Zechariah’s Benedictus, Mary’s Magnificat, and Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis. On to Palm Sunday when the crowd sang, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And then came the first Christian confession, “Christ is Risen!” on Easter Sunday morning, followed soon after by “Jesus is Lord!’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the Epistles, the Apostle Paul breaks forth into song at times. At the end of Romans Chapter 11, he comes to the end of human knowledge as he peers into the mystery of God’s wisdom. And in Philippians 2, he shares the beautiful Carmen Christi, the Hymn to Christ, the Lord.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The church’s song goes on and on, singing and ringing down to us today. In our hymns, in our liturgy, and in the lives of God’s people in every nation, tribe, culture, and language, we hear the proclamation of the gospel of Christ Jesus. The song goes on – not only at the Christmas season – but to the end of days into eternity, when we will together with all God’s people sing, “Praise and glory and honor and wisdom and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">All creation sing His praises </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Earth and heaven praise His name All who live come join the chorus </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Find the words His love proclaim</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">(Michael W Smith, Anthem For Christmas)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">+++</div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-65897915666349787402021-10-20T06:02:00.006-07:002021-10-20T06:09:53.526-07:00One Foundation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUnxjwtT4fCSeXsDSR2ryVt7u-WJdBhaX6tzgxK81nywteqY_AAKO0XX2ePMGO7-ocM2brh4BKTi6L7e7Doq22Q8cIEukhKjL62V4nWYSF6Mupi4dp3pgrAOpCXjkpOFPNuF1ahoPYR7J/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUnxjwtT4fCSeXsDSR2ryVt7u-WJdBhaX6tzgxK81nywteqY_AAKO0XX2ePMGO7-ocM2brh4BKTi6L7e7Doq22Q8cIEukhKjL62V4nWYSF6Mupi4dp3pgrAOpCXjkpOFPNuF1ahoPYR7J/w331-h331/image.png" width="331" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>"The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord"</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ad66d5b8-7fff-366a-9b2a-a2c9d9ae8951"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I first walked into the narthex of the church I currently serve, the western wall is what I noticed first. It's a wall of stones of varying size, shape, color, and texture. And of course, there in the lower right hand corner, is the cornerstone. It's an apt representation of the words from 1 Peter 2.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him, you also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">'See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.' Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,' and, 'A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.' </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This western wall portrays not only the scripture passage, but the members of the church as well. They all have different shapes, colors, and sizes, as well as varied gifts, talents, interests, and backgrounds. And yet, they are all being built together like living stones into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"She is his new creation by water and the word"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Rod Rosenbladt used to say the only reason to go to church was the water and the word, the bread and the wine, and the gospel preached into our earballs. The foundation of the new creation in Christ is Baptism, where we are brought into the family of God through water and the word in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come”. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Do you not know that all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God made Israel to be his own people, his segulah, his prized possession. He loved her and cared for her as a faithful husband would. But then Israel strayed and disobeyed and went whoring after false gods. But even when his bride was faithless, God was faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So Jesus came from the heights of heaven above to the depths of earth below to rescue and redeem his long lost love. He came to remove the veil, replace the headdress, and restore her pure white dress of righteousness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the first sign of blood at his circumcision, to sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, all the way to the shedding of his blood on the cross of Calvary, Jesus gave his lifeblood for the life of the world, for the life of his bride, the church. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin." (Heb. 9:22) </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." (Heb. 10:4)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I visited the western (wailing) wall in Jerusalem, I knew about the paper prayers that people would stuff into the crevices of the rock. But what I didn't know was that it wasn't just the Jews doing it. It was everybody - Jews, Christians, Africans, Asians, Europeans - people of all sizes, shapes and colors, of all tribes and nations and languages. And if you get real close to the wall and look up, you will not only see the paper prayers stuffed into the side of it, you will also notice that birds have made their nests in some of those crevices as well. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It reminded me of Pentecost and the early church. It reminded me of my church and the holy Christian Church on earth. It reminded me once again that it is Christ's church. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She is his new creation by water and the Word,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">+++</span></p><br /></span></div><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-77947550582087714702021-08-23T07:55:00.004-07:002021-08-23T07:59:15.619-07:00The Color Green<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiM9GoRoz8t2SMTNrtkYN8fLfjxtowp4J44Grnp1fEmCmce91vAMHDxAogbMfmlfxMIRxZRCgvK6SiKFlWA_eAmYCP5VALSZsQPdBypZKtYg3xPCqf6VDfRAle6hT7uQstftXCjQRoiWZa/s1920/90-902748_nature-green-grass-background-hd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiM9GoRoz8t2SMTNrtkYN8fLfjxtowp4J44Grnp1fEmCmce91vAMHDxAogbMfmlfxMIRxZRCgvK6SiKFlWA_eAmYCP5VALSZsQPdBypZKtYg3xPCqf6VDfRAle6hT7uQstftXCjQRoiWZa/w452-h254/90-902748_nature-green-grass-background-hd.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Green wasn't always my favorite color. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When I was a kid, my favorite color was blue. Royal blue in particular, growing up near Kansas City as a fan of the Royals. This continued on into high school as I proudly wore the blue uniforms of the one and only St. Paul Saints. (ok, there may be a baseball team up north with that name too.) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Things began to change when I went off to college in California. The color for the Concordia/Irvine Eagles was green, but the landscape, not so much. Lots of tan and brown and beige. Southern California has its own beauty, but it's definitely a different kind of beauty than Missouri. When I flew home for the summer, I remember the lush and glorious canopy of green spreading out for miles below as we made our final approach. I had a newfound appreciation for my home, as well as a new favorite color.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After tearing up my knee in my 20's playing church league basketball, I had to look for a new sport, so I started playing golf. I was immediately drawn to the lovely landscapes, the fresh fairways, the vibrant and verdant views all around. To this day I'm continually drawn back to the Psalms when I see a well manicured golf course with its vast array of green pastures and still waters. It may not always be easy to maintain, but it's good to be green.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This applies to the Christian life as well. Green is the color for "ordinary time" in the liturgical church year. It's the regular time of year that always gets overshadowed by other seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. But the long Trinity (or Pentecost) season is important as well because it gives us time to ponder and reflect upon the great truths we celebrated earlier in the year. It provides time for us to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 3) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is a time of nurture and growth for us as we safely graze in God's green pastures and drink freely from his still waters, all the while abiding in his abundant Word and Sacraments. It’s also a time to step outside and enjoy God’s good and gracious gift of creation. This was an important element for Rich Mullins in the writing of his song, The Color Green, from 1993. Here's the refrain ..</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We go back to basics during this season, back to the source, back to the Word, back to the catechism. Although green is not one of the primary colors used in Luther’s Rose, it does show up in some depictions as branches reaching outward toward the golden circle of heaven. This reminds us of the growth and abundance God provides through his good gifts and Spirit. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Fruitful trees, the Spirit's sowing,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">may we ripen and increase,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">fruit to life eternal growing,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> rich in love and joy and peace." (LSB 691)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Green is a rich and wonderful color, and so is this season of the church year. And when the green season is over, we return to our normal ordinary lives refreshed, restored, and renewed, ready to freely and joyfully live for the Lord and serve our neighbor in love.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Christ is Risen. Jesus is Living. You’ve got the green light. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">+++</div></div><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-62122228503494497882021-08-03T06:40:00.001-07:002021-08-03T06:41:00.550-07:00the first age<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDgL7apu6xLoZJk3_wqaLQRzv6u3S37kgv2bxMZ0sL1pUWBxB_hlyIRUcIh2Sb55H0wzmf2ab0yZfBr_H40UqGF25OAlV842Y3BdO0XUvsbAep_vDA2kceC_W6H9ekaINcLxRMOLU4P5p/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDgL7apu6xLoZJk3_wqaLQRzv6u3S37kgv2bxMZ0sL1pUWBxB_hlyIRUcIh2Sb55H0wzmf2ab0yZfBr_H40UqGF25OAlV842Y3BdO0XUvsbAep_vDA2kceC_W6H9ekaINcLxRMOLU4P5p/w444-h250/AmazonStudios_210802A_HD-H-2021.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">+++</div><p></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-55180836827324229342021-05-20T09:11:00.004-07:002021-05-20T09:15:37.596-07:00Something You Could Not Have Guessed<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHbsKfIpyQRx2p5fJrObr0I3BnVEOCdneGIh2z83RV31jq6Xh4V4VLmhHeazhFcPXSmVOdMo1f6waCIp3qpQkPZhyphenhyphenUM5_5CD1ZguqXrk6n8jC34oKSPqlx4ZGPe57tTk3sVc4u5SbRf4w/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="1140" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHbsKfIpyQRx2p5fJrObr0I3BnVEOCdneGIh2z83RV31jq6Xh4V4VLmhHeazhFcPXSmVOdMo1f6waCIp3qpQkPZhyphenhyphenUM5_5CD1ZguqXrk6n8jC34oKSPqlx4ZGPe57tTk3sVc4u5SbRf4w/" width="310" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One of the greatest college football games ever played took place on November 23, 1984. Boston College vs. Miami at the Orange Bowl. It went back and forth the whole way, and finally came down to one legendary play, a 65 yard Hail Mary pass from Doug Flutie to Gerald Phelan for a 47-45 Boston College victory.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">What followed was a scene of total chaos and sheer pandemonium. No one could believe what had just happened. People were running wildly all over the field. Players were experiencing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Reporters were trying to process and make sense of what they had just witnessed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Brent Musburger, the lead announcer for CBS, didn't see who caught the winning touchdown. No one in the booth could figure out who caught it either. They had to have someone in the production truck tell them that it was Gerald Phelan. Not even Doug Flutie saw who caught his game winning pass. He knew someone must have caught it because all of his teammates were jumping up and down like crazy. Only later in the locker room did Flutie find out that it was his best friend and roommate, Gerald Phelan. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">You won't hear stories like this right after an epic game or monumental event occurs. These are the kinds of stories that get passed on later as people try to figure out what actually happened. In the immediate aftermath there is all of the motion, emotion, and commotion of the moment. No one is quite sure what is going on or what to make of it. It takes time for the personal stories and individual accounts to surface and take shape.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The same goes for the resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospels. At first blush, the details seem chaotic, confusing, perhaps even contradictory. There are worried women, multiple Marys, disbelieving disciples, fearful followers. Jesus is appearing and disappearing, showing up on the road, walking through walls. Where are they now? In Galilee? In Judea? What's going on?! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Let’s take a step back and think for a minute. If this is indeed the central event in all of human history, if the cross and empty tomb stand at the very crux of the cosmos, if the Risen Christ is ushering in a new kingdom and a new creation, then maybe we shouldn't be surprised to see some earth-shaking and mind-blowing things taking place. Maybe we should actually expect some strange and supernatural events to occur. Also, if the stories had a vanilla quality about them and all sounded exactly the same, the whole thing would reek of collusion. The truth is, each Gospel writer had their own unique perspective based upon eyewitness accounts of the people who were there and experienced it firsthand.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">No, the Easter stories don't always fit nicely into our 21st century way of thinking and understanding. But if we read the Gospel accounts carefully, we begin to realize that the story of the resurrection has a real ring of truth to it, an air of authenticity, a vibrant veracity.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">CS Lewis famously wrote in Mere Christianity, "Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion that you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that odd twist about it that real things have." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">God has a funny way of taking our expectations and presuppositions and turning them on their head. His mysterious ways always seem to turn the things of this world upside down and inside out. Like Miami's defense before that famous “Hail Mary” pass. They didn't think little Doug Flutie could throw the football that far. They were wrong. Just like the devil and the powers of darkness. They didn't think Jesus had the power to rise from the dead. They were wrong. And the rest is history. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared also to me. (1 Cor. 15)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">+++</div></div>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-72542231337399100702021-03-23T07:28:00.004-07:002021-03-23T07:31:07.294-07:00Lord Of All<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF2fgaxizPFuR15Bf3T-nl8aYT65L2M7nXybIDR8dmtDb7jhYYYdrq2QbwqDIc5M7ulJW7Xqm0D_sA4CrU0dSbZYTL5bkuyicmCzYUB0oaI4dEzSzxanxw3Ja14ym_ul2VDhy57TzJ2uzW/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="968" data-original-width="1440" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF2fgaxizPFuR15Bf3T-nl8aYT65L2M7nXybIDR8dmtDb7jhYYYdrq2QbwqDIc5M7ulJW7Xqm0D_sA4CrU0dSbZYTL5bkuyicmCzYUB0oaI4dEzSzxanxw3Ja14ym_ul2VDhy57TzJ2uzW/w352-h243/image.png" width="352" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The mausoleum of Caesar Augustus in Rome has recently been reopened to the public after many years of neglect. This place of the dead, located north of the old city along the Tiber River, is back on the tourist map and alive with activity once again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Augustus, whose real name was Gaius Octavius (or Octavion), was a man of great ambition. This is evidenced by the fact that he began designing his own mausoleum even before he was named the emperor! It is the largest cylindrical tomb in the world, originally crowned with a large bronze statue of the great leader, and surrounded by pillars and a plaque listing all of his accomplishments. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Octavion's career began after the betrayal and murder of his famous great-uncle Julius Caesar by Brutus on March 15th (the Ides of March) in 44 BC. At the time, a comet appeared that was so bright it could be seen in the vicinity of Rome for an entire week. Most interpreted this cosmic event as proof that Caesar was a god. Octavian soon proclaimed his adopted father to be divine, and later titled himself to be a "son of god" when he became emperor in 27 BC. He would later change his name to Augustus, a title of ultimate majesty and divinity. The cult of emperor worship became firmly established under his reign, complete with inscriptions like, “Emperor Augustus Caesar, God and Lord”.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In a sense, Augustus did the kinds of things only gods can do. He brought peace to the empire through the "Pax Romana". He instilled unity out of the great diversity around the region. He established laws to ward off the chaos of warring hordes, and built roads to connect peoples and regions. No wonder the birthday of Augustus was hailed as a <i>euangelion</i>, a proclamation of good news. The emperor was the <i>kyrios </i>after all, the lord of the world, the one who claimed the allegiance and loyalty of subjects throughout the empire. When he would come in person to pay a visit to a colony or province, the word for his royal presence was <i>parousia.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the New Testament, a new kind of gospel message was introduced, the <i>euangelion</i> of the Lord Jesus Christ, the <i>kyrios</i> of the whole world. The mission of his <i>apostolos</i> was to bring the whole world, all nations, under the authority of this universal God and Lord. This <i>euangelion</i> was announced to all people, the good report of God’s forgiveness and salvation for all subjects in the kingdom who believe, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, slave or free.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In this gospel message of the death and resurrection of the Son of God on behalf of sinners, the justice and mercy of the one true God is on full display, with the promise that in his <i>parousia </i>on the last day, all things in heaven and on earth will finally be revealed once and for all. Ultimately, there is only one Lord of the Universe, and he does not share power. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The so-called god and lord Caesar Augustus died in 14 AD, on the 19th day of the 8th month. But the true Son of God and Lord of all, Jesus Christ, died and rose again from the dead in 33 AD, now risen and living, ruling and reigning over all things. Augustus may have been the “first citizen” (princeps civitatis), but Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and the firstborn of the dead, the “Living One.” </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The last words of Augustus were, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.” The last words of Jesus before his ascension were, "I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Col. 1:15-20)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">+++</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-6427621645128247712021-01-27T11:25:00.002-08:002021-01-27T11:25:40.569-08:00Names of God<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj885SkQXsw7A0_Q0I4MKJ_5GCFJs_VFoG7EltbIHF2-oJBax19B5yXWN8ROpYMRnfITqYjnWc3uhr-b55A6uPiqhPAgHzOtQHRdNxWs3ZJe-JRRqAWX2sQYC8WfrEgPew61UJzHrj0IY13/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="364" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj885SkQXsw7A0_Q0I4MKJ_5GCFJs_VFoG7EltbIHF2-oJBax19B5yXWN8ROpYMRnfITqYjnWc3uhr-b55A6uPiqhPAgHzOtQHRdNxWs3ZJe-JRRqAWX2sQYC8WfrEgPew61UJzHrj0IY13/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>There is a lot of time, attention, and consideration given to the naming of a child. Why? Because names are important to us. Before my wife and I named our children, there were a whole host of names in the running for us to consider. There were male names, female names, family names, names suggested by friends. It was all a bit overwhelming. But we got through it somehow and have been blessed with three children in our family.</p><p>When our youngest was born, we named him Benjamin Joseph after the two youngest sons of Jacob and Rachel in the book of Genesis. Like most people, he’s had a number of nicknames over the years that define and describe him, who he is, what he does, what he is all about. His friends and close family members often use these names, but most people simply know him as Ben. </p><p>Names are important to us and to God. There are a lot of names for God in the Bible. It may seem a bit overkill at first, but all of these names in Scripture are significant because they define and describe who God is, what he does, and what he is all about. They give us insight into his nature, person, and character.</p><p>Elohim is the first and most basic name used for God in the Old Testament. It’s merely the Hebrew word for “god,” but the way it is used in Scripture is typically in terms of Creator God or Almighty God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1). Elohim is the One who was there at the beginning and who brought all things into existence. It’s interesting to note that Elohim is a plural noun that operates in a singular way. How can this Elohim God exist in plurality and operate in singularity? Could it be one God in three persons, perhaps?</p><p>Yahweh is God’s name, and the name for God used most often in the Bible. It first shows up in Genesis 2 when it comes time to talk about the crown of God’s creation, man and woman, Adam and Eve. The name Yahweh always shows up at important times in salvation history and in the story of God’s people. When God appears to Moses through the burning bush, he says of himself, “I AM WHO I AM ... Tell them I AM has sent me to you” (Ex 3:14). Yahweh always has been, is now, and always will be. He is always in the present to deliver and to save his people.</p><p>Adonai is the name for God that means “Lord.” Psalm 97 says that “God is the Lord over all the earth.” God is not only Elohim the creator, but also Adonai, the lord and ruler of all things. Adonai became the standard name for God used among the Jews, who considered God’s personal name of Yahweh too holy to be written or uttered. </p><p>When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the angel Gabriel told Joseph what his name would be. “You are to give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 2). In Hebrew, Jesus’ name is Y’shua, or Joshua, which means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus is Yahweh incarnate, Yahweh in the flesh, sent from heaven to earth to save his people from their sins. From the womb to the tomb, from the cradle to the grave, Jesus’ name defines and describes who he is and what he is all about. </p><p>At the end of his earthly ministry, before his ascension, Jesus finally reveals God’s true nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28). The God of the Bible is the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all things. Three in one and one in three, the holy and blessed Trinity. </p><p>Names are important to us and to God. By the time this article is published, my son Ben and his wife Laura will be welcoming their first child into the world, a son. He will be given a name and will surely have plenty of nicknames along the way. But the most important name he will have is the one placed on him in the sanctuary and at the font, where through water and the word, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he will be named a child of God.</p><p>+++</p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-53339900039532766002020-12-28T06:24:00.002-08:002020-12-28T06:25:08.156-08:00Prince of Peace<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbayeI9Bj78W2NytQRHNSQIrTs9CSvH__WtmQ7DbMK4sjeB1nVTNkTWgQHCWHrCG3REQ_4vLXJwrbUPcMsSxQbBHBspvHRE1cILjowbMlM0cptZgIlBuTeNntJBotT9Hau1suNX_nmVt1/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbayeI9Bj78W2NytQRHNSQIrTs9CSvH__WtmQ7DbMK4sjeB1nVTNkTWgQHCWHrCG3REQ_4vLXJwrbUPcMsSxQbBHBspvHRE1cILjowbMlM0cptZgIlBuTeNntJBotT9Hau1suNX_nmVt1/w398-h224/image.png" width="398" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Peace is hard to come by these days. It seems to be in short supply. We seem to be more familiar with anxiety and despair than we are with peace and joy this year.</p><p>Sometimes the frustration we are experiencing can boil over as we raise our fist to the sky and cry out to God like the prophet Isaiah, “Why don’t you tear open the heavens and come down here! Come down and help get us out of this mess that we’re in! Come down and take out covid! Come down and bring a vaccine! Come down and bring peace on earth, goodwill to men! Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake with your presence!”</p><p>It’s easy for us to relate to this first part of Isaiah 64. It was easy for the Israelites to focus on it as well. Why? Because God actually did perform the awesome deeds Isaiah describes. The ground really did quake and shake, and the mountains really did tremble before his presence. The children of Israel saw God’s mighty acts for themselves when he worked miracles before Pharaoh through his servant Moses, and when he brought them out of the land of Egypt during the Exodus with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When God gave his people the law at the holy mountain of Sinai, there was fire and smoke and shaking and quaking. The people had witnessed and experienced God’s power and might in days of old, but now it seemed like he had all but forgotten them. There was no rest - and no peace - for the weary. </p><p>Let’s go back to the way the ministry of Moses began. He had been living in exile as a shepherd in the wilderness when God showed up at Mt. Sinai to give him a plan and a purpose. God spoke to Moses by way of a burning bush that was on fire but not consumed. This was not a condemning fire of judgment, but a refining, sanctifying fire of mercy. It wasn’t just a plan and a purpose that God provided for Moses - it was his presence and his peace. “I AM has sent me to you.”</p><p>Later Elijah would be in much the same position before the Lord on Mt. Sinai. He had been on the run from evil King Ahab and Queen Jezebel after he had defeated the prophets of Baal. He was having a pity party for himself because after all he had done for God and his people Israel, he felt like he was the only one left who feared God. And then, in the cleft of the rock, there was an earthquake, a mighty wind, and a great fire. But the presence of God wasn’t in any of those things. No, God’s presence came in a holy hush, a gentle whisper, a still small voice. God came to him to give him what he needed most: his presence and his peace. </p><p>As we stumble through this crazy covid year, we may have some of the same feelings as Isaiah, Moses, and Elijah. Where are you God? Why don’t you care? Where are all of the other believers? Am I the only one left? Sometimes the peace that passes understanding is pretty hard to understand. </p><p>And yet, amid our anxiety and despair, the passage from Isaiah 64 ends with these wonderful words of hope. “Oh Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.” He is still our Father, and we are still his dear children. He is still in control, even though the world seems to be falling apart all around us. He is gently forming us and molding us into what he has created us to be. And in the refining fire of the kiln, through the trials and tribulations of this world, we are strengthened and cemented in our faith. </p><p>The good news for us today is that the words of the prophet have been fulfilled. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, and all the Old Testament saints finally had their prayers answered. God the Father remembered his promise long ago by sending the long-awaited Messiah, his one and only Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. </p><p>“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6).</p><p>He came down from heaven to earth to be born as a baby in Bethlehem, to live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death on the cross for us and for our salvation. As he did so, the Scriptures say that the curtain in the temple was torn in two, rent asunder from top to bottom, for no longer was there any barrier to separate God from his people.</p><p>“For he himself is our peace, who has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile us to God through the cross. He came and preached peace to those who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Eph 2:14-18).</p><p>After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to the disciples in the upper room. He greeted them with one word, shalom, which means peace, of course. But when the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, the very Prince of Peace, says shalom to you on Easter Sunday afternoon, it means so much more. </p><p>“I am here now. All is well. Don’t be afraid. Everything is going to be okay. Behold, I am making all things new.” </p><p>Christian peace is not the absence of problems, but it is the presence of God amid our pain and sorrows. Thanks be to God that Jesus has come to bring his presence and his peace to all people.</p><p>+++</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-2755204222155740542020-11-16T08:21:00.004-08:002020-11-16T08:22:48.012-08:00faithful in the fire<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_I-0FEs9z0lEc8Dw9odmr6tykhxk-KAMbw9f581OH-nYspYeHjmPBf9BGt8M_ZCCtXjY67R70WxxSxwRYibgAc5_glmCuh9hFU1h83bCS6voSIX4li92Nul2e-ACYF-o4-7AABIQy-03/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_I-0FEs9z0lEc8Dw9odmr6tykhxk-KAMbw9f581OH-nYspYeHjmPBf9BGt8M_ZCCtXjY67R70WxxSxwRYibgAc5_glmCuh9hFU1h83bCS6voSIX4li92Nul2e-ACYF-o4-7AABIQy-03/w360-h270/image.png" width="360" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The end of the church year is a funny thing. It’s the time of year when you’re not quite sure whether you’re at the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end, especially in a year like this one. I think we can all agree that the phrase “hindsight is 20/20” will have a whole new meaning from now on.</p><p>This is also the time of year (even in good times) when melancholy, depression, and despair can set in. As we see the years go by and the season’s pass, it can become easy for us to see our lives as just an exercise in futility. Just the same ol’ same ol’. Nothing lasts, nothing matters, nothing seems worthwhile. Like the poet who wrote that “nothing gold can stay.” Or the philosopher who said that life is just a bad joke. Or Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who said that life is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, that signifies nothing.</p><p>So what’s the answer? Where do we go to find meaning and purpose and significance for our lives? The Bible. The Scriptures. God’s Holy Word to us and for us: this is where we flee for comfort and hope in times such as these, as we are reminded that there is a plan and a purpose because there is a God. We may be lost and lonely at times - but God’s Word reminds us that we are never alone.</p><p>Just look at the lives of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Those were their Hebrew names anyway. Most people know them by their Babylonian names from the story of the fiery furnace in Daniel 3: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.</p><p>These three young men were captives in Babylon along with Daniel in the 6th century BC, and the authorities told them that they had better get with the program. The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had built a huge statue (probably of himself) that was over 100 feet tall and commanded everyone in the kingdom to bow down and worship it. That included all of the Jewish exiles from the land of Israel who were there living in captivity at the time. They were all supposed to bow down and worship this thing. And if you didn’t? Well, let’s just say it wouldn’t end well.</p><p>Typically at this point in the story, we are told of the courage and faithfulness that the three young Israelites displayed in the face of imminent danger and threat of death. But if we go back one chapter to Daniel 2, we find the real source of their strength. </p><p>“Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: ‘Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, and have made known what we asked of you” (Dan. 2:17-23).</p><p>The young men were praying to Yahweh, the God of Israel, for divine deliverance, not merely because they believed him to be the one true God, but because he had proven himself faithful to his people in the past. He was the One who had made a promise to Abraham and his descendants, the One who had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt through his servant Moses, and the One who led his people into the promised land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. Even when foreign enemies came in to ravage the land and take the people away as captives, God was still with his people and faithful to his promise. </p><p>That’s why, when Nebuchadnezzar threatened to fry them alive in the fiery furnace, they were able to give such a bold and brave answer. “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve can deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Dan. 3:16-18).</p><p>Although theirs is an impressive show of faith, the display of God’s faithfulness to them is far greater. After all, faith is only as strong as the object in which it is placed. Fortunately for them, the object in this case is very great indeed, so great that not even the heavens above can hold him, let alone a temple or an idol made by human hands. And yet, in mercy, he deigns to dwell with his people, to deliver and to save.</p><p>“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa. 43.)</p><p>King Nebuchadnezzar’s anger finally boiled over, so he turned up the ovens and had the three men thrown into the flaming furnace. As the king looked on, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Did we not cast three men into the fire? Look, I see four men in the furnace, unbound, unharmed, and the fourth one looks like a son of god!” </p><p>How good to know that wherever two or three are gathered in God’s name, there is always a fourth! And who is he? Nebuchadnezzar calls him a son of god. Daniel and Ezekiel call him the son of man. But it’s the same person. This son of God and son of man is none other than the second person of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ himself. </p><p>This is a preview and foreshadowing of the greatest act of faithfulness and deliverance in history, when 500 some years later, this God/Man went through the fires of hell for us and for all on an old rugged cross atop a rocky hill outside of Jerusalem. In the midst of his torment he cried out, “Eli Eli lama sabachthani! My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” And when it was all over, he uttered one word, “Tetelestai.” It is finished, the debt is paid, and it’s paid in full. </p><p>Because Jesus was forsaken by his Father on the cross in our place, we can rest assured that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Because Jesus was abandoned and alone - we never will be. </p><p>“I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28).</p><p>+++</p><div><br /></div>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-21615622494546060002020-11-06T07:29:00.006-08:002020-11-06T07:32:02.991-08:00Who Am I?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLTHpdN6MOzRLTJrmkAsHKG48_ifRJNucJfGYMBQWje0L1vgWf7zI4w09HGVNMOt5YKV15Cbi4buWZHuUIRNvhU4I_gJZKaUcT05p2UEbX1Jf4ZQYb0TA34PwGIWtPrDrYaWakzzq8TPF/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLTHpdN6MOzRLTJrmkAsHKG48_ifRJNucJfGYMBQWje0L1vgWf7zI4w09HGVNMOt5YKV15Cbi4buWZHuUIRNvhU4I_gJZKaUcT05p2UEbX1Jf4ZQYb0TA34PwGIWtPrDrYaWakzzq8TPF/w373-h210/image.png" width="373" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>"Who Am I" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer</p><p><br /></p><p>Who am I? They often tell me</p><p>I stepped from my cells confinement</p><p>Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,</p><p>Like a squire from his country house.</p><p><br /></p><p>Who am I? They often tell me</p><p>I used to speak to my warders</p><p>Freely and friendly and clearly,</p><p>As though it were mine to command.</p><p>Who am I? They also tell me</p><p>I bore the days of misfortune</p><p>Equably, smilingly, proudly,</p><p>like one accustomed to win.</p><p><br /></p><p>Am I then really that which other men tell of?</p><p>Or am I only what I myself know of myself?</p><p>Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,</p><p>Struggling for breath, as if hands were compressing my throat,</p><p>Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,</p><p>Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,</p><p>Tossing in expectations of great events,</p><p>Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,</p><p>Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,</p><p>Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.</p><p><br /></p><p>Who am I? This or the Other?</p><p>Am I one person today and tomorrow another?</p><p>Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,</p><p>And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?</p><p>Or is something within me still like a beaten army</p><p>Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?</p><p><br /></p><p>Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.</p><p>Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!</p><p><br /></p><p>+++</p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-5860248135148120972020-10-27T11:58:00.003-07:002020-10-27T11:59:11.369-07:00righteous freedom<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQjHQycWB3dKTOzOR4FBLJiMnMNg0jbJ-H2Jc8pi_k0hedvWQ5Nwl1AiWfCSqC3iPqffTBnxlHH1IIRY5DtFct1wTUbQOlFB9i1HMBp15RIxv0BC0fNyVfrqWyngzdjgSlvosjG_NJeXU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="690" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQjHQycWB3dKTOzOR4FBLJiMnMNg0jbJ-H2Jc8pi_k0hedvWQ5Nwl1AiWfCSqC3iPqffTBnxlHH1IIRY5DtFct1wTUbQOlFB9i1HMBp15RIxv0BC0fNyVfrqWyngzdjgSlvosjG_NJeXU/w389-h226/image.png" width="389" /></a></div><br /><p>No matter what he tried, he couldn’t do it. Whether it was fasting, praying, confessing, self-flagellating - nothing seemed to help. He just couldn’t attain the righteousness of God on his own. Instead of feeling closer to God, it seemed like he kept getting further away. Even worse, it almost felt like God had become his enemy.</p><p>As a monk in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, Martin Luther zealously sought the righteousness of God. “If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I”. He would later realize that the righteousness of God is not something that man must strive to attain, but a gift that is to be received. God had already brought down to him what he was trying so hard to reach up and grasp.</p><p>When Luther finally came to the end of himself, he found Christ’s righteousness right there waiting for him. When he turned to his mentor Staupitz for counsel on the matter, he was told to cling to Christ and recite the verse from Psalm 119, “I am yours Lord, save me.” </p><p>When God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 that he would have a son, Moses wrote that “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” What did Abraham have? He didn’t seem to have much of anything. He was an old man married to a barren woman. He was a wandering Aramean from the pagan land of Ur. He didn’t have a house, a land, a church, or a Bible. All he had was God’s promise. It doesn’t seem like much, but as it turns out, it was more than enough. In fact, it was more than he would ever need. </p><p>Both the Old and New Testaments reveal to us that God saves his people by grace through faith in his promise. The Old Testament saints were saved as they looked forward in faith and believed in the promise of the coming Messiah. New Testament believers are saved by faith as we look back and believe in the Messiah who has come. God declares a person righteous in his sight by faith in his Son, or as Luther put it, a simple “trust of the heart.” We receive that faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, the word and the Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper).</p><p>The two most important things to God in the Old Testament, justice and righteousness, are fulfilled in the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. By the passive righteousness of his sacrificial death on the cross for us, we are justified, forgiven, and set free. And by the active righteousness of his holy life in our place, we are given his purity and holiness as a royal robe of righteousness to stand blameless before God the Father in heaven. </p><p>Is it any wonder that when Luther discovered this stunning truth as he studied the book of Romans in the cloister tower, that he felt as if the gates of heaven had finally been opened to him? </p><p>I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: “The righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: ‘The righteous person lives by faith.’” I began to understand that in this verse the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the righteousness of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive righteousness, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous person lives by faith.’ All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into the gates of paradise itself. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had similar meanings; the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God. I exalted this sweetest word, ‘the righteousness of God,’ with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. (Luther’s Works 34)</p><p>The gates of paradise are opened up to us today as well. By our baptism and belief in Jesus, through his dying on the cross and rising from the grave, we are now offered free forgiveness and full salvation by our gracious God. We not only experience God’s tender mercy by not getting what we truly deserve (death and hell), we are also the recipients of his amazing grace by getting the riches that we don’t deserve (eternal life, heaven). </p><p>Our debt of sin and guilt is fully paid for on behalf of Christ, and our account is actually credited with his perfect righteousness. His purity, piety, and perfection become our own. We now stand holy and blameless before our Heavenly Father as his own dear children, and we are set free to serve our neighbor in love. Luther writes in his explanation of the Third Article of the Creed, “that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”</p><p>“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom 1:16-17).</p><p>“If the Son set you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).</p><p>+++</p><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-31455780294337015972020-09-30T14:11:00.001-07:002020-09-30T14:11:37.024-07:00sunshine in september<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshgLNsyhg5y84eUNeBSgL-Qn5L30vxxwhD_AyPZa7ssB3py2uQmfF9Sd-CaZj4sc7qLpvOCBb9ySlKVIArQ8vtvajUlEKCQ_dIMgLR3gs7bWrMxSF-l7pz5k0-GuThP0f1t5oH7juL887/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="584" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshgLNsyhg5y84eUNeBSgL-Qn5L30vxxwhD_AyPZa7ssB3py2uQmfF9Sd-CaZj4sc7qLpvOCBb9ySlKVIArQ8vtvajUlEKCQ_dIMgLR3gs7bWrMxSF-l7pz5k0-GuThP0f1t5oH7juL887/w380-h285/image.png" width="380" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It was just another typical fall day at the Kilns outside Oxford, England. The day began at 8 am with a full English breakfast and plenty of tea, of course. There was talk of a trip to the zoo, but fog began rolling in, so a bit of disagreement ensued over the day’s activities. Jack and his brother Warnie decided to go on ahead using the motorcycle and sidecar, while the ladies would follow later in the car. As they set out on the way to the park, the fog slowly lifted, and the sun began to shine. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">That unremarkable trip to the zoo on September 28, 1931, was the last in a long line of experiences that brought C.S. Lewis (Jack) back to the faith. Some people call it a conversion, but I see it more as a return home after a long and difficult journey. “The longest way round is the shortest way home.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Lewis was brought up in the church as a boy in Belfast, Ireland. He had a happy and carefree childhood until his mother’s death to cancer when he was nine years old. His loss was traumatic and compounded by his father’s own despair and melancholy. Unable to function after his wife’s death, Jack’s father shipped both of his sons off to boarding school. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Those were difficult years for the Lewis boys. After boarding school came college, and soon after, they joined the fight in World War One. The harshness of life and the horrors of war led them away from God and the church. Jack would later say that he was “very angry with God for not existing.” Fortunately, during this time, Jack was also introduced to George MacDonald and GK Chesterton, whose Christian worldviews influenced him sometimes without knowing it. “A young man who wishes to remain an atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Back at Oxford after the war, one of the most important friendships of the century began when C.S. Lewis met JRR Tolkien. “Jack and Tollers,” as they were known, had a lot in common. They were both English professors who had a love for Norse mythology. They both lost their mothers at an early age. And they were both veterans who had fought in the Great War. These shared experiences would bring them together and strengthen their bonds of friendship and fellowship. They quickly became friends and enjoyed walking, talking, smoking, and drinking together. They would later establish the writers’ group known as the “Inklings,” which met at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford each week to read and discuss each other’s literary work.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Around this time, one of the fiercest atheists that Jack knew admitted that the evidence for the Gospels was surprisingly good, and that it seemed God had indeed entered into human history after all. “Rum thing. All that stuff about the Dying God. It almost looks as if it really happened once". The core of Jack’s atheism began to crumble as friends, acquaintances, and even authors of the books he was reading were all ganging up on him regarding the truth about the existence of God.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As he considered all of this, he finally let go of the reins and gave in. “That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. I finally gave in and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Jack now believed in God, but he was not a Christian yet. That would come two years later, in September of 1931. It began with a stroll along Addison’s Walk in Oxford and continued in conversation late into the night at Jack’s place. Tolkien, Lewis, and another friend, Hugo Dyson, were discussing all the old myths that they loved, and how Christianity was the one true myth of history, the one that actually happened. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Eight days later, after breakfast on September 28, 1931, Jack and Warnie headed out by motorcycle and sidecar on the way to the zoo. He would later write, "When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but when we reached the zoo I did. I had not exactly spent the journey in thought, nor in great emotion. ‘Emotional’ is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless on the bed, becomes aware that he is now awake."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">From death to life. From darkness to light. The fog had lifted, and the Son was now shining bright.</div><div><br /></div></div><p><br /></p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2748301351587237968.post-51754742458050618972020-08-24T07:15:00.004-07:002020-08-24T07:15:41.036-07:00the art of albrecht durer<p> <img alt="Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the ..." height="424" src="https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/features/slideshows/Durer/albertina-knight,-death,-devil.jpg" width="328" /></p><p>When you think of great artists of the Renaissance, who comes to mind? Perhaps Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael? Donatello, Caravaggio, or Bellini? My guess is that a German artist known mostly for his woodcuts is not the first to pop into your head, but Albrecht Durer is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of the late Renaissance.</p><p>Durer was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1471. This was a time of great change and discovery in Europe. Renaissance means “new birth,” and that’s truly what this time was. It seems like world-changing events were taking place nearly every year. Martin Luther was born in 1483, Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, and perhaps most notable for young Albrecht, Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440.</p><p>Durer’s father was a goldsmith, and his godfather was a printer and publisher. One of his godfather’s publications, the Nuremberg Chronicle, used hundreds of woodcuts to portray the history of the world, some of which young Albrecht may have worked on. His first significant work to be published was a woodcut which served as the title page for a volume of St. Jerome’s Letters in August of 1492.</p><p>The zeitgeist into which Durer was born was one of advancement as well as apocalypse. Religious and political change was on the horizon. The plague had continued to afflict the continent. Out of 18 children, Albrecht was only one of three who survived into adulthood. With the year 1500 approaching, a sense of fear and dread began to seize the masses. Durer felt this as well, and in 1498 he published the volume Apocalypse, a series of fifteen woodcuts portraying scenes from the book of Revelation. The most famous of these being The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and St Michael Fighting the Dragon. </p><p>Another work with an end-times theme, Knight, Death, and the Devil, came about as the first of his series Meistertiche (or master prints). A knight rides confidently through a narrow valley surrounded by a demon and a figure of death riding a pale horse. Up above, a mighty fortress perched on a hilltop beckons the rider to endure and persevere through all the evils of this world to finally reach the eternal kingdom of God. It’s Durer’s medieval take on the line from Psalm 23, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” </p><p>Durer seemed to be quite interested in Martin Luther and the Reformation. He mentioned Luther several times in his writings, and he appears to have received a copy of Luther’s Babylonian Captivity of the Church in 1520. He also wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary from 1520: “God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther as I intend to make a portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian who helped me overcome so many difficulties.” </p><p>Durer died in August of 1528 at the age of 56. His monogram, a stylized AD, was a sign of his initials and a symbol of the Latin phrase “Anno Domini,” the year of our Lord. It is now a lasting memorial of the immense talent of this incredible artist and the God of all grace who inspired his work. </p><p>+++</p>Pete Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09999043705112021562noreply@blogger.com0