I learned it a while back from Rod Rosenblatt, a Lutheran pastor who was part of the White Horse Inn theology radio show. One episode “A Mighty Fortress” came up, one of my favorite hymns, and Rod answered the question that had been plaguing me for YEARS singing in Baptist churches. What IS that little word from verse 3 and mentioned again in verse 4? Sssh. Don’t tell if you already know. Read to the end.
Since we sang it yesterday, it’s on my mind again:
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.
Aaah! It was so obvious and not.
Credo (I believe)
The song makes so much more sense now. Love it even more.
We had Elijah Brown, General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance speak at our church today, and who we watched grow up in our church with our own kids, and he inspired us with the work for the oppressed and hurting they are doing, inspiring us to do likewise. His take away points were sharing Christ, doing justice, and having joy in the process.
Sounds like a great address. His work reminds me of Russell Moore’s in the past. It’s neat that your kids have had that connection. General Secretary | Baptist World Alliance
We read John 4 in Sunday School, where Jesus on purpose cut through cultural and pride divides by 1) avoiding conflict with John in terms of baptism number and 2) talked to the Samaritan woman, relating first regarding the basics of thirst and then explaining what was more important than doctrine. I was convicted as I remembered that I all too often tend to hyper critique, especially Christians (but everyone). I was grateful for how our church, even though it tends to major on the minors sometimes, usually does see past those and supports people of vastly different backgrounds.
The church service consisted mostly of reports of a mission trip and how they served others; I appreciated their thankful attitude, and commitment to serve the poor longterm.
As part of a continuing series in Ezra/Nehemiah (no, our pastor did not read and exposit on all of Ezra 2 and he skipped Nehemiah 7, the latter being a repeat of the former) we had Nehemiah 8:9-18 today. Most of the sermons in this series have been explaining background and elucidating connections with Second-Temple Judaism. This time we had context for “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” as being the joy that arises from an encounter with God (in this cases, hearing and understanding the Bible), and this joy leading to strength and resolve; background for the Feast of Booths; possible interpretations of v. 17b; And the context between Second-Temple ceremonies with the Feast of Booths for John 7:37-38.
We spent the weekend in a New Wine festival. Teachers mainly from the Free Evangelical Church of Finland with charismatic priests and other workers from the Lutheran church, supplemented with a guest speaker from England. It will take some time to go through all teaching from the video records of the various meetings and seminars.
The few times I have attended to the yearly New Wine festivals have been influential in my life, not only because of the inspiring teaching. The strong emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers, combined with the encouragement to apply the teachings of the NT in the daily life have been restorative and empowering. The teachings helped to remember that God truly lives in us through His Holy Spirit, and acting with God, in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can be a revolutionary experience. When God acts, your life or the life in the congregation is not boring, decaying or petrifying. It demands a willingness to go with God beyond our normal limits because we do not experience anything new as long as we stay within the fixed habits and limits of our ordinary life. If you follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, put your safety helmet on because you never know what happens next
Last Sunday I attended the local Anglican Church’s Book of Common Prayer communion service and learnt (about myself) that I the older I get the more I feel the draw of good liturgy.
That presumes that ‘ordinary life’ has limits that can be changed, however. Health and time of life, not to mention occupation, can impose a fixedness to normal life that that we can be very willing to go beyond but cannot. (Been there, done that. ; - )
Good note. We are individuals, living in different kind of situations that limit our life. We are forced to operate within the constraints we face.
My writing was not clear enough. I did not mean this kind of constraints and limits in our life. I was thinking of the tendencies to try to control our life and surroundings, follow ‘safe’ routines and stay within our comfort zone. In all of this, we stumble to the question: who is the Lord of your life, who decides what happens?
As long as we try to keep strict control on what happens, stay on ‘safe’ paths, or just try to remain within our comfort zone, we are taking the position of the person in charge. If we give the leadership and control to God, we have to accept that things are not anymore in our control and God may sometimes want us to step out from our comfort zone. Surrendering fully to God and following the guidance of the Holy Spirit may feel like a risky adventure but it is the best way.
I got as a present a T-shirt with the text ‘Adventure starts where the comfort zone ends’. That helps me to remember that sticking within my own comfort zone is not the best choice, even if I would enjoy it more than taking risks and extra effort. I need that reminder even to go to gym - it takes some effort but pays back in the long run.
Neh. 8:10 is one of those popular verses to take out of context and then be gobsmacked, when we see it in it’s surroundings:
8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
I embarked on an adventure three decades ago that had providential confirmations leading up to it as well as aborting it – I went to med school at the age of 43. There were a dozen or so overall and two or three were hard providences, but the rest were pretty much delightful and very indicative of a loving Father’s interventions. Several were amazing, at least one plain fun and to this day I almost have to ask “Did it really happen that way?!”
I have been admiring some medical professionals who seem to be multitalents and full of energy. For example, one person still operates people at the age of 80 (as a surgeon he is the national ‘guru’ within his speciality), has now invested more in music (learned to play saxophone at the age of 77), is the Finnish champion in net poker, is the chairperson of the national temperance society (and probably one of the key persons in some other societies), and much else.
With age, the differences between persons seem to grow wider, some are going strong while others are withering. It gives hope to think that there is a possibility to learn new things and live meaningful life even when old.
What is ‘old’ seems to be pushed forward. When I was born, companies often gave as a 50-year gift a walking stick because a 50-year old was considered to be a fairly old person. Nowadays a 50-year old is a fairly young person who may still have half of life ahead. When I was a small child, a 25-year oId seemed to be terribly old. Now I have been thinking that anybody above 85 years is an old person but maybe I should lift the bar even higher. My father-in-law is 84 and still has been playing volleyball and skiing, although he has recently started to select ski tracks that have less steep slopes - younger persons are skiing past him in long ascents. 90+ years seems to be an age where even the healthiest show signs of being old.
Our pastor is going through the Sermon on the Mount, and today’s verses were about judging others. (The remove the plank from your eye before you remove the splinter from your brother’s eye verses). He pointed out that we are supposed to remove the splinter from our brother’s eye, but only after we remove our plank. That is, we are to do it from a spirit of humility and brokenness, knowing we are as bad or worse, and just as in need of grace, not from an elevated judgement seat looking down. Something I need to work on.
The teaching in the church yesterday dealt with repetitions and (positive) routines. As we know, learning new skills or keeping fit demands lots of practice and repetitions of relevant movements. It seems that God has also been favoring or even demanding repetitions.
Day follows day repeating the same pattern, seasons repeat from year to year in the same pattern.
In the Torah, God ordered the offering of sacrifices in a repeated manner, weekly resting day (Sabbath), and yearly celebrations that had to be repeated from year to year in the same manner. What was a key purpose in these routines was the remembering and teaching of the reality behind the sacrifices and celebrations. Hebrew 10:3 tells that the repeated sacrifices were a reminder of sins.
Christians have also positive routines, like going regularly to the meetings of the body of Christ (congregation) and celebrating the Eucharist. These routines build our character, identity and life through positive repetitions and declare the victory of Christ. In this sense, having positive routines is a very good thing in our life. It just is important to keep the contents of the repeated actions correct. The meetings of Christians should not be reminders of sin and personal failure because our Lord has risen and set us free. The content of the holy routines and message should be freedom and acceptance in Christ.
In all our routines, we should remember that God may interfere and want something new. We should not be too attached to the holy routines we usually do because the Lord and His will is more important than our service of the Lord.
For me, the positive side of routines in the spiritual growth and the life of the congregation was a necessary reminder. Sometimes the ordinary routines that are repeated in the same way from week and year to the next have felt almost like wasting time.
Another lovely Book of Common Prayer Communion service early Sunday morning before heading off to preach at a church we used to attend.
It was Transfiguration Sunday, and so was the focus of the vicar’s message. One app application point stands out, mountain top experiences are normal and good. However, Jesus doesn’t stay on the mountain, but heads back down into the plain, and so should we. Simple, beautiful, true. I was grateful.
There were a dozen or so overall and two or three were hard providences, but the rest were pretty much delightful and very indicative of a loving Father’s interventions. Several were amazing, at least one plain fun and to this day I almost have to ask “Did it really happen that way?!”