Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

Harumph, Harumph what are you doing? First St Johns Acts 4 April 26, 2015

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[For the audio version please click on the above link]

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know and love the Good Shepherd said  … AMEN!

In a scene from a Mel Brooks movie, Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks plays a rather adle-brained governor. He is asked to sign a bill and he says “We must protect our phoney-baloney jobs gentlemen and he starts to harrumph and the rest of his entourage harrumphs with him. “Hey that guy over there didn’t harrumph” he says.

Reminds me of the scene we have here. It might be a little harsh to label them as phoney-baloneys, but the scene that comes to my mind is the Sadducees and temple guards coming up on Peter and harrumphing. “Harrumph, Harrumph, what are you guys doing here? Wait a minute that guard over there didn’t harrumph. Didn’t we tell you guys to get out of Dodge? At least put a lid on this Jesus stuff and now here you are preaching this stuff right on the temple.” I can hear at least one guard saying: “I was all nice and comfortable, having a cup of coffee and a bear claw, checking my smart phone and now I have to jump up and deal with these guys?” No one was going to cut the disciples any slack.

Remember these guys, the disciples? These are the guys who couldn’t run away fast enough when the guards showed up to arrest Jesus. Big, tough Peter and he denies even knowing Jesus to a little Jewish maid. Up until now they’ve been hiding behind locked doors and closed windows scared to death that the temple guards or Roman soldiers are going to drag them away to be crucified. I’m not minimizing their fear, they had legitimate fears, there really wasn’t anything like due process in Israel at the time. Sure Pilate did try to defend Jesus. But it wasn’t like Jesus, or now the disciples, had some smart lawyers to keep them from being punished. Jesus became a serious liability to Pilate and Pilate had no compunction of washing his hands of the situation and sending Jesus to be crucified. The same could have been easily done to the disciples. There wouldn’t have been any newspaper articles condemning this, the television stations wouldn’t have had film of marches to protest this. The disciples would be flogged and it easily could have been worse.

So what was the difference here? How did these men go from quivering with fear in dark to tigers, standing out in the most public spot they could have been at in Jerusalem? Of course we’re talking about, what was probably the Day after Pentecost they are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. No doubt Peter and the disciples wreaked some havoc the day before, and now they’ve added 2,000 more people to the crowd they had yesterday. Ya this stuff had to stop, harrumph, harrumph!

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. This has again taken on sort of a frilly connation, but it is intended to be a very serious, very life or death meaning. You can trust Jesus and the fact that He is the faithful Shepherd that lays down His life for His flock, and continues to stand on guard in a very spiritually dangerous world. We had a great talk about this at the Men’s Retreat. We who live in this part of the country, 21st century Americans have pretty much been lulled into very comfortable, affluent lives. Okay, so what do we have to be protected from? From our complacency, from our attitude that we’ve got it all in a brown paper bag and there’s nothing that threatens us! As you’ve probably heard me say, Satan doesn’t care how he gets your attention, so long as it’s not Jesus. If he can just lull the world into this frilly la, la world, a world where we have everything, so we don’t need Jesus then he’s happy to see us lost. Apparently the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy was very traumatic to fans. One of the threads was this great romance and the wife was put in the position where she had to watch as they had to stop treating her husband. She’s sitting next to her unconscious, dying husband telling him it’s ok, everything will be alright. How the world comes to that conclusion baffles me, how will it be alright? Death is terrible trauma, a horrible rending of life, something we were never meant to endure until sin came into the world. There is nothing alright with death and for those who are not saved in Christ, who have rejected God’s plan and lived how they want to, it means eternal condemnation!

What do we have to be protected from, what does the Good Shepherd save us from? Being lulled into death with a false assurance that it’s ok, it’s not! From the spiritual warfare that goes on around us that continues to look for ways to turn us from Jesus to anything and everything, including eternal damnation.

Jesus gives us His assurance, His promise, His genuine love “I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for the flock.” His love is not only to comfort and assure, but to protect, to stand against the evil all around us that can overcome and swallow us up, while we think we are safe and sound in things that we are blessed with, but rust and are destroyed, in the end don’t do anything for us, while Jesus is eternal and all-powerful. We are always so ready to trade the eternal for the trivial.

That’s what we see in our Acts reading today. There are those in the Jewish leadership who understand who Jesus is, they know, they’ve seen all the signs of the Messiah. But like Mel Brooks, harrumph, harrumph, I’m big and important and this is what is real today and I will deal with it when it’s convenient for me. Remember Jesus’s parable of the Rich Man? Where am I going to store all my crops and God comes to him and says: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ All of our wealth and easy living won’t mean a thing. We can either be Pentecost tigers and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who guides us, and, like Peter, get up before those who just want to harrumph, or we can be nice and complacent. CS Lewis writes in the Screwtape Letters: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,….” We can harrumph all we want and feel it isn’t fair, or it should be up to us but that option wasn’t available to the disciples at Pentecost and it’s not to those who claim to be Jesus’s disciples today. Blow the dust off those journals, ask yourself and write about whether you are of the flock that Jesus shepherds or do you just harrumph your way through life?

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amin and Shalom

Faithfulness in those who have vowed to be faithful

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Yea, I popped off a few days ago. I guess I am getting a little thin skinned on one subject, The Lord’s Supper. I do not come from, really, resany Christian tradition.  I frankly used to think it was a little weird thinking that I was eating someone’s flesh or blood for a few different reasons. Principally I was thinking in terms of the individual as a “person”.  Sure Jesus was a man, but He is also God. To think in any other way is to just live in denial.  And today it’s hard to overcome the sexual connotations in respect to that. It was always meant in terms of how much closer could I be to any individual then when I take the Lord’s Supper. You can’t be any closer then when when we eat His Body, our Savior becomes physically a part of us and the Holy Spirit intertwines the souls of those who are in Jesus.

Obviously that is a difficult position to get into with those in the world who are spiritually dead, but for almost all the rest of Protestant Christians, who think of the sacraments as just symbolic, some sort of initiation instead of, what they are, a genuine spiritual act that Jesus gave us in order for us to be even more intimately in Him and He in us.

It is difficult to maintain, it is unquestionably true, but hey I’m human and I get beat down standing up for what is true.  I have to deal with reluctance with those in my parish. Those who just don’t feel it’s important enough or just really don’t accept it either. Seems among other pastors I’m seen as sort of a “company man” toeing the official position of the LCMS. Guess I’m probably naive, I’ve been used to being a part of groups that may disagree but when It goes down everyone pulls together. Seems I can’t have that assurance with those who are around me. Apparently I have peers who like to do the sort of “titter, titter, isn’t that silly” stuff that I had to endure with liberal “Christians” for many years. Apparently I can’t assume that people who I thought I could count on, have  my six.  Instead seems there are those who are a little too concerned about those in the world, even those in their congregations who would just as soon have things casual, not get caught up in all these issues. So yea, I popped off, I’m not going to enable silly little discussions about what is important. If you’re on my team let’s pull together. If there should be discussion so be it.  But if it starts to sound more like adolescents then people I should be trusting and relying on then we have a problem. If you have an issue, do the genuine hard work and study to really understand. Don’t just dismiss things because you’re uncomfortable with it. If you’ve taken vows, live up to those vows in good faith.  If you have genuine concerns don’t play around. It’s not cute, it’s not clever. It’s important and deserves your respect.

It’s God’s will, we are in His will or we are condemned.

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What seems to be missed by people is this idea that there are “choices”. When it comes right down to it, there really aren’t. Sure there are choices that you make like, I like the whopper better than I like the Big Mac. I like the Red Sox, I don’t like the Yankees. What house I’m going to buy, yea, maybe. When it comes right down to it, like it or not, the real choices are in God’s hand. We are either in His will or we are separated from His will.

That doesn’t mean we sit and obsess if we really can’t discern God’s will. A lot of times in my life, I can honestly say that I knew what His will was/is, and He made it very plain how I should follow it. At other times, I did the best I could, put it in prayer and trusted Him that what i was doing was the way He wanted. I can’t say that I was always right or that I did it faithfully, that I did it according to His will. Sometimes, frankly, I have to admit I didn’t even take His will into account. Seemed obvious, jumped in and then afterwards realized that I should have given it more time, more work, more consideration. As in anything in humans, we’re just not going to be perfect. We do the best we can to pull it together, to execute the plan and then leave it in His hands. Sometimes it doesn’t work because He wanted us to do it and He used it to His own will, even if it seemed that it wasn’t such a good deal to us. “ESV Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [Bible Works]

I am trying to write, that for those who pursue this attitude, that God is somehow unfair, because many go to Hell, Jesus made it very clear that many would chose to ignore Him, that they would chose their own path: ” ESV Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” [Bible Works]
Dr Martin Luther in his book Bondage of the Will addresses the idea that there is “free-will” in terms of our salvation. The idea that we are in some way “free agents”. The only way that works is God’s way in Jesus. Any “free-will” is purely from Satan and puts the individual on the path of destruction.

Luther writes: “You describe the power of ‘free-will’ as small, and wholly ineffective apart from the grace of God [Luther’s NB – As in those who lack grace (special grace, I mean) reason is darkened but not destroyed so it is probable that their power of will is not wholly destroyed, but has become ineffective for upright actions.’] Agreed? Now then, I ask you: if God’s grace is wanting, if it is taken away from that small power, what can it do? It is ineffective, you say, and can do nothing good. So it will not do what God or His grace wills. Why? Because we have now taken God’s grace away from it, and what the grace of God does not do is not good. Hence it follows that ‘free-will’ without God’s grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good…it is ineffective apart from God’s grace, straightway you rob it of all its power. What is ineffective power but (in plain language) no power? So to say that ‘free-will’ exists and has power, albeit ineffective power, is, in the Sophists’ phrase, a contradiction in terms. [Luther’s NB – oppositum in adiecto]” p 104

“…that we do everything of necessity, and nothing by ‘free-will’; for the power of ‘free-will’ is nil, and it does no good, nor can do, without grace … The term ‘free-will’ is too grandiose and comprehensive and fulsome. People think it means what the natural force of the phrase would require, namely, a power of freely turning in any direction, yielding to none and subject to none. If they knew that this was not so, [p 105] and that the term signifies only a tiny spark of power, and that utterly ineffective in itself, since it is the devil’s prisoner and slave,…” [p 106]

“…However, with regard to God, and in all that bears on salvation or damnation, he has no ‘free-will’, but is a captive, prisoner and bondslave, either to the will of God, or to the will of Satan.” [p 107]

You have either stopped resisting what God is doing to you and are chosen by Him to be your Lord, or your right where you are because you have resisted the Holy Spirit and simply want to wallow in where you are. If you aren’t in Jesus, you are already condemned. While you continue to assert your own will, to think it’s all about you, that you are the master of your own fate, then it’s just another way for Satan to assert his control over you. If you come to the realization, that God is in control, that it really isn’t about you, that it’s all about what the Holy Spirit is doing in you, then you are saved.

Once we accept that it is about God and His will, that what we do outside His will is separation from God, that separation is Hell, is condemnation. There is no will for salvation other than God’s. Anything is the path to destruction. Separation from God is Hell.

In Revelation 12: 7-17 and 13:5-8 God has removed His hand from earth, Basically He has said that this is the end, that there is no more grace and man is left to his own devices. Honestly, how do you really think that’s going to work out? I know there are times when things look crazy and out of control, but God is still very much in control. The difference will be very obvious when Satan rules and there will then be unrestrained evil. We like to think we are somehow able to conduct ourselves properly, but when God removes His hand, when God simply allows us to do our own will, is there any doubt that the outpouring of evil, of violence, of greed will be absolutely stupefying? Is there really any doubt in anyone’s mind that when God has removed the Holy Spirit, when Satan rules that there will be unrestrained evil? This is what those who reject God will have, what they’ve accepted, there will be survival of the fittest. They don’t want God’s control, His blessing, although they think they’re entitled to the benefits of His blessing. They don’t realize what unrestrained evil is and they’ve shown that they really don’t care. And we’ve all met people that fill that bill, there are those who are obvious and the rest, not so obvious.

God is good, God is perfectly Holy. Being in a downtown church, being in the inner-city, albeit a small city, there are still lots of people who will knock on the church door and expect that I will just hand over money to them. In more subtle ways, there are plenty of people out there who have the same attitude, they expect God to hand over everything, including salvation on their terms. Then they will accuse God of not being “good” because He won’t save them! God is perfectly good, not according to our individual agenda (let’s face it, there’s God’s agenda, then there’s yours. In the end, which one do you really think is going to win out?)

God is perfectly good, perfectly holy, perfectly all knowing, all powerful, transcendant beyond anything that we can understand. Your agenda is just not going to be perfectly good, come on, it’s going to be covered in sin, if not completely submerged. It’s all of us, we are all completely unredeemed sinners and the only way to redemption is through Christ, The Son of God. God certainly does have an agenda, He revealed it, in His revelation, the Bible. We look to God for Him to guide us in how we fit in that agenda. Not our way, but His. Certainly that agenda is different for different people. If you are a great Christian mom, or Christian office worker, or Christian soldier/sailor, or Christian plumber, Christian factory worker, does that not serve God? We are put where we are at to serve God to the best of our ability, to be the best Christian factory worker we can as a witness to those around us to Jesus. We like to think that it’s all about us, it’s all about our control. Let’s face it the more you try to assert control, the more you realize that you just don’t have control. You can keep wrestling with God over it or figure out that it is all about Him and not about you. When we stop resisting the leading of the Holy Spirit and surrender to His will, when we are concerned about God’s agenda and not ours, when you trust His control, His will, and operate our life accordingly, It may not be “easy”, but it will be much easier then struggling against God.

We are always looking for outward sources not to to Holy Spirit within us

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We spend way too much time looking for things outside ourselves for inspiration. Sure God puts things around us to inspire us, but it is a mistake to only rely on that inspiration and ignore what the Holy Spirit is trying to impact you with. He is indwelt in you and He is trying to inspire you directly, in a way that uniquely impacts you.

It helps me to wait on His inspiration, I try to put it into prayer that I want Him to move on me and guide me. it seems as though He gives me the inspiration/emotion/drive and then helps me with the words, but never seems to tell me how I should write or what I should write. He’s guiding the writing, but not micro-managing. He’s leaving it to me to fill in the substance, but always with His leading, His Spirit.

Im not trying to get all mystical on people. I think it makes perfect sense that if we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit that He will find many ways to express Himself through us. Not compelling, but in a way that helps us to maintain our relationship, which is a way among many ways.

Teaching, walking as a disciple of Jesus

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For the audio version of this sermon, click on the above link.

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know it’s about what God does and His Word said … AMEN! We are going to have a little spring training today. The Patriots win the Super Bowl today, the Red Sox report to Florida in a couple of weeks, a few weeks of fundamental baseball in Florida and all is right with the world. The subject is this, what are the fundamentals? What issues do we as Christians need to deal with, what is important for us to remember? There are way too many Christians who make other issues their top priorities; social issues, political issues, how much or how little sin, end times, making worship entertainment the Sabbath and in this case fussing over what kind of food we should/shouldn’t be eating. In today’s epistle lesson Paul is trying to get people to focus on what’s important. What are they focused on? Eating food that was offered to idols? As part of that discussion Paul’s saying; “We can all be smarty pants and get into these secondary issues with people. Try to look like we’re theologians, “oh heavens, we must talk about the seriousness of this vital issue. I saw brother Thomas over at the temple meat market and he was buying a prime rib that was sacrificed to a pagan ‘god’! That’s horrible! We can’t allow that! This must stop. I don’t care if the temple meat market has the best prime rib, if we buy prime rib at all, it better not be from something that was not sacrificed to some pagan ‘god’.” Yea, OK, in this context is that cool? No, it’s not! But on the other hand, for a Christian, is that something that really speaks to our eternal salvation or any other Christian’s eternal salvation? No, it’s not. We have a whole lot better things to discuss and frankly it takes away from those issues that are much more compelling. For example; ‘ok, brother Aurelius, we shouldn’t eat meat sacrificed to a pagan “god”. I’m not going to say right, wrong or indifferent. But Aurelius, when was the last time that you took a pagan or a new Christian and really sat down with them about the real issues of being a Christian? How’s your prayer life? How’s your relationship with Jesus? Do you feel the Holy Spirit moving you to serve someone and you didn’t? Let’s go back to the “Solas”. What are the solas? Sola Fide – by faith alone. It is His faith that God the Father gives Christians that we trust in Him, we trust His will and we follow His will. There are way too many people out there who try to make it out to be all about us, what we want, that God needs to get on our agenda. That’s not going to happen and God will lead us where he wants us and it is far better than anything we can do. Sola Gratia – By grace alone. This gets into the whole issue about how we are saved. Is it about what we do? Maybe even a little? Or is it about what God does? He saves us! It is through His grace that we are saved. We don’t earn it. The Father gives us His grace because in his sovereignty, He chooses those who are saved and they are saved because He brings them into relationship with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved only through Him and His righteousness. Even if we live the “perfect” life, did everything right or avoided the things we shouldn’t do, we’re not saved. It’s not about what we do, it’s what He did! We may have obeyed the Law, but the Law does not save you, we are only saved through the righteousness of Jesus and that becomes our righteousness when he brings us to Him and saves us. Sola Scriptura – Only through Scripture, only through what is in the Bible. We have a lot of “teachers” out there whose attitude is, “well, this isn’t in the Bible, but it should be and ‘my’ God would have put it in the Bible.” No! I am a Lutheran pastor, I am charged with teaching you what is in Scripture and helping you to understand that Scripture is what you need to grow in Jesus and serve Him. It’s not up to me to make up things and today there is way too much that is made up. Moving on, we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. There are, again, way too many teachers who are teaching to the effect “oh well, that really couldn’t have happened, that’s not rational, and it really doesn’t matter, because we’re saved by our own agenda.” Every Sunday we recite the Apostle’s or Nicene Creed. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is God the Son and could only have been born by the will of God. Not by any man. Jesus was born the perfect man and God the Son. Jesus is God! God the Son. There is only one God, and there are three persons who make up the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We cannot become “gods” as some teach. Jesus isn’t some sort of secondary “god” and He wasn’t the brother of Satan. There are no other “gods” and we trust Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus died for our sins. He is the perfect sacrifice and He took on himself the sin of all the world. That doesn’t mean that everyone is saved, because not everyone is baptized and lives in Christ. Most everyone lives in themselves and tries to justify themselves by what they do. We know that isn’t possible because we can never live the life that will save us, only Jesus saves us. Jesus rose, he was resurrected to give us the promise of eternal life. Through His resurrection we have the promise of our resurrection and eternal physical life in the new world that will come when this world is destroyed. We are saved through baptism. Almost the rest of Christianity teaches that baptism doesn’t save us. They teach we are saved because we make a decision to “accept Jesus”. No! Jesus accepts us and saves us through the washing of our sins in the water of baptism. Having said all that, we as Christians have what Dr Luther called “Christian Freedom”. Can we sin and be forgiven and still be saved? Yes! Jesus died for all sins. I’m still waiting for someone to tell me the sin they’ve committed that Jesus didn’t die for. I’m never going to hear it, but there are people who insist they are too sinful to be saved in Jesus. That’s wrong! When they are baptized, when they receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, when they confess their sins in repentance and hear the preached Word of God they are saved! Game, set and match, they have eternal salvation in Jesus. Paul is dealing with a bunch of people, the Corinthians, yea them again, who are way too caught up in other rules. When they did that, when we do that, we forget what really is important. They are all snarked up about people who go to the meat market of a pagan “god” and buy their meat there. Well this goes back to the Old Testament teaching that some animals are innately unclean and can’t be eaten. God said that in Leviticus 11. He listed out animals that He didn’t want His people to eat. OK, fair enough. But then Jesus came and with Him, we are again taught, it’s not about the secondary stuff like right or wrong animals. It is about Him, He died for our sins and our diet doesn’t change that. In Acts 10, God tells Peter, these things are clean, eating these things doesn’t mess up your relationship with Jesus. But now, we get into an issue where we do serve our brothers and sister. There are things that we can do, eat certain things, drink alcohol, smoke tobacco. Some of these things we probably shouldn’t do, but that doesn’t cut us off from God. But weaker brothers and sisters may have a problem with it. They may start to question whether this Christian thing saves them. They might look around and decide “well these people are doing these messed up things so I think they’re wrong and Jesus really doesn’t save us. We, as Christians, do have to be aware of how we affect other people. Can we do certain things? Yes, they might be sinful and we need to confess and repent, but we’re still saved. But if we do these things without any concern of how they affect others, then we are not serving those around us. We are called to be faithful servants and to do, or not to do, things for others so that we can disciple them and help them to grow and mature as a Christian. When we give power to silly things, like eating sacrificed animals to idols, we give that idol power that it just doesn’t have. We make it out to be something when it’s actually nothing. So we don’t get caught up in that. But if we make it tougher for a brother or sister in Jesus, then we aren’t faithfully serving and we should sacrifice for the better of someone else’s conscience. We should follow Jesus’ example, His sacrifice for us. We don’t, as Dr Luther said, want to create discord and contempt. We want to act in a way, in many issues, that others will be built up and strengthened in their relationship with Jesus. For this week, read all of 1 Corinthians 8 and read Romans 13, which is a lot of the same discussion. Are there things that you are doing in your life, that may be making it tough for non-believers or immature Christians? The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin

John the Baptist proclaims the arrival of Jesus John 1 19-34 homily and Bible study on KFUO radio

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The following is the text for my homily message on KFUO radio on February 5, The first link is for the discussion on John the Baptist. The second link is my homily on John 1: 19-34

ESV John 1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)

25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know,

27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’

31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

John 1:19 – 34  Sermonette on KFUO for February 5, 2015

I’m from Boston, where politics is as much of a spectator sport as the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots or Bruins. One of the great events is the politician, office holder who gets stopped by the police. Doesn’t matter the offense, the retort is always “do you know who I am?”. That’s almost always a tip off that the person knows they got busted, that they’re in trouble and now they’re trying to use their position to weasel their way out.

Seems we often get too caught up in the person and not the message.

There certainly is a time and a place, a need to know what someone is doing, who it is that’s doing it. Why do we get so caught up, so often needing to know the messenger and not focused on the message? Yes, we get some really messed up messages today and from multiple sources: Television, computers, radios, music recordings. How do we know that they are not of God? Because they don’t communicate the Gospel message. As Christians we should be able to discern what the Gospel message is from the message of the world.

Why do we get so caught up in the “Who are you?” In this day and age, it’s not so much “Who are you?” But “Who are you to tell me?” The message doesn’t seem to matter any more..There is no discernment today, there is simply blind allegiance to whoever it is that is conveying the message. If it’s the right athlete or the right recording artist or the right author, politician yada, yada. The right Bible teacher? Ahhhh, not so much… Unless he’s telling us what we want to hear.

The priests, the Levites, just weren’t that terribly concerned with what John the Baptist preached. Just not really interested, they were interested in who he was. They did that a lot with Jesus too, “where is your authority?”, “What gives you the right?” Not so much like the Bereans, they knew perfectly well who Paul was, good and bad. What did they do, just fall in love with the fact that Paul was talking to them? No! Acts 17:11: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

The priests and Levites didn’t seem to be terribly impressed with John or his message, they wanted him to be Elijah, or someone with a rockstar name for them to fall in love with and listen to. Despite the fact that John was saying all the right things, mostly quoting out of Isaiah and continually steering attention away from himself, something else that made him suspect, at least to the priests and Levites. He was odd, odd clothing, odd food, odd practices, baptizing people, and like Jesus did not fit the mold that they were looking for. They weren’t interested in the validity of the words. They didn’t take down his words and go back to study if John was validly preaching Scripture, God’s revelation, especially as it related to the coming Messiah. No, they wanted the messenger to be Elijah, “the prophet”, who was this guy John?

The take away is this. We are not called to fall in love with the messenger. John the Baptizer was the last of the Old Testament prophets, he was an odd duck, as they all were, none of them were rockstars that you’d fall in love with. But they did convey God’s Word, they did give us God’s revelation? This passage in John’s Gospel quotes John the Baptizer as quoting or alluding to passages in Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi, Genesis and Psalms. The priests and the Levites, the rest of the house of Israel missed the point, getting so caught up in “do you know who I am?”, They missed the message of the Gospel. They stuck with their Laws and rules, relying on them to save them, when they had actual grace and forgiveness in their presence, right before them. They missed salvation in the Gospel. As a pastor, as a minister of Christ I am charged with preaching the truth, I am charged with giving the hope and promise of the Gospel. Not what someone wants to hear, but what God the Father tells us is true salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. I’m definitely not a rock star, but if I am telling you what you need to hear and giving you what you need; Baptism, the Body and Blood of Jesus, the Word, the Father’s Absolution of your sins, you should listen. By all means, be a Berean and take my word back and study it. I love it when someone pushes me on something I said in a sermon or wrote in a blog. But trust that I was placed here as a minister, as a representative of Jesus in order for Jesus to use me to give to you what you need for salvation in Jesus. I’m definitely not going to say “do you know who I am?” Because you wouldn’t. But I can say, as any disciple in Jesus can say, do you know that I am a brother in Christ and that true salvation is in Jesus? It’s not the messenger, it’s whether it’s the message of Jesus Christ in Scripture that is telling you that God the Father has saved you in Jesus. John would have told them: “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” They just wanted to ask the questions when they could have stopped and listened to the one who prepared the way for the Lord.

We are called to take risks and be bold as the church and as individual Christians.

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I worked in corporate finance for 20 years, mostly for very large corporations and organizations. I spent 29 years in the Coast Guard always in an operational capacity and I worked in other capacities in other sectors. The common denominator with these is that the status quo is just not acceptable. Standing still, same ole/same ole, “we never did it that way before”, however, is the MO with most churches. I’m not talking creative worship or “user friendly”, any of the quasi Christian attempts to entertain or be “relevant”. (I just read recently about a woman serving on the “worship team”, who wasn’t sure she was ready to go on stage.)

When did worship become entertainment?

In terms of risk in the church, it’s not about monkeying around with age-old worship in favor of “entertaining”, people-pleasing. Worship is worship. Frankly if we got serious about it, we would begin to realize the benefits of genuine worship, plus genuinely lifting up our Creator/Sustainer/Savior up to praise, glorify and give thanksgiving to.

But yes, in other ways we need to take “risks”. Way too many churches discourage anyone they somehow consider “different”. Far too many people have a very general definition of “different”.

“Success” as a Christian, in the church, is always about Jesus and those who are truly disciples of Jesus, those who are saved. Period. Yes, numbers, money, activities are great. But that is not success. It is in the world and that’s the way it will be, but the church is about becoming and living as the Body of Christ. But does that mean just passivity or are we expected to risk, to step out and be bold for Jesus? The answer, obviously, is to be bold for Jesus.

This is probably self-evident, but Inc Magazine writes: “The INC 500 ENTREPRENEURS excel in every area identified by Gallup. But they absolutely dominate in three strengths: risk-taking, business focus and determination -compared with the national sample. Those strengths are, not coincidentally, the ones most universally associated with business starts, survival and scaling.”

These are not areas that Christians excel in. There is no risk taking, there is an excessive focus on being conservative. Nice, non-commital worship, restrictive use of the facility, nice-pleasant studies- don’t want to get into the controversial. One area that’s especially showing up in the church is; that Jesus isn’t the only way. Too much accommodating the individual and less and less faithfulness to true worship and what we do to serve the Lord. It is risky to tell someone that they have to be a member of the church in order to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. Too many encourage you to follow the easy path and worry more about the person than the Lord.

It’s easy to turn people away from using the church facility. One thing that bugs me is that with few exceptions, the church sanctuary is used once a week. There should be more worship during the week, not to use the sanctuary for other things, but to increase worship opportunities, making worship more accessible and meaningful. The rest of the facility should be in regular use for small groups, groups that serve the community. Too often it’s easier to just say no, or only accept the “safest” groups or situations.

I’m not saying that churches, for the most part, do this with mean-spirited. I’m sure most people feel a genuine duty to protect what is there, especially when there’s been a long familial relationship with a particular church. You certainly don’t want to tear up Great-Great-Aunt Tilly’s whatever. It may have nothing to do with church or worship or be obsolete or beyond repair, but who wants to be the one to do the deed? Having said that, tough decisions do need to be made. Not arbitrarily, not because “well that’s so old”, but with the intent of what is going to serve best, what glorifies God and helps people in their Christian-disciple lives. To do that means stepping out in risk. The group that would like to use the facility may not be the “right” kind of people, but you need to welcome them, integrate them into the life of the congregation and help them to grow in Jesus. You disciple them, you take the risk. God put them there for a reason, for you to take the opportunity to be a good disciple of Jesus.

This can be fun, it can be exciting, it can be a rush like you’ve never known. The exhilaration of being used by the Holy Spirit to bring someone to salvation in Jesus is unforgettable and frankly even addicting. When you really do step out and take that risk, you are going to want to keep going.

“Gallup says those with a talent for risk-taking possess a highly optimistic perception of risk but are also rational decision makers who have an extraordinary ability to mitigate that risk. The assessment shows that Inc 500 founders are more likely than other entrepreneurs to take more and bigger risks. But they are also more likely to optimize their chances for good outcomes and, consequently, rapid growth.” (Leigh Buchanan Inc Magazine September 2014 p 30).

We are children of God, the Creator of all, the great sustainer. How can we not be optimistic, how can we take such a negative view when the Holy Spirit is really pressing on us to do something? How can you not be excited about the opportunity? Yea, I guess the vast majority of people in the world see risk as scary and unproductive (why try? It’s not going to work). OK. So? If we are His, it doesn’t necessarily mean we will always “succeed”, but really is their any doubt that it’s not going to be an experience that is rewarding, in terms of growth, in terms of strengthening, in terms of building relationships, on and on? We are the children of God He who will do miracles, they will usually be subtle, but when you think back, you will see the miracle. We need to start taking the risks that the world does. Our risk-taking results in eternal reward, where people in the world are so less reluctant to take risks for material gain that will just end up destroyed. Yea, I don’t want to knock down, Great-Grandfather Elwood’s desk, not lack of respect, but what is truly helping people to come to Christ and what is truly glorifying God. Within those parameters we need to take risks, everything else are lesser considerations and should never keep us from our greater calls.

And I am not saying “name it and claim it”, but it has been my experience that when you do take a risk, we Christians call it faith, that people see that and respond. Often you will get the support you need for a particular “risk” and sometimes you even get more from people who want to encourage the church to continue to step out in faith.

How do we as risk takers in the world, readily understand how that looks as a Christian and how to we live that as disciples of Jesus and part of a church? Join us on our Wednesday morning Coffee Breaks, shop at the corner of Beaver and W King Sts, 10am, park behind the church and walk about 20 yards. First timers? I will buy you a cup of coffee. God bless.

Service in to the Lord and His church LWML Sunday Jan 18, 2015 First St Johns

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Click on the above picture for the audio version of this sermon.

This sermon isn’t mine, it was prepared by the Lutheran Women’s Mission League national office. It’s a really good sermon, and it honors a great group of ladies who serve their church and community so well and a group that is a terrific part of our church. We had a great dinner after worship. The Men’s Network is making gains!!!

Service in to the Lord and His church   LWML Sunday   Jan 18, 2015   First St Johns

Rich blessings and congratulations to the women of the LWML, our Lutheran Women in Mission, this morning as we celebrate and investigate how we all by faith in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ are enabled to be fragrant sacrifices and offerings before Him in both His Kingdom and in the earth.

The book of Ephesians, written by Saint Paul, to the saints of Ephesus in the decade of the 60’s is one of the letters that Paul wrote from a jail cell in Rome. He writes, despite his own dire situation, a word of encouragement to the saints. Paul understands this, that since His conversion on the Damascus Road his life has been one of great trial and tribulation. When Saul met the Lord Jesus whom he was persecuting, he was in his own words a premier Israelite circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law blameless (Philippians 3:4b-6).

Paul had come to the realization what all the faithful in Christ have come to understand under the power of the Holy Spirit. We understand that none of our labor is acceptable to God. We understand that none of our carnal, fleshly work is acceptable in His sight. All our works are as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6) although some men may be very pleased and impressed with our achievements. None of our carnal works rise to the Lord Jesus as fragrant offerings or are acceptable to our Father in heaven as pleasing sacrifices. Our God sees all our work as filthy rags, not one worthy of meriting any attention from Him.

In a sermon on this text proclaimed on the Third Sunday in Lent by Dr. Martin Luther these words were spoken, “This expression Paul takes from the Old Testament. There the temporal sacrifices are described as being ‘a sweet-smelling savour’ unto God: that is, they were acceptable and well-pleasing to him; but not, as the Jews imagined, because of the value of the work or of the sacrifices in themselves. For such thoughts they were chastised by the prophets often enough. They were acceptable on the ground of the true sacrifice which they foreshadowed and encircled.” Dr. Luther well understands that none of our works reach God as fragrant sacrifices and offerings. Those kinds of offerings never did reach the Lord even in the Old Testament.

Dr. Luther continues in saying, “They [Israel’s sacrifices] were acceptable on the ground of the true sacrifice which they foreshadowed and encircled. Paul’s thought is this: The sacrifices of the Old Testament have passed.

Now all sacrifices are powerless but that of Christ himself; he is the sweet-smelling savour. This sacrifice is pleasing to God. He gladly accepts it and would have us be confident it is an acceptable offering in our stead.”

Once again we are faced with the reality of our fallen condition. We are at once sinners and saints. We have the terrible stain of sin upon us and at the same time have the wonderful promise of resurrrection glory upon us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This wonderful fragrant and gracious sacrifice on our behalf is the one that God receives as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. This is the ultimate sacrificial offering but there are many others worked by our Lord Jesus in obedience to our Father. Remember? In the beginning the Holy Spirit comes to a virgin named Mary and a Son is born to her and Joseph who is named Jesus. Prophecy proclaims the birth of this Child and angels sing the birth of this Child. The shepherds and wise men rejoice at the birth of this Child and our Father receives this miraculous birth as a fragrant 2014 LWML Sunday Sermon

Theme: “Fragrant Sacrifices and Offerings”

Text: Ephesians 5:2sacrifice and offering. This Jesus at eight days old is dedicated back to His Father in the rite of circumcision, a fragrant offering to the Lord. There is a wedding that is running a bit short on wine. Jesus turns water into the

best wine and the Father catches that scent as a fragrant offering. And there is more!

Blind people see, deaf people hear, lame people have their limbs restored, sick people are healed, lepers are cleansed, seas are calmed, demons are cast out, mute people speak, the hungry are fed, demon possessed are delivered, captives are set free, severed ears restored, and if that were not enough, resurrection and life become the new normal. Our Father receives all these acts as fragrant sacrifices and offerings. They reach to His nostrils and the Lord rejoices, the angels dance, the Holy Spirit rejoices because our Father is well pleased, the incense has been lit, the fire is burning and the perfect sacrifice, the blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24) is set to be shed. The perfect offering is so sweet and fragrant a sacrifice to the Father that it has the power to cover and remove the sin of all humankind for all time.

That is the plan and design of God. That Jesus Christ, the perfect fragrant sacrifice and offering, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world in whose book the names of all who live and die and rise by faith in Christ Jesus have been written. (Revelation 13:8) And not only are their names written in the book of the Lamb and in the heart of the Father but their works of faith, good works prepared beforehand in which they walk, rise to the throne of our Father as fragrant sacrifices and offerings.

Understand that when you in obedience to Matthew 28, As you are going, make disciples-share the Gospel with some soul in need of encouragement-the Father receives that as a fragrant sacrifice and offering. When you, water-baptized, blood-covered, Holy Spirit-filled, consecrated, and anointed Daughters of Zion in the LWML, give your pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars in the interest of missions, our Father receives every single sacrificial mite as a fragrant sacrifice and offering. When we all in faithful obedience, study the Word of God to show ourselves approved, when we dwell together in unity, when we faithfully hold the confession of the church in this perverse generation, when we speak faith, when we love one another, fragrant sacrifices and offerings rise up to the nostrils of our merciful, holy, and gracious God and Father.

I love the testimony of the Gospel of Saint Mark chapter sixteen verses sixteen through eighteen that say, Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Our baptismal faith rises up to our Father as a fragrant sacrifice. Saint Mark further testifies, These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name [the name above every name, the name of Jesus] they will cast out demons; [Hallelu-Jah!] they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it

will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Every act of obedience, every work of the saints of God, every act of faith, every word spoken in faith rises up to the Father as a sweet-smelling savor and sacrificial offering. We have the awesome privilege of bringing joy to the heart of our Father by not simply performing deeds of which He would approve but also in the words of Saint Paul to the Romans in the twelfth chapter, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to

this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So, dear saints of God, let’s strive with all our Holy Ghost-inspired and Spirit-filled faith to infuse the heavens with fragrant sacrifices and offerings by not simply doing, but by being those sacrifices and offerings in the nostrils of our loving God and Father.

Now may the peace of Christ that passes all understanding rule and reign in our hearts as fragrant sacrifices and offerings to our gracious God and Father, in the name of our matchless Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Baptism, Death, Eternal life all in Jesus First Saint Johns, January 11, 2015 Luke 2:21

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Please click on the above link to hear the audio of this sermon

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who have died to the world in baptism and have been reborn in Jesus Christ said … AMEN

I want to start by remembering our brother Sam Null who went to be in the presence of the Lord. Sam’s funeral will be this Friday here at First St Johns. We pray for Norma and their son Sam and we praise God that Sam is free from suffering and in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you see in today’s introduction to worship, I will be saying the words that I say in a funeral. We Christians do not live In fear of death. We died that day we were baptized. We are still in the world when we are baptized, but now we are no longer of the world we are reborn in Christ. This is another area where we are at odds with other Christian belief systems. Other Christians see baptism as sort of an initiation into the faith, a public act, on their part, in accepting Christ. For Lutherans, we see baptism as our new birth, where, when I baptize someone the Holy Spirit is using the words I say and the act of pouring the water as a way to, as Dr Luther would say, to drown the old person and from that the new person in Christ is reborn.

It’s been a really rough week, heck for me as a pastor, throw a bout of flu into the mix of Advent, two Christmas Eve worships, Holly Tea, German Christmas worship, a wedding, a few deaths, it’s been a tough last few weeks. Death has been a very real presence just in the past few days. My Aunt died up in Maine, the Rev Dr Mike Ramey’s mother died in Texas, a fellow pastor and classmate’s mother died, we said farewell to our bother Rev Don Biggs a few weeks ago, we had other funerals this past year of brothers and sisters in Jesus. But here is the upshot, here is the Gospel, the Good News. All of them “died” in Jesus. Yes, they aren’t here with us in the body, but we know for sure, because we have the promise of Jesus Christ, that all of these brothers and sisters are now in the perfect bliss and comfort of heaven, the very real presence of our Lord.

How can we be so sure of this? Was it because of something they said or did? No! We have many Christians who believe that it’s all about them, it’s all about what they do or don’t do. One of the main reasons we baptize babies is to emphasize our understanding of what baptism is. Baptism is when we are called by the Holy Spirit to come into the new life of Christ. It is not a decision we make to “accept Jesus”. Doesn’t it really seem presumptuous to think that it’s our decision to be saved? “Oh, okay, I’ll accept Jesus as Lord, well because I can and I’m going to. I will walk down the aisle and make a declaration for God.” I’ve had more than one person tell me that after making some sort of public declaration of accepting Jesus, they did not feel as if they really knew salvation. I often hear that there is this doubt, that they might have done something wrong, that somehow it wasn’t enough, wrong time, wrong way, etc. In our baptism into Jesus it is not about what we do, it’s not about how we do it, when we do it, why we do it, yada, yada, yada. It’s about the fact that we have the knowledge and assurance that we were called to be baptized, we were called to be saved, we were baptized in the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and by that, the Holy Spirit brought you to salvation in Jesus. The Holy Spirit took you up out of the depths of your baptism and gave you the new life, made you the new person in Jesus. It’s not up to you, it’s not your call and that is why, for Lutherans, it is about baptizing babies. I am certainly not saying you have to be baptized as a baby. Certainly God decides when we come to know Christ and that is not always as an infant. I wasn’t baptized until I was in my mid-twenties, I’m sure there are others here who weren’t baptized as babies and others who haven’t been baptized at all. I pray that those who are adults and haven’t been baptized, that God is leading them through the words that He has given me for you to come to new life in Jesus. But I want to make this very clear, it’s not about your decision, it’s not about you making the call. You may have some idea that you don’t need to be baptized, or that you are somehow unworthy. Heck I’d like to know who here, me included, could ever be worthy enough for new life in Jesus. I’ll tell you who, no one, not you, not me, not anyone who hears this is worthy. We are not saved on the basis of whether we are worthy. Sola gratia by grace alone are we baptized. The grace of God, His forgiveness of us, His desire, not yours, not mine, to save you in Jesus. There are no mistakes in God, if you have not been saved in the waters of baptism whether you are 8 months or 80 years you are saved only by God’s grace and united with Jesus in His death through baptism. His death, His sacrifice, His atonement on the Cross that saved us. So no, you are not worthy enough for baptism and neither am I, no one is.

Jesus was baptized and He was baptized as an adult. Why? He was baptized by John the Baptist, John was designated by God to baptize Jesus in the way and at the time that He was baptized. No, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but as Jesus lived the life that we live, that He came down from heaven, born as a baby, He identified with us in every way and part of that is to be baptized. We are baptized because He was baptized, we are saved because He sacrificed His perfect life, the life that He lived as a man in complete perfection, a life that we could not live, He lived in order to be that perfect sacrifice, that perfect price to be paid for the payment of all our sins. More and more in the world, you will meet people who feel that baptism is unnecessary or that they are not worthy. You have to know that God is going to speak through you to them for them to hear that they need to be baptized, they need to be saved in the baptism that Jesus had in order to be saved. Paul tells us in today’s reading: “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” OK, sure, after you die you can’t sin anymore. How does that help us during our earthly life? Because Paul gives us God’s promise: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?” We are free from sin because we have been baptized, we have been brought into new life by the Holy Spirit by the act of baptism. Do we still sin in our life? Yes! But those sins are forgiven, we are freed from those sins. Paul says: “We were buried therefore with Him [baptism as being buried in the waters of baptism] 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.” (Rom 6: 4) We have newness of life in Jesus through our baptism in Him. It’s not about us, we will continue to live and sin, but we turn it over to God, we repent and ask for His forgiveness. We should also ask for His power to overcome our sin, but we are saved in what He has done for us. We may have been a baby when we were baptized, but as that baby, we are brought by faithful parents, who have heard God’s Word, have known the urging of the Holy Spirit and faithfully bring their child to the saving waters of faith and new life in Jesus. Paul gives us these great promises: “Now if we have died with Christ [that is the death and rebirth of baptism] we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What an incredible promise, what an incredible assurance. All those that we have lost, we know that they are very much alive, saved completely by what Jesus did for them in His life, death and resurrection and our baptism in Him. We too have that promise and that is a promise that we need to share with anyone we know who still does not know Jesus as Lord. It’s not what they’ve done, do or will do, it’s entirely what Jesus has done for us. He was baptized to identify with us and He gives us the promise of forgiveness and eternal life in Him in the baptism in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Jesus is the Way the Truth the Life, the rest of the world just kind of fumbles around with the idea of truth.

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Jesus said I am the truth Pilate looked Truth right in the Face and said “What is truth”. Interesting article on how Harvard University started as being “Truth” in the Christian faith and now is some vague sort of “Truth”.

Harvard: No Longer “Truth for Christ and the Church”

Published on October 11, 2011 in Bible and Education.   Dr George Purdon
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/georgia-purdom/2011/10/11/harvard-no-longer-truth-for-christ-and-the-church/

Yesterday our pastor shared with the congregation an interesting story about Harvard University’s seal and motto. The original motto, “Truth (Veritas) for Christ (Christo) and the Church (Ecclesiae),” was adopted in 1692 and was a part of their original seal as seen below (in Latin):

The motto and shield with this original verbiage can still be found at multiple places on Harvard’s campus. It may be difficult to discern from this picture, but the Harvard Graduate Christian Community website states the following:

Interestingly, the top two books on the shield are face up while the bottom book is face down. This symbolizes the limits of reason, and the need for God’s revelation.

At some point in Harvard’s history the motto was changed to simply “Truth” and the seal changed to that pictured below:

Notice all three books are now face up. This symbolizes a belief that there is no limit to man’s reasoning and God’s revelation is no longer needed. The change in the motto reflects a change in the university’s mission. The Harvard Graduate Christian Community website states this:

Harvard University was founded in 1636 with the intention of establishing a school to train Christian ministers. In accordance with that vision, Harvard’s “Rules and Precepts,” adopted in 1646, stated (original spelling and Scriptural references retained):

2. Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him (Prov. 2:3).

3. Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in Theoreticall observations of Language and Logick, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

This is obviously no longer their mission, and thus “Christ and the Church” were removed from the motto. How sad to see a university that was founded by a minister—solidly believing that knowledge, wisdom, and understanding come only from God’s Word—now believe that truth can be found apart from God and elevate man above God as the ultimate authority.

As I was searching the Harvard website, I came across this article entitled, “Intuitive? Try God.” The article related the research done by several students and professors at Harvard showing that people who believe in God are more likely to rely on intuition then people that don’t. The article states the following:

By linking religious belief to intuition, the study supports the idea that there is something in the cognitive makeup of humans that promotes belief in a higher power. For example, the natural tendency that people have to see a purpose behind random events, or the need to reduce uncertainty in their lives — as well as the anxiety it causes — may promote a belief in God.

In other words, the reason we want to believe in God or some higher power is due to our “cognitive makeup” which is the result of millions of years of evolution and thus may afford some evolutionary advantage.

The Bible states that people believe in God for very different reasons than the Harvard researchers postulate.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.Professing to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:18–22, emphasis added)

Oh, how the hearts of those at Harvard have been darkened, and how foolish they have become because although they know God, they deny Him. Instead of rejoicing in the truth that comes from God’s revelation (1 Corinthians 13:6), they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). We’ve come to expect such thinking from secular institutions like Harvard, but sadly, this same form of thinking has infiltrated many Christian colleges today.

I encourage you to get our book, Already Compromised, to learn more about the compromise in American Christian colleges today. Also if you’re a student preparing for college (or parent of one!) and want to explore colleges and universities that affirm AiG’s Statement of Faith please attend our College Expo and Conference November 11–12 at the Creation Museum.

Keep fighting the good fight of faith!