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Thanks to Elizabeth Evans, and youtube.
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Filed under: Politics and future theologians | Leave a comment »
If Christians around the world could just believe this one overarching truth, there would be another Reformation
Posted on October 29, 2012 by theoldadam
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“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.“
– John 8
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Ask most Americans what they value most and the response will probably be ‘freedom’. Ask them to define freedom and the answers will have something to do with being able to do as we please. Interestingly, the founders of this country defined freedom as being able to do as we ought, not necessarily as we please.
Freedom is actually defined by its choices as reflected in this classic definition;
“Freedom is the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.”
The implications are obvious. Authentic freedom only belongs to those who always and in every thought, word, and deed choose the right and the good. A simple inventory of our own life’s timeline of thoughts, words and deeds, will reveal that we are anything but free. For our choices of thoughts, words, and deeds often reflect not the absence but the presence of “necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” And that which is present in us driving these things is sin.
We don’t like hearing this of course. ‘What do you mean I’m not free? Of course I am! I have free will, don’t I?” Actually, there is a no better witness against us than our so-called free will. It is our ample backlog of free willed thoughts, words and deeds that contain the record of the countless ways we have chosen the bad instead of the good. This is the truth. And unless we know and hear the truth about ourselves, we will continue to live the lie, calling bondage freedom. But the implications are even more serious.
True freedom belongs belongs to God alone. Only God is free because only God’s willing always, and in every sense results in the good. This why to claim freedom for yourself – including free will – is, in fact, blasphemy against God. For such a claim shows contempt for God , wittingly or not, by claiming for yourself something that belongs to God alone.
Jesus was speaking to a fundamental truth; if you sin you are slave to sin. You are not free. And because of sin we have no permanent place with God. For the wages of sin is death. But to this ominous and sobering reality our Lord added an even greater truth; “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
In Jesus God has done some free will choosing of His own. And God’s choosing is not polluted with the taint of self interest. Out His great love for us – we who are bound in our free-will pretensions – He has chosen to extend grace and mercy.
The ringing note of this glorious grace so struck the Apostle Paul that he could sum up the whole Christian life in one, simple declaration, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” This is the authentic paradigm of the Christian life and faith. For we are not the free ones who simply misuse our freedom, and must be coerced into choosing rightly. We are the bound ones, enslaved in sin, who must be set free, and have been, “by The Man of God’s own choosing”, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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– Pastor Mark Anderson
>>>>>>>>>>> Lutheran Church of the Master Corona del Mar, CA
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From Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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Filed under: "For Freedom Christ has set us free", Free will, Freedom, Pastor Mark Anderson | 5 Comments »
The Reformation. Looks like not too much stuck.
Posted on October 27, 2012 by theoldadam
It’s been almost 500 years since Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany .
They were huge, earth- shattering ideas then.
But if you look around at the Protestant landscape in America today, it seems as if that great event (period) in the history of the world never happened.
I visit many Christian blog sites and I find scant freedom from the religious, spiritual ladder-climbing projects that Luther railed against. ‘ A little bit of me, and a lot of God’ is still the overwhelming mindset that inhabits the church in America, if not the world. Not to say that there are not churches and pastors and preachers that have heard the pure gospel and the freedom found within that liberating Word of truth and promise. They are there. Few and far between. But they do exist.
But most churches cannot help themselves when it comes to adding onto Christ and His pure gospel. ”You gotta have a Pope’. ‘You gotta make a decision’. ‘You gotta show you are serious’. ‘You gotta show some fruits.’ ‘You gotta have an inerrant Bible (text).’ ‘You gotta do this, you can’t do that.’
Well, we say no. All ‘you gotta have is Christ Jesus who forgives your sin’.
We stand with Luther, who stood with Paul (and others), who believed that Christ, alone, is enough. He is enough.
The first one on Luther’s list of 95 grievances was this; #1 “The entire life of the Christian is one of repentance.” So much for our religious projects.
Maybe we’ll get it right during the next 500 years. But I don’t see many signs of that happening. But with God, and His Word alone, all things are possible.
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Filed under: The Reformation | 8 Comments »
The Sacrament IS the Gospel.
Posted on October 22, 2012 by theoldadam
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Why we believe this is so, and why we believe that the “enthusiasts” (those who say it’s merely a symbol) are wrong.
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Listen to > The bread and the wine ARE the Gospel
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and latteontheroad, for the photo.
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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon, Why the real presence is the correct understanding of the Lord's Supper | Leave a comment »
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Posted on October 15, 2012 by theoldadam
This is really THE QUESTION… isn’t it?
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This is what all the God seekers want to know, and Jesus answers the question of the rich young man in no uncertain terms.
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Listen in to Pastor Mark’s sermon as he gives you his take on Jesus’ answer and what it means for you in your quest to attain eternal life:
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Click > “What do I need to do to attain eternal life?”
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and practicalowl, for the photo.
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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon, What must I do to inherit eternal life? | Leave a comment »
“When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”
Posted on October 12, 2012 by theoldadam
From Pastor Mark’s blog http://www.lightofthemaster.net/apps/blog/t
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by Pastor Mark Anderson
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From time to time I flip through the television channels to watch various T.V. preachers, just to see what they’re up to. Not long ago I came across a woman who was speaking to a packed auditorium of several thousand people. I listened in for a few minutes and the message was clear; if you expect anything from God, if you want success, you had better get your life in order.
It didn’t seem to occur to the preacher that these folks had spent the last week doing just that in any number of ways, mostly with limited or no success, and that some relief might be in order. It’s hard to understand why she would simply remind them of their wounds and then put the verbal whip on them to try harder. It’s also hard to understand why people would return week after week and subject themselves to reminders, couched in omnipotent terms, of their inadequacy. Well, actually, it’s not hard to understand at all.
Preying on people’s fears, inadequacies and brokenness works. And it works precisely because we are so terribly vulnerable in this life. Once we get our wits about us in this world it becomes quite obvious that to get along we have to be good for something. We must demonstrate our value in tangible ways. Some are more or less up to the challenge, some fail miserably, and most people wobble along in fits and starts anxious for security, looking for shelter from the storm. They are suckers for bootstraps religion. Nothing else in life is free, why should God be free?
Well, based on the generally lackluster performance most of us produce in this life I can fully appreciate the question. I’ve asked it myself. And the answer, surprisingly enough, has been given by God Himself.
“When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.“
We call that the Good News. It is what I was hoping the T.V. preacher would get around to but she never did. So, here, in an unvarnished quote from that late purveyor of God’s glorious grace, Gerhard Forde, is the word of irrepressible freedom delivered to you this day; it is a word of pure gift.
“We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ the confessional answer is shocking: ‘Nothing! Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!’”
(Gerhard O. Forde, Justification by Faith (Philadelphia, 1983), page 22.)
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Isn’t it great? There is nothing left to do. Christ Jesus has done it all! Let go of your bootstraps, sit back, relax and take a deep breath of the free air. The Son has set you free!
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Filed under: Freedom, Gerhard Forde, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 4 Comments »
How do we know that we are really hearing God’s Word?
Posted on October 9, 2012 by theoldadam
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There are a lot of versions of God’s Word going on out there.
Listen in to Pastor Mark as he not only explains it, but also as he proclaims it, so that God’s Word is actually done to us:
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click> How do we know we are really hearing God’s Word?
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and aash.stpl, for the photo.
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Filed under: How do you know that you are really hearing God's Word?, Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon | 6 Comments »
“I believe in the Holy Spirit…”
Posted on October 8, 2012 by theoldadam
From Pastor Mark’s blog:
http://www.lightofthemaster.net/apps/blog
I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.
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For centuries all kinds of efforts have been made to intellectually storm the castle of the Holy Spirit. What happens? We run up against the limits of logic, fall into the dreams and speculations of Gnosticism or throw up our hands in derision and mockery. But to confess faith in the Holy Spirit, as the Bible bears witness, does not bring us into the vague realm of the ‘spiritual’ but to the mystery of the revealed trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To put a finer point on it, to confess the trinitarian God is to confess that this God is for me and with me. This would seem indulgent and prideful were not for the fact that Holy Scriptures really allow us no other principle of understanding.
Christians speak of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We believe the Spirit is given in baptism. The Holy Spirit is not God in a different appearance, a different aspect of God, an alternate mode of appearing. What we are really saying is that the indivisible God is within us, is given to us.
Two points here are worth exploring. First, since the Holy Spirit is within us it is difficult to distinguish the presence of the Spirit from ourselves. I still experience myself as the principal subject. From here it is an easy step to interpret my thoughts, words and actions as those of the Holy Spirit. It is what lead Martin Luther to say of the radical reformers of the 16th century, “They have swallowed the Holy Spirit feathers and all!” The radicals believed that the Spirit was in them but they could not experience God as Someone apart from them.
This brings me to my second point. Does God want us to experience Him or encounter Him? It may seem like an odd question but bear with me. The experience of the inner life and its’ emotions may be interpreted wildly and often are. If I equate the Holy Spirit with these feelings, emotions, etc. I collapse God utterly into myself and anything goes.
But when I encounter the Spirit through Christ I am drawn outward to the Word and the sacraments and to the neighbor as events, promises of God outside myself that I may rely upon and live for. Then the presence of the Spirit, which the Word and the sacraments guarantee and bring on God’s terms, become indistinguishable from faith’s power. And that power, which is really just another way saying God’s power, turns us back into life so that we encounter the ordinary business of living for its’ own sake and not as the occasion for experiencing the God who, for now, is hidden from us.
“May the peace of Christ that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Tomorrow: “The holy catholic (christian) church, The communion of saints…”
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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson's blog, The Apostle's Creed, The Holy Spirit | Leave a comment »
An extremely hard word to speak, and to hear.
Posted on October 1, 2012 by theoldadam
This one is tough. Very tough. But Jesus spoke this word to us, and we must not be afraid to hear it, or speak it to others.
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Listen to > An extremely hard word to speak and to hear.
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and Mig Bardsley, for the photo.
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Filed under: A Hard Word, Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon | Leave a comment »
The Old Adam Lives! 