Pious Lutheran

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins , Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1788-1862 Equipped for the long night of waiting Since Jesus isn’t coming immediately we are called to endure a time of waiting We endure by being equipped with the oil of the Spirit, which is gifts of the Spirit Now all who claim Christ’s name will be saved if they don’t endure But those who endure shall be welcomed into the heavenly marriage feast Homesteading, so to speak, is gaining in popularity in recent years. This isn’t a new phenomenon, since there was a big Back to the Land movement in the 60’s and 70’s, and before that around the years of World War II many Americans were encouraged to produce their own food in order to help with the war efforts. While some folks were successful and continued this lifestyle for decades, many people didn’t make it beyond a year. Moving to the country and producing all or the majority of your food and what you need, subsistence farming, turned out to be harder than what th...

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth , Jennie A. Brownscombe, 1914 It’s All A Gift Everything we have is from the Lord and is the Lord’s It’s right that we would therefore treat it all as a gift Have you ever received a gift you didn’t really care for? What did you do with it? If you have the receipt maybe you returned it, or re-gifted it to someone else, or you just tossed it. But sometimes gifts don’t immediately appear to have value, although they end up having value later on. For instance, that ugly Christmas sweater your mom made you takes on a whole different value after she’s died. Or having to rake your grandpa’s leaves with him seems kinda boring in the moment, and only years later does the grandchild cherish that time spent together. Usually the absence of something teaches us to appreciate what we have or had. Or great poverty or adversity teaches us what is actually important and of value, and what is just vanity of vanities. Being near death is one of those times of great po...

The Fall of Babylon; Cyrus the Great defeating the Chaldean army, John Martin, 1831 Babylon shall fall, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return. Brief explanation of Judah’s history / Isaiah / Babylon / Persia God’s people were to look ahead to the Lord who saves, namely Jesus We continue to look ahead to Jesus, and not be frightened by the evils of this age. I would guess that Isaiah’s contemporary people thought he was nuts. Here he is calling Judah and Jerusalem to repent of their idolatry and wickedness, foretelling that they would be conquered by Babylon, the temple destroyed, and they’d go away into captivity. When asked when this would happen, he said it wasn’t going to take place for a number of years. So when king Hezekiah, the king of Judah, heard that, he thought it was good news, since that meant there would still be peace and security in his own days, even if it meant much sorrow for his descendents. But in 587 BC, Babylon under king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and Je...

The Tribute Money , Alexandre Bida, 1874 Render to God the things that are God’s We care too much about Caesar, who cares very little for us Jesus however, unlike every earthly king, is our King who cares for us Because He cares for us, we’re made in the image of God and imprinted with His name. Therefore, we give God our body and soul. This past Tuesday was an election day. A minor one, since there were just a handful of mostly uncontested local positions, but it was an election day nonetheless. Although a lot of energy is going into next year’s election day, particularly the presidential election. This is understandable since the federal government and their decisions have an impact on us all, ranging from what’s taught in government run schools, inflation,  gas prices, and whether our young men will have to fight and die in foreign wars. So we care an awful lot about our rulers. Part of the reason for this passion about our president also has to do with our sense of patriotism. ...

The Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb , Jan van Eyck, circa 1429 Coming Out of the Great Tribulation We live in the great tribulation The saints who have come out of this great tribulation embolden us for the fight We come out of the great tribulation through the Father’s love Namely, we’re His children through baptism Clothed in Christ’s righteousness “This isn’t really what I pictured.” Have you ever said those words, or thought that way before? Things just aren’t turning out the way that you thought or hoped that they might. Others have disappointed you or not met your expectations. Something, or many things, you worked on ended up being a flop. Sometimes it’s your own failure, other times it’s the result of circumstances out of your control, oftentimes maybe it’s a mixture of the two. Our disappointments might range from work, church, family, or personal; all across the board things don’t always go the way we had hoped. The trouble with living in a constant state of disappoin...