Pious Lutheran

The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers , Peter von Cornelius, 1816 Being Merciful Joseph’s backstory and him showing mercy to his brothers after receiving evil from them Jesus shows mercy to us after receiving evil from us We are to be humbly merciful towards those who do us evil “ Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. ” That’s really hard to do. It is very difficult to get along with other people. To be fair, it’s really tough for others to get along with us. We can all be quite insensitive, rude, obnoxious, prideful, foolish, malicious, vengeful, antagonistic, and sometimes downright wicked to each other. Yet, in spite of the fact that sometimes we want to strangle somebody or slug them in the face, Jesus tells us to be merciful, even if they deserve a punch in the gut.  Old Testament Joseph is a good example of showing mercy to those who deserved no mercy. His brothers said to themselves: “ It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to

The Parable of the Prodigal Son , Frans Francken the Younger, 1633 God receives repentant sinners The lost truly are lost Sinners are found / received back through repentance We rejoice with the angels over even one sinner who repents It is claimed by our adversaries that conservative, biblical, traditional Christians, such as us, don’t care for the lost and the sinner. Because we strictly hold to the word of God and we believe the Bible is correct about what is sin and what is good, we are accused of being unloving and hateful. We are accused of being like the Pharisees who grumble about Jesus receiving sinners and eating with them. These accusations are wildly incorrect, since we rejoice that God receives sinners and eats with them. But in order to refute these accusations against us, let’s explore why we believe that God receives repentant sinners. First off, it’s important to understand that the lost truly are lost, sinners really are actually sinners. Isaiah says “ All we like she

The Great Banquet, Brunswick Monogrammist, between 1525-1545 Come, for everything is now ready Jesus is present now We fear the Lord now His gifts are ready now There are a plethora of disasters which could strike in our lives and cause us much fear. However, most healthy individuals don’t live in a constant state of fear of all of the bad things which could potentially happen. Rather, we usually just fear those dangers which are present and imminent. For example, we don’t run and hide in the basement every time a cloud passes overhead, but we do run in fear to the basement when there is a known tornado coming our way. With that in mind, what are the things that you fear? Hopefully, you are wise and on the top of your list is God. “ For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. ” Because the Lord is present now, and we would be wise to live with that mindset. The foolishness which many fall into is to believe that Jesus is not present now. It’s that foolishness which Jesus resp

Parable of the Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus , Codex Aureus Epternacensis, circa 1035-1040 The Inner Wealth of Faith The true contrast between Dives and Lazarus Righteousness by faith The eternal misery of hell and the eternal comfort of heaven Things are not always as they appear. This is especially true when it comes to people. The life lived publicly may not accurately represent the life lived privately. This is especially noticeable when there are great scandals. The successful coach or teacher goes to jail for doing terrible things to children. The head of a local charity gets caught embezzling funds. The well-loved local celebrity is physically violent at home. Or it goes the other way, too. The rough and loud man is gentle and tender-hearted at home. The guy who had lousy jobs and lived in a dinky house was actually a millionaire and gave away millions to church and charity throughout life. The same is true for the rich man and Lazarus, since their lives lived publicly didn’t