Pious Lutheran

Christian Martyrs in Colosseum , Konstantin Flavitsky, 1862 Remembering the promises to keep us from falling away The difficulty of faithfulness over time The Spirit who helps us by reminding us of the promises Training for hardship Rejoicing in persecution It’s easy to be a mother for just a few seconds. It’s easy enough to change a few diapers or cook a couple meals for one day. It’s easy enough to be a babysitter and only be responsible for a child for a couple of hours while the kids sleep or watch tv. But the glory of motherhood is that moms take care of their children all day, every day, for years. They don’t quit when the kids are sick and so are they; they don’t quit feeding their kids when they’re tired of cooking; they don’t quit teaching their kids even when the kids seem to never get the message; they don’t quit loving their children even when the kids throw a massive temper tantrum in the most public places. Mother’s don’t quit when it’s hard, and that is why we honor them...

Persecution of Christians,  J. Wierix, 1532-1603 To keep us from falling away Persecution for being faithful may tempt us to apostatize Jesus warns us so that we can prepare Jesus strengthens us by sending the Holy Spirit Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Last Sunday we heard in the sermon that theology has consequences, and many of these consequences are fantastic! Chiefly, the consequence of theology is our redemption, our salvation from sin and death to life eternal through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Consequently we are no longer dead in our tresspasses, but we are alive in Christ; we are free to live good lives. We aren’t doomed to dwell in our past errors and sins, instead each day is a new day and we are given a fresh start to make this a good day. God’s word shapes us and forms us in the likeness of Jesus, so that our every thought and action is taken captive to obey Christ, and thus our lives are made good when we live in Christ’s light. The vas...

Reading the Bible , Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1755 Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Hurry up and wait. It’s a pretty apt phrase for our modern society. We’re always in a hurry, but we also spend a lot of time waiting. We speed down the road to wait at a stoplight; we hurry to the restaurant to wait for our food; we hurry to the doctor’s office to sit in the waiting room. The church is also busy waiting. This Sunday has been referred to from ancient times as “waiting Sunday.” The Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost, the apostles waited in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. The church continues to wait for the return of our Lord Jesus, and He can’t come soon enough. During this time, in order to give us courage and patience, the waiting church makes use of the Spirit’s gifts by remembering Jesus’ words and speaking them. See, we’re not waiting for the Holy Spirit anymore, instead we’ve already received the Spirit and His gifts. Ezekiel prophesied: “ I w...

  "The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer," Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1824-1904 Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Early on in the nation of Israel, after God had brought His people out of bondage in Egypt, He established laws among them. Rather than setting over them an earthly king, He was their King who had written their laws and provided for their needs. On earth the Lord had established judges who would judge the people on the basis of His laws.  However, the Israelites didn’t like that they didn’t have an earthly king like all of the Gentile nations. They didn’t like being different from everybody else. So they said “ appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations. ” The Israelites didn’t like being different, they didn’t like that God had set them apart and established holiness laws, distinguishing the Israelites. What the Israelites wanted was conformity with this world. This conformity is what many people want; it’s a human characteristic to wan...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Forrest Gump’s momma always said that life is like a box of chocolates, because you never know what you’re gonna get. She’d be right if chocolates weren’t just filled with sugary sweets, but some were filled with rocks or dog poop or poison. Because in the course of life, while eating the proverbial box of chocolates, you’re not merely faced with a myriad of sweet experiences, but you often also take a bite out of something rather bitter and painful. It’s apparent to most anyone that this life is filled with many a fiery trial, for this reason Christ has sent us the Holy Spirit as our comforter. Before we dive-in to speaking about the Holy Spirit’s comfort, it behooves us to say a little something about who this Holy Spirit is. Christ said: “ When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ” When Christ says that the Spirit proceeds ...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! “ I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. ” In our lessons today Jesus gives us a warning in order to prepare us for this age that we live in today. Christ warns us of this present hour to keep us from apostasy, to keep us from falling away from the faith.  The cold hard truth is that the world is changing today, there’s no doubt about it. It’s long been noticed that church attendance in Europe is staggeringly low, with about 10% of the populace attending church each week. Here in the US it’s hardly any better and rapidly becoming worse, with about 22% of the population attending church services weekly. Many have fallen away in the past three decades.  Moreover, among America’s youngest adults, 35% of them have absolutely no religious affiliation. Of the 65% that do have a religious affiliation, only a small minority absolutely believe God exists. For well over a thousand years the world...