Another Good Quote

Found over on Pastor Weedon's blog . . .

Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems. Throw away the solution and you get the problem back. Sometimes the problem has mutated or disappeared. Often it is still there as strong as it ever was.

~ Donald Kingsbury

This reminds me of something GK Chesterton said about finding seemingly useless fences in fields (and I am greatly paraphrasing here!): there's a reason it's there, or there was. Before you remove it, find out why it was put there in the first place. Only then, once you know the facts, act. 

How rashly we often act today, thinking we know better and so much more than those who have come before us. Pretty prideful and arrogant. We could all use more humility, don't you think?

Two Things . . .

First of all, a picture sent to me by a fellow Athanasian at the recent Convention. This is the pastors helping with the distribution of the Sacrament in the opening service all lined up and waiting for the start of the processional. It's easy to pick me out - just look for the silver hair!

And then also a quote that (I believe) I heard during the convention: "The hardest thing in the world is the human heart."

Good Quote

My Elders and I have been reading through Grace Upon Grace: Spirituality for Today by John Kleinig. I had read this book before, but am enjoying reading it again and discussing it with my Elders. Here's a quote/thought I came across again that I really like, considering the communal aspect of prayer:

In our supplications, we, like Jesus, identify ourselves with others and stand together with them. With Christ we stand in for them by our petitions to God for them in their need. We are to act as if their needs are, in fact, our needs . . . as if their welfare is ours . . . as if their sins are ours . . . [and thank God] as if their blessings are ours. . . . This is an aspect of intercession that has received scant attention in recent times, but it was prominent both in Judaism and the Early Church. They believed that the Church was appointed to serve, together with the angels, as a single choir that voiced thanks and praise to God on behalf of the whole human race.

An Oldie But Goodie . . .

Been a while since I last blogged . . . catching up after vacation . . . trying to get going with my dissertation proposal . . . root canal . . . family and home stuff . . . always lots to do! But anyway, here's an oldie but a goodie for you, as I try to get back to some kind of normal with the ol' blog here!

The flesh is the hinge of salvation. . . . The flesh, then, is washed so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be dedicated to holiness. The flesh is signed so that the soul may be fortified. The flesh is shaded by the imposition of hands so that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ so that the soul too may feed on God. They cannot, then, be separated in their reward, when they are united in their works.

~ Tertullian, Resurrection of the Flesh

Good Quote

"The word of Christ is the testament, the elements the sacrament."

Kenneth Hagen, "From Testament to Covenant in the Early Sixteenth Century" 

in The Word Does Everything (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2016), 84.

"It may well signify, however, that just as this pledge of the promise of Christ is elevated in order that the people may thereby be inspired to faith, so the Word should be preached publicly to the people in order that everyone may hear the testament and see the pledge, and through both be attracted and aroused to faith and strengthened in it."

Martin Luther, "The Misuse of the Mass (1521)" in Luther's Works, Vol. 36: Word and Sacrament II

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 183.

You Can't Know the Father Without Knowing the Son

For those who still think all religions worship the same God . . .

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

~ 1 John 2:23

Great Quote

Read this the other day. Think about it and you'll realize the profundity of it.

The Law always comes at the gift refusal point.

(Bill Cwirla, "In the Way of the Law and the Gospel" in Dona Gratis Donata, 5)

A Good Word from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those working for the gay rights agenda often compare themselves to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights battles of the 60's and 70's. So to them, I offer this quote from the man himself:

Who you would change you must first love.

If you really are following in the footsteps of this man, then would you be forcing businesses to close, jailing those who disagree with you, and hatefully shouting down anyone who may voice another opinion? What you are doing may be advancing your cause, but it is not helpful to our culture, our society, or ultimately to yourselves.

I'm not saying that persons on the other side of this debate, including many Christians, are always loving. We don't get a pass either, and if the only Christians you know are from Westboro Baptist, I don't blame you for hating all Christians. But we're not all like that, you know.

So maybe we should spend some time talking to each other, rather than just at each other. Maybe we should try to understand the other side before calling them haters, bigots, racists, homophobes, or worse. Maybe we should try to love our neighbor, for after all, there was someone who said that long before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

And one of them, a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

~ Matthew 22:35-40

Maybe we should give it a try. And maybe then, we'll find out something about love, too.

Good Quote

Adam and Eve tried to separate God's Word from the tree. God saves them and the world by making sure His Word is stuck to the tree.

~ Rev. Mark Beutow, Higher Things devotion

Rebuke the Evil Foe, O Christ!

O Lord, Who lovest good and art a God of mercy and compassion! Save me from the terrible corrupt enemy, who hourly fetters and persecutes my soul with evil and corrupt thoughts.

Ineffable is Thy strength, O Christ, for it rebuked the waves of the sea. May it rebuke him, may it render him ineffectual, and may it banish him far from me Thy servant.

Every day he renews his treachery against me and he hastens to take possession of my crippled mind and to distance me from Thee and from Thy divine commandments.

But, O Master, O most merciful Lord, quickly send Thy strength and chase from me, Thy worthless servant, this mighty serpent with all of his cunning and shameful thoughts, that I might in purity praise Thee with Thine eternal Father and Thine all-holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

~ Ephrem the Syrian

Good Quote

I've started reading Dr. Gene Veith and Mary Moerbe's new book entitled "Family Vocation: God's Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood," and came across this good quote:

"The doctrine of vocation falls under the theological category of "the priesthood of all believers." Contrary to the common perception, this does not mean that all believers get to be pastors or that we don't really need pastors. It means rather that we do not have to be pastors." (Emphasis mine)