Meditation on the 3rd Commandment

You shall keep the day of rest holy

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

How does one honor the day of rest?  If it is a day of rest, it must mean that we should cease to work on that day right.  We should take time to stop our busy and hectic lives to enjoy life a little more, to spend more time with family and friends and to enjoy “me” time.

While rest is a necessary part of our workaholic lives and rest serves a valuable purpose in rejuvenating our work ethics and our motivation…it is not what the commandment is talking about.  Certainly Jesus rested from his work of preaching and teaching at times, because as a human He also needed time to recuperate…so God is not saying that it is wrong to rest.  The Third Commandment speaks of another kind of rest.

The ultimate reason for a day of rest is so that we, as the people of God may have the time and opportunity  to participate in public worship, that we may assemble to hear and discuss God’s Word and then praise God with prayer and song, by proclaiming to each other, what Jesus has done for us.  For Christians, Sunday has been the day appointed upon which we may gather together and keep it holy.

The day, in and of itself, is not holy.  It is holy because of what is customarily done on that day.  It is the setting aside the mundane tasks of this life and gathering or assembling around God’s Word so that we may be fed and refreshed by it.  Yet it is not just Sunday that should serve as a day of rest, but every day.  Every day the Christian should go about his business with God’s Word in his heart and upon his lips.  On Sunday, when the Christian gathers for worship, he focuses on the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer…so that every day of the week the Christian’s life may be regulated by God’s Word.

We can never have enough of God’s Word.  Even if the Christian thinks he knows the Word of God, he will never know it well enough.  Where the heart stands idle and the Word of God is not heard, the devil breaks in and does his damage before the Christian can realize it.  The Devil, the world, and the flesh is at work trying to pull us away from the Word of God.  The Word is the only defense we have against them.  They are always trying to get us to forsake God’s Word, but as long as we keep God’s word sacred in our hearts, by daily learning and applying it…the Devil cannot win, God’s Word will defeat him.

The Christian will never regret spending time in God’s Word.  “It always awakens new understanding, new pleasures, and a new spirit of devotion, and it constantly cleanses the heart and its meditations.”  The word’s of God are not dead and idle words, but effective and living.  Only His words have the power to put the devil to flight…if that was all it did that should be enough.  Yet God’s Word gives us more…it gives us Christ, through whom we have peace with God.  Amen.

Devotional Meditation on the Second Commandment

You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain.

We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, practice witchcraft, lie or deceive by His name, but call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks.

God’s name cannot be more grievously abused than for purposes of falsehood and deceit.  To use God’s name in vain is to use it for useless purposes or more particularly to use it to support falsehood or wrong of any kind.

But how is God’s name used vainly?  How is it used for false pretenses?  It seems easy to understand the obvious implications of this commandment.  Don’t lie while using God’s name, because God will hold you accountable.  I’m not sure if in our everyday conversation when we say, “I swear to God such and such happened” that people even take notice, or actually are drawn to the image of God as witness to our foolish statements.  Nonetheless, God forbids us from using His name foolishly.

More often than not, there are so called pastors of Christian churches that claim, thus says the Lord.  Just because someone adds, God said it, many people often fall pray to trusting in these false prophets.  It is easy to see the decay of the Christian Church over the past hundred years and the ill effects false prophets have had on our society.  Yet, the false teachers can’t get all the blame.  Too often we let the pastor say whatever he wants and we rarely if ever go to the Source, God’s Word, to determine if what he said was correct.  We are just as guilty, for being negligent in our studies, and letting the pastor lead us wherever he feels like.

God instructs us through St. Paul to be prepared, ³ For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. ⁴ They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. When churches begin falling down the slippery slope of false doctrine, there does not seem to be a bottom.  Like a large snowball rolling down a mountain, it continues picking up size as it moves faster and faster towards the bottom (hell).  The only real Guardian we have against false doctrine is God the Holy Spirit, working through His Word.

Just think of the countless number of Christians today who believe there is room in the account of Creation for millions of years.  Pastor’s have swallowed their parishioners inconsistencies and allowed God’s Word to stand along side of bad science.  Evolution cannot be proven…it is a theory.  Yet because it has been promoted as the most reasonable option for so long Christians have fallen pray to an atheistic worldview, that denies the existence of the God declared in Scripture.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for being so earthly minded by swallowing the wisdom of this world and hoping it can coincide with Your Word.  Forgive us for misusing Your Name and treating it as though it really doesn’t matter.  Give us the confidence to live in the forgiveness which Your Son has won for us and protect us from those who desire to silence Your Truth.  Amen.

Devotional Meditation on the First Commandment

You shall have no other gods.

A commandment that we have known since childhood.  It seems so simple, right?  There is only one God and we are to fear, love and trust in him above all things.  We may often forget how easy it is to fail in keeping this commandment.  When we hear it, we are often drawn to those false gods like Buddha and Allah, or maybe the multiplicity of gods included in the Hindu religion.  We easily dismiss thoughts of worshipping gods of that caliber because they often have no real appeal to us.

But if we really dig deeper into what it means to have another god, we may have to re-evaluate how easily we let ourselves off the hook.  In the Large Catechism Luther explains what a God is…A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need.  To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart.  As I have often said, the trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.  If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true God.  On the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you have not the true God.  For these two belong together, faith and God.  That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.

So in whom do you trust.  Do you really and truly rely on God for everything?  We like to think that we do, yet we are constantly drawn to trust in ourselves or the work which we do to earn us some money.  We trust in our car to keep us safe, our insurance to provide in case of an emergency, or even our government to bail us out when things go wrong.  While none of these things are wrong in and of themselves, we see how easy it is to be drawn to trust in them for the blessings which only come from God.

Over the next several months I will take portions from the catechism in order to give us an opportunity to review those teachings which we have learned from scripture regarding the basic teachings of God’s Word.  A review of the Catechism starts with the commandments because it offers to us a needed opportunity to reflect on God’s will for us in our lives.  The law tells us what we are to do and what not to do but it cannot save us.  More often than not, the law simply reveals to us our sinful condition and the inability of mankind to live according to God’s will.

The first commandment directs us to the source of all goodness and mercy.  Only in the one true God can we alone find comfort and joy.  Why?   Because as the psalmist says He forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases, He redeems our lives from destruction.  When God commands allegiance to Him and Him only, it is because if we place our trust in something else…we have no God at all and are doomed to eternal death.  But only in Him can there be full confidence, because God cannot fail.

He did not fail.  He sent His Son as promised and completed the way to make us right again before His eyes.  In the first commandment God intends to tell us: “Whatever good thing you lack, look to me for it and seek it from me.  I am the one who will satisfy you and help you out of every need.  Only let your heart cling to no one else.” 

On Christ's Ascension I Now Build
The hope of mine ascension
this hope alone has ever stilled
all doubt and apprehension;
For where the Head is, there full well
I know His members are to dwell
When Christ shall come and call them.
                            Josua Wegelin, 1636; trans. Willaim Cxamanske, 1938.

Christ was indeed raised from the dead on Easter morning...and forty days later we celebrate His ascension into heaven.  There are many reasons to celebrate Jesus' ascension and they all have to do with the comfort which they afford His people here on earth, when we truly understand what his Ascension means to us.

Christ left us for our good.  As sad as it may seem that Christ visibly left the earth, it was better by far that he return to the father then that he would stay with us.  We often wonder of what it would be like if Jesus were here.  We are like the disciple who stood gazing up into the sky wondering what next.  We act like St. Peter when he told Jesus that he should not be informing the disciple of His coming death...but what did Christ say, he said, "Get behind me Satan, you do not have in mind the things of God, but rather the things of men."  We too are guilty of having in mind the things of men when we long for Jesus visible presence among us.  If he were still on earth, how could he be present with all those who simultaneously gather around his word, how could he rule his church for the benefit of his people, how could he fill all things as St. Paul says in Ephesians.

Christ told us he was going away for our good so that we wouldn't have any preconceived notions about a Christian utopia here on earth.  Jesus did not come to rule Israel like David or Solomon. Rather He came to save us from our selfish ambitions that we have when we question why Christ visibly left us and why he didn't destroy evil in the world.  Jesus ascended into heaven so that he would more appropriately rule like God, instead of like how we would have men rule over us here on this earth.

He left so that he could be present every time Christians gather around his word.  He left so that as our brother and fellow human he would be given power and might far beyond anything we could ever imagine so that as one of us he could rule on our behalf and in our best interest.

He ascended into heaven so that our hearts and our minds would be drawn away from the things of this world and towards Him who rules all things and who went before us to prepare a place for us so that His people might spend eternity in His Father's house.

He also ascended to leave us an image of hope, knowing that we to will ascend into heaven when we die and leave behind this world of sin, sadness, sickness, and sorrow.  He left us a triumphant picture of our ascent into heaven as well, so that this world will be left behind us and we to will join him in heaven.  Our heart rests on Christ's Ascension. Amen.

Join us for our Ascension service on Thursday, May 17 at 6:00 p.m. and let your heart be lifted up in the comfort of Christ's Ascension.

During the last 6 weeks, Peace's Lenten theme has focused on following Jesus to the cross.  The Lenten season culminates in Holy Week and of course the high point is His resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Holy week gives us time to commemorate our Lord's passion as we again hear the account of how our King rode into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey and was hailed by those there.  Hosanna to the Son of David.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Then we hear again the account of how He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Holy week gives us a time to contemplate our sins and what they deserve, but it also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the love that God has for us through His Son Jesus Christ, who took all our bad thoughts, words and actions upon himself and gave us His holy and perfect life in return.  By His suffering and death we are healed.  Please join us for worship this next week as we gather to celebrate Jesus death for us.

Palm Sunday:   8:30 a.m.
Maundy Thursday:   6:00 p.m.
Good Friday:   6:00 p.m.
Easter Sunrise Service:   7:00 a.m.    service will be followed by a potluck breakfast

Peace Lutheran Church will be hosting Lenten services starting on Ash Wednesday, February 22 at 6:00 p.m. and continuing each Wednesday until March 28th.  Then we will have a Maundy Thursday service and a Good Friday service the following week.

Here is the on-line version of the Lutheran Sentinel.  Enjoy

http://www.evangelicallutheransynod.org/our-work/publications/sentinel/2012/feb12.pdf