March 4 “Bane
and Blessing, Pain and Pleasure by the Cross Are Sanctified”
(Lutheran
Service Book 427, 4)
In the 1800’s C.F.W.
Walther, the first president of the LCMS, taught future pastors, “In your sermons you
like to treat subjects like these: “The blessed state of a Christian,” and the
like. Well, do not forget that the
blessedness of Christians does not consist in pleasant feelings, but in their
assurance that in spite of the bitterest feelings imaginable they are accepted
with God and in their dying hour will be received into heaven. That is indeed great blessedness.”
CTRL: Control your
emotions. ALT: Get alternate priorities from the Word of God. DEL: Let the
Spirit delete regret through repentance.
Walther again: “It is proper that in
your sermons you depict the happy moments which occasionally come to Christians
when they are given a foretaste of their future bliss. If the description of
such moments of bliss is given in a proper manner, it produces neither anguish
and grief nor doubt regarding one’s being in the faith, but a heartfelt longing
for an experience such as the preacher is describing” (Law and Gospel, 312)
CTRL+ALT+DEL: Lord, through
faith in Jesus let me rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with
glory. Amen. (1 Peter 1:8)
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