Author: Higher Things

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Current Events

Trust in The Lord and Rely Not on Your Own Understanding

 

By Katelyn Hunt

With all of these natural disasters happening it simply seems fitting to talk about how God reveals himself in these tough times. We all want to talk about how bad the (insert natural disaster here) was, and simultaneously put on a brave face for everyone. A few weeks pass and we come to the sobering realization of what has happened and the only questions left are, “Why me?”, and, “Why would God do this?”

There is sin everywhere. It seems as though it is swallowing the world whole. But, when God says he’ll take away sin, he doesn’t say the sin of human beings and that’s it. He says he will take away the sin of the world. These wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes are a consequence of the power of sin. Devastation is a consequence of the power of sin. Why is this important to remember? Because when we ask, “Why me?”, the devil is winning. He has distracted us from the truth of God and uses these disasters to push God into our coat closet until we have time for him again.

The Holy spirit won’t let Satan win though. For as many people that are shoving God aside, there are ones that are sent out to spread the Gospel. Christ Jesus takes these devil-tempting events and uses us as his instruments to spread the Word of God. Sin may seem to be swallowing the world whole, but not forever. So when we ask, “Why me?”, remember that we sin every day and we are daily and abundantly forgiven. Instead of pushing God to the side during those times of crisis and temptation, turn to him and depend on the Holy Spirit to bring hope and comfort through the Gospel and his gifts to those who are suffering.

In the midst of so much change, there is something that should stay constant. For example, I was sitting in bible class the week after Harvey hit and my Pastor said “I got a call today and someone asked ‘what are we going to do now?’ and I simply said, ‘the same thing we always do.’” This really opened my eyes and taught me something I didn’t know I didn’t know. Many churches in the area were closing up or changing all of their service times because of the disaster, but we don’t need to change. We are simply sharing the Word of God about Savior Jesus and his gifts that is published in the Scriptures and there is nothing stronger and more comforting than that.

So instead of thinking about what we are doing, how we are doing, or why we are going through everything, be still and wait on the Holy Spirit to do his thing, and work through us to reveal Christ Jesus to those whose faith is weak, and those who don’t believe.

Katelyn Hunt studies journalism at Sam Houston State University.

Categories
Lectionary Meditations

“Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” – A Meditation on Luke 7:14

By Rev. Eric Brown

“Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” – Luke 7:14

There are lots of different ways to think of or to describe what Jesus came to do. However, this text in Luke 7 gives us one of the most simple and beautiful ones imaginable. Jesus came to stop death in its tracks.

You have two crowds, two parades barge into each other. Jesus has a crowd following Him, but as He comes to a town called Nain, there’s another crowd. A funeral crowd. A widow has lost her only son, and that crowd is mournfully heading out to bury him. It’s really a depiction of a battle, of two armies crashing together: Christ versus death.

And what does Jesus do, how does He stop death? Jesus walks up and He touches the bier, the thing the body was carried upon. First of all, this wasn’t done. If you were a good Jewish boy you didn’t want to touch a dead body, and you certainly didn’t put your hands on the bier. But what does Jesus do? God become Man takes His Hand, His Body, and sticks it right up in death’s face, stops death cold. And then He speaks a Word, and the dead man hears and rises alive.

This is why Jesus became Man in the first place. Jesus came to stop death in its tracks not just one day outside of Nain, but for good when He was nailed to the wood of the Cross. Jesus rushed headlong into death itself with His own death, and He destroyed death from the inside. He rose on the third day, and thus when He comes again He will say to every single last one of us, even if we have long since died, “I say to you, arise.” And you will. Because Jesus stops death, and in its place gives life.

We often see the power of sin or death at play in this world. We see all sorts of things that are just flat out wrong, and we get caught up and battered by it all. But Jesus does not let them stand. He will put and end to them all, no matter how they have hurt and wronged you, and instead He will give you life. That is His gracious promise He made to you at your baptism, the gift He freely gives you.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

Categories
Gospeled Boldly

Children of the Heavenly Father – Gospeled Boldly #60

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In this solo one-shot, Pastor Eric Brown shares some stories from his own life as he talks about the vocation of being a student, in the context of the Greatest Commandment.

If you have questions you’d like answered send them via our Contact Page or post them on The Gospeled Boldly Facebook page.

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Categories
The Black Cloister

Episode 1 – Troubled Consciences

What’s The Black Cloister all about? What’s theology all about? Theology isn’t meaningless categories and distinctions that’s only for pastors or seminary professors. Theology is learning to speak what God speaks. Theology is all about troubled consciences. Christian Theology is all delivering the comfort of the Gospel to people with troubled consciences. Listen in as Pastors Hull and Fenker take up this topic.

Categories
Catechesis

Why Should We Sing?

By Monica Berndt

Since the beginning of the Reformation, the Lutheran Church around the world has consistently allotted a portion of time during the Divine Service to the singing of hymns. Why? What is the reason for singing hymns as a congregation instead of letting a choir sing all the music, or why not just take hymns out altogether? After all, people can be self-conscience about singing in public, and, it takes time out of the service where we should be listening to a pastor speak the Word of God, right? Hymns do take up a large portion of our services, and we should understand why it is good for us to sing them.

When most of you were in grade school, you had to memorize the 50 U.S states and/or the names of all the U.S Presidents. To help you, your teachers probably had you memorize a song that included these names which you could sing with a CD, and have running through your head during the day. This helped you easily remember all the information the teacher wanted you to memorize by singing that song. Combining words with music helps our brains remember important facts and information better than just reciting them, which is why schools use music to teach us the presidents, and VBS and Sunday School use tunes to help us memorize Bible passages. But learning information this way is not just a tool for children, it is also one of the reasons we sing hymns.

Hymns are not just praise songs. Like the rest of the Divine Service, hymns remind us about Jesus, the redemption He won for us on the cross, and the gifts He continues to give us. Before church, look at the words to the hymns you will sing. Almost all of them will mention something about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to create faith. Communion hymns tend to talk about the forgiveness of sins given to us in the Lord’s Supper. Hymns sung at during a baptism not only speak of the baptism taking place that day, but also remind all of us of our own baptisms and the assurance of forgiveness we received there. Hymns sung before the sermon have words that tie into the points your pastors want to emphasize during their sermons. Hymns always tie into what is said during the Divine Service and point us to Christ.

In this capacity, hymns are a bit like memory songs for the church. Many people have difficulty remembering long Bible passages and parts of the catechism, but most people can sing their favorite hymn from memory. They can then quote those hymns, recalling all the promises of Jesus who died and rose for them. The more often you sing a hymn in church, the more likely you are to remember it outside of church where you can sing it at home or while you go about your daily tasks. This will remind you of the words and works of God that are spoken every Sunday during the rest of the service. So why should we sing hymns? Because they help us remember what Jesus has done for us!

Monica Berndt is a member at Messiah Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA and serves as the music director there. She is studying music and history at the University of Washington and loves to talk about Medieval History and why she loves hymnals. She can be reached at acinomtdnreb@gmail.com.

Categories
Lectionary Meditations

“No one can serve two masters… therefore I tell you.” A Meditation on Matthew 6:24

By Rev. Eric Brown

“No one can serve two masters… therefore I tell you.” (Matthew 6:24)

The idea that we cannot serve both God and Money is a favorite one of decision preachers. The fellow will stand up there are draw a line – which are you going to choose: God or Money? He might even demand that you put extra money in the offering plate just to show how much you have chosen God.

I suppose there is a bit of truth there; it is good to give an offering, to give money away. It does help keep money from being an idol; you don’t give an idol away. But it misses the point of what Jesus is talking about here and through the rest of the text. This is not a call to make a personal decision. Jesus doesn’t go on to tell us to choose to live like lilies of the field or birds of the air.

Here’s the hinge. You can’t have two masters. You can only have one master. There can be only One whom you listen to, and Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you.” Jesus is the One telling you how things are and how they are going to be. See what that means? Jesus isn’t asking you to vote for God; Jesus is just flat out telling you that He is your Master.

And that’s a good thing. He’s a good Master. He will provide for you. Oh, there will be troubles and hardships and worries, but He will see you through them. Maybe not always in an incredibly comfortable way, but your Master Christ Jesus excels at seeing you through things. He will provide for you all your days. And even when that day comes, when the troubles or hardships of life do their worst, even when the day comes and you die – your Master Jesus will keep on seeing you through things. He will raise you from the dead and bring you to the life everlasting.

You have a master. His name is Jesus, and He gives you everything – even His own life. He is devoted to you and loves you greatly, and He will bless and preserve you not only all your days, but forever and throughout eternity. 

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

Categories
Lectionary Meditations

“Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” A Meditation on Luke 17:19

By Rev. Eric Brown

“Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” (Luke 17:19)

I feel bad for how we treat the other nine lepers. Ten lepers get healed, but only one comes back to praising God and thanking Jesus, and from there we have gotten thousands of finger wagging sermons telling us to be more thankful like the good leper. But here’s the thing we forget. Jesus told them to go to the priest, and they are walking to the priests, and only then are they healed. All ten of them hear Jesus tell them to go, and they went, even BEFORE they were healed. That’s pretty cool. 

But in the midst of all the excitement upon seeing their healing, a healing that takes place then Jesus is off behind them and all their families and loved ones are in front of them, only one thinks to turn back and praise God. And so often we want to categorize the lepers, but the 9 in the bad column and the 1 in the good, but that misses the point. It’s not about whether the lepers are good or bad, the point is how good Jesus is.

The one comes back to Jesus, and he praises God. And Jesus notes that there’s just one – but then He shrugs and looks at the fellow there and says, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” Rise, stand, go off and enjoy this blessing – because I, Christ Jesus, the One you have faith in, have saved you. And I delight in giving you blessings.

The Leper went to Church. He was gathered to the presence of Christ, and in the midst of his praises, the leper heard the Word of Jesus proclaimed. Life and salvation were given – not just healing of a disease for a lifetime, but salvation unto everlasting life.

God gives blessings. It’s what He delights in doing. And if when you go to Church, you aren’t earning more earthly blessings or what have you. Rather this – when you come into God’s presence, when you hear His Word, receive His Supper, you are given forgiveness and life and salvation over and over again. You are made to understand just how great a giver Jesus. You can’t earn more – Jesus has done it all already for you. And we hear that, and then we rise and go and enjoy the blessings He gives in this life, even until the day Jesus returns and we are raised to life everlasting. This is Jesus’ great love for you.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

Categories
Gospeled Boldly

Everybody Must Get Stoned – Gospeled Boldly #59

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Hey buddy—wanna buy a Pastorate? In this episode Pastor Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke read of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, which kicks off the Christian diaspora as the message of the Gospel is carried to all the surrounding nations. Phillip finds himself preaching to the Samaritans, but one of them seeks to use the Gospel for personal gain.

Speaking of personal gain: in the Backwards Life segment, Pastor Brown talks about the idea of giving money to televangelists.

If you have questions you’d like answered send them via our Contact Page or post them on The Gospeled Boldly Facebook page.

Please rate and review our show on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gospeled-boldly/id1037609133?mt=2

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Categories
Catechesis

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Being Instructed by the Ten Commandments

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

The LORD God gives us the gift of a tongue. With a tongue, we can speak, talking with God and with each other. With the tongue, we are given to bless God and one another. As baptized children of God, we are called to use our tongue for good. We use it properly when we use it to speak the truth. As the Lord puts His Word in our mouths and upon our lips, we are being instructed in the use of our tongues for the benefit of others. The Holy Spirit teaches us, “The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice” (Psalm 37:30).

Christ is the Wisdom of God, and His Word make us wise. He teaches us to speak up for those who do not have a voice. He call us to give true testimony about our littlest neighbors in the womb (the unborn babies who cannot speak for themselves). We are learning to pray on behalf of others. We are learning to explain the words and actions of others in the kindest way. We are learning to defend others. We are learning to speak well of others who are not present to speak for themselves.

But we are tempted to transgress with the tongue. The evil spirits seduce and trick us to use our tongues for falsehood and foolishness. The devil deceives and entices us to “tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation” (Small Catechism, The Eighth Commandment). Satan is the father of lies. It is his nature to speak lies to us, betray us, slander us, and hurt our reputations. He wants us to be like him, dwelling in darkness and deception. His desire is to lead us to speak with the tongue of a serpent and mislead others. As he accuses us of sin, he trains us to accuse others of sin. The old evil foe would like us to give false testimony against our neighbor. In fact, the devil convinced the chief priests and the religious leaders to look for people who would give false testimony against Jesus. Why? They wanted to stop Jesus from speaking the truth. They desired to judge Jesus, condemn Him, and kill Him.

The Apostle Peter describes the false testimony against Jesus in this way: “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:23–24). With these words, we see two things.

First, we see Jesus as the example of the perfect man who was not overcome by the temptation to transgress with his tongue. He was like a mute man who did not open His mouth to quarrel with those who rebuked Him. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth….and there was no deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7, 9).

Second, we see Jesus as the silent sacrificial lamb. He is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins (John 1:29). He bears our sins in His body, including the sins committed and omitted by our tongues. By His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). We are beginning to die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).

But in our day to day lives the tongue is not easy to tame. We have teeth to trap the tongue and lips to seal our mouths, but the tongue still manages to escape. We need Jesus to speak up for us. Through the Gospel, we are assured that He is our Advocate with the Father. As the resurrected and ascended Lord, Jesus continues to use His tongue for our good. He is the High Priest who blesses us before the Father. He makes intercession for transgressors. He defends us, speaks well of us, and explains everything in the kindest way.

He also pours out His Spirit upon us as we hear His voice in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit enlightens us to pray: “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit” (Psalm 34:13). The Holy Spirit even teaches us by giving our tongues this prayer: “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3). He also teaches: “I said, ‘I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle’” (Psalm 39:1).

We are learning to bite our lips and resist the temptation to transgress with our tongues. The Holy Spirit calls and guides us to use our tongues to confess our sins and proclaim the praise of Christ our Savior. Through the power of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is renewing us and restoring us into the image of Christ, the perfect man who uses His tongue for the benefit of others.

We pray.

Father, You have given us the gift of our tongues. Keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking deceit. Keep watch over the door of our lips and set a guard over our mouths. Put Your Word in our mouths that our tongues may declare Your praise; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Rev. Brian L. Kachelmeier serves as pastor at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, Los Alamos, NM

Categories
What Does This Mean?

Propitiation – What Does This Mean? #8

Questions or Comments? Contact Pr. Hull via our Contact Page or through Facebook.