Herrenhuter readings for Tuesday, the 26th February 2013

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

IXHe has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micha 6:8 NIV)

St. Paul writes: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus! (Phi 2:5 NIV)

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Pastoral Care in SELK

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

pastoral careSELK: Kommission für Supervision und Beratung nimmt Arbeit auf

Kassel, 24.2.2013 – selk – Die von der Kirchenleitung der Selbständigen Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche (SELK) eingesetzte „Kommission für Supervision und Beratung“ hat sich kürzlich in Kassel konstituiert. In die Kommission waren zuvor für die Dauer von zunächst drei Jahren die Pfarrer Christian Hildebrandt (Frankfurt/Main), Manfred Holst (Marburg), Robert Mogwitz (Uelzen) und Stefan Paternoster (Korbach) berufen worden. Die Bildung der Kommission ist das Ergebnis eines längeren Beratungsprozesses, nachdem die 12. Kirchensynode 2011 beschlossen hatte, die in der Kirche vorhandenen Konzepte für Supervisionsangebote für Pfarrer zusammenzuführen und weiterzuentwickeln. Der Arbeitsbereich hat seinen Ursprung in den von Krankenhausseelsorger Pfarrer Peter Wroblewski (Guben) dazu entwickelten Konzeptionen. Er ist mit einem 20%igen Anteil in Wroblewskis Funktionsamt berücksichtigt gewesen. Neben den Supervisionsangeboten kamen im Laufe der Jahre Beratungs- und Weiterbildungsangebote für Gemeinden und Pfarrer, Krisenintervention bei Konfliktsituationen in Gemeinden, Seelsorgeangebote und Pastoralkollegs hinzu.

Kirchenleitung und Kollegium der Superintendenten der SELK halten diese Arbeit für die Kirche auch auf dem Hintergrund von steigenden Zahlen von Burnout- und Suchtfällen für unverzichtbar, auch im Sinne von Prophylaxe für Mitarbeitende in einem Beruf mit hoher emotionaler Präsenz und Beanspruchung. Da Wroblewski im Laufe dieses Jahres in den Ruhestand tritt, wurde es erforderlich, diesen Arbeitsbereich neu zu strukturieren. Angesichts der prekären Finanzlage der Kirche sah sich das Leitungsgremium veranlasst, die Aufgaben dieses Arbeitsbereichs nicht mehr hauptamtlich von nur einer Person wahrnehmen zu lassen, sondern hierfür eine vierköpfige Kommission einzusetzen, um über eine breitere Verteilung der Aufgaben die Möglichkeit zu schaffen, dass sie nebenamtlich ausgeübt werden können. Die nunmehr konstituierende Sitzung der „Kommission für Supervision und Beratung“ fand unter der Leitung des damit von der Kirchenleitung beauftragten Kirchenrates Gerd Henrichs (Bohmte) statt. Es wurden erste Überlegungen zur künftigen Gestaltung dieses Arbeitsbereiches angestellt, die bei einem weiteren Arbeitstreffen vertieft und in einem Konzept verankert werden sollen. Gedacht ist auch daran, die Angebote und Ansprechpartner der Kommission mit einer eigenen Homepage auf der Internetseite der SELK zu hinterlegen. Die derzeit in der Kirche etablierten Supervisions- und Beratungsangebote werden in bisheriger Form zunächst weitergeführt.
——————–
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Tel.             +49-511-557808       – Fax +49-511-551588,
E-Mail selk@selk.de
—> Informationen aus Kirche und Gemeinden in Wort und Bild
auch unter „SELK-Aktuell“ auf http://www.selk.de

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LÖHE ON 1. THESSALONIANS 4:3-6

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

law & rosesIt is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.  (1Th 4:3-6 NIV)

There’s a class of people, who are quite put off if you quote verses like this even if it’s not about the last part that they are concerned: “no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.” That’s mainly because people often think that fraud and cheating is much less serious than adultery, and that stealing is quite harmless if compared with infidelity. However its one divine legislator and one Spirit, who admonishes to leave both these temptations and who rejects both as serious sins and crimes…

Live o Lord in our hearts! Let us recognize what we have in you. Let holy deeds flourish, bless and complete your word in our souls by the strength of your Holy Spirit. Amen. (Hermann Bezzel)

Lord you are my witness that my heart is not at peace, but that it falls down before you pleading with great desire that you may grace it with pure simplicity and unify it with you in holy covenant.

Dear Lord, I come to you as I am, lead me to the cross that I be healed by you, who holds heaven and earth in his hands – hold me and heal me. (Wilhelm Löhe, 1808-1872)

This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Monday after the Sunday Reminiscere (Second Sunday in Lent), which was shortened somewhat because the 2nd part was not comprehensible. It’s his  hymn, which was translated literally, but not poetically. Both are found on Pg. 125 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and puplished in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Monday, the 25th February 2013

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

stillung des SturnsO LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. (Psalm 30:3 NIV)

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. (Luke 8:24 NIV)

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LÖHE ON 1. THESSALONIANS 4:3

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Jesus eucharistIt is God’s will that you should be sanctified! (1Th 4:3 NIV)

The light of sanctification illuminates the extent of ones impurity. The most admirable virgin and beauty queen is still sullied and ruined if she’s ignorant of original sin and her own sinful state as a result of this. The handsome lad is but worm-eaten and maggoty if he doesn’t give heed to the divine admonition of sanctification.

There is but one Father of all and in all of us lives the old Adam and even we, who bear the new Adam since holy Baptism, are still descendants of that ancient one. God did not call saints and holy people to sanctification. He has always called sinners to repentance and sanctification. Whoever hears this call to sanctification, is called to migrate and move along in faith – out of his/her comfort zone and beyond old, traditional borders of our life from disbelief to trust, from sin to holiness, from lawlessness to a life under the guidance and kingship of our God. Who wants to move, if content and happy in ones location? Learn to be ashamed for this. You are no lily of innocence and you won’t be one either except if you blush like a rose as you recognize and confess your sinfulness. You are lost if you do not recognize that you are responsible to God and have to answer to him with regard to every single commandment and divine mandate and that only Jesus Christ can save you by the forgiveness of your sin. Ponder that! May God cleanse and heal you +

Holy God, you will be seen only by those with clean hearts, grant us your Holy Spirit, that he may cleanse our hearts from all sin, sanctify us through and through, create in us willing hearts and accomplishment too, strengthen us, prepare, empower and confirm us, that we may be found pure and without offense on that last day when your Son Jesus Christ will reappear in glory to judge the living and the dead. Amen. (Saxon Agenda 1906)

I can not enumerate all my sins. I even fail to accuse myself appropriately before you, o Lord. My loving, praying and confessing – indeed all my doing remains impure, impaired and corrupted. No work of mine is perfect or even just good enough to rest at peace and be content in it.

I rest in your beauty only, in your grace o Majesty. My eyes need to get used to your sight still, yet my spirit worships and adores you, o my God. That is enough, I am, what I am supposed to be in your sight, sanctified by your forgiving grace. Perfectly holy is the order of pure bliss in Jesus Christ + (Wilhelm Löhe, 1808-1872)

This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for the Sunday Reminiscere (Second Sunday in Lent) and of his  hymn, which was translated literally, but not poetically. Both are found on Pg. 124 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and puplished in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Sunday, the 24th February 2013

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

eyeThe guarded his people as the apple of his eye. (Deuteronomy 32:10 NIV)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. (John 15:16 NIV)

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LÖHE ON LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

great is your faithfulnessBecause of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lam 3:22-23 NIV)

We have all sinned enough. Yet nobody wants to appear contrite and penitent, never mind confessing and promising repentance, conversion and improvement. It’s as if we just want to continue in our old ways as before. Being self-righteous, going about with that swagger about ourselves, bragging and blowing our own trumpet. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not pleasant to talk like this. I would rather stroke and comfort you, but how can I if there is no contrition nor sorrow over sin, lack of love, doubt, disbelief and other great shame and vice? Proud, calloused, self-righteous sinners should not be put at ease or lulled in deceptive peace. Comfort is no laughing stock. That’s why the office of comfort has to rest for the time being and the harp praising the proxy of all sinners is hung up in the willows. Oh what a burden to have to go about the office of the ministry, which has at its core the service of mercy without being called and pressed to proclaim the holy comfort of God! It would be such a pleasure if one could talk to Jerusalem kindly, if one could spread joy and come to enjoyment oneself as stops crying as one wipes of tears and comfort and peace is brought about. Yet, it is not that time yet. Now the only hope is, that it is not night yet and still day and we can still cry out and proclaim:  Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! That is our comfort. Even if it may be pitch-black looking backwards, looking forward we sense the coming light: Jesus is alive! His heart is aglow like a burning red-hot furnace with love towards us all! May he have mercy on us all and help us to repentance and conversion! We pray together with those that do and also for those, who don’t. In this prayer we are comforted and enjoy the faith that he hears us. That makes us happy ahead of the coming day of repentance.

Create in my a clean heart o God for it’s suffering from corruption and bears sin’s painful  load. Oh grant that it may be forgiven and be healed by your love to be once more as you created and intended it to be.

Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me, but cast out the evil spirit far from me. Let the latter not distract me from you, but let me stay in and with you always. Rule my heart, mind and senses with your Holy Spirit – then all is well with me living and dying.

Comfort me with your help, help and forgive my sins. Rescue me and let my soul find rest in you and your merits o Lord Jesus Christ, for that works comfort, peace and true life against sin, death and devil.

(Ludämilie Elisabeth, Gräfin zu Schwarzbach-Rudolstadt, 1640-1672. The translation of the attached hymn, which was not chosen by Löhe, but rather by A.Schuster is rather literal, but not poetical. The preceding devotion is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Saturday after the Sunday Invocavit (First Sunday in Lent) as found on Pg. 123 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and puplished in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Saturday, the 23rd February 2013

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

river1When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2 NIV)

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 NIV)

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Lutheran Order of Service

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

 

cimbcruxThe Lutheran Order of Service for Reminiscere (2nd Sunday in Lent) is available here in isiZulu and seTswana. Today it comes with a sermon by Rev. K.G. Tiedemann (2006) based on the gospel written by the evangelist St. John in the 8th chapter verses (21-26a) 26b-30 in isiZulu (wz1315130224 Reminisere) and translated into seTswana (wt1315130224 Reminiskere) by my father Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD (Welbedacht, KZN).

 

We thank the Lutheran Heritage Foundation for supporting the distribution of hard-copies of these orders of worship and sermons throughout Southern Africa. If you also want a copy please do not hesitate to subscribe by writing to EAWWeber@bundunet.co.za.

 

I pray you have a very blessed Sunday and have time to meditate on the watchword from the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans in the 5th chapter: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8 NIV) The liturgical colour is purple and the Gloria in exelsis remains unspoken and unsung until Easter.

 

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LTS News

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

LTS Student representatives 2013

Thanks to Dr. Carl Rockrohr for  posting the latest LTS News. Read more about what is happening at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane: LTS_News_Feb2013

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