O 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)
It 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.
The 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)
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. (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.
When 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)
The 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.
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
But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him…Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1Jo 2:5.15-17 NIV)
What do you love? Do you love the world? It will pass away and its desires too. Acknowledgement with people? That’s blowing mere bubbles and great nothingness. Honour? That’s just a passing shadow. A big name in this world? Soon it is forgotten. Favour with the high and mighty? Then your really clutching at straws. Friends? They come and go like the tides of the oceans, like summer rains or the seasons. Father and mother? They are but mortal and will have to leave you sooner or later. Your children? They’re not yours really, they belong to the heavenly Father. Your own life? That’s a weaver’s coil and will be unravelled in no time. Your house? That’s about as an abiding abode as the whale was to Jonah. It will spit you out naked with nothing to go with it. Your fields, forests and pastures? Who knows how soon somebody else will call it his own? What do you love? Vanity? That suffocates anybody in the long run. Do you love yourself? That’s probably the biggest disappointment of all in the end. Choose what you want here on earth. It’s all not more than a loss and bound to lead to serious disenchantment.
Only with God and his love do you never loose out. Therefore all saints have loved the Lord, their God. Yes, o good Lord, my soul sticks to your commandments and clings to your promises with faith, love and hope.
Proceed you soldiers from denial to enjoyment. Elect and of noble birth your called to live according to your high calling. As bride of Christ don’t get lost with temporary distractions!
We laugh at these and deride them outright. Beautiful this and that – we don’t regard it as ultimate – quite the contrary. What appears to be high and mighty, big and important too often is but burden- and cumbersome.
Money and stuff trouble and burden hearts, minds and conscience. Praise or flattery, bowing low, feigning, shaming, blaspheme even – its but blowing against the wind. Desires are sweet poison that even on the highest level of human achievement and success you find but passing fancies.
Our longing and our tears are better than worldly joys. Can you envision and grasp the hidden bliss? You’d rapidly neglect all stuff to join the wretched and despised bunch on its way to eternity.
(Gerhard Tersteegen, 1697-1769. The translation of this hymn is rather literal, but not poetical. The preceding devotion is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Friday after the Sunday Invocavit (First Sunday in Lent) as found on Pg. 122 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.
We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. (Psalm 124:7 NIV)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)
Seminary has space to let with immediate effect. Venter & van Wyk are doing this for us. Both houses are independent units, have good security and private garage(s) plus own access to the road. This is within walking distance to Lutheran Churches, the University of Pretoria, Schools, Parks, Union Buildings, Museums & Art galleries and shopping malls.
1. Farenden Strasse 345 (Dube House = 95m²) has 4 rooms and is available for 4 months i.e. up to the 30th June 2013.
2. Arcadia Street 768 (St. Mary’s = 244m²) is available for 10 months with the possibility to extend the rental. This is a double story house with 4+2 rooms.
Anyone interested can call Venter & van Wyk or contact the Seminary during office hours: 012 344 2302.
