BY YOUR APPOINTMENT THEY STAND THIS DAY ...

By your appointment they stand this day,

For all things are your servants. Psalm 119:91

Surely this appointment is reflected in Paul’s letter to the Colossians speaking of Christ, where the Lord revealed that:

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Col 1:16-18 (ESV)

All things were created by the Lord’s Word alone.

All things, with the exception of sinful man, daily, hourly, and minute by minute – answer the purpose their Creator gave them.

I alone, in my sinfulness – reject the Word of the Lord, thus rejecting the purpose my Creator gave me, and thus reject my Lord Creator.

Yet even in my rebellion, in my sin, my Lord made an appointment that I might yet still stand.

Surely His promise that the “seed of the woman” would come and crush the head of the serpent, was the Lord making an appointment to deal with what makes me fallen, and makes me to fall.

Surely this promise, the second of the Lord’s promises, was His appointing of a time and a means by which He would deal with His first promise of death to those who ate of the forbidden, who rejected the Word, who rejected their purpose and their Creator Lord.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son – the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in my place.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son to stand in the place of judgment against me, stand in the place of God’s wrath against me, stand in the place of the fallen, for we, for I cannot stand, and rise to stand over all that is fallen.

Surely this promise was the Lord’s appointment for His servant Son –

- to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin,

- to be circumcised on the eighth day,

- to confess His faith in the temple,

- to be baptized,

- to be tempted,

- to teach and preach,

- to heal the sick, the lame, the deaf and the dumb,

- to raise the dead,

- to be betrayed,

- to give His flesh and blood in a meal that I might be strengthened by His keeping of all my appointments,

- to be so troubled and sweat so, as to sweat blood,

- to be lied about and condemned,

- to be abandoned by those who claimed to follow Him unto death,

- to be denied by his own around a fire,

- to be torturously beaten bloody,

- to be condemned by one who knew his innocence,

- to be crucified,

- to receive insults and mocking,

- to receive the sins of the world,

- to plead for the forgiveness of all as we grope in the ignorance of sin,

- to make arrangements for His mother,

- to thirst and receive no water,

- to suffer the wrath, the abandonment of God against my sins,

- to finish the wrath of God,

- to commend His spirit in the hands of His Father,

- to breath His last,

- to be laid in the tomb,

- to be sealed in the tomb,

- to descend into hell to proclaim the victory of the Lord’s appointments,

- to rise in His flesh on the third day,

- to bring Himself and His peace to those locked in rooms for fear,

- to eat food again with those who once betrayed him,

- to appear to many,

- to give me the sacred gift of baptism by which I receive His keeping of my appointments,

- to give me the name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

- to give me a great commission,

- to ascend the right hand of the Father.

Surely it was by His appointment I was baptized into Christ and all His appointments made and kept for me.

Surely it was by HIs appointment that I received the Holy Spirit in that baptism.

Surely it is by His appointment that I receive the absolution.

Surely it is by His appointment that I receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surely it is by His appointment that I live and move in Him, in His body the Holy Christian Church.

Surely it is by His appointment that I live and move and have my being in Him.

Surely it is by His appointment with me and God on a Cross that I stand this day as His servant.

Surely it is by His appointment that my comfort shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would cause my sufferings to be eternal.

Surely it is by His appointment that my peace shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would make war against me and within me.

Surely it is by His appointment that my hope shall stand because He has stood and forever stands against all that would bring me despair.

Surely it is by His appointment that my faith shall stand because He has stood and forever stands in His appointed place for me.

Thanks be to God through His appointed Savior for me, even Jesus Christ! Amen.

LET YOUR STEADFAST LOVE COMFORT ME ...

Let your steadfast love comfort me
according to your promise to your servant. Psalm 119:76

In this petition, I cry for the comfort that I lack.
In this petition I learn the greatness of my lack.
So great is my discomfort, my disquietedness, my distress – that only the steadfast love of the Lord can meet my need.
By these words it is made clear to me that if I seek my comfort, quietness and peace in anything other than the Lord’s steadfast love, I shall have no comfort, no quietness or peace.
For nothing other than the Lord’s promises made and fulfilled for me – will truly comfort me.
In the verse just prior to this, I acknowledge that the Lord has afflicted me in righteousness.
My prayer in this petition is not that the rod of the Law be removed from me, no matter the level of discomfort,
Rather my prayer is that He would let His steadfast love secure me so that I am comforted according to His promise.
It is paradoxical hope that I should seek mercy from the very Lord who has afflicted me.
Surely I must leave the paradox of this hope to the He who created it and resolves it Jesus Christ
Such hope, and therefore comfort, comes from a faith that believes God’s Word for me is greater than His Word against me.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
Such was the faith that prayed, “
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Hosea 6:1-2 (ESV)
As all of God’s promises find their ‘Yes’ in Christ, so also the ‘Yes’ of my comfort in my lack is found in Christ alone.
Through Christ and His Cross,
the crosses that once seemed only to confound, confuse and consume me,
now become fountains from which comes such comfort and consolations so as to always exceed my lack.
For He who keeps the promises of God,
Was deny any comfort in the keeping of those promises as He met me in my lack at the Cross.
No lack of comfort would deter my Lord Jesus Christ from comforting me, one who deserves to lack, to be deny any comfort.
He cries out for no comfort for Himself, only for my forgiveness, only for my comfort in the midst of my guilt.
As the love of God that made and kept this promise for me is steadfast,
so shall my comfort and consolation be steadfast.
As it was purely out of such Divine goodness and mercy that such a promise of comfort came to such a sinner as I,
so it is from the same that this promise is kept to me through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Thanks be to God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I WAS AFFLICTED ...

It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes. Psalm 119:71

In the verses just prior to this, I prayed that the Lord would teach me good judgment (119:66).
Here my Lord tells me how I have been and shall be schooled in His statues.
Very little is to be learned without affliction because affliction brings what ease does not, reflection and examination.
Wisdom is the product of three elements – knowledge, experience, and reflection. Without reflection, there will be no examination of any experience with the knowledge I have.
Affliction is, as it were, God’s means of making me pause, making me take the time to look back over what I have experienced – that I might know the difference between my ways and His way.
Surely, this means that God's Word is best seen through the lens of my tears.
Abraham Wright speaks the truth of my afflictions:
Truly, I am mended by my sickness.
Surely I am enriched by my poverty.
Mightily am I strengthened by my weakness.
Surely, I must not frown upon the afflictions my Lord has unwillingly allowed to come and grieve me (Lament.3:33).
For though He cause me grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love (Lament. 3:32).
Surely, my journey in such afflictions shall be as the journey of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
Surely, my afflictions are as the flames of that fiery furnace.
Surely, such flames of such afflictions will burn away the bonds of my ignorance of the divine, as the flames loosed these men’s of an ignorant king who thought he was divine.
Surely, in these afflictions I am no less companioned by one who is the Son of God, as were these men in the fiery furnace.
Surely I, like an ignorant king, shall be made the wiser when the furnace into which I am thrown, has finished the work my Lord intended for it.
And I shall glorify the Most High God.
Surely, my afflictions put the lie that Satan still whispers through my sinful pride: “You’ll be like God.”
Affliction like nothing else confronts me with the reality that I am not God.
For it is through afflictions that I am brought to the end of myself.
And it is only at the end of myself that I shall truly find Christ who has met me at my end on the Cross.
The Lord reveals to me through St. Peter that these afflictions come by necessity (1st Peter 1).
They come for the sake of my faith.
For the Lord assures me that such afflictions purify my faith as fire is used to purify gold.
As the refiner seeks by the fire of a furnace to remove all that is not gold, so much more so does my Lord seek by the fire of affliction to remove all that is not of faith – not of the Word.

“Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.
For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”
Wisdom of Sirach 2:4-5

WHEN I THINK ON MY WAYS ...

When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies...
Psalm 119:59

Bound in sin, my sinful nature always holds before me a vision of myself in contrast to others. According to this sin cast vision, I am always better than others, if not most.
Upon hearing God’s Word though, I receive another vision of myself that is in conflict with the vision my sinful pride casts for me.
I find that I have believed in a vision of myself contrary to the real me. For having received God’s Word, I receive a vision of myself as I really am.
Before me are two ways.
The one way is to reject God’s Word and do battle with what He says of me.
The other way is to turn to Him who has spoken this all revealing word and bow to His Word against me, that I might hear, and hear and be raised up by His Word for me in Jesus Christ.
Only when my heart has bowed to the Word of God’s Law against me, will my feet be ready to walk in the way of His testimonies of mercy and grace.
While I would readily admit that I must bow and be willing to bow to His Word against me, how lowly will my bowing be?
It is one thing to acknowledge that God has a righteous word against me in my sin, but it quite another for me to fully receive and bow to that Word against me.
For if I am to listen to the full Word of the Lord against me, I will be more than bowed down by it, I will be brought so low as to be crushed by it.
Am I willing, not just to bow, but to let the Word of God bow me so lowly as to be crushed?
God of mercy grant it to me.
If only I would be willing to be bowed so low as to be crushed God’s Word against me, how much sweeter and beautiful will be the feet of those who bring God’s Word for me in Jesus Christ.
If my faith will not allow me be so bowed, allow me to be so crushed, then I do not have a faith that will ever receive Him Who was crushed for my iniquities (Isaiah 53:5).
How shall I receive He Who …
was crushed as I am crushed by the Law,
was crushed as I am crushed by the righteous wrath of God,
and was crushed by my death …
if am not willing to bow to my own crushed condition.
It was for this purpose that Christ came and bowed Himself so lowly as to allow Himself to be crushed for my iniquities and raised for my resurrection from the dust.
Make me to think of my ways that I may turn to Your testimonies O Lord.
Bow me; crush me my Lord, that I may find You, where You found me.
Bow me, crush me my Lord, that I my feet may follow in the way of Your testimonies.
Amen.

TURN MY EYES FROM ....

TURN my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and GIVE me life in your ways. Psalm 119:37

From First John 2:16, worthless things are not the things of the world, but the sinful eyes that perverts these blessings into being the means of selfish and self-serving gain.
As in all the Psalms, David here asks the Lord to do for him what he cannot do himself. He doesn’t pray, “I will turn from looking at worthless things.” His request is a confession that he cannot sufficiently in and of himself, keep himself from looking at things with a perverted and self-serving eye. He knows that God must turn his eyes to Himself.
David has faced and by God’s grace overcame many temptations in his life prior to ascending to the throne. During this time of adversity, he knew that his life was solely in the hands of God. Yet, having come to the throne, to the seat of power and wealth, he faced different kinds of temptations. I find that I can stand well and resist various kinds of temptations that others succumb to. And likewise, I am daily confronted with other temptations to which I must confess, like Paul, “the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Romans 7:19. For David, he was able to fix his eyes on the Lord as his greatest good and bear the temptations of adversity. Yet when it came to living in prosperity, he was not able to keep his eyes so fixed and therefore prays, “turn my eyes – turn what I cannot turn from, the worthless and unto You."
As windows are often the access of the thief and the murder, so also the eyes are such windows by which theft, murder, and death enter the heart. A person would be wise to consider that it was to the eye that the first sin was pleasing, and through that eye, death entered into the world.
This petition echoes the request in the Lord’s Prayer by which we ask our Father to “lead us not into temptation."
Albert Barnes wrote, “an ugly object loses much of its deformity when we look often upon it.” The Lord tells us in Numbers 15:39 that our hearts are inclined to whore after the basest of our desires. How often has some lust, some longing of our sinful nature altered how we see those things which God’s Word declares to be ugly because it is unholy and death. With our eyes fixed upon such unholy ugliness, our eyes will then begin to look for one other more worthless thing – the justification of taking this ugliness to ourselves and our pleasure.
In the Hebrew, the word for “eye” is also used for a “fountain”. It gives pause to consider how the eye is like a fountain. A fountain pours forth out of itself to others, while the eye pours into a person. As a fountain can only pour forth that which is supplied to it, so also the eye can only pour into the soul that which it supplies. So therefore, David, and I ought to plead with the Lord to turn my eyes to the holy supply, to Him so that I may have life.
Without the Lord giving life and understanding, I am bound to my sinful pride's definition and delusions of what life is. Apart from the Lord’s giving me life and understanding according to His word, according to reality – I am trapped to see things perversely and never in their right way. Only by the Lord giving me LIFE in Himself, shall I then know what is real life and what are the illusions of life.
“Give me life in your ways!” What are the Lord’s ways – His ways are the way of His Law and His Gospel and these ways meet me on the Cross. What a blessed and joyous thing it is that I have never, and shall never hear the Lord Jesus say, “turn my eyes from looking at worthless things.” I who have made myself worthless by my fixation of eyes and heart on those things which are worthless, have a Savior who never asked God to save Him from looking upon me. As surely as the Lord Jesus set, or fixed, His face toward Jerusalem, toward the Cross, so surely has He set and fixed His eyes upon me and all mankind that we might be saved from our own worthlessness.
“Give me life in your ways!” Having fixed His eyes upon me, so now He would have me fix my eyes on his Cross and His resurrection so that I might see and behold His forgiveness and newness of life for me and all who would believe.
“Give me life in your ways!” Now does he call me to fix my eyes upon His ways of giving life in the midst of my own worthlessness. Now does He call me to fix my eyes and my heart upon His Word and Sacraments as His chosen ways of giving, sustaining and increasing His life in me.
“Give me life in your ways!” Give me faith in Jesus Christ who is Your Way of life, living, and seeing all things.

AS MY SOUL CLINGS TO THE DUST

My soul clings to the dust;
Give me life according to your word. Psalm 119:25

The Hebrew word for "cling", could also be translated “cleaves”.
The meaning of this term could be said, “My soul – ‘is joined,’ ‘has adhered,’ ‘has overtaken,’ ‘has taken hold,’ ‘has joined itself’ – to the dust.”
Under the bondage of sin, our soul has become like a polypus, that which is always adhering to the rocks, to things earthly.
So tightly does our sin bound soul cling to the dust that nothing of ourselves or this earth can set us free from the dust.
Because of my sin, I am joined to that which is apart from the Lord. Apart from the Lord, all that I have is that from which I came – the dust. And all that which I am will return, by God’s curse upon my sin – my apartness, to the dust.
Because of my sin, I lack the ability to cling to anything other than those things, which are dust.
So I, with the Psalmist, must cry out for that which none of us can secure for ourselves – GIVE ME LIFE ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD!
Grant me Lord, blessed Lord that which I cannot do or obtain for myself.
SET ME FREE WITH A NEW LIFE THAT COMES FROM YOUR WORD ALONE – JESUS CHRIST – THE WORD MADE FLESH.
This freedom through His Word is the promise of Christ our Lord: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Though we have been born again in baptism, and our soul is set free in the holiness of Christ – no one can be careless in earthly things, for if you turn to these things in your heart, that is to touch them, you will be adhered to these so strongly that only Christ can set you free.
And so, daily, hourly, aye, from moment to moment and situation to situation, we live by the blessed path of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Aye, faith in Jesus, who out of love – clung ‘joined,’ ‘adhered,’ ‘overtook,’ ‘took hold,’ and ‘has joined Himself’ – to the dust, to us – so that we might have life and have it to the full.
To Him alone be the glory. Amen

DO YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO FEAR ABOUT YOURSELF?

In much of my ministry as a pastor and my life as believer, nothing gets more in my way than – myself. I read a short article this weekend by Dr. R. Larry Moyer that spoke to me about being my biggest obstacle in the faith.
The titled of the article was “Six Things You May Have Missed in Seminary”. Much of the article was shallow, but there were two points of wisdom that struck me as insightful and profound. While these points don’t follow upon each other in the article, they do go hand in hand.
The first point was simply that my greatest strengths uncontrolled, would become my greatest weaknesses. At the heart of this observation is the proverbial truth that I can and well, if unchecked, become my biggest obstacle to faith and living of the faith. This is often hard to see in ourselves because in our constant cascade of failings and faults, we long and love to live in our strengths and successes.
The second point of wisdom in this article echoes the truth of Proverbs 27:6a: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend …” According to Moyer, each of us needs dedicated friends who are willing to wound us in a particular way. Such friends are willing to tell me the things about me - I need to fear. We all have a hunger to hear good things about ourselves, and we may even want to hear the not so good things about ourselves. The question is - has a friend ever been so faithful to you, that they told you what you need to fear about yourself? Whether they're aware of it or not, such a friend is grounding you. Such groundings serve to make your steps secure in the truth and in He is the way, the truth, and the life.
This grounding is at the heart of the confession our sins in the Divine Service, if only we’ll listen to it. In hearing and confessing those words, “I a poor miserable sinner,” I ought be very afraid of the wretched man (Rom 7), and in such fear, turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He alone can rescue me from me (Rom 7). Lord, grant me such a righteous fear. In His blessed forgiveness, the Lord Christ brings me beyond myself and into a daily newness of life.
May the Lord grant me and you such friends, and such fear of ourselves, that we may live and believe in our only Rescuer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This may be obvious to you, but it wasn’t to me!

A PRAYER FOR LIVING THE FAITH AT HOME

A Prayer For Living the Faith At Home
Based on Psalm 101:1-8.

By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will speak of Your steadfast love and justice.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will ponder with them, the way that is blameless.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I may hate the work of those who fall away so that it shall not cling to me or them.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that a perverse heart shall be far from me that I will know nothing of evil.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I may reject whoever slanders his neighbor secretly.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will not endure whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that the one who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister with me.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that no one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
Grant that Morning by morning I will reject all that is wicked, cutting off all the evildoers from the dwelling place of the Lord, be it in me, my home, or my church.
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
I pray, when will You come to us?
By You, O Lord, and for all those in my home,
I pray in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

The Blessed Usefulness of Prayer

If someone wants to describe adequately the usefulness of pious, earnest prayer, he will, in my opinion, surely find a beginning more easily than a conclusion.
Pious prayer offered in faith is familiar conversation with God.
It is a salutary remedy to all the difficulties of life.
It is the key to heaven and the door to paradise.
It shows us how much we depend on God, and it is a ladder of ascension to God.
It is a shield for our defense and a faithful messenger of the ambassador.
It is refreshment in the heat of misfortune; it is medicine during illness.
It is a winch, drawing us to heaven,
and a vessel that draws water from the font of divine kindness.
It is a sword against the devil and a defense against misfortune.
It is a wind that blows away evil and brings earthly benefits.
It is a nurse that nurtures virtues and conquers faults.
It is a great fortification for the soul and gives free access to God.
It is a spiritual feast and a heavenly delicacy.
It is a consolation for the dejected and a delight for the holy.
It grants knowledge of the secret things of God and acquires His gifts.
It upholds the world and rescues people.
It is a joy for the heart and a jubilation for the mind.
It follows God's gift of grace, and it leads ahead into glory.
It is a garden of happiness and a tree full of delights.
It calms the conscience and increases our thankfulness.
It sends demons running and draws angels close.
It is a soothing remedy for the misfortunes of this life
and the sweet smell of the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
It is a foretaste of the life to come and sweetens the bitterness of death.
Whoever is truly a child of God through faith will, with childlike trust,
address his or her heavenly Father every day in prayer.
The one in whose heart the Holy Spirit has made His home will,
as a spiritual priest, daily offer to God this incense of prayer.
There are four immovable truths on which our confidence to pray rests.
Because of these, we may be certain that our heavenly Father mercifully hears our prayers.
The truths on which our certainty rests are:
(1) God's omnipotent kindness;
(2) God's unfailing truthfulness;
(3) Christ's intercession as our mediator; and
(4) the Holy Spirit's testimony.

-Johann Gerhard Excerpted from Treasury of Daily Prayer CPH

Adolescent Subculture

Adolescent SubculturePosted At: 5:10pm by Rev. William M. Cwirla
http://blog.higherthings.org/wcwirla/article/4283.html

I have long maintained, most recently in an interview with Michael "internet Monk" Spencer, that adolescence as a state of being should not be coddled or encouraged. Rather, we adults need to run the race side by side with these young emerging adults and invite them to run in the adult world. John Stonestreet over at Breakpoint agrees. He notes that prior to 1941 or so, there really was no such thing as a "teenager." The whole concept of adolescence as a subculture appears to be the product of the post-world war nucleated family, the alienated father, and mass marketing that target teenagers.
Even worse, adolescence has become the pinnacle of human existence, rather than an apprenticeship that must be endured on the way to something greater. How many adults do you know who are stuck at senior prom? "Forever Eighteen."
Stonestreet cites six characteristic of a culture gone adolescent. These make me think:
1. Demand of instant gratification leading to lack of commitment (marriage, church, whatever)
2. Absence of long-term thinking (What do you want to do when you grow up, if ever?)
3. Motivated by feeling rather than truth. (It feels right to me.)
4. Wanting grown up things without being grown up. (Sex, shacking up, BMWs)
5. Expecting bailouts rather than accepting consequences. (Hmmm. Sound familiar?)
6. Focusing on appearance rather than depth. (Can you say boob job?)
Stonestreet's antidote? Challenge young adults. Educate them in worldview and apologetics. Teach them as Christians what we are for, not just what we are against. Confront them with the major cultural issues rather than isolate them. I couldn't agree more. Judging by the packed sessions at the HT Sola conferences that dealt with atheism, abortion, and hot button cultural issues, our youth are agreeing. Raise the bar high and they will rise to the challenge. Lower the bar, and they will sink.
The last thing we need is another generation of Forever Eighteens.
Read it all for yourself: Our Adolescent Culture
Major HT: Sandra Ostapowich.

Forgiving Little in the Midst of Being Forgiven Much

"Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger ... " Eph 4:26 (ESV)
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Ephesians 4:6
When dealing with the faults and failings of others. Go into your closest and say your “Our Father”, and when you get to the petition wherein you ask, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” you must remember that God has forgiven you much more, and daily forgives you much more, than your neighbor could ever possibly sin against you.”
Martin Luther
Sermon on Trinity 20, Ephesians 5