Commentary on the Readings I

One of my friends from Fort Wayne has asked if the reading plan we are following is chronological because we went from the middle of Genesis to Job. The answer to that question is sort of. We will be getting back to Genesis once we finish Job and if you read the Bible chronolically this is where they usually place Job. But I say sort of, because later on the readings do not follow a strict chronological order. Those of you who went with me through the Bible Chronologically a year ago will notice some of the differences. So yes and no. I took this reading plan from another website, www.heartlight.org. I thought it would be good to have both Old and New Testament readings combined throughout the year. Now the New Testament reading are not chronological at all. So it is kind of a mesh mash of things. But we will go through the entire Bible.

Job is a great book about human suffering and how sometimes there is no answer as to why. Job's friends also give us some insight into how not to minister to someone going through hard times. At first they just show up and sit with him for several days and say nothing. If they would have kept doing that and maybe offered to listen to him and help him in whatever way he wanted them to help him, they might have gotten it right. But they have to start talking and trying to find a reason that this is all happening to him. They of course point out to him that it must have been something he did. They don't know what it is, but it must have been something. They even seem like they need it to be something that he did. Because if it just happened for unknown reasons then it might happen to them also and they don't want to deal with that. Job keeps saying hey I didn't do a thing and you can start to see the anger coming out of him first at his friends and then the more he thinks and talks about it, that anger starts getting directed toward God. Then his friends start making the second mistake, they take upon themselves to defend God, which of course makes Job even more anger. Later we see that God is none to pleased about it either. Job is probably thinking first all this stuff happens to me and then my friends show up and make it even worse. As we continue to read you will see Job's anger and frustration increase. He has lost everything his family, his house, his possessions and his friends are no help. Whenever I read this portion of Job or see somebody struggling like this I think of the scene in Forest Gump where his friend Jenny comes home after many years of leading a hard life and they end up walking to her old abandoned house where she had been abused as a child. Jenny sees the old house in the field and all the bad memories come flooding back. She then begins to pick up rocks and starts throwing them at the house. While Forest stands there and watches she throws every rock she can throw at it until she can't find anymore and falls to the ground. Then Forest says to himself, "Sometimes theres just not enough rocks." I think Job felt the same way at this point as he begins in his frustration to throw verbal rocks at his friends and eventually God. Sometimes when we are suffering theres just not enough rocks.

Pastor Fred

There are no real answers given in this book except that God is always there and that he does deliver.

Read Thur the Bible Week 3

Here are the readings for this week.

October 29 - Job 17,18,19 and Matthew 10:21-42
October 30 - Job 20, 21 and Matthew 11
October 31 - Job 22,23,24 and Matthew 12:1-23
November 1 - Job 25,26,27 and Matthew 12:24-50
November 2 - Job 28,29 and Matthew 13:1-30
November 3 - Job 30,31 and Matthew 13:31-58
November 4 - Job 32,33 and Matthew 14:1-21

Pastor Fred

Lutheranism 101 - Part 24 - The Second Article III

So we have just finished talking about state of Christ's humiliation, now lets talk about the point of it. The reason that Christ humbled himself was to buy us back as his people. We were trapped in sin and death and God wanted us back. So Christ in becoming one of us took our guilt and punishment upon himself. Through his suffering, death and resurrection he beat death. Therefore we have forgiveness and eternal life through our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. He makes this forgiveness available to everyone that lives on earth. To get the benefit of it though you have to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Now lets move on to the Jesus' state of exaltation. This is where Christ now fully and always uses his Divine powers. The stages of Christ's exaltation consist of this, He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead."

Now some people are surprised to learn that Jesus' descent into hell is part of his exaltation, that is because of too many pictures and movies about how horrible Christ's time in hell was. Scripture paints an entirely different story. It tells us that Jesus went down to hell not to suffer, but to brag that he had won. Remember Jesus last words on the cross? It is finished! That meant everything was done for salvation including his suffering. So when Jesus descended into hell he was taking a victory lap running around in the flames going nah, nah, nah, nah I won, I won, you lost ha, ha, ha!

Then the Bible tells us Christ rose from the dead on the third day. Notice it doesn't say three days later. He was crucified on Friday and died so that was counted as day one, then Saturday was day two and Sunday was day three. We also know that he showed himself alive to over 515 people for over 40 days that he was walking the earth after the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is very important for a number of reasons. First of all it proves that he really was who he said he was. It also proves that God accepted Christ's sacrifice for our sins. His resurrection is kind of like our receipt that proves the price was paid. And it also shows that all believers in Christ will also one day rise to eternal life.

After roaming the earth showing off his crucified body he then ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God. That doesn't mean he is literally sitting at the right hand of God, but that he is in the power position in heaven ruling over the earth.

We also know that he is coming back some day a second time. When that will happen, that we don't know. We know it will happen without warning and that he will judge the earth. We live in great hope and anticipation of that day, because it will be our final ticket home with God.

Next time I will talk a little bit more about some proofs of the resurrection and a little about End Times theology.

Here is some Scripture for you:John 10:17-18; Hebrews 2:14-15,17; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 15:55-57; Isaiah 53:5; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 John 2:2; Philippians 2:9-11; 1 Peter 3:18-19; Colossians 2:15; Acts 10:40-41; 1 Corinthians 15:4-8; Acts 1:3; Romans 1:4; Romans 4;25; John 11:25-26; John 14:19; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Acts 1:9-11; Matthew 24:27; 2 Peter 3:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Mark 13:32; Luke 21:28; Titus 2:13

Pastor Fred

Read Thur The Bible in a Year - Week 2

Here are the readings for this week. We have a little change of pace as we read some stuff from the book of Job.

October 22 - Genesis 20,21,22 and Matthew 6:19-34
October 23 - Job 1,2 and Matthew 7
October 24 - Job 3,4 and Matthew 8:1-17
October 25 - Job 5, 6,7 and Matthew 8:18-34
October 26 - Job 8, 9, 10 and Matthew 9:1-17
October 27 - Job 11, 12, 13 and Matthew 9:18-38
October 28 - Job 14, 15, 16 and Matthew 10:1-20

Pastor Fred

Lutheranism 101 - Part 23- The Second Article II

In talking about Jesus Christ's work of salvation for us we talk about two different states, and no they are not Arizona and California. They are two different periods of his life that were part of the salvation process. We call these two states, the state of humiliation and the state of exaltation. The state of humiliation consists of the period of time that as man He did not always or fully use his His divine powers. The state of exaltation consists of the period of time like now, that he fully and always uses His divine powers.

In the state of humiliation Jesus remained fully God, he just didn't always use his Godly powers, he restrained himself and lived as human under human conditions of suffering. The stages of Christ's humiliation include when he is conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. These things cover the time period that God choose to not let fully let his glory shine. Let's look at these in a little more detail.

We teach that Jesus was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary. In other words Jesus did not have a human father, but he did receive a human body and soul through Mary. The importance of the virgin birth cannot be overstated. If Jesus was not born of a virgin he would have been born sinful because he would have been born in the natural way through sinful parents. The fact that he was not conceived in the natural way, that the Holy Spirit enabled his conception through miraculous power enabled Jesus to be born sinless and perfect. So we can say that Jesus was true man in every way except he was without sin. This is also important because only a sinless man could obey the law perfectly for us in our place. Therefore to deny the virgin birth is to deny Christ.

In the humiliation of Christ we also talk about how he lived life here as a poor human and how he underwent persecution throughout his life, from the time that Herod tried to kill him as a toddler to the time of his death on the cross. We also included his burial. We teach that he was buried in a borrowed tomb and remained there until the third day.

Now during this time of humiliation he did at times let his glory be seen by others. When he walked on water, when he transfigured on the mountain, when he preformed miracles and raised people from the dead he displayed the fact that he was God. So Jesus in his actions very clearly showed at times that he was the God he said he was. Next time we will talk about Christ's work of redemption and atonement for us.

Here is some Scripture for you: Philippians 2:5-8; Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 2:7; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Isaiah 53:3; John 19:1-3; Mark 15:1-20; John 19:16-18; Mark 15:42-47

Pastor Fred

Read Thur The Bible In A Year - Week 1

Okay here we go! This reading plan that I found on the Internet will take us through the whole thing in a year with readings from both the Old and New Testaments every day. This will keep you from getting bogged down in the some of, well lets say less interesting parts of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a lot longer so their will always be more from the old than the new, but some of the Old Testament stories are fascinating. I will make comments on the readings from time to time as well. Here is the first week

October 15 - Genesis 1,2,3 and Matthew 1
October 16 - Genesis 4,5,6, and Matthew 2
October 17 - Genesis 7,8,9 and Matthew 3
October 18 - Genesis 10,11,12 and Matthew 4
October 19 - Genesis 13,14, 15 and Matthew 5:1-26
October 20 - Genesis 16,17, and Matthew 5:27-48
October 21 - Genesis 18,19, and Matthew 6:1-18

If you don't like reading you can listen to them on biblegateway.com or on a CD.

Pastor Fred

Lutheranism 101- Part 22 - The Second Article of the Creed

Just who is Jesus Christ anyway? That is the question that has been the subject of one book after another, one movie after another and one TV show after another. Everyone seems to have an opinion as to who Jesus was and what he means for us today. While people may have many opinions about who Jesus is the only one that really counts, the only one we can really trust is the opinion of Scripture. I say that because it is the only place that we know for sure where God has revealed himself. All other opinions are just uninformed ideas. So what does the Bible itself say about Jesus? Well since we know that the Creed is a summary of Scripture let look at what it says.
"I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead."

Let's take this part by part. First of all lets look at the name Jesus. Jesus means the Lord saves. Now there were tons of other people running around the countryside with the name of Jesus. It was a common name. So it wasn't as if when they heard his name was Jesus that they immediately knew he was the Savior because of his name. People didn't pass by Jesus and go see there is the Savior of the world, really how do you know, well because his name is Jesus, so obviously he is the one. No there were lots of people with that name. The importance of the name comes in the fact that an angel told Joseph to give him that name and that he actually lived out that name by saving his people.
The name Christ also has great meaning. Now when I was a kid I thought Christ was Jesus' last name. You know there was Joseph Christ, Mary Christ and little Jesus Christ. It took me awhile to figure out that Christ was not a last name but a title. Christ means, "the Anointed" in Greek. In Hebrew the word is Messiah. So to say that Jesus is the Christ is to say that he is the anointed one. He is the chosen one sent down to rescue us. There are also other titles for Jesus such as Redeemer, Immanuel, Son of the living God, the Word, Lord, Angel of God. So Jesus has many titles that tell us about him.

So now that we know what Jesus' name is and what his role is in saving us lets look a little closer at his being, in other words his two natures. Scripture tells us that Jesus is both God and man, that he has both a divine and human nature. That seems to us to be impossible. How can he be both God and man at the same time? Well that is not something that we can fully understand with our finite minds, but Scripture very clearly points out that it is true. We see that Jesus is God from eternity. And that two thousand years ago he took on flesh through the Virgin Mary. Therefore although there was never a time when Jesus wasn't God, there was a time when he was not man. Only for the past two thousand years has the Son of God had a human nature and a body. We also know that he did not get his human nature the natural way. Instead his mother Mary was a virgin and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. That does not mean that God had sex with Mary, but that the Holy Spirit through his miraculous power gave the Son of God a true human body and soul in her womb.
Therefore we teach that Jesus has two natures united in his one person. That does not mean that Jesus has a split personality. There is not one part of him saying do this and another part of him saying do that. The two natures are united and work together in one personality.
Now some may ask why did he needed both a divine and human nature to save us? Like I said they work together but they do have different functions. Jesus had to be man so that he could be like us and live under the law and keep it perfectly in our place. He also had to be able to suffer and die in our place. Only a man could do that, not God. But he also had to be God so that he could die for everyone on the earth. He also had to be God so that he could overcome death and the devil for us. So you could say it was a one two punch. He had to be man so that could identify with us and take our place and suffer for our sins. And he had to be God so that he could overcome death and save all of us. The two go together. Again I know that is all impossible to fully grasp, it is beyond the ability of the human mind, but Scripture says its true.

Here is some Scripture for you to explain what I have said above: Matthew 1:21; Acts 4:12; Psalm 45:7; Acts 10:38; John 3:36; John 20:28; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5; Luke 24:39; Hebrews 4:14-16; John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 9:6; Galatians 4:4-5; Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 3:13;
Next time we will continue with the Second Article

Pastor Fred

Lets Read Thru Scripture Together

I think this would be a good time to start preparing to read through Scripture again together. But this time we will read through the entire Bible and take a year to do it. So it should average about three chapters a day. That is not too bad. You can also listen to it on Biblegateway.com like I do or on CD or if you have cassettes you can do that. Does anyone own a cassette player anymore? Believe it or not I still have records, you know the big black round things you used to put on a turntable. I don't have anything to play them on, but I have them. Anyway we will not start this next week because it is fall break. We will start on Monday the 15th. I will provide some commentary along the way and we will find some verses to meditate on. So get your Bibles dusted off or your cassette player out and we will start in a little over a week

Pastor Fred

Lutheranism 101-Part 21 - The First Article of the Creed II

Last week we ended our talk with the discussion of angels. This week we move on to human beings. What we know from Scripture is this. Human beings did not evolve from something else but were created directly by God himself. Humans are also not just another creature on earth. We are the most important creatures that God created. In fact Scripture says that man was created in the image of God and was given a spirit or soul, which the other creatures were not given. God also gave man authority over all the earth. It is man's job to manage it. So we have the right to use its resources, but we do not have the right to abuse its resources. We are God's managers of the planet. So in other words God put us in charge of the earth and said take care of it, use it and protect it. Therefore man can eat other animals, he can wear fur coats and he can mine and cut down trees. On the other hand he also has the responsibility to see that it is done so that the earth continues to thrive and that other creatures are not abused. That is why we have agencies like the Forest Service, the Fish and Game Department and the Department of the Interior.
As I said before man was created in the image of God. So does that mean that we look physically like God? No. Remember God does not have a body. Being created in the image of God means that we thought like him and had the same wishes and desires as God. We were righteous and holy. Unfortunately that image was lost after the fall into sin. In Christians God has begun to rebuild His image, but only in the heaven will we again be perfect.

In the first article we also hold to the truth that God still takes care of us today. In other words God still provides us food and clothing and health and everything that we need for this life. Now he doesn't just drop down food and money to us from heaven, although he did do that in the past for the children of Israel. Instead he gives us talents and abilities so that we can get jobs so that we can pay for all that stuff. He provides doctors and other medical personnel to heal us. He takes care of us most time through what we would consider natural means. But we know that our intelligence and abilities are given to us by God, and that he works out everything for our good.
Many times that information leads to the question of, "Well if God is supposed to be so good to us, why is there is all this suffering in the world?" That is a very complex question with some incomplete complex answers that we really don't have the time to answer right now. But in the end no matter how much you write or talk about the problem of evil in the world it all boils down to this. Evil and suffering are in the world because of man's sin. Man brought evil and suffering into the world and God allowing man free will let it happen. So yes bad things happen all the time to all of us, sometimes it is because of something that we have done, other times we are innocent bystanders on the sidelines that get taken out because of someone elses sin. Then there are those times we have no idea why the bad thing happened. Sometimes it is just the result of sin in general being in the world. Sin exists in this life and so bad things just happen without no real explanation. That is the answer in a nutshell. But we also know this Christ came and suffered for all that sin and through his resurrection from the dead he has shown that he has power over sin and evil and that one day through our faith in Christ we will be delivered from it. Maybe not in this life, but we will in the next. God does not promise to remove us from suffering while in this life. What he does promise is that he will be with us in the midst of it. He has promised that he will guide us through it and ultimately bring us home with him where there is no more suffering. Again that is the simple answer in a nutshell and I know that simple answers are not satisfying when you are suffering, but if you want to talk about it more give me a call.
Next time we will begin the Second Article of the Creed.

Here are some Scriptures for you: Genesis 2:7; Genesis 1:26-28; Mark 10:6; Psalm 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5; Colossians 3:10; Genesis 3:8-10; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 147:4; Romans 6:23; Psalm 145:15-16; Matthew 10:29-30; Genesis 2:15

Pastor Fred