O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.
I look at the sky and see the work of your fingers--the moon and the stars you have set in place, the sun shining in the skies…
Their words aren't heard, but their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
The eyes of all look to you. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause:
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
Psalm 8:1,3 NLT, Job 31:26 NLT, Psalm 19:3-4 MSG, Psalm 145:15 NIV, Romans 8:19 MSG, Psalm 55:12 MSG, 1 Chronicles 29:11 NLT
Wednesday
Tuesday
Confession
Written for a service in which the text is Proverbs 10:25 ("When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever") and a dominant image is Jesus' story from Matthew 7:24-27 about the wise and foolish builders.
Lord, you have provided a foundation
For all who put their faith in your strong word,
who place their hope in Your abiding love
made real as Your blood was shed on the cross.
Why is it so easy to turn away,
believing we can frame a better life
on the shifting sand of our own wisdom?
Forgive us, God, for turning from your plan,
placing our trust anywhere but in You.
We return to You: Hear us as we pray.
Let the cleansing of Your blood make us clean.
By Your Spirit, help us walk near to You.
© Rick Lindholtz 2005
By the way, it's another iambic pentameter piece. In staff meeting today we watched a clip from Henry V and I guess I just got inspired.
; )
Lord, you have provided a foundation
For all who put their faith in your strong word,
who place their hope in Your abiding love
made real as Your blood was shed on the cross.
Why is it so easy to turn away,
believing we can frame a better life
on the shifting sand of our own wisdom?
Forgive us, God, for turning from your plan,
placing our trust anywhere but in You.
We return to You: Hear us as we pray.
Let the cleansing of Your blood make us clean.
By Your Spirit, help us walk near to You.
© Rick Lindholtz 2005
By the way, it's another iambic pentameter piece. In staff meeting today we watched a clip from Henry V and I guess I just got inspired.
; )
Thursday
Observing Lutheran Ordination
Last Sunday was a rare treat. Our former Vicar (Seminary Intern) Nate returned to CTK to be ordained. As Nate put it, when he came to Seminary, and later when he came to CTK for his year-long vicarage, he had objectives other than pastoral ministry. After experiencing ministry here, he has no other objective than pastoral ministry. CTK really became the home church of his heart for pastoral ministry. So this was the logical place for his ordination.
Covenant readers will spot a couple of interesting differences in the way these two bodies approach ordination to ministry. The obvious place to start is that in the Covenant, the national body ordains, and does it once every year with all the ordinands, whereas the LCMS ordains individually, all over the country. Each seminary graduate makes the arrangements along with the local church and district where it will happen. Which raises another distinction: Ordination occurs in the weeks after seminary graduation, rather than 2 years later as in the Covenant.
What was most interesting to me, and not at all surprising, given what I have learned about the Missouri Synod, was the precise questioning regarding, not only the authority of the Scriptures, but the accuracy of the three ancient creeds as summaries of true biblical faith (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian) and all of the major components of the Book of Concord - by name - The Augsburg Confession and its defense, the small and large catechisms of Luther, the Smalcald articles, the Treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord - are in agreement with true biblical faith.
As a body, the LCMS seems to need the security, comfort, and validity of a greater precision and definition in its theology more than The Evangelical Covenant Church does.
Covenant readers will spot a couple of interesting differences in the way these two bodies approach ordination to ministry. The obvious place to start is that in the Covenant, the national body ordains, and does it once every year with all the ordinands, whereas the LCMS ordains individually, all over the country. Each seminary graduate makes the arrangements along with the local church and district where it will happen. Which raises another distinction: Ordination occurs in the weeks after seminary graduation, rather than 2 years later as in the Covenant.
What was most interesting to me, and not at all surprising, given what I have learned about the Missouri Synod, was the precise questioning regarding, not only the authority of the Scriptures, but the accuracy of the three ancient creeds as summaries of true biblical faith (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian) and all of the major components of the Book of Concord - by name - The Augsburg Confession and its defense, the small and large catechisms of Luther, the Smalcald articles, the Treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord - are in agreement with true biblical faith.
As a body, the LCMS seems to need the security, comfort, and validity of a greater precision and definition in its theology more than The Evangelical Covenant Church does.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)