Soaked, Scrubbed, & Washed in Christ’s Blood
When your pastor says “Amen” at the close of his sermon, are you soaked in Christ’s blood?
Rev. Steven Cholak wrote a blog post for Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary in April 2008 about pastors soaking their flock with Christ’s blood as they preach Christ and the forgiveness of sins. It is a short essay I reread frequently, but recently found that it is no longer available on the seminary blog. Pastor Cholak has graciously given me permission to repost his essay here.
Satan and the Church
Here’s a brief selection from an essay by Dr. Naomichi Masaki entitled “Liturgy and Culture: Can the Liturgy Be Made to Reflect a Particular Culture?”
Satan does his best to diminish Christ’s incarnation in the church because he knows so well that the flesh of Jesus is life itself, and that through the ever-fresh baptismal water, the living voice of Jesus, and the reception of His very body and blood at the Eucharist, life itself is given out to the faithful with forgiveness and salvation. (pg. 135, Through the Church the Song Goes On, LCMS Commission on Worship, 1999)
Heaven on Earth
After Divine Service today, a friend stopped me in the narthex and mentioned that the service was like “heaven on earth”. And so it was—literally. Not because of some “feeling”, but because of what Christ was actually doing. Where Christ is, there is heaven. Christ coming to us and giving us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through the read and preached Word and His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
What a blessing it is to be in the Divine Service when heaven meets earth. Literally.
God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It
Today (May 6) I celebrated the 29th anniversary of my baptism when my parents brought me to the font. With the water and God’s word my dad baptized me in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and marked me with the cross upon my forehead and upon my heart as one redeemed by Christ.
Share your thoughts . . .