Should you depend on spiritual feelings or experience? Remember C.S. Lewis: “All our prayers are being answered and I thank God for it. The only unfavorable symptom is that you are just a trifle too excited. It is quite right that you should feel that ’something terrific’ has happened to you …. Accept these sensations […]
If you repent
“God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin….Therefore be assured that you who repent have been forgiven….” Thus announced the pastor in his absolution at the Sunday morning worship service. How dead were we? Mostly dead? It’s another gospel-plus distortion of the gospel: The gospel + repentance – […]
Oberman on the Gospel
“Luther learned to draw life from the struggle against the Devil. For the just shall live by faith, and ‘life’ does not begin in Heaven. According to the medieval memento mori [Latin: Remember that you have to die], in the midst of life we are surrounded by death. Luther’s faith enabled him to vigorously turn […]
Luther, Forde, and Juel on Law
Luther: Luther on Exodus 20:1: “This text makes it clear that even the Ten Commandments do not pertain to us” (LW 35:165). Also: “The Gentiles are not obligated to obey Moses. Moses is the Sachsenspiegel for the Jews” (LW 35:167). “Indeed, we would make new decalogues, as Paul does in all the epistles, and Peter, […]
Funerals
Advice from Gene Vith on what to preach at a Christian Funeral: Two Kinds of Funerals, by Patheos