Skip to content
nimble_asset_clc_logo_header

 

Church of the Lutheran Confession

Search Archives
Search
Lutheran Spokesman page head image

Connect with Us

Contact

Lutheran Spokesman

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS March 2020

TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006

Date Hymns Reading Comments
Mar 2 TLH 411 Ruth 1 Ruth wasn’t simply attached to her mother-in-law. She had come to faith in the God of Israel and was determined to remain among others who believed in Him.
Mar 3 TLH 281 Ruth 2 Boaz took notice of Ruth, and noticed too that she had come on account of the Lord, the God of Israel (v. 12).
Mar 4 WS 757 Psalm 47 God is the great King over all the earth. The good news is that He is our God!
Mar 5 TLH 421 (LSB 688) Luke 9:18-27 God’s Messiah wasn’t what most people were expecting. He would be rejected and killed, and those who followed Him would also suffer much.
Mar 6 WS 719 (LSB 415) Luke 9:28-62 While many did not see Jesus as the Messiah, He showed three of His disciples that He truly was from heaven—without a doubt.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS March 2020

Will You Accept the Gift of Lent?

COVER STORY – Lent

I’ve never found myself in a situation where I felt I needed to refuse a gift. Some obviously have. No honorable woman would ever, for example, accept a diamond ring while refusing a marriage proposal (as much as she might like to). Others may have found it necessary to refuse gifts that would obligate them to unacceptable terms or conditions.
Beginning February 26th, our God will again be offering to each of us the gift of Lent. The question that confronts all Christians each Lenten season is whether we will accept or refuse this divine present. How, why, would any Child of God refuse?

Time for introspection and contemplation

The gift that our God offers in connection with the season of Lent is a unique and invaluable time for introspection and contemplation, but it does not come without certain obligations. Human beings are, by nature, hedonistic, superficial, ungrateful, and lazy. We also have a natural sense of entitlement, imagining that we deserve whatever good things we want or receive. Christians know better, but our Adversary has learned from experience that if he can fill our existence with distractions and obligations, if he can create a world of perpetual preoccupation, he can tap into both our natural laziness and our sense of entitlement, and thereby convince us that the obligations of Lent outweigh the benefits.

Counting the cost

The point here is not that the obligations of Lent aren’t real. They are. Begin therefore by counting the cost. If your plate is truly full, you can’t add more without forcing something else off. “Carving out time” implies that something has to be cut off and discarded. Recognize also that the obligations of Lent involve more than just an hour or two for a half dozen Wednesday services (which can include cleaning off and bundling up little ones, a cold car ride, and the disruption of the family routine). Read More »Will You Accept the Gift of Lent?

“Were You There?”

DEVOTION – GOOD FRIDAY

Lent and Holy Week have some very powerful and moving hymns that cause us to pause and contemplate our Savior’s passion. A few hymns that come to mind are, “Go to Dark Gethsemane,” “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted,” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” and one that captured my imagination as a child, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood.”
A hymn for Good Friday that appears in some newer Lutheran hymnals is “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” (Christian Worship #119 / Lutheran Service Book #456) A quick search online reveals that this hymn was sung by slaves on plantations in the pre-Civil War era.
The hymn asks us if we “were there” when Jesus was crucified, when He was nailed to the tree, when they laid Him in the tomb, and when God raised Him from the tomb. Each verse echoes with the refrain, “Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.”Read More »“Were You There?”