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Series

Hymn 216 “On Christ’s Ascension I Now Build”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING 

(Fifth in a Series on The Lutheran Hymnal)

Why do we celebrate Ascension Day?

Although most Reformed churches today largely ignore the event as a calendar item, we Lutherans do not. Theologians actually have much to say about the doctrine of Christ’s bodily ascension. They use fancy Latin terms like terminus ad quem (“the end to which”), coelum beatorum (“the paradise of the redeemed”) and coelum Dei maiestaticum (“the majestic heaven of God”). The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord addresses Christ’s ascension at length in Sections VII and VIII.Read More »Hymn 216 “On Christ’s Ascension I Now Build”

“The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare”

Good Shepherd Theme
(Psalm 23)GoodShepherd-Jesus_Rescuing_a_Lamb_Caught_in_Thorns

Have you ever read one of those newspaper stories about the death of someone living the last decades of his life in poverty-level circumstances, who was later discovered to have had tens of thousands of dollars in cash stashed in various places around the hovel in which he had eked out his pitiable subsistence? It’s a sad irony, and we shake our heads when we hear it. However, sometimes our own behavior may mimic that irony more than we realize.Read More »“The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare”

“We Have Such A High Priest”

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises”   (Hebrews 8:1-6).Read More »“We Have Such A High Priest”